Living The Art Agony Chapter 7

Torry was absent from work for two days, and when he returned to his workstation, he found that he had never loved his work so much. He usually had good relationships with the opposite s3x, but today, those female colleagues who regarded him as their male best friend suddenly became as passionate about their work as he was, and no longer sent him WeChat messages to complain about celebrities' hairstyles and their boss's nerves while working.

It seems that his identity as a suspect in the murder and dismemberment case has been widely recognized within the company.

Director Liu Qingde, the only possible leaker of this matter, changed his previous leadership style and not only ignored Torry, but even kept his distance from him. Torry laughed at himself, but it was rare for him to be quiet.

The overseas marketing department is very busy during this period - yes, although it is also busy at other times. For example, Liu Qingde has been receiving calls constantly recently, calling everyone, and he is becoming more and more mysterious.

He considered himself a business genius and a master negotiator, and he enjoyed the feeling of being able to talk to anyone on the phone. On the surface, he was the director of the overseas marketing department of Zhongyi Company, but secretly he and the vice president of Zhongyi who had just been in charge of the department opened a company privately, doing the same business as Zhongyi. The rich resources of Zhongyi, a state-owned enterprise platform, were moved under the roof of these two diligent porters.

The deputy general manager in charge is named Zhou Tang, who was previously in charge of the administration and human resources department. Half a year ago, the former deputy general manager of the overseas marketing department, Mr. Gu, was promoted to general manager, and this deputy general manager Zhou also took over the overseas marketing department. Interestingly, he and Liu Qingde's activities started a year and a half ago. While the two secretly transferred the company's painters, contracted works and overseas buyers to their own company, they used Zhongyi's subordinates to let them develop new painter resources or translate their own company's contracts. When the employees of Zhongyi saw that the names and works of the contracting parties were hidden, those with normal brains knew what was going on, but the two were still having fun. I don't know if they really think that others are fools, or they turn a blind eye to the fact that they are fools. Or, they firmly believe that I am a fool and I am afraid of no one, and fools have their own blessings?

Torry was the first one to discover their affair, but based on the principle of "what's your business to me, what's my business to you", he still went to work obediently every day, kept his head down, and accepted everything, as long as Liu Qingde didn't prevent him from playing chess, calligraphy and painting, spending money on wine and women, eating, singing, and going to bars to take a bath after get off work.

Listening to Liu Qingde's barbell-like laughter while holding the phone, Torry thought, this guy must be using the guise of China Arts to get to know people who can make works related to "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing", or contacting famous calligraphers and painters who haven't traveled to the West, trying to plan something like "Ten Contemporary Masters Imitating Ni Zan's Works" or something like that. Last week, he had a wild idea and ordered Torry to explore the European market led by Italy, Spain, and France, as well as the North American market, hoping to use the popularity of these works in China to hype them up abroad and make some money for himself.

The masterpiece "Fishing Village in Autumn" by Ni Zan, a famous Yuan Dynasty landscape painter and one of the four Yuan masters, will soon follow the footsteps of "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" and come to the Qiantan Provincial Museum for exhibition. The latter has been on display for more than a month and is about to be withdrawn, so the two are seamlessly connected.

Although there is only one famous painting, it can generate endless peripheral products. In the past month, many cultural and creative peripheral products of "Fuchun Mountain Dwelling" have become popular. Liu Qingde and Zhou Tang saw that these products were selling well in China, so they wanted to copy and paste the domestic success all over the world, without even doing market research on how many foreigners can accept Chinese paintings. In Torry's view, this is like forcing a donkey to fall in love with a chicken, and forcing the chicken to give birth to a donkey and accept the donkey aesthetically.

During this period of time, they have contacted many companies that make reproductions of famous paintings. When it comes to calligraphy and painting reproduction, the best one is Japan's Nigensha, but unfortunately they couldn't continue and were acquired by the Chinese. Rongbaozhai's woodblock watermarks are also unique. At the beginning, even Qi Baishi couldn't tell which one was his original and which one was a reproduction when facing two "Ink Shrimp". Other domestic companies that are doing this include Artron, various large companies and small workshops, and these are all the targets that Director Liu is trying to win over.

After all, the director's goal is to break out of Asia and conquer the world. He also believes that foreigners are blind and cannot understand Chinese paintings; they are also stupid and like to be pretentious. So the director has no bottom line and even contacts small workshops, even those who can copy Rembrandt into Van Gogh, are lucky enough to get his call. This reminds people of the socialites who scold others for being blind, low-end and classless, while dating anyone like a blind person to make money.

Unfortunately, replicating ancient paintings is different from making ordinary cultural and creative products. It requires a lot of preparation time and is not something that can be done with a scanner. Although Liu Qingde claims to be a businessman with a strategic vision, this idea that popped up on his mind is destined to not catch up with the popularity of "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing". However, the director has his own foresight and calls this "strategic layout".

On May 8, Su Huan, a good senior whom Torry admired, came to the Provincial Museum with his mentor Hu Qiuzhi to participate in the exhibition preparations for "Autumn Clearing in a Fishing Village".

As a doctoral supervisor of the Provincial Academy of Fine Arts' flower and bird painting specialty, Hu Qiuzhi was invited to join the Provincial Museum's expert group earlier and served as the group leader. Although he specializes in flower and bird painting, Hu Qiuzhi's attainments in the identification and restoration of ancient paintings are well-known throughout the country, so his participation in the professional work of the two landscape paintings, "Fuchun Mountain Dwelling" and "Autumn Clearing in a Fishing Village", is also indispensable. Of course, the expert group leader Hu Qiuzhi also has the right to bring people into the working group to assist in the reception, protection and exhibition of exhibits as his assistant.

This time he was leading Su Huan and a master's student who was just recruited last year.

This first-year graduate student, who just turned 22, is named Fang Qing. She is pure and sweet, with big, bright eyes and fair skin, just like an internet celebrity hiding behind a beauty function. People who first saw Hu Qiuzhi with Su Huan and Fang Qing were attracted by Fang Qing's beauty, thinking that such a girl is a rare flower in a circle dominated by men. But those who know the truth know that Su Huan is the real rare flower - for many years, Professor Hu, the doctoral supervisor, has only supervised three male students, and Su Huan is one of them. In addition, he recruited all girls, and they were good-looking girls.

In terms of quality, Professor Hu is still good, otherwise there wouldn't be so many people who come to him to take the postgraduate exam. But after recruiting idealistic, or simple and a little silly art students for a few years, he finally saw the essence of the problem - they were either of the wrong gender, or looked too freehand or impressionistic. Slowly, the only people who kept trying after repeated failures were girls, and they were beautiful girls. The belief that they persisted was naturally given by Professor Hu, but the price of getting a promise was really ridiculously high.

Compared with other candidates, Fang Qing's biggest advantage is her youthfulness. Hu Qiuzhi promised her in her junior year that "your attitude is not sincere enough and your ability is not outstanding enough, but if you are qualified after my assessment, I will still consider recruiting you."

Professor Hu wanted to keep her for a few years, but Fang Qing got some advice from a hermit and turned the tables, saying that if she failed the first year, she would have to go back home. Professor Hu was unwilling to cut off the young and beautiful student's pursuit of art, so he kicked his legs and recruited her to his rank, leaving another young and beautiful student who had been waiting for several years to take the next position to cry.

It was said that the "Fishing Village in Autumn" was being transported from the airport, and several experts and museum staff chatted with each other. Hu Qiuzhi did some small actions to Fang Qing in front of Su Huan without any hesitation, and Fang Qing did not feel shy at all.

She had a crush on Su Huan for a while, but ever since she and Hu Qiuzhi were k!ssing in the office and Su Huan caught her, she no longer had the face to pursue the senior. Su Huan also knew that his tutor was like that, and his tutor also knew that Su Huan knew that he was like that, so when they met, they would joke about it from time to time, which was really shameless to the extreme. Su Huan still had some dignity, but he knew the principle of serving different dishes to different people. When a person with dignity sees something shameless, he feels embarrassed, not the shameless person; in order to avoid this embarrassment, everyone has to be shameless together.

In fact, Su Huan also participated in several online feminist activities organized by Torry, but the actions of the female students around his mentor really destroyed his worldview. Later, he understood a truth: whether it is a man or a woman, you can't help someone who doesn't want dignity to fight for dignity.

Moreover, he had a vague premonition that Professor Hu's lifestyle would sooner or later bring him into trouble.

As a group of frivolous people waited in a serious manner, the famous "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing" and several other exhibits from the Shanghai Museum were all transported to the Qianqin Provincial Museum. After entering the underground storage room, the Shanghai Museum staff slowly unfolded the scroll of "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing" in front of Hu Qiuzhi. Under the warm yellow light, this supreme masterpiece, which is known for its desolate and remoteness, unexpectedly looked magnificent.

Su Huan's nose suddenly felt sore, his pupils were misty, and his heartbeat, which had been heavy and rapid while he was waiting, gradually eased. This feeling was like going to the temple to worship with trepidation, until he knelt at the feet of the god, and then he realized that the god he had admired since childhood was more human than a human.

There were endless voices of admiration from all around, only Hu Qiuzhi stared at the painting for a long time without saying a word. Everyone was not surprised. After all, although they could not read the professor's mind, they knew that people who had seen the world would never speak when others were speaking.

I don't know how long it was before the storeroom keeper who came to watch the fun suddenly said, "Hey, another famous painting. Don't let anyone copy another one with human blood and leave it outside my door!"

This statement successfully attracted everyone's attention, and even Professor Hu, who had seen a lot of things, opened his mouth and asked: "What?"

"They didn't tell you, did they? Not long ago, a pervert used blood to paint a realistic Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. Later, I heard that the blood was actually human blood. Oh, it was really disgusting. It was disgusting." The old man saw that he had successfully added drama, and instantly he was like a chicken blood injection, "At that time, the real Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains was on display upstairs!"

Hu Qiuzhi was horrified after hearing this: "Who was the dead one?"

"I heard it's Grace, the female star who's been making a lot of noise in the newspapers recently!"

"Okay, okay, stop spreading rumors in front of Professor Hu and do what you should do!" Director Jin of the museum immediately stopped the old man.

("Autumn Clearing in a Fishing Village", Yuan Dynasty, Ni Zan, height 96cm, width 47cm)

Hu Qiuzhi's face looked very ugly, red and white. His smile was forced and stiff, and the wrinkles on his face were like the failed latte art. For some reason, his heart seemed to be seized by some uncontrollable force, even though the death incident the old man talked about had nothing to do with him.

He stared straight at the "Autumn Clearing at a Fishing Village" in front of him, and felt that the huge blank space left by Ni Zan in this painting was filled with countless troubles and misfortunes.