PPS Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Zhang Anru

This time it was still a themed competition, and the theme was “Butterfly.”

It was a theme that was both aesthetically pleasing and challenging. It tested the contestants’ painting skills, color matching ability, creative expression, and control of details.

Although butterflies themselves have rich shapes and colors, providing inspiration for the contestants, standing out among many works required the contestants to excel in detail, creativity, and emotional expression.

Seemingly simple, but actually quite difficult.

Chu Zhaoyi sat in his seat, looking at the blank canvas in front of him, unusually lost in thought, and did not pick up his brush for a long time.

The competition gave five hours, which was not long. Almost everyone picked up their brushes as soon as the host finished speaking.

Only Chu Zhaoyi sat there blankly in the middle, looking particularly out of place.

Gu Yusen frowned. Chu Zhaoyi’s condition was not right.

In the past three months, Chu Zhaoyi would occasionally have an episode, but when he did, he would just sit quietly and space out. Each time, Gu Yusen would stay with him, waiting for the boy to break free from that strange state of mind and give him a warm hug.

With the progress of psychological treatment, the number of Chu Zhaoyi’s episodes had become less and less.

Gu Yusen hadn’t seen one in nearly a month.

Now, seeing Chu Zhaoyi in this state, he immediately realized that something was wrong.

It wasn’t just him; everyone in the audience felt that something was wrong. Many people came to watch the competition, and there were quite a few who came online to join in the fun and gossip. Seeing one of the protagonists of the topic looking like this, they all started discussing in low voices.

“Xiao Gu, what’s wrong with Zhaoyi?” Professor Qin turned his head to ask Gu Yusen.

Gu Yusen gripped the handrail tightly with one hand. He was sure that Xie Haoran must have said something to stimulate Chu Zhaoyi. When Chu Zhaoyi was fitted with hearing aids in the hospital, he had an episode once because of a child suddenly barging in.

Later, after he realized that Xie Haoran was a problem, he went to investigate and found that this person was also in that hospital that day.

Xie Haoran knew Chu Zhaoyi too well. He knew the cause of Chu Zhaoyi’s illness and knew how to stimulate him.

“Ah Yi’s condition is not right. I’ll go take a look.” Gu Yusen stood up and said in a low voice to Professor Qin.

Xie Jiā, Xie Yuyin, and Zhang Anru had come. No matter how bad they thought Xie Haoran was, he was still their family member after all. They still came to watch at this important moment.

Even though Xie Haoran had fallen out with the family like that.

The two of them happened to be sitting behind Gu Yusen. Zhang Anru had just been on the phone outside, and as soon as she came in, she saw Gu Yusen hurriedly standing up and preparing to go out.

Zhang Anru didn’t know what had happened. It was rare to see Gu Yusen looking so flustered.

Just as she was about to ask something, she was attracted by the red-haired boy on the field as soon as she looked up.

When she saw the face clearly, she was instantly stunned. She didn’t even feel Xie Yuyin pulling her arm.

This face…

Looked almost exactly like her younger uncle…

“Yuyin!” Zhang Anru suddenly fell back on the chair, grabbed Xie Yuyin’s hand. She had never met her younger uncle in person. Her younger uncle had an unfortunate life and died of illness before reaching adulthood, so none of the younger generations in the family had ever met this person.

But everyone knew that her younger uncle had a beautiful appearance, which attracted many people who coveted his looks back then.

But she had seen her younger uncle’s photos in her mother’s photo album, and she completely remembered that face at just one glance.

Chu Zhaoyi couldn’t be her younger uncle’s son. Her younger uncle had passed away so many years ago, and even if he had a son, the timing wouldn’t match up.

However, Zhang Anru was the person in the family who looked most like her younger uncle.

From childhood to adulthood, what she heard the most was: “Ni’er, your appearance resembles your younger uncle. You’ll be amazing when you grow up.”

It was just that her appearance gradually diverged from her younger uncle’s due to the effects of development. Originally, they might have had five points of similarity, but gradually it was only two or three points.

Their Zhang family had a thin population. By her generation, she was the only child. Judging by Chu Zhaoyi’s age…

“Mom? What’s wrong?” Xie Yuyin had actually been watching Chu Zhaoyi all along. When she first met him, she felt that his eyes were particularly familiar. Seeing his entire face at this moment, she felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

But her mother didn’t have any other children, did she?

Before she could figure it out, Zhang Anru came over, still with that expression.

“Investigate! Go investigate, call your father, and investigate together! Investigate this boy named Chu Zhaoyi…” For some reason, a dense pain came from Zhang Anru’s heart. It was as if countless fine needles were mercilessly pricking her. That pain spread from the depths of her chest, quickly occupying her entire body. She felt a strong sense of suffocation, her breathing became rapid and difficult, as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping her throat, making it difficult for her to breathe.

She subconsciously covered her chest, her fingers curled up tightly, her nails digging deeply into her palm, but it did not alleviate the pain that surged like a tide. Sweat began to seep from her forehead, sliding down her cheeks. Her lips trembled slightly, but she could not make any sound.

She tried to calm herself down, but her heartbeat became more and more erratic, as if it would stop at any moment. Her vision began to blur, everything in front of her was shaking, and the sounds around her became distant and blurred.

Who was it?

Chu Zhaoyi…

Chu Zhaoyi…