Almighty painter

Chapter 323 Audience
Gu Weijing's heart moved.

He listened quietly to Miss Sakai telling her father's story.

This is something that will not be recorded in any art newspaper in the world. It is the darkest moment in Professor Sakai's life.

In Sakai Katsuko's narrative, there is no plump and smiling Asia's top artist, only an anxious young man with a broken and desperate heart.

He has never experienced anything similar to Uncle Sakai.

But Gu Weijing could still imagine what the scene would be like.

Similar things happen every day in the art industry.

Similar reports are repeated over and over in the news.

Some people even say that every great artist will encounter one or two friends who commit suicide in their life.

He imagined that before Katsuko was born, in that small studio in Osaka, a young painter was holding a pot of charcoal fire and facing a blank canvas alone.

The calendar on the wall was torn off day after day, like a death knell.

Uncle Sakai's life is going off the rails.

He lost the magic of painting and the ability to control his destiny.

So he decided to die.

At the end of the death knell, it was the funeral of his career and his life.

The contrast is too great.

So Gu Weijing couldn't help but have a picture emerge in his mind.

The sky in Osaka in this picture is not the always blue sky and white clouds in Japanese comics, with warm sunshine.

Instead, it is as dull and dull as a cloudy sky in Yangon. It seems that the saturation of the paint is too low, making it so gray that people can't breathe.

The young Professor Sakai is facing the camera sideways, with smoldering charcoal at his feet. He is blocking the gaps in the doors and windows with thick tapes, trying to block the last light in the gray sky from outside.

All he was left with was gloomy ashes.

"My father even prepared a copy of "Spring Dies" in his hands. It would be his relic." Sakai Katsuko pursed her lips: "That English poetry collection is still placed in our home by my mother. top shelf."

"Spring Dies" is a famous poem by Byron describing his abandonment by his lover.

Gu Weijing guessed that Uncle Sakai probably used this to express that he had been abandoned by his muse.

therefore.

His spring is over.

Like some kind of metaphor and contrast.

Those famous literary and artistic workers in Japanese history almost chose to end their lives by committing suicide one after another.

Dazai Osamu jumped into the river five times alone, Kawabata Yasunari, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Tanaka Hidemitsu, Arishima Takero, and of course the famous Mishima Yukio who launched a mutiny and then committed seppuku in a live broadcast on the TV camera.

But at the end of life.

Professor Kazunari Sakai did not choose the common Japanese practice of seppuku or hanging. He chose the dull and sad method of burning charcoal, and he also carried a sad book of poems with him.

Gu Weijing remembered that art media reported that when Uncle Sakai traveled across the ocean to study in Europe, his classmates would call him "Byron from the East."

perhaps.

That's not just because Uncle Sakai used to look like a handsome, thin guy.

Probably before he evolved into the broad-minded fat boy he is today, he did have a passionate and sensitive heart like a poet.

Uncle Sakai really once worshiped Byron.

"What happened next?" Gu Weijing asked in a daze.

"Later, my mother found out about it." Sakai Katsuko smiled.

"At that time, my grandfather was very disapproving of my mother and father's relationship. After my mother and father came to Japan to develop, he cut off her living expenses."

"My grandpa said that Spain is a free country and she can choose love. But since she chose to marry a yellow-skinned Tatar, she has to say goodbye to her original bag, lipstick, and Mercedes-Benz car. She is married to her husband If she chooses the former between her and her father’s expectations, her husband should ask for these things, not her father.”

"It's okay not to want to be a good daughter, but to choose the benefits of freedom, you must take on the responsibility of freedom." Ms. Sakai said, "Big galleries give very little creative subsidies to painters who cannot sell for money. My mother voluntarily gave up on the art path. I went to an advertising company in Osaka to apply for a job as a graphic designer. At that time, my mother was almost entirely responsible for their living expenses."

"She is very busy at work and often works overtime. She rarely disturbs my father's creation. In order to create a quiet painting environment for him, she almost never goes to the studio."

Sakai Katsuko said: "It's just that she felt that my father was absentminded all day long during that time, and she was a little worried, so she took leave and wanted to take him to watch a movie with her. When she pushed the door in, she happened to see that it was still confiscated in the open cabinet. A good charcoal basin, and my dad who was crying and writing a suicide note. She rushed over - "

"I understand. Auntie rushed over and gave Uncle Sakai a kiss just like you. That must have been a very shocking and touching scene for Uncle Sakai."

Gu Weijing nodded and interrupted.

He guessed how this would turn out.

A lover's kiss is the warmest thing in the world, and that's how he was pulled out just now.

"Uh……"

Sakai Katsuko was stunned for a moment: "That's not true. My mother was almost crazy at that time. She later said that I worked so hard to raise a man, but suddenly I bumped into him and decided to die like this. , who could not be angry? She rushed up and swung it round, then slapped my dad twice."

"What...two slaps?" Gu Weijing was shocked.

"Yes, they have only touched each other once in all their years of marriage. My mother slapped my father twice, very hard. The protrusion of the wedding ring on her finger scratched my father's face deeply. There was a lot of blood from the wound. If you look carefully now, you can see a very shallow mark on his face."

This is also quite cruel.

"Then Uncle Sakai will wake you up."

Gu Weijing sniffed.

After being slapped twice by his wife, he didn't want to die. Professor Sakai was also a strange person.Unexpectedly, there is a hidden masochistic tendency in his character that is not known to the world. "nor."

Sakai Katsuko continued to shake her head: "As I said, it was the first time my mother hit someone, and my father was stunned. He didn't even feel pain, he just felt in a daze, and felt that his wife suddenly became a stranger. Even death is not satisfactory, he feels that everything in the world is against him, and he is really a waste who can't do anything well."

"Well, Katsuko, keep talking, and then what. How did the uncle come out?"

Gu Weijing felt that he really couldn't grasp the brain circuits of the Sakai and his wife, the "fairy" couple.

Still don't guess.

"My mother grabbed my father's collar and, in her original words, like a helpless puppy that was lost and wandering, led my father to an unfinished building nearby. At that time, my father's face He was still bleeding and crying. They later found out that there was even an enthusiastic citizen who saw that scene, thinking that my dad was being abused, so he called the police station and called the police."

Sakai Katsuko smiled.

"Osaka is a city that 'grows secretly in decline'. During the construction of the city, there were many unfinished buildings left behind. Keigo Higashino also wrote "White Night Walk" on this theme. When they went there It’s a famous local suicide spot, and an unemployed middle-aged man just jumped from there two weeks ago.”

Miss Sakai held Gu Weijing's hand and intertwined her fingers: "My mother took him to the roof of the unfinished building. She told my dad that there is a possibility of being rescued by burning charcoal to commit suicide, and it would be an unpleasant death. I love you very much." , but I am really tired, and I don’t want to work hard while waiting outside the ward in panic, waiting for the doctor to save my husband.”

"But I really love you, so if you are ready, I am willing to accompany you through the last journey of your life. There are seventeen floors here, 50 meters high. The probability of falling to death is 100%, but It’s a matter of a moment.”

Sakai Katsuko's tone was unhurried and she slowly told her boyfriend the conversation between the desperate young couple.

She had heard this story countless times when she was a child, and it was probably the most important conversation in her parents' lives.

At this time, their daughter was retelling it in person, and Gu Weijing almost had the illusion of being there.

"My mother took off her high heels first and stood on the edge of the prefabricated board at the end of the building, with the Osaka night behind her. My father said that at that time, she seemed to be standing in the boundless neon night of the city, and there would be a gust of wind at any time. , will blow her away."

"My mother said that she is a person who is unwilling to look back after making a decision. She will not lower her head to her father and cry and say that she made the mistake of marrying the wrong man. Anyway, if you die, I will follow you. Jump down. And she is a Catholic. In her religious beliefs, people who commit suicide will fall into hell forever and will not be able to escape, so I asked Mr. Sakai to do her a favor——"

"But if you are really ready to end your life so hastily - please push me down first, and then jump off yourself. But you must always remember that I handed myself over to another person from my father. I believe in caring for my man, your cowardice will not only kill yourself, but also someone else who loves you."

"I will not blame you, nor will I regret it. But our souls will never embrace each other again. I will go to heaven and you will go to hell. I have paid for my love with my own life. From then on, life after life , I don’t want to be with such a cowardly person anymore.”

Gu Weijing lay on the board of the boat and stared blankly at the sky.

He still wore a blindfold, but he could better imagine the scene described by Miss Sakai's words.

A beautiful blond woman stood on a floor covered with cement chips and dust. Behind her were the lights of a modern city. At her feet were her high heels. In front of her was her husband who was trapped in a quagmire of depression.

She stood on the edge of the cliff with her bare feet, her clothes fluttering in the wind, and she spoke affectionate and decisive words.

I would die for you, but our souls would not be together.

Gu Weijing's impression of the mean and bitter Mrs. Sakai was actually very average, but he also felt that the scene he imagined in his mind was extremely cool and incredibly beautiful, almost like a conversation that would only happen on an opera stage.

"But if you still have the courage to draw a different ending to your life, pull me back. It doesn't matter if your painting is not good, nor does it matter what the critics like or dislike. It doesn't matter whether your work is popular or not. Appreciate it, and it doesn’t matter whether you get the next contract, the next gallery that wants to sign you. Even if no one in the country wants to appreciate your work.”

"I will also be your only audience."

Sakai Katsuko said word by word.

"Victor."

"Ok?"

"Your mother is awesome." Gu Weijing was so shocked that the hair on his hair stood on end.

"Yes, she is actually a very gentle person at heart. She is a very good mother and a very good wife. I can feel that my father will never be able to live without her for the rest of his life."

Sakai Katsuko nodded seriously.

"That night, my father stood there in the cold wind on the roof for 10 minutes, and then he hugged my mother over, crying and kissing her like crazy. He was afraid that she would die from his life. He ran away. After he returned home, he locked himself in the studio for seven days. Except for eating and the police came to the door once, he did not leave the studio for a week. Then he painted what he thought was the most awesome painting in his life. piece of work.”

Two weeks later, the agent knocked on the door of the studio with a notice of termination from Daejeon Art Gallery. With a false look of embarrassment, he handed over the contract for him to sign.

Uncle Sakai took the contract calmly, pointed to the work being dried on the easel, and asked the agent if he wanted to see the painting before making a conclusion.

The agent originally wanted to refuse.

When this kind of young painter who has been abandoned by the gallery receives a notice of termination, he will always think of various ways to struggle again, just like a frog who finally saw a corner of the vast sky of the colorful world outside before being thrown back to the bottom of the well.

I will always try my best to flutter.

He has seen many similar scenes.

He has seen people who were hysterical and tore up contracts but were unwilling to sign, and he has seen people who knelt down and kowtowed, begging the gallery to give him another chance and give him another promotional meeting.

It is really too naive to show a painting and expect the gallery to change its mind.

The agent originally wanted nothing to do with this young loser.

The decision to terminate the contract was made by Daejeon Art Gallery's senior management. Even if the other party drew a flower to impress the agent, it would have no effect.

He was just a notifier, telling Uncle Sakai to clear out the studio as soon as possible, because the studio itself was also an asset of the gallery.

After the contract is terminated, it will be taken back immediately and assigned to the next trial contract painter.

Kazunari Sakai just nodded to express his understanding, then took the contract notice and prepared to sign it.

Perhaps it was this guy's unusual indifference and calmness that surprised the agent, or maybe it was just a sudden curiosity. The agent stood on tiptoes and glanced at the easel facing the door through the crack in the studio door.

After staring for three seconds.

He snatched the contract from Kazunari Sakai's hands.

Howe tore it into pieces without hesitation.

"Sakai-san, you will stay. Although I am not the one who can make the decision, I promise you this. Please give me a chance to call and give yourself a chance."

Two 10 minutes later.

Uncle Sakai got a spot to participate in an art fair for the first time in his life.

(End of this chapter)