Almighty painter

Chapter 863 Miss Elena's Journey
There is a nameplate on the top layer of the box.

It is a walnut-like bronze color, the size of a bookmark, and inlaid with gold patterns.

Anna took it out of the box and handed it to Gu Weijing personally.

The young man took the card, which felt cold to the touch, and looked down. It only had the letter "K." engraved on it.

Gu Weijing guessed that it should be a name tag embedded or tied to the outside of the suitcase.

Because of the erosion of time, it was taken down by later generations and stored in a box.

The uneven feeling on his fingertips made Gu Weijing subconsciously turn the nameplate over. He was slightly startled. On the back of the nameplate was another name that he was extremely familiar with -

"Carol".

The young man's face was reflected on the metal card in his hand.

The brass card is rusty, but the name is still intact, and the gold-plating process has effectively resisted the traces of history.

Except for being a little dim, the five letters are clear as if they had just been inlaid by a craftsman.

Gu Weijing could even vaguely see the hazy reflection of his own face on the letters.

That moment.

Gu Weijing and the shadow looked at each other.

……

"When I asked him directly for the first time in the cafe why he refused to admit that he knew that the Kara he was writing about was Ms. K. from Oil Painting magazine, or my elder and ancestor, Ms. Kara. Mr. Gu was very surprised and... very angry."

Anna said: "Mr. Gu said a lot of things at the time. Please allow me to summarize his reaction as furious."

"I'm angry too."

Gu Weijing stared at the nameplate in his hand and answered slowly.

"I had just published a paper, and a few months later, before the interview began, you came to me with a check for 3 million euros, saying that this was the last offer, and then asked me why I didn't just admit that I knew that Kara was a member of Irina's family, and hinted that you had heard rumors about plagiarism in the exhibition."

"You said you wanted to believe me very much, but my performance disappointed you."

The young man replied.

"Do you think I was trying to blackmail you or force you?"

Anna inquired.

Then she smiled again: "Okay, yes, I am blackmailing you and forcing you."

The woman shook her head. "That's just who I am. I always like to force someone to honestly face their true self."

But sometimes.

However, she herself had preconceived ideas and painted something else on the original appearance of others.

"At that time, my heart was full of happiness, but also a little scared." Anna said frankly: "When I read your paper, the happiness in my heart was stronger than the fear, and when I put down the paper, the fear was stronger than the happiness. I was in a strange turbulent mood, trying to grasp some proof. So please forgive me."

Miss Elena thought about it and looked down at the box in her hand.

"You hate being bought by someone with a special purpose."

"I hate being deceived by someone with a special purpose."

Anna's face had a peculiar kind of guilt and dignity, but it finally turned calm when she raised her head and looked down at the stage.

These multiple changes in expression in an instant are telling the people around me - Hey, yes, I am a person who is very, very difficult to get along with and hard to please.

"By the way, speaking of this, regarding "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sunlight", which is Mr. Gu's entry for this Biennale, I noticed that it seems to have some similarities with this painting "Old Church in a Thunderstorm."

Anna said.

"Good Luck Orphanage, the old church, they are the same place. 150 years apart, two completely different weather conditions. I think it's a metaphor. I think you once referred to the idea of ​​"Old Church in Thunderstorm" when you were conceiving this painting, right?"

Miss Elena's asking of this question was, in a sense, vindicating Gu Weijing's reputation.

He just needs to answer correctly.

"Have."

Gu Weijing thought about it and shook his head: "No, the process is a bit complicated."

Anna followed Gu Weijing's wishes.

"Since it's complicated, let's talk about it later. Including the rumors of plagiarism, since Mr. Alexander brought it up."

She glanced casually at the audience below the stage again: "I think it is necessary to explain this seriously. Mr. Cui should also be here today, right? I didn't want to mention this, but your works do have many similarities. I heard that you modified the composition in the middle of painting, and there are more similarities between the original versions of the two works."

"We'll talk about this later."

Just this one look.

She almost made Cui Xiaoming pee.

No, sister, please don’t.

Don't look for me, I'm not here, there's no such thing.

This is what his grandmother Alexander said, go find him, he is such a big living person sitting next to you. Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt has its creditor, if you have any problems, just step on Alexander, it has nothing to do with me.

According to Cui Xiaoming.

There is no need to discuss this matter any further.

Don't bother with that. The interview with Oil Painting is such an important occasion.

It would be fine to just talk about that paper and Miss Kara from the Elena family. They are just trivial matters, why take up precious media resources?
Don't talk nonsense.

This work was obviously inspired by "The Old Church on a Thunderstorm Day" and has nothing to do with his "New Three Bodies of Buddha".

He is angry with anyone who spread rumors that Gu Weijing plagiarized Cui Xiaoming!
"In short, our first conversation ended unpleasantly. We left each other after just a few words and never reached an agreement."

Anna said: "I brought a lot of information today. I hope it can give you a different perspective."

Miss Elena took out the second thing from the box.

It was an old-fashioned passport with a complex heraldic emblem and the German logo of "KuK Hofkanzlei (Royal Office)" on the title page. At that time, the passports of high-ranking nobles were issued directly by the Habsburg royal family to highlight their connection with royal power.

The names have strict writing standards according to different levels of titles.

For example, this one says:

"Her Excellency Baroness Kara von Elena."

The spouse of the head of the Elena family and their direct children, even if they are not heirs to the title, will enjoy a ceremonial and honorary status in social occasions before they get married.

Anna opened the passport and placed it on the table.

Then there was a map, a topographic map of Eurasia, with the political control areas of the major empires and the colonies of Britain and Russia in Central Asia marked in 1876. The map looked old and often flipped, but it was definitely not a product of the th century.

"This is an old map at home, I use it as a simple reference."

Miss Elena asked Rosings to hang the map on a white board next to the sofa, and then handed a box of small colored magnets to Dr. Gustave.

"Dr.——Please do me a favor. How is your geography? Every time I read a train or boat ticket, please help me suck it to the corresponding position. It doesn't have to be too precise, just about right."

Miss Elena took out a storage box from the box and placed it next to Kara's passport.

She opened the storage box, which was filled with various bills.

"I left Paris on July 9, changed from ship to Eurostar Express, and arrived in Geneva three days later, where I left my first letter to my family."

Miss Elena took out a plastic-wrapped old-fashioned train ticket and handed it to Dr. Gustav.

"On July 5, due to a railway breakdown in the Balkans, a train from the Eastern Railway Company, the predecessor of the Orient Express that opened five years later, arrived in Nice from Belgrade."

She took out the second ticket and the third ticket from the storage box.

"In Nice, she chartered a carriage and took four days to reach Plovdiv. There, Kara caught the last train to Istanbul in July of that year. She sent a second telegram to her family and continued on her journey..."

As Miss Irena read out each journey and date, she handed Dr. Gustav a train or boat ticket and asked him to stick it on the map on the whiteboard.

Some times.

If there were no train or boat tickets, Anna would take out other things from her storage box instead, probably souvenirs from Kara's travels.

An Ottoman Lira note with a hole in it.

A pine box still containing a few uneaten pieces of Turkish Delight.

An Indian-style turquoise ring and French snuffbox, and a Kashmiri shawl.

Anna even took out an ebony dagger from her suitcase that was kept in a straw cushion.

Sometimes.

There was nothing. Not all of Kara's journeys left traces. In those cases, Anna would ask Dr. Gustav to stick an empty magnet on the whiteboard and then continue reading.

……

"On January 1877, 1, Kara set out from Yokohama by ship, passing through Colombo and Yaning, and entering the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. She will finally arrive at the port of Marseille in France. The total time spent is about forty days. On March 17, 1877, she was in Paris and sent a telegram to her family. This was the 3st telegram or letter Kara sent during this journey, and also the last one."

Anna put the empty box aside.

He took out the last ticket that he had just shown to everyone from his pocket and handed it to Gustav.

"That's it."

"Kara completed this grand tour that spanned tens of thousands of kilometers."

Anna crossed her arms and turned her head to look at the whiteboard beside her that recorded the most important journey in Kara's life.

This wasn't the first time she had experienced something like this.

Since childhood, she has imagined Kara's journey on the map. This kind of journey, which was shocking for a young woman at that time, gave Anna, who had a leg disability, a very grand imagination.

A person.

I was able to walk so far alone.

She could of course easily replicate Kara's hike; she could take a boat, a train, or a plane if she wanted.

What is 10000 kilometers?

Anna's private jet, worth tens of millions of euros, can transport her to Sri Lanka within 12 hours, and can fly back in another 12 hours as long as the crew does not go on strike due to the excessively long flight time.

Anna could cover as much distance in one day as Kara had covered in her entire life.

For her.

Buying a Richman ticket and flying to the International Space Station on a rocket would probably be smoother than Kara's grand tour at that time.

But precisely because of this, precisely because it is too easy, the actual journey itself has completely lost the charm of the imagined "Kara's journey".

A strange paradox.

For her.

The real journey only takes place in the study of Elena Manor.

In order to prevent muscle atrophy and conduct walking training, the medical team requires Miss Elena to take a walk for half an hour to an hour every day. She can walk without crutches as long as there is someone supervising her to ensure her safety, and she can walk no matter how slowly.

One of Anna's pleasures is to put a large box of magnets on the table in the study and a map and whiteboard in the corner on the other side of the study.

She took out a magnet and a ticket, walked barefoot on the wooden floor, paced slowly but firmly, walked to the board and stuck it on.

Then he turned around and walked back, taking out the second magnet from the magnet box.

Repeat the above process.

Miss Elena tried out Elena's difficult journey in her mind.

Mr. Sloth was in his study attempting the great sloth hike.

This made Anna feel more connected to Kara than if she actually boarded a plane and flew around the Eurasian continent. The woman did this process countless times, and to this day, Anna can recite Kara's complete itinerary and the approximate duration of her stay without even looking at the diary.

This kind of journey is painful.

The process itself was like a form of self-torture, but Anna also understood very clearly what kind of ending would be waiting for her at the end of the journey, shortly after Kara von Irene returned to Paris.

Miss Elena, who didn't want to be Miss Elena, returned to the manor at her feet again.

As a prisoner.

There are tens of thousands of works of art here, from ancient tempera paintings to Leonardo da Vinci's original works. There are more than a hundred exquisite dresses inlaid with silk lace sewn by skilled craftsmen. Although they cannot be compared with Queen Mary's, it is not difficult to exchange any one of them for a carriage.

But none of them could bring her real happiness.

Because she kept thinking about Paris, the blazing clouds and the sparkling Seine River, and what they together formed, the "infinitely extending dream core" that belonged to Kara.

Throughout history, among the countless women who were called "Miss Elena" and lived in this manor, very few had an ending like hers.

at the same time.

Such pain, such uniqueness, brought Anna great pleasure, just like ascetic monks trying to prove their piety to the Lord by whipping themselves with thorns.

What did Kara want to prove her devotion to through this action?
Devotion to art or devotion to life?

As for her.

What about Anna herself?

(End of this chapter)