Chapter 15: Would You Like to Read for a Postgraduate Degree?

Even after being reborn, and even with a mental age of over thirty, Lin Sicheng still found such matters delightful.

Not to mention that they were all in the same dormitory?

Have you not seen it? Four girls in the same room, fifteen group chats.

He wore a gossipy expression: "Tell me the details!"

Xiao Yuzhu glared at him.

"In our sophomore year, she dated a boyfriend from the Fine Arts Department. His family background was quite good, and he was quite handsome too. But one day, we ran into that boy holding hands with another girl while shopping, and they broke up after that.

Ever since then, He Wan hasn't really hung out with us much. No matter who in the dormitory starts dating, she always makes a few stinging remarks."

"Why?"

"How would I know?"

Lin Sicheng thought for a long time but still couldn't figure it out.

"And where did the term 'Phoenix Girl' come from?"

"My family is from Xie, Foping."

A National Level poverty-stricken county, a home of medicinal herbs?

But to call her a Phoenix Girl... she doesn't look like one.

She has taste in dressing, carries herself with poise, and her studies are good too.

Her personality doesn't fit either: if things go wrong, she sprays people in the face with cola in public; do you expect her to be a Phoenix Girl?

"Tsk, quite dashing... You're done for from now on, at least until you graduate from university, you're done for."

"Pfft, afraid of that? Toads with three legs are hard to find, but aren't men with three legs everywhere?"

"That's true!"

Lin Sicheng nodded subconsciously, then felt something was wrong.

No... girl, your surname is Huang, right?

"That's right, I have three legs too!"

Xiao Yuzhu poked him with a bottle, and Lin Sicheng took out his phone: "What time does Senior Sister Li get off work?"

"Usually at six, it's almost time!"

"Send her an Information Detachment!"

"Okay!"

After a while, Li Zhen sent a message: "Professor Shang is busy, it will be a while longer!"

Twilight stained the glass windows of the research office. Shang Yan's fingertips, holding the mouse, suddenly paused, and her eyebrows arched upward.

The mouse scrolled again, her pupils widened slightly, and her teeth bit her lip.

"Li Zhen, come over and look!"

Li Zhen leaned over and looked at the computer screen: 2003 Class Cultural Heritage Conservation Department 2006-2007 Academic Year Grade Report.

As the cursor slid, three rows of the table were listed together:

Name: Lin Sicheng.

Ceramic Arts and Crafts: Failed. Make-up Exam: 60.

Fundamentals of Chinese Painting: Failed. Make-up Exam: 60.

Cultural Relics Drawing: Failed. Make-up Exam: 60.

Li Zhen finally understood why the mentor had that expression: Lin Sicheng had failed every single subject, and everyone knew exactly how those make-up exam scores had been obtained.

But recalling the few drawings he made today, it was absolutely impossible for them to be the work of someone who failed the initial exam and only just passed the make-up.

And don't even talk about sixty points; even ninety points would be impossible.

Li Zhen thought for a moment: "Last time I heard him say that Professor Lin gave him tutoring during the summer break."

Shang Yan let out a "Pfft": "You believe that?"

Fine arts is not like other subjects; besides having talent, one must have accumulation. To put it plainly, it's one word: practice. It is impossible for there to be any chance of "sudden enlightenment" or "leaps and bounds."

Thinking back to the foundation revealed by those three sketches, let alone one summer, even ten summers wouldn't be enough.

Furthermore, those three sketches were not in the same style as Professor Lin's painting style. They didn't belong to cultural relics composition at all, and had even jumped out of the scope of Ceramic Arts and Crafts.

Shang Yan thought for a moment and clicked the mouse a few more times. An oil painting appeared on the screen: an elegant Noble Lady leaning against a dining table, with a Blue and White Porcelain teapot and Tea Cup placed on the table.

This is "Noble Lady," created in the mid-19th century by the famous European painter and sculptor Yam. The author is very famous, and the work is even more famous; it is a representative work of the "European Neoclassicism" school.

It is also one of the required works for "Ceramic Arts and Crafts" in various colleges across the country.

"Setting aside the tone and color, just look at the composition, compare them carefully!"

Li Zhen observed carefully, looking for several minutes.

"Teacher, I feel that the sketch techniques, line-surface structure, spatial structural state, and the handling of light and shadow that Lin Sicheng applied in the sketches are... um, a bit like this painting?"

"Correct!" Shang Yan clicked the mouse again, and a second painting appeared on the screen.

It was also a porcelain pot, but not Blue and White; it was a gourd-shaped pot popular after the late Ming Dynasty. However, it was not an oil painting, but a Landscape Pattern on silk.

The characteristics were very obvious: meticulous brushwork with heavy colors, delicate brush strokes, and simple, fluid lines.

What was strange was that it seemed to apply the focal perspective of Western oil painting in parts, and the anatomical structure and light-and-shadow effects were very obvious. Yet, it could perfectly integrate with the overall composition and artistic conception of the painting.

What was even stranger was that the line-surface structure and light-and-shadow contrast were even more like Lin Sicheng's few drawings, even more so than Yam's "Noble Lady."

"This painting is titled 'Pictures of Antiques,' created by the chief court painter of the Qing Dynasty's Kangxi and Qianlong Period, the Italian missionary Lang Shining, and is now treasured in the Palace Museum.

And before Lang Shining came to China to preach, it was exactly the period when European Neoclassicism was budding, so his oil painting style is of the same lineage as Yam's..."

Shang Yan continued to click the mouse: "Look at this one again!"

It was still a Landscape Pattern on paper, and the author was also the court painter of the Kangxi and Qianlong Period, Jiao Bingzhen. The center was "Pictures of Antiques," also a porcelain pot, and also meticulous brushwork with heavy colors.

However, compared to the previous piece, the painting as a whole is more three-dimensional, and the application of perspective and light and shadow creates a more realistic space.

And looking at it as a whole, the "freehand brushwork" unique to traditional Chinese painting is, if anything, even more prominent than in the previous piece?

The key point is that the base composition of the work has many layers, as if it had been through more than ten layers of Rendering.

Subconsciously, Li Zhen thought of those three drawings by Lin Sicheng: she wouldn't dare say they were identical, but they were at least eighty percent similar.

Not in terms of form and surface, but in conception and structure, as well as the design prior to composition.

"Does it look more like it?"

Li Zhen nodded forcefully.

"Jiao Bingzhen studied under Lang Shining, and as fellow court painters, his understanding and perception of traditional Chinese painting art were deeper. As he was also the head of the Imperial Observatory, he was no stranger to calculation and science.

Therefore, from the perspective of the fusion of Chinese and Western art, his level was higher than Lang Shining's."

Li Zhen suddenly realized: "What is embodied in those few drawings by Lin Sicheng is the artistic characteristics and painting style of Jiao Bingzhen?"

"Not just that, he must have systematically studied Western oil painting techniques, including Lang Shining's painting style. Otherwise, it wouldn't give people a feeling of 'being very similar'... and then look at this!"

Shang Yan first processed the image with perspective, then brought over a photo of a Banqiao Style calligraphy copybook found from somewhere, and stacked it on top.

Li Zhen's pupils constricted, and she leaned back: isn't this exactly the three drawings Lin Sicheng drew?

This time it refers not only to the conception and structure, but also includes the overall layout and artistic style.

"Understand now?"

Li Zhen moved her lips and nodded blankly.

Traditional Chinese painting and arts and crafts, as well as the Western oil painting art included therein, are required courses for the Artifact Restoration major. Li Zhen couldn't draw this well, but that didn't prevent her from understanding:

Lin Sicheng's understanding and application of traditional Chinese painting and arts and crafts were far, far stronger than hers. He could even integrate and innovate, blending Chinese calligraphy art into it.

Therefore, those three sketches were designed by him; the so-called teaching by Professor Lin was just an excuse.

Thinking back to the grade report she saw earlier, it felt incredibly absurd: someone who failed courses last semester couldn't draw those three pictures.

No, one couldn't even imagine it.

In her astonishment, Li Zhen suddenly reacted: "He wants to use Han Dynasty tiles to piece together a pot, rather than re-molding a pot?"

"Correct, otherwise there would be no need to go to such trouble to redesign and compose it. However, there is a technical difficulty: the bonding of tile material and pottery clay, and the second firing in the kiln will cause expansion and contraction. If not solved: it will either be burned to waste or burned out of shape."

"Is it hard to solve?"

"Of course, if it could be solved, one could immediately apply for a national patent. I wouldn't dare say National Level, but getting a ministerial Level One technological innovation award would be more than enough.

So I estimate he won't re-fire it, but will use chemical adhesives to piece it together. But the fact that he could design it is already remarkable: just based on those three sketches, there is no problem applying for a design patent for a 'Lin Family Han Tile Pot'."

Apply for a patent?

Ministerial or provincial level awards?

Subconsciously, Li Zhen thought again of the grade report she saw earlier: fail, fail, and still fail?

The sense of fragmentation was too heavy; she really couldn't connect the two Lin Sichengs together.

"No need to be surprised, those who know Professor Lin know: he has a precious grandson who is dead set against attending Xida, and has been at odds with him since freshman year...

So I estimate that Lin Sicheng intentionally didn't do well on his exams. Just like the three subjects I looked at with you just now: without systematic and persistent study and practice, he couldn't even copy those sketches, let alone design them.

Besides, if he were truly hopelessly stupid, could he have scored 685 on the college entrance exam?"

"That high?" Li Zhen was startled, "That's enough for Peking University?"

"The score line was relatively high that year, he was four points short for Peking University, and just barely passed the line for Tsinghua University, so it can't all be blamed on him... but don't worry about that much, just know that his learning ability is very strong. Like this..."

Shang Yan paused, organizing her words, "Find an opportunity to help me ask him: whether he is willing to be my graduate student."

"Huh?"