The Versatile Master Artist

Back then, how popular was the ”Steve Jobs’ Biography”? Everyone in the world was practically holding a copy and reading it on subways, also a monster with nearly ten million copies sold in its first year.

Ten years later, it can’t even make it into the top 100 bestseller list.

The early sales of world classics are lukewarm, but they have strong longevity, and selling for ten years might still reach over 30% of the initial sales figures. ”In Search of Lost Time” is so tedious and long, it’s unlikely that you’d find ten thousand people in all of Britain who have read it seriously from start to finish.

Since 1913, it’s still selling a hundred thousand copies worldwide each year.

Especially ”The Little Prince”, which exploded. It took the top sales spot in all of Britain on its first day; if it doesn’t explode, what will?

The estimated total sales of 300,000 copies, just on the first day, completed 4% of the annual sales plan.

At this rate, it won’t even need a year to sell out the entire first print run, just a month.

Of course, a lot of sales demand accumulated before and online orders from ”The Little Prince” loyal fans got released on the first day of launch, making it hard for the following few days to match the first day’s grandness.

Over the next few days, the sales will continue to drop significantly, only stabilizing after about five or six days.

But that’s also definitely in the top three of the sales charts.

Creating a bestseller book dealt a blow to the arrogance of the art director Charlie and boosted the board’s confidence.

If President Osborne isn’t happy, then who can be happy?

”Alright, Miss Anna, since the illustrator you recommended did so well, then...” Osborne was delighted enough, scrolling on his iPad in front of him and finding an email that had been pre-edited.

[To: Scholastic Writing and Art Master Award Selection Committee. Nomination for Group European Region Award Candidate — Illustrator Detective Cat]

He stared at the email title for two seconds before pressing the send button.

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Fitz International Middle School.

This is the last week before April Fool’s Day, and right now, the auditorium stage in the school is packed full.

The multicolored spotlights refract dreamlike lights in the smoke created by dry ice, resembling the enamel colors painted on by Dongxia’s porcelain artisans.

The school will host a joint party with several other international schools on the Rose Lover’s Day, May 14, as usual, and students above grade seven can attend.

Every year, this is the school event Fitz’s students love the most.

More important than the school team competitions, more exciting than the winter and summer holidays.

Besides performances from various clubs, play rehearsals, there is also the final main event where boys and girls casually choose partners to dance ballroom dance together.

Young bodies brush against each other through a layer of evening wear, cheek to cheek.

The entire air will be filled with the scent of perfume, sweat, and hormones flying around.

Even the school’s health classes are arranged a week ahead of each school dance, adding an extra class per week to serve as a preventive measure.

Despite the school’s efforts.

Still, rumors about certain girls getting unexpectedly pregnant always surface a few years after the school dance events.

In general.

The joint dance is the first step for lower grade students into formal social occasions, and also the final carnival for graduating class students in their middle school era.

After the joint dance in May.

Senior year students will have to focus entirely on preparing their portfolios, readying for admission interviews, and applying to their desired universities. Their lives begin formally diverging.

Living far apart, long-distance couples have nearly a 100% breakup rate.

The graduation season dance is their last youthful memory of middle school life.

Imagine.

The excitement and thrill in Fitz students’ hearts.

With over a month left until the dance, large-scale rehearsals have already begun.

”Gu Weijing, shall we dance together at that time?”

The girl in a dance skirt with sexy tanned skin whispered and laughed with her cheerleading sisters, then walked over to the boy sitting at the edge of the corner holding a ”Heavenly Rain Flowing Fragrance” Chinese painting textbook, and said boldly.

Gu Weijing moved his gaze away from the book, a helpless expression appearing on his face.

[If you’re famous enough, then everything will be easy enough.] — This famous saying in news history was left by sports star James Hunt when a TV reporter asked him how many girlfriends he actually had.

He was the 1976 F1 world champion, and in sports, he’s as renowned as Chamberlain in basketball as a two-time playboy. Throughout his life, he dated over 5,000 girls, with a peak record of sleeping with 35 different British flight attendants over 35 consecutive days during the F1 Japan Grand Prix.

The Hilton Hotel suite was his palace, and the entire airline’s flight attendants were his concubines.

Facing the amazed gossip reporter’s interview, Hunt just swung his unruly golden shoulder-length hair, swaggeringly saying it wasn’t him being too promiscuous, it was just too easy to date girls.

The cultural atmosphere of Western society is completely different from the reserved and modest Eastern people.

Almost everyone harbors a romantic affair fantasies with celebrities in their hearts.

International schools are like a smaller Westernized society.

Watching TV before, Gu Weijing often saw in Europe and America youth-themed school dramas that campus celebrities often had priority in choosing partners, dating whoever they wanted, and dating whichever girl they wanted.

He had always been like a little transparent in the international school, studying for so many years.

Until his big photo got prominently displayed on the school gate’s bulletin board by the principal, he finally, thoroughly experienced the exclusive privilege of being a school celebrity within campus culture.

The social status within the school improved more than just a little bit.

In Gu Weijing’s impression.

After entering the senior year, the band’s lead singer girlfriend changes, the school team main player Jerry’s girlfriend changes, even cheerleading captain Miss Koukou’s girlfriend changes.

Now,

If he wants to be a playboy.

Gu Weijing himself might as well lead a life where his girlfriend changes sequentially.

The girl before him is called Misha.

The Yangon Port is Myanmar’s only seaport, and one of the few ports in Southeast Asia that can dock 100,000-tonnage large ships. Every year, a large number of containers filled with rice and textiles are shipped out from here.

Misha’s father is the supply chain management specialist at GEODIS International Shipping Company in Myanmar, himself a French national, with one-eighth South African black heritage.

Except for slightly thick lips, it’s hard to see this heritage.

Her features aren’t delicate, but her body is voluptuous and attractive, especially with her healthy tanned skin from frequent exercise and exposure to the sun, making her quite hot.

Such girls always have many pursuers in school. She might not have even looked at Gu Weijing before but now actively seeks him as her dance partner, with her words carrying an unspoken ambiguity.

Even... Misha is already the third girl looking to Gu Weijing as a potential dance partner.

Including a junior younger sister from a grade below.

Gu Weijing isn’t particularly handsome, nor can he be called ugly.

He just usually doesn’t dress himself up much, with ordinary school uniforms and an ordinary buzz cut.

Looking closely, though, there’s something about him, with a kind warmth and subtlety uncommon among boys in international schools.

Few paid attention to him before.

A small number who had some intention were also deterred by Miss Sande Nu’s authority.

The campus is full of boys from better families, more romantic and playful than Gu Weijing. They were reluctant to take the risk to flirt with a student council president’s tethered donkey.

Investment versus return wasn’t proportional!

Now it’s different.

Seemingly, a considerable number of girls in the campus harbor a subtle little interest in this freshly baked young artist from the Yangon Calligraphy and Painting Association.

”Misha, sorry. If I need to dance with you, I might have to get my girlfriend’s consent first.”

Gu Weijing used the standard response he’s already familiar with from saying it many times before, smiling as he spoke.

”Who? Is it Mona? I haven’t seen her with you recently.”

Misha, fully exuding the romance and boldness of a French girl, didn’t back off like the previous two girls, hinting distance in Gu Weijing’s polite words, but slyly stepped forward, licking her lips.

The curve that pushed her school uniform blouse almost to Gu Weijing’s face.

”Gu, I admit Miss Sande Nu is quite pretty, but I’m no less.” Miss Misha batted her large eyes alluringly.