‘Bonnie is going to return empty-handed and everyone’s going to look down on her again!’ Selina thought to herself.
After some time, Bonnie returned to the exhibition with a rolled-up painting in her hands.
Selina saw it and immediately scoffed. ‘Bonnie truly knows how to put on a show. I’m sure this is a fake. That’s why she kept it rolled up and didn’t show it to everyone here.
‘That doesn’t matter. There are so many people here. So, she has no choice but to unroll the painting eventually. The moment she does that, she’ll be kicked out of the university for good.’
She was in the middle of her thoughts when Bonnie asked someone to hang the painting up on the wall.
Selina directed her gaze at it, intending to take pleasure in Bonnie’s misery. To her surprise, Bonnie had brought back an identical painting!
‘This can’t be right! I stole the original painting. How could she have tracked down the painting so fast? It has to be a fake.’
Selina swept her eyes across the crowd. Aside from her, everyone looked calm and unperturbed. None of them mentioned anything unusual about the painting.
‘Is it possible that none of the professors can tell that the painting she brought back was a fake? Or, is it because they never even thought of it that way? Fine. I guess I’ll have to give them a nudge.’ “Say, Professor Benton. Don’t you think there’s something funny about this painting?”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s different about it. After all, we’re talking about one of two of Master Kieran’s original paintings. Let’s not even forget the fact that the Knight Group gave it to the university.
“It’s better that we play it safe and have the other professors appraise it.”
Benton thought it over and found her suggestion valid. So, he asked some of the students to bring other professors over.
Later, quite a number of professors came and appraised it. All of them came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the painting.
Selina was panicking now, her eyes brimming with utter disbelief.
‘H-How could there be nothing wrong with it? Haven’t I just stolen the original painting and hidden it in a remote corner? Could it be that Bonnie managed to find it?
She needed to know if her theory was correct. So she slipped out of the crowd and hurried over to the hiding spot.
Bonnie saw her leave and followed her quietly.
After both of them were gone, Benton accidentally brushed against the painting. Lowering his head, he looked at it.
‘Huh? That’s weird. Why is the paint still wet?’ He thought, ‘It’s almost as if it was just painted recently… How does that make sense, though?’
Meanwhile, Selina raced over to the garden. She checked her surroundings to make sure that no one was there before she lifted the painting from the flowerbed.
She examined it meticulously and did not have the foggiest clue what just happened.
‘What’s going on here? How is it that this painting looks exactly the same as the one Bonnie just showed up with?
‘I plucked it off the wall with my own hands. So, I’m certain that it’s the original painting. However, the professors appraised the painting Bonnie brought over and found nothing wrong with it, either. ‘Where did it go wrong, exactly?’
She was in the middle of her thought when she heard a sarcastic voice from behind her.
“I knew it. You stole the painting.”
It was a familiar voice, too. Her entire body trembled at it. She gave herself a second to relax before she turned her neck stiffly.
The moment she saw Bonnie, she was shocked beyond words. It was all she could do to prevent herself from stumbling onto the ground.
“Y-You… W-What are you doing here?”
