The Mysterious Heiress: Researcher In Disguise

“Stop acting all high and mighty, you guys. Is your history teacher better than the archeologists from the capital? Even they wouldn’t be able to identify the origin of this painting at a single glance, and your teacher can do it? Does your history teacher know you guys are bragging over here?”

“Can’t you hear what Sister Zhi is saying? Zhu Wenjie said this painting originates from the Qing Dynasty, and Sister Zhi nearly told him to stop making a fool of himself in his face.”

They might have held themselves back in the past, but things were different now.

Someone was backing them up, and their backers were much stronger and better than the supporters of Hang Yuan’s students.

The Li Corporation aside, the fact that their school was a public school meant that even the government had to take care of them. Thus, they should just go head to head with Hang Yuan!

Nian Feiyuan was so infuriated that he snorted and stared in anger, but there was nothing he could do. He could not bring his students back to their school just like that. With that thought in mind, he turned around and glared at Zhu Wenjie, urging him to say something to counter Fu Zhi.

Zhu Wenjie took a deep breath and walked up to Fu Zhi. Then, as his friends watched on, he said, “Most of my family members are archeologists, and we didn’t disrespect your teacher. That is the seal of Emperor Qianlong, so I’m confident that this painting originates from the Qing Dynasty. Your teacher doesn’t know this because he’s incompetent. As for you, you should stop swindling people with rumors and making us look like villains!”

Zhu Wenjie tried his best to make himself look more intimidating, but to no avail. The moment he saw Fu Zhi’s expressionless face, his knee went weak, and if his friends did not support him, he would have fallen to the floor already.

“Just keep your mouth shut if you don’t know anything about it.” One of the students from Hang Yuan interjected. “We didn’t disrespect your teacher, and Wenjie is a professional. If you think he’s wrong, can you tell us which dynasty this painting is from?”

“That’s right. Have a match with Wenjie if you dare. Let’s see who’s correct!” another student said as he pointed at an ancient painting behind Fan Gaoda.

The painting had been unearthed not long ago, so there was a lot of wear and tear to it.

Those who did not understand art would not be able to appreciate the painting, let alone figure out its age and background.

Fan Gaoda pulled Fu Zhi aside. He was touched by Fu Zhi’s protective gesture, but at the same time, he was worried about her. “I appreciate that you’re willing to stand up for me, but you still have to hand your homework in on time, or I will punish you.”

Fu Zhi was speechless.

‘Are you a demon?’

Well, Fan Gaoda was indeed a demon, but he was an angel as well. He said, “You don’t know anything about art, so don’t accept their challenge. Just let me handle them.”

Truth be told, Fan Gaoda did not care what they said about him at all. After all, at his age, he had seen and heard worse, so this was nothing for him. However, he would never allow anyone to badmouth his students.

At the same time, Zhou Zihuai chimed in, “Appraising and identifying an ancient painting requires professional knowledge. Even experts are not able to figure out the origin of this painting. Besides, considering your history result… even if Zhu Wenjie is wrong, you won’t be able to prove that you’re right either if you don’t have any solid evidence. Mr. Fan is right. Let’s not accept their challenge.”

“Zihuai is right. Everything in the museum has plenty of background stories. You’re good at mathematics and chemistry, but you’re not good at liberal art subjects. Anyway, listen to me, when God opens a door for you, He is bound to shut a window!”

Fu Zhi gestured to them to calm down and then turned around to inspect the painting.

After doing that, she turned back to face Zhu Wenjie and said, “Are you guys certain that this painting originates from the Qing Dynasty?”

Zhu Wenjie was stunned for a moment. After he regained his composure, he replied, “Of course! Why? You also want to say this is a painting from the Qing Dynasty?”

“Wu Zhiheng is not here today, so you don’t have to apologize to me,” Fu Zhi said. She pointed at Fan Gaoda and added, “If you lose, you have to apologize to my teacher.”

‘She wants me to apologize to a teacher from a small town?!’

Zhu Wenjie scoffed coldly. He nodded and said, “If you tell us everything about the painting, including its origin and background, I could even call him dad!”

‘Well, that’s not necessary.’ With that thought in mind, Fan Gaoda added, “I’d never have a bad son like you.”

Zhu Wenjie was speechless. He gritted his teeth and said, “Enough of your crap. Let’s get down to business!”

Fu Zhi smiled and pointed at the seal on the painting. “First of all, this is indeed the imperial seal of Emperor Qianlong. However, as an emperor of the Qing Dynasty, it’s widely known that he was an avid collector of famous paintings and antiques.”

She was stating the truth. One of the things that Emperor Qianlong used to enjoy was collecting famous paintings and antiques from around the country, but he had a bad habit of stamping his seal on every painting that he liked.

Song Fang sighed. “Holy… I didn’t know that Sister Zhi knew these things about the Qing Dynasty.”

“Therefore, we can’t say that this painting is from the Qing Dynasty just based on the seal alone. Let’s take a look at the painting one more time. The painting style emphasizes the uniformity of all elements in a painting, and it’s very similar to the traditional Chinese realistic painting art of the Song Dynasty palace, which created a distinctive style of their time, emulated the forms of deities, and emphasized simplicity. There are plum blossoms in the painting, so I can say for sure that this painting is from the Yuan Dynasty.”

Alright, Song Fang, who did not know much about art, did not know what Fu Zhi was talking about.

In fact, even Zhou Zihuan did not know what Fu Zhi was talking about.

If they were asked to describe the painting, the only word they would think of was “beautiful”.

Fortunately, Fu Zhi was talking slowly, so they had the time to mull over the things she said. “The style of this painting is very similar to the painting style of Huang Gongwang, one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty. However, there are some subtle differences. This painting lacks depth, and based on the drawing style, I can see that the drawer was inexperienced. Therefore, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty collected a forged painting.”

She paused for a moment before adding, “As long as this is forgery, the painting is worthless.”

He was an avid collector, but that did not mean that all his items were genuine. Some forgeries were so real that even the most professional appraisal expert would not be able to tell the difference.

They had not expected her to know so much about paintings, and all of them were stunned, especially Zhu Wenjie.

He knew Emperor Qianlong loved to collect antiques and he had deduced that the painting originated from the Qing Dynasty because of the seal.

As for Fu Zhi, she had explained the origin of the painting based entirely on her understanding of art and the technique of creating ancient paintings.

Even though she might be wrong, one could not deny the fact that she was more knowledgeable than Zhu Wenjie in terms of painting.

Zhu Wenjie’s face turned dark.