Almighty painter

Chapter 673 Dance Under the Moon

Gu Weijing sat down next to a street lamp on a passing wooden pier, leaning against the railing.

He put the sketchpad in his hand aside and looked quietly into the distance.

In the distance, there are rolling hills, dark soil, and inky gray tree shadows.

It was dark all around. Gu Weijing couldn't tell east, south, west or north. He also didn't know whether the distant place he was looking at was a city with a lack of electricity supply, or a stretch of mountains and jungles - there was only a hazy night.

The sky was not hazy at all.

Even it is clear and bright.

The huge moon disk hangs in the sky above the night. Now is the end of the month. In theory, this should be the time when the waning moon is the smallest and the light is blocked the most.

But it looks really big and bright.

Gu Weijing could even see the black spots on the crescent moon. Those were the craters on the moon, but they looked like printed lithographs.

The stars are shining brightly around the moon.

Nothing can make people feel more alienated, or stimulate people's imagination, than sitting quietly in such a silent and vast night.

Under the vast sky, you will realize how huge the universe is.

Xihe Guild Hall is his cage.

Celestial bodies are cages for billions of living beings on this planet.

The universe is a cage of trillions of stars, and even photons flying at a speed of 30 kilometers per second cannot escape. The moment a photon is emitted, even time will be slowed down, but even if they are fast enough to penetrate time, they still cannot catch up with the speed of the universe's continuous expansion.

Just like Sun Wukong performed 180,000 somersaults that could travel 180,000 miles, but in the eyes of Tathagata Buddha, he was just a naughty little monkey jumping on his fingertips.

Thinking in this way, people will suddenly get a strange sense of satisfaction in the endless emptiness.

All the fight, all the struggle, all the effort.

It doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not.

Because everything is dust.

It doesn’t matter whether people in the world are good or bad, kind or evil.

Because everything is dust.

Although he is just a speck of dust in front of Brother Hao.

However, if you stretch the scale of the world long enough, even something as burning, grand, and warm as the sun is just a speck of dust.

A lifespan of billions of years is also just a tiny moment in the endless universe.

after all.

Eternal heat death will engulf all fires in this world.

Heat death is not the antonym of temperature, but the destination of temperature. Heat death is not cold, it is silence, extinction, and nothingness.

When the Monkey King looked at the Buddha back then, he probably felt the same way as he does now, right?

What he felt was not the weight of the Five Shaped Mountains, but the weight of "nothingness". What pressed on him was not the five colored five veins of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, but thousands of Sumerus.

It wasn't the golden hoop that held his head, but the feeling of insignificance that steadying his heart.

It turns out that everything has a destiny.

Only those who have practiced since childhood and endured 1,750 kalpas, each lasting 129,600 years, totaling 226.8 million years, can enjoy the blessings of the Jade Emperor.

He did not.

So he is just a beast who is not worthy of being a human being and was born as a human in his first life.

Therefore, no matter how hard he tried to use all his skills and no matter how many somersaults he performed, he was destined not to be able to escape from the palm of the Buddha's hand.

Journey to the West.

That is his fate, his destiny.

So, the former Monkey King disappeared, and the one who returned from under the Five Finger Mountain was the Fighting Buddha.

……

"Wealth, honor and fame are already determined by fate, so don't be deceitful."

——"Journey to the West·Volume 1·Chapter 7: The Great Sage escapes from the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and the Monkey Calms Down under the Five Elements Mountain"

……

Oddly enough, this feels pretty good.

When Gu Weijing felt that strong sense of alienation from the world, he did not feel cold... nor hot, but a feeling of being wrapped up. The weight of everything in the world disappeared, and he became a speck of dust suspended between heaven, earth and stars.

Under this feeling.

You may even feel that all the concepts in the world are floating completely parallel to you.

What I saw was the moon, the land covered with craters 300,000 kilometers away, and the fairy palace on the nine-layered sky.

It is the celestial body that artificial satellites fly past, and it is also the distant place that the fairy Chang'e flies to.

The Milky Way in astronomy and the Milky Way in mythology and legends existed at the same time. When Gu Weijing looked at them -

Overlap each other.

Intertwined with each other.

They also collapse into each other.

Not far in front of Gu Weijing was a lake.

The starry sky is reflected in the water.

Therefore, in addition to having a moon in imagination and reality, there is also a moon in the sky and in the water. One is hanging high above the head, and the light falls from the infinite height, and the other is sinking in the water, and the moonlight rises from the infinite depths.

They all drift like phantoms.

Gu Weijing seemed to be floating among many moons, looking up at the sky.

And those numerous moons seemed to have numerous young men with their legs crossed and sketch boards beside them, looking up at them.

The moonlight collides with the moonlight.

Eyes meet eyes.

It's all loneliness, emptiness and nothingness.

Gu Weijing yawned softly but uncontrollably.

He is sleepy.

It turns out that loneliness and emptiness have reached their extreme. This is what it feels like. You don’t feel actual loneliness, but you feel so alone that you want to commit suicide.

No.

You just feel exhausted.

You are like a speck of dust, being pulled by the wind. You know that the road is set by people, freedom is just an illusion of flying, and the speck of dust will eventually be taken to the direction the wind wants you to go.

Therefore, there is no point in running anywhere.

So you stop, you want to completely empty yourself, you want to go to sleep.

"Meow."

Just as Gu Weijing lowered his eyes slightly, he felt that the ground was light, the air was light, his body was light, everything was light, and he was ready to take a nap.

A heavy, plump object fell into his arms.

He felt as if a heavy truck had rolled over his stomach, and he couldn't even catch his breath.

Gu Weijing raised his eyes.

Then he saw Awang's round face, with his head raised, lying on his chest and looking at him.

"Baby, you know I didn't feed the cat on time tonight, you know! I didn't feed the cat on time, you know! I didn't feed the cat on time, you know!"

Gu Weijing could tell from Awang's body posture that this guy probably didn't have his dinner snack and was hungry.

He smiled helplessly.

"Maybe later. I'll go back later and ask the housekeeper for some canned chicken or something."

He spoke softly to Awang.

I don’t know if the tabby cat understood.

I guess I understood it.

Anyway, King Awang waved his cat fist in a very human way, slapped Gu Weijing, then twisted his butt, ran to a bench on the side and lay down.

"Heh. You know the cats aren't fed, so why are you sitting here pretending to be a statue? Little Guzi, you need to stand up! Look at your service spirit. This king is very disappointed in you."

Koko stood next to Gu Weijing, looking down at him.

It must have been her who put Awang in her arms onto Gu Weijing's body just now.

If Katsuko Sakai was around.

Perhaps she would persuade Gu Weijing not to be discouraged. They are just painters, so... no matter who they paint for, the painter only needs to care about his own painting.

There are too many things in this world that cannot be determined or changed by a small paintbrush.

and so.

They don't need to think so much. Since they can't do anything, they should just do the things that can be decided and changed by the brush.

But Koko did not persuade Gu Weijing or comfort him.

Koko didn't even mean to say "don't be sad".

In school, Miss Koko was not a good student who would focus all her attention on the drawing board. She was also never a person who liked to nag and advise others.

Faced with the frustration caused by the blow from Brother Hao, her father became angry and slapped her in the face.

Koko would just calmly turn her face over and tell him: "Go ahead, slap your daughter, who doesn't know how to do that? If you can kill me today, I'll actually respect you!"

"Use all your true abilities on me."

Either beat her to death, or beat yourself to death. If you don't have the courage... then just live your life seriously.

She smiled at Gu Weijing.

Gu Weijing also smiled at her calmly.

Gu Weijing was not discouraged, nor was he angry at all. He just felt sleepy, weak and empty.

"Thank you for coming today—"

Koko stretched out a finger and signaled Gu Weijing to shut up. She didn't want to listen to all these nagging and nonsense words.

She tilted her head and looked at Gu Weijing.

"I was Fitz's Valentine's Day prom queen for three years in a row," she said.

Gu Weijing tilted his head.

Miss Koko's thoughts always jump very quickly, and he can't keep up with her sudden changes.

She nodded. "I saw the news photo in the Mirror. Jasmine said that you danced with her and it seemed like you danced quite well."

"Today was definitely supposed to be the fourth year... but in the end I didn't get to go to the campus dance, you have to compensate me." Koko continued to look directly into Gu Weijing's eyes and spoke with extreme seriousness.

Compensate her?

Gu Weijing didn't understand why Koko didn't become the Valentine's Day prom queen this year, so he should compensate her for her magical idea.

Gu Weijing was too lazy to think about these complicated things.

He was really a little sleepy.

This request was very abrupt. Gu Weijing originally didn't want to refuse any request from Miss Koko, but... he was really a little sleepy.

He felt that it was very comfortable to just sit there quietly, doing nothing and thinking about nothing.

Moving one more finger is a great torture.

No energy to feed the cat.

No energy to dance either.

He still tried his best to smile, nodded and said, "Okay, when we get back, I'll ask the housekeeper if there's a place suitable for dancing. Xihe Hall is so big, with so many buildings, I guess it should be--"

"Not going back, right now, right here."

The girl shook her head and said stubbornly.

Gu Weijing took a deep breath.

"That's fine." He insisted, "Then wait a little while, okay, let me take my time, I want to stay here quietly for a while. Don't worry, I'm fine..."

He thought of the art exhibition in Singapore, Miss Katsuko, Mrs. Sakai, and his grandfather and aunt.

But it was only two days.

At this time the day before yesterday, Gu Weijing was still there, full of enthusiasm and ambition, planning and looking forward to going to Singapore.

But only 48 hours later.

Everything seems so distant, as if it were a lifetime ago.

Gu Weijing shook his head vigorously again, driving out all the thoughts that made him tired and exhausted from his mind.

He didn't want to think.

“…I just feel really tired.”

Koko still seemed dissatisfied with this answer.

After thinking for a moment, she sat down next to Gu Weijing and put her legs together.

The girl bent down lightly and untied the laces of her sneakers with her fingers.

"Then you're lucky."

Koko untied her shoelaces, pulled her toes out of her shoes, put the two shoes together, and placed them on a chair beside her.

"I'm not tired at all. Just sit here and I'll dance for you."

She turned around and looked into Gu Weijing's eyes and said.
-
Koko walked step by step to the center of the wooden pier by the lake.

She first turned sideways with a frown, and used the big toes of her sock-covered toes to press against the wooden board on the ground, and did a few simple footsteps and small hops, as if she was warming up, or as if she was feeling the hardness of the dock under her feet and the balance of her body, to make sure her toes would not get stuck in the gaps between the wooden boards.

then.

Koko's frown relaxed.

Turning around, she faced Gu Weijing, folded her hands on her lower abdomen, and slowly tightened her body, keeping her pelvis and thoracic spine in a perfect neutral position.

"SWAN LAKE, Suite No. 20, OP.a..."

Koko said.

Gu Weijing was stunned for a moment before he realized that the other party was talking to him.

"My phone is right next to you. The password is 01563. It's the first one on the collection list of the classical music player."

She looked at Gu Weijing.

Koko's shoes, phone and wallet were all placed next to him. Gu Weijing picked up his phone, unlocked the screen and clicked on the "Apple Music Classical Music" app.

The first album in Koko’s collection is "SWAN LAKE".

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Gu Weijing thought that Koko was going to dance to some lively and cheerful music.

He vaguely remembered that the other party had practiced Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and the moonwalk for a long time in preparation for this year's Rose Valentine's Day dance party.

Disco is also a possibility. Koko told her that she likes the dancing king Travolta very much.

Who knows.

She actually chose such a classical piece of music.

Gu Weijing clicked play, and a melodious violin solo appeared in the speaker of his mobile phone.

"Not this one. The one that starts with the sixth suite, the one that sounds da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da."

Koko shook her head and sang a few lines.

“The final scene of the Swan Lake ballet.”

In the fourth act of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Rotbart, the disguised evil wizard beside the prince, finally revealed his true identity as the devil.

He used a black swan, which represents temptation, to transform himself into a woman and seduce the prince into breaking his vows of love.

Then the devil cursed the beautiful and pure princess forever, binding her and her maids into the bodies of white swans, drifting on the lake forever.

No relief.

Gu Weijing was not very familiar with the classification of classical music movements, the name labeling, and the complex three-digit numbering of various music sections.

He made two mistakes in a row.

After he selected the music for the third time, a sound that sounded very similar to the tune that Koko had hummed for him finally came from the speaker of the mobile phone.

"This is it."

Koko smiled and nodded in confirmation with satisfaction.

"Gu Weijing, I have a task for you. Starting from this one, you will play them one by one in the order of the entire album, OK?"

Gu Weijing agreed.

He dragged the progress bar to the beginning and chose to replay.

The sound of the suite composed of piano and strings rang out again by the lake.

Koko raised her hand, turned around and looked back.

The hem of her floral dress suddenly spread out like a spinning petal.

She danced gracefully.

……

Miss Koko dances very well.

This is something that needs no further explanation.

Not only Gu Weijing knew this, but every student at Fitz International School, no matter if they were older or younger than them, knew that there was a girl in their grade who danced very well and had always been the center of attention in the dances and cultural activities in recent years.

Cooking, fencing, tennis, pottery, piano, violin... Miss Koko, who often likes to attend extracurricular classes but only learns half of them, has something that she has never given up for a single moment since she was a child.

Then it's dancing.

George Balanchine, the founder and principal of the New York City Ballet and the father of modern ballet, once told reporters: "Ballet dancers are never taught, they grow naturally in the ground. Masters and traditions are important in this industry, but the most important thing has always been religious love and the desire and tension that naturally spreads from the bodies of gifted dancers."

"Ballet is not painting, writing or playing. Ballet has no text, no standard dance notation, no script or music score, only very scattered handwritten records left by previous dancers. So it is never bound by tradition or the past."

Balanchine would always say that.

Ballet is fleeting, like flowers or butterflies. We may die tomorrow, but at this moment, we are still dancing.

and so.

The spirit and tension that naturally emanates from the dancers' body lines is the most important part of a dance, the roots of flowers and the wings of butterflies... rather than a particular rotation, or whether the toes open and close to the standard 180 degrees.

Even the most classic classical dance like "Swan Lake" must be performed by contemporary young people and show their natural appearance.

“The history of dance never exists in that book, but as a romantic spirit, in the natural lines of the dancer’s body.”

(Note: This is a photo of Balanchine rehearsing a ballet.)
The daughter born to a crazy woman who dreamed of becoming a dancer and a theater star was destined to be a natural dancer.

Koko has studied disco, and she also has some knowledge of hip-hop and jazz.

But her main focus is ballet.

She spun, drawing circles in the air with her calves and toes.

She made a small jump to change her feet.

She bent down calmly.

……

The girl's toes, wearing white socks, tapped on the wooden boards of the dock, making a light and firm sound.

In the misty night, the sound of footsteps spread out in circles on the vast lake, like ripples in the void.

Before, Gu Weijing only knew that Koko was good at dancing.

When the girl danced for him in the vast silence, Gu Weijing felt that she danced better than he had ever thought.

He didn't understand ballet, nor did he know what Balanchine was, what the New York City Ballet was, or what "the body's own desire and tension" was.

Gu Weijing's knowledge of Swan Lake was limited to having watched the famous "Four Little Swans" on TV before.

He just glanced at the TV.

Feeling bored, Old Man Gu started to watch his favorite martial arts drama while cracking melon seeds and controlling the remote control.

But Gu Weijing still thought Koko danced very well.

He watched Koko dancing just like Koko watched him draw. He couldn't say anything more than "la la la, great, great, great."

But that's enough.

He could feel the beauty radiating from Koko's body. Beauty is something that does not need to be embellished with words or explanations to be presented to people.

Even though Gu Weijing was very tired, even though Haoge's gloomy and deep eyes were staring at him somewhere in the manor, even though he had no way to struggle for his future.

But when Koko was in front of him, dancing for him.

Gu Weijing slowly let go of everything.

This kind of forgetting is different from the empty forgetting just now.

Just now, Gu Wei was enveloped by a huge emptiness, which made him want to fall into a deep sleep and never wake up again.

And now.

He was wrapped in Koko's body and the huge "beauty", which made him want to just watch quietly and then stand up and applaud.

Gu Weijing didn't know.

On October 1962, 10, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy, who loved public speaking, issued a pre-war ultimatum to the American people and the entire Soviet Union through television. On the other side of the world, the gate of the American Embassy in the Soviet Union was also surrounded by protesting people.

The intercontinental ballistic missiles of both sides were aimed at the enemy's territory, and dozens of nuclear submarines under the sea level had all entered the launching positions.

An unprecedented nuclear war could break out at any time, and the future of the whole world is uncertain and in danger.

But that night.

The New York City Ballet, which was touring in Moscow, marched in neat steps onto the stage of the Kremlin's Great Hall as the music started.

What they expected, that they would be rushed onto the stage and beaten by the wild fighting nation, did not happen.

As an important birthplace of modern ballet.

The Soviet people still maintained a very high level of artistic literacy. They stood up in unison and gave warm applause to the New York dancers.

Beauty is beauty.

Beauty itself is a universal language that transcends all nationalities, ethnicities and political beliefs.

This kind of beauty not only made Gu Weijing want to applaud.

It also made Gu Weijing want to paint.

(End of this chapter)