Almighty painter

Chapter 498 Overseas Plan
"I have a big client to talk to later. I need to go to Diplomat Avenue, which is not in the same direction as Dulwich. I won't take you to school in the morning. You two can take a taxi yourself."

The uncle pushed aside the empty soy milk bowl next to him.

Holding a cigarette in his hand, he walked to the window and pushed open a gap. Looking at the waves on the river, he puffed away happily.

They have two cars.

A family SUV used to carry supplies needed for daily visits to some calligraphy and painting shops, and an old man’s precious Lexus.

Lexus' 4.0 large-displacement self-priming eight-cylinder engine from the s used relatively waste oil.

In addition, Gu Tongxiang is old and doesn't use it much except when the old man goes out to play by himself or attends important business occasions.

After Gu Weijing entered tenth grade, he basically took his uncle's car to school in the morning.

"It rained heavily all night and it hasn't completely stopped yet. It's not easy to take a taxi."

Gu Lin didn't seem to sleep well last night.

My cousin had a dark circle under her eyes and was scrolling through her cell phone.

Hearing this,

She immediately raised her head and suggested impatiently: "Otherwise, why not go to school today? Please take a day off. I think many people in the group don't want to go today."

"It's the same at school. It's raining, so I don't know if classes will be suspended or something."

"How can you not go to school? You are about to graduate. The school recruitment fair is just in these two months. Getting into college is a lifelong matter. It costs so much money to go to a private middle school. Now my brother has signed a contract with an art gallery. He has good connections. There is a good way to go, have you signed it? I don’t need to worry about other people’s relationships every day..."

The aunt who was cleaning up the kitchen immediately frowned when she heard this and stuck her head out to scold her.

"Okay, okay, because I'm about to graduate, I don't have any classes to take in school, and I've already finished my resume. I can prepare for the school recruitment fair at home, and I can still have some peace and quiet."

Gu Lin's tongue-breaking skills tended to be better than his own.

She and her aunt muttered to each other, interrupting each other's babble: "Mom, you've been chattering all day long, as if you think you who pretend to go to school with your schoolbag on your back every day have studied hard, and you shouldn't still be brushing it off. It’s time to binge-watch the drama, and it’s time to fall in love…”

Gu Tongxiang looked at the lively scene on the table with a smile.

My grandson is now so promising, and his desire to be an Eastern-style parent is slowly starting to fade away.

Children and grandchildren have their own children and grandchildren.

Just let nature take its course.

Gu Tongxiang did not get involved in the quarrel between mother and daughter. He stood up, held his waist and stretched his neck, and heard a numb and sore creak from his spine.

Then he shook his head happily and commented.

"It's good to rain, but the weather is getting hotter day by day. A heavy rain will make it cool for a few days. Late spring is a good time to be carefree, look at the waves outside the window, and take a dip in the lake Longjing tea and storytelling are called freedom.”

Old Man Gu curled his lips at his grandson and said in hindsight: "Since last year, I have asked you to go for a ride with grandpa and teach you how to drive. I don't have to pretend to do it. I have always said that driving is a survival skill. Boys have to learn. You see, if you learn it by yourself, you can drive your own car to school now."

Myanmar is the same as Thailand.

Motorcycles are the most common form of transportation.

Middle school students as young as teenagers can get a motorcycle license.

It is quite common for minors to ride a scooter. Gu Weijing was given a ride on Kou Kou's motorcycle.

of course.

Theoretically, you still have to be eighteen years old to get a serious four-wheel motor vehicle driver's license.

Where there are theories, there are wild exceptions.

The land beneath their feet was full of exceptions.

Wild criticism.

Even though Yangon can be considered a well-ordered big city compared to the Golden Triangle in the north, there are still not many people who obey the traffic rules.

Yangon Province is a large city with a population of more than five million, and there are only a few cameras. With this population density, it is completely difficult to play a real role.

There are also very few traffic police.

In recent years, the government has belatedly realized the problem and is planning to jointly build an urban traffic management system with Dongxia.

In the shops on both sides of the river.

Many minors younger than Gu Weijing have already begun to take care of themselves when their parents are too busy to take care of them.

I drove a van to pick up groceries for my family.

"No, I won't turn eighteen in more than two months, so I can't drive."

Gu Weijing is a person who is very willing to follow legal rules and legal order.

How can the country change for the better if everyone accepts breaking the rules as normal?
"It's up to you, your generation is like flowers in the greenhouse. It's good to follow the rules, but life also requires the bravery and unruliness to break the order. You can't really live like a boring monk. Studying and painting are life part of it, but not all of it.”

Gu Tongxiang put on a coat and walked out of the restaurant with a swaying waist. "Back then, your grandfather and I went to the countryside to work hard and collect paintings. It would be silly if we followed the rules in everything..."

Gu Weijing listened to the sound of the old man blowing the calfskin fading away, and stood up after finishing his meal.

He looked at the rain outside the window and thought about his plans for today.

Painting that is truly immersed in one's whole heart is something that can make a painter very satisfied and excited.

After a night of copying.

He was a little tired, but not sleepy.

Very energetic.

I don't want to waste all the good time during the day sleeping.

He actually wanted to go to school today. There was something else going on at Dulwich, and Teacher Wattle left him a message on Whatsapp.

Ask him to come to school and go to his office, saying that he has something to discuss with him.

Gu Weijing guessed that it was probably about the "Museum" Island. The sketch teacher must be very happy to get the painting that he had been thinking about for more than ten years, and he probably wanted to thank him in person.

but.

There is no rush in this matter, it will happen another day.

My cousin is right about one thing, the weather is really not good for taking a taxi.

He didn't want to send Uncle Alai over from the orphanage early in the morning just to take him to school.

The uncle still wants to send little girl Jasmine to school.

"If there is really no other way, then I won't go to school today -" He glanced at the rain-soaked road outside the window again.

"You see, my brother also agrees with me. Just take a day off." Gu Lin immediately agreed.

"It just so happens that everyone is staying at home, so I can find time to make up for my grandfather's lessons." Gu Weijing continued, "I have corrected all the copying works of the paintings in the past few days, but I feel that " I haven’t absorbed the key points of knowledge about "Mountain and Stone Spectrum" very well. If I happen to have some free time, I can stare at it one-on-one and paint all the paintings I copied from the beginning to the end. "

Gu Weijing thought to himself.

The technical level of Gu Tongxiang's current traditional Chinese painting works has been able to stabilize at a panel data of around LV.4 (4700/5000).

It has almost returned to the same level as when Mr. Gu's painting was at its peak ten years ago.

In less than a week, such a change can occur.

Gu Tongxiang flew up proudly.

But Gu Weijing still felt a little slow.

Grandpa had a solid foundation to begin with, if only he had been whipped harder by the pointer behind him.

Maybe you can reach the completion of the first level of career more quickly.

Then you can seek a breakthrough.

"Take time to do a whole day of intensive training. Well, seventeen paintings. If we progress fast enough, it will take seven or eight hours. By the evening, we should..."

"no!"

Old man Gu, who had just twisted his waist to go out and was about to make a beautiful pot of tea and enjoy the breeze, suddenly looked ugly.

At some point, he wandered back from the door again.

"Having said that, it's still important to go to school."

I want to be supervised by my grandson and spend a whole day painting in the dark.

Gu Tongxiang's demeanor at this moment could not be traced to the same unruly old man who just declared that "life needs to be broken."

"What is the main job of young people? Studying! You don't have to go to school if you don't want to? Gu Lin, your dad doesn't have time to send you to school, so I will. Grandpas, even if they are older, can do it for their children. What do these efforts mean?”

Gu Tongxiang lectured with a straight face.

"Quickly, pack your things right away. I'll drive you to school right now. We'll set off in five minutes, but you mustn't be late. There is no child in our old Gu family who doesn't want to study!"
-
"By the way, on this day, the Golden Sword Commander Yang Jiye took his troops back to the camp. He watched the sky at night and saw that there was going to be... in the south..."

On the car radio, Liu Lanfang's "The Generals of the Yang Family", which was connected to MP3 through the cigarette lighter interface, was playing. Gu Tongxiang drove with a straight face, occasionally glancing at Gu Weijing and Gu Lin secretly through the rearview mirror.

The old man thought quietly in his heart: Just send his grandson away, it will be fine, he will be liberated if he sends him away! After they were sent away, no one would do any strengthening exercises.

"By the way, Grandpa, I thought about it yesterday and there is an important matter that I want to discuss with you. I hope you can agree."

Gu Tongxiang suddenly felt his anus tighten.

I almost hit the brakes.

After calming down his mind, the old man took a deep breath.

"As promised in advance, plus the daily copying tasks, it's really too much for me. No matter what you say, I have this ability, and if I continue to draw, my hand will cramp-"

Gu Tongxiang didn't know.

The expression on his face at this moment was the same as that of Uncle Sakai, who was thousands of miles away, lying on the fitness chair next to the Smith machine, his white belly dangling like a dead pig, facing the fitness instructor who wanted him to do more aerobics, with an expression of desperate refusal. .

There is actually a similarity of up to seven points.

As long as you practice, you can improve. There are not many opportunities to encounter such good things in your life.

Gu Tongxiang knows this truth.

But the body is really not transferred by the spirit and will.

Gu Tongxiang was really beaten by his grandson recently. Nowadays, the amount of copying tasks every day is done by saying goodbye to the pastime activities that most old men and women like to see, and they can overcome it with a single heart.

If you add more amount.

Even with the "carrot" of becoming a great painter hanging in front of him, the old man was really going to roll around, lie on the ground, and rebel.

"Don't worry. It's not about copying new paintings." Gu Weijing shook his head.

"Okay then...just tell me."

Gu Tongxiang breathed a sigh of relief.

As if he thought of something, he hurriedly added, "No matter how hard you review and strengthen your practice, it won't work! Your grandfather and I are growing hair recently, and the doctor said we should go to bed early. It's just those few precious hair follicles. If we don't get better, Take care of yourself..."

"Grandpa, I think that as soon as I graduate, our family will simply pack up our belongings, sell the calligraphy and painting shop, and move. The whole family will go abroad."

Gu Weijing spoke softly and expressed his firm thoughts yesterday.

squeak--

The car slowed down sharply and stopped under the shade of a green street tree on one side.

The atmosphere in the carriage became quiet almost instantly.

The Lexus LS series was indeed the crown jewel of Japanese cars at the time. In the 1980s, its sales volume and price surpassed that of the Mercedes-Benz S flagship car.

Forty years have passed now.

After Gu Tongxiang's diligent maintenance and replacement of aging rubber seals, it still maintains a high level of sound insulation.

With the wheels stopped, most noise from the outside world is blocked out.

The only sounds in the car were the sound of storytelling, the sound of rain falling from the branches hitting the windshield, and the slight trembling of the engine when it was idling.

"move place?"

Gu Tongxiang turned down the volume of the radio to the lowest level with a sullen face and said nothing.

Gu Weijing also stopped talking.

As soon as the opportunity to skip school slipped away, my cousin Gu Lin had been browsing the outfit guide on INS with a bad face.

At this moment I heard Gu Weijing's words.

She opened her mouth slightly in shock and gave Gu Weijing a look that clearly contained gloating.

Dare to say this.

Very brave.

She clearly knew the importance of this calligraphy and painting shop passed down from generation to generation in her grandfather's heart.

His father and grandfather were all born here, grew up here, and aged here. They were also buried in the cemetery not far away.

Gu Tongxiang himself was born here.

From a child wearing crotchless pants to an old man in his sixties with wrinkles on his face.

This is where generations of family memories condense.

Easterners say that where their ancestors' graves are, their souls are rooted.

Ever since their family sold their house in Baishun Hutong, Beijing, and came to Yangon, this painting shop by the river has been the deep root that the entire Gu family has taken root in Myanmar for five generations.

Strong memories shaped by hundreds of years of family ties.

To her grandpa.

This is the lifeblood.

If Gu Tongxiang agrees to move, wouldn't it cost the old man his life?

The silence seemed to last for a long time and seemed to last only a few seconds.

at last.

Gu Tongxiang said, "Well, tell me? When do you want to move? Where do you want to move?"

"The sooner the better, just book a flight for this summer vacation."

"If you can, leave as soon as you graduate. If you want to go back to your real hometown to have a look, then go to Dongxia. Otherwise, if you really want to continue running a painting shop, Sakai Katsuko's mother has an apartment in Nagoya She tactfully expressed that she would like to invite us to live there. It is also a land influenced by the Eastern Xia cultural circle. It is said that with a few changes, a gallery can be opened directly. "

"Japan?"

"Yeah, but personally, I actually recommend that we move to Germany. I will spend my entire college career there, and if development goes well, I may develop there for many years to come. The family will be closer, and we will live there. Convenient. And Germany and France are next to each other——"

Gu Weijing's tone paused for a few seconds and hesitated before speaking again.

"It's also close to where my dad works. You guys haven't seen each other for many years. I just took a short-distance flight on the weekends, so I went over to visit."

Gu Weijing had already thought about these things clearly.

Now when it comes to the arrangements for moving, we already have a rough plan.

He knew about his grandfather's nostalgia, so he specially moved out the father who had been separated for many years.

This example was given.

Gu Weijing just hopes to impress the other person with family affection.

After all, father and son are connected... It's not that Gu Weijing and his father are connected, but that Gu Tongxiang and his son are connected.

Emotions must be cultivated.

Not long after Gu Weijing was born, his father immediately gave birth to him.

In the past eighteen years, Gu Wei has not really met his father a few times except on the phone.

to be frank.

Gu Weijing didn't have any deep feelings for his father.

On the contrary, although Gu Tongxiang was a stubborn old man, he was so angry that he never took the initiative to pay attention to the second son who he originally hoped to inherit the family business.

But that is still the child that the old man has raised since childhood.

Gu Weijing knew in his heart that after so many years of separation, the old man must still miss her in his heart.

"Japan is not good and it is not suitable."

Gu Tongxiang thought for a moment and hit the steering wheel heavily with his palm.

The car horn beeped, seeming to reject the suggestion.

"Let's not talk about anything else."

"Ms. Sakai's family is rich, and we are grateful for their intention. But our family is not so poor that we are begging for food, right? You haven't done anything yet, so you live in the girl's house. What does it look like? They don't care about a house. , or maybe they don’t care about the money at all, but this is a matter of principle. They are kind-hearted, and we must not be ignorant and take advantage of Miss Sakai’s family. Otherwise, in the future, when you two children get along, there will always be something wrong. tone."

Gu Tongxiang's tone was firm.

Gu Weijing's eyes lit up slightly.

Grandpa only said that moving to Japan is not possible, but it does not mean that moving is not possible. The tone here is very subtle.

He remembered that the adults said that when his father wanted to take his newborn son to live in France, Gu Tongxiang was scratching his neck, banging the table and shouting that if no one inherited this property passed down from his ancestors, in his generation broken. He turned around and went to jump in the Yangon River.

For Gu Tongxiang, a stubborn character from an Eastern family, this is also a huge change.

"Aren't you going to criticize me? I thought you would be angry."

Gu Weijing said tentatively.

"Why are you criticizing you? Are you criticizing you for wanting to move up the ladder and live a better life? Your grandfather is not that stubborn."

Gu Tongxiang shrugged his shoulders and lowered the car window slightly, letting the cool air outside the window hit his face.

"I didn't want to leave before. On the one hand, I felt that this is our ancestral business after all. Our family has been in this business for more than ten generations. This calligraphy and painting shop alone has been open for hundreds of years. It was broken in my hands. After all, I didn't feel right. It's a matter of fact. On the other hand, I think your father's business of financial speculation is frivolous and has no success. "

"Don't look at me when I got the opportunity to work in France. I was very proud of myself. In a few years, I still don't know what it will be like. And our calligraphy and painting shop, well, let's not say it is a business of this size. People or cultural people put money on their faces. Our grandfather and grandson knew that our original business was not in line with the serious high-end gallery industry. We were just small craftsmen."

Gu Tongxiang sighed.

"Craftsmen can't make a lot of money, but they usually don't starve to death. They just have a stable meal. You see, in those difficult and turbulent years, my parents still relied on this small painting shop. Did painting New Year pictures and writing Spring Festival couplets for the Chinese bring me up safely?"

Gu Tongxiang smiled warmly: "Actually, your grandfather and I are not a very peaceful person. He had great ambitions back then, but when Gu Lin and you and his two grandchildren were born, my grandfather's heart suddenly became smaller. I don’t want to think about wealth and splendor, I feel that the most rare thing in life is stability.”

"Have you changed your mind now?"

Gu Lin asked curiously.

"Oh, because here, being a craftsman is not stable. The world has really changed now. When I grew up, the art market was far from what it is today. Moreover, although it was chaotic, it was just fighting between warlords. Come and fight, just keep your head down and dodge the bullets. No gangster godfather wants to recruit you just because you draw a good picture. "

Gu Tongxiang shook his head, "After Brother Hao came to visit, I spent a lot of time thinking about whether I had wasted your life by preventing you from going to France. Until later, first the Shwedagon Pagoda, and then the Ma Shi Gallery Then I had the confidence to raise my head and stand up. Your father knows that my grandson is born to be a great painter."

"I have lived in this city all my life. So I can vaguely feel that something is not right here recently."

Gu Tongxiang pointed to the old capital of Myanmar outside the window.

"It's time to go."

He took a long breath.

"If my grandson is a skilled craftsman, then the ancestral legacy is still worth cherishing. But my grandson will be the most famous and top-notch painter when he is born, so a small painting shop with a few hundred square meters is nothing. Shit. If I force you to be kidnapped here by "family affection" or "morality", wouldn't that delay your life? Then I, an old guy, should really fall into the Yangon River and drown. It's not just you two. When we go to study abroad, our whole family must leave cleanly so that we don’t feel worried.”

"We really want to move, do we have enough money? Is our family already so rich? Doesn't my mother say all day long that just raising money to study abroad in college is almost draining the family!"

Gu Lin's eyes shone.

For a girl her age, being able to live abroad is very bourgeois and very attractive.

"Money is not a problem. However, I don't want to move to Germany. Your grandfather and I are so old. It's too difficult for me to learn German from scratch. Besides, I have to think about it for Gu Lin's parents. Even if they move, Do they stay at home every day and do nothing? We must move to an English-speaking country.”

"Even if I don't mention it today, I still want to discuss it with you in a few days."

"Your grandpa and I have signed a contract with Mashi Gallery now. In the second half of this year, the British branch of Mashi Gallery will have a new era art development plan in cooperation with "Oil Painting". I want to participate. It can also be considered as a way to explore the future for you."

Gu Tongxiang seemed to have thought about this issue very seriously before Gu Weijing opened his mouth.

(End of this chapter)