CEFYMA: Chapter 88 Part 2

The small craft workshop in the ice sculpture town had a carved wooden door full of artistic temperament.

The eight excited guests walked in while chatting in low voices. Huo Yanzhi stood at the end of the group and looked steadily at You Mian in front of him.

Huo Yanzhi struggled for a long time last night when he sent that heartbeat text message.

He knew that an apology was too light, but this apology was what he had to say.

Huo Yanzhi spent the whole night deleting and typing. Finally, he deleted all the explanatory sentences and only said, ‘I’m sorry.’

He didn’t know if You Mian could recognize that the person who sent this text message was him, and he didn’t expect You Mian to guess it.

Huo Yanzhi felt that the current apology wasn’t so much an apology to You Mian, but a way to relieve his inner guilt.

“Welcome to the craft house in the Ice Sculpture Town!”

The owner of the crafts workshop shouted a welcome. This instantly attracted everyone’s attention.

There were two long tables placed in the medium-sized room with various handicraft tools on them. There were also baking machines and molds used to make cakes and chocolates.

Scattered ingredients and cheese were neatly arranged in the freezer.

Thus, this cabin was more like a baking room than a crafts workshop.

The moment You Mian withdrew his observing gaze, Hong Sheng’s voice sounded behind the camera.

“This is the last stop of our third phase of the Heartbeat House. It is also the last group date for everyone at this stop.”

Hong Sheng said, “The content of this date is to make a box of chocolates for the guest you are interested in and attach a winter card.”

You Mian blinked as he noticed the delicate little cards and various colored pens on the table.

Guan Tong didn’t show that he didn’t send a heartbeat text message last night. Instead, he said excitedly, “Chocolate? Can we make chocolates ourselves?”

Hong Sheng nodded.

Guan Tong instantly became excited. His happy appearance made You Mian smile too.

Yun Guanqing pursed his lips. “I’m the worst at this type of thing that requires manual work. Tsk.”

“Shen Nanxiao and Yan Tingxuan should be very good at it, right?” Yun Guanqing wondered while glancing at them.

However, Shen Nanxiao and Yan Tingxuan shook their heads together.

Shen Nanxiao said, “I have never made baked goods, nor have I made chocolate.”

Yan Tingxuan nodded and said briefly, “Me too.”

Yun Guanqing raised his eyebrow. “Then it seems that everyone is on the same starting line. No one can do it.”

As everyone was chatting, Hong Sheng suddenly added something.

“This time, the handmade pure chocolates and winter cards written by everyone will be sent out in the upcoming final episode.”

The moment these words came out, the leisurely expressions of everyone present suddenly tensed.

Huo Yanzhi frowned and asked carefully, “What do you mean?”

Hong Sheng explained, “It means that on the last confession day, you will give away the chocolates and handmade card you made today when you confess your love to your favorite guest.”

The group was silent for a few seconds. As everyone looked at each other, Yun Guanqing was the first to quickly walk behind the long table and roll up his sleeves. He waved to the boss of the crafts workshop. “Boss, come and teach me. I am a newcomer. How do I make chocolates?”

Seeing this, Huo Yanzhi immediately followed and stood opposite Yun Guanqing. He competed for the ownership of the boss.

“Boss, please teach me. I have never been exposed to these things before. I have no idea how to start.”

Guan Tong looked at their performance and was also excited. “How can anyone occupy the teacher? Boss, please teach me too!”

You Mian stood in place. He looked helplessly at Guan Tong and smiled.

Bai Lin, who hadn’t received a heartbeat text message last night, stood there and felt out of place.

Yun Guanqing turned a blind eye to his overtures and even his previous request for help in suppressing public opinion was inexplicably ignored.

Bai Lin didn’t know if the text messages of these three people were really sent to You Mian.

However, seeing the performance of Huo Yanzhi and Yun Guanqing now, Bai Lin felt that he had guessed pretty well.

The young man lowered his head and frowned fiercely.

Still, it didn’t matter. The results of the Star Cup would be out soon.

Bai Lin thought of the messy sculpture classroom and smiled happily in his heart.

Just as everyone was hurriedly competing for the boss of the crafts workshop, Hong Sheng said leisurely, “Don’t worry, we have a baker here.”

The moment Hong Sheng finished speaking, a young lady with short hair came out. She waved at You Mian and the others and said with a smile, “Hello everyone, I will teach you the simple steps of making chocolate. But once you really start making it, I won’t help you.”

Shen Nanxiao, who was lagging behind in the snatching of the boss phase, sighed with relief.

“Everyone, don’t be anxious.” The baker gently handed over a few aprons. “Chocolate is very simple.”

You Mian took the apron handed to him by the baker. He had just put it over his head when Pei Huaiji’s voice sounded behind him. “Do you need my help?”

The man stood beside You Mian. The warm winter sun outside the window fell on the side of Pei Huaiji’s face, making the other half of his face submerged in the shadows look particularly sharp.

Pei Huaiji pursed his thin lips in a restrained manner and stared at You Mian quietly with dark eyes. His Adam’s apple moved as he waited for the answer.

You Mian always felt that Pei Huaiji’s lowered eyes always had an indescribable charm, especially when those deep and handsome eyes were no longer as cold as usual. He looked too handsome.

You Mian blinked lightly and whispered, “Okay.”

Pei Huaiji’s big hands wrapped around You Mian’s waist and tied the apron straps.

The man leaned closer and You Mian’s hair swept across the bridge of his nose, causing a tingling sensation.

In the far away observation room, the celebrity guests couldn’t help covering their mouths and scream when they watched the scene.

Yan Tingxuan, who was standing on the opposite side of the long table, seemed to hear the screams of others. He suddenly lowered his head to avoid the interaction of the two people in front of him.

On the other side, Huo Yanzhi froze suddenly. He held the half-opened butter in his hand tightly. There were waves of stinging pain in his heart.

The atmosphere in the crafts workshop was slightly stagnant due to this small interaction, like ripples of a lake blown by the wind.

The water surface swayed slightly. A puff of air blew the tea leaves floating on the thermos cup.

Chai Tao hissed, coughed, cleared his throat, and raised his hand to tighten the lid of the thermos.

Outside the window, it was still drizzling, and the sky was overcast.

In the incandescent judging room, he lowered his head, pushed up his reading glasses, and squinted. “How many are left… in the sculpture group?”

The staff member, who had just moved the last piece, replied, “This is the last piece. It is number 0409.”

Jaeger Hillman was indeed very quick in his evaluation. In just over 40 minutes, the works of the sculpture group had already almost been all seen.

Marcia was a very attentive person. After seeing 0409, she slowed down her tone and reminded Hillman in German.

“It is the participant you just paid attention to,” Marcia said.

Chai Tao didn’t know what Marcia was saying in the conversation with Hillman, but he had already raised his attention by 200%. He was bound to eliminate You Mian’s work.

“Several of them were eliminated just now because they were off-topic.” Chai Tao glanced at Hillman with a polite smile. “I think we have reached a consensus on the issue that the theme of the competition can’t be off-topic, right?”

Hillman nodded slightly when he listened to Marcia’s translation. Then he replied.

Marcia said, “The most basic thing in a theme competition is to not stray from the topic. Mr Chai, please stop saying this again and again. It is better to look at the work quickly.”

There were also other people at the judges’ table of the Star Cup who weren’t used to Chai Tao’s style. So even though they saw Chai Tao’s attitude of being wary of Hillman despite not being happy, the others became a bit tougher and stopped being too polite.

Hillman raised his hand toward the staff member and motioned to lift the white cloth that covered the sculpture.

At the same time, photos of the sculpture from various angles appeared on the huge screen in front of them.

In an instant, everyone under the incandescent lights couldn’t help holding their breaths as if afraid of disturbing something.

What they saw in front of them was light gauze carved out of hard plaster. The light gauze floated in the air. Some were folded into extremely soft lines and bodies, some showed cold and sharp angles, and some were transitional and dull.

It was clear that the statue in front of them was a plaster statue, but the carving technique turned the cold and hard gray plaster into the softest gauze in the world. The folds were complex and gorgeous. One side was soft, and the other side was hard.

The gauze made of plaster floated in the air. Its whole body resembled a female body, with a strong side and a soft side. The work integrated these contradictory and mutually exclusive characteristics to the extreme. It was almost astonishing at a glance.

Just as everyone was holding their breaths, Chai Tao suddenly opened his mouth and shook his head. “What is wrong with this contestant? Even the portrait sculpture can divert from the topic. How can this work be seen as maternal love?”

The judges’ eyes were focused on the sculpture in front of them, and objections sounded one after another.

“I don’t agree.”

“It is impossible for anyone who has studied art to say that there is no maternal love in this work. Its body, its softness, not to mention the acute curvature mixed with a sense of fearless power… isn’t it the embodiment of material love?”

“This contestant used gauze as a metaphor for the softness of maternal love, but deliberately used hard plaster to polish it beautifully.”

Chai Tao was annoyed by the sudden out-of-control scene. His voice rose a bit. “It is just opportunistic!”

The group immediately retorted.

Seeing that the situation was getting more noisy and intense, Hillman suddenly moved everyone’s attention to the giant screen in front of him.

Jaeger Hillman said in a deep voice, “Please zoom in on these folds.”

The staff member standing behind the computer immediately did so.

In the next second, a high-definition, enlarged photo of the sculpture appeared in everyone’s eyes.

The contestants were mostly college students and independent artists who had recently graduated. Therefore, the judges might look at the details of the sculpture during the judging process but they wouldn’t zoom in like Hillman did now.

Under such high-definition photos, no participant’s work could completely avoid any criticism.

However, at this moment, a high-definition photo that was zoomed in to the extreme was displayed.

They saw that the sculpture, which was severely criticized as off-topic just now, had its folds zoomed in. In the dense folds of the gauze, there were jaw-dropping images of the Virgin Mary with different expressions.

Hillman didn’t wait for the others to recover and immediately said, “Enlarge all these folds one by one.”

The staff member immediately complied.

It turned out that every fold, every corner and every arc of this gauze was filled with lifelike images of the Virgin Mary.

Their postures and expressions were all different. Some were smiling gently, some were looking down sadly, some were serious and cold, some were crying with joy, and some were kissing the baby in their arms…

These exquisite and unparalleled carving skills left Chai Tao so stunned that he could no longer say a word.

Jaeger Hillman’s stern face finally showed his first smile of the day.

Soon, everyone only heard him say something in not-so-standard Chinese.

“If this is off-topic, I will be extremely disappointed in the Star Cup.”

Hillman raised his eagle eyes, his eyes sharp and harsh.

He couldn’t find any flaws even if he scanned this work with extremely harsh eyes.

“He will be first in the sculpture group,” Hillman said decisively.