"Vincent William Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci," Mu Daxian said, "historically, there shouldn’t be anyone with the same name."
"But weren’t they... from different eras?" Mao Feiyang, clueless about history, not to mention European art history, remarked.
As common knowledge, he only remembered that Van Gogh painted "Sunflowers" and "Starry Night," while Da Vinci was somehow related to Ninja Turtles.
"The two lived 400 years apart," Mu Daxian explained.
Mao Feiyang’s mind was having trouble keeping up: "Wait, even if that’s true... I looked it up online before, and the city’s university seemed to have started construction in the year X999, and the school has only existed for about 20 years. How could it be related to Van Gogh?"
Mu Daxian smiled: "The Art Building was later included in the university’s premises. You’ve heard before how some university merges into another university for various reasons, then becomes an affiliated college of that university, right?"
"Isn’t that easy to understand?"
Mao Feiyang was stunned: "Seems like it is..."
Mu Daxian calmly said: "Van Gogh... his ability to control color was unmatched, he had an extraordinary perception of ’color’, and because of this, he suffered from the torment of supernatural powers all his life..."
"Having the talent to touch supernatural powers is a gift, but at the same time, it is also a curse."
"He spent a lifetime in pain and torment, but despite this, he maintained a clear self-awareness and was full of love for life..."
"’Starry Night’ is a piece that formed from bearing an unimaginable pressure, depicting his sensations towards supernatural powers."
"The real ’Starry Night’ is in the observatory of the Art Building, ten times larger than the known version, painted on the inside of the Observatory..."
"’Starry Night’ emanates an unparalleled level of contamination, and thereafter, the observatory was sealed off, not open to the common art students."
"As for Da Vinci, his study of sculpture was near obsessive. The school’s secrets of sculpture are derived from his initial manuscripts, but it is said his later research became increasingly unfathomable and bizarre, leading the original Art Building to halt his studies..."
Listening to Mu Daxian recounting the histories of figures that were utterly different from public knowledge yet mysterious at every turn, Mao Feiyang’s thoughts went on a fantastical loop, speechless for a moment.
Even Lin Yi was so shocked that he didn’t know what to say.
When Lin Yi first heard Li Huiyuan mention she studied "Mystical genealogy," he joked about himself slaying dragons at Cassell College, but now, it seemed that his claim of being a dragon slayer was damn conservative!
Mao Feiyang couldn’t help but ask, "What about the sports student path then?"
Mu Daxian put down his chopsticks, wiping the corner of his mouth: "Compared to those inclined towards perceiving supernatural powers, sports students excel through long-term training at integrating supernatural powers with their bodies, allowing them to possess extraordinary bursts of strength at any moment, their physical condition rivaling that of wild beasts, akin to steel."
Mu Daxian pondered for a moment, then suddenly blurted out a name: "Van Helsing."
"Huh?" Mao Feiyang was taken aback, then quickly realized something, couldn’t help but blurt out, "Shit, don’t tell me Van Helsing was some sports student from a past class!"
"Van Helsing was the top scholar of class X887 [...] of course, back then there was no such term as a gymnasium."
"He spent his life wandering around Europe, pursuing the trace of ’Angels’, during which he defeated Count Dracula, but ultimately died on the path of chasing ’Angels’..."
Mao Feiyang’s mouth gaped open: "Aren’t the stories about Van Helsing and Dracula made up?"
Mu Daxian glanced sideways: "What do you think all those mentions in books saying ’This story is based on real events, any similarities are purely coincidental’ meant?"
Mao Feiyang looked puzzled: "Europe goes by that too?"
"Van Helsing had a friend who passed down his story, one of his descendants was ’Bram Stoker’, the later author of the horror novel ’Dracula’..."
Mao Feiyang’s mouth was wide open, speechless.
Mu Daxian scoffed, "Should I also tell you that, in the same era as Van Helsing, there was a doctor named Victor Frankenstein who, based on Da Vinci’s ancient sculpture manuscripts, cobbled together a Pseudo-Human, that thing was also named ’Frankenstein Monster’, and it caused a scare in a small part of Romania..."
Mao Feiyang held his forehead: "Wait, just hold on a second..."
"Am I the idiot for believing your stories, or has the world gone mad?"
"My head is a little messed up; give me a minute to process this..."
As Mu Daxian was clearing the utensils, he said, "The whole campus, to a certain extent, is like a massive selection field, but some people have choices, some don’t, and some don’t even get the opportunity to see the options."
He spoke very slowly this time, trying to give Mao Feiyang time to digest the information.
"You see, the dark green aura burning like a flame on me, that’s the hallmark of an art student."
"If you look at a sports student, you’ll see a blue aura, the darker the color, the more intense the contamination."
"Whether it’s art or sports students, they are the ones who have been given options."
"It’s just that some made the choice and some did not."