Chapter 163 Can This Calligraphy Work Be Given to Me?
Back in the classroom, Bianca waited until no one was around, then quietly slipped the envelope hidden in her uniform into her backpack. She then took out another piece of calligraphy paper from her bag—a practice draft she had been working on recently.
She put the draft into the envelope with Isabella's name on it, tucked everything back into her uniform, and returned to Kellan's office.
Earlier, she had heard Kellan on the phone saying he was going to the parking lot, probably heading out on school business. Sure enough, he hadn't returned yet.
Bianca placed the items back in the drawer and closed it, leaving everything as it was.
——
At the Calligraphy Association.
Several young people gathered in the reception room.
"Are we sure? Who are the judges for this competition?"
"Right now we've confirmed Cillian Lockwood, Byron Reyes, Cameron Simmons, and oh yes, Alaric Kingsley."
"Alaric?" someone asked doubtfully. "Alaric is actually going to be a judge?"
"What's wrong with that? Alaric is pretty accomplished."
"That was all in the past. How long has it been since he's produced any new work? Three years—three years without writing anything decent. Can he even still write?"
"I heard something's wrong with his hand. Nerve tremors or something. Maybe he can't write anymore?"
"Really?"
"Not sure. I just heard it from someone who said they ran into Alaric at the hospital seeing a doctor."
"If that's true, then it's probably real."
"He's done for. If he can't write anymore, what kind of calligrapher is he? He should just quit the association!"
"..."
Alaric's hand rested on the bathroom door handle as he listened to the voices coming from outside, clenching his palm.
Only after the voices and footsteps faded away did he push open the door and return to his office.
"Mr. Kingsley, someone's here to see you downstairs. A girl with the last name Taylor."
Alaric knew without thinking that it was Bianca.
"Send her up."
Soon after, Bianca pushed open the door, holding a piece of calligraphy paper in her hand.
Alaric looked surprised to see her. "Bianca, what brings you here?"
"I have a question I'd like to ask you about."
"What question?"
Bianca walked over and unrolled the calligraphy paper in her hand, placing it on the desk.
It was Isabella's competition entry.
She pressed her lips together and asked hesitantly, "Mr. Kingsley, take a look. What do you think of this piece?"
Alaric's gaze fell on the scroll, a flash of amazement crossing his eyes. "This is... who wrote this?"
Bianca didn't answer, only asking, "Mr. Kingsley, in your experience, could this have been written by a high school student?"
Alaric shook his head without hesitation. "Absolutely impossible!"
"Why?"
Alaric stroked his chin. "The brushwork penetrates through the paper, the rhythm is crisp and decisive. The writer must have very deep skills—you can't reach this level without twenty or thirty years of practice."
Hearing this, Bianca smiled.
So Isabella's competition entry wasn't written by her at all!
No wonder she suddenly entered the calligraphy competition—she had prepared for this all along.
"Mr. Kingsley, so this piece must have been written by a famous calligrapher?" Bianca asked.
"I think so too."
"But don't famous calligraphers usually leave their mark on their work after finishing it? Why doesn't this piece have any mark?"
So where did Isabella get such an unmarked calligraphy piece?
"This calligraphy work is probably a product of certain gray-market industries. It has no mark precisely so that whoever gets it can add their own mark." Alaric explained.
Bianca looked confused. "What do you mean?"
Alaric paused. "For example, in some calligraphy competitions, people can take these unsigned works and submit them as their own entries to win awards and recognition."
In other words, cheating.
So this was a market. And where there's a market, there are buyers and sellers. Usually intermediaries are involved in these transactions, making them quite discreet—buyers and sellers never meet.
Bianca nodded thoughtfully. "I understand now."
So Isabella had specifically bought a calligraphy piece just to win an award.
She knew there was no way Isabella could have written something like this herself. She hadn't even considered at first that Isabella's entry might have been purchased.
To beat her, Isabella was willing to resort to this method?
Isabella wanted to win against her that badly?
"Bianca, you still haven't told me where this calligraphy piece came from."
Bianca thought for a moment. "Someone who's interested in me gave it to me."
"Gave it to you?"
"Yes." Bianca nodded. "After hearing what you said just now, I'm guessing he found out I was entering the calligraphy competition, so he bought this piece for me. He was probably hinting that I should use it for the competition, but I never thought of it that way myself."
"Good thing you didn't have that idea."
"Why do you say that?"
Alaric examined the piece carefully once more. "If this piece were submitted to a competition, it would be too obviously fake. The judges would have a hard time believing a high school student wrote this. You'd probably be questioned."
Even he... couldn't write English like this.
Alaric's gaze lingered on the calligraphy work, reluctant to look away.
Since his hand problems started, he hadn't written anything in years. To maintain his status in the calligraphy world, he had considered buying others' work and putting his name on it.
But while ordinary works were easy enough to buy on the market, top-tier calligraphy pieces that matched his status and position were impossible to find.
This calligraphy...
"Bianca." Alaric looked at her. "I really like this calligraphy piece. Could you... give it to me? As a keepsake."
Bianca froze.
She hadn't expected Alaric to suddenly ask her to give him the calligraphy piece.
She hesitated.
"Mr. Kingsley, I..."
"Bianca, you've studied calligraphy with me for five years. Does our teacher-student relationship mean less than a calligraphy piece?"
Bianca's heart tightened, and she quickly explained, "That's not what I meant. If you like it, take it. Anyway, it was... given to me by someone else. I have no use for it."
This calligraphy piece was bought by Isabella. She really had no use for it.
Giving it to Alaric should be fine, right?
Alaric smiled. "Bianca, I'll remember this favor."
Bianca then took out the English calligraphy she had been practicing recently and asked Alaric for some suggestions before leaving.
After Bianca left, Alaric unrolled the calligraphy work on the desk again and added his own mark to it.
In transactions like these, both buyer and seller knew what was going on, and problems rarely arose.
After leaving his mark, he had the calligraphy piece framed and hung it on the wall.
That afternoon, almost everyone who came to his office noticed the calligraphy piece immediately.
"Mr. Kingsley? Did you write this calligraphy piece?" The visitor's eyes widened in amazement.
Alaric sipped his coffee and smiled faintly. "Yes, I wrote it."