Almighty painter

Chapter 991 Gu Weijing's Question

"Some say there is a science fiction world where only one person exists. He is reincarnated countless times in time and space, eventually forming this world. Every man and woman, old man and child, emperor and beggar, all of them are himself."

"I'm not trying to discuss worldviews in a philosophical sense. It's too abstract and too ethereal."

Gu Weijing said.

“But when I hugged Gu Lin, I felt like I was hugging myself. When I saw Miao Angwen weeping bitterly, I clearly felt that I was weeping myself. Their pain, their tragedy, their fear, were completely real to me.”

"It can be seen everywhere, touched by hand, and heard by ear."

"These things happened to them as they happened to me. I know, very, very likely, that the person sitting here talking to you today is Miao Angwen, very likely, very likely Gu Lin. We are three sides of a die. It's just that when God rolls the dice—"

"My luck was only slightly, just a tiny bit better."

"It's just that I understand the stakes better. That day, the amount on Brother Hao's check wasn't enough to sway me."

"look?"

Gu Weijing shrugged.

His profile was reflected in the glass, with strands of black hair falling on his forehead, making him look like a contemplative sculpture.

Do you know what makes this so terrible?

"The scary thing about this is... it's the standard Hao Ge theory."

“For me, that nightmarish experience is over. I won, I'm free, I've escaped. I've left the Xihe Guild Hall forever. I won awards and had an exhibition at a major art museum. I have so many friends in my life who care about me. Life is so wonderful.”

"Oh, Life is so beautiful!"

Gu Weijing waved the promotional leaflet in his hand. "Brother Hao's biggest wish before he died was to be able to say this, but he couldn't. As for me, it seems I can say it now."

"But I found that I had gone in a big circle, running thousands of kilometers away. I came to Hamburg to study, but when I turned around, I found that the gate of the West River Hall was right behind me. His shadow was there, always ready to catch me."

This is a classic horror story of being trapped in a maze.

You said I am a person who lacks a sense of security.

Gu Weijing thought about it and nodded in agreement.

“Miss Elena, you’re right. I do lack a sense of security.”

"Everything will be alright."

Anna said.

"No, no, no, they're not the same thing. Safety? Of course I'm safe. Hao's men threatened me, saying that if I don't befriend Hao, there are many unsafe countries in the world. If I hold an art exhibition in the United States, maybe a Mexican gunman will come looking for me. If my grandfather goes for a stroll in Malaysia, maybe someone will throw sulfuric acid in his face."

"As for this matter, I always thought it was just a bluff and intimidation. Besides, Brother Hao is finished, so of course I'm not worried about anyone kidnapping me to the Xihe Club or putting me in a sack or something."

Gu Weijing felt as if he were surrounded by a chilling fear.

"The fear I'm talking about isn't about turning around and finding a gun pointed at my head. It's about casually walking into a café, into a bar, and finding a well-dressed man with a rose in his collar, perhaps petting a cat, raising a glass to me and asking—"

"Now, many years later, do you finally understand?"

"Mr. Gu."

Life is so beautiful.

Hao Ge said, "Everyone has a price." Hao Ge told Gu Weijing, "A person only has one destiny. Therefore, good and evil are meaningless; only destiny itself has meaning. Whether one becomes a good person or a bad person is determined the moment the dice are first rolled."

If fate puts you in the same position as me, then you will become me.

and so.

Why blame him?
“I need a reason. I need to tell myself that if that day had presented me with an incredible $5000 million, I would have refused it too. I need to find a reason to tell myself that a person shouldn’t have only one predetermined fate.”

"When I was seventeen, I refused that choice because I thought it was money to buy my life. I thought I could get the money but not spend it. I thought that getting involved with this money would lead to endless trouble."

"That's a good answer, a correct answer."

Miao Angwen has proven the correctness of this answer through his own suffering.

Gu Weijing said.

"I want a better answer, a more assertive answer."

Why shouldn't you do bad things? Because doing bad things will inevitably lead to punishment.

Why you shouldn't lie—because if you lie, a grumpy old man will throw a knock-off watch at your face, like a baseball.

Zen Buddhism teaches that there are six realms of reincarnation in the world.

If you hold good thoughts and do good deeds, you will accumulate good fortune and be reborn into a good family in your next life. Conversely, if you do too many evil deeds, you will enter the realm of hungry ghosts or animals and suffer the torments of Avici Hell.

Catholicism says that if you do good deeds, angels will guide you to heaven when you die, while those who commit heinous crimes will have to stay in hell.

In Egyptian legend, there is a scale in the underworld that weighs a person's heart. If it is lighter than a feather, the person will be allowed to ascend to heaven.

So, at the Xihe Guild Hall, Gu Weijing glared at Hao Ge and told him that if there was a hell in the world, he would have to obediently go to hell. If hell had eighteen levels, then he would have to go to the eighteenth level. If there were bubbling sulfur springs in hell, then he would have to go and soak in the bubbling sulfur springs.

but.

If there is no eternal cosmic will in this world, no angels with long wings, and no golden scales to measure good and evil after death, then in the vast universe, Earth is just a speck of dust, and humanity is just dust on top of dust.

Your life story, all the joys and sorrows of your life, are attached to this tiny speck of dust.

There is neither good nor bad.

There was no judgment.

There is neither heaven nor hell, only good and bad people together, returning to eternal oblivion.

So what should we do?

Imagine a winged ant god, holding a balance scale, meticulously calculating which of two ants was the "nobler" one in their previous lives. What reward does the nobler ant receive?
Should we make the orange-yellow pharaoh ant again?

Or perhaps a halo has appeared above its head, and it has been gloriously ascended to the ant kingdom, where there are piles of endless cheese-barbecue flavored potato chip crumbs.

Some people might feel that such an answer contains an assumption. The assumption that one shouldn't do bad things because doing bad things will be punished implies that if doing bad things could go unpunished, then it's permissible to do bad things.

Lying is wrong, because if you lie, a grumpy old man will throw his watch in your face.

Does this mean...?

If this grumpy old man hadn't appeared, then I could have lied.

"Why choose to tell the truth when lying can bring enough benefit?" Gu Weijing repeated. "This is a question that Samuel Kertzens asked us in his watercolor class. He said that this had happened to people around him time and time again."

"That day."

Gu Weijing sighed softly.

“I also asked myself: When doing bad things can bring enough benefits, why choose to do good things? Why, even if I believe that this matter will not seem to have any real punishment, can I still not compromise in any way?”

Gu Weijing said, "I am still looking for the answer to this question. I am looking for a reason not only to refuse $300 million, but also a reason to refuse $5000 million."

“I am a painter, and perhaps one day I will be able to become a true artist. I feel that I should answer this question.”

Nine-year-old Wittgenstein pondered this.

He told himself that this was "right," and that when lying could bring enough benefit, it seemed that lying was the best choice.

Gu Weijing was very scared, very scared.

one day.

After careful consideration, he will also feel that this matter is "right".

That's just how the world is.

He who steals a hook is a thief; he who steals a country becomes a lord. Since ancient times, heroes have written their own histories.

So……

What a tragedy this must be.

"But what if... this matter has nothing to do with Brother Hao? It's just that one day, someone gives me hundreds of millions of dollars to paint a work full of outstanding emotion. If it's well painted, all that money is mine."

"Can I refuse?"

"Can I really paint it? Can I truly purify my mind and devote myself wholeheartedly to creation now, and paint a good work?"

Gu Weijing gave a mocking laugh.

“Miss Elena, you are an outstanding art critic. I would like to ask you, what should I do if I actually paint it?”

"I need to be filled with longing for this banknote, and then I need to create a masterpiece that I've poured my heart and soul into, in exchange for it."

Gu Weijing asked, bewildered.

"I started drawing with a longing for money, and after I finished, a shiny gold check really appeared in front of me. So, did I draw a work of art, or did I go to the Federal Reserve to seriously learn how to draw genuine US dollars?"
-
"I'll handle the color-changing ink!"

—Chow Yun-fat in the movie "Project Gutenberg"—
"You were criticizing Sir John Browne, CDX, and Hermès's Muse Project at the European Art Congress, calling it a shameful degeneration and the erosion of the art market by money. You argued that artists should be free to express themselves. And then, something happened that made you unhappy."

Gu Weijing said, "Your first reaction was to pull out your checkbook, cast a spell, and bury Williams on the spot with a mountain of money. You destroyed him so easily."

"How many times do I have to say it? I gave Williams a choice!" Anna rarely spoke so loudly.

"What's the difference?"

Gu Weijing countered with a question.

“Williams played, and he messed up. You tell him that, unfortunately, he is not Bach, and every time he plays, you remind him that you gave him the opportunity to realize his dream, but he was not capable of it.”

“But if his agent had made him give up this opportunity that day, I think the two of them could have broken up immediately. How can an agent stop something like that? They would have become enemies on the spot. Even if, in a very small chance, Williams came to his senses and shook his head and refused.”

Gu Weijing imagined it.

"I don't think the result will be any different."

"For many years to come, every time he played the piano, he would think of this day. He would remember that there was once an opportunity to realize his dream, which was right in front of him, but he gave it up. He didn't even have the courage to try. He would still regret it and have sleepless nights."

“Miss Elena. You destroyed him with your philosophical knowledge and your insight into human nature. I believe that if Williams had really played that piece well, you would have rewarded him with what you promised. I also believe that the moment you opened your mouth, you knew this would be the outcome.”

“Great artists should be able to overcome difficulties and withstand pressure.” Miss Elena couldn’t understand why this guy never seemed to grasp it. “Williams didn’t succeed, that’s all. He didn’t have the potential to be great. If he were truly a person filled with pure artistic ideals, then he should have been able to play that piece well. It’s a fair trade! I’m willing to pay for greatness, but I won’t pay for mediocrity!”

Only those who have no greedy desire to possess the magic stone that turns stones into gold can become its master.

Potter!

“He’s only 20 years old, still a university student. It seems a bit too early to use words like ‘great’ to describe him,” Gu Weijing said. “You say he’s not Bach, but even Bach himself went to Leipzig to apply for a court musician position not out of any artistic ideals, but simply because he wanted an opportunity to infiltrate high society and gain exposure. That’s the story you told me.”

"Is this any different from Williams, who dreams of performing in Vienna's Golden Hall?"

Anna is angry.

She was rarely this angry.

Why does he have to use Williams' incompetence to criticize her?

“You don’t like Williams. You’ve blamed him.”

"Yes, I absolutely dislike Williams. I hate him terribly."

Gu Weijing also gave a mocking laugh.

“Miss Elena, you just don’t understand.”

“I’ve experienced the pain Williams went through, and I’ve felt the confusion he experienced. That doesn’t contradict my dislike for him. When you did this, you felt extremely happy, filled with the pleasure of successful revenge. You thought it was a victory of your own mind. Williams was nothing but a speck of dust in your eyes.”

"but me."

"When I heard this story, I felt like that helpless person being crushed was me."

"Do you know how much effort Williams put in to get to where he is today? I heard some rumors when I was taking classes at the Hamburg Conservatory of Music. I also stayed in a hotel with him. Whether it was staged or not, he was someone who practiced the piano relentlessly every moment. He would even look at sheet music while eating."

(End of this chapter)