Chapter 184: Book and Painting Club

Chapter 184

Li Weijin's brain was a bit muddled.

He went to the scene last night to watch Su Xiaoqi sing. Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com

When he went back to sleep, he even dreamed about Su Xiaoqi.

He dreamed that Su Xiaoqi was wearing a long robe, and he himself was also wearing a long robe. The two of them went out together to take a walk.

As a result, a group of little girls appeared and surrounded Su Xiaoqi, pushing him further and further away until the two got separated. When he woke up, the back of his head was even wet.

He had heard from his roommate before that if you dream about a girl and wake up with your pants wet... but his was the back of his head...

Although they were in the same class, Su Xiaoqi sat in the very front while he sat at the very back, so there was basically no chance to talk. Su Xiaoqi didn't seem enthusiastic at all about class committee activities either. On the other hand, the labor committee member had even added him on WeChat and took the initiative to talk to him a few times. Did he look like an enthusiastic person? His eye contact was so bad...

But he eventually managed to find out what club Su Xiaoqi had signed up for. With so many people in the class, it was hard to get close, but clubs were different. There would definitely be more opportunities.

He had learned this trick from the bootlicker Li Taiping. Li Weijin had never thought there would come a day when he would have to learn from him.

He came early and even dressed up specially, wearing a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a rather nice cufflink on one arm. As Li Weijin was putting on the cufflink himself, he imagined Su Xiaoqi standing prettily in front of him, helping him put on the cufflink. Thinking about this scene, he put it on and took it off several times before finally buttoning the cufflink.

It was a Bvlgari cufflink, even studded with diamonds. A small cufflink cost over 20,000 yuan.

He chose white nine-point pants.

Li Weijin was the kind of child who had been dressed neatly by his mother since he was little. It was only in recent years that he had rebelled, but he still habitually dressed neatly when it came to clothes.

It was actually quite rare for boys to wear white pants, because white pants were too hard to wash and easily got dirty.

But Li Weijin's white pants had creases and were neatly ironed, perfectly showing off his long, straight legs.

His shoes were leather slippers, and he wore socks.

Sitting there, he naturally kept an area empty around him.

Luckily, he did end up waiting until Su Xiaoqi arrived.

He had been casually glancing towards the entrance, and sure enough, he saw her come in and walk towards him.

"Hi Li Weijin, so you joined the Calligraphy and Painting Society too. What a coincidence." The girl who walked up to him wearing a colorful pleated long skirt and plain white top had a smile like a refreshing spring breeze. Although faint, it was warm.

Chu Yu didn't actually have any particular feelings about Li Weijin, but her new dormmate Su Li had an arrogant temper. No matter how Chu Yu tried to get on her good side, Su Li was always curt and condescending, often aggressively putting people down. Chu Yu noticed that Su Li's manner softened a bit only when she talked about Li Weijin. She even took the initiative to mention some things about him.

As for getting sponsorships, it was the same principle. If a girl's father was a bank president for example, companies trying to get on the president's good side could donate money to his daughter's campus event. On the surface it looked entirely reasonable, benefiting campus activities and promotions. But ultimately it allowed companies to curry favor with the bank president. That was generally how it worked.

When Mi'er explained, Yunshu immediately understood, though Xiaoqi and Weicheng still found it rather complicated.

Maybe Yunshu had experience with such social maneuvering of exchanging favors and currying favor.

The reason Mi'er understood so well was because her own family belonged to the group that had to carefully curry favor from others. If they knew a leader's relatives were organizing some event needing sponsorship, her family would eagerly offer money.

By contrast, Xiaoqi and Weicheng's families were at the bottom of the social hierarchy without the standing to curry favors.

Today's guest, the deputy director of the Calligraphy Association, was a middle-aged man with a big beard, white as snow. He looked the part of an artistic calligrapher.

The deputy head of the Calligraphy and Painting Society, a beautiful junior girl, addressed him intimately as "Uncle Ke". Xiaoqi felt this was yet another lesson in practical social skills.

She saw this calligraphy master's introduction on the big screen. He was 50 this year and a deputy department head at his workplace. His photo was unretouched, making him look just like a Daoist sage. The screen also displayed his calligraphy works, specifically the Heart Sutra.

Xiaoqi had some basic appreciation for drawing and aesthetics to discern calligraphy to some extent. She felt this Heart Sutra piece was fairly good, but also vaguely sensed it was missing something, though she couldn't say exactly what.

With everyone signed in, the group crowded around, cameras on hand to film Master Ke's calligraphy process on site. It was a good learning opportunity that could improve each other. Being able to watch someone write characters up close, Xiaoqi felt it was a great chance. She had been learning calligraphy on her own from the very beginning, just copying model books. So she tended to spend more time figuring things out herself. If there was a teacher on hand for guidance, she believed she could make faster progress. Hence, she watched very attentively.

Having completely forgotten about Li Weijin and Chu Yu.

Chu Yu was surprised to find Li Weijin's face even colder after she sat down.

She tried to make conversation: "I've always loved calligraphy and painting since I was little. My dad even specially hired a private tutor to teach me calligraphy, but unfortunately I was stupid and didn't learn well. Weijin, do you like calligraphy too?"

Li Weijin gave an affirmative "Mm".

She felt that the girl next to her was extremely chatterbox, acting very presumptuous. He was not even familiar with her at all. After thinking hard for a while, he finally remembered that she was the labor committee member in his class. She was the one who added him on WeChat and tried to chat with him several times, but he ignored her messages, so she finally gave up.

Chu Yu also saw Su Xiaoqi among the crowd. Seeing Li Weijin's very bored look, it would be quite awkward to just sit down and chat.

She contemplated and said, "It's said that every new member can leave their own calligraphy work. Do you want to give it a try?"

She acted humble about her skills, claiming herself to be clumsy and not well-trained. But actually she's quite confident. Her handwriting was beautiful. She knew she was not outstandingly pretty, but she had always positioned herself as talented and learned - an outstanding girl must have something beyond just appearances. So she wanted to show her work to Li Weijin.

Li Weijin had been restless for a while. Hearing her suggestion, he promptly nodded.

Chu Yu stood up first and smiled shyly at Li Weijin.

Xiaoqi was watching the calligraphy of the legendary master. While appreciating, she somehow felt something was off. She turned her neck around, and to her surprise, she caught Chu Yu and Li Weijin gazing affectionately at each other. She was shocked...and quickly turned her head back, hurting her eyes.