My girlfriend is Kusunoko Saiki

Most Japanese officials are probably still clerks when they are in their forties.

It can be said that the vast majority of people in the entire conference hall are much older than this minister.

But when the minister entered the meeting room, everyone felt a sense of pressure.

Although the minister looked like an ordinary white-collar worker, the aura of a superior made the professors dare not look directly at him.

"Come on, let's start the judging. There's quite a lot of work to do this time."

As the minister spoke, the selection of works began in the conference room.

The works this time are even more cruel than the previous Youth Painting Awards.

In the first round alone, about 2,000 works will be selected from 6,000 to 7,000 works to advance. Almost two-thirds of the people will be completely eliminated.

Because there are so many contestants, the number of people eliminated each time is astonishing.

Because of this, oil painting competitions are also known as the meat grinder purgatory.

The remaining more than 2,000 works entered the next screening stage.

The so-called screening means cutting 1,500 works from the 2,000 works, leaving 500 for the review phase - this cut is another three-quarters, and countless people died. The level of tragedy is comparable to that of the world war.

All the works were evaluated within three days, which was naturally a big challenge for the judges.

Of course, there will also be teachers from other colleges to help with the selection, and in the end, the number of people who will be able to be selected by the judging panel will be around 500 at most.

At this time, Minister Shuiyue was sitting alone in a chair, looking at the works that were presented to him.

It was as if this minister was really here to select the works.

All the judges present looked at the young minister nervously, trying to find out some deeper meaning from him.

Although they are all celebrities in the art world and top artists, there is not much pressure in judging these student-level works.

But with such a person here, who dares to speak casually?

Moreover, this person's identity is not that simple.

It is said that this Minister of Culture from the Mizuki family, although he graduated from the University of Tokyo, also has a high level of attainment in art.

Although he chose to go into politics after graduation, his teacher is said to be a true leader in the art world.

The reason why Kiyoko Sawano chose to paint is actually closely related to her uncle.

He not only has a high status, but also has great attainments in art. The fact that such a person would come to participate in the selection of the art awards naturally made the professors very worried, and they suspected that the minister had other intentions.

In fact, this minister did so.

Previously, the minister was on a business trip and did not know much about domestic affairs.

When he learned that a talented painter had appeared in his country and had defeated his niece, he became very interested.

The minister is well aware of Kyoko's level, so how strong must someone be to defeat her?

Moreover, he also learned that this genius, who was just an ordinary student more than a year ago and had not received any art training, had achieved today's achievements and even won the Nebula Award.

Even abroad, one can hear what Naoto Yamashita has done.

"Let me try and see if this legendary genius, who only appears once in a century, is really as strong as the rumors say."

Chapter 183: Abyss and Stars

In the conference room, the judges were quickly flipping through the works. Among the thousands of works, there were some that they considered excellent.

Before the selection, the judges thought that if the topic was friendship, many people would be stumped by it.

What I didn’t expect was that there were quite a few works in this exhibition that were very good, at least in terms of painting skills.

Of course, where there are excellent works, there are naturally many people who take advantage of the situation.

This art creation competition was large-scale, and the quality of the works varied greatly due to the complexity and diversity of the participants - many young people who had never studied art and whose paintings were sloppy also submitted their works with the mentality of "what if I win?"

It won’t hurt to give it a try anyway.

For this reason, about half of the works in this exhibition room are works by students from Tokyo’s five major art academies.

After all, how many talented students are there?

College students who have received formal, systematic art education in Tokyo's top five art academies naturally have an advantage when facing independent artists from all over the country.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that there were no works submitted from other regions that entered the final selection stage...it’s just that the number was relatively small, and the total number was about the same as the number of students from the five major art academies in Tokyo.

“There are still some good ones in this work.”

"But it's a little hard to decide how to rank them."

"Although some of the works have good painting skills, the conception is a bit poor, for example, this painting "Koshien", how many years has it been?"

"And this painting, 'A Letter from a Zaporozhian to the Turkish Sultan,' is clearly a copy."

"This painting, 'Farewell', is quite good. It uses the farewell of friends and their mutual appreciation as the theme. The painting technique is also very good. It uses a method of coordinating cold and warm colors. I remember that this painting method should be very popular with the genius Yamashita Naoto."

"Yes, it is indeed the method that Yamashita Naoto prefers to use, but it is a little different from that one. It looks a little awkward."

"And this one, in the relay race, when a partner falls, his friend helps him up and they move forward together. It's also a very good picture. I think it deserves at least a silver award."

"But the composition is a bit messy. It seems that the basics are a bit poor."

"Then try the bronze reward first?"

The judges discussed in low voices, various opinions were put forward and then rejected.

This is the disadvantage of common painting themes.

All contestants chose the same theme, resulting in many oil paintings having poor themes.

Although these works are all excellent, it is not easy to rank in the top ten and receive rewards.

After all, there are only a few places, some are excellent, some are even better, you can't just take away the other party's place like this.

While many judges were arguing, Minister Shuiyue sat quietly in his seat, constantly flipping through the selected works.

In it, he saw the works of his niece and also the works of Nan Yunxiao.

It has to be said that these two, who are known as the golden boy and jade girl of the art world, have made great improvements in their painting skills recently.

At least in his opinion, compared with them a year ago, the two of them now have at least the ability of excellent painters out there.

Although it cannot be called top-notch, it is still outstanding.

However, at this time, Minister Suigetsu was most looking forward to Naoto's paintings.

In Minister Suigetsu's opinion, he didn't care at all what Naoto had done.

It was just a struggle among young people, he didn't take it seriously at all.

Even when Naoto publicly cursed at Nan Yunxiao online, he didn't care.

After all, this matter is too trivial for him.

Compared to those who would stab you in the back at any time, Naoto's approach is much more gentle.

Because those enemies are hiding when you are not paying attention, and they will put you to death if you make the slightest mistake.

Since I have climbed to such a high position at such a young age, I have naturally become accustomed to those things.

Not only him, but even those people from the Nanyun family didn't care about Naoto's actions.

Rather, the two parents were quite happy to be able to teach their children a lesson.

Although Nanyun Xiao is the next heir of the Nanyun family, he is still too young.

In fact, both of them saw everything he did, but it was difficult to teach him a lesson because he was their only son.

It’s nice to have someone of the same generation to teach me a lesson now.

Besides, Naoto didn't kill anyone, so it's good to just let this matter go.

As for Shuiyue, she really does have some appreciation for talent.

Before coming here, Shuiyue had also read some of Naoto's previous works.

Although both paintings are in Naoto’s own home, there are also photos of Naoto on the Internet.

Regarding those two paintings, Shuiyue also thinks that Naoto is a talented young man, so he is very much looking forward to what Naoto's work will be like this time.

"That's weird, why haven't we reached Yamashita Naoto's painting yet?"

At this time, Minister Suigetsu had been flipping through for a long time but still hadn't seen Naoto's paintings. He was a little disappointed.

In his opinion, it is impossible that Yamashita Naoto has never even passed the primary election? That would be too funny.

Just as Minister Shuiyue was thinking this, suddenly, a painting in his hand attracted his attention.

In the dark abyss, countless hands are reaching out to the boy floating in the sea, and above the boy's head is a bright starry sky.

This painting immediately attracted Minister Shuiyue's attention.

This painting is so special.

It was so special that Minister Shuiyue was unable to understand the meaning of the painting at first.

Normally speaking, the hand in the bottomless abyss should want to pull the boy into the abyss.

But what is strange is that these hands are incompatible with the abyss, but instead are filled with holy light.

It was as if these hands were not pulling the boy into the abyss, but supporting him and heading towards the bright starry sky.

“The artist of this painting is…”

At this time, Minister Shuiyue hurriedly looked at the author of the painting.

Sure enough, this painting was the one he had been looking forward to for a long time, the painting by Naoto Yamashita.

At this time, the judges who were arguing continuously suddenly looked at Minister Shuiyue who was sitting in his seat with a smile on his face.

"Everyone, why don't we all appraise this interesting work together?"

Chapter 184: The Hand that Supports Moving Forward

“This painting is…”

"What a special painting. The colors are so cold, but it gives the illusion of a vast ocean and sky."

"Rather than an oil painting, I feel that this painting is more like an anime poster, using the style of oil painting to create a comic, the two are integrated with each other, I only remember..."

"Yes, the author of this painting is Yamashita Naoto."

After receiving the minister's affirmation, all the professors around held their breath and began to observe this unique oil painting.

In fact, not only the minister was concerned about Yamashita Naoto's work, but the other professors and judges were also very curious about Yamashita Naoto's painting this time.

After all, before the game even started, Naoto had already said that he would give it his all and defeat his opponent with absolute strength.

Naturally, everyone wants to know what Naoto Yamashita meant by "full strength".

Since Naoto Yamashita made his debut, all of his works have been widely recognized. Even those who think that Naoto Yamashita is extremely young know Naoto's strength.

Who wouldn’t want to get to know such a talented young man?

Everyone was wondering why Naoto's paintings had not appeared before, but their true colors were only revealed now.

The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when it comes to this work titled “Pillar of Progress” is beauty.

The beauty is so moving.

The abyss and the starry sky are separated by the blue sea.

The holy hand pushed the boy towards the bright starry sky.

The inspiration for this painting comes from the Diver scene in Naruto Shippuden.

When Naruto fell into the abyss, it was with the support of countless people that he was able to leap out of the deep sea.

When enemies continue to appear and surround Naruto, his friends still support him. Even though Sasuke has betrayed him, Naruto still regards Sasuke as his best friend and keeps following Sasuke's footsteps.

Based on this picture, Naoto created the painting titled "Pillar of Progress".

When immersed in the artistic conception of this painting, everyone felt as if their souls had sunk into a bottomless abyss.

The thick sea water kept dragging them into the abyss. They were so powerless in the cold sea water.

At this moment, Minister Shuiyue was looking at the painting, and past events seemed to appear before his eyes one by one.