Chapter 316: Dance Competition

Wu Shulan was stunned, as if this was a question she had never thought about. After a long time, she stammered: "Maybe, he has always been such a head of the family. Who knows?"

After she finished speaking, she retreated into the shadows of the room in a dejected manner, as if even she wasn't sure if this explanation could be considered accurate.

In the silence, across the dim courtyard, came a thumping knock on the door.

"What's going on today? So many people coming to find me?" Wu Shulan muttered, stood up, and walked outside to open the door.

A dry and aged cough came. Qi Fei immediately lifted the curtain and looked out. Sure enough, in the darkness, he saw a thin, withered figure standing opposite Wu Shulan. It was Meng Apo.

The distance was too far, and Qi Fei couldn't hear what they were saying. He only saw that after Meng Apo finished speaking, Wu Shulan followed her out in a hurry.

Qi Fei followed without thinking.

Sure enough, the two women walked into the Huang Daxian Temple. Wu Shulan knelt and worshipped before the Huang Daxian statue, muttering to herself, appearing very excited.

Qi Fei hid outside the door and peeked. Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder. Fortunately, he was well-trained and didn't scream immediately. He looked back and saw Zhong Kui appearing behind him at some point.

She was clearly wearing high heels, yet he didn't hear any sound. It was also magical.

"This is another trick you played, right?" Qi Fei said unpleasantly.

"Heh, is this the persona I have in your place? What trick? I just satisfied her wish," Zhong Kui said. "Since I arrived here, she has put a prayer slip in the merit box every month. The content is the same every time, which is to find her daughter. I just fulfilled her wish."

Qi Fei was surprised upon hearing this: "You found her daughter?"

"Otherwise?" Zhong Kui raised her chin proudly.

"We are just investigating Wu Chongyue sending away Wu Shulan's daughter back then. How did you find her back?"

"If it hadn't taken some effort, how could I have completed her wish only now?"

"Tell me the key point, who is her daughter?"

"A young dancer, quite beautiful. You will see her soon."

As she was speaking, a girl walked out from behind the statue.

When she saw her, Wu Shulan seemed to have a maternal intuition and excitedly stepped forward to hug her, while the girl looked blank, obviously not having prepared herself mentally.

"Wait, this girl..." Qi Fei looked at that beautiful face and was thoughtful. "I seem to have seen her somewhere."

"Heh, is it because you say she looks familiar when you see a beauty?" Zhong Kui said sourly.

"I don't mean that." Qi Fei explained seriously, "I seem to have seen her in the news."

"It's possible. Yi Luo, just won the gold award of the East China Dance Competition. It's indeed possible she was in the news," Zhong Kui said.

"So, she is the daughter Wu Shulan sent away? How did you find her?" Qi Fei was curious.

"Accidental harvest." Zhong Kui said. "I was just curious about Wu Xingzhou's whereabouts before the incident. A male college student, originally mixing with his classmates every day, suddenly started acting alone one day. Guess why?"

"Ha? You don't mean that Wu Xingzhou fell in love, right?" Qi Fei thought immediately.

"It's human nature. Many things are not as complicated as you imagine," Zhong Kui said.

"However, this Yi Luo, she didn't appear at all in the process of our investigation. How did you connect her with Wu Xingzhou?" Qi Fei was puzzled.

"Very interesting, it has something to do with that painting Ge Ming accused of plagiarism." Zhong Kui smiled.

Speaking of that painting, Qi Fei couldn't help but blush, because he couldn't help but think of that heart-pounding dream.

This subtle expression didn't escape Zhong Kui's eyes. She made mischief and leaned closer, saying: "It seems you are not completely without artistic cells. Come on, let's go back to Wu Xingzhou's studio and look at that painting." Zhong Kui said, already walking on the bluestone road.

"Wh, what are we going to do?" Qi Fei stammered.

Zhong Kui looked back and gave him an alluring smile: "What do you think?"

Soon, the door in the darkness was opened. With the light turning on, the messily piled statues and oil paintings seemed to be stunned because of seeing the light, holding their breath in unison.

Zhong Kui went straight to the two paintings and said: "Blue velvet, black swan... break these images apart, it's not hard to find that these are elements in movies that art students usually watch, not to mention these male college students who hang out together all day. It's not strange at all that the movies they have watched highly overlap. This seemingly entertaining activity actually affects people's cognition, just like a calibrator, making their imagination subtly converge."

"Uh, I probably understand. You mean to say that neither Ge Ming nor Wu Xingzhou plagiarized each other, but because they have been together for too long, the things they created happened to be similar. But I don't understand, what does this have to do with Wu Shulan's daughter?" Qi Fei asked puzzledly.

Zhong Kui picked up a paintbrush on the side and pointed to the black swan on the painting, saying: "I said, these things are common elements in movies. Black swan, what will it make you think of?"

"Uh..." Qi Fei was speechless for a moment.

"Don't hesitate, say the first word that appears in your brain."

"That ballet?" Qi Fei said this as if he could hear the familiar melody of "Four Little Swans."

"That's right. Black Swan is a dark movie with dance as the theme released in 2010, and blue velvet is a work by director David Lynch that art students can't avoid, which is full of content exploring desire," Zhong Kui analyzed.

In Qi Fei's ears, this was not only dismantling these two oil paintings but also analyzing his hallucinatory dream—even his infatuation with her sounded like a part under her control, which made Qi Fei very frustrated.

"Are you listening?" Zhong Kui reminded the distracted student like a strict teacher.

"Ah, listening." Qi Fei tried his best to cover up his panic. "So, this is not only inspiration from the movies they usually watch, they are all infatuated with someone, what does it mean?" He tentatively gave his own guess.

A satisfied smile appeared on Zhong Kui's face: "Very good. And this person is like a black swan. It's just so coincidental. Every time Wu Xingzhou disappeared from his friends, it was the time of the East China Dance Competition. If you want to know if Wu Xingzhou went to watch the competition, you just need to contact the organizer to get the videos and photos at that time.

Wu Xingzhou not only appeared in the audience without missing a single game, but also, he only gave flowers to one person's performance..." ===== CHAPTER 317 =====