Almighty painter

Chapter 566 City Corner
Miss Koko reached out and patted Gu Weijing on the arm.

"Thank you, really. I won't refuse. Thank you for the money. Our family really needs it right now."

She folded the cashier's check and put it inside her clothes.

Koko stared at the hem of her skirt.

I left in too much haste just now.

When she left, she just took the change from the metal box next to the piano.

But I didn't have time to go backstage to change clothes.

The street lights at the intersection outside the car window cast shadows on her hands, feet, and skirt, with the unique dim yellow color of old-fashioned sodium vapor lamps.

The color reminded Koko of the sultry filament in an oven.

She was being roasted and baked little by little by the big oven of life.

Drain the water in your body bit by bit.

There was no shade to be found.

"Hiss."

Koko curled up her lips and dubbed softly in her heart.

I felt like I had turned into a large piece of tinfoil-covered beef brisket that was slow-roasted in the microwave.

The skirt in the bar was like tinfoil wrapped around her.

The messy atmosphere of the bar, the smell of alcohol on the customers, and the smell of various cheap powders on the skirts in the dressing room that came from nowhere were the sauces that were painted on her body.

Someday.

She would be transformed from a pink, bouncy, fresh and moist thing into a black mass after being fried and burnt on both sides.

No.

She is not a brisket, and life is not an oven.

She is the golden fallen leaves.

Life is the sun.

When spring came and she was still on the branches, the sunshine was warm, soft and charming, bringing her endless vitality and heat.

one day.

She fell from the branch and turned into a golden dead leaf.

Then the scorching sun burned her and drained her body.

When she can no longer squeeze out any water, her whole body will burn, curl up little by little, and turn into ashes.

No longer exists in this world.

Just like her mom.

"Let's go to Tide Market first. It's two blocks to the left next to the Central Station. Do you know it?"

Koko suddenly turned her head and looked at Gu Weijing.

"Has your family moved there now?"

Gu Weijing thought for a moment and asked.

Tide Market——Tide Market.

He had heard of it.

It is a very famous small commodity wholesale market in Yangon.

The products sold there are diverse, mainly low-priced clothing, home appliances, some perfumes and cosmetics that you have never heard of, women's handbags, quartz watches, and "Rolex" that costs less than a few dozen dollars and Adidas that costs a few dollars.

Of course, there are also various tourist souvenirs that are always indispensable.

It meets the cheap consumer goods needs of the city's millions of people.

It's a bit like the Yiwu small commodity wholesale market that can be seen all over the world, but the conditions are worse.

In fact.

Most of the goods here may actually come from Yiwu.

It is not called “Tide Market” because it is next to Yangon Port.

But it is usually around 4 or 5 in the morning when the sun just comes out.

The market is already open.

The shops inside began to prepare and adjust the goods.

All the shops converted from containers and small sheds were opened, and a huge stream of people poured in from the market gate.

When the sun sets in the evening, most of the stalls are closed again.

The influx of people disappeared again into the surrounding streets and alleys.

Disappear.

Just like the waves on the beach.

Always go and come back.

So despite its official name, locals still like to call it the nickname "Tidal Market".

Gu Weijing knew that Koko and her family had been evicted from their original government-assigned housing.

but.

He really didn't know where Koko lived now.

Koko never told him either.

After getting on the bus, everyone maintained a just right silence towards each other.

"No, my family is not there. My family moved to the east and lives in--"

Koko uttered a place name.

The name of an old-fashioned residential area that is crammed together like a pigeon nest.

"What a coincidence?"

Gu Weijing tilted his head, surprised.

He grew up in Yangon, but he is by no means a know-it-all or a walking map who knows the city streets like the back of his hand.

There is always a trade-off.

When Gu Weijing paints, he uses his brush to imagine the space, designs the composition so that the structure should be tight or distant, and whether he has a correct grasp of the visual focus.

He did well in these aspects.

It can even be called very good.

He was not the kind of useless guy who knew nothing. It was only after he picked up a treasure from an adventure that he transformed from an ugly duckling into a white swan, and from a dull idiot into a person who seemed to be blessed by God.

The latter part about divine intervention is true.

However, Gu Weijing can say this proudly.

Even without the system, he had an excellent talent for writing among ordinary people, and he could set his life goal of attending a top 100 prestigious university. If he was lucky, he might be able to stay in school and work as a researcher in a museum or something like that.

Or in the future I can go to Ubisoft, EA or something like that to do art design.

Strive to be a decent urban middle-class person.

The only thing he was not confident about was whether he could become a truly great artist among millions, a figure who could be included in art history textbooks, and become Mr. Cao's last disciple.

Other than that.

She's not as smart as Katsuko Sakai.

However, Gu Weijing's control over spatial distance can be considered a minor genius.

This was even certified by Brother Hao himself.

The other party thought that if they caught him and taught him to paint fake paintings, he would have a promising future, which was why he came to their house repeatedly in the beginning.

however.

These aspects are merely "paper talk".

Once it leaves the canvas as a carrier.

Often Gu Weijing would be at a loss all of a sudden.

He is eighteen years old, but he still can hardly tell the directions, and is even a little directionally challenged.

Once, the school organized a spring study tour to the zoo. In the blink of an eye, he got lost while going to the toilet. The whole group waited for him at the gathering point for half an hour before they found the teacher.

now.

Gu Weijing was surprised to find out.

He actually knew where Koko's home was. It was very close to the Good Luck Orphanage, so close that it was less than two blocks away.

He passes by that residential area every day.

It's a coincidence and it's not a coincidence.

The Hlaingtha district, where the Good Luck Orphanage is located, is home to Yangon's emerging labor-intensive industries and large slums.

In a place like Myanmar.

This area is famous for its low labor costs.

As long as you keep your living standards low enough, if you break a dollar into several pieces, it will be enough for you to sleep and eat for two or three days.

Koko's family is in a tight financial situation now.

If you want to find a place to settle down your whole family in a short period of time, there are actually not many other options except the Leiada district.

If Koko hadn't worked part-time in the bar street, when she took the night bus home every night, Gu Weijing and Sakai Katsuko would have already said goodbye to Miss Jasmine and gone back to their respective homes.

Back and forth.

The schedules are exactly opposite to each other.

They should have even run into each other several times earlier.

"Let me take you home later. Uncle Alai is familiar with the road over there. It's convenient and not a big deal." Gu Weijing suggested.

"Of course, but..."

Miss Koko nodded and then shook her head.

"I don't want to go home smelling like a bartender."

Koko combed her hair.

"I can't explain this to my father. I need to find a place to change my clothes, wash my hair, and clean my face. Please take me there, Gu Weijing, thank you for your help."

Gu Weijing originally told the other party that he thought all the clothing stores in the city should be closed at this time.

but.

He looked at the pleading look on Miss Koko's face.

He really couldn't say anything to refuse.
-
Unexpectedly.

When Uncle Alai's car stopped outside the market.

It was not as quiet and dark as Gu Weijing had imagined, like a silent wasteland or a supermarket after closing at night, with a spooky atmosphere.

It turned out to be a very busy scene here.

Yes, many shops have closed down.

However, there are still many stalls with lights on.

In front of the small stalls behind the closed doors, various light bulbs were hanging from spider-web-like wires connected from the sky.

Usually there is no lampshade.

It is a wire connected to the light bulb.

Yellow tungsten filament lamps, white energy-saving lamps, cheap copper filament lamps and diode light strips hung on the wall signs are intertwined.

Shaky.

Fading in and out.

They are far from being brilliantly lit.

But one light after another stretched to the end of the field of vision.

Yellow and white.

It was as if the twinkling Milky Way in the sky and the summer fireflies underground were combined together.

There is no heaven and no earth.

A world with only twinkling stars.

Unexpectedly beautiful.

"First time here? Perhaps Master Gu has never been to a 'supermarket' like this with a girl?"

Koko looked at Gu Weijing who was gazing into the distance intently, pursed her lips slightly and smiled.

She took two steps forward.

Turning around, he waved to the young man who was still standing there staring at the market sign in a daze, "Come on, come on, help me pick out two pieces of clothing."

Koko is right.

Although this grand market is very famous throughout Yangon, this is Gu Weijing's first time here.

Therefore,
Of course, it is impossible for him to go to the market here with any girl.

Let’s not talk about Katsuko Sakai.

Even Mona.

The student union president also had an innate reflex to decline such places.

One time they were out playing and coming out of the central train station.

It was a hot day and happened to pass by here.

Gu Weijing casually suggested that they should go inside to see if there was any place selling cold drinks.

"No, thank you. Please believe me, Gu. When I was in Bangalore, I had already used up all the money I had to go to places like this in this life, the next life, and the next life."

Mona took a big step back and dragged him away in an almost forceful manner. "It's like... like a third-class cabin there. You wouldn't want to find sugar water to drink there. For sheep huddled together, licking someone else's sweaty armpits is like drinking sugar and salt water."

For a long time.

Gu Weijing didn’t quite understand what “that’s the third class cabin” meant.

Until later.

He read in a very interesting travelogue that India's trains range from the comfortable, civilized, magnificent, and luxurious first-class cabins with servants to take care of them personally, to the third-class cabins that the lower classes can buy, where not only are there women's washrooms, but even the toilets are equivalent to the floor.

It's like the epitome of class division.

After India abolished the caste system in 1947.

By looking at which carriage he takes on the train, you can more clearly distinguish which class a person belongs to than by looking at his name.

How to deal with the extremely poor riding conditions for third-class passengers has been a long-standing problem in India's political tradition for almost the entire past century.

The BBC reported it.

Every year, there are more than a thousand cases of third-class passengers being squeezed off trains and falling to their deaths.

Mahatma Gandhi once famously complained about third class carriages - the railways treated their third class passengers as if they were sheep being transported in carriages.

They think that the comforts that passengers need are the comforts that sheep need.

Nehru said, "Even watching the passengers sitting in the third-class carriage is a painful and maddening thing."

It turns out.

His daughter was indeed mad.

Even after coming to power, Indira Gandhi could no longer tolerate the traffic and announced a new policy - starting from 1974, all third-class carriages would be renamed second-class carriages.

Gu Weijing and Miao Angwen were as poor as beggars in Dulwich, compared with their classmates in school.

In Yangon, their family is not really considered a “Third class” group.

Koko calls him Young Master Gu.

Although it was a girl's teasing, if we were outside the Dulwich campus, calling him "Young Master" would not be considered too flattering.

The worker who came from Mumbai to work at Mona's Tiancheng Gold Shop always called him "Young Master" and "Young Master Weijing".

Not to mention that the calligraphy and painting shops on both sides of the Yangon River are originally an important tourist street for selling goods to tourists.

There is no need to go far away.

The main target customer group of this market is not quite compatible with Gu Weijing's family.

Maybe... he has something in common with Old Man Gu.

When Gu Tongxiang heard that there were big "gold" watches for sale here for thirty dollars, he was secretly tempted and wanted to buy one for himself to show off.

later.

The old man hesitated for a long time and felt that the neighbors nearby knew each other well.

Don't even mention wearing a fake watch.

Even if he grits his teeth and really buys a genuine second-hand gold Rolex, when he goes out to show it off, people may think it is a fake watch.

The pretense is not good enough.

So I had to give up.

"Come here. I remember there's a small door here that leads directly to the clothing area for the next few trips."

Koko was like a nimble little deer returning to its familiar territory, holding her red skirt in both hands and moving nimbly in the steel market built from container boxes.

Passing by stalls with painted symbols and shortcut signs in Burmese abbreviations, newcomers like Gu Weijing could not understand their meaning at all.

She led him.

All the way to the depths of the steel jungle formed by containers.

Gu Weijing quickened his pace and stepped over a puddle of suspicious foamy liquid on the ground that was flowing from the leaking makeshift toilet nearby, trying to keep up with Miss Koko.

After really getting closer to this wholesale market.

Gu Weijing discovered that this place was neither as beautiful as he saw from the lights outside, nor as scary and full of monsters as Miss Sandenu had imagined.

Just like its name.

This is just a big market, a tidal market that changes between busy and quiet depending on the flow of people.

Now at this point in time.

It is right in the middle area between low tide and high tide.

Some of these container stalls, which were still lit, were receiving goods, with all kinds of small commodities being unloaded from small trucks, while others were shipping goods, with wholesale bales of dyed cotton and nylon labeled and loaded onto trucks.

Some shop owners were making phone calls in front of their stalls.

A shopkeeper is counting the accounts.

Some people just leaned against the container and smoked one cigarette after another. The other person's eyes followed Miss Koko's bright red skirt, and when he found that Gu Weijing was looking at him, he retracted his gaze and stared at the poker game on his phone in a daze.

This place is like a maze-like jungle hidden in the city.

Birds and beasts, nocturnal animals and diurnal animals gather together, working or resting, and everyone has a strong purpose.

Only Gu Weijing.

He looked like a shepherd boy who had strayed into this place while chasing a red spotted deer, feeling a little lost and at a loss.

no doubt.

The complex smell here alone is enough to drive away guests like Miss Mona.

It cannot be simply described as "stinky" or "fragrant".

Like most things in the world, this isn't an occasion that can be summed up in such simple words.

It not only stinks, but also smells good.

It is difficult for Gu Weijing to describe such a complex feeling.

Sight, smell, and even hearing.

What you see, what you smell, what you hear, it's all mixed together and firmly tied to your footsteps.

Constantly changing with the space.

Most of the time, the air here is rather polluted.

Whether it smells good or bad depends on whether you just passed by a night snack stall that sells local specialties such as fried tofu spring rolls and bubbling fish soup noodles by a cart connected to a gas tank with a rubber tube, or a makeshift toilet that is leaking water.

It's hard to describe something that makes you want to cry.

It could be a glass perfume bottle that was accidentally broken in the corner by someone while moving goods, or it could be the strong smell of disinfectant coming from the container of a bathroom supplies store.

It could also be the rat that Gu Weijing almost stepped on just now - it was unknown how long it had been dead, but in the sweltering weather in Yangon during the day, the rat had already begun to rot.

Ok.

Based on this last point, Gu Weijing at least agreed with one of Miss Sandenu's points.

"This is definitely not a good place to get a cold drink."

Some times.

The above states are even superimposed on each other, and several tastes are also superimposed on each other and exist at the same time. Your senses are blurred and you can't tell what kind of feeling you have captured.

Even time is blurred.

Gu Weijing saw the shop assistant lying on a camp bed with bare shoulders and wearing only a pair of shorts. He was rubbing his sleepy eyes and getting ready to get up.

In some shops, people were taking off their clothes, yawning loudly, pulling the army green electric fan over and blowing it towards the bed.

It seems like he is getting ready to go to bed.

Gu Weijing was not even sure whether the shop owner who was buying fried dough sticks was having a late night snack or an early breakfast.

It's such a strange feeling that is hard to capture and describe.

Taste, senses, time, space, everything is integrated into one in this wholesale market, around Gu Weijing.

Every feeling is part of this place.

Just like the noisy sonata composed of various complex and inseparable sounds when the Elantra car is running at high speed.

The physics textbook says that gas, liquid and solid are mixed together.

Water vapor, carbon dioxide and a small amount of sulfur dioxide...all of these mix together to form the smoke we see.

And the lights, snack stalls, grocery stores, perfumes, mice, squeaking, gurgling, beeping...all these elements mixed together around Gu Weijing.

A thick, almost indissoluble smell of fireworks was formed.

of course.

It can also be simpler.

To sum it up with the theme of the Singapore Biennale -

"It's not like Dulwich floating in the clouds, nor is it like the orphanage sinking in the mud. Here is the hustle and bustle of the world." Gu Weijing said to himself.
-
"The shops here all have different operating hours. Although the market gates don't open until dawn, some early wholesale stalls start business at three in the morning. Now is the time for them to prepare goods. For them, a new day has begun from now on."

Koko noticed Gu Weijing's gaze, stood in front waiting for him, and spoke.

"Some shops are open from the afternoon until 11pm, so for them, the old day has not even ended yet. Now is the time for them to sort out the gains of the past day and count the accounts."

"Koko, isn't this your first time here?"

Gu Weijing looked at her.

What is even more difficult to understand is that he has lived in this huge market for 18 years but has never set foot in it.

It turns out that this is not Miss Koko’s first time here.

This is not my first time here.

She came here as if she were at home.

This is not something that can be explained by the fact that the family has become poor and has to start thinking about saving money and buying some cheap small commodities.

To know.

Just a few weeks ago, Koko was still a wealthy girl with no worries about food and clothing.

In private aristocratic schools, they are among the few students with the best family conditions.

Mona is totally unable to accept the environment here, let alone Koko?
This place and the official residence where she lives are completely two different dimensions of the world.

And Koko.

She seemed to know every structure in the market, even where the small doors were.

"I haven't been here for some years, but once a place like this is opened, its structure hardly changes," Koko said softly.

"When I was a kid, my mom would come here often, and sometimes she would bring me with her."

(End of this chapter)