Chapter 29
Many people present were witnesses to the bloody scene that happened many years ago. Now that the words were spoken, the doubts that had been dormant in their hearts for many years surged into everyone's mind again.
Those who were punished by the Zhou family back then were related to many people on the scene.
You may have heard something about their character.
What's more, one's own relatives are more or less clear about the situation.
How strong are they? Do they have the means to steal the Zhou family's ice carving techniques?
Thinking of their miserable appearance, a feeling of grief for the victims inevitably welled up in my heart.
For a moment, everyone's emotions could no longer be hidden, there was resentment, fear, and hatred.
If it weren't for the Zhou family, their family would have produced a famous ice sculptor, and their descendants would have had the opportunity to obtain better resources, but all of this was destroyed because of that accusation.
If the whole thing is fake...
Everyone dared not think about it but couldn't help thinking about it.
Zhou Yunkai felt strange looks from all directions, and his face turned red with anger, but he also knew that now was not the time to argue about these things.
"When you speak or act, you must rely on evidence. If you have evidence, please bring it out. If you don't have any, please don't try to confuse the public. Today, our Zhou family will definitely seek justice."
Zhou Yunkai curled his lips in disdain, his attitude very arrogant.
Although he was young, he knew more or less what happened back then.
A group of ants want to compete with the Zhou family, but they are overestimating their own capabilities.
However, the top priority now is to bring down Cui Youyi, so he once again pointed the finger at Cui Youyi.
Cui Youyi, who was standing by, laughed when she heard these confusing words, and walked slowly forward to confront Zhou Yunkai.
"Young Master Zhou's refusal to answer our questions means that your Zhou family has violated the rules by spying on other ice sculptors' final works?"
Without waiting for Zhou Yunkai to answer, Cui Youyi turned to the guest master and asked, "May I ask, according to the law, what is the punishment for cheating in the ice sculpture competition?"
"You are being unreasonable and unreasonable. You are the wicked who are the first to complain." Zhou Yunkai was furious. He quickly bowed and added, "I beg you, my Lords, to seek justice for our Zhou family."
"Everyone, please be patient." Old Master Zhao stroked his beard and smiled as he stepped out to control the direction of the situation. "Now, there are two matters that require the judgment of us old fellows."
"One is that the Zhou family is accusing Cui Youyi of stealing their hollow carving techniques. The other is that Cui Youyi's group is questioning the Zhou family's wanton inspection of their work, which goes against the rules of the Ice Sculpture Competition. Both are serious matters and require a set of rules. Today, we must give an explanation to everyone in Ningguta. Let's talk about which one to start with, old guys?"
Old Master Wu said with disdain, "Stealing his skills is a taboo for us ice sculptors. Why are you still trying to break it off? If Cui Youyi hadn't stolen his skills first, how could the Zhou family have spied on him? This is the whole story."
Zhou Yunkai rolled his eyes, stepped forward quickly, and took the opportunity to speak: "My dear guests, please allow me to report."
"A few days ago, my Zhou family received a secret letter stating that Cui Youyi had secretly learned our family's hollow carving techniques. However, this happened just as the finals of the Ice Sculpture Competition were approaching. This was a serious matter, and my Zhou family was extremely hesitant. We didn't want to allow the thief to enter the competition using our skills, nor did we want to disrupt the progress of the Ice Sculpture Competition. After discussion, the elders in our family still felt that the thief's competition was unfair to the other contestants. We dared not investigate, but we also didn't dare to investigate openly. That's why we wanted to confirm it first."
"I never thought that this move would be exploited by someone with ulterior motives and turned into a cheating ice sculpture competition for our Zhou family. It's really unfair."
Zhou Yunkai's words put the Zhou family in a complete victim position, as if if you hadn't secretly learned the Zhou family's secret techniques first, the Zhou family would not have received the secret letter and gone to verify it. He also hypocritically said that he did it for the consideration of other ice sculptors.
Seeing that the situation was becoming tense, Wang Jun also used his identity as the county magistrate to join Zhibin's public discussion.
For a moment, the guests and the audience expressed their opinions and argued endlessly.
"My Lords," Cui Youyi said, her head aching from the noise all around her. "We ice sculptors always speak for ourselves through our work. Instead of arguing here, why not use our work to make things clear?"
Why does she have to prove that she didn't learn the skills secretly?
Shouldn't it be the Zhou family that needs to prove that she learned the skills from someone else?
The work was right there, and she wanted to see how the Zhou family was just making up stories.
After hearing this, Wang Jun made the final decision and directly arranged for the servants to transport all the works for the finals to the venue.
Zhou Yunkai's face turned ashen.
Originally, they planned to destroy Cui Youyi's work directly and not give her the opportunity to display it, but they did not expect that the county magistrate Wang Jun was arbitrary and did not take their Zhou family seriously.
Zhou Yunkai pinched the note hidden in his sleeve and sneered in his heart: Fortunately, the Zhou family has made complete preparations, otherwise Cui Youyi would have escaped today.
Zhou Yunkai also ordered people to put the hollow-carved ice sculptures prepared in advance by the Zhou family on the stage.
Then, Zhou Yunkai launched into accusations from all aspects of style, details, and ingenious design. His angles were sharp, his comments were professional, and they were well-reasoned. Every accusation was based on the technique book passed down by the Zhou family, so it would be no problem to deceive most people.
Cui Youyi patiently listened to Zhou Yunkai's accusations, and the stone in her heart finally fell to the ground.
Cui She couldn't help but sigh again, fortunately she came from the 21st century, otherwise she would have fallen into the hands of the Zhou family today.
If it weren't for their opposing positions, Cui Youyi would have really wanted to know who the master behind the Zhou family was. After all, someone who could analyze an unknown work in a limited time and make such professional judgments was obviously an excellent ice sculptor.
What a pity! It's a waste of talent. He just follows the Zhou family to do low-level things. It will be difficult for an ice sculptor to improve himself if he loses his original intention.
While Cui Youyi felt sorry for the talented people, she also hated the bad apples in the ice sculpture world.
"Master Zhou, are you finished?"
Cui Youyi was tired of listening to the long-winded accusations. She didn't want to waste any more time listening to Zhou Yunkai's nonsense and confusing the public.
Zhou Yunkai snorted coldly, looking like he was saying, "Let's see how you try to quibble."
At this time, everyone's eyes were focused on Cui Youyi.
"Miss Cui." Wang Jun stammered and wanted to say something, but in the end he could only swallow his words. Only the fingerprints on his palms revealed his inner turmoil.
Cui Youyi nodded gently to comfort him.
Unlike the panic everyone imagined, Cui Youyi calmly walked to the front of her ice sculpture and asked calmly, "Does the Zhou family have anything else to add?"
Zhou Yunkai pinched his sleeves, glanced around, and met his old man's eyes before speaking bitterly, "Hmph, instead of wasting our time with your quibbles, why not just plead guilty and accept the punishment? Maybe I can do a good deed and plead for you."
After hearing the answer she wanted, Cui Youyi quickly walked to the center of the works for comparison.
"Please look at the connection between the lines." Cui Youyi pointed to several places in the two works.
"The Zhou family's work is exquisite on one side, with outstanding highlights. However, we can also clearly see that the lines on the two different sides are slightly misaligned and the connection is not smooth. It can be seen that different ice sculptors pieced together different single-side combinations to create the work."
"Anyone who knows about wood carving knows that hollow carving is divided into single-sided carving and double-sided carving. Commonly used screens and wood hanging screens are mostly single-sided carving, with one side being exquisite and the other side being plain and elegant. Double-sided carving, on the other hand, is exquisite on both sides, and the three-dimensional sense of space will be stronger."
Cui Youyi compared the works one by one and explained them.
Wang Jun was the first to come to Cui Youyi's ice sculpture. With him closing the shop in front, the guests present and the ice sculptors in the finals also came in.
Everyone compared the works according to Cui Youyi's explanation. Previously, they only thought that the Zhou family's works were very exquisite, but after combining them with what Cui Youyi said, they discovered many things that they had overlooked before.
"The connection between the Zhou family's works is really abrupt."
"I was wondering why it looked weird, it turns out the single-sided carvings weren't joined properly when they were joined together."
"Tsk, indeed, if the Zhou family's works were exhibited on one side, the effect might be better."
Cui Youyi didn't wait for everyone to comment on the Zhou family's work and began to explain her own design: "Everyone, take a look at my work."
Cui Youyi revealed the ingenuity of her original design one by one.
The three-dimensional and vivid dragon and phoenix are displayed in front of everyone. Every detail is connected by the double-sided carving technique, which brings the dragon and phoenix to life. It is exquisite everywhere and there is no trace of craftsmanship.
"The hollow carving technique isn't unique to any one family; both woodcarvers and jade carvers share this skill. It's not a secret in the capital."
With the powerful argument of the work, it is clear whether Cui Youyi secretly learned the Zhou family's ice carving techniques.
After all, everyone can tell the quality of a work at a glance. People who are good at double-sided carving must also be good at single-sided carving. The Zhou family's accusations collapsed in an instant.
The Zhou family has always caused trouble for Cui Youyi. Now that there is a great opportunity to bring down his family, Cui Youyi does not want to miss it.
"My Lord County Magistrate, and all the distinguished guests, may I ask why the art of hollow carving has become exclusive to a single family in Ningguta?"
Wang Jun cleared his throat and quickly took over the conversation: "I'm new to Ningguta, so I'm not very clear about the details. Mr. Zhou, could you please explain a little bit?"
When the people from the Zhao and Hou families heard this, they covered their mouths and laughed.
They have been dissatisfied with the Zhou family's arbitrary monopoly on ice sculpture technology for a long time. Now that they are in public, let's see how they can use their eloquence.
After receiving Mr. Zhou's signal, the Chen family came out to smooth things over, but they talked about this and that but never got to the point.
Before Cui Youyi and Wang Jun could start to attack, the onlookers began to question them in a cacophony of questions, which seemed quite aggressive.
In response to public opinion, Wang Jun, as the county magistrate, began the trial.
The victims who were persecuted by the Zhou family under various excuses many years ago submitted lawsuits that had been prepared long ago.
Cui Youyi's group won the final of the ice sculpture competition, and Cui Youyi's work also won the first place in the individual competition. Both works were sent to the capital as tribute.
It happened that the imperial power was settled, the prince cleared the obstacles and took power alone, and the Cui family also got rid of the status of exile.
Everything is going in the right direction.
Cui Youyi's brother resumed his official position and returned to the capital with his family, but Cui Youyi made a decision that no one understood - to stay in Ningguta.
Some people said she was stupid because she could not live the life of a rich lady, but she stayed in Ningguta to suffer the cold wind.
Some people said she was stupid because she was already the top ice sculptor in Ningguta and her works were worth a fortune, but she was still bothering those poor people.
Yes, Cui Youyi has been making trouble all the time.
The ice sculpture conference has come to an end, and the ice sculpture landscape in Ningguta has entered a new chapter.
As the Zhou family collapsed, the power of the Chen and Wu families also continued to decline. The Zhao and Hou families began to take the lead in opening schools and recruiting people who were serious about learning ice sculpture.
Cui Youyi did not join them. Instead, she led Lin Yinniang and others to start their career - training female ice sculptors.
Cui Youyi also provided Wang Jun with many suggestions. They established a trade route, and the ice sculptures produced in Ningguta were shipped to neighboring countries, bringing huge profits to Ningguta.
The originally impoverished Ningguta became full of vitality in the winter, and the lives of the lower-class people were greatly improved.
*
As the seasons change, spring goes and winter comes, Cui Youyi has been in Ningguta for many years.
She led everyone to create many tourist attractions, and Ningguta became a place for people to travel, relax, and explore the wonders.
Today, the new project was launched to the public. Cui Youyi was planning to join in the fun. When she reached a stone bridge, a girl with pigtails came running towards her, skipping and jumping.
"Sister." She hugged Cui Youyi and said, "Lower your head. I have a secret to tell you!"
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