Age of Legends

Chapter 269 The Heroine's Move

After Shen Nuoyi's birthday, Yude High School will soon be on holiday, and the first semester of senior year is about to end.

After the launch of the Three Kingdoms of Wanxiang Jianghu, Zhang Chen's transfer arrived in early January, Jing Qinming resigned. He had been working at a computer shop owned by someone named Liu Yu, whom he knew. He was quite flexible, able to come and go as he pleased.

When the boss, Liu Yu, heard that he was going to make games and that he was working with a high school student from Yude High School, and that the student was paying him to rent a house and form a team, Liu Yu shook his head. These words, taken individually, made sense, but put together, they made people feel that he was out of touch with the times.

Yang Jing, a student at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, also wondered if her old classmate Jing Qinming had some mental issues after hearing his description. She remembered him as someone who, while unkempt, had always been rather aloof and unconventional, a free spirit. Even though he wasn't the class monitor in high school, the class leaders relied on him to manage the mischievous students and maintain discipline during study sessions. She remembered Jing Qinming as quite a character. What? A high school student she met while playing video games, like-minded, starting a game studio, making web games, and now she's in charge of the art?

Yang Jing was skeptical, but after submitting several drawings and making revisions, they were approved by the boss behind the scenes, and she received several hundred yuan in painting fees. It was time to officially begin. Yang Jing treated her entire dormitory to a meal.

The people in the dormitory aren't exactly envious of Yang Jing. At this stage, and being in one of the top eight art academies, even though some people's majors fall into the narrowest field of fine arts, everyone actually has many choices. Yang Jing's dormitory also has no shortage of fair-skinned, beautiful, and well-off fine arts students. Some of them even use their master's degrees to help their families manage their art studios.

Some achieved success during their undergraduate studies and are now selling their paintings directly. Others have been booked by large companies, and still others are being sought after by several real estate design firms.

A master's degree from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute is highly valued. Now there's another career path: starting in 2000, many game companies and internet companies that received venture capital funding were also looking for art talents, making it another booming employment opportunity for art majors.

Everyone thought Yang Jing was following the path of a game company, and they all congratulated her.

"He's my high school classmate. He started his own game business and asked me to help out in the art team. It's a small company, and we don't know what the future holds." Yang Jing was quite modest in front of her roommate.

"Why not give it a try? It'll give you some work experience. Besides, you like this, right? Even though you studied traditional Chinese painting, you love drawing comics. Now you have a place to showcase your skills and use your traditional Chinese painting techniques to create your artwork. That's great!" my roommate said.

Yang Jing nodded, agreeing that it was a viable direction. However, she felt a little embarrassed to talk about it. Her family had originally planned to help Jing Qinming get a job as an art teacher at a prestigious middle school. That school promoted holistic education, valued art highly, and offered a high-paying, relatively easy job.

But honestly, am I really willing? Why not take a chance while I'm young?
Yang Jing agreed to join the art team, but this would involve using her time at school to design concept art for Wanxiang Jianghu, coordinating with the two artists she already worked with, and submitting the designs to the art team according to the work schedule. Wanxiang Jianghu didn't require employees to clock in or out; the entire process was digital, which Yang Jing could complete while at school. She could also easily leave at any time to pursue a stable and respectable job with a permanent position after graduation.

After seeing Yang Jing's painting, Zhang Chen finally understood the power of a single painting that had made Jing Qinming fall in love with the character in it back in elementary school.

In her original artwork for "Defeat at Maicheng", Guan Yu is kneeling in the snow with his back turned, his face obscured. His Green Dragon Crescent Blade is stuck upside down in the ground like a tombstone for a hero in his twilight years. Blood seeps from his palm and stains the ground pink, vividly reminiscent of the spirited oath of brotherhood in the Peach Garden. In the distance, the silhouette of Lü Meng crossing the river in white can be vaguely seen among the shadows of the trees.

Even with just one glance, though Guan Yu's face cannot be seen, the tragic grandeur, the sorrow, the unfulfilled ambition, the severing of brotherhood, the inability to compete again, and the despair and helplessness in the face of an unstoppable fate of defeat are all deeply felt.

This is the sense of storytelling and emotional expression that Zhang Chen is pursuing. With just one picture, one can glimpse human destiny and convey a wealth of emotions, drawing people into this world at a glance. This has become art.

Zhang Chen shared Yang Jing's original artwork in the Wanxiang Sanguo QQ group, and the group immediately went wild, exclaiming "Awesome!" "No wonder she's a master's graduate from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute!" "Zeze, your classmate is simply an artist!"

Besides, Yang Jing's other original paintings are also very wonderful. Among them, "Spring in the Bronze Sparrow Terrace" shows Cao Cao playing the zither, and the bronze pillar next to him reflects the silhouette of Xiao Qiao, whom he wants to imprison. The desire of the eagle-eyed and wolf-like lord for his charming little wife is so strong that it makes people feel as if they have been hit by a raging wave, and they are unable to calm down in the midst of the turbulent desire.

Zhang Chen showed this painting to Shen Nuoyi at an internet cafe before evening self-study.

"This picture is beautiful!" Zhang Chen said, turning the screen to show Shen Nuo.

Shen Nuo nodded. "It's alright."

Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei would go to internet cafes before evening self-study. Wang Shuowei would spend most of his time playing games, while Zhang Chen would use QQ to contact various parties. Sometimes Shen Nuoyi and Zheng Xue would also come over. If there was a computer next to them, the two of them would turn on the computer next to them. If there wasn't one, they would choose another place.

Although most of the time Shen Nuo didn't get along very well with Zhang Chen when she came over, sometimes she would sit down at the computer next to him, listen to music, watch movies, surf the internet, or play cards with Zheng Xue on the Lianzhong platform. Well, the latter was actually what she did most of the time in the internet cafe.

Damn it, Yude Qingbei Miaozi, the second-best student in the class, actually went to an internet cafe to play Dou Dizhu (a card game) during evening self-study.

Some people think this is entirely Zhang Chen's fault. But unfortunately, it seems to have had no effect on Shen Nuoyi's grades, making it impossible to criticize him. Shen Nuoyi consistently scores high marks in monthly exams, remaining second in the class without wavering, and steadily closing the gap with Li Runjia, the top student in the class and grade.

Since Shen Nuoyi had consistently ranked second in the class, Tian Jiayi, who had never been second again, initially didn't believe the rumors. He thought it was a smokescreen released by a high-level player to mislead those who came later, just like some conspirators who said they were in bad shape after playing all day before an exam, but ended up doing better than anyone else on the test.

One day, Tian Jiayi deliberately went to the internet cafe in the courtyard and saw Shen Nuoyi playing Dou Dizhu (a card game). It is said that he was immediately devastated and stood there blankly. He didn't even realize that he had finished his milk tea. He was shocked and his worldview was shaken.

Back in their first and second years of high school, the two were each other's biggest rivals. They buried themselves in their studies every day, and their exams were neck and neck. At that time, Tian Jiayi was very clear that Shen Nuoyi regarded her as a rival, because sometimes when she ranked higher than her and went up to the stage to get her test paper first, she could clearly see the competitive spirit in Shen Nuoyi's eyes.

Who knew that in their senior year of high school, Shen Nuoyi steadily improved. Before, she could be seen doing practice problems with Zhang Chen during evening self-study sessions, but later she would be playing cards at internet cafes. Her grades were now completely ahead of hers. Occasionally, when she didn't perform well, she would drop to fifth or sixth place, while Shen Nuoyi would calmly and consistently remain in second place. Her emotional stability was frightening, and she no longer saw her as a rival.

Shen Nuoyi's desperate attempts to mislead her and the fact that Shen Nuoyi's grades were higher than hers at night are two completely different concepts.

The former illustrates that Shen Nuoyi is insidious and cunning.

The latter brings an absolute reality—it seems that no matter how hard she tries, she can't keep up with the other person's intelligence.

This was precisely the fatal blow to Tian Jiayi, who aspired to be a highly educated and beautiful woman.

However, most people in the internet cafe in the courtyard knew that Shen Nuoyi's arrivals were basically only when Zhang Chen was around. If there was a seat next to him, she would always sit down next to him. And if it weren't for Zhang Chen, this woman whose looks could easily outshine any ordinary woman would never be here.

If the two are not sitting together, Zhang Chen will occasionally send her QQ messages to ask what she is doing.

Shen Nuoyi would either reply with "Playing cards!" only after a while because she was engrossed in a game of Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game), or she would simply send a "Listening to music" or "Chatting!" Her main characteristic was that she would respond to almost every message, but she was too lazy to actually reply to any of them.

So when Zhang Chen saw the pictures Yang Jing sent, Shen Nuoyi happened to be next to him, so he turned the bulky monitor around to show them to her, mainly to see the painting of Xiao Qiao, who could captivate any man at a glance.

"This Xiao Qiao painting is so beautiful, isn't it?" I just wanted to tease her on purpose, to see if Shen Nuoyi, with her aloof and slow-to-warm-up personality, really didn't care at all that I was looking at beautiful women.
After agreeing, Shen Nuoyi glanced at him again, "Did a girl draw this?"

"The art group leader of Wanxiang Jianghu, a master of Chinese painting from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. He used to love drawing comics, and it is said that Jing Qinming would fall asleep with his drawings from elementary school."

Shen Nuoyi was quite interested in the developments of Wanxiang Jianghu. After all, she was the one who named the studio. Moreover, she found the process of "Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei playing games and meeting a college graduate from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China who decided to create a web game together" rather legendary, and she felt like she had witnessed it firsthand.

Shen Nuo nodded slightly, "It is indeed beautifully painted..." She paused, then looked over with her phoenix eyes, "The person is beautiful too?"

Zhang Chen said, "It's alright. Seven points." He thought to himself, "Luckily this is 01. If it were in later years, rating people would be considered objectifying women, and I'd punch you to death."

Wow...you're really lucky with the ladies...

Zhang Chen blinked, stunned, wondering if he had heard correctly. This teasing tone actually came from Shen Nuo.

"It's alright. Oh, I was mainly talking about the paintings. It's so wonderful to see paintings like this all the time..." Before Zhang Chenjia could finish folding the clothes, he felt Shen Nuoyi's hand gently pinch his waist.

At that moment, Zhang Chen thought to himself, "Oh no!" In the past, when he and Shen Nuoyi bickered and argued, Shen Nuoyi would occasionally make threatening gestures and movements at him as a deterrent to his frequent verbal attacks. However, there were still boundaries between men and women, so the physical fights never really came to fruition.

Now, after saying "You're so lucky with the ladies!" comes a pinch and twist of the waist.

hiss!
As Zhang Chen's eyebrows twitched in surprise, he truly felt the female warrior's attack; it was incredibly ruthless!
(End of this chapter)