I Woke Up And My Girlfriend Was Gone - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The first day after the National Day holiday was cloudless, with the sun shining brilliantly. Golden fallen leaves fluttered down, blanketing the earth. Inside the Fine Arts building, it was quiet, with the scent of various pigments permeating the corridors—a smell that felt exceptionally welcoming to every art student.

In a large classroom on the third floor, easels stood like a forest. Xu Ji stood at the very front, analyzing an image. Yuan Yuan had arrived early to save good seats for the four roommates. Zuo Yin focused intently on Xu Ji’s lecture, while Yuan Yuan and Xu Xu were whispering about something.

After a short while, Zuo Yin felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned her head to see Yuan Yuan and Xu Xu casting curious glances her way.

“Xiao Yin, we heard you went to an art exhibition with Shen Qingzi during the holiday?” Xu Xu asked.

“Mhm.” Zuo Yin nodded, admitting it.

Yuan Yuan and Xu Xu exchanged a look. Yuan Yuan inquired cautiously, “So, the rumor that Shen Qingzi fell out with the exhibition owner to protect ‘someone’… that someone was you?”

Zuo Yin’s brow furrowed slightly upon hearing this. Setting aside how Yuan Yuan and Xu Xu found out about what happened at the exhibition, what was this rumor about “for someone” all about?

“While the incident started because of me, Shen Qingzi didn’t do it for me,” Zuo Yin corrected coldly.

Xu Xu ignored the second half of the sentence and let out a “Wow.” “Shen Qingzi is way too good to you. Isn’t this like ‘raging in anger for the sake of a beauty’?”

The expression on Zuo Yin’s face darkened several shades. Why did that phrase sound so… crudely ambiguous?

Yuan Yuan tilted her head, her face full of envy. “Sigh. If only I had a big shot to clear my demerits and stand up for me, that would be so great!”

Zuo Yin looked at Yuan Yuan in confusion. Her name hadn’t been on the demerit list announced by the Student Union this morning, so where was this talk of a demerit coming from?

Yuan Yuan looked back at her with equal bewilderment. “Xiao Yin, you didn’t know?”

Zuo Yin asked, “What happened?”

Though confused, Yuan Yuan answered as usual. “I thought Shen Qingzi didn’t want me to tell you because she wanted to tell you herself. Remember the day before National Day when you didn’t come back to the dorm? You were marked down by the Student Union during room checks. Then Shen Qingzi said she’d help you out. And sure enough, your name wasn’t on the list today.”

Hearing this, Zuo Yin’s heart rate began to pick up speed. So, running into Shen Qingzi near the school that day hadn’t been a coincidence—she had gone there specifically to handle this for her?

Before Zuo Yin could sort out her thoughts, Zhang Zhang slammed her pen down on the other side. Zuo Yin glanced over impatiently, only to see Zhang Zhang’s face twisted with resentment and jealousy.

Xu Ji soon finished his explanation, and the class moved into the free painting phase. Zuo Yin held her brush, sketching out the draft she had prepared in her mind, while her brain played Yuan Yuan’s words on a loop.

Why didn’t she say a word to me?

She had silently and quietly cleared up such a major headache for her.

“Did you hear? It turns out Shen Qingzi isn’t Dean Shen’s biological daughter.” “Really? Oh my god.” “I’ve known that for ages. It was an open secret in the art world a few years back, but for some reason, no one talks about it anymore.”

Zuo Yin clearly heard Shen Qingzi’s name again from a group of girls gossiping nearby. Frowning, she turned toward the sound and saw Zhang Zhang sharing this hateful gossip with several other girls.

“Since Shen Qingzi is an adopted daughter, do you think she and Shen Lai might…” “How is that possible? A man like Dean Shen would never.” “Why wouldn’t he? Don’t they say the more powerful the literati, the more ‘creative’ their play? What if they have some unspeakable secret—”

Zhang Zhang’s words grew increasingly outrageous, as if she were intentionally speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. Zuo Yin couldn’t understand why someone would harbor such immense malice toward a person they had never even interacted with. A person as wonderful as Shen Qingzi was being made out to be something filthy and base in her mouth.

Zuo Yin gripped her brush and barked coldly, “Zhang Zhang, shut up.”

Zhang Zhang let out a mocking laugh. “Oh, I forgot. We have a little lapdog for Shen Qingzi right here.” She looked up at Zuo Yin. “Hey, why should I listen to you?”

Zuo Yin stared at Zhang Zhang, put down her brush, and walked over to her without a word. The dark, oppressive aura radiating from her made Zhang Zhang’s friends tremble involuntarily.

“What… what do you want?” Zhang Zhang propped her hand nervously against her easel.

Zuo Yin’s lips curled into a smile—a cold, mocking one. “Why did you stop? So obedient after all?”

Zhang Zhang’s face flushed with embarrassment at the remark. She spat, “Zuo Yin, you’re sick!”

“Whether I’m sick or not, I don’t know, but you definitely have a problem.” Zuo Yin looked at Zhang Zhang’s half-finished painting, her voice carrying a professional edge.

She grabbed a clean brush from Xu Xu’s easel and pointed it at Zhang Zhang’s work from a distance. “The color treatment here is jarring. It’s possible you simply can’t distinguish the difference between this shade and that one.”

“This color shouldn’t be used for the transition.” As she spoke, Zuo Yin took pigments from Xu Xu’s palette, rapidly and accurately mixed the exact colors from the reference work Xu Ji had assigned, and lightly brushed over Zhang Zhang’s canvas. “This is how it should be.”

“Holy…” One of Zhang Zhang’s friends let out an involuntary gasp of admiration.

“If you have time to listen to gossip, spend it learning how to paint. If there’s something wrong with your eyes, go see a doctor. Otherwise, everything you look at will be distorted,” Zuo Yin said, handing the brush back to Xu Xu.

“What is your problem…” Zhang Zhang bit her lip, looking at Zuo Yin with sheer defiance.

“Is Student Zuo acting ‘crazy’? Her corrections are actually quite excellent.” Xu Ji had walked over to their row at some point, looking at Zhang Zhang with a smile.

Everyone’s heart skipped a beat, especially Zhang Zhang’s. Xu Ji was very close to Shen Lai; if he had heard what they were saying, there was no telling if he would make her life difficult later.

Xu Ji tapped Zhang Zhang with his fan. “Student, if you have free time, you should learn more from Zuo Yin. Be humble.”

“Yes, Teacher,” Zhang Zhang nodded, her heart racing with fear.

Xu Ji didn’t say more to her. He turned and squeezed Zuo Yin’s thin shoulder. “Pretty good.” It wasn’t clear if he was talking about her painting or her behavior.

…

The long class soon ended. The moment Xu Ji packed up and left, the room exploded into noisy conversation. Students gathered their things and left in pairs or groups, but Zuo Yin wasn’t in a hurry. She adjusted one more spot on her painting before calmly packing up.

She wasn’t entirely satisfied with her painting, mainly because of the pigments. Her current set wasn’t great, a feeling that intensified after she had used Xu Xu’s higher-quality paints. She calculated how much she would make as Shen Qingzi’s assistant and planned to buy a better set soon.

As she thought this, Zuo Yin saw a man and a woman standing behind the flower bed near the building’s entrance. The man was Xu Ji, and the woman was Shen Qingzi.

Shen Qingzi was dressed simply today—jeans paired with a cream-colored silk blouse. The V-neck subtly revealed her porcelain skin, and her hair was tied in a loose low bun that grazed her neck, looking effortless and elegant. Standing before the green winterberry bushes, she was as striking as a white rose in summer.

Zuo Yin stood at the door, unable to hear their conversation and unsure if she should go over. Shen Qingzi’s expression was neutral; her elegant smile seemed polite rather than heartfelt.

Zuo Yin felt that Shen Qingzi possessed a kind of magic—like the water in a deep, quiet forest pool. It looked perfectly still, but when you drew close, you realized that beneath that emerald surface lay an endless abyss and a complex landscape of hidden reefs.

Suddenly, Xu Ji’s face broke into a delighted smile. He pointed toward her. “Speak of the devil, here she is.”

Shen Qingzi turned toward Zuo Yin and waved with a smile. “Xiao Yin.”

Zuo Yin had no choice but to walk over. “Hello, Teachers.”

“Hello,” Xu Ji’s voice was much kinder than it had been in the classroom. “I was just telling Teacher Shen about your performance in class today.”

Unsure which “performance” he meant, Zuo Yin simply nodded and gave a small smile.

“This kid is good. It’s clear you’ve trained her carefully. You must follow her well, and eventually, surpass her,” Xu Ji said with a laugh, his tone somewhere between serious and joking. He gripped Shen Qingzi’s arm with his aged but strong hand. “That way, someone can finally keep this girl in check so she stops being so headstrong.”

Before Zuo Yin could process that, Shen Qingzi looked at Xu Ji with feigned indignation. “Teacher, aren’t you teaching my student to betray her mentor?”

“I am not. Don’t go putting labels on me.” Xu Ji couldn’t win the argument against her and waved them off. “I have things to do, I’m off. I won’t tease you anymore.”

“Goodbye, Teacher.” Shen Qingzi dropped her playful expression and nodded respectfully as he left.

Once he was out of sight, she turned to Zuo Yin. “Going to the studio?”

Zuo Yin nodded. “Mhm.”

“Get in the car.” Shen Qingzi unlocked the car parked by the flower bed.

On the way, Zuo Yin reflected on Xu Ji’s words. She was still fuming over the lies Zhang Zhang had spread about Shen Qingzi in class. What if those things reached Shen Qingzi’s ears? She didn’t want such filth to stain her teacher’s world.

Shen Qingzi glanced at Zuo Yin, who seemed lost in thought, and spoke first. “Teacher Xu Ji told me everything.”

Zuo Yin looked up sharply. Shen Qingzi’s expression was calm, just as it had been outside the building. The leaves blocked the midday sun, allowing only a few golden rays to spill into the narrow cabin.

Shen Qingzi kept her eyes on the road and spoke softly. “Half of what they said is true. I am indeed not my father’s biological daughter.”