musicians of old

Chapter 783 "Swing"

"Sorry for the trouble. See you later."

Ruoyi on the other end of the phone responded politely.

Putting down his phone, Fan Ning still leaned on the driver's seat, staring blankly at the street lights ahead.

But half a minute later, he sat up straight, restarted the car, and quickly drove off the ramp from the front.

While waiting for the traffic light, he quickly picked up his phone and booked a suite at a five-star hotel near his home.

Fanning didn’t hesitate to place the order without a reservation and pay a four-digit price.

Then it turned around, got back on the elevated road, and drove rapidly in the opposite direction.

Go home.

My dad is not at home, so I have to go and receive this important long-term cooperative client myself.

Fan Ning's own home is also in the suburbs, which is a small duplex villa. Since Fan Chenxun requires a larger area for the studio, and considering the cost-effectiveness and convenience, it is difficult to live in a house of choice in the city center. A small duplex villa with fine decoration in a farther location like this one is much more expensive than those "river view houses" and "school district houses" in the city center.

However, this suburb is in completely different directions from the suburban rental house where I work.

I can only get up earlier for my commute tomorrow.

"If the situation is good, I can earn at least a year or two of income from carrying bricks. I have to go."

Fanning, holding the steering wheel, smiled self-deprecatingly.

After the call, his mental state was more or less back on track.

Miss Zoe's full name is Zoe von Esterhazy. She comes from a declining noble family in Salzburg, Austria. She should also have some Germanic blood. Well, it's "declined".
Fan Ning remembered that Fan Chenxun said that her family had provided art investment and restoration services to the Habsburg dynasty for a hundred years since the 18th century. Her father, Carl von Esterhazy, was Fan Chenxun's most important client and appreciator. He was a senior curator in Vienna and an internationally recognized expert in Baroque painting restoration.

Their family has many branches and covers a wide range of businesses. The "Esterhazy Gallery" specializes in oil painting investment and transactions in the European market.

Since it is an "investment" and the goal is to seek appreciation and profit, then private channels, which generally have relatively low purchase prices, are naturally an important component.

Esterhazy has been working with Fan Chenxun for more than ten years, and he would make a special trip to the East at the end of every year.

Fan Ning also got to know Ruoyi because of this.

The two of them have had some communication and followed each other on Instagram, but Fanning's account is rarely used and is basically a zombie account. As for the frequency of meeting in real life, it is less than once a year because the matter is mainly between the two adults and Fanning does not always go.

I remember that every time Esterhazy's team came, they would usually stay in the country for ten days or half a month - it seems that the time is not short, but they not only go to one city to purchase paintings or attend events, and they not only have Fan Chenxun as a partner. The actual schedule is still very tight.

This is also the reason why Fanning, as the "Party B", must try his best to accommodate the other party's schedule. They may leave tomorrow afternoon or evening, and at most stay until the day after tomorrow.

Time passes quickly in memories.

Fan Ning's car drove into a duplex villa area that was very quiet late at night. After turning a few corners, the car lights shone on Miss Ruoyi, who was wearing a light red long windbreaker and carrying an apricot shoulder bag, at the gate of her small courtyard.

The other party turned his head when he heard the noise, his black hair and corset fluttering in the night wind. Fan Ning quickly rolled down the window to greet him politely, and at the same time pressed the electronic key to open the iron gate of the courtyard.

The car stopped in the yard almost at the same time as she approached the door.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting." Fanning slammed the car door.

"It's okay. I just arrived." Ruoyi's voice sounded better than the one on the phone. Her Chinese pronunciation was clearly "foreign guest-like," but it didn't affect her clarity and fluency. "You didn't plan to go home today?"

"Yes, I work and rent a house for the convenience of commuting on weekdays."

"Oh, yes, you are graduating this year. What kind of job?"

"Drug development, in the field of organic chemistry."

"Sounds cool."

"It's actually a 'labor-intensive' industry." Fanning smiled, his gaze lingering briefly in the other person's blue eyes, without complaining too much.

While the two of them were chatting casually, he lowered his head to look for his house key. As he was searching, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

"You came here alone!?" Fan Ning looked around in surprise.

When he first rolled down the window to see her, he only thought that the girl seemed thinner than the last time he saw her, but he didn't react at all. There was no one next to her, she was alone.

Ruoyi said "hmm".

I didn't mention it on the phone just now. I thought it was the default context.
Fanning felt puzzled, but the other party did not take the initiative to explain why Mr. Esterhazy did not come, and he felt that it would be a bit presumptuous to ask about it immediately.

"Where did you put your luggage? I'll help you carry it."

"No."

".Well?"

"This is it." Ruoyi moved the apricot-colored small bag to the other shoulder.

Fan Ning was completely confused. Going on such a long journey, and staying there for a while, visiting some cities, was he going out alone?
Even if you are a "easy-going" guy, you still have to carry a suitcase.
But it was definitely not appropriate to stand at the door and talk like this, so Fan Ning opened the door without much delay.

"You don't need to change your shoes, and your house is pretty messy."

As soon as Fan Ning finished speaking, he saw that Ruoyi had taken off her little leather boots and put them on the shoe rack outside. He had no choice but to tiptoe and fumble around in the grid high in the entrance, and temporarily took out a pair of new slippers and placed them in front of her.

Then he moved with big strides, turned on a few lights, changed the water, made tea, and put back in place a few things that seemed a bit in the way.

"Have you eaten?"

"Not hungry."

"Should I take you there first?"

"Okay."

The duplex villa has two floors and a basement. After walking up a half-moon-shaped staircase, Fanning pulled the door handle and pushed it open.

"hiss"

He just squatted down and covered his face.

The few meters square at the basement door was relatively dark. When he pushed it open, Fan Ning felt that his eyes were almost blinded by a sudden burst of bright light!
After closing my eyes, I could still see large patches of purple "ecchymoses" pulsating in the darkness.

What's going on? Did you forget to turn off the lights when you went out last time? But this shouldn't happen.
This is almost like a high-power fluorescent lamp directly hitting the face
"What's wrong with you?" Ruoyi's voice sounded a little confused.

Fanning heard a click, and she must have pressed the switch on the wall next to her.

After shaking his head a few times and then standing up and opening his eyes, Fan Ning saw that the basement was now lit with normal and bright fluorescent lights.

So the lights should have been off just now, right?

what happened
"I'm sorry to call you back so late. Didn't you get enough rest?" Ruoyi said.

"No, I just suddenly feel a little dizzy, it's okay." Fan Ning waved his hand and led her around the several partitioned rooms in the basement.

Finally the two stopped in front of a wall.

Fan Chenxun's oil painting from the "Swing" series.

“This year’s new works in the ‘Swing’ series are all great, more interesting than previous years.” Ruoyi praised sincerely.

She first stood far away from one of the large paintings, then moved closer, holding her phone with the flash on, to examine the details.

The 90x140 cm oil on canvas, with some deliberately "dirty and mottled" strokes, outlines the edge of a cliff, where four people sit. Behind them, a black rope hangs from the invisible canvas, hanging a lonely swing.

The subject of this painting should be described as "landscape" rather than "people", because the composition is very wide and far away, the swing is shown in a larger perspective, while the people are very small, and with only a few strokes, even their gender characteristics are difficult to distinguish.

What is even more eye-catching is the other third of the corner of the cloth in the distance opposite the cliff.
The painter used a large amount of deep red thick paint, supplemented by a small amount of brown, black, yellow and brown blocks, to depict a large, crowded, indistinguishable mass of things that seemed to have only unknown emotions!