7 Chapter 7: Black Ink
The colourful array of paints next to her made her dizzy even when she just quickly glanced at them. She had never been surrounded by so many colours before, not that she had ever needed to be...
Thinking to herself, it wasn't hard to imagine how last month's test must have turned out. The old Yingyue had probably taken a dip of each colour, and inevitably, made a terrible mess...
She really had to sympathise with the child. Who could expect an average 10 year old to be good at these things...?
Yingyue was born as a prodigy with a natural aptitude to learn, but she wasn't so blind to expect other children to be as talented as her when she was their age.
Due to her upbringing, she had missed out on much of the innocence and naivete that other children went through.
For her, nothing had been the same... instead of simple lullabies before bed, it had been piano, violin and zither lessons. Instead of picture books, it had been textbooks.
It might have sounded like a sad story for any other child, but instead, Yingyue felt like those substitutions had been a gift.
She had been lucky enough to go abroad and study at the age of 14... then become a doctor and work as the head surgeon at a hospital. She was even lucky enough to have her every interest and hobby supported by her parents.
Every experience had been a humbling life lesson... and at every fall, it was her parents who put her back in her feet.
Despite exchanging her childhood for everything, there were no regrets... after all, what were a few years of innocent joyfulness compared to a few years of hardship that could mean a lifetime of joyfulness and fulfillment. Overcoming those hardships were the only reasons why she had been able to stand taller than others and not be looked down upon.
The Yingyue now, took comfort in using only black ink... there was just something about limiting one's palette to black and white that seemed boring initially, but in practice, was fascinating and creative.
Apart from being stylistic and timeless, there was so much potential in using that one simple colour. The world was made of light and shadow, where the eyes brought colour to everything...
For this test, she had especially chosen one of her favourite artistic pieces by Zhao Mengfu from the Yuan Dynasty. She remembered that she had once copied this painting when she was bored...
Of course, in this situation, it wouldn't be suitable if she copied it too well. After all, she was only meant to be 10 years old, and it was needless to say why it would be suspicious...
Her painting was positioned as such that no matter where one was seated in the hall, they would not be able to see it properly. At that moment, everyone in the hall was left in suspense as to what she was drawing...
As to how the drawing was, it was quite obvious to everyone that it would be yet another disaster. Prime Minister Jiang sneered as he looked at his daughter's calm face. "What an arrogant brat... let's see what kind of mess you make today. Hmph."
Although his voice was quiet, Madam Cha's sharp ears still picked it up. In her relaxed state, she frowned as her dislike for the man deepened. It was rare for her to feel such dislike towards a person, but for some reason, she was unable to help it today...
It was only a mere few minutes before Yingyue set her paint brush down and picked up a smaller brush. With this, she dipped it in the black ink and carefully wrote several characters on the right side of the painting.
After setting her brush down again, she waited for the ink to dry. Looking at her painting critically, she realised that she had really painted it too well...
"Father, Madam Cha... I have finished my painting." Hearing the announcement, Madam Jiang laughed inside. 'Good that you finished quickly and didn't keep wasting our precious time here...' she thought to herself as she revealed a hateful smirk.
Two servants came forward to hold up the painting while Yingyue stood up and stepped back. As they carefully lifted up the paper, all eyes in the room widened in shock...
