When Yu Mian announced this solution as an official response, it undoubtedly caused an uproar on the star network, raising the level of attention on the news even higher.
Teacher Fish Soup Noodles was actually going to write a fairy tale for this magical girl from the painting!?
It was both wonderful and somewhat unbelievable.
This immediately made everyone extremely excited and eager to see what kind of story it would be.
The most crucial point was that the furry fans who had been obsessively following Teacher Fish Soup Noodles were always arguing over what Yu Mian would write about next. Recently, their rivalries had almost led to physical fights.
However, when they saw that the new story was going to be a fairy tale for the soft and delicate girl from the Freckton Gallery painting, they all calmed down.
After all, what was there to compete for with the little girl? Showing a bit of humility was the right thing to do!
In a way, Yu Mian’s decision accidentally avoided a massive conflict among the furry fans.
As for the Freckton Gallery, they had no objections to this outcome. After all, the release of a new short story by Teacher Fish Soup Noodles would undoubtedly bring tremendous attention and traffic to the gallery.
“Really?”
Upon hearing the news, Belle widened her eyes in rare surprise.
Whenever she heard the mysterious name of Teacher Fish Soup Noodles, Belle would immediately think of the beloved characters created by Yu Mian; Gu Bai and Caesar, Su Yan and Dreven…
Because of this, she instinctively believed in her heart that Yu Mian could never be a bad person.
“Of course. Moreover, you are a rare and special race. You can actually apply for federation subsidies and get the necessary documentation. There’s no need to keep hiding in the painting for fear of being discovered.”
Over the past few days, the staff at the Freckton Gallery had gradually become more familiar with Belle, this mysterious girl from the painting.
They couldn’t help but offer her advice for her future life. However, Belle remained somewhat silent on the matter.
Meanwhile, after reading through all the news reports and the research findings provided by Lu Wei during his interview, Yu Mian almost effortlessly completed the short fairy tale.
After finishing it in one night, he submitted it to the “Interstellar Youth” magazine.
“We actually got the manuscript!”
Editor-in-chief Daphne excitedly accepted the submission.
Although it seemed that “Interstellar Youth” became the lucky recipient of this submission solely because of the news surrounding the mysterious girl from the painting at Freckton Gallery, wasn’t it still a major gain?
“But isn’t this a bit eerie and scary? After all, many netizens have expressed fear about the news of the girl from the painting. Is this really suitable for children to read?”
Some members of the editorial department were immediately concerned upon learning that the story’s inspiration came from the girl in the painting.
However, as everyone in the editorial department began reading the story “Fallen Morning Star”, their initial worries and doubts were quickly forgotten.
The story carried Teacher Fish Soup Noodles’ signature style. From the very first sentence, it captured the readers’ attention.
[[At the silent break of dawn, in an old, empty and desolate cobweb covered gallery by the sea, a girl dressed in an antique gown lifted her head and gazed at the sky beyond the window.
And on this particular dawn, Isabel experienced her 216,830th day since her birth.]]
“Ah! She’s seen 216,830 dawns? If there are 365 days in a year, doesn’t that mean she’s lived for more than six hundred years?!”
When this issue of “Interstellar Youth” was officially released, Teacher Mu had already ensured that every child in the class had a copy.
As the little ones eagerly turned the pages, countless exclamations filled the classroom upon reading the first paragraph.
“And the protagonist this time is a girl!”
The girls in the class cheered in delight, and in the next moment, they were completely absorbed in the story.
[[But this 216,830th silent dawn brought something different for the first time.
Because a star fell from the sky.
“…A shooting star?”
At that moment, Isabel, who was leaning against the windowsill, stood on tiptoe and peered out, trying to catch a glimpse of the star’s trajectory.
But the star falling from the sky wasn’t just a meteorite…it was a star girl named Nemo!]]
With this opening, the plot officially began.
[[Isabel, who had been frail and sickly since birth, was once the beloved daughter of a pair of renowned painters on the ancient Federation Star.
When their critically ill daughter’s life hung by a thread, the painter couple sought out a mysterious sorcerer and expressed their willingness to pay any price to save her.
So after taking the couple’s artistic talent, the sorcerer turned Isabel into a girl who could live within a painting.
As long as she continued to receive people’s attention and praise, she could remain youthful and live forever.
The painter couple took the painting of their daughter and used their previous works to open an art gallery.
Gradually people came to know that this gallery had a very beautiful painting of a girl, but unfortunately it was never for sale.
Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. After her parents passed away, Isabel in the painting remained forever frozen at the age of fourteen.
Everything around her changed with the passing years. The gallery fell into ruin and was gradually forgotten, becoming nothing more than a relic of the past.
Isabel stayed by her frame, her body growing weaker by the day due to the lack of visitors to admire her painting.]]
“What will happen to Isabel? Will she die?”
“That’s so sad… If I praise her now, will it help?”
Perhaps because the story was told from Isabel’s perspective, the children didn’t find it scary. Instead, they felt a deep sense of sympathy and concern for the girl.
Everything changed when the falling star landed near the gallery, triggering a strange new event.
Because that night, Isabel witnessed a chase.
[[A group of guards was pursuing a girl.
Isabel, who knew she had little time left, saw a little girl her own age getting injured and subconsciously used her mysterious powers to scare away the group of pursuers who had entered the gallery. She then dragged the unconscious girl into safety.
“I’m Nemo, a star,” the girl said after regaining consciousness.
From Nemo’s account, Isabel learned that she was a magical star girl.
Ever since Nemo’s birth, a powerful and mysterious meteorite star had been embedded in her chest.
It was said that anyone who obtained this star could make any wish come true!
But it was also this very star that brought Nemo endless misfortune since birth.]]
“Wow, such a magical stone?”
The young readers were instantly captivated by the magical meteorite star. After all, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could make all your wishes come true?
For example endless toys, or anything else they wanted.
“But why would having such a treasure bring misfortune?”
[[Ever since people discovered Nemo possessed such a magical thing, the star in her chest became the center of a struggle in the universe.
Even Nemo’s adoptive parents tried to trick her into surrendering the meteorite star.
An aging king even offered a bounty, desperate to obtain the star and wish for eternal life.
“But now you can easily take it. After all, you saved me… You could use it to wish for immortality.”
A dying Nemo looked at the glowing star on her chest.
To her surprise, Isabel shook her head. “I don’t need this stone.”
“Then what do you need?”
Nemo subconsciously asked, incredulous.
From birth, everyone around her had coveted the meteorite star. It was only now, when she had finally resigned herself to giving it away, that someone refused.
“If possible, could you praise this painting? I might be disappearing soon, too.”
As Isabel explained, Nemo finally learned the story of how Isabel became a girl within the painting.
It turned out that both she and Isabel had “lost” all their loved ones, and like herself, Isabel was quietly saying goodbye to the world.
However, from that day onward, Nemo became Isabel’s devoted admirer.
At dawn on the first day of each month, Nemo would visit the dilapidated gallery, gazing sincerely at Isabel in the painting and offering genuine praise.
Because of Nemo’s persistent efforts, not only did Isabel regain her hope for life, but Nemo herself also found new motivation through their shared ritual.
Nemo didn’t want Isabel to lose the only friend who still remembered her!]]
“Wow, this is amazing!”
“Isabel and Nemo are both striving to live better lives because they met each other?”
The children, who had been feeling a little sad, were now deeply warmed by this extraordinary friendship.
A star and a girl who watched the stars…became such good friends!
In the story, the bond between the two young girls deepened through this peculiar promise, and they became each other’s most trusted companions.
[[However, people eventually realized that it was impossible to forcibly capture Nemo, who was protected by the star’s power. They started looking for other ways to gain leverage.
Nemo, who had been tracked for some time, was eventually discovered by two thieves who were using an invisibility stone. It was then that they noticed her attachment to the mysterious painting in the gallery.
On an unsuspecting day, the thieves stole Isabel’s painting from the gallery and delivered it to the king’s palace.
The king decided to use the painting to threaten Nemo, demanding the star from her heart so he could wish for eternal life.]]
“Oh no, this king is despicable! He’d go this far just to live forever?”
The entire classroom was on edge as they continued reading, eager to find out what would happen next.
[[However, after locking the painting away in the palace, the old king soon found that the castle began to feel haunted.
The painting the two thieves brought started to change positions on its own, even moving during the night. The gaze of the girl in the painting shifted, leaving the king terrified.
Spooked by Isabel’s deliberate tricks, the old king decided to throw the “ominous painting” into the sea while sailing on a royal voyage.
But as the fleet sailed out at dawn, a familiar star meteorite was cast into the sea.
Suddenly, turbulent waves surged across the sea. Inexplicably, there was a breach in the hull, causing the ship to sink with the king into the depths of the sea.
Isabel, who had mustered courage for the first time escaped from the painting and snuck into the cabin. She drilled a hole in the bottom of the ship and let it sink, even at the cost of losing her frame, rather than let Nemo fall into their hands.
Before being swallowed into the sea, Isabel realized something important. Her centuries-long life as a girl in the painting had made her accustomed to receiving people’s admiration and praise.
But Nemo’s resilience and vitality not only inspired admiration but also made Isabel understand that to truly change one’s fate, one had to rely on their own courage.
As a result, when Isabel, who was ready to die, emerged from the water, she suddenly discovered that she had regained an extremely healthy body and no longer needed to remain in the painting.
She had truly broken free from the frame!
“Belle! Over here!”
The next moment, Nemo, who was sitting in a small boat with bandages around her chest, pulled Isabel out of the water.
It turned out that Nemo had made a courageous decision to let go of the meteorite star that had brought her so much misfortune. With the last of its wishing power, she made the greatest wish of all.
“Did you wish for me to gain courage and leave the painting?”
“No, you broke free from the painting and found your courage on your own.”
The two friends smiled at each other, held hands, and ran away from the scene together.
Behind them, the star that had fallen into the deep sea slowly rose and went up into the sky, forever illuminating a corner of the dawn sky.]]
At the end of the story, the editors included an painting of “Girl Watching the Morning Star” and added a whimsical note:
[Sincerely praise Belle’s painting, and perhaps you too can gain a star’s courage!]
To adults, this kind of interaction at the end of the book might seem a little childish. But for the young readers who had just finished the story, it was a wonderful Easter egg after the ending.
In an instant, countless children in the classroom enthusiastically shouted praises, as if such interaction could truly give them courage, just like Isabel in the story.
And after their heartfelt praises, they turned the page to find another surprise. The editorial team had included a snippet of news about Frekton Gallery, along with Lu Wei’s commentary on Isabel’s unique race.
After reading these interesting little facts, they turned to the next page and found that the magazine had also designed some dress-up cards for Belle in the oil painting frame. Readers could change Belle’s dresses using the stickers!
In fact, this was what Yu Mian proposed to the magazine after he remembered some picture book designs that were very popular among children on Earth.
The editorial team quickly put together a simple set, never expecting the interaction to be so well-received!
“Wow, is there really such a miraculous race? A brave princess who run out from a painting!”
“And Belle’s outfits are so beautiful…”
The interactive content in “Interstellar Youth” had the children completely engrossed.
Moreover, the final exchange between Belle and Nemo left a profound impression on the young readers.
When Yu Mian first wrote this fairy tale, his intention was to craft a story about two young protagonists overcoming the villain, growing together, and changing their destinies.
Ultimately, it was a story about a star and a girl in a painting who watched the stars.
