Chapter 146: Calligraphy Competition Exhibition and Review

In the era of universal cultivation, the efficiency of preparing and participating in events has been greatly improved. I am not sure about other places, but at least in a small city the size of Tiumu Fort, many events truly only require an advance notice, some promotional work, and then the actual hosting on the scheduled day.

Those who want to come will naturally come, and those who do not probably never truly wanted to in the first place.

Divine golden light descends only when fairness is relatively achieved and widely recognized—this is a rule inscribed by the Origin Saints into the Great Dao. Conversely, if a competition concludes without any golden light, it proves that the competition is pure garbage, and the organizing committee will lose all face.

Therefore, to ensure a certain degree of fairness, competitions in the new era do not leave much room for behind-the-scenes manipulation. Much like the provincial imperial examinations, the competition takes place, the scores are calculated, and the rankings are announced all on the spot, supervised jointly by the organizers and the audience throughout the entire process. This kind of fast pace has become a characteristic of this era.

The Tiumu Fort Municipal Hall decided to make this year a cultural year, and the calligraphy competition was the opening event of the cultural year, so it naturally had to be much grander.

Following the preliminary examinations, all shortlisted works were uniformly arranged for exhibition in the cultural exhibition hall. Everyone—including participants, judges, and even ordinary tourists—could evaluate and witness these exhibited works. Which piece of calligraphy was well-written and which was poorly written was sometimes clear at a glance.

Scores released on the spot at night, awards presented on the spot—this was the operational style of the new era.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Shi Tiexin and Situ Zhennan rushed to the entrance of the exhibition hall, carrying an old-fashioned camera.

"Hoh, there are quite a lot of people!" Situ Zhennan looked around and discovered that entering the venue required buying a ticket. "Fifty points for a single admission? Why doesn't this organizing committee just go and rob someone?!"

Shi Tiexin looked over as well and found that it was indeed true. An admission ticket cost fifty points, which made him click his tongue in amazement. Because of Doggy Egg, he had lucked out and acted as a model, earning thirty points. Yet a plain and simple calligraphy exhibition actually required fifty points?

This price was way too exorbitant!

However, to Shi Tiexin's surprise, people buying tickets to enter were coming in an endless stream. Within a short while, the inside of the exhibition hall was bustling with a crowd.

Shi Tiexin could not help but sigh. They were wealthy; these fellows who had nothing better to do than visit calligraphy and painting exhibitions were truly wealthy. He simply could not imagine how these people usually lived their lives.

"Damn it, outrageously expensive!" Situ Baldy gritted his teeth. "I'll pay for the tickets today!"

Shi Tiexin quickly shook his head. "No need. I won't go in; it's all the same whether I go or not."

"No way! You must come inside with me, or else why did we lug a camera all this way?" Situ Baldy's bald face looked somewhat fierce. "If you brat don't win some sort of prize, well, humph humph—I'll..."

Shi Tiexin instinctively chimed in, "Blow up my head?"

Situ Baldy was stunned, and then he didn't continue. For some reason, he shut his mouth with a disgruntled expression.

Since they were already here, they might as well go in. Just standing outside the entrance waiting blindly was pointless. With a pained expression over his wallet, Situ Baldy paid the fee, and Shi Tiexin followed him through the gates of the exhibition hall.

As soon as they stepped inside, a lively yet artistic atmosphere rushed toward them.

The exhibition hall was arranged with elegant taste, and the works were scientifically distributed. Unlike the rigid, side-by-side displays of old-fashioned museums, each piece had its own unique vertical "display case."

These display cases were made of an unknown transparent plastic material, allowing each piece of calligraphy to be displayed at the most optimal height, ensuring that visitors of any height would not feel uncomfortable. Moreover, the lighting layout was very reasonable, making every splash of ink and area of blank space crystal clear.

There were many visitors in the hall, and the majority of them clearly knew their stuff. Shi Tiexin even spotted some elderly gentlemen from the park visiting in groups, making critiques and discussing spiritedly in front of various pieces.

"There really are a lot of people here. It seems the influence is quite significant. If you win an award, we can probably generate a wave of hype," Situ Zhennan urged impatiently, completely lacking any appreciation for art. "Quickly, take a look at these scrawls and see if you can win an award!"

Shi Tiexin did not respond and walked along, looking at the works one by one.

In Tiumu Fort, people of Chinese descent made up the absolute majority without a doubt, so cultural commonalities ran very high. Brush calligraphy, hard-pen calligraphy—piece after piece of calligraphy was displayed there. Whether it was due to the attribute [+1 to Perception] at work, as Shi Tiexin studied these pieces, he slowly entered the zone.

Anything selected for competition was naturally of top quality, and the content chosen was often a cultural treasure. The occasional connoisseur discussing in low voices nearby provided Shi Tiexin with a lot of inspiration.

At this very moment, right as he was on the verge of the second tier of foundational philology, Shi Tiexin kept studying, and suddenly a few stars flicked into place, pushing the progress bar of the second tier of foundational philology significantly higher.

Shi Tiexin was surprised, and then overjoyed.

There was actually such a good thing!

He was not sure if everyone experienced this stroke of luck or if he alone enjoyed it because he possessed the Horizon System. Regardless, just this function of increasing his philology cultivation made the fifty-point price tag feel much more approachable.

For the same amount of progress, if he had to rely on auxiliary secret records for the second tier, fifty points probably wouldn't even be enough!

Thinking of this, Shi Tiexin began to view the calligraphy exhibition with even greater seriousness. He looked, listened, and recited, especially fond of crowding around the elderly gentlemen. These old men had high enough standards, were advanced in age, and loved to chatter—they were just at the age where they loved to show off. Listening to them review and argue right beside them, Shi Tiexin found it immensely entertaining.

"Hey, it's been two hours. Have you figured anything out yet?!" Situ Zhennan squeezed his way over, looking anxious. "Why do I feel like every single one of them is written quite well? Can you actually win an award or not?"

Shi Tiexin was startled, only then realizing that two hours had passed unconsciously.

He calculated in his mind, then shook his head. "I don't know. No confidence."

When he first wanted to enter the competition, he had been full of high spirits, aiming directly for one hundred thousand points. Later, after seeing the elderly gentlemen, his soaring ambition immediately settled back down to earth, and he stopped thinking about the one hundred thousand points. Now, after coming to this exhibition hall and carefully observing a full circle, Shi Tiexin discovered that the competition was truly crouching tigers and hidden dragons, filled with all sorts of masters.

Any single piece of calligraphy taken from here was a top-tier work. Although he had achieved perfection in the first tier of foundational philology, it was only perfection in the first tier. As for winning awards, Shi Tiexin was no longer considering it.

"How can you have no confidence!" Situ Zhennan grew anxious. "Right, where is your little crappy piece of writing? Whether there's hope or not, we still need to go over and take a photo. Even a shortlisted work is better than nothing!"

The two hurried over to Shi Tiexin's copy of the *Thousand-Character Classic*. Its location here was not particularly good—it was relatively remote, and the traffic of passersby was sparse.

Situ Zhennan looked at it and became annoyed. "How can this do! With popularity this low, how can it win an award? We need to use some tricks!"