Living The Art Agony Chapter 8

On May 15, the "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing" exhibition was held as scheduled. There is no shortage of people who like to watch the excitement in the world. From fights to car accidents, from street stalls to exhibitions, as long as there is something that can be regarded as "exciting", a group of people who originally had no sense of existence will suddenly appear, excitedly calling friends and friends, and fighting with friends and friends for a good position.

Xue Kanglin, former director of the Chinese Painting Department of the Qin Provincial Academy of Fine Arts, squeezed in the crowd and nearly had his glasses squeezed off several times. His fluffy white hair, thinner than cotton candy, revealed the undercurrent of power around him with its high-frequency vibrations. The students he brought with him couldn't stand it anymore and formed a human wall to protect their beloved Professor Xue. These days, it's fine if society tramples intellectuals in the mud, but it's even taking the place of the elderly. It's simply outrageous.

With the help of several guardians, Xue Kanglin finally stood in front of "Fishing Village in Autumn". He adjusted his glasses, squinted his eyes, stretched his neck forward; then he opened his eyes wide, squinted again, stretched his neck backward. After doing a set of cervical spine exercises, Dean Xue took off his glasses with a puzzled look on his face: "Not right."

"What's wrong?" asked a boy with small eyes.

"The atmosphere of this painting is not right, and the paper is dry. Upon closer inspection, the ink color also seems to be problematic."

"I've seen this picture before at the Shanghai Museum, and I didn't think it was any different." said a boy with a small nose.

"You need to read more and improve your cultivation!" Professor Xue was very excited, shaking his reading glasses and said impatiently, "Get out quickly, I want to see the curator."

The director of the Provincial Museum, Jin, sat in his office, accepting an interview with a reporter from Qianqin Daily. On the antique shelf behind him were placed various high-quality replicas of the museum's treasures, and in some strangely shaped partitions, there were several large books on cultural relics. After answering each question, he would pick up the sky-blue porcelain cup on the table and take a sip of Dahongpao, regardless of whether he was really thirsty or not.

Xue Kanglin pushed open the door and rushed to Director Jin as if his feet were covered with but.ter. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly noticed the big microphone stuck in front of Director Jin and his mouth, as well as the camera two meters away. He immediately bit his lower lip and held his breath, as if if he opened his mouth, even the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the other side of the world would know about the scandal of the museum and laugh at their jokes.

"What's wrong, Professor Xue?" Director Jin was puzzled.

Xue Kanglin glanced at the reporter next to him and asked Director Jin: "How long will it take to finish?"

"It will probably take another half an hour." The reporter answered for the curator.

"Don't ask anymore. I have something urgent to tell Director Jin." As soon as Xue Kanglin finished speaking, he felt that the reporter's watery eyes were about to drown him, and he said impatiently, "Then ask another one."

Although Director Jin valued this opportunity to show himself in public, seeing Professor Xue's panic-stricken and terrified look, he really didn't dare to act rashly. He hurriedly sent away the reporters and immediately closed the door.

"I just looked at "Autumn Clearing in a Fishing Village" and I felt that there was something wrong with this painting," Xue Kanglin said straight to the point.

"What do you mean?" Director Jin asked, and immediately figured out what it meant. He first widened his eyes, but soon shouted: "Impossible!"

"Are you exhibiting originals or replicas this time?"

"This kind of exhibition is naturally authentic!"

"Then listen to me carefully. There is something wrong with this painting. It is a fake."

"Impossible! I personally participated in the handover, unless the painting given by the Shanghai Museum is a fake, but is that possible?" Director Jin was obviously unwilling to listen to the expert's words, "How can you conclude that this painting is fake after just one look?"

Xue Kanglin smiled helplessly: "In the early years, I chatted with Mr. Wang Shixiang. I asked him why he could tell the authenticity of antiques at a glance. Do you know what he said? He said that because he had only seen real things since he was a child, he could tell the fake ones were wrong at a glance."

Director Jin looked embarrassed and hesitantly said, "Then...then tell me, what's wrong?"

"There are no problems with the brushwork, it is Ni Zan, but the whole work lacks the air of antiquity. Although the paper is made to look old, it still has a hint of age. And the color of the seals on the lower left and right corners is also problematic, I suspect it is not ink. It could be a woodblock watermark or a higher-end micro-spray!"

"Impossible!" Director Jin didn't know how many times he had said "impossible" today, but he had already begun to feel that it was possible. Xue Kanglin was a national-level calligraphy and painting expert, and he made the problem sound very specific, which made him feel scared.

"Don't be so improbable! It's fine if you can fool ordinary viewers with this painting, but don't let them accuse you of replacing the original with the fake one when you return it to the museum! Go take a look at it yourself, and then decide whether to call them. My suggestion is to check it out quickly to see if there is a problem with your security."

"There will be absolutely no problem with security. Our storage room has three doors. Unless you have explosives, the doors are indestructible. And if someone breaks in, there will be an alarm immediately. Only a few of us have the keys. There are also two external experts who have signed confidentiality agreements and letters of responsibility."

"Don't talk about these useless things for now. Go and arrange to check the surveillance to see who has been in and out of the storage room these days and when." Xue Kanglin loves the painting so much that he is more anxious than losing his grandson. "Also, I suggest you tell the Shanghai Museum directly that someone doubts that this is a fake painting, and ask their experts to come and take a look."

Director Jin first called the head of security and asked him to check the daily surveillance footage of "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing" since it was put into storage, and carefully screen the people who came in and out every time. After hanging up the phone, he hurried to the exhibition hall with Xue Kanglin.

When he squeezed to the front of the exhibit, he didn't notice anything unusual at first glance, but when he took a closer look, his heart skipped a beat. It was obvious that although this painting was exactly the same as the one he received from the experts at the Shanghai Museum, it did have a different aura.

"There must be a problem with security." Not long ago, Director Jin insisted that there was no problem with security, but now he is slapping himself in the face. But it is always better to slap yourself in the face than to be slapped by others, so he quickly canceled several interviews originally scheduled for the evening, so as not to think that he has made a name for himself and then get slapped in the face.

Then, he picked up the phone and called the Shanghai Museum, wanting them to send a few experts familiar with "Fishing Village Autumn Clearing" to Yudong. But as soon as the call was connected, Director Jin felt that this was absolutely impossible. Letting the Shanghai Museum come would only confirm that the painting was fake. Even he himself believed that it was a fake, and notifying the Shanghai Museum at this time would undoubtedly cause trouble for himself. So he hung up the phone again in a hurry.

What to do next?

The audience is easy to deal with, as long as the matter is not leaked. Ordinary audiences only listen to experts, and as long as the experts say it is authentic, they can look at a gorilla's graffiti and praise Picasso for being worthy of being Picasso.

He thought about it and decided that this matter must be discussed with the head of the expert group, Hu Qiuzhi.

Hu Qiuzhi had just finished class when he heard Director Jin on the other end of the phone urgently asking him to come to the director's office of the Provincial Museum without saying why. When he arrived at the office, Xue Kanglin left first due to lack of energy. Director Jin, who was as calm as Venus in front of the media cameras, suddenly turned into Laocoön.

Director Jin was only concerned with his own roar and had no time to appreciate Hu Qiuzhi's expression. But Hu Qiuzhi's expression was very interesting - his eyelids and the corners of his lips were twitching uncontrollably, like a pot of boiling rich tomato beef brisket soup.

"Ah? Really? Impossible!" Hu Qiuzhi was surprised after Director Jin finally finished speaking. But this was not surprising enough, at least the richness of his emotions was much weaker than Director Jin's previous emotions. Director Jin was not satisfied with this, just like an actor competing with an extra, and he particularly disliked the other party's inability to mobilize emotions.

"Really! I didn't believe Xue Kanglin at first, but I went to see it myself! It's real! Oh, no! The story is real, but the painting is fake!"

Hu Qiuzhi was finally infected by Director Jin's emotions. Before he even went to see the exhibits, he started to get anxious and said, "What should we do? That's a national treasure!"

After these words were spoken, the two were speechless at the same time. This question poured their small boiling pot into the boundless Arctic Ocean, and it cooled down instantly.

Just then, the chief security officer called.

"Hello, Director! We have roughly screened the videos at the entrance and inside of the storage room as you instructed. There are many people coming in and out, but there is one video that is the most suspicious. On the night of the 11th, a masked man opened the three doors of the storage room with a key. After entering the storage room, he went directly to the safe where "Autumn Clearing in Fishing Village" was stored, entered the password and opened the safe, and then replaced the exhibits inside with the items he brought. We can basically confirm that the original work was taken away at that time." The security chief added, "Oh, by the way, the time was about 2 a.m., which was actually the 12th, the day of the exhibition."

"dmn it, there really is a thief!" Director Jin cursed for a while, and suddenly realized the problem in the security chief's words, "No! How could the thief have the key, know the exact location of the painting, and know the password of the safe! Is there really a traitor?" After saying this, he looked into Hu Qiuzhi's eyes uneasily, as if his heart was so heavy that he couldn't bear it and needed Hu Qiuzhi's help.

Hu Qiuzhi's heart was beating faster and faster. Like the curator, sweat was dripping from his forehead. In the huge office, the two of them were like fish shadows reflected on cobblestones under the scorching sun, jumping here and there, but they just couldn't calm down.

I don’t know how long it took, but the two senior intellectuals finally remembered what their kindergarten teacher had taught them - to call the police.

Liam was devastated. Under his leadership, the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Yudong Public Security Bureau had solved numerous major cases, but now it was stuck in Grace's case. The matter was not over yet, but he heard that a painting was lost in the Provincial Museum. As a straight man who didn't understand art, his first reaction was, why should he be asked to deal with a lost painting? However, the words of the Provincial Museum's security chief seemed to throw a ball of fire into his pile of paper money that could not be lit.

"What?!"

"Yes, we think the person who stole the painting this time has a similar figure to the last bloodletting painting. Although the person in the previous video was wearing loose clothes, his height and body shape are very similar to the person who stole the painting this time."

"Wait a minute, prepare the surveillance video, we'll be there soon!"

Liam called Torry and went out with three other police officers. He kept honking the horn and nearly hit other vehicles twice.

He had been living in extreme pain these days, and he had no appetite and his face had become much thinner. Although he had solved many murder cases before, they were all "routine" cases. Most of the suspects were ordinary characters, and some even killed people accidentally because of quarrels. After the crime, they were so panicked that they didn't even know how to clean up the scene and just ran away. After solving so many cases like this, his self-confidence was also shaped to be particularly strong. Of course, the stronger the self-confidence, the stronger the self-esteem. The appearance of the "great painter" almost smashed his self-esteem. While he was thinking, he was also waiting, waiting for the "great painter" to throw out new clues, although this made him feel particularly cheap.

His chance has come, he thought. As he thought of this, he arrived at the Provincial Museum.

Director Jin and a group of people stood at the back door to greet him. Liam didn't want to greet them. He just reached out his hand and touched Director Jin's hand lightly before letting go and heading straight to the monitoring room.

The head of the security department had already adjusted the surveillance video to be ready for playback. When he saw the police, he immediately told them that the incident happened at 2 a.m. on the 12th. Liam nodded and asked him to play the video. After waiting for two or three seconds, a tall masked man entered the screen.

"Max!" Liam was so excited that his voice almost broke. "Stop! Stop, stop, stop!" He turned around and happened to catch Zhang Lei, the head of the Trace Inspection Section. "Does it look like him?!"

Zhang Lei stared at the screen and nodded slowly: "It looks like them. It looks like them too much."

"I let this guy slip away in the green belt last time, but I didn't expect to run into him here. It's true that enemies often meet on a narrow road!" Liam took a deep breath. "Assuming that he was the one who drew the blood last time, then we didn't recognize him because the cleaner's clothes he wore were fluffy. In the last murder video, he also deliberately wore loose clothes. If you don't think about it, it's hard to think of Max. But this time is different. The sportswear this kid is wearing is exactly the same as the one we filmed Max wearing before. I would recognize this ba5tard even if he turned into ashes!"

"Then why didn't you recognize him when he changed into work clothes?" Noel couldn't help but complain.

Liam was embarrassed and was about to rescue himself when he saw Torry trotting in. Captain Lu felt that Torry was his savior, always standing up at critical moments. So he stood up, grabbed his savior's hand, looked at Torry with the affectionate eyes of the people in the liberated areas to the Eighth Route Army soldiers, and talked about who Max was, what he had done, and how he successfully escaped from prison. Although Torry didn't even have time to watch the video of the person who stole the painting, he didn't dare to suppress the nagging nature of the criminal investigation captain.

"And the most important thing is that this guy escaped from prison just five days before Grace was murdered!" Liam said excitedly, "Why didn't I connect these two events together at the beginning? I even pushed the prison break to other departments to handle it."

"Wait a minute." Torry didn't want to suppress his instinct, "But according to what you said, this guy is just a social scoundrel with a junior high school education. How can he draw such a high-level painting?"

Hearing this, Liam felt as if he had eaten a golden fly, and silently felt how disgusting it was in shock.

"Could he have an accomplice?" Noel pushed his glasses. "Torry had raised this conjecture at the previous case analysis meeting. I have always felt that the possibility of this being done by the same person is very small. Even if those who have been painting for many years are not all weak scholars, at least their physical fitness is unlikely to be as good as the murderer. Could it be that one person is responsible for killing and running errands, and one person is responsible for painting and playing tricks? Now this case is about the theft of a famous painting. I even wonder if there are any big bosses or interest groups behind them?"

After this was said, everyone fell silent. If there really was any interest group, then the enemy would be even more difficult to deal with. But Torry thought, if it was a certain interest group that wanted to steal the national treasure for profit, then what was the meaning of their killing Grace before? And they did it with such a sense of ritual? This idea was still immature, so he chose to keep silent with everyone else.

"By the way, you haven't watched the video yet." Liam hurriedly pulled Torry in front of the screen and showed it to him personally.

Indeed, judging from the height, this suspect should be about the same height as the murderer who killed Grace. It is also conceivable that the murderer wrapped in a cleaner's uniform should have this figure when wearing sportswear. In the previous video, the suspect wrapped his entire head tightly. But this time he didn't, he only wore a mask, so his hairstyle and head shape were clearly visible at a glance, no wonder Liam recognized him at a glance.

Could it be that they are two people with similar body shapes?

Yudong is a southern city, and there aren't many tall people among the older generation. But living conditions have improved since then, and now there are many people in their twenties who are 1.8 meters tall. As for their figures, these two people -- if they are really two people -- are neither fat nor thin, and have no outstanding features. Since the first suspect wrapped himself up very tightly, it is difficult to hastily identify the two people as the same. Torry supported his head with both hands and sighed.

The police took a statement, copied the surveillance video, and returned it all to the police station.

Torry was naturally called in. He had no place to appeal for justice. Before he had the chance to appreciate the original painting of "Autumn Clearing at a Fishing Village" this incident happened, and he was involved in it.

The whole night, everyone was watching videos and drawing on the whiteboard. Since they had begun to seriously analyze the case, Torry expressed his doubts. The more he spoke, the more he felt that Max and the "great painter" were not the same person, and they were not even related. His point of view was quickly recognized by many people. However, after studying for a long time, everyone did not make any breakthroughs, and looked at Liam, hoping that the captain would make a decision.

"Concentrate our strength and capture Max!" Liam said.