I Became an All-round Artist

Lin Yuan had become a well-known figure in the art club, especially revered by the sketching students, who now saw him as their role model. However, this newfound fame didn’t affect him much.

At Qinzhou Academy of Arts, the largest art school in the region, there were countless students in every department, and many had their own reputations. Unless someone was a key figure directly involved in your life, it was hard to remember them.

Life went on as usual for Lin Yuan.

One morning, Lin Yuan woke up to the sound of a heavy storm raging outside. He frowned. The downpour was inconvenient, especially since he had a full schedule of classes that day.

Just then, his phone rang. It was Sun Yaohuo calling, sounding a little hesitant. “Hey, junior, I hope I’m not bothering you. You mentioned recording a song last time—when should we start? I’m ready anytime!”

“Wait for my signal,” Lin Yuan replied, glancing out the window. Then, an idea came to him. “Senior, are you free to help me with something now?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Can you drive me to school?” Lin Yuan remembered that Sun Yaohuo had recently bought a car—he had mentioned it during dinner last time.

“Send me your address,” Sun Yaohuo replied, clearly happy to help, almost as if driving gave him great joy.

Half an hour later, Lin Yuan arrived at school in Sun Yaohuo’s car. After parking, Sun Yaohuo quickly grabbed a black umbrella, rushed out of the car, and shielded Lin Yuan’s door from the rain as he opened it. His own back, however, wasn’t covered by the umbrella and got soaked.

But Sun Yaohuo didn’t seem to care. He even reminded Lin Yuan, “Watch your step, junior.”

“Thank you, senior.”

“No need to thank me for such a small favor! The school won’t let me drive inside. Do you need me to walk you to your building?”

“No, I’m fine,” Lin Yuan said.

Sun Yaohuo laughed and handed Lin Yuan the black umbrella. He quickly ran back to the car, covering his head with his hand, waving goodbye to Lin Yuan enthusiastically as he left.

“Goodbye,” Lin Yuan waved back and then headed to his classroom.

Once inside, Lin Yuan noticed something was off. The atmosphere in the room was heavy. Even the usually energetic class president looked dejected, like a wilting plant.

Everyone was complaining:

“Who was on duty yesterday? How could they forget to close the window?”

“It’s one thing to leave the window open, but now the rain has ruined our blackboard mural that we worked so hard on!”

“Exactly. The class president and the art committee members spent half a month on it, and now it’s ruined.”

The mural was made with chalk, which doesn’t mix well with water. A whole night of rain had destroyed half of the mural, as one might expect.

“This is a disaster.”

“We’ll try to salvage it, but let’s not expect to win any prizes now. There’s just not enough time to fix it, especially since we have a full schedule of classes this morning.”

Lin Yuan glanced at the blackboard mural. Indeed, the class’s art team had been working on it for two weeks. They had put in a lot of effort, often staying late into the night.

Now, seeing their hard work ruined, Lin Yuan could understand why everyone was feeling down.

Suddenly, a girl in the corner, wearing glasses and sounding on the verge of tears, raised her hand. “I was on duty yesterday. I forgot to close the window in my rush. I’m really sorry…”

“It’s okay, don’t blame yourself,” class president Cao Bin tried to console her, though his disappointment was clear. “No one could’ve predicted it would rain. The weather forecast even said it would be clear. Plus, our classroom is poorly designed—the blackboard is too close to the window. Other classrooms don’t have this problem.”

“So what do we do now?” the art committee member, Yan Mengjia, asked in a hoarse voice. “The mural contest is this afternoon, and the judges won’t care that the rain ruined it.”

Everyone knew that the mural had been created with the intention of winning the sophomore class competition. Last year, Yan Mengjia had led a group of students to create a mural that had won first place in the freshman category.

But now, with only half a day left before the judging, the mural was in ruins, and there wasn’t enough time to fix it. The anxiety in the room was palpable.

Every year, Qinzhou Academy held a blackboard mural contest. Qinzhou, and especially Qinzhou Academy, valued art deeply. Winning the contest was a big deal—winning classes had their murals featured on the school’s website, and the students would receive recognition and even extra credit from the school.

“Let’s just get through class first,” Cao Bin said. “We’ll try to salvage what we can during breaks. Don’t get too upset—there’s no punishment for not doing well.”

Everyone nodded, but it was clear that the mood in the room was bleak, especially among the students responsible for the mural. The art committee member, Yan Mengjia, was visibly upset throughout the class.

During the breaks, the students attempted to patch up the mural. Unfortunately, the results were unsatisfactory—the repaired sections didn’t blend with the original, making the whole mural look disjointed. The left side, which remained intact, was meticulously detailed, while the right side, which they were trying to fix, was rough and rushed, completely out of sync.

At noon, Yan Mengjia and the others stayed behind, staring at the ruined mural in despair. It was Cao Bin who finally broke the silence, urging them to go eat. “Let’s head to the cafeteria. We’ll come back and do what we can afterward.”

“What’s the point?” Yan Mengjia shrugged and walked out of the classroom.

The rest of the art team followed her, one by one.

After they left, Cao Bin stayed behind, staring at the mural. Then, he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

“Should I give it a try?”

“Huh?” Cao Bin turned to see Lin Yuan standing there. “Lin Yuan?”

Lin Yuan wasn’t just Cao Bin’s classmate; they had once been roommates before Lin Yuan moved out. Though they didn’t live together anymore, they still had a good relationship. Lin Yuan was easy to get along with, and Cao Bin was a responsible class president who was well-liked by his classmates.

“Can you draw?” Hope flickered in Cao Bin’s eyes, but then he sighed. “Even if you can, we don’t have enough time. The judging is this afternoon.”

“There’s enough time,” Lin Yuan said calmly as he took out his phone and called Zhong Yu.

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