The painting consciousness remained silent for a long time, looking at the four bright-eyed children in front of it.
Finally, its voice was slightly weary, “Perhaps I don’t understand life enough. I thought I was respecting it, but I seem to have done something wrong?”
Kaka sincerely suggested, “Perhaps you should give those people you trapped a chance to choose whether to stay or leave.”
“…I will,” the painting consciousness finally chose to accept.
Su Xing and the other three left the painted world in order.
Just as they were about to exit, Su Xing still said, “I will tell the teachers about you.”
The next second, the four of them appeared together in the storeroom.
And by this time, the storeroom was already filled with teachers.
Seeing the three children jump out of the painting, the teachers were overjoyed.
The homeroom teacher, Aidra, immediately hugged the four children, “Oh! My goodness! We finally found you!”
But it was only for a moment before she released Su Xing and the others, asking sternly, “Where did you four go?”
A teacher next to her pulled her back a bit.
This matter was clearly not the children’s fault; being so serious wouldn’t do.
Looking at the four children, who were surrounded by everyone and clearly a bit uneasy, the principal kindly asked, “I imagine our four little friends must have just experienced a remarkable adventure, right? Perhaps you’d be interested in coming to my office for a cup of hot cocoa?”
Soon, the four of them, along with the painting, were all taken to the principal’s office.
Su Xing held a cup full of hot cocoa and quickly finished telling the story of the painted world, but deliberately omitted the identity of Quinn’s parents.
Looking to the side, Kaka had already gulped down his cocoa.
She also quickly took a big sip to moisten her throat and relieve her nervousness.
To be honest, the feeling of being surrounded by a group of teachers as soon as they came out was truly unpleasant, with maximum pressure.
After listening to Su Xing’s narration, the teachers were obviously incredulous.
They never expected such a dangerous item to be hidden in their school’s storeroom.
One of the teachers remembered something, “I remember this painting was done by Master Cisero. I never thought it would have developed its own consciousness.”
Seeing Su Xing and the others look at each other, the teacher explained, “Cisero is a mercury painting master, known as the ‘Painting Saint.’ His brush-and-spirit technique made him even more adept. With the blessing of the spirit, most of his paintings could materialize, but we never expected this one, which was supposedly a failed painting, to also work.”
Su Xing raised her hand, “Um, may I ask what Master Cisero intended this painting to materialize at the time?”
The teacher answered with emotion, “It was happiness. At that time, Master Cisero was at a bottleneck and wanted to materialize happiness, so he created this ‘Happiness Town.’ But in the end, it was unsuccessful. We never expected the truth about this painting to be like this – it needed to actually absorb people’s happiness to give it back.”
As experienced Grand Spirit Masters, they could easily deduce the cause and effect.
What was originally a painting meant to provide happiness ended up making people addicted to happiness.
Indeed, no matter what it is, too much of a good thing is bad…
Aidra angrily poked Kaka’s forehead, who was closest to her, “Tell me, you four, what were you doing in the storeroom for no reason?”
Kaka timidly peeked at his three teammates, who looked as if it had nothing to do with them, and mumbled softly.
He said he wondered why these three had wanted to switch places with him one after another earlier!
It turned out they had decided to let him face the principal’s storm alone.
The small, helpless, and pitiable Kaka felt isolated.
Winks reluctantly explained to Aidra, “I sent them there. Su Xing owed me something at the time, so I sent them to clean up the storeroom to repay the debt.”
Since he said that, Aidra naturally couldn’t say anything more.
Su Xing and the others gratefully nodded to Winks.
They knew that Winks had only sent one person, but in the end, all four of them fell in.
Fortunately, Winks didn’t say anything, otherwise, they would probably have to listen to another lecture.
Principal Tang looked at the painting, “Next, I need to have a chat with this painting. I’ve never seen such an interesting painting before!”
Although he said that, Su Xing believed that this “chat” would definitely not be a simple chat.
There would likely be follow-up issues concerning the placement of the people in the painting, as well as the handling of the painting itself.
In short, there were a lot of troublesome things, but fortunately, they had nothing to do with them anymore.
However, since the matter was resolved successfully, the reward certainly couldn’t be missing.
Su Xing, seizing the opportunity while the easygoing principal hadn’t left, immediately asked, “Since we discovered the secret of this painting, can we get some kind of reward?”
The principal, seeing Su Xing staring straight at him, chuckled and nodded, “Of course, you’ve certainly been a great help. Let me think…”
He stroked his beard, “How about this, let’s give the four of them the title of ‘First-Year Star’?”
“Isn’t that inappropriate?”
The Class A teacher frowned, “‘First-Year Star’ is only awarded at the end of the year to the group with the greatest contribution. It’s only been a month since school started, isn’t that a bit rash?”
As soon as her own class’s children’s interests were involved, Aidra immediately showed her tiger-mom demeanor, “So you think discovering the true nature of this dangerous painting isn’t a significant contribution? What grand contributions do you expect a group of first-years to make that would surpass theirs?”
First-years, especially in the first semester, a group of fifteen-year-olds who had just started learning about spirits, weren’t even skilled in combat, let alone making any significant contributions.
In fact, the “First-Year Star” in previous years was usually awarded to the group that came first in the final exams.
An experience like the one Su Xing and her group had was definitely much more thrilling than any final exam.
Their selection was well-deserved.
“But their spirits…”
The Class A teacher was still a little unconvinced, “The power of their spirits wasn’t even used this time, was it? Their four spirits… I’m afraid they won’t convince the public!”
Su Xing looked at him with a fake smile, “It seems that in the teacher’s eyes, only those with powerful spirits can save others, and only they deserve to be heroes. Then it’s true that we are not worthy.”
Their true abilities had not been revealed.
Only Winks and the principal knew about it, and they both felt that since Su Xing and the others hadn’t said anything, there was no need for them to reveal it.
So, these people were completely unaware of the true power of Su Xing’s group’s spirits.
Principal Tang also became serious because of the Class A teacher’s words, “Andrew! Apologize for what you said! How could I not know you harbored such a mistaken idea?”
Andrew also knew that he had misspoken and said something terribly wrong.
His face immediately turned pale as he apologized, “I’m sorry, I was possessed. The strength of a spirit never represents everything, I should have known that.”
Evangel gave him a cold glance, “I hope you truly know.”
Andrew did not retort despite being spoken to by a student like that; he just kept a sullen face and said nothing.
Tang made the final decision, “Then it’s settled. At next month’s grade meeting, Winks will present you with the honor of ‘First-Year Star.’ All right, children, hurry back, I imagine you must all be very tired.”
Su Xing and the others were indeed very tired and returned to their respective dorms.
When they returned to the girls’ dormitory building, Su Xing was spotted by one of the girls in her class, and then quickly surrounded by six girls from the class.
The class leader, Oni, asked, “Su Xing! Where have you been all day?
The teachers were worried sick when they found out you four were gone!”
Only then did Su Xing realize that the time flow in the painted world was consistent with the outside world; they had truly been missing for a day and a night.
“We… were in the storeroom, and then couldn’t get out,” Su Xing explained vaguely.
Experience told her not to blurt things out before the dust settled.
Otherwise, it would be troublesome if the final outcome differed from her story.
Davia happened to walk over; she was Victor’s teammate with the wavy long hair. Coincidentally, Davia’s dorm was next to Su Xing’s.
She apparently also knew about Su Xing’s disappearance yesterday, after all, the teachers had been called to look for them, and few first-years didn’t know about it.
Hearing Oni and the others showing concern for Su Xing, she immediately sneered, “Heh, this is at school, what danger could she be in? Maybe she felt too ashamed to go to school and hid somewhere with that useless team.”
After saying that, she chuckled, thinking herself humorous, “If that’s the case, then I really have to praise you for knowing yourselves.”
Oni and the others who were in the same class as Su Xing were furious, “Hey! Davia! You can’t say that! I know there might be some misunderstanding between you, but Su Xing might have just gone through something dangerous, what you’re saying is too much!”
Su Xing, however, was not angry at all.
To be honest, she had heard much worse.
This kind of high-society insult only made her feel a little amused.
“It’s nothing, don’t be angry with her. You know sometimes dogs can’t understand human feelings.”
Davia exploded upon hearing this, “Who are you calling a dog?”
“Whoever answers is who I’m calling.”
“You!”
Davia trembled with rage, raising her hand to rush over and hit her.
Su Xing quickly grabbed her hand, her fox-like eyes narrowing dangerously, “Have you forgotten how I dealt with Victor in combat class? Don’t tell me you really think I don’t hit women?”
These words instantly made Davia recall Victor’s bruised and swollen appearance after every class.
Her body trembled, and she said fiercely but inwardly weakly, “If you hit me, my parents won’t let you get away with it.”
Su Xing let go of her hand, quite unamused, “You said I beat Victor that badly, do you think I’d be afraid of your threats?”
Davia knew Su Xing was right.
She glared at her fiercely and quickly ran off.
Oni looked at Su Xing with some disapproval, “You didn’t have to be so…”
“So excessive?”
Su Xing raised an eyebrow, “She was the one looking for trouble, I couldn’t just take it, could I?”
Oni frowned, “We were all here, we wouldn’t let her bully you.”
Su Xing was a little amused, “There will always be times when you’re not around me. No one can always rely on others. Besides, I can clearly deal with her on my own, why should I trouble you?”
This was a difference in philosophy.
These young girls who had always lived in a world of light naturally believed that justice would triumph over evil, and that good people should simply remain good.
But they never considered how evil could be removed if no one was willing to be ruthless?
The struggle between good and evil, in a way, has always been the mutual attrition of evil.
She patted Oni’s shoulder, not intending to argue with her, but leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Class Leader, don’t forget what we agreed on before.”