Almighty painter

Chapter 816: Choice and Fire
The shadow trembled in the candlelight.

Even when she was talking to Kara just now, her face was still as delicate and calm as a sculpture.

A long period of aristocratic life has solidified this hypocritical mask on the woman's face - her manners have been refined through thousands of trials, and every expression has been "dignified and noble" after being trained by the nanny. Only by filtering out the useless enthusiasm in her heart can she remain noble forever.

Just like the myriad rays of light in nature, only after passing through the patterns of church stained glass and filtering out those useless wavelengths can they be forever called "chaste".

But her shadow was trembling.

Anna’s kneeling silhouette is an ink-stained narcissus.

Her body remained still in front of the candlestick, while the petals and leaves bloomed in response to the questions and answers.

A little sunset-like light shone on the petals through the gap in the window, as if gnawing at her shadow.

"Fire and choice, choice and fire."

She listened to the voice outside the window and thought about this sentence in her heart.

She hesitated at this moment.

To sum it up, isn't it nothing more than "fire and choice"?

At first Anna thought that passers-by passing by the window happened to hear her voice, and as they talked, they became fascinated.

In palace novels, someone casually holds someone's hand at a masquerade ball, and discovers that the mysterious person behind the mask is just right and can follow your every step and beat.

This is probably how it feels, right?

The person gave her a somewhat strange feeling, but more importantly, a familiar feeling for no reason.

"...Do you know? Goethe is a very complex person. His personality seems to be accompanied by inherent contradictions, and contradictions will lead to choices." Anna said.

The sound waves reverberated in the church dome, causing the candlelight in front of him and the candle shadows behind him to change together.

A sculptural kneeling body and dancing shadows.

Extreme stillness and extreme movement, warmth and coldness, seem to be inherent contradictions.

The woman didn't understand why she said these words.

If you think about it, this way of "encountering" is very strange.

It is also very difficult to understand how to talk about art and poetry directly with a stranger in real life, whose identity, age, or even face you don't know, through a stained glass window or a thick wall.

Rather than a story that would happen in the real world, this feels more like a scene from an ancient Greek play.

But she still did it subconsciously.

There was hardly any thought.

It makes perfect sense.

It was as if she had rehearsed and performed the same scene dozens of times for this meeting.

Regardless of face.

Close your eyes, and then you will see a person through art and poetry. Her eyebrows, eyes, and face are all composed of the sunshine and rain in the poet's writing, changing like clouds. Sometimes she is the young Werther, and sometimes she is the old Faust. Sometimes she is an innocent girl, and sometimes she is a sophisticated charlatan and a court scholar.

……

Through the mirror of art, the hearts of two people are reflected.

"The more I get to know him and the more I read about him, the more I am amazed at the complexity of Goethe's character."

The woman said to the person outside the window.

"A person who is usually so gentle and quiet can actually gnash his teeth in hatred when he gets angry."

Miss Irena said: "He can be quiet or lively. When he is happy, he feels like he is in heaven, and when he is depressed, he feels like he is in hell. He has strong self-confidence, but he often has doubts. He can feel that he is a superman, capable of destroying a world, but he also feels cowardly and incompetent, like a weed in the wind, unable to move a small stone on the road."

……

Gu Weijing listened to the words of the person inside the window.

a long time.

He commented: “It sounds like you know Goethe well?”

"I have carefully read his conversation records."

The people in the church replied.

Anna turned her head and took off an emerald pendant from her earlobe with her fingers. The woman held the gem between her fingers, stretched out her arm, and used the tip of the long gold needle that pierced her earlobe to pick up the wick of the candle.

The fire flickered.

The fresh candle wick fully absorbed the melted wax around it, becoming brighter.

"Mehr Licht!"

A word came out of Anna's lips.

"what?"

Gu Weijing was confused.

“Mehr Licht!” the woman said, a little louder. “That’s a German word.”

"sorry, I--"

“It translates as more light, more fire, more brightness.”

Anna made a small attempt.

After making sure that the people outside the window couldn't understand German, he heaved a sigh of relief and explained, "These are Goethe's last words in the world, his last words."

"Mehr Licht, more light." Anna muttered absentmindedly, "Some biographers like to understand this sentence in a material sense, as opening the windows wider and lighting the candles brighter. But I always think that an artistic understanding, as a portrayal of Goethe's spiritual world, is better."

"More fire, more light. These words meant to Goethe what Byron wrote to the Countess: 'I cannot live without a love object.'"

Anna put the pendant back on.

The golden connecting rod pierced through the skin, still carrying the temperature of having been burned by the candlelight.

"Without love, Lord Byron could not live, without light, without fire, Goethe could not exist——"

The young man outside the window said.

"Eckermann recalled the days when he worked for Goethe as an assistant. He said that there was an active volcano hidden in Goethe's heart. On the one hand, when he served as the Privy Councilor for the Duchy of Weimar, he showed an image of rationality and restraint. On the other hand, his poems were often full of fiery passion..."

……

"—— In Goethe's works, it seems that there is power at all times, constant transformation, and constant embracing of something. A philosophy of choice. Constantly struggling and making choices between the illusory self and the real self. In "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship", the protagonist, who was born in a wealthy family, finally chose to devote himself to art and joined the theater troupe. He achieved self-spiritual transcendence through active abandonment." Gu Weijing said.

"If I stop and stagnate any day, I will become a slave to the devil."

Miss Irena hummed softly in her heart the verses from "Faust" where the protagonist signed a contract with the devil.

The devil was chasing him.

If you don't embrace more light and more warmth, you will become a slave.

"You also know Goethe well?"

Anna raised her voice and asked out the window.

"I can't say I know much about it... I've read some excerpts from Faust, but I haven't read The Apprenticeship of William Miles."

"Then how do you know this?"

"Because I have also read Conversations with Goethe carefully." The mysterious man outside the window replied with a smile.

"But seriously, compared to more famous works like 'Faust' or 'Marie Spring Elegy', I prefer a cycle of poems by Goethe."

"Which one?" asked the person in the window.

Gu Weijing leaned against the outer wall of the church, watching the sun gradually sinking below the sea in the distance.

“Prometheus.”

He said: "It's a very unpopular poem. It's not very long. My favorite part is the last stanza."

"I sat on the top of the mountain, sitting here and creating mankind in my own image, making this race the same as me, to suffer and cry, to rejoice and be happy. And like me... I despise you."

"I am an art student. This poem gave me support when I was faced with the most difficult decision." Anna's body stiffened for a moment.

She knelt beside the candlelight, lost in some kind of thought, unable to speak for a long time.

Gu Weijing waited for a while.

No more sound was heard from the church.

The sun has come into contact with the sea water, and in a few minutes it will be night.

then.

He bent down and stroked the big head of the Springer Spaniel once again, then picked up Awang and his midnight snack box and went back to pack up his huge pile of painting supplies.

The springer spaniel didn't stop this time.

It still sat there obediently, but barked twice loudly towards the young man's back as a farewell.

……

"Is it you?"

Anna in the church stared at the candlelight and asked softly in a misty mutter.

Woof woof, woof woof.

From outside the window came the joyful barking of a dog.

"August? August?"

Miss Elena woke up from her trance. She held on to the table and stood up from the ground. Without having time to turn on the light on the side, she walked to the window as quickly as possible with her cane.

Press your cheek against the airy slits of the stained window and look out.

There is no one outside the window.

A young man was disappearing through a small door in the distant corridor. Anna only had time to see his side profile. A fat cat was lying on his chest, looking over here. Its ginger tail was hanging down from his arms, swaying back and forth, which was quite magical.

Just like the victorious general who just rode his dog to give a good beating and returned to the court in triumph.
-
Squeak.

The door opened, and Anna walked out of the church with her cane, followed by the old housekeeper holding the copy of Goethe's Poems for her.

"Miss."

Elliot appeared in front of her in a flash, looking a little embarrassed.

"Please don't be angry. I have something to tell you. Uh... August just suddenly jumped out. Don't worry, just listen to me first. The good news is that August has come back——"

The secretary chose her words carefully.

Two legs can't outrun four legs.

It's really not her fault. How could an office lady like her, wearing a professional suit and Prada leather shoes, outrun August, an adult hound who was born to chase foxes in the mountains, in such complex terrain?

The dog jumped around in the alleys of the church and then disappeared.

Elliot chased after her desperately, and even lost his shoes, but he still couldn't catch up.

She's going crazy!

Fortunately, after arriving in Singapore, August was wearing a collar with a GPS locator on his neck, so he should not be lost.

Elliot was ready to rush to the National Gallery across from the church to borrow a printer when the notice of a large reward for finding the dog came out.

Results not long ago.

The dog came back strolling by itself.

One good news, one bad news.

The good news is that the lady’s beloved dog is back.

The bad news is...

Elliot was still considering his words when he opened his mouth.

Anna's eyes had already followed the secretary's leash and landed on the springer spaniel's head.

I don’t know how many times this has happened today.

Anna was stunned again.

Is that her beloved dog? August sat on the ground, licking her obsequiously. The pure white fur on its chest and abdomen, which was originally spotless, was now covered with dirt. The elegant wavy hair on its head was a mess, as if it had been fried, and its entire body was dirty.

That look.

It was like going out for a stroll, only to be beaten up by a wild cat that jumped out from nowhere, and then returning home in embarrassment like a defeated general.

Anna was shocked!

The woman leaned over and stroked the hair that had been plucked from behind Springer's ears. She reached out and pinched a strand of conspicuous ginger hair among the black and white fur of her beloved dog. Her fingers turned slightly white from using too much force.

"August, who bullied you?"

Miss Elena realized that while she was in there just now, her own August was beaten up.

She was immediately furious.
-
"Ah!"

The next day.

The early morning sun shone through the window of the Mirochor Hotel. Gu Weijing sat up from the bed and sneezed first.

"Awang, you've been losing a lot of hair recently. I'm a little allergic to it."

The young man rubbed his nose.

"It's not the molting month yet. I'm not used to the temperature and climate in Singapore."

The tabby cat lay lazily on the edge of the bed, its chest rising and falling evenly, and it was unclear whether it could understand or not understand what he was saying.

Gu Weijing got off the bed.

He put on his slippers, walked into the bathroom to wash up, and picked up the note on the window.

【1. Watch the sunset. 】

【2. Listen to the piano. 】

【3. Painting porcelain. 】

These are the conditions that Gu Weijing noted down in order to obtain the ten-hour usage time of the Renoir Ghost Fragment skill.

Gu Weijing speculated that all three were related to Renoir's creative career.

"Sunset on the Bridge over the Seine" and "Girl Playing the Piano in the Room" are both famous paintings by Impressionist masters.

As for the last item.

Renoir was an apprentice in an oriental porcelain shop, and all his early painting techniques were acquired on clay embryos in the porcelain factory.

The difficulty of completing the three is also from easy to difficult.

The first item is nothing more than spending some money to buy a plane ticket to Paris to see the sunset, which is much cheaper than the cost of the small candle blessed by the Muse.

The third one is the most difficult.

This kind of hand-painted porcelain shop is rare nowadays. One shop has to paint a hundred pieces at a time, and ordinary DIY handicraft shops certainly cannot meet their requirements.

The second one is the strangest.

The protagonist in Renoir's original painting should be Nini Lopez, who was a female employee in a Parisian cafe at the time and also worked part-time as a female model for Renoir and many Impressionist painters.

This is an intimate concert in a private room.

The system requires Gu Weijing to reproduce this scene, which is obviously not something that can be satisfied by simply buying a ticket and listening to a piano recital in a concert hall.

Gu Weijing was brushing his teeth while thinking about how to complete the task.

The phone outside the room rang.

(End of this chapter)