Chapter 107: Is This What They Call the “Group Favorite”?
Art Reputation Points: 811
After teaching another student, Lin Yuan noticed a slight increase in his art reputation points, which left him quite satisfied. Under normal circumstances, teaching a few students wouldn’t have such a significant effect. However, today, the students he taught had solid foundations in sketching, as they had attended his classes before.
For students with a strong foundation, Lin Yuan explained more advanced techniques, occasionally demonstrating higher-level sketching skills. This drew amazement from the onlookers—perhaps this was why he was gaining reputation points faster today.
Just as Lin Yuan was about to continue teaching, there was a sudden commotion outside. A female teacher appeared at the art club! She stormed over to Zhong Yu with an angry expression.
"Zhong Yu, skipping class again!"
"Teacher..." Zhong Yu shrank back, surprised that his watercolor teacher had tracked him down at the art club. "I promise I won’t skip next time!"
"Shut up!" the watercolor teacher snapped coldly. "You’ve said that the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that!"
Zhong Yu pounded his chest. "I swear, next time for sure!"
The teacher huffed in frustration. "I’m not just here because you skipped class. I also wanted to let you know that your watercolor piece won second place in the watercolor competition."
She pulled out Zhong Yu's watercolor painting as she spoke.
"Wow!" Zhong Yu was overjoyed. He unrolled his painting, beaming with pride. "I actually won an award!"
"Wooow!" "Impressive!" "Zhong Yu, you’re that good at watercolor?" "I remember your work used to be pretty average!" "Second place in a college watercolor competition?"
The onlookers were stunned. Many had participated in the same watercolor competition but few had won. And everyone in the art club knew Zhong Yu well. In the past, his watercolor skills were decent but nowhere near award-winning. Now, looking at his work, it seemed like he had completely transformed!
The teacher’s expression softened. "Not bad at all."
Zhong Yu grinned sheepishly. "Well, it’s thanks to my master."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Zhong Yu froze. Oh no! He’d just exposed Lin Yuan's watercolor teaching skills!
In both the art club and the whole art department, not many students knew about Lin Yuan’s proficiency in watercolors. Zhong Yu had been planning to secretly continue learning from Lin Yuan to further improve his skills. He and a group of students who had seen Lin Yuan’s blackboard art had even agreed to keep his watercolor talents under wraps so they could quietly benefit from his teachings.
But now, he had accidentally let it slip!
As Zhong Yu feared, everyone’s eyes immediately turned to Lin Yuan. Could it be that Zhong Yu’s rapid improvement in watercolor was due to Lin Yuan? That was terrifying—Lin Yuan had singlehandedly elevated Zhong Yu's skills to competition level?
The watercolor teacher, however, didn’t seem surprised. Recently, she had noticed that several students in her class, including Zhong Yu, had suddenly made significant progress. When she asked them why, they admitted that it was thanks to Lin Yuan’s tutoring.
"Is Lin Yuan here?" The teacher scanned the room, curious.
"I'm here," Lin Yuan replied.
When the teacher saw Lin Yuan, she exclaimed in recognition, "You’re the one who did the blackboard art!"
She had been part of the blackboard art competition’s judging panel and had been deeply impressed by Lin Yuan's work. It was hard to forget a face that had left such a strong impression.
"Yes," Lin Yuan nodded.
The teacher glanced at the sketch he was working on and smiled. "Don’t just teach sketching. You should also teach watercolor more often."
"Alright," Lin Yuan agreed. He figured it was time to expand his watercolor lessons. Teaching sketching all the time was getting a bit monotonous anyway.
After the watercolor teacher left, everyone turned their attention to Zhong Yu with accusing looks.
Knowing he was caught, Zhong Yu laughed awkwardly, "Yeah, I learned watercolor from the master."
"No wonder your skills improved so quickly!" "Are those other students who’ve improved also learning from him?" "You’ve been hiding this from us for so long!" "We all thought he only taught sketching!" "I was hesitant to learn watercolor from him before. Now I realize how much I’ve missed out!"
"Yeah, but you can’t blame me entirely. You didn’t notice," Zhong Yu said with a resigned smile, finally coming clean.
"Master, teach us!"
The group’s excitement shifted entirely to Lin Yuan, their eyes gleaming with hope.
"500 per hour," Lin Yuan responded calmly.
"We’ll pay!" They didn’t hesitate, unfazed by the price.
"Sign us up," Zhong Yu said, grinning mischievously as he handled the registrations.
The group glared at Zhong Yu but still obediently signed up with him. He was in charge of the registrations, after all, and with so many people eager to learn from Lin Yuan, they had no choice but to follow the process. In no time, the list of students for watercolor lessons had grown to fifty, rivaling the number of students enrolled in his sketching lessons.
Zhong Yu handed the list to Lin Yuan, who nodded. "Let’s get back to class."
Watercolor was one thing, but earning reputation points was the real priority. He had to focus on his system tasks.
"Back to class!" Zhong Yu shouted energetically.
Lin Yuan's influence continued to expand. Though Zhong Yu regretted not being able to monopolize Lin Yuan's watercolor lessons anymore, he had secretly benefited for a while, even winning second place in the competition. Now it was time for others to share in the learning.
Meanwhile, in the composition department, the students had started their gym class.
Unlike Professor Huang Benyu, who had "played dead," the PE teacher was doing roll call as usual.
"Wang Qiang." "Here." "Li Feng." "Here." "Zhou Han." "Here." "Lin Yuan." "Here!" "Here!" "Here!" "Here!" "Here!" "Here!"
Suddenly, more than half the class called out "here," even some girls, deliberately lowering their voices to imitate the guys.
Everyone in the composition department knew Lin Yuan was skipping gym class, so they decided to cover for him. The plan hadn’t been coordinated well, leading to this awkward yet hilarious situation.
The PE teacher paused, perplexed. He had been teaching for years but had never encountered something like this before. He couldn't help but ask, "How many Lin Yuans are there in this class?"
Everyone fell silent.
Is this what they call the "group favorite"?
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