Almighty painter

Chapter 581 Aesthetic Soil and the Release of "The Blazing World"

Media predictions.

As expected, the winner of this year's "Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art" is Roald Henri, the author of the best-selling book "Vegas Boxer", which Anna ridiculed as a copycat of "Fight Club".

The remaining four winners of the "Outstanding Contribution Master Award".

Offer profit-sharing spots to the poet, the investigative journalist, and the photographer.

The final shortlisted illustrator was different from Wehrlein, whom Osborne had favored.

The travel leaflet in his hand gave the version of the predicted list listed by The New York Times - the winner was Gina, the author of "Oh, Gypsy, Gypsy".

An old-school painter versus a rising star, the odds of winning or losing between these two people are pretty much the same.

It seems that in the eyes of the mass media.

Political correctness is more important than the reputation of old-school illustrators.

It is understandable that in the past two years, when it comes to such controversial social issues, judges of all awards in New York, as a stronghold of the Democratic Party, have been quite cautious.

The American literary and art circles have their own unique sensitivity and cautious tendencies.

Whenever it involves minorities or marginalized groups.

Many works that receive poor reviews overseas often receive unanimous positive reviews in the United States.

It will also be easier to win awards, and even some critics who are known for being big haters will become cautious.

It's not because critics can't find possible problems with the work.

Instead, you should be careful not to be accused of making offensive remarks.

Wehrlein ranked sixth out of twelve candidates on the list of names predicted by the media to have the highest to lowest chance of winning.

It is exactly the dividing line between winning and not winning.

This shows that he is also the strongest challenger to the previous artists among the remaining candidates in the public's mind.

Detective Cat ranked ninth.

Look.

The media still showed a cautious attitude.

It doesn't seem very confident that an anonymous illustrator who has just debuted can achieve success overnight and win the most important award in the illustration industry in one fell swoop.

"Indeed, if Mr. Jian Arnold had not been so uncharacteristically strong in recommending her during the judges' discussion, her chances would not have been very high this time. Detective Cat is still somewhat lacking in experience and experience. This is no longer the era in the last century when college students could directly enter the main competition unit of the grand prize based on their works at the art academy graduation exhibition."

Osborn shrugged.

He took a look.

Professor Sakai, who claimed that he wanted to experience the urban culture of New York, hugged a donut with drooping eyelids and was about to fall asleep after getting on the bus.

Sudden.

Osborne asked curiously, "Mr. Sakai, what do you think about Jane Arnold's case?"

Huh?
"Do you also know the important decision he is going to announce? What happened to his illustration studio?" Kazunari Sakai raised his eyelids, turned his head and looked at Osborne in surprise.

"Uh...what?"

Osborne was startled.

Kazunari Sakai was also stunned.

He had originally wanted to come to New York a few days ago to discuss cooperation matters with Jane Arnold.

After all, such a large project will be a very long process.

It never goes wrong to start preparing a few days early.

When communicating with Jane Arnold, he politely and tactfully said that the reason he was invited to attend this year's "Writing and Art Awards" ceremony was because he wanted to wait until after the ceremony.

He will announce an important decision regarding his illustration studio on the spot.

As for discussing the next step of cooperation.

You can wait until Mr. Sakai hears his important decision tonight, think about it, and it won’t be too late to make a decision.

The two men stared at each other for a few seconds across the donut in Kazunari Sakai's arms.

then.

Both parties realize that they may have misunderstood each other and are not talking about the same thing.

"Oh, what I'm asking is, since you've come to attend the award ceremony tonight, what do you think about the award results, Mr. Sakai?" Osborne was the first to react, easing the awkward situation of looking at each other in silence.

He waved the flyer in his hand towards Kazunari Sakai.

Then handed it to him.

"I heard that Mr. Jane Arnold, the lifetime honorary chairman of the Writing and Art Awards Jury, seems to appreciate the detective cat lady to a degree that exceeds many people's expectations."

"Oh, this one."

"She is quite good and draws very well. My daughter even bought her set of The Little Prince."

Sakai Kazunari snorted.

"What about the list of winners?" Osborne continued to ask.

"It doesn't matter who is chosen. They are all good. I'm fine with any of them." Kazunari Sakai answered without revealing anything.

In the European and American literary and art circles, there are a large number of big trolls who like to speak without restraint.

But maybe it's cultural.

Internationally, the personal expressions of Asian artists are relatively more reserved.

In any sense, when he is outside, Uncle Sakai is a very stable person.

He was not very familiar with Osborne.

I have no hatred or resentment towards this year's award candidates.

He may not be as slippery as Lao Yang, but under normal circumstances, even if he has some opinions in his mind, Kazunari Sakai will definitely not be like Miss Elena in public, being sarcastic and mocking this and that.

Heart is under the kyte.

What if the news gets out from somewhere and someone is offended and an enemy is made?

How bad is that?
He didn't steal other people's rice.

Kazunari Sakai touched his stomach, looked at Osborne, and couldn't help but raise his eyelids again: "Why, do you have any inside information you want to share? You know the result."

"No, no, no. Before the final announcement, the judges' voting results are kept confidential. They are notarized by PricewaterhouseCoopers!"

Osborne quickly waved his hands and smiled awkwardly.

"What are you talking about? When our publishing house organizes this kind of award, of course there is no inside information."

Sakai Kazunari chuckled twice.

Various art awards promote themselves as having no inside information, which is naturally like a man's mouth, full of lies.

Rather than believe this.

It is better to believe that by taking the magic medicine sold by health care product companies, you can ride a dragon to heaven and achieve immortality.

Of course, there is no shortage of inside information.

Last month, Osborne flew to see Miss Elena and tried to get her to New York to be a judge for the awards ceremony, which could be considered part of the insider operation.

However, when it comes to important awards in the literary and art world now, people are playing dirty and no longer engage in the most blatant gray transactions.

What judge wants to pick up a girl? He locks the door and won’t let anyone out unless they vote for her.

Before the award ceremony began, the owner of a large gallery secretly put pressure on the organizing committee, demanding that the award must be given to one of his painters.

In order to win awards, Hollywood's popular British movie star went to Beverly Hills and held a grand party with the judges for two months.

A Cannes director took the judges and a boatload of pretty yacht girls out to sea to engage in prostitution. They went too far with the impartiality and were secretly reported by their peers. As a result, the French Coast Guard raided the boat in the middle of the night. Everyone on the boat was having fun when their good brothers came up with submachine guns and took everyone away.

These events are all true events that happened in history.

But these ways of playing are also wild and heroic, unique to the 1950s and 1960s when major awards were just emerging.

to today.

Some things have changed, and some things remain the same.

Connections and galleries are still important factors in helping artists win awards.

Everyone is still lobbying the judges.

The second best way to lobby the judges is to ask newspapers to write soft articles, but the best way is still to invite the judges to a party or a cocktail party.

Even today, Cannes is still jokingly known as the capital of underground erotic and sex trade in the European literary and art circles.

The yacht is still crowded with supermodels, and is a hub for pimps for various celebrities.

But in terms of gameplay.

Everyone will become more reserved and more respectful.

There is absolutely no such thing as the chairman or producer making a phone call to temporarily change the list of winners.

but.

For awards that are very important and highly concerned by the industry, it is almost impossible to find people who dare to do this.

At least once the voting results have become official.

There is very little room for operation.

After all, there are rules to follow.

Everyone wears suits and ties and acts like a gentleman.

Only with awards like the Art Festival will bookmakers dare to open handicaps.

Otherwise, you will be naked like Brother Hao and be a gangster, with "I am a bad guy" and "I am a gangster" written on your face.

Then what's the point of everyone's prediction?

Isn't that like slaughtering people like pigs?

It can be said ironically that everyone is being a whore and building a saintly archway at the same time, but when the organizing committee builds the archway, they will not be stingy in adding more reinforced concrete to make the archway more majestic.

Large publishing giants like Scholastic, which mainly focus on the education market for minors, will pay more attention to this.

We will not give people the opportunity to take advantage of others and give the media an opportunity to accuse us.

The award ceremony will be held soon.

Even senior vice president Osborne was unaware of the final voting list of winners.

Since the 1960s, the powerful New York Times has often used its insiders to publish the final list of winners directly in its own newspaper one day before many award ceremonies.

Many important literary and artistic awards in Europe and the United States, from the Kassel Documenta to the Venice Biennale, usually hire a third-party accounting firm to be responsible for confidentiality, notarization and auditing during the voting period.

Use the reputation of the accounting firm to ensure that the voting results are convincing to the outside audience and maintain mystery before the prize is announced.

The "Writing and Art Master Award" has been cooperating with PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the four well-known accounting firms, for many years.

"Have you seen the work of these people?" Osborne asked.

Uncle Sakai ordered some belly.

He didn't have much of a neck to begin with, and his chin was covered by a plastic bag of donuts, so Uncle Sakai's nod looked like a nod to his belly to Osborne.

“I’ve seen some.”

"Have you seen the works of those artists in the field of painting?"

Uncle Sakai nodded his belly again.

"I just wanted to ask—"

Osborne hesitated for a moment and said, "I don't mean anything else. I'm just curious. If there were no external factors, imagine, I'm just imagining, if you were a judge this time, and you voted purely based on your subjective feelings about each work, Mr. Sakai, who would you vote for?"

"Just imagining it?"

"Yes, yes, I'm just curious. Just imagine it."

Osborn nodded, "To satisfy my personal curiosity."

Kazunari Sakai looked at Osborn seriously again.

They just met by chance, and he felt that there shouldn't be any trap waiting for him.

Moreover.

Given his status, if one wanted to dig a hole big enough to bury him, it would have to be quite large and obvious.

Ok.

Just for the sake of those two donuts.

"Well, I would probably vote for the illustrator of The Little Prince, Detective Cat. She's quite popular recently." Uncle Sakai touched his chin and said in an unfathomable tone, "Anyway, my daughter likes her."

[You can call it God or art, after all the scramble and calculation, you have to allow a little space for aesthetics to be used, right? In this matter, I believe in the ability of detective cats.]

Looking at Kazunari Sakai.

Miss Elena's words rang in Osborne's ears again.

Ever since that day in Austria, when the other party declined the invitation to attend this award ceremony.

The president couldn't help but recall again and again in his mind the confident look in Anna's face when she said this.

He knew that critics like the other party liked Detective Cat's works.

Osborne is a social person who is half layman and half insider, and he also likes the works of Detective Cat.

just now.

Even a great painter like Kazunari Sakai told him that if all external interference was eliminated, Mr. Sakai would vote for Detective Cat.

Critic, social figure in related industries and great painter.

Aren’t almost all the visual arts awards in the world made up of these three types of people combined?
When all kinds of personal relationships, insider exchanges, and opportunism are tightly entangled in the struggle and neither side can move.

Maybe.

The pure beauty of art may really be able to carve out a niche within the narrow space of adult awards.

Osborne lowered his head and looked at the small promotional leaflet of the sightseeing bus in his hand. The name of the illustrator of "THE Detective Cat" was ranked fourth from the bottom among the twelve candidates in media predictions.

His heart moved slightly.

Maybe.

In today's situation where the outside world is not very optimistic.

This guy can really create a miracle... Who can say for sure?
The car shook a little, and black-style jungle music came out from the bus speakers, and the sightseeing bus officially drove out of the bus station.

Osborne thought about what Miss Elena said, with a myriad of thoughts running through his mind.

He turned his head and wanted to say something to Kazunari Sakai beside him.

But saw.

The art master, who claimed that he wanted to feel the "overflowing beauty of the New York city" and the "overflowing beauty of the heart", has now fallen asleep with the donut in his arms.

Osborne was not sure whether he felt the beauty of the city.

but.

Looking at the other person holding the plastic bag in his arms and snoring happily, he roughly knew that the other person must be feeling really happy at the moment.

Osborn sniffed.

He looked at the sleeping Kazunari Sakai, and then looked at the car window glass which was mostly blocked by the other's belly.

"He, it smells so good."

Never mind, I’m going to sleep too.

Osborne leaned his seat back a little further, adjusted the air outlet of the air conditioner above his head, took out an eye mask, and lay down to sleep.

The sightseeing bus drove through the streets of Manhattan and headed towards Broadway amid the snoring of two middle-aged men.

This is how the drama night began.
-
Is art a circle?
Do not,
Art is a bunch of circles put together.

It's like a fresh onion with layer upon layer.

When peeling off the shell.

You will be stung by its bitterness and pain and shed tears, but the further you go inside, the environment around you will change from the blood-stained purple-red to the fluttering white of sleeves that are not stained by dust. Being inside it is like floating in white clouds.

Literary and artistic occasions are always like this, a world of fame and fortune layered upon layer.

such as.

The Venice Biennale is the center of European art and is home to many celebrities.

Surrounding it is Outer Venice, which is the venue surrounding the Venice Biennale, providing a venue for artists who are not eligible to participate in the exhibition but also want to take advantage of the reputation of the Venice Biennale.

There is also the Outer Venice for the small painters who can't even get an Outer Venice, and there is also the Outer Venice for the poor and down-and-out artists.

Broadway is strikingly similar, consisting of 140 theaters of all sizes surrounding Times Square.

The most popular and profitable stage plays are performed in the most central theaters here. It and the West End of London, which faces each other across the Atlantic Ocean, can almost represent the king and queen of the Western theater industry.

The 140 theaters of all sizes form the inner circle and spread outward to form Off Broadway, where experimental plays and avant-garde theater are performed.

There is also Off-Off-Broadway, where hippies and poets once hung out, and Off-Off-Off-Broadway.

It will be wrapped around the map of New York City, eventually going from Manhattan all the way to Brooklyn in the southeast.

The clear class distinctions separate the big stars who drive Ferraris or Rolls-Royces from the down-and-out artists with holes in their sweaters caused by cigarette butts.

This is probably the reason.

Everyone who is at the center of this world of fame and fortune will be swept up and squeezed in desperately.

The closer you are to the core.

It means you are more important.

As for these onion-like circles, the thing in the center that is emitting brilliant light is either the goddess of art and science, the goddess of Muse, or the goddess of good luck and wealth, Miss Tyche.

Then.

This is a matter of different opinions.

It's like a map of all the Broadway theaters in the middle of a ring, not a coffee house where Mark Twain, Whistler, or Fitzgerald once left their mark.

It's 1585 Broadway, the global headquarters of Morgan Stanley investment bank.

On the multimedia digital screens hanging outside the investment bank, the Nasdaq bell ringing theme will be played simultaneously on the days when some important companies go public.

then.

Surrounded by the signature brands of timeless classic musicals such as "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Lion King" and "Hamilton," the sound of wealth rings every day.

"It's like a strange humorous metaphor."

The award presenter, who was originally a talk show host, walked through the long backstage passage leading to the stage, heading for the last second before the spotlight.

He looked out the window at the Morgan Stanley headquarters building across the street and the thought crossed his mind.

“Maybe I can write a joke in the future.”

The host smiled.

Take a deep breath and walk towards the stage step by step.

"Good evening, welcome to the Scholastic Publishing Group Centennial Awards Ceremony, good evening, ladies and gentlemen, all the wealthy artists, and the kids who have already got tickets to Ivy League schools. Wow, when I received the invitation call from the publishing house, I was thinking, WHAT? Asking me to present an award to you, is it wrong? This is like asking Tom Cruise to present an award to Natalie Portman (note)."

The host, who graduated from community college, smiled at the camera.

(Tom Cruise is dyslexic, and the latter graduated from the Ivy League Harvard University.)
"Why don't they invite the real Tom Cruise?"

He cast his eyes towards the old head of the publishing group sitting in the first row, "Oh, you probably can't afford it."

Everyone burst into laughter.

This kind of words might make people uncomfortable.

But in recent years, offensive comedy elements have become a very popular part of such award ceremonies and have attracted a lot of ratings.

"Okay, that was just a joke, no offense. Mr. Cruise is a senior whom I have respected very much over the years. He taught us that an ordinary life can also have infinite possibilities. But do you know what is not a joke? It's my current mood."

"Before I stepped onto the stage to receive the award, my agent, Hake, told me that tonight would be one of the most important writing and art awards in the United States."

"I replied that he didn't need to tell me that, after all, wasn't it already written in the name? It's called the Writing and Art Award. Am I here to award chefs' certificates?" The host imitated the sexy celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

"Haack said I didn't understand. This is the most important art award, which means that the person sitting next to him is Andy Warhol today and Stephen King in the future (both have won the award). I don't understand what Andy Warhol is, but when I learned that a painting signed by him could sell for $100 million, I decided that I should be more respectful."

"I brought a marker pen with me. After you come up to the stage to receive your awards, please sign on my face one by one. When you walk out the door, I will turn right and mortgage myself to Morgan Stanley. Kids, let me tell you a concept - this is called futures investment."

There was another low laugh in the venue.

"I stood on the stage, opened my eyes wide and looked carefully at all the distinguished guests present, ladies and gentlemen, the wealthy artists and young geniuses from Ivy League schools, the present Andy Warhol and the future Stephen King, and of course, the senior executives from the publishing groups. I finally confirmed one thing. Unfortunately, it seems that I will not have the opportunity to shout angrily on the spot. The award ceremony is really too rubbish!" The host waved his fist slightly.

"Oscar is so white" was a famous protest slogan in the past few years.

It was accused that at one awards ceremony, 54 of the 54 award presenters invited by the jury were white.

In recent years, it has been repeatedly brought up at various award ceremonies in the United States.

"Of course not including the last one, you are indeed too white." The host pointed to the front row where the senior executives of the publishing house were sitting below the stage.

The photographer's camera swept across the group's top executives.

I don’t know if the lines for the award ceremony were rehearsed in advance.

I don’t know what they are thinking.

But at least the old leader seemed very generous and took the lead in applauding.

"In fact, I have always believed that the guests at the award ceremony should not be a reflection of the pie being divided according to the proportion of native American ethnic groups. Instead, they should be a reflection of the gathering of ideas. Tolerance and inclusiveness in ideas are more important than tolerance and inclusiveness in skin color."

The host easily led the opening topic to a higher level.

"Then, let us invite the first winner of the Writing and Art Award, Miss Emily Lee from Quebec, Canada, to come on stage to receive the award..."

……

An hour and a half before the awards ceremony.

The host announced a list of all the student awards.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publishing house.

In the meantime, short films commemorating the winners of writing and art awards over the past century and some important historical milestones that the publishing house has experienced in the past century will be played on the big screen.

Student awards are the theoretical main body of this award.

When designing the award ceremony, people also hope to place celebrity awards that are more popular with the public at the end.

Until the sun sets completely.

New York City outside the theater has turned into a city of lights that is even brighter than during the day.

The host took to the stage again.

He took over from the old head of the group who had just finished presenting the award to the last and youngest winner and giving a speech.

"Welcome back, audience friends."

He glanced at the cue card.

"Finally, the part about the future Stephen King has ended, and now it's time for the part about the present Andy Warhol. Although everyone is already very clear about it, I will still review who the twelve candidates for the "Writing and Art Master Award" are. "

"They are Roald Henry, a writer from England, and... "

The lights in the theater dimmed.

As the host read out the names one by one.

On the background curtain behind him, the representative works of these creators began to flash.

From the streaming trailer of "Vegas Boxer" released by Apple TV, to the award ceremony for a journalist who won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Journalism, to the hot book release scenes of "Oh, Gypsy, Gypsy" and "The Little Prince".

As the camera sweeps by.

The candidates who arrived at the scene had slightly different expressions.

For someone like Roald Henry, who has already gained both fame and fortune, and whose "Vegas Boxer" and various channels have earned him tens of millions of dollars, a mere "Writing and Art Award" is no problem for him.

There are also those who have worked for many years like Wehrlein, who have won awards and been nominated for awards many times, with a blank expression on their faces.

of course.

There were also newcomers in the industry who were attending the award ceremony for the first time and saw this award as a stepping stone to the upper echelons of the art world and could not hide their nervousness.

Some people have become numb to the camera lens.

Some people wish the camera would stay on them forever.

Even if everyone is a candidate.

The difference between candidates is also very large.

"Next is the candidate Detective Cat... Wow, to be honest, I really have some irrepressible expectations in my heart, thinking that there will be a cat sitting in the first row today. If so, it would be really great, and the grand prize winner tonight must be it. After all, I am a member of the American Cat Fanciers Association-"

The host casually told two jokes about animal protection.

The photographer's camera panned towards the front of the stage, where a handsome blond man was sitting upright. The words "Artist Detective Cat Personal Assistant" were displayed on the screen.

That's Dyson from the Schönbrunn office.

Gu Weijing declined to attend the award ceremony tonight, so Dyson will accept the award on his behalf.

"Her representative works are The Little Prince and The Blazing World. It doesn't matter if you haven't heard of the latter, because I haven't heard of it either, because this book was just released two days ago. Ha, she came to judge the award while the ink is still hot. She must be impatient, right?"

"And 'masterpiece' is a very strange term. If someone has fifty works, then it's normal to pick and choose two works as your masterpieces. But if you have only published two works so far, you shouldn't fill in the names of these two works and tell others, oh, hello, this is my masterpiece. Sorry, what do you want to represent? What's more, one of the books has just been secretly sold for three days, and no one has seen the paintings except the judges of the jury."

"It's like LeBron James calling the owner of the Lakers and saying, hello, sir, I hope you can reserve a starting guard position for my son. Yes, I guarantee he will be a superstar in the future. Well, you ask him how he is doing now. Well, last Saturday, he learned to walk..."

The host was mocking Detective Cat's "Burning World" for its shallow experience and its overly utilitarian desire to win awards.

Logically speaking, the on-site director should cut the camera to the artist himself.

The mysterious detective cat did not appear at this awards ceremony, so the camera had to cut to Dyson.

It is a pity.

He sat straight in the chair, with no unnecessary expression.

Dyson is not Gu Weijing's personal assistant in the true sense, he is just here to run errands. The other party is mocking the detective cat, what does it have to do with him.

He couldn't just rush up and slap the other person.

Say.

As a host who comes from an offensive comedy background, this is his style of controlling the situation. If the Pope comes, maybe he will get angry and make a few remarks before letting you go.

Just now, they even made fun of basketball superstars like Tom Cruise and James.

If I were to criticize Detective Cat, it would be because the painter himself was here and, since he was unhappy about it, he could only meow secretly.

Moreover, in the minds of many people in the conference hall, what the other party said was indeed the truth.

"The Blazing World" has officially been put on the shelves, and about 500 copies have been sold in the past few days.

It is now outside the top 100 on the bestseller list, and is completely incomparable to the previous glory of "The Little Prince".

There is no comparison in sales volume.

The publishing house's early advertising, channel investment, printing quantity, even the selected paper and the level of color matching during printing are incomparable to "The Little Prince".

And the price is even slightly more expensive than "The Little Prince".

Without discount.

The price of a single copy is even close to 25 US dollars.

The small number of sales was expected.

This is a common situation with niche literary books.

The high quality of Gu Weijing's paintings cannot change this situation, and its audience is not that large worldwide.

Top directors often lose all their money when making art films for award-winning films.

The marketing strategy is also completely different.

The publisher of "The Little Prince" wants to make a lot of money, so it has all-round advertising on YouTube, streaming media, short videos, subways, and book signing tours... All the various pre-production publicity costs are in the millions of dollars.

When Blazing World was released, none of this stuff was even a thought.

The publishing house's "No Withered Tree" was originally a public welfare project of republishing famous works with government subsidies. The group's top management even intended to lose money on this kind of unpopular niche books.

It had absolutely zero publicity.

Just one week before the launch, Gu Weijing reposted a press release on his official Detective Cat Twitter account, saying that a new work written for him by Mr. Sloth would soon be available on an e-commerce platform, and that was that.

If we can recover the printing costs of the first batch of books, gain some word of mouth, and earn the title of "conscientious publishing house" in the hearts of readers, then everyone can chant Amitabha in their hearts.

Even the publisher has not released this book through physical bookstores in Europe.

It is only available in a few literary youth bookstores in New York and San Francisco, or you can buy it online on Amazon.

However, it is worth mentioning that the current sales volume is slightly beyond the group's expectations.

500 copies were sold in just a few days.

You may not make much money, but you won’t lose money either.

hard to imagine.

Judging from the feedback and online store reviews of this book, the main buyers are not the literary youths they thought, but parents of autistic children.

This is purely the sales boost from the illustrator himself.

It can be said that the love of parents in the world is pitiful.

but.

No matter how close the fairy tales written by Detective Cat are to children's inner world, it is very difficult to let autistic children read the medieval and difficult-to-understand ancient English novel "Burning World".

The publishing group is also privately hoping that it can use the exposure from this centenary retrospective awards ceremony to provide free promotion for her new work.

Some people felt secretly happy while listening to the host's ridicule.

For example, Gina, the author of "Hey, Gypsy, Gypsy".

Ms. Gina looked like she had walked out of one of those tea fortune-telling stalls with crimson and crimson yellow curtains hanging on the streets of New York, Paris, or Milan.

She was wearing a green bodycon dress that was very wide on her hips today, with a grey shawl with sporadic stripes on her shoulders and a red headscarf.

Three punched Byzantine gold coins were hung around her neck as embellishments, and on her wrist was a rainbow-colored bracelet the size of marbles...or to be more precise, a miniature crystal ball.

Rural legends in the Western world believe that.

Crystals can help people predict good and bad luck, increase sexual desire, and even help you in the afterlife.

Ms. Gina might not dress like this when going out in her daily life.

The reason why she was dressed like this was exactly the same as the reason why Gu Tongxiang was smoking a cigar and reading Hemingway to his grandson at the selection site of the National Artists Association.

If she chatted with Old Man Gu again one day, maybe they would really have a lot in common.

It’s all for the purpose of looking good in front of the camera.

The only difference is.

Gu Tongxiang is COSing Hemingway, acting like a tough guy.

Gina is COSing a gypsy, just like the name of her book, she is buffing herself.

Minorities, marginalized groups, sexual minorities, artists... Gina's BUFFs are obviously almost full.

Even when the host introduced her just now, she didn't dare to say anything, she just smiled and clapped.

Although he seems to be an outspoken complainer, he knows the severity of some issues in his heart.

The sharp criticism and satire towards Gina and the anonymous painter like Detective Cat who hides his true identity are totally not on the same level.

The host thought so in his mind, and so did the other scholars and judges on the organizing committee.

One less important competitor.

Gina felt that her chances of winning the prize had greatly increased.

"No other bitch can beat me in winning this award today. I'm sure I'll take it."

She leaned back, resting the back of her head on the soft backrest of the theater seat, and smiled relaxedly.

Looking around with ease and complacency.

Then, Gina's eyes narrowed slightly.

Wehrlein did not smile, not even a trace of a smile could be seen on his face.

This skinny old guy who looks a bit like a skeleton is almost the only candidate in Gina's mind who has a certain possibility of threatening her position.

He doesn't have much off-field advantage in winning the award.

But... in any case, old white men usually have no disadvantages in Western awards.

In addition, Wehrlein has been working in the industry for many years, and many people are willing to give him face.

He is also a vegetarian advocacy leader. Well, not as politically correct as his own BUFF, but it can more or less offset some of it.

Gina knew that the final illustration award should go to either her or him.

She felt that the detective cat was out.

As for what Gina could think of, she didn't believe that an industry veteran like Wehrlein would not think of it.

But there was no relief on the other person's face.

It's more than just not relaxing.

Is he... nervous?
When the host read out the name of the detective cat, Wehrlein suddenly leaned forward, gripped the armrests of the chair with his bony fingers, and stared at the big screen behind the host.

(End of this chapter)