Almighty painter

Chapter 1031 Non-Action
Yang Dekang is not usually embarrassed; what makes him feel embarrassed is usually an unusual situation.

For example, when Tang Ning opened his gallery, he was invited to participate. He thought opening a gallery was very difficult, so he just laughed it off. But now that he's being asked about it in person, it's a different story.

What's more terrible is——

That happened three years ago.

It was around the time when Lao Yang made up his mind to become Gu Weijing's agent, only to have it ruthlessly thwarted by Anna. Now, Tang Ning herself knows about it.

For example.

This is like a sycophant who greets the goddess three times a day, morning, noon and night, praising her with phrases like "so beautiful," "so great," and "so amazing." He has an unbreakable will and firmly believes that if he doesn't suffer the hardships of being a sycophant, he will suffer the hardships of life. He believes that as long as he licks her hard, there is nothing he can't get.

This went on for several years.

until a certain day.

The goddess finally sent me a message about going out to play.

As luck would have it, at that very moment, the simp discovered his white moonlight, so he sent a message saying "I'm going to take a shower," and then stood up his goddess.

As a result, not only did the white moonlight run off with the rich and handsome prince riding a white horse with wheels, but the goddess also found out about it and came knocking on her door.

What's worse, the goddess never really liked his white moonlight.

That would make the situation doubly awkward.

"Back then, back then..." Old Yang stammered, trying to find the right words.

"No need to explain, what's done is done."

Tang Ning interrupted Yang Dekang again, saying that dwelling on the past was pointless; she simply didn't understand what this greasy middle-aged man was thinking.

"I understand you."

The woman said, "I can roughly guess why you rejected me and instead wanted to become Gu Weijing's agent. You weren't very optimistic about my future after separating from CDX. You wanted to take a big gamble and see if you could get a piece of the pie from Gu Weijing's contract. He's a newcomer to the industry and will need your help a lot, so normally the contract would be very generous."

"Win-win".

"That's all you're thinking about. For an agent, there's no more profitable deal than 'bringing' a top painter to the top of the market."

"Well, it's not that simple. At the time, I..." Yang Dekang tried to gloss over the situation.

"Okay, stop explaining. I don't want to hear your explanation. I'm not blaming you."

Tang Ning said it bluntly.

Old Yang isn't oily anymore.

“What I don’t understand is why you made this choice today?” she asked.

Tang Ning's gallery hasn't opened yet, Yang Dekang said "No".

Tang Ning's gallery opened, but Yang Dekang was still saying "No." So, her gallery was completely wasted!

She went to great lengths to analyze the current situation for Yang Dekang and then extended an olive branch to him.

However, Tang Ning could still sense the other party's evasiveness in their words.

How dare they refuse!

Tang Ning didn't necessarily need Yang Dekang; he might not be that important in her gallery's development plan. But Tang Ning didn't accept this answer, and she especially disliked feeling inferior to others in this kind of "value comparison."

Why do people always prefer Gu Weijing?
Being a simp isn't important; once it's gone, it's gone.

But if your own simp stops fawning over you and goes on to fawn over someone who is petty and fragile in the eyes of your goddess, then that's the simp's fault.

Even a simp should have his own professional ethics, and at the very least, he should have some basic aesthetic sense.

You can't flatter everyone.

What kind of taste is that?!

"There's no need to bring up the past. The fact that Gu Weijing's works can sell for this price today doesn't mean you're wrong. Your only mistake was meeting Anna Elena, which is why you lost without any ability to resist or any room for struggle."

Tang Ning patiently and persuasively explained.

"But now, the situation is different."

"Gu Weijing's value has risen, he has begun to be sought after by the market, and he has achieved some sales success. A good agent is of completely different significance to Picasso in 1926 and Picasso in 1946. Now Gu Weijing is not lacking in agent options."

"Even if he breaks up with Miss Elena, there are plenty of professional management teams that want to work with him. You can certainly go and become his agent, but you won't get the kind of contract you want."

"It could turn from a win-win situation into a lose-lose situation."

"One cannot cling to outdated methods to achieve one's goals."

Downing warned.

"Yes, the situation is different now. We can't stick to the old ways." After hearing this, Old Yang was silent for a moment on the phone, as if he had suddenly made up his mind.

He chuckled softly.

"Right?" Tang Ning thought the other person had come to terms with it.

“Yes, Ms. Tang,” Yang Dekang said. “I—I’m really sorry.”

This is the first time I've made this call.

Tang Ning was stunned.

"You really want to be Gu Weijing's agent?"

She asked, confused.

"No. I've completely abandoned that idea," Old Yang said honestly. "It's just that I feel I might have a new direction I want to pursue."

Tang Ning hung up the phone with a "cool" laugh.
-

While the outside world focused its attention on Gu Weijing and Anna Elena, the two at the very center of the media storm remained unmoved.

Miss Elena remained as unapproachable as ever.

Gu Weijing remained as mysterious and unpredictable as ever, keeping his depths hidden from view.

No.

To outsiders, Gu Weijing is becoming even more unassuming and mysterious than he used to be.

His social circle is getting smaller and smaller, and more and more closed off.

He flatly rejected all media interview requests, and even ignored offers from galleries.

now.

Neither the media reporters who wanted to uncover the inside story of the collaboration, nor the gallery owners and art dealers who believed they had the truth, nor even the collectors who wanted to buy his paintings, could contact Gu Weijing.

In the social sphere.

Gu Weijing seemed to have vanished completely.

No matter what methods I tried—whether I messaged the Maes Gallery, contacted the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts, or even obtained Gu Weijing's private email account—I always ended up with a polite but utterly emotionless and formulaic reply.

[Hello, thank you for your letter... Mr. Gu Weijing is currently handling some personal matters, please wait patiently... If there are any related cooperation matters, please send a message to Ma Shi Gallery...]

Every coin has two sides, one positive and one negative.

On the one hand, he was an invisible figure in public and social settings. On the other hand, as Gu Weijing grew more and more famous, there seemed to be many more stories of chance encounters with him throughout the art academy and even the entire city of Hamburg.

Some people say that they often see the young painter going to a coffee shop near the college for a coffee.

Someone confidently told everyone that just two weeks ago, one night, she encountered Gu Weijing taking a walk on the banks of the Elbe River. He was getting out of his car at the time, and although she only saw his back, she immediately recognized him.

"Because he exuded a poetic melancholy aura, and the scene was also quite imposing, like encountering a lion."

This tweet was immediately met with criticism.

Many people have a slight case of face blindness when looking at foreigners. At night, by the river, you see a figure from afar. With all these factors combined, you could say you saw "Jackie Chan," so why would you say it was Gu Weijing?

and.

It's incredible that you can tell someone has a poet's melancholy just from their back view.

There is no way to accurately define temperament.

The critics also posted two pictures: one was an old-fashioned sketch of a man with a slender build, a straight nose, a defined jawline reminiscent of Greek sculpture, and melancholic, affectionate eyes.

The note states that this is a 19th-century Cambridge sketch portrait of Lord Byron.

"This... is called Byron."

Then comes the second photo.

It looks like a Japanese street-side yakitori restaurant late at night. A surprisingly round, fat man is holding a scallion chicken butt and eating it with great affection. His belly is so big that he has to put it on his knees.

The caption reads: "This photo was taken a few years ago by an obsessive fan who followed and secretly took it."

"This is Kazunari Sakai. It is said that when he was young, his classmates called him the melancholy Byron."

Then.

What exactly did you mean by seeing a poet-like figure from afar?

Moreover.

There's a slight contradiction between a melancholy figure and an imposing presence.

The statement is aesthetically pleasing, but the reality is illogical. Therefore, it is clearly another urban legend about someone bumping into a celebrity in a certain place, making it sound very convincing, but in reality, there is no real evidence whatsoever.

No one thought of it.

The situation took an unexpected turn very quickly.

The female painter who claimed to have met Gu Weijing by chance on the banks of the Elbe River also posted a photo on Instagram.

The photo is dark and somewhat blurry, suggesting it was taken at night using a mobile phone's telephoto lens.

A yellow POLO was parked next to the pedestrian walkway. A young man wearing a Cuban-collar linen shirt leaned against the open car door, his body turned to the side, his elbows resting on the roof, and his chin supported by the back of his hand.

The man, bathed in the hazy city lights of the night, exuded a poet's melancholy.

Inside the car door.

An incredibly fat cat sat on the back seat, its back arched, its claws digging tightly into the fabric cushion. It had a fierce look on its face, as if to say, "Even if you kill me today, even if you jump off the banks of the Elbe, you won't make me walk an inch."

I have to admit, that cat was really imposing; it looked just like a lion with its mane standing on end.

Lily, a second-year watercolor student, forwarded the message and confirmed that it was indeed Gu Weijing's quirky cat.

Besides this little incident, there are many similar cases.

Someone posted a photo of themselves with Gu Weijing on Museum Island.

A young air conditioner repairman approached a reporter and swore that Gu Weijing had bought one of his paintings.

True and false.

A mixture of truth and falsehood.

In short, what Gu Weijing has been up to lately remains a mystery, even to local Hamburg artists and even to the people at the Maas Gallery.

Everyone felt that after a very successful solo art exhibition, Gu Weijing temporarily lost his goals and motivation, letting himself immerse himself in idle leisure.

A painter who has sold his works for £1 million before he was even 22 years old is fully entitled to ask for a long vacation during his final year of university.

This kind of thing is really common.

Take, for example, Elvis Bull—just when the auction price of his works was about to break the historical record, he disappeared into the wilderness without looking back, vanishing for a full ten years, and no one knows why he did it.

To summarize in Tang Ning's words, it's due to insufficient mental attribute points, a lack of great ambition and firm goals, leading to "post-fame depression syndrome".

Unsuccessful painters often die in poverty.

Many exceptionally successful painters die from depression.

This is a unique kind of dark humor found only in the arts industry.

Some of the students who participated in the art residency program were among the very few who were able to frequently visit Gu Weijing's studio and have some contact with him during this period.

They didn't notice any particularly significant changes in Gu Weijing.

He was as calm as ever, and as always, he would greet you when he saw you. He would also smile at the harmless jokes his classmates made about him.

The only difference is—

In addition to the bookshelves, photo wall, and half of a broken modern sculpture bought from England, there is now an oak picture frame in the reception room of Gu Weijing's studio.

It was placed on the same shelf that was originally filled with binders containing many academic papers and Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," with a half-length watercolor self-portrait sent from faraway Cape Verde in the frame.

Whenever the students come to the art studio, they often see Gu Weijing sitting alone on the sofa by the window, staring blankly at the watercolor paintings on the bookshelf.
-

"Is it him?"

"I think so, we can take a photo together."

"I don't want to mistake someone for someone else; it would be too embarrassing."

"That's what I think."

"Don't rush, let's go find the photos first."

In a small gallery converted from a café on the outskirts of Hamburg, this hushed argument had been going on for quite some time. The two men standing in the corridor pretended to be suddenly captivated by an oil painting in front of them titled "Pear, Hat and Cat."

Their gazes would occasionally fall on another young customer in the corner.

He was probably in his early twenties.
Hard to say.

Sometimes, Asians in their forties appear to be college students in their eyes.

The young man, dressed in a blue fleece-lined shirt and dark trousers, sat on a sofa in the corner, his hands clasped under his chin, gazing intently at a brightly colored artwork on the wall.

He was as still as a statue.

People who are willing to spend their time after get off work on weekdays browsing this little gallery called "Oh, this damn week is finally over!" instead of wasting time in a singles bar are more or less artsy at heart.

and so.

The moment this young man walked into the gallery.

They then realized that this guy... seemed to be the protagonist of a recent rumor.

(End of this chapter)