The lighting of the ballroom was dimmed all of a sudden while the guests were still busy whispering to one another.
Only some very faint lights remained offstage.
By the time the light was turned back on, three young girls had materialized onstage.
Wearing a black dress, Janet looked straight ahead with composure before sitting down at her designated seat.
Paint of various colors as well as paint brushes could be found on the desk.
Henry and Mason took a seat in the last row, and Henry stared at the girls on the stage with anticipation.
Then, he raised his brow and asked Mason who was beside him, “Young Master Mason, do you think Janet will win the contest?”
Mason curled his perfectly sculpted lips up into a smirk and kept his eyes glued to Janet. “What do you think?” he asked Henry back in a breezy tone.
Henry shrugged and replied, “How do I have any clue since I’ve never seen Janet’s work? I can’t say anything for sure because the other two girls from the Jackson Family are very outstanding too.”
In fact, an opinion had already formed deep down inside him and he thought Janet was not here to win.
After all, the other two girls had gone through proper drawing lessons before and both of them were undoubtedly good at drawing. As for Janet, she used to stay in the countryside and it was hard to tell how great she actually was.
“Ha!” Mason let out a chuckle. His eyes did not move away from Janet for a single second.
While the guests offstage fell silent, the three contestants on the stage were busy thinking about their strategies.
This time, Old Mr. Collins wanted their paintings to be related to animals and their works would be evaluated based on two yardsticks: creativity and vividness.
The time limit was set at two hours and they were required to stop painting once the time was up.
Old Mr. Collins’ requirement was quite challenging for Chloe because she was more used to painting with a point of reference. But now, she had to create the entire painting on her own which required great imagination.
Emily felt her chest tighten when she heard the requirement. Did they have to produce something creative within two hours? It was too short a time for her because she usually needed a whole day’s time to complete a painting and the fact that she wouldn’t have something to refer to just added to the level of difficulty.
After she heard the rules, Janet reacted to it with composure and looked fixedly at the blank canvas.
In fact, two hours to her was akin to two days to other people.
Cocking her head to one side, she stared at the blank canvas and just seconds before she was about to start painting, she put down her paintbrush again.
Shoving the papers, ink and paints all to one side, she cleared out a space on her table on which she placed her elbows to support her chin. In the meantime, she closed her eyes which looked as clear as water.
From time to time, Emily and Chloe would peek at her. When the two of them saw what she was doing, both of them covered their mouth and sniggered.
The guests offstage started mocking Janet too.
“Is Janet Jackson serious?”
“Are my eyes still functioning well or has Janet Jackson just dozed off?”
“Hahahaha, she’s so hilarious! Seems like she knows herself well enough to realize she has no hope in winning so she decided to just give up altogether!”
Shirley scoffed, “Megan, I must say I’m very impressed by how strong your daughter is psychologically. Since she can fall asleep in an environment like this, what makes her different from a pig?”
Her remark put Megan in so much embarrassment that she started wiping away the cold sweat that had broken out on her forehead.
Many of them started laughing at the girl who was snoozing onstage.
Half an hour later, Old Mr. Collins couldn’t stand it anymore and approached her to wake her up.
Janet looked up at him puzzledly with a pair of groggy eyes.
Old Mr. Collins sighed, “Aren’t you going to start painting? You only have one and a half hours remaining.”
“Okay!” Janet immediately took some paint and started mixing colors randomly.
Seeing that, Old Mr. Collins shook his head in resignation.
To him, what she was doing was pure absurdity.
As time passed, the three girls on stage churned out their works.
Because the desk was on the stage, no one in the audience could see what they were painting, which added an element of mystery to the contest.
Old Mr. Collins made an announcement as soon as the time was up and the three girls immediately stopped painting.
While Emily and Chloe modded at their works in satisfaction, Janet rose to her feet and whispered something to Old Mr. Collins.
