Lin Feng brought Dilia to Dormitory 1987. Yale, George, and Reynolds were all there. When brothers met, there was naturally plenty of catching up to do. Of course, with Dilia's arrival, Lin Feng also had to endure plenty of teasing from the other three.
"Third Brother, did you bring Dilia here to show her your stone sculpture?" Yale looked at Lin Feng with a teasing grin. "I kept it strictly confidential from your sister-in-law so she'd be surprised."
"What stone sculpture?" Yale's words had piqued Dilia's curiosity, and she quickly asked.
"This stone sculpture is something else. You'll be amazed when you see it. But you'll have to wait until you've seen it to find out what it is." Yale was still grinning as he spoke.
"All right, Big Brother, stop teasing Dilia. Take us to see where you put the sculpture!" Lin Feng glanced at Dilia, who was looking eager, then said to Yale.
The Hualie Hotel!
The moment Dilia saw the stone sculpture Love with her own eyes, she was immediately stunned. She could feel how intense and passionate Lin Feng's love for her was in the sculpture.
Dilia stared blankly at the five lifelike versions of herself before her, each sculpture possessing a unique charm.
As Dilia looked at the sculpture, scenes from her past with Lin Feng involuntarily resurfaced in her mind: the first time, during a first-year magic class, when Lin Feng had watched her with a mischievous smile.
Then there was the scene of them embracing in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, their cheeks pressed together.
As scene after scene came to mind, Dilia was completely stunned. She had never imagined that such a breathtaking sculpture had been modeled after her.
"Lin, Lin Feng..." Dilia was so moved, but for a moment, she couldn't find the words to express how she felt.
She took a deep breath before slowly asking, "What's the name of this sculpture?"
"Love!"
"It's called Love? Is this what love is?" Dilia murmured to herself. At that moment, she finally understood her own heart: all this time, the way she'd been longing for him was love!
Suddenly, Dilia felt as if inspiration had struck. Her mind cleared, and her spiritual power, which had long been stagnant, surged. It broke straight through the peak of the sixth level and reached the seventh, not stopping until it reached the peak of the seventh level.
As a Saint-level Magus, Lin Feng could naturally sense Dilia's condition. He hadn't expected that merely seeing the sculpture would cause her spiritual power to surge by an entire level. Her comprehension was every bit as remarkable as his own.
"Congratulations, Dilia!" Lin Feng was genuinely delighted by her breakthrough.
Dilia was only sixteen, yet she had already reached the peak of the seventh-level Great Mage rank. At this rate, if she kept working hard, reaching the Saint Realm wouldn't be difficult. Dilia could finally avoid the fate she'd had in the original story, where she had needed to refine a divine spark to become a god.
"I love you, Lin Feng!" Dilia leaned tenderly into his arms.
Yale, George, and Reynolds, who had been left standing to one side, had no idea what had just happened. They assumed Dilia had simply been moved by her love for Lin Feng and spoken from the heart.
"All right, all right, Lin Feng. Aren't you embarrassed? The three of us bachelors are still standing right here. You and your sister-in-law should spare a thought for us single men."
Reynolds could stand it no longer and finally interrupted Lin Feng and Dilia's loving exchange.
Lin Feng and Dilia looked embarrassed. They really had forgotten all about Yale and the others.
In a private room at the Hualie Hotel.
Lin Feng, Yale, George, and Reynolds sat casually along the two sides of a long table, while Dilia nestled against Lin Feng. More than a dozen exquisite dishes were arranged in pairs across the table, with fruit wine and liquor set out nearby. The four brothers were drinking fruit wine and chatting about what had happened recently.
"Lin Feng, you should've gone to the Magical Beast Mountain Range after taking the year-end test last year. Dixie finally reached the sixth-level Mage rank in the test, while you didn't take it at all. Some people said you'd fallen behind Dixie. Only a few of us knew you'd already reached the sixth level." Reynolds spoke indignantly.
Lin Feng took a sip of fruit wine and smiled faintly.
A sixth-level Mage?
Having become a Saint-level Magus, Lin Feng had long since forgotten what it felt like to be a sixth-level Mage. Ever since he first stepped into the world of Flat Blade carving, his spiritual power had grown like a rocket. Its rate of growth would have driven an ordinary mage to despair.
"Fourth Brother, you know Third Brother. He doesn't care about things like that. If he did, he wouldn't have skipped the annual grade competition every year," Yale said with a chuckle. "By the way, Third Brother, your Uncle Hillman came to the school at the start of this semester."
Lin Feng paused and looked at Yale, immediately asking, "Did something happen with Uncle Hillman?"
Though he asked aloud, he wondered to himself, Maybe my father has died.
His decision to spend the New Year in the Magical Beast Mountain Range had also been a kind of escape. He was afraid that if he stayed at the academy, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from going to Duke Paland Mansion and preventing his father from going to his death. Naturally, he didn't want his father to die, but neither did he want his father to live in pain. Torn between these two thoughts, Lin Feng had chosen to escape—or perhaps to let things take their natural course.
"It was nothing. He probably saw that you hadn't gone home for the New Year and worried something had happened to you," Yale said casually, then continued, "By the way, there's something I have to tell you. On the day your Uncle Hillman came, the head curator of the Proulx Gallery came too. He was here because of your sculpture, Love."
Lin Feng exclaimed in surprise. "The head curator? How did he find out about my sculpture, Love?"
Reynolds said sheepishly, "It's my fault. When Yale sent people to bring your sculpture down from the back hill, I thought nobody else knew how valuable it was, so I put it in the dormitory. I could admire it from time to time. But I didn't expect Austoni to come looking for you and find us in the dormitory. He happened to see your sculpture, Love, and later he told Curator Maia about it."
Lin Feng nodded slightly.
"Lin Feng, the head curator wants you to put the sculpture, Love, up for auction. Even if you don't want to sell it, he'd like to exhibit it at the Proulx Gallery. Would you agree?" Yale looked at Lin Feng.
Lin Feng shook his head without the slightest hesitation.
"Selling Love is absolutely out of the question. As for whether it goes on display at the Proulx Gallery, that depends on what Dilia thinks." Lin Feng looked at Dilia, waiting for her judgment.
Yale and the others also turned to look at Dilia, waiting to see what she thought.
Dilia looked up at Lin Feng, but she couldn't read anything in his eyes. After pondering for a moment, she slowly said, "It would be fine to exhibit it. That way, Lin Feng could become better known in the world of stone carving."
Dilia was also willing to exhibit Love for another reason. The sculpture expressed the love between Lin Feng and her so completely that anyone but a fool could feel how deeply Lin Feng loved her. Once it was displayed to the public, their relationship would be completely exposed, and the whole world would become their matchmaker.
"In that case, I'll send someone to contact Curator Maia right away and arrange the exhibition of Love," Yale said at once.
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