Chapter 313: Black Swan and Blue Velvet

Compared to Xu Ziheng, this person had neat short hair and looked much more "normal."

"Ge Ming?"

"I am." Ge Ming got off the stool, his face full of confusion. "I don't know you. What are you looking for me for?"

"I am Qi Fei from the Criminal Police Brigade of the Nancheng Police Station. Regarding Wu Xingzhou's death, I want to learn about the situation from you."

After Qi Fei finished speaking, he observed Ge Ming's expression. Unlike Xu Ziheng's surprised and shocked performance, Ge Ming seemed prepared. He wiped the paint off his hands and said: "Xu Ziheng reported me, right? I knew he couldn't be trusted."

"It seems what he said is all true."

"Hmph, so what? I do hate Wu Xingzhou, but his death has nothing to do with me. You police should be talking about evidence, right?" Ge Ming countered Qi Fei, then threw the rag for wiping paint to the side and said.

"Where were you the night Wu Xingzhou died?"

"Alone here working on my graduation design."

"Is there anyone who can prove it?"

"Just me alone. I don't know if anyone passed by and saw me. It's hard to say."

"That means no one can prove it." Qi Fei said. "And weren't you all working on works in that rental house in Sanwu Town before? Why did you return to the school studio?"

Ge Ming glanced at him and exhaled impatiently: "I didn't want to talk about this matter. Actually, since the Youth Oil Painting Competition, I had already decided not to create with Wu Xingzhou anymore. This person is too insidious."

"Insidious?" Qi Fei was a bit surprised. Ge Ming's evaluation of Wu Xingzhou was completely different from the previous two groups of people. Wu Xingzhou's family felt he was rebellious, Xu Ziheng felt he was loyal, but Ge Ming said he was insidious.

"He plagiarized my work, but I couldn't produce sufficient proof. I feel that his purpose in renting a house for everyone in Sanwu Town was to plagiarize our creations." Ge Ming was a bit excited, and his speaking speed unconsciously accelerated.

"Oh? So regarding this plagiarism matter, you weren't falsely accusing him?" Qi Fei said.

"Heh, who has the leisure to falsely accuse him." Ge Ming was quite disdainful. As he spoke, he rummaged out a painting from the corner of the studio. In the painting, a black swan appeared in gorgeous light and shadow, but the place it was swimming in was not lake water but blue velvet cloth. The details in the painting were depicted vividly, whether it was the feathers of the black swan or the texture of the blue velvet, they were lifelike, showing the painter's first-class skills.

Qi Fei looked at this painting with appreciation, and his tone toward Ge Ming softened slightly: "Did you paint this?"

"Otherwise?" Ge Ming seemed to get angry just by holding this painting. "You can go and see the work Wu Xingzhou won the award with, and you will know why I said that. It can be searched on the internet!"

Qi Fei opened his mobile phone with curiosity and searched for the gold award work of the Youth Oil Painting Competition. After clicking it, he was surprised. Sure enough, as Ge Ming said, although the composition and details were different, one could see at a glance that the protagonists of the painting were a black swan and blue velvet. It was indeed very strange that the two people chose this uncommon combination without prior consultation.

"Since it is such an obvious similarity, why did your report against Wu Xingzhou not succeed?" Qi Fei asked, mixed with suspicion.

Ge Ming smiled bitterly: "Because when he took that oil painting to participate in the competition, my painting hadn't been completed yet. It's all my fault for striving for perfection and falling behind in progress."

"Uh, so it doesn't necessarily mean he plagiarized you?" Qi Fei blurted out.

This remark indeed stimulated Ge Ming. He slapped the table and said loudly: "If I plagiarized, that guy would die a horrible death! In fact, everyone has seen who the person who died a horrible death is!"

"Weren't you creating in the same room? You didn't know at all that he was painting this content?"

"Because since the end of last year, he often disappeared for a period of time for no reason. We didn't know where he went, and he wouldn't say when asked. He was mysterious. Now that I think about it, it was a conspiracy. He was completing that painting behind my back!" Ge Ming became angrier as he spoke, already gnashing his teeth.

Qi Fei didn't expect that Ge Ming could give a reasonable explanation for every question he raised, and this state of emotional agitation didn't look like it was performed. This couldn't help but shake his view of Ge Ming. Could he be right? Did Wu Xingzhou really plagiarize his work?

"End of last year..." Qi Fei muttered, remembering that the time Wu Xingzhou suddenly became interested in Shiva in Xu Ziheng's memory was also at the end of last year. It seemed that something special happened to Wu Xingzhou during that period. He immediately asked Ge Ming, "Can you recall if there were any special events that might be linked to Wu Xingzhou's frequent disappearances?"

Ge Ming frowned and said: "To be honest, at that time I just thought he had fallen out with his family and was in a bad mood, wanting to be quiet alone. I even sympathized with him quite a bit. I only suspected that his playing hide-and-seek was related to plagiarizing my painting after the competition results came out. If you want to ask when it started to be abnormal, hmm..." He recalled carefully, "Perhaps... it was the night I got the inspiration."

"Got inspiration? So mysterious? Can you elaborate?" Qi Fei couldn't help but be curious.

"It's not mysterious..." When talking about this, for some reason, Ge Ming's face flushed red. "That time, a few of us good friends had just finished a good exhibition and went to a bar to celebrate together. I remember we played Werewolf that day and had a great time. Actually, if it weren't for the plagiarism matter, among these people, my relationship with Wu Xingzhou was the best. Others often teased us for being as good as twins. That day we kept playing this meme, calling me Wu Xingzhou and calling him Ge Ming, and we were so happy.

After that day ended, there was a small holiday. We all left school and only returned a week later. When we returned, he became abnormal, starting to dodge us, feeling like he was hiding something."

Qi Fei heard the problem here: "I don't understand how the inspiration you mentioned could be obtained from playing in a bar. I won't comment on this art aspect. It's just that logically this doesn't make sense. Even if you had the idea of creating this work that day, it was all in your brain and hadn't been painted yet. No matter how good your relationship with Wu Xingzhou was, he wasn't the roundworm in your stomach. How could he know immediately that you were going to paint a black swan and blue velvet?"

This question was obviously something Ge Ming himself hadn't figured out, but he still argued stubbornly: "We were all drunk that day. Maybe I was drunk and let it slip, and Wu Xingzhou heard it! Creation is a very personal experience; otherwise, how do you explain that he painted such a similar painting?!" ===== CHAPTER 314 =====