Superstars of Tomorrow

Panda Novel

Curly Hair spent two days to memorize the protected marine species. He even memorized videos and photos, regardless whether they were from the Old Era or New Era. He even remembered the characteristics of these creatures.

Once again, Curly Hair worked hard for the sake of swimming freely. The last time he had done this was to obtain his own helmet.

Curly Hair’s test scores slowly rose from borderline passing to seventy percent, then ninety. A little more memorization and he would be able to get a full score.

Nanfeng had thought Curly Hair would be feeling down over his movements being restricted due to all the stuff online. On the contrary, Curly Hair wasn’t affected in the slightest. In fact, he seemed more spirited with each passing day.

Fang Zhao had already finished all his follow-up tasks at Huangzhou Acadamy Of Art. The advanced studies course had come to a close. After all the other advanced students completed their last evaluations, the academy held a graduation ceremony for the students of HuangArt’s Twelve Tones Advanced Course.

It wasn’t any complicated setting. Most of those who had managed to enter the Twelve Tones Course were no longer ordinary students and preferred the more academic settings. Thus, there was no need for any gaudy or extravagant festivities.

The graduation ceremony was held in the highest academic hall. Great-grandfather Fang was seated in the audience. Warm tears welled up in his eyes when he saw Fang Zhao on stage. His hands were shaking as he took many photographs and videos, which he then shared with his friends and his fellow retirees at the retirement home.

After the graduation ceremony concluded, Great-grandfather Fang walked over to Fang Zhao.

“Let me see, let me see.”

Grand-grandfather Fang grinned from ear to ear as he carefully took the certificate from Fang Zhao. He took many high definition photographs from all sorts of angles before returning it back to Fang Zhao.

“You must store it away properly. Make sure it doesn’t get eaten by the dog! One of the old fogies in the retirement facility has a grandson who owns a dog. Once, when nobody was paying attention, the dog ripped his grandson’s recently received graduation certificate to shreds. It couldn’t even be glued back together.” Great-grandfather Fang even turned to look at Curly Hair as he said it.

Those large innocent dog eyes of his seemed as though he had just suffered great injustice.

Great-grandfather Fang retracted his gaze and said to Fang Zhao, “Heh, in any case, just keep it safe.”

How many people earned the Twelve Tones Advanced Course certificate each year? This was the best advanced course in the industry, and those who managed to get them would be great masters in the future. How precious was this certificate?! Even those old fogies in Yanbei Retirement Facility didn’t have any family members with the certificate.

Great-grandfather Fang was very pleased with Fang Zhao’s graduation ceremony and the pictures he had taken. The two elder Fangs had spent quite some time in Huangzhou already. It was about time they returned.

Before leaving Huangzhou, Great-grandfather Fang looked at his gentle, genuine and refined great-grandson. He didn’t feel too at ease, so he left Yan Biao and Zuo Yu some parting words. “You two must definitely ensure Little Zhao’s personal safety! I hear there are many crazy fans nowadays, and many competitors may employ unsavory means. My Little Zhao’s temperament is just too good. He doesn’t guard himself against others, so he doesn’t know how wicked people can be.”

Yan Biao and Zuo Yu: “…”

Do you still remember what happened when Fang Zhao was undergoing military service?

Do you know how he was drafted into reserve duty?!

Do you know how he oppresses people in games?!!

The two bodyguards didn’t know how oblivious this old man was to say such a thing. Or perhaps his memory was declining from old age?

But, in any case, Fang Zhao did indeed seem much more gentle now.

Could it be the influence of art?

Regardless of what they thought inwardly, Yan Biao and Zuo Yu could only force themselves to reply to Great-grandfather Fang. “Yes, we will surely guard Boss well!”

Great-grandfather Fang took another photograph with Fang Zhao and left in high spirits. The two old Fangs would come again when Fang Zhao moved into his new home and had free time.

The term came to a close, and advanced students would be leaving. However, before that, the advanced students had one final academic ceremony by HuangArt to attend.

It wasn’t a formal academic report conference though. The student union would broadcast this conference so that those who weren’t able to make it could watch.

Fang Zhao also didn’t hide anything. He shared all of his experiences and techniques learned over the past one year of advanced studies.

The academic report lasted two hours. The interactions and signing activities went on for another four hours.

Many people even suggested that Fang Zhao should join the school’s faculty since Fang Zhao’s ability was enough for him to be a HuangArt lecturer.

“Alas, how great would it be if Fang Zhao stayed on at HuangArt,” a student lamented.

However, not long after, they found out that even though Fang Zhao had left, he would somehow always appear inside examination questions…

——

With a year of advanced studies complete, Fang Zhao left HuangArt and returned to Yanzhou for some basic packing and moving.

The weather was fine when Fang Zhao moved from the central location in Qi’an City to the seaside.

The “rabbit” was especially lively today because of the ocean scent. It kept moving in the small water tank, and its two ears kept wanting to probe the outside.

Fang Zhao had gotten a large aquarium specially made and had moved the “rabbit” from the small water tank into the larger aquarium.

The “rabbit” was like a fluffy and lively cotton candy as it climbed all over the new home it had moved into. However, this cotton candy had nearly poisoned two thieves to death.

It was really a perfect disguise.

It wasn’t just those brightly colored ones that were really deadly. There were also those that seem overly adorable.

The happiest to move was Curly Hair. He had finally completed the tests the day before and had been running around since morning in a bid to urge Fang Zhao to move out sooner.

Curly Hair watched closely as the display cabinet was moved in and ensured not a single gaming helmet was left out. Curly Hair then thought about keeping his own learning console in the cabinet and locking it, but it was taken out by Fang Zhao.

“You still have to use the learning console,” Fang Zhao said.

Curly Hair groaned and walked off with his tail drooped. However, he got excited again later as he couldn’t wait to explore his new territory.

Zuo Yu held onto Curly Hair’s leash.

Dogs had very strong awareness of their territory. It was in their innate nature to occupy their domain.

His territory at the new place was even larger, and Curly Hair was rather pleased after looking through it. He also barked a few greetings towards the other dogs in this residential area. From today onwards, he, Curly Hair, was going to be staying here!

It was dark by the time Fang Zhao had sorted out all the stuff. He let Yan Biao and the others go off and gave them two days of leave.

Once the three had left, Curly Hair who had been lying by the door came running in.

“I want to go swim in the sea,” Curly Hair said.

“Just swimming?” Fang Zhao asked.

“…and hunt for food.” Curly Hair glanced carefully at Fang Zhao’s expression. “Hungry.”

There had been restrictions during the advanced studies period in HuangArt, and Curly Hair had found himself hungry most of the time. He had been forced to sneakily find other things to eat whenever Fang Zhao brought him out.

He had indeed gone hungry in the last year.

Fang Zhao had long discovered that Curly Hair’s food intake had been increasing constantly. His diet had also been expanding.

Some things that had been of no interest to Curly Hair in the past now would receive a few sniffs from Curly Hair as if he was contemplating whether they could be eaten.

Once, Curly Hair even spent quite a while sniffing in the car. Because of that, Nanfeng thought the car had been tampered with and immediately sent it for an inspection out of worry.

It was later discovered that besides some scratches, there wasn’t anything wrong with the car.

When Fang Zhao asked later on, Curly Hair said that he was hungry and had smelled the scent of food.

Curly Hair seemed to know what he could and couldn’t eat. Even if it was something he had never seen before, Curly Hair could still differentiate it.

Curly Hair didn’t have many chances to go all out and eat over the last year. But now that they had moved into a new place, Curly Hair wasn’t willing to let this opportunity slip. He couldn’t wait any longer. He had already endured for the entire day until Nanfeng and the others had left before suggesting that he wanted to go out and hunt.

Fang Zhao checked the weather forecast. The weather in the past two days had been fine.

Since Curly Hair had already met the requirements for the test and was able to answer a few questions posed by Fang Zhao, Fang Zhao felt that letting him out to roam would be alright.

During the day, there was a higher risk of getting noticed. There were always people near the beach, and Fang Zhao had even seen some people setting off on yachts to fish not too far from them.

Fortunately, it was nighttime now.

Fang Zhao nodded. “Sure.”

“I want to swim further and find some stuff to eat,” Curly Hair said. “I will be back before eight tomorrow.” He wanted to enjoy himself a little.

Fang Zhao thought about it and agreed.

“Take note of changes in the weather. Avoid boats and return immediately if you find anything amiss.”

“Yes!”

“Remember, no eating of protected species!”

“No eating! Definitely no eating!”

“And no indiscriminate eating either!”

“I won’t eat indiscriminately!” Curly Hair promised.

“Go on then.”

Having obtained permission, Curly Hair scampered out and jumped into the sea under the cover of darkness.