Chapter 37: The Female Students Arrive
At the art exhibition, a long line had already formed. There were court officials, the students’ parents, and the commoners of Shangjing. Such a grand occasion would be difficult to see even among the various states.
An event of this scale, with so many interesting works, made everyone present click their tongues in wonder.
The news spread to other parts of Shangjing. There was no curfew in Shangjing today, so only more people would come.
The students stood beside their own paintings, their eyes curved into crescents as they smiled, introducing each work one by one to the viewers. In these students’ eyes, every painting had its own story. Each one had been drawn stroke by stroke as they carried their drawing boards on their backs, regardless of the weather.
These were their most beautiful, happiest, and most joyful memories. Now was the time for them to harvest the results.
Chen Bai asked Sudan, “How is it?”
Sudan shook his head. “No… not good.”
In any case, for the sake of the city, he would not say a word of praise. He was simply shameless to the end.
The Samoyed he was holding by the leash had its face rubbed until it was wrinkled.
Chen Bai did not mind. He had never expected Sudan to be convinced so quickly.
Gan Xun and Shang Wangshu frowned slightly. This Crown Prince Sudan of Zhao was probably determined to win this round. Thinking about it, that made sense. If they were in Crown Prince Zhao’s position right now, even if a knife were pressed to their necks, they would not open their mouths to say a word of praise.
They were full of worry.
Chen Bai acted as if nothing was wrong and led everyone around. “This is my student Chen Xiaobu’s work. His control over the overall composition is quite good, but the details are still slightly lacking.”
Chen Xiaobu smiled so hard his eyes disappeared. Holding the leash of his Dalmatian, only a mouthful of little white teeth remained visible. “I can actually draw even better. I didn’t know teacher’s art exhibition would look like this.”
Had he known it would be such a scene, he would have drawn more seriously instead of laughing and joking around, always running off to look at other people’s drawings.
Chen Bai smiled. This child was actually being humble now. Usually, he was like a little clever ghost.
They continued walking. When they reached the next ten paintings, Chen Bai froze. Weren’t these Qi Zheng’s drawings?
That flowerpot was as awkward as awkward could be. One look, and he knew it was Qi Zheng’s handiwork.
However, after being rendered and colored, it looked rather distinctive.
Further behind were Chen Bai’s own paintings. Even more people were gathered around them.
When Chen Bai and the others arrived, the crowd finally made way, leaving them a little space.
Chen Bai’s paintings were slightly more complex. The first painting showed a child with a bob haircut, wearing a strange set of skateboarding clothes, holding a skateboard in one hand and leading a spotted dog with the other, standing beneath a tree with petals flying through the air.
The painting showed Chen Xiaobu playing in the courtyard. In Chen Xiaobu’s courtyard, there was a very beautiful crooked-necked tree covered in small white flowers. When the season came, the petals fell like rain, especially beautiful.
When Sudan saw this painting, he shivered. He recognized the child in it. The helmet and knee pads Chen Xiaobu refused to take off all year round had already become his signature outfit. Added to the spotted strange beast that always followed beside him, it would be hard not to recognize him.
This painting actually carried a kind of artistic mood. The beautiful atmosphere of being immersed in joy leapt vividly from the paper.
Sudan gritted his teeth. He simply would not speak. Mountain Lord was trying to move him with these paintings, right? If it were any ordinary time, he would probably already be admiring them while wiping away drool.
The second painting showed a refugee working on the mountain. It was a very old refugee, his face covered in wrinkles, his skin dark, his waist bent and back hunched as he cleared weeds. It seemed as if every hardship he had experienced could be seen on his face.
If the previous painting gave people the feeling of the most carefree and beautiful childhood, then this one gave people the feeling of age, suffering, and hardship.
Every painting let people feel a different emotion and the message it wanted to express.
The third painting showed Gan Xin leaning against his Old English Sheepdog with the half-black, half-white face while drawing. He was drawing the scenery, while someone else was drawing him.
There were ten paintings in total. They were all interesting scenes Chen Bai had captured while taking these students out to sketch, then casually drawn down.
“Aren’t the people in these paintings the young master of the Court of Judicial Review? And Gan Xin, the Shang brothers, Prince Ning, and their strange beasts…”
The people of Shangjing also clicked their tongues in wonder as they looked.
The students who had rushed over after hearing the news were already dumbfounded.
They and their strange beasts had been painted into the pictures.
“So… so beautiful. So that was what I looked like back then.”
After saying this, they even ran beside the paintings that showed them, grinning. “This is me. This is my strange beast. It’s exactly the same.”
The crowd looked with great interest, glancing from the real people and real dogs to the paintings and back again. Chen Bai gave Sudan a meaningful look. Sudan swallowed, then happily went to look at the paintings without saying anything at all.
Chen Bai suddenly spoke. “Actually, I have one more painting, but it can only be seen after dark.”
Sudan froze. “What painting is so strange?”
Chen Bai smiled. “A divine painting on the wall.”
He looked at the setting sun, which had already slanted westward. Unexpectedly, without noticing, the sky was almost dark. He said, “Wait a little longer, and you will be able to see it.”
Chen Bai kept Sudan there to see the so-called divine painting on the wall, so Gan Xun and Shang Wangshu naturally had to accompany them as well.
The group of students also kept their parents there, saying they had to watch some kind of movie. In any case, they would not let their parents leave.
Today was to celebrate the great victory at Shanggu City, and there happened to be no curfew. It was a rare, wonderful occasion. Many people of Shangjing were also waiting to see the final painting, because the earlier paintings had already been so beautiful. They truly could not imagine anything even better.
After the sun set, because there were so many people in the streets, lanterns were hung on both sides.
Who knew how many more patrolmen from the Shangjing yamen had been added?
Chen Bai brought Sudan to the very middle of the street, pointed at a huge wall that was difficult to make out clearly, and said, “Look. The painting is on the wall.”
Sudan froze. The sky was so dark now, and the dim light from the lanterns on the wall made it hard to see. Just as he was about to step forward and look carefully, even the nearby lanterns were extinguished.
What was going on?
Suddenly, a beam of light shone onto the wall.
On the pitch-black wall, a painting began to appear.
A moving painting.
Sudan’s mouth opened, and he could not close it. “The painting… is moving?”
He even could not help rubbing his eyes.
Chen Bai glanced at the opening animation of the movie and thought, This is nothing.
Sure enough, once the sound came out, Sudan’s eyes nearly popped out. “There is sound inside the painting too?”
This era did have similar legends. For example, some painters’ skills were said to be close to divine, and one could hear birdsong from the birds they painted, or the roars of beasts from the beasts they painted. Of course, these were only legends. People had heard others talk about them, but had never seen them with their own eyes.
The reason Chen Bai used “divine painting on the wall” to explain movies was also because this was a method people of this era could understand. Otherwise, if he talked about the imaging principles of movies and the like, if anyone could understand, he would write his name backward.
Actually, what Chen Bai said was not entirely wrong. A movie was originally made up of frame after frame of images. It was just that they played too quickly and deceived the human eye.
The people present sucked in a cold breath. This painting was close to the Dao.
There were also students explaining, “This is a movie. It’s a kind of storybook you can watch with your eyes. It’s very interesting, just like seeing someone else’s life…”
Unfortunately, no one could seriously listen to what they were saying now. Everyone stared unblinkingly at the increasingly complex painting on the wall.
After the opening animation, the actual scene began.
There were people, scenery, voices…
Those watching probably could no longer describe what they were feeling at this moment.
Chen Bai also did not dare show any overly stimulating movie. He chose the early, relatively cheerful part of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. As for the later part, well, some things were better left unsaid.
The story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai could be passed down through the ages precisely because of their sorrowful and regretful love.
Regret sometimes moved people’s hearts the most.
People all had joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and through external stimulation, these emotions could be drawn out to the extreme.
Even modern people, after being bombarded by all kinds of information, would still be moved and cry when watching a good movie. For example, the latest movie Jiang Ziya, which Chen Bai had secretly watched. Even after experiencing so many things, he was still deeply moved by the good and evil within that movie. Setting aside the plot itself, its deep exploration of human nature was truly hard to let go of.
Let alone these people who were coming into contact with movies for the first time, and the first thing they watched was the legendary story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, a story so sorrowful that only transforming into butterflies could fulfill them.
However, it had only just begun. The early part of the movie was all quite lighthearted. Of course, the happier the beginning was, the more tragic the later part would be. That was why it was called regret.
Chen Bai was also revisiting this classic love story passed down through the ages.
Zhu Yingtai, the young lady of an aristocratic family who had loved poetry, books, music, chess, calligraphy, and painting since childhood, was unwilling to submit to worldly customs and refused to lose to men. After meeting a poor scholar by chance at the Temple of the Matchmaker, she disguised herself as a man and entered the academy…
Chen Bai still had not realized that the movie he was showing would have a tremendous impact on the sheltered, somewhat talented young ladies of Shangjing’s aristocratic families. He had opened a door for them that could never be closed again.
This would bring unimaginable changes to Chen Bai and his schoolhouse. Of course, whether those changes would be good or bad was still unknown.
This was a movie that narrated the story from a woman’s perspective. Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo spent three years together at the academy. Their temperaments matched, and they became sworn siblings of different surnames. They studied at the same desk by day and shared the same bed by night.
They looked after each other, and their affection became deep.
Up to this point, it was all innocent childhood friendship. Who knew how many people envied them? Especially the older sisters and other female relatives the students had brought today—their hearts felt as if they had been smeared with honey.
They completely placed themselves into the story.
Young girls were at the most innocent and romantic age. Added to the fact that Zhu Yingtai’s family background and circumstances were similar to theirs, it was as if she were another version of them. The sense of immersion was far too strong.
Then, the beautiful academy life suddenly changed in style. The prefect’s son, Ma Wencai, appeared…
Then, naturally, began a plot of a spoiled young aristocrat bullying a poor scholar.
During this time, the film did its utmost to show Zhu Yingtai’s image as a stubborn, brave, and righteous woman who was completely different from this era, yet deeply admirable.
Who knew how many female viewers’ eyes were lit up by what they saw? Their hands clenched tightly into their palms. At this moment, Zhu Yingtai was someone they longed to be but could not reach.
Then came Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo’s mutual understanding, parting, sacrifice, and their breathtakingly beautiful love as they transformed into butterflies.
Through the twists and turns of the story, it conveyed the beauty and regret of love.
When the movie ended and the lanterns were lit again, not a single person reacted.
Chen Bai actually understood their current feelings very well. That kind of shock was incomparable.
It was like walking out of a movie theater; one still needed some time to recover.
Sure enough, after a long while, an incredulous voice appeared. “Was what I saw just now real?”
Once the first voice appeared, it was as if it became contagious. The entire scene suddenly erupted in a wave of sound, so loud that no one could hear anything except the people beside them.
“Was that just now a painting?”
One picture after another—how many would it take to form the complete story they had just seen?
“Wuwuwu, Zhu Yingtai was so brave and so kind. Why couldn’t she be with Liang Shanbo?”
As for the women, they did not care what they had just seen. Right now, they only wanted to cry.
They cried messily.
Crying spread in waves, mixing with the discussions. One could imagine the scene.
“That damned Ma Wencai.”
They gnashed their teeth, and amid the crying came the furious curses of women. Chen Bai trembled just hearing those voices.
“We must have the king confiscate Ma Wencai’s family property. His father seems to be a prefect, so let the king confiscate the prefect’s family property.”
“He has committed so much evil. How could he bear to separate two people who loved each other so much? The prefect’s family must be confiscated, otherwise this anger will never settle.”
Chen Bai: “…”
In the darkness, inside a carriage, a stern middle-aged man’s voice asked the inner attendant beside the carriage, “The prefect of Great Qian does not seem to have the surname Ma, does he? Could it be that he knew he was doing evil, so he deliberately used a false name?”
The inner attendant gnashed his teeth. “Doing bad things and even using a false name—he truly deserves death.”
Only after speaking did he realize he had overstepped. His heart jolted in alarm, but it seemed the person inside the carriage had not noticed.
It was said that starting from the next day, people lined up to throw rotten eggs at the prefect’s residence, and Prefect Liao was inexplicably ostracized by his colleagues.
Only after Chen Bai, in the identity of Mountain Lord, explained the situation over and over again did things improve a little. But it was said that, for some unknown reason, the high officials of the court looked at Prefect Liao and, despite clearly knowing that he had not done it, still felt this fellow was not a good person.
This undeserved disaster was something Chen Bai had never expected. In the end, this Prefect Liao actually used it to extort quite a few benefits from “Mountain Lord.” He was not an easy lamp to save oil either, but that was a matter for later.
At this moment, amid the rising waves of sound, people were discussing, crying, and denouncing one another.
Chen Bai was stunned by what he saw. His ears were filled with discussions about the movie’s contents. Because it had been so wonderful and tear-jerking, everyone had temporarily forgotten the incredible nature of this “divine painting on the wall.”
The topic lingered for a long time. It was said that, later on, countless young ladies of noble families developed heart sickness from it. They washed their faces with tears every day, making the scene extremely tragic. Then Mountain Lord became miserable, because those young ladies from refined families, unable to let go of their grievance, formed groups to come make trouble for “Mountain Lord.” Unless he allowed them to disguise themselves as men and enter the schoolhouse, they vowed not to give up. Of course, this was also a matter for later.
Right now, beside Chen Bai, Sudan was already jumping in place while cursing Ma Wencai. A perfectly good little puppy-like young man had forcibly turned into something fierce in a cute way.
Chen Bai smiled when he saw this and asked, “It was good, right?”
“Good, good! It was just too infuriating. Are all officials in Great Qian like this, bullying the common people? If this were in Zhao, their heads would have been chopped off long ago.”
Chen Bai did not respond to Sudan’s words. Instead, he continued asking, “It was splendid, right?”
“Splendid, splendid! This painting is simply astonishing through the ages, with no one before it and no one after it.”
The corners of Chen Bai’s mouth lifted. “Then how is Great Qian’s culture and education?”
“Good, good, good. The other states are nothing but farts. After today, this will surely spread through all the states and shake the world…”
He spoke endlessly, almost to the point of spittle flying everywhere.
Chen Bai simply looked at Sudan strangely.
Sudan was so excited that his words were almost incoherent. “Marvelous. It is truly marvelous. I have read the classics thoroughly and visited many grand scholars, but I have never felt something as marvelous as today…”
It was only when the Zhao envoy beside him, face dark, tugged at Sudan’s sleeve that this fellow reluctantly stopped.
Seeing Chen Bai’s unfathomable expression and Gan Xun and Shang Wangshu’s strange expressions, Sudan froze, then opened his mouth. “You… you did that on purpose.”
So it turned out that people really could sometimes fail to control what they said.
Chen Bai had asked him one sentence after another. Sudan had been so excited—how could he still control what he was saying? In any case, just now he had wanted to tell others how he felt and share his feelings.
As a result, he had shared his feelings uncontrollably, and this Mountain Lord had actually set a trap for him.
Too despicable. Although he felt he himself was also despicable.
His eyes became watery, and he looked utterly wronged. Just as he was about to speak, Chen Bai said, “To make up for your loss, I will compensate you a little.”
Sudan froze. What?
Chen Bai said nothing. Instead, he walked toward the final image still remaining on the wall.
After finally quieting the crowd, Chen Bai said, “Everyone, the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is sorrowful and beautiful. Although they could not be together in life, and could not even be buried together after death, in the end, they transformed into two butterflies and brought their tragic lives to a close…”
Everyone looked at that strange, enchanting figure in a red robe and mask. It was he who had brought today’s incredible scene.
Chen Bai continued, “Some people sigh over the beauty of their love. Some lament the breathtaking beauty of their love. And so, someone composed a piece based on their love. Next, please enjoy Transforming into Butterflies.”
What?
Only then did everyone discover that, at some point, one young master after another had sat down beneath the wall in front, each holding a guqin.
The fair and tender little boys wore well-fitted robes and held guqin in their arms. Unexpectedly, they looked a little more elegant.
Quite a few people froze. Were these still the children at home who rolled around on the floor all day, crying out whenever something did not go their way?
They looked like entirely different people.
It was said that a belly full of poetry and books gave one an air of refinement. These students holding guqin were indeed somewhat different.
Of course, one could not look at their expressions. They were smiling so hard their eyes had completely disappeared.
The zither music began.
In truth, compared with the movie Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the piece Transforming into Butterflies was even more famous.
Because it was too beautiful.
Especially after knowing the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, after knowing what kind of emotion this piece described, listening to such music could bring tears to countless people’s eyes.
Silence. Silence. Only the sound of the guqin flowed, flowing into the hearts of everyone present.
Although the movie had ended, the feeling it stirred would not disappear.
Amid the zither music, someone covered her mouth and let out a sob. She was very afraid of disturbing the music, but she simply could not hold it back.
Who knew how many people were shedding tears and choking back sobs?
Sometimes, life needed such a moment of emotion. Only then could life be considered complete.
The zither music seemed to tug at people’s hearts, letting them once again feel the twists and turns of that strange and moving story, and the regret that left one feeling dazed and lost.
Even after the music ended, no one woke from it.
This was destined to be a night that would wet countless pillow towels with tears.
Chen Bai did not know how many people refused to leave. In any case, after the guqin performance ended, he went back.
Only, he did not know that the matter did not end the way he imagined.
A few days later, a group of young ladies from aristocratic families sat in sedan chairs, traveling together on the road to the multifunctional electronic classroom.
They had already investigated clearly. Today was the day Mountain Lord gave lessons.
