The eight-person squad was unified in their stance for the first time, looking at Liao Yicheng with sycophantic admiration, excitement, anticipation, and some even had a blatant threat in their gaze!
It was as if they were saying, "If you don’t give me the voting device, I’ll rush over and pin you to the ground the next second!"
This versatile staff member cum host of the association rarely twitched the corner of his mouth, at a loss for words.
What the hell, are these little ancestors here to rebel?
He was a little overwhelmed!
"Cough cough, I... should I ask President Bai for his opinion?"
The contestants are to participate in the voting as well?
This is a bit nonsensical, weren’t you just the ones being voted on?
However, these words met with unanimous and strong resistance from everyone!
"What’s there to ask? We meet all the conditions, we must have it!"
"Right, we must participate in the voting!"
"Do you even need to ask? Put your hand on your heart and ask yourself, don’t we have the right to vote?"
"Big Brother Liao, Yicheng bro, dear brother, male god?"
Alright, you are the real ancestors!
He gave the staff members beside him a look, and not long after, someone distributed the voting devices, each fitted with batteries, to the contestants.
The moment Song Qingyuan received the device, he almost cried.
"Ying ying ying~~~ Why am I even more excited now than when I found out I made it into the top four?"
This does not make sense—
"Honestly, I’m also super excited!"
Yang Xiaofen’s eyes turned into stars, and she held the voting device in both hands, pondering the significant question of who to give her vote to.
"Who would’ve thought, one day I would become a judge for the masters?"
"Hahaha! I just want to look up to the sky and howl, fortune really does turn!"
Ye Xiaohui was also smiling, expressing surprise on receiving the voting device, not forgetting to tease the joyous foes to her left and right.
"You two actually reached a consensus on something for the first time, congratulations."
"Ptui! Who has a consensus with him?"
"If it weren’t for the sake of the masters, could I agree with her? What a joke!"
So, how do you manage to flip flop so swiftly, having the same sentiment one moment and changing the next?
Is it some kind of special ability?
The association officially gave everyone just 15 minutes to vote, which flew by in an instant.
Fifteen minutes is quite long simply for casting a vote, after all, it’s just pressing a few numbers on the voting device, which doesn’t require any effort. However, the National Painting Competition is not an ordinary competition, and the audience members with voting devices in the venue are no ordinary audience members.
Within those fifteen minutes, they had to appreciate ten master-level paintings and accurately judge their merits, ranking them first, second, third, and fourth, a task of considerable difficulty.
"What to do, I’m so torn, I like the fourth and fifth entries, but there’s only one spot left——"
"Every single one is a master-level painting, damn, I only realized today that I actually have difficulty choosing?"
How come I never knew before!
"Never mind, never mind; I cast my last vote for number 6!"
"Number 10, number 10! It has to be number 10, don’t know who was so bold as to paint the Gallop Horse Painting, and it’s freaking domineering. I can’t handle it!"
"I chose number 10 long ago; I feel like the style resembles Professor Li’s, but that number 1’s ’Charming Landscape’ also resembles it, sigh~~~~"
The 500 audience members with voting devices were having a highly enthusiastic discussion, and the friends and family in the back weren’t willing to show weakness either.
"It’s over, I’m so confused that I don’t see paintings on the screen anymore, just rows and rows of red RMB, emmmmm~~~"
"According to data that can be found on the internet, the work of each judge present wouldn’t be priced lower than 2 million."
"Damn?! So you’re saying that the stuff on screen is worth about 20 million in total?!"
"Oh my! Where are the paintings, when it’s obviously a pile of Silver accumulated like bank cards!"
"We’ve struck gold, coming here was worth it, I’ve actually seen 20 million on the spot!"
"Wuwuwu, I’ve never seen this much money in my entire life——"
The person from the association in the last row who heard the discussion of the three nearly dropped his voting device, turned his head with a face full of black lines, and after a moment, clenching his back teeth, he spat out three words.
On the stage, Master Bai cast a sidelong glance at the person next to him with a look in his eyes that seemed to carry some good news.
"Elder Li, are you nervous?"
Elder Li pinched the tea cup in his hand, loosened and then tightened his grip, over and over again several times.
"Nonsense, what big or small scenes have I not experienced in my life? Do you think I’d care about this little thing?"
"Oh really? You’ve already drunk three cups of water."
Master Xue looked at his tea cup with a smile in his eyes, and noticed that the original dark tea had become quite pale, which was clearly because it had been brewed too many times.
Professor Li choked, his face showing a touch of embarrassment from being caught out, and he snorted, "Don’t talk about me; you’re not much better. If the rankings after this vote are lower than before, you might lose your dignity!"
Would anyone claim they’re not nervous? That’s completely impossible, as it all relates to everyone’s ranking. They had stayed in their previous positions for four or five years without any change, and now they were going to disrupt this balance; anyone would be concerned.
Moreover... the works of the ten people, each one was quite extraordinary, the difference lay in the smallest details.
It was a matchup between experts.
"I didn’t expect that coming here to be a judge would get me into this mess by Old Bai."
Dean Wang emitted a long sigh, filled with deep resentment.
Everybody shared the sentiment, and pairs of reproachful eyes all turned to Master Bai who was leisurely sipping his tea. However, the person in question seemed unaware, looking as though "you can bring your thousands of troops, but I shall remain unshaken." This sight made everyone itch with irritability, and their gazes toward him grew even more perilous.
This frightened Bai Chenxi to no end. He, being stared at by a bunch of elders with fierce gazes, secretly swallowed hard and subtly moved half a step backward.
Goodness gracious, too scary!
How did he end up with a grandfather who could attract so much hatred? That was a close call, almost costing him his life!
Regardless of how tense everyone was, the final result was already in Liao Yicheng’s hands.
Staring at the thin card in his hand, he seemed quite surprised and took a long time to come back to his senses. Realizing that he hadn’t spoken for a while, he cleared his throat twice and picked up the microphone again.
"Okay, the voting results have now arrived in my hands. I’m sure everyone is very excited, so let’s announce the rankings of the ten paintings."