Almighty painter

Chapter 1049 Fight!
(First update)
“I was sitting in the car,” Gu Weijing said. “The voice in my head was telling me… ‘Forget it, forget it, please get out of the car with a smile.’”

"Say hello to the professor and his family. You even prepared a gift, didn't you?"

Yes.

That wasn't anyone's voice.

That's not the devil that tempts artists to make deals.

That was the most genuine voice from Gu Weijing's heart.

While he was thinking about telling Kozens that he would be withdrawing from the art-in-residence program, his "real self" couldn't resist picking out a souvenir for dinner at a department store.

Could it be——

Hasn't Gu Weijing always been very clear about what he truly wants?

He didn't want anything else.

All he wants is the championship of the Master Project.

"Please. Now that you've made up your mind, please act like a student who's happily preparing to have dinner with the teacher."

So I did it.

Gu Weijing said.

He sat in the car for what felt like the longest five seconds of his life, then got out, hugged Kozens, and gave the gifts he had prepared to the people outside.

“In the living room, everyone seemed happy, and no one mentioned Viktor at all, as if he had never existed in our lives.”

Ben was reading a selection of Martin Luther's works. Lily ran over to ask me about watercolor mixing... everything was exactly the same as usual.

"Hey, go chat with everyone, and try to be happy."

Gu Weijing tapped his temple with his fingers, which reeked of alcohol.

"Okay, so I did as instructed."

"Everyone got along very well at dinner. I wanted to bring it up several times. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but every time I wanted to speak, I would take a big gulp of orange juice."

"Then, everyone brought up the art project, and Ben raised a toast to me to congratulate me on winning the project."

"I told myself."

"The time has come, now. Speak up and tell everyone what you want to say, tell everyone that you cannot bear such a blessing, speak up—"

"I want to withdraw from this master project."

Gu Weijing said.

"But when I opened my mouth, another voice said to me, 'Hey, Gu Weijing, you definitely need to do these things, don't you?'"

"No one can live a truly perfect life; you must accept an imperfect self and an imperfect world."

"The important thing is to figure out what you really want."

"A real man must figure out what he wants."

“Just like you said, Kozens, if you want to reach greatness, you have to pay a price.” The young man said, “Compared to many people, I only need to pay a very small price. This has nothing to do with me. I don’t need to do anything. I just need to do nothing, and that’s enough.”

"You don't need to agree with this; just treat it as a mistake."

Gu Weijing felt himself enveloped by the aroma of alcohol. Before he had even taken a sip, he was already drunk, despite his low alcohol tolerance. He was surrounded by the grainy scent of craft beer, and as he watched the streetlights reflected in the amber whiskey, he felt as if he were lying in a lush wheat field, waking up from a nap and looking at the moon.

The painter's tone became very soft.

It's like the sleepy ramblings that are being spoken.

"It's a small mistake. So many mistakes happen in this world every moment, and you're likely to make mistakes every moment too. You've made many, many mistakes in the past, and you'll make many, many mistakes in the future. In the grand scheme of your life, this will just be one insignificant one."

"Even if it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if you want to intentionally make a mistake, then now is the time. Just this once, please. Pretend you don't know anything, pretend none of this ever happened—"

"If everyone has one chance in their life to choose to make a mistake intentionally, then now is the time."

Gu Weijing said.

"Then now is the time."

“Victor’s paintings are very good, but the world is never the same as a painting. There are parts in the painting and parts outside the painting. You have to understand all of this. This is real life.”

Look?
Even without Professor Samuel Kertzens explaining these principles to him, Gu Weijing had always been a smart man. Back when he met Brother Hao, back when he and Tanaka Masakazu were fighting in the square that morning, he had already been able to skillfully use all sorts of tricks.

He has always been a hypocrite.

Gu Weijing only likes to talk about principles that are beneficial to himself. If art is beneficial to him, he will talk about art being above all else. If street wisdom is beneficial to him, he will talk about street wisdom.

Don't try to fool me.

His life has always been like this.

So Gu Weijing swallowed all his words, raised the glass of orange juice on the table, toasted with everyone, and then gulped it down.

"Let's go. Let's go, let's go. Let's leave now, say goodbye to everyone, and then leave without looking back."

Gu Weijing shook his head, as if trying to shake the annoying voice out of his mind, or as if trying to shake out the even more annoying force resisting the annoying voice from his mind.

He is a weak person.

The entanglement of these two forces left him feeling utterly lost and confused.

"That voice said to me."

"So I stood up, walked up to you, and then... until that moment, I didn't really know what I wanted to say. I hesitated and struggled, and just stammered as I told you that we wanted to talk."

"Then I stopped talking again, and I didn't know how to start the conversation."

“When you told me that I would be the winner of this year’s Masters Program, I was filled with a tremendous sense of joy. This is it, this is it, this is it! At that moment, I knew that this was what I wanted.”

Gu Weijing couldn't help but laugh.

Then he thought.

Then he almost made up his mind.

He opened his mouth and looked at Mr. Kozens. The voice in his heart roared with joy. Even Gu Weijing himself thought that what he would say was: "Great, really great."

That one-thousandth of a second passed.

"I want to withdraw from the art-in-residence program."

Gu Weijing said.

then.

The joyful roar that was emanating from Gu Weijing's heart withered in an instant and then vanished like the wind.

He knows what he really wants.

He also clearly knew what he had truly chosen.

then.

The joyful Gu Weijing vanished, and in an instant, he almost burst into tears.

“But I just can’t help saying it, I just have to say it, Mr. Kozens, I have no choice.”

Gu Weijing really didn't want to say that.

Can……

Gu Weijing gazed at the distant darkness. At that moment, he didn't know whether what he saw was Victor, nicknamed "Professor," or his former self.

“Victor, you’ve painted a very good picture. But, there’s more to the world than art; there’s a world beyond art, more than just—”

The young painter shrugged.

"No, no, no."

"Perhaps everyone in the world is qualified to say this, but I am not. I am not qualified to say this at all."

"At the very beginning of the story—"

Gu Weijing recalled sitting on his hospital bed in Singapore, talking to his teacher about where they met and what happened.

I want you to always remember how you felt at that moment, I want you to always remember the guilt you felt when you realized you had done something wrong, I want you to always remember the fear and hesitation you felt when you first met me and wanted to speak to me.

Someday.

[Someone might approach you, anxious and fearful, seeking your help. By then, you might already be a renowned painter, the director of an international art project, or perhaps at your own grand solo exhibition. You can't feel that they're wasting the precious time of a great artist like Gu Weijing, and thus kick them away like trash.]

A person who has lost patience with art itself will also not be able to create interesting works.

"The drawing is good, but—"

Gu Weijing shook his head.

"but."

"But if even one person had said 'but' back then, I wouldn't even have the right to sit here."

Gu Weijing raised his glass to Mr. Kozens.

"Faust is ultimately saved because of the eternal love in his heart. In Doctor Faustus, the artist gains groundbreaking artistic talent, but falls into depravity and madness because he loses the ability to love others."

"This is inevitable self-destruction, and it is also the answer written by history."

Gu Weijing gently tapped his glass against the rim of a wine glass on the windowsill.

Ding Ding!

Gu Weijing raised his wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

cough cough.

His face immediately contorted, he covered his mouth, and coughed loudly. "It's, cough cough, it tastes awful."

Inside the restaurant, the painter Gu Weijing put down his glass, waved, and turned to walk towards the door.

In the boxing ring.

Boxing champion Gu Weijing stopped throwing pointless punches, threw his boxing gloves aside, waved his hand, and jumped off the cable with his arm on it.

Leave without looking back.

So be it.

He gave in.

"If we really have to exchange something for greatness."

"Then let's do it this way. I choose to win with the Master Project, not with love."

Samuel Kertzens did not try to persuade him to stay.

He picked up another wine glass from the windowsill and sipped it gently.

"This is a 30-year-old single malt whisky. Don't waste it if you don't know how to drink it."

"That's what the short-tempered teacher said."

"damn it."
-
"Perhaps only when people learn to love will it have any meaning to talk about becoming a Nietzschean Übermensch."

—Gu Weijing—
Thirty-year-old malt whisky is a national treasure for the Scots, and the Germans cherish rye beer just as much.

The biggest difference between the two is—

Legend has it that in some German states, you can drive after having a glass of rye beer at a restaurant. However, while the standards for drunk driving vary across Europe, anyone who has just had a glass of whiskey is considered a super dangerous road hazard.

Gu Weijing is neither a good drinker nor a good driver.

He wasn't quite comfortable with the two things his fellow Germans were most proud of: the automobile industry and the brewing industry.

Whiskey and an unrestricted highway—in Gu Weijing's drunken eyes, these two things were about as dangerous as the barbed wire blocked by heavy machine guns on the Verdun battlefield.

The wind on the street blew past my ears.

His heart was beating very fast.

The headlights of the municipal construction vehicle coming from the opposite lane blinded him, and he felt a strong wave of weakness and nausea, with adrenaline rushing through his system.

Nearly.

Nearly.

We're getting closer.

Gu Weijing struggled to open his eyes, and in the flickering light shining from the opposite direction, he seemed to see a hazy shadow.

"Oh!"

He realized it was Jackson Pollock.

Is this how the most successful artist in American history, the founder of drip painting and the founder of the Abstract Expressionist movement, met his end?
On the evening of August 11, 1956.

He first indulged in heavy drinking, then drove recklessly, causing a traffic accident on a highway near Springs, New York.

Jackson Pollock and a female friend in the car died instantly. According to reports from journalists at the time, the fragments of his car were scattered like meteors over a distance of several hundred meters.

Just like those frenzied paintings he created during his lifetime.

Gu Weijing opened his eyes wide. He seemed to see a sky full of stars in the headlights of the huge construction vehicle opposite him.

10 m.

5 m.

3 m.

The driver on the other side seemed to realize the situation was bad and slammed on the brakes.

But it was too late.

The truck still drove by, its massive body passing by. Ah, this moment will be etched in history. Gu Weijing fell just like that. The truck relentlessly drove past, leaving only...

"vomit!"

Gu Weijing collapsed, clutching a flowerpot by his front door and vomiting violently.

"Meow!"

The tabby cat on the second-floor balcony licked the milk in the bowl while staring at the scene with a dumbfounded expression.

damn it.

If Awang knew the overflowing emotions Gu Weijing had just expressed, even a cat would probably be speechless.

It's too ridiculous.

That's absolutely outrageous.

How did this guy end up standing at the door, gazing intently at that garbage truck that was only going 5 kilometers per hour for two minutes, looking like he was about to shed tears and bid farewell to the world?
The old man next door can cross the street faster than that guy.

Please.

If you can't drink, then don't drink!
If you can't drive, then don't drive!

So drunk, how many dishes are there?
Gu Weijing, who doesn't drink alcohol, still forced himself to drink a large glass of strong malt whiskey.

Gu Weijing, who can't drive, still... oh no, Gu Weijing, who can't drive, didn't drive at all.

Do you even know how Jackson Pollock died? How dare you drive drunk? Are you crazy?
Paris is a beautiful city, but after realizing that changing lanes while driving outside the Arc de Triomphe felt as tense and exciting as if he were on a beach landing amidst a hail of bullets, Gu Weijing gained a full understanding of his own driving skills.

He had no intention of crossing the line of the law, nor of pushing the limits of life. Besides, it wasn't far; he walked directly back from Professor Kozens's house.

But he still felt dizzy.

"Mr. Gu, are you alright?"

The kind-hearted woman sitting in the cleaning truck recognized Gu Weijing. She stopped the truck and looked at him with great concern.

Gu Weijing felt as if a fire was burning in his stomach. He couldn't speak, so he opened his mouth and kept vomiting while hugging the flowerpot.

He simply gave a stubborn thumbs-up to indicate that he was alright.

"Went to a party?" The enthusiastic older woman was a chatty person. "You drank quite a lot, probably several of those big boot-shaped glasses (note)."

(Note: A boot-shaped beer mug used in bars, usually holding one liter.)
Gu Weijing opened his mouth.

He can speak now.

But he didn't want to talk.

He waved his hand, urging the older woman to leave quickly and gracefully.

After watching the street sweeper leave, the cat on the windowsill lay flat on the lawn in front of the door for a long time before standing up, taking out the key, and opening the door.

First, there was a creaking sound on the stairs, then the door was pushed open.

The pet owner appeared at the door, holding a wet towel for wiping their face.

"You're here? I'm going to a ranch in the suburbs. Do you want to come with me?"

Gu Weijing inquired.

The tabby cat perched by the window stared at its owner with clear eyes, seemingly understanding yet not quite.

Gu Weijing found the cat leash he used when going out and put it on Awang.

"I didn't drive. Otherwise, let's walk there. I want to take a long walk."

This time.

The tabby cat must have understood what its owner was saying.

at least.

Awang must have understood the meaning of "taking a walk".

It continued to stare at Gu Weijing with its clear eyes, then loosened its four paws and plopped down on the spot with a "thud".

The meaning of that picture is already quite clear.

"Want to go for a walk? Take my life or not. Anyway, my big belly is right here. If you can drag it, we can go for a walk."

Gu Weijing nodded.

"Understood, I'd rather die than go for a walk."

"I'll take a taxi."

Gu Weijing took out his phone, opened a social media app, found his agent's name, and sent a text message.
-
Miss Anna Elena spent a rather fulfilling yet idle year.

The opening of a private museum, work related to Mr. Sloth, doctoral studies, travel to many cities in Europe, academic exchanges, and matters related to various art museums.

Time will not slow down or stop for any one person.

She is Anna Elena, whose life is filled with countless important events, or rather, her story is of paramount importance to countless people in the arts.

Her life has its own rules.

So many things happened this year.

This year has been rather boring again.

(End of this chapter)