Do Not Speak Ill of My Mother!
Chapter 305: Teacher Feng remembers everyone’s names.

Chapter 305: Teacher Feng remembers everyone’s names.

[What’s happening? A senior sister?!]

[Since when did Teacher Zhang have a senior sister?]

Many people in the live broadcast room were fans of Zhang Guowen and knew his history better than their own bios!

Zhang Guowen, male, sixty-four years old, studied calligraphy from a young age and attended the Capital University of Calligraphy and Painting Academy in his early years, apprenticed under the name of the elder Wen Rong.

Elder Wen Rong’s calligraphy works embraced the strengths of various schools, and after prolonged practice, he developed a unique style that branched into two schools.

One was a minimalist style, characterized by graceful and delicate characters, which when seen was like taking a leisurely stroll in Jiangnan Water Town, and was deeply loved by the calligraphy community of Hua Country.

The other style was bold and vigorous, with robust and magnificent brushstrokes, resembling the experience of scaling lofty mountains and witnessing the grand ambitions and waves of humanity.

Unfortunately, Elder Wen Rong only took on Zhang Guowen as a disciple, and as males’ calligraphy practice was dominated by the latter’s bold strokes, the appreciation for the aforementioned school gradually faded.

Zhang Guowen had always regretted not being able to carry on his master’s minimalist school. In recent years, he took on several disciples, but unfortunately, they had only the form without the spirit.

Today, in Soaring Sky’s live broadcast, when netizens heard Zhang Guowen praising Si Younian’s work as "very spirited," they thought he might be considering taking on disciples again, and they chatted merrily in the barrage of comments.

But now, Teacher Zhang Guowen had run over to Zhongxing, and was actually bowing respectfully to their invited teacher.

And called her senior sister?!

Everyone almost dropped their jaws.

Zhang Guowen looked at Feng Shuzhen, feeling extremely excited, "Senior sister, you’ve finally returned to the country."

Feng Shuzhen gently said, "I should have contacted you as soon as I got back, but the people I sent to inquire about you learned that you had other arrangements for these two days, so I thought I’d wait until my business here was finished before contacting you."

"If I had known that my senior sister had returned, I would have definitely canceled all my schedules and gone to the airport to pick you up."

Zhang Guowen was overjoyed!

His senior sister had come back!

Would the school of his master that fell into neglect finally be revived?

The barrage watched Zhang Guowen unceremoniously place Soaring Sky behind his senior sister, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

[Soaring Sky went through all the trouble to invite Teacher Zhang, and before he even warmed his seat, he was attracted away by the big shot invited by Zhongxing, hilarious!]

[Zhongxing wins again! Soaring Sky invited Teacher Zhang Guowen, and Zhongxing immediately invited his senior sister! Now look, the competition turned into a sect reunion.]

[Isn’t the person above getting it backwards? Wasn’t it Zhongxing who first said they wanted to do the Gentleman’s Six Arts, and then Soaring Sky published an article inviting Zhang Guowen? It’s clearly Soaring Sky who failed to follow the trend, why blame Zhongxing?]

[Anyway, I love this storyline! I’ve never seen a bigshot abandon a live broadcast and their teaching mission, eagerly running to a competitor’s venue.]

[They’re calling her senior sister, so Teacher Feng must be even more formidable than Teacher Zhang, right? What she just taught, though elementary level, was really practical!]

[Where are all those in the barrage who liked to criticize? Why aren’t you speaking now? Keep insulting! I love watching you get your faces slapped resoundingly!]

After all, with the live broadcast running, the excitement of the reunion between senior sister and brother couldn’t last too long.

Hearing that Feng Shuzhen would stay at Zhongxing for three days to teach these children calligraphy from scratch, Zhang Guowen simply said.

"In that case, I might as well join everyone here and learn," the aged face suddenly broke into a smile, "The minimalist school taught by our master to my senior sister, to be honest... I’ve almost completely forgotten it."

"You..." Feng Shuzhen tapped her junior brother’s forehead gently with her small folding fan. "Well then, go find a table, and your senior sister will teach you from the beginning."

The familiar gestures from childhood, combined with such tender words, made Zhang Guowen’s eyes instantly well with tears, despite his age.

The path of persisting in heritage is too hard!

Elder Wen Rong only had his senior sister and his two apprentices. After his senior sister left, the responsibility of continuing the lineage fell onto his shoulders. Unfortunately, he was unable to integrate the two different schools of thought and had to start by practicing the style he was most comfortable with.

In recent years, he had tried countless times to replicate his teacher’s graceful brushwork, but his technique was set, and it wasn’t something that could be changed in a day or two.

Zhang Guowen felt as if the other style was completely foreign to him, strange and distant, and he couldn’t grasp its essence no matter how hard he tried.

But now that his senior sister had returned, all the problems seemed to be solved!

How could he not be so moved that he was brought to tears?

Hearing his senior sister agree to let him practice along, Zhang Guowen nodded happily and obediently moved towards the back.

Zhongxing had only prepared twenty-four sets of tools, plus one set for the teacher, so there were no spare desks or chairs for the time being.

Seeing Zhang Guowen approaching, Meng Chengchu at the last row gave up his spot: "Teacher Zhang, if you don’t mind, please squeeze in with me."

Zhang Guowen, who liked the clear and flawless look in his eyes, nodded: "Okay, thank you for your trouble."

Then Feng Shuzhen spoke up, "We have a new classmate again."

A playful remark that immediately eased the tense atmosphere, and redirected everyone’s attention back to her.

"We’ve just finished grinding the ink, and now let’s start priming the brush."

She picked up the brush and began to demonstrate to everyone.

The online community became lively once again.

[I thought Zhongxing was just making a fuss, but now I realize they have invited a real master! Look, even Teacher Zhang has obediently gone to the back to listen!]

[Help, I’ve been searching for information about Feng Shuzhen for a long time and can’t find anything QAQ! Why hasn’t such a good teacher made a name for herself in the calligraphy world?]

[Didn’t Teacher Zhang say she went abroad? Maybe she has been developing her career overseas?! By the way, there were some foreign films about Chinese people in recent years, the ones with really good reputations, and there was a ’Zhen’ mentioned in the special thanks section—isn’t that Teacher Feng Shuzhen?]

[Wow! I remember the big Chinese historical movie that was filmed abroad last year, with all the clothing details, etiquette guidance, calligraphy, and painting so much more exquisite and heartfelt than what was done domestically! I specially checked, and the calligraphy and etiquette guidance for the entire movie was credited to Miss Zhen. I was utterly in awe of her then!]

[I know which movie you’re talking about! Sister, I’ve seen it too! That’s insane! Is it true? Is Teacher Feng Shuzhen that Zhen? My idol!]

The class passed quickly.

After Teacher Feng taught everyone the basics of Brush, Ink, Paper and Inkstone, she let everyone express themselves freely by writing a piece to see.

Once everyone had finished writing, she said smilingly, "Everyone’s writing has its own unique characteristics. Based on your work, we’ll start by copying from basic character primers."

Saying this, she picked up a stack of hand-copied ancient books.

"These are some rubbings I’ve done during my leisure time in recent years, each with different practice focuses. Everyone, start by imitating the strokes according to the primer. After that, we’ll adjust according to each person’s writing tomorrow."

Then, she started distributing them, one by one, to everyone.

"Classmate Li, your writing is quite tense and dense, and you seem a bit rushed while writing. Start by practicing individual strokes. Begin with copying folds, twists, downward strokes, and hook, and after finishing today, once you’ve calmed down, you can continue practicing individual characters..."