Almighty painter

Chapter 975 A person who criticizes others
"Miss Elena and I don't get along very well, do we?"

Sarah asked calmly.

Gu Weijing did not answer.

This can't really be considered a question. One day, someone might ask you if flowers have a scent, if water flows from high to low, if Awang is fat, or if one plus one equals two.

If the question wasn't asked by a child.

Normally, this wouldn't be considered a question.

Because the answer is obvious.

Anna and Sarah don't get along well... This is as obvious as whether gravity exists, whether one plus one equals two, or whether Awang's weight is excessive.

Yes.

They don't get along.

They got along terribly.

"When we said goodbye, Miss Elena invited me to visit again next time," the old lady said, her tone tinged with a hint of teasing.

To reiterate, Miss Elena was very patient with Gu Weijing; she would apologize to him and go to Paris with him, but that didn't mean Miss Elena was an easy person to get along with.

In the vast majority of cases, and in the view of the vast majority of people.

Anna is a very difficult person to approach.

Coincidentally.

Sarah is that kind of person too.

Whether it's a coincidence or not, the atmosphere between Gu Weijing and Sarah is somewhat tense now, but compared to the scene when he first met Anna, the current situation is really... trivial.

To exaggerate a bit.

The two of them almost got into a fight.

It's no exaggeration to say that they greeted each other with the most vicious sneers, sarcasm, and mockery, shouting at each other and accusing each other of hypocrisy. Miss Elena was so angry that she wanted to pour her coffee cup on Gu Weijing's dog head.

however.

In the art studio, the conversation between Sarah and Miss Elena was in a completely opposite style.

The arguments between the two successive art directors of the magazine "Oil Painting" were completely like a "magical clash".

Two magicians stood at opposite ends of the stage, manipulating dangerous fireballs with the magic of language. They skillfully borrowed elements of art—Roggins, Monet, Picasso, Cubism, creative methodologies—and combined them into incantations on their lips. While sipping red tea, they forcefully hurled the fireballs at each other's disliked cheeks.

The other party caught it casually.

Gently blow on the teacup to make the flame burn brighter, then smash it back forcefully.

The two women engaged in a competitive display of elegance and composure, seemingly unfazed even if they sprayed each other until one cried. After a long, unsatisfactory exchange, neither was truly satisfied. Anna gently invited Sarah to come again, and the old lady kindly agreed.

Meanwhile, in the art studio, the others, scorched by the relentless barrage of fireballs, felt—

Otherwise, please, skip all the formalities and just smash the teacup in each other's faces.

Stop torturing us.

Don't torture yourself.

“You know what? I actually think quite well of Miss Elena,” Sarah said.

Is this... some kind of hypocrisy reminiscent of "Painting" magazine?

Gu Weijing countered with a question.

“You lack respect for your elders, young man,” Sarah said, her expression displeased.

“I have no respect for dishonest people, ma’am,” Gu Weijing said. “What you say and what you show, what you write in your commentaries, are two completely different things.”

"Don't look at how you speak, look at your true self."

The young man countered with a question.

"Isn't this what the magazine 'Oil Painting' claims to be committed to?"

The elderly woman with white hair sat up, leaned back in her chair, and scrutinized Gu Weijing.

Gu Weijing also looked at the other person.

The other judges in the room were clearly the original owners of the room, but Sarah remained silent, and the others who couldn't join the conversation also remained silent. They seemed to have become insignificant environmental decorations like tablecloths, vases, and water glasses.

In the room, a young man and an old man were looking at each other.

This made Gu Weijing feel as if he were back in the classroom with Cao Xuan, except that this time, there was no warmth in their eyes.

The elderly monarch, fully adorned in his armor, descended the steps from the VIP box in the arena.

She scrutinized her prey.

a long time.

"I don't like Anna."

She said.

“I hate Miss Elena, I hate Anna Elena very, very much.”

Sarah repeated, “I am very happy that Ms. Elena has left her position as art director of Oil Painting magazine.”

Before Gu Weijing could even say anything, the judges next to him were already dumbfounded, exchanging puzzled glances.

No.

Hey bro and sis, is the topic of your conversation really that...exciting?
Even during the most bitter years of conflict between Sir Brown and the Elena family, even at the shareholders' meeting that ousted Anna from the magazine's board of directors, no one dared to speak to the heiress of the Elena family like that.

We're all respectable people; we should at least maintain a semblance of decorum.

Say.

No one really wants to offend Miss Elena to the death; they just want to make more money. Sir Brown can be the bad guy, so why make things so tense?

According to Cui Xiaoming's theory—Sir Brown and Kruger Bank will take the lion's share anyway, so why are you, the one just getting the scraps, jumping around like that? Just follow your big brother and relax. Sarah really can't be considered Sir Brown's henchman.

After she returned to the magazine, Sir Brown, as a gesture of goodwill, suggested that the buyer's guide section, which is closely related to the financial market, could be reintegrated into the column system.

But Sarah didn't answer.

She simply separated the entire Buyer's Guide section, or in other words, she directly removed the Buyer's Guide from the page's categories.

From now on, it will have no further connection with the program she controls.

The article Gu Weijing read about whether "Oil Painting" magazine was still a serious art criticism magazine was only incidental; the main point was actually about this matter.

In Sarah's own words—

"She's an art critic. If we bring her back, she'll start an art magazine. She's not in charge of stock trading."

This is already a rather serious accusation, especially for a scholar of her stature to write such words in the main text of "Oil Painting," which is not much better than Anna's behavior of slapping Sir Browne in the face at the art conference.

Many judges thought she was a good friend of Elena's family.

Both women are women, and their experiences are even similar: both left the magazine and then returned, serving as art directors amidst chaos. The common perception is that two people like them would naturally like each other, or at least appreciate each other's talents.

These are the words I'm saying today.

Sarah, however, showed absolutely no mercy.

"One of the main reasons I don't like her is that I feel she's completely unprepared to be the art director of Oil Painting magazine. She's so young, not even 25. That's a completely different concept from being in charge of a luxury brand."

"This isn't about her personally, this isn't about any one person, this is about the entire industry. This is a serious matter, not a kitchen for people to fool around in."

"I neither like her nor have a very high opinion of her."

Sarah said.

“I had met her mother before, and I didn’t think much of her mother either, but that’s another matter. When Anna came to the magazine, I had been away from the magazine for almost 20 years. I never really thought I would return to the magazine.”

"Later, until I met Miss Elena."

“I still don’t like her, and I still don’t think she would be a good art director. But… my opinion of her has changed somewhat.”

“I don’t think she’s a silly little girl who messes around in the kitchen. If I had to describe her, I’d say she’s a cold version of Jane Austen. Mr. Gu, you can pass that on to her.”

Gu Weijing looked at Sarah.

Actually... he didn't quite understand.

Gu Weijing wasn't quite used to the cryptic, manipulative way Miss Elena and Sarah talked. Sometimes, Anna would be seriously making sarcastic remarks, and you'd think she was praising you.

Sarah is the same.

诺？
What does it mean to describe Jane Austen as cold and aloof? Jane Austen, a brilliant writer. Describing someone as a great writer is usually a compliment, right? Anna likes to call herself Balzac. But adding the modifier "cold and aloof" seems to change the entire meaning of the sentence.

But compared to the little girl who caused trouble in the kitchen before, this should be considered a much higher evaluation.

For a moment, Gu Weijing even missed Lao Yang a little.

Old Yang may be a bit slick, but I have to admit, despite him constantly munching on grilled sausages and engrossed in studying Porsche options and used yacht price lists on his phone, he's surprisingly knowledgeable about everything when Gu Weijing occasionally asks him some obscure questions.

Brother Yang is indeed a cultured person.

Fortunately.

Sarah probably sensed Gu Weijing's confusion.

"Jane Austen was a master of satire; outwardly aloof, yet possessing a delicate inner sensibility, she had one of the most outstanding, perhaps also the most incisive, writing styles of her time, and she was uncompromising in her approach. Critics have never been stingy with praise when evaluating Jane Austen's work. There is only one problem..."

"Some critics believe that in Jane Austen's works, only the heroine herself is truly alive."

"She has countless characters in her works. But they are all like illusions; she only cares about her heroines. Elizabeth, the Dardwood sisters, Emma Woodhouse, Fanny Price… Jane Austen focused her attention only on those she cared about, pouring all her emotions into a few protagonists. They possess a powerful aura, warmth, and self-awareness; they are noble, witty, and strong. A dozen, even dozens, of important characters may appear in a novel. Only those Jane Austen was willing to care about—only they are the few 'big figures,' while everyone else is a 'minor character.'"

“The ‘big shot’ and ‘small character’ here do not refer to their social status. Perhaps the big shot is an orphan girl living under someone else’s roof. The small character is a wealthy earl or even a duke. It refers to a projection of emotions.”

"Only those important people who are cared about, only those who have emotional attachments, truly exist in this world."

Sarah said.

"Now you understand why I was laughing just now?"

"It's not that only the people you care about are truly alive. People shouldn't only feel that injustice is unfair when it happens to them. Or that it's only unfair when the people I care about are disliked by others."

"There are so many artists in the world. How many artists has Miss Elena criticized herself? When she criticizes others, does she show any mercy for even a moment? When she berated Vandoorne in front of a hundred million people in a way that almost destroyed his professional status as a streetwear designer, did she care for Vandoorne's feelings for even a moment? Did she care what Vandoorne would face?"

“No. She believes this is an ethical principle and commitment of an art critic, stemming from her critical thinking. She says that the industry’s predecessors have proven that the truth is always more important than kindness.”

Suddenly, the identities were reversed.

“In a private studio, I expressed my criticism of your work. I said I didn’t like it and couldn’t give it a high score.”

Sarah smiled dismissively.

"She suddenly got angry."

"She started barking at me, her eyes practically threatening to devour me. She started accusing me of lacking artistic empathy, of being full of prejudice. Huh? She doesn't like Van Dorn, so why isn't that prejudice? Why isn't that a lack of artistic empathy?"

“I have criticized countless artists in my life, I have even criticized Picasso himself. Why is it that if I don’t like you, it’s a stereotype? There is more than one painter in the world, Mr. Gu.”

"Just like today."

Sarah said.

“At the very beginning of our conversation, you came up to me angrily and questioned me, saying that you saw Viktor get hit with a U, and that you were very angry because Viktor had been treated unfairly.”

"What makes you think I gave this score out of prejudice?"

"Don't think too highly of yourself, Mr. Gu. At least you don't have the right to ask me to give someone a low score."

“There are 30 students in this room today. Do you know how many I gave up? Let me tell you, even Williams, another highly anticipated student in this program, I only gave him up. I believe he saw it when the scores were being given. And neither he nor his agent dared to come up to me angrily and question me—”

“Ms. Sarah, why are you treating him unfairly? I’m warning you, he’ll get very angry if you do this,” the old lady said calmly.

(End of this chapter)