If Gao Jianfei fails to complete his large-scale work, he will be directly disqualified; even if he does complete it, it is hard to say whether a large-scale work is worth as much as several wood carvings!
Therefore, even before Gao Jianfei started "operating," just by choosing the wood and tools, it seemed that he had already lost 60% of the battle!
Feng Haoyu selected his tools and wood, but instead of going into the shed, he sat openly on a chair, ready to begin carving. He was surprised to see Gao Jianfei's actions… “No way? Is Gao Jianfei an idiot? What is he trying to do? With only a few hours left in the competition, it's clear that making small wood carvings is the only feasible option. He actually brought so many materials and tools into the shed… Could it be? Could he be a complete novice in carpentry?”
The audience erupted in discussion. It was clear to them that Gao Jianfei's situation was turning sour.
"Hmph! Even if you can hastily make a large wooden craft, how can it compare to the value of my exquisite wood carving? Idiot!" Feng Haoyu ignored Gao Jianfei and began carving on the spot in front of everyone!
Last night, Feng Haoyu received a small knife, which inspired his knife skills. Now, his wood carving technique is approaching the level of a top-notch carpenter! He wielded the knife with incredible speed; an ordinary carving knife in his hand moved like a nimble snake, flying up and down!
Gao Jianfei, on the other hand, closed the shed and buried himself in his work, oblivious to everything else.
In fact, Gao Jianfei had already learned wood carving when he studied disguise techniques with Su Rongrong. However, this time, he really didn't intend to do wood carving. After all, the wood carving he learned from Su Rongrong could only carve human faces and heads, not flowers, plants, landscapes, or historical sites, which was too monotonous and left Gao Jianfei with no chance of winning. This time, Gao Jianfei would use the carpentry skills he learned from Feng Asan, one of the Eight Friends of Hangu Pass, to counter the wood carvings of Feng Haoyu.
Gao Jianfei was hiding in the shed, so naturally no one paid attention to him.
Now, everyone's eyes are focused on Feng Haoyu!
Feng Haoyu wielded his knife with lightning speed, and the wooden block in his hand flew up with wood chips, quickly revealing the outline of a figure!
"Wow! Wow, what amazing knife skills! So skillful!" On the judges' panel, the chief judge, Lu Darui, gasped in astonishment!
The judges exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. "Tsk tsk, this Feng Haoyu truly lives up to his reputation as a world-renowned genius. Look at his wood carving skills; they're absolutely top-notch, internationally!"
The entire audience watched intently through close-up shots on the large screen as Feng Haoyu's hands moved, seeing how a piece of wood was transformed into a handmade product!
The audience couldn't decipher the secret at all; they only felt that Feng Haoyu's slashes, seemingly random yet perfectly fluid and graceful, possessed a remarkable charm! No one could predict the trajectory of Feng Haoyu's next strike, because his knife skills were utterly unpredictable and elusive!
Viewers at home were stunned! Initially, seeing the two studios, everyone assumed Gao Jianfei and Feng Haoyu would hide away to finish their work. Besides, wouldn't the wood carving process be incredibly tedious? There was nothing interesting to watch; they only needed to see the final result. So, everyone was ready to change the channel. However, Feng Haoyu, with effortless grace, faced the audience and the cameras, and his masterful carving skills immediately captivated everyone!
Watching the wind and rain sculpt the landscape is not boring at all! On the contrary, it's quite beautiful!
About an hour later, Feng Haoyu had sculpted a Guan Yu statue using 512 strokes. He looked at the statue with great satisfaction, a smile playing on his lips… “Hehe, I estimate that this Guan Yu statue, if auctioned, would fetch at least 500,000 RMB. The lines, the contours, the expression, the spirit… it’s simply beyond the capabilities of ordinary carpenters and sculptors!”
"Wind and Rain, you've already completed your first wood carving! Such fast technique!" exclaimed Chief Judge Lu Darui. "So skilled!"
The camera immediately gave a close-up of the Guan Gong statue in Feng Haoyu's hand!
The host, Song Ying, walked over to Feng Haoyu and began to introduce him, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Feng Haoyu has completed his first wood carving. It took him one hour and five minutes! As you can see on the television screen, it's a Guan Gong statue, about 10 centimeters long..."
Looking at the Guan Gong statue, Song Ying couldn't help but admire it... Indeed, Feng Haoyu's woodworking skills were superb! Therefore, she also began to worry about Gao Jianfei.
I tilted my head slightly and looked at Gao Jianfei's shed... completely silent! I wonder what Gao Jianfei is doing!
"What is Jianfei doing?" She didn't dare go into the shed to see, and could only see Feng Haoyu's work. She was really worried about Gao Jianfei!
Feng Haoyu smiled slightly, "Host, please let the judges take a look at my first piece and give it an estimate!"
Song Ying hesitated for a moment, then looked back at the judges' panel.
Nalu Darui nodded repeatedly, "Please bring it over so we can have a good look at it!" After witnessing Feng Haoyu's knife skills, the judges were completely shocked! They couldn't see it clearly on the TV screen, but now the entire judging panel wanted to personally hold Feng Haoyu's work in their hands to appreciate and play with it.
Holding Feng Haoyu's Guan Gong statue, Song Ying walked over nervously. When she held the statue, she felt its smooth and even surface, as if it had been polished by some professional machine! She was amazed by Feng Haoyu's craftsmanship.
Lu Darui snatched the Guan Gong statue from Song Ying's hands and examined it intently. The other judges also crowded around.
"Wow, the lines are so full and natural! Look at the lines on the profile and chin, they look like they were made with three strokes, but it was actually done with just one! It's truly amazing knife work!"
"Yes! The simple carving techniques have breathed life into this wood carving! My goodness! It's so lifelike!"
"Furthermore, the feel of this piece is so smooth and even, as if it has been waxed. What superb carving skills and keen eyesight that must be required! Perfect! This work is truly a pinnacle of wood carving!"
...
The judges gave this work extremely high praise! They lauded it highly!
This scene was broadcast live to every viewer in the world. Viewers, whether they understood it or not, echoed the judges, smacking their lips... "Excellent! Excellent! Truly amazing! This is the pinnacle of carpentry! Unsurpassable! It seems Gao Jianfei has truly lost to Feng Haoyu in this match."
The audience members who supported Feng Haoyu stood up, applauded, and cheered; while those who supported Gao Jianfei were saddened and remained silent with their heads down.
Song Ying was very unhappy. She directly addressed the audience, "Dear audience members, please be quiet. There are still several hours until 5 pm. The competition is not over yet. Please be quiet!"
Feng Haoyu smirked and called out to the judges, "Judges, what do you think of my work? How much would you value it?"
The chief judge, Lu Darui, held up five fingers. "This work, conservatively speaking, is at least five..." He paused, then smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, contestant Feng Haoyu, the competition isn't over yet, so I can't reveal that much."
Lu Darui pulled back from the brink, forcing himself to swallow the number he was about to blurt out.
However, the five fingers he held up indicated... 500,000? 5 million?
In short, this wood carving won't be cheap!
The audience at the scene, as well as those watching on television, were all filled with awe. In the midst of wind and rain, a single hour of carving, and a single piece sold, was equivalent to a lifetime's income for an average laborer!
Giant!
Feng Haoyu laughed and glanced at Gao Jianfei's shed. It was quiet and serene; he couldn't tell what Gao Jianfei was up to.
However, it's only 10:30 a.m. now, and there are still several hours until the end of the match!
Feng Haoyu picked up another piece of wood and began carving it with a carving knife.
Everyone had already decided that Feng Haoyu had won the first game!
Assuming an average of one and a half hours to carve one piece, Feng Haoyu could complete at least several pieces before the competition ended! The total price...
Despite the wind and rain, he remained calm. Although he felt confident of victory, he didn't stop after carving just one piece. His second piece was of Liu Bei. By the time he finished his third piece, Zhang Fei, it was lunchtime.
Feng Haoyu walked to the outside of Gao Jianfei's shed with a smile and said with a laugh, "Gao Jianfei, I've finished three pieces... Now, I'm going to have lunch, hahaha! You can have fun!"
Feng Haoyu and many judges dined at the restaurant inside the stadium. Song Ying was concerned about Gao Jianfei, but due to her status, she didn't dare to go directly into the tent to find him.
The audience members left the venue in an orderly manner to go outside for dinner.
It wasn't until Feng Haoyu and the others finished eating, and basically all the spectators had finished eating and returned to the stadium, that Gao Jianfei rushed out of the tent looking quite disheveled. His clothes and hair were covered in sawdust.
As a result, the judges couldn't help but chuckle! Gao Jianfei's demeanor at this moment was nothing like Feng Haoyu's calm and composed demeanor.
"Ah, it seems Gao Jianfei is indeed no match for Feng Haoyu when it comes to carpentry." All the judges secretly concluded.
In the stands, the spectators who supported Feng Haoyu even booed Gao Jianfei!
Feng Haoyu was carving his fourth piece. He glanced at Gao Jianfei and then said sarcastically, "Gao Jianfei, I've already completed three wood carvings, and this is my fourth... Heh, if you admit defeat now, we can end this competition early, and everyone can go home and prepare for the next one!"
"Who said I was going to admit defeat? You've completed three pieces, what does that have to do with me? I'm going to have lunch first!" Gao Jianfei chuckled, rushed to the hotel inside the stadium, got a boxed lunch, and then hurriedly returned to the stadium with the lunch, diving into his tent.
The afternoon was completely dominated by a personal show of wind and torrential rain!
He started at 1 p.m. and finished four more wood carvings by 5 p.m., including figure sculptures, landscapes, and even a small wooden building!
There were seven works in total! Each one was exquisite and full of charm! The judges were stunned and speechless!
It's finally 5 o'clock!
Gao Jianfei hasn't come out of the shed yet!
At the judges' prompting, Song Ying had no choice but to walk over to the other side of the booth and say to Gao Jianfei inside, "Mr.... Gao, the competition time is up. Please present your work!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the curtain was lifted, and Gao Jianfei, his head covered in sawdust, emerged. "Haha! Perfect timing, I just finished! Is the competition time over? Alright! Let's see Mr. Feng's estimated value first!" With that, Gao Jianfei walked over to the judges' table.
On the table were seven exquisitely crafted wooden carvings. Feng Haoyu, arms crossed, looked confidently at the chief judge, Lu Darui. "Alright, judge, what's the total price?"
All members of the judging panel were admiring and handling Feng Haoyu's seven works, their praise overflowing!
A few minutes later, Lu Darui reluctantly turned his gaze from the seven works to Feng Haoyu. "Mr. Feng Haoyu, the total price of your seven works is... 3 million RB! Of course, this is just a conservative estimate from our judging panel."
"Mm." Feng Haoyu nodded.
Everyone in the arena who supported Feng Haoyu, as well as Feng Haoyu's friends in the VIP room, and even the people from the Holy Land, looked at each other and smiled, repeatedly shouting... "We're going to win!"
Meanwhile, in front of the television, some ordinary people were gripping their hair tightly, exclaiming, "Damn! This guy makes more money in a day than we could earn in several lifetimes! 3 million! 3 million!"
"Alright, Gao Jianfei, it's time to see your work." Lu Darui turned to Gao Jianfei and said. His tone was a bit hurried and impatient. The subtext was... "Okay, you can't beat us. We judges have been sitting here all day. Hurry up and bring out your stuff, we'll take a quick look, and then we're done!"
A large number of cameras turned to Gao Jianfei, and all the eyes of the audience were on Gao Jianfei!
"Gao Jianfei, if you had admitted defeat earlier, wouldn't everything have been fine? Now you've been humiliated, and that's your own doing! Hurry up and show us your work!" Feng Haoyu looked at Gao Jianfei with disdain.
Song Ying lowered her head slightly, feeling very sad.
"Um, you there, could you please go into the shed and carry my artwork out? Be careful," Gao Jianfei said to the staff members standing near the shed.
"Yes, Mr. Gao!" Several staff members nodded respectfully and then entered the shed.
The gazes of over 100,000 people shifted from Gao Jianfei's face to the entrance of the tent. The cameras followed.
Soon, two strong and capable staff members carried something out!
"Pfft..." Upon seeing it, Feng Haoyu burst out laughing... "Gao Jianfei, you've been working on this since 9 a.m., and by 5 p.m., this is the clumsy thing you've come up with? Hahahaha!"
"This...this...this is pure nonsense!" The judges shook their heads in disappointment! Utterly disappointed!
The audience at the scene and those watching on television were laughing so hard they almost passed out!
Song Ying was devastated... "Jianfei was really humiliated in front of the whole world! What kind of thing did he make? A Trojan horse?"
Uh... Upon closer inspection, what the two staff members carried out was a wooden animal about one meter long and half a meter high, with four legs and one head.
It looks a bit like a horse and a bit like a cow.
Furthermore, the surface of this thing is quite rough, with many wood grain patterns and bumps, and even some parts have wood veneer hanging off.
Absolutely terrible!
"Uh? Mr. Gao, where should we put this?" Two staff members, barely suppressing their laughter, asked Gao Jianfei.
"Just leave it here." Gao Jianfei nodded.
So, the strange creature was placed beside Gao Jianfei.
Yes, it's one meter long, half a meter high, and has four legs. But thankfully, it's quite stable; when placed on the ground, it's perfectly steady and won't tip over.
"Gao Jianfei, are you trying to humiliate these professional carpentry masters?" Feng Haoyu mocked. "Furthermore, I feel ashamed to compare my carpentry skills with yours. It turns out you don't know how to carpent at all!"
The head judge, Lu Darui, also lost his temper. "Hmph! Mr. Gao, what is this? The workmanship is crude, with absolutely no technical skill involved! It's equivalent to the work of a novice carpenter! You want me to appraise it? If you were to use this as a decoration, it would be absolutely hideous; moreover, it has no practical use whatsoever! Nobody would want it even if it were given away for free! I'm not afraid to offend you, but this is something that nobody would want even if it were given away for free!"
Even if it were given away for free, nobody would want it?
However, Feng Haoyu's work was priced at 3 million.
The outcome was decided in an instant!
Gao Jianfei was like an infant who was killed by a special forces soldier!
The audience erupted in boos.
"Wait!" Gao Jianfei shouted at the judge who was about to leave the stage, "Give me two minutes!"