Almighty painter

Chapter 788 Exchange
Chen Shenglin's silent expression and Miss Elena's gentle words confronted each other.

This scene was far more frightening to the onlookers than the previous connection, when one of the two people was laughing and the other was arguing, one was angrily calling the other a bitch, and the other was expressing contempt with calmness.

It is a stronger contrast and a stronger contrast.

It is an emotional surge more turbulent than clapping, sneering, insulting, and tapping the table with a pen. Precisely because the emotions of both parties have entered deep waters, no ripples can be seen on the surface.

Dan Minming was the only one in the office who vaguely realized something.

He has a deeper understanding of Dahuo, Hao Ge, Chen Shenglin, Prabat... and this man whose real name is unknown than anyone else in the office.

Koko's father had spent years investigating the underground art group of Haoge, and even had direct contact with the other party on various occasions. The final confrontation between the two ended with his defeat, and the situation unfolded in an extremely dramatic way that Officer Dan had never imagined.

Dan Minming believed that he could see some of Hao Ge's hidden emotions.

He was a man as cunning as a fox.

He is good at forbearance, good at disguising himself, good at smiling but hiding a dagger behind his smile, and likes to use a gentle and elegant appearance to hide his deep malice.

Most of the time, he doesn't look like a so-called "godfather" who came up from the underworld. You might even think he is a gentle and kind gentleman, a middle-aged man with a bookish air and soft words.

Only on some special occasions.

Only then would he slightly tear open a corner of the mask tightly fastened on his face, revealing the hideous and terrifying face of a devil behind it.

This is not the time when middle-aged people's defenses are truly broken.

That was his active intimidation.

He is demonstrating.

Chen Shenglin is telling you with this look that he will devour you, chew and swallow you, body and soul, without leaving even a bone. He is expecting others to reveal uncontrollable fear or cowardice in front of his rogue face.

So that was still the face he "actively" revealed, which he wanted to show to outsiders to demonstrate his strong appearance.

But now...

Like this, when the other party didn't say a word, and even the breathing sound in the phone receiver disappeared to the point where it was inaudible, according to Dan Minming's feeling - for a person with a thousand faces and ten thousand faces, this oppressive silence, this wordless stillness, meant that the words of the woman in the wheelchair truly pierced through all of Hao Ge's defenses and truly pierced into his heart.

This look now is no longer Hao Ge’s own intention, but a passive display.

Miss Elena's narration, as soft and sunny as sunshine, tore off the last layer of his mask. What was underneath was no longer another mask, but bloody flesh and bones.

A bloody heart.

No.

The word 'tear' is too intense and too harsh.

It's melting.

The young woman did nothing. She just talked and wrote. The expression on her face could even be described as gentle.

The middle-aged man on the other end of the phone who was full of rage just melted away like that.

It wasn't a bloody feeling either.

This feeling is so fresh and full of vitality.

The ancestor the young woman was talking about, Mrs. K, Miss Kara von Elena, in her description, only came to real life the moment Kara decided to walk into the cellar.

Kara has been Miss Elena all her life, but when she was near death, she finally welcomed a new life.

Those who trade their souls to the devil may have died the moment the deal was concluded, and the rest of their life will be nothing more than a breathing, thinking, and desire-filled walking corpse.

Chen Shenglin is a living corpse full of animal instincts.

Dead bodies don't bleed.

His blood had already coagulated.

Dan Minming shuddered slightly.

The scene in the office was too strange and too terrifying. Suddenly, he realized that what he was witnessing was not Miss Elena's interview with the prisoner whose name on his passport was Prabat.

Instead, it was a beautiful witch performing some kind of ritual, speaking to a dead body.

"Brother Hao is really going to die."

This thought suddenly popped up in Dan Minming's mind.

He understood some of the circumstances, had read Haoge's medical examination report, and knew that he would be regularly transferred from prison to a special ward in the hospital with strict security for treatment.

But the other person could breathe, speak, had clear and logical thoughts, could recite the secret history of Elena's family without stuttering, and could laugh neurotically on the other end of the phone.

All this did not make Koko's father realize that Chen Shenglin was a dying man. In Dan Minming's heart, he still carried the remaining fierce power of "Brother Hao".

however.

Miss Elena pierced the other person's heart easily.

The middle-aged man at this moment not only behaved like a dying man, he looked like someone who had been dead for a long time.

The fresh and deep warmth in Miss Elena's words enveloped Chen Shenglin, but failed to warm him up. Instead, such warmth highlighted the coldness, and such fresh vitality brought out the lingering sense of death.

Bright roses surrounded the pale, shriveled corpse in the morgue.

Dan Minming witnessed it all, felt it all, but he still couldn't understand it all.

why?
Brother Hao is very bad, maybe too bad, cunning, evil, and full of tricks...

Why was he defeated and drained of all his energy by just these words from this woman?

Dan Minming didn't understand at all.

He just felt like it was magic.
-
distance.

An unknown place of detention.

Chen Shenglin also shivered slightly at this moment.

His face was not as pale and sallow as that of a seriously ill patient, but his expression was extremely stiff.

This was probably not the effect of the electronic shackles on his ankles.

The bondage is from the inside out.

The warm voice fell into his ears, but a chill from the bottom of his heart froze him.

Why are they so similar?

This all sounds too familiar.

The familiar thing seems to be happening again as if it happened yesterday.

Miss Elena's tone of voice gradually overlapped with that of another person, and the words she was saying in his ear and the words that another person had said in his ear not long ago gradually merged into one.

Until we can no longer tell each other apart.

[You are very strong, as strong as destiny, but you have a fearful, insecure, and cowardly heart. I am standing here to tell you that we are afraid, but we are not afraid.]

【We are afraid of losing each other, but we can be not afraid of you. 】

"You don't have the courage to exchange. You think you can get benefits for nothing. You think you can evade responsibility. Then, just the right thing, maybe you have already sold the most precious thing."

"You will be filled with fear until the end of your life."

"A man of true talent is always kind, frank, straightforward, never reserved, and unwavering. For those brave beasts, adversity is not the touchstone of fate."

……

If it was what Miss Elena said to him, Chen Shenglin would just ignore it, regard it as some kind of sophistry, and sneer at the other party.

But if it was Mr. G, if it was the young man who once used a painting to melt all his disguises and made him kneel on the ground in pain and cry, it was he who was talking to him.

Even if he is Brother Hao.

He also had to listen with pain, fear, and even...respect.

Because he was destroyed by Mr. G. At the last moment of the confrontation, he still had the power to destroy the young man's body at any time, but the other party used his power to destroy his heart.

One person's body can be used by another person who is knocked down and try to get up.

Even if a person's body is destroyed by another person, he can still die proudly and peacefully.

But one person's heart is destroyed by another person.

He could do nothing but kneel on the ground and struggle in pain. This was a mark engraved in his soul.

Adolf swept across Europe with his iron hoof, but in front of Miss Elena's great-great-grandfather, he was always a loser and the one who was always rejected.

Chen Shenglin washed himself clean and put on one human skin after another, but in front of Mr. G.

He is always a loser.

He can always be seen through by the other party at a glance.

He will always be a shadow that is melted away by pride like the light in the hands of Prometheus.

No matter whether the light in the young man's heart will dim and go out one day in the future, at least at this moment, it is still bright enough to turn Chen Shenglin's soul into ashes.

"So, I said you are sick, you have mental problems. It's not the so-called split personality or other mental problems that can be used to escape legal punishment. Your problem is that you are always on the run, your problem is your cowardice. A cowardly person will still be cowardly even if he is surrounded by wealth and minions..."

"He doesn't have the courage to face himself."

"You are not even an ordinary person. You are a villain and a coward. Being swept away by the tide of the environment and becoming part of the evil tide due to greed are completely incomparable."

The young woman's voice was audible.

"Don't think of equating your behavior with Newton's purchase of South Sea Company stock. From the perspective of any era, your behavior is unforgivable. Newton can say he didn't know what he was doing, but you can't. This is the meaning of historical progress, and it is also the difference made by countless brave people taking small steps."

"Please remember that the reason I am sitting here and talking to you as the visual arts manager of Oil Painting magazine is not just because my last name is Irene. My last name could also mean that I could work with Sir Browne and become the art manager of Oil Painting, just as Ms. K could fall in love with art by becoming Madame Pompadour. She didn't, and neither did I. I am sitting here today because I donated tens of thousands of works of art that Irene's family had collected over generations. That's the reason."

"This is the stake I put on the scales to exchange for justice."

Her voice was so bright, as if she was a saint, half-kneeling beside Mr. G and kissing the fire in his palm.

then.

The flame flowed from her lips like golden honey.

Her voice, her tone, her exquisite voice, also have the same gentle brilliance as Mr. G.

Chen Shenglin's heart was filled with smoke from the sun.

Chen Shenglin suddenly opened his mouth, and gray-brown smoke came out from between his lips, and a violent cough came out of his throat.

"Are you okay? There should be medical staff in your custody, right?"

Miss Elena's passive was triggered, and she delivered a perfect attack. Anna commented, "I don't want you to die like this. You should keep running away, jumping desperately, jumping cowardly. The fear will not diminish as you run away. It is the water in the dam, forever blocked in your heart."

"Only then, when you can no longer escape. When Mephistopheles walks up to you, knocks on the door of your cell or ward, and pushes the contract you signed in front of you. That kind of pain will completely and thoroughly destroy you."

"You can keep deceiving yourself like this. Look at your final outcome. Faust achieved self-transcendence at the last moment of his life. He was taken away by an angel sent by God and was reborn. You can deceive yourself that something like this will happen to you. Or..."

Anna shrugged.

"You can try to be braver, to face up to the challenges, to shoulder your due responsibilities. Go for psychological counseling, and cure your cowardice. It's a rare opportunity in life, at the end of your life, to face your true self."

"Psychotherapy... people say that psychotherapy brings peace of mind."

Brother Hao looked dazed.

A few weeks ago, on the morning when Chen Shenglin decided to walk out of Xihe Club and surrender to the international police, he knelt at Gu Weijing's feet, holding the other's hand and asking helplessly.

If at the end of his life, he really repented from the bottom of his heart as the young man said, could he be truly redeemed?

Gu Weijing replied that no, fate does not sell indulgences.

But if he did, maybe it would give him a little peace and tranquility.

Now the middle-aged man asked Miss Elena:

"Miss Elena, if I do as you say, do you think this will give me a new life?"

This scene is similar to the evil scene of a man with his heart dug out, asking a young lady in a wheelchair selling water spinach: "If vegetables can live without a heart, can people live without a heart?"

"No. If you mean a new birth in a religious sense, then of course not."

Anna said bluntly, "The Elena family is one of the most traditional Catholic families in Austria, but even so, I would say that indulgences are one of the most hypocritical and ugly things in religious history. Sinners should not be able to win a new life because of the gold coins in their hands or a confession."

"But that doesn't mean confession has lost its meaning."

"Facing what it means to be yourself forever, some people can usher in a sacred peace, while others, like you -"

At this moment, the woman gave an answer that was completely opposite to Gu Weijing's.

"You will have holy suffering."

"You become more aware of what you've done, the pain you've caused that can't be undone. You become more aware of the blood on your fingers, something you couldn't see before, something on the other side of the scale, and it makes you more and more painful."

"It will wear on you more and more."

"However."

Miss Anna paused slightly and said, "How should we understand what is new life? How should we understand what is life?"

"St. Thomas Aquinas tells the world that the highest manifestation of life is that a life can independently guide its own actions. Something that is always guided by others is a dead thing."

Anna was born into a family with strong religious connotations, and her family history has maintained good relations with many large Catholic monasteries.

Anna herself is by no means a devout believer, and she hates many of the outdated conservative ideas that were instilled in her in the church school when she was a child.

but.

Her grades have always been good.

As one of the most important philosophers and theologians in medieval Europe, she was very familiar with the works of Aquinas.

"If we don't talk about religious salvation. This kind of fate that is chosen voluntarily, this kind of pain that is voluntarily borne and the pain caused by fear of death are two different things. Even if it is only once in a lifetime to gaze at the scales of fate, to bravely walk on the scales, and feel the condemnation brought by conscience."

“Be brave to embrace the pain, let the sins whip you like a whip, take on what you should take on, and choose your own destiny.”

"Who can say that this is not a new birth?"

Anna asked softly into the phone on the table.
-
The subsequent interview went smoothly.

Anna asked in detail about the scale of operations and counterfeiting process of Haoge's underground art counterfeiting group, how to take orders, how to ship goods, and how to launder money.

She asked peacefully and remembered quietly.

The middle-aged man thought quietly and answered peacefully.

Miss Elena fell into a peaceful state of tranquility because she had figured out what she wanted to figure out, and Chen Shenglin also fell into a painful state of tranquility because he had figured out what he wanted to figure out.

There were no more disputes or conflicts between the two sides.

With five minutes left before the scheduled end of the call, Dan Minming cleared his throat, pointed to the clock on the table and reminded the woman.

Miss Elena nodded.

She held the pages of her notebook, browsed through the interview outlines she had compiled, and took a final look to make sure there were no omissions.

"And one last question."

Anna pondered for a moment, then turned to the page where she had recorded the first thing. "[Can people really defy fate? Become the Prometheus of the world. You will watch me, right, Mr. G?] I noticed that you wrote this on the face of Picasso's stolen painting. Is there any special meaning?"

"Special meaning?"

The middle-aged man said calmly: "I want to find something eye-catching enough to write this line. I thought about writing it on the golden shrine in the office, but that should be easy to erase-"

"So, you used Picasso's 'Bust of a Woman' as your note paper. Well, it is indeed very eye-catching. For a note paper worth more than 3000 million euros, there shouldn't be anything more eye-catching." Miss Elena said in a teasing tone.

(End of this chapter)