Almighty painter

Chapter 657 Human Comedy
When I was a child, Mr. Verman, who was invited by my aunt to teach me 19th century French literature, was a fan of Balzac. Balzac's Le Père Goriot was called the "Paris Zoo" by critics because of the large number of animal metaphors used in the text. Mr. Verman said that in fact, similar characteristics can be seen in any of Balzac's books, not just Le Père Goriot. He likes to compare kings, ministers, administrators, priests, lawyers, businessmen, and sailors to different animals such as lions, deer, tigers, sharks, seals, and hunting dogs.

The writer believes that people may not be different from the outside, but from the inside, they are like deer and sharks, with barriers that are difficult to cross, just like animals in different cages in the zoo with different species nameplates.

Mr. Wellman also told me.

Not only is each of Balzac's books a zoo, but if we step beyond the textual barriers between books, then from a macro perspective, all of his writings combined together form a grand zoo.

Balzac wrote 91 novels in his lifetime, created 2742 characters, and wrote million words in total. They are independent of each other but also interconnected, and together they constitute the entire literary world of Balzac, which is named "The Human Comedy".

Every character and every passerby he writes about is the protagonist of his own story.

And each protagonist is a wild animal in the zoo.

When they appear in their own chapters, they are full of confidence, looking around with pride, and looking like wild animals pacing in their own cages. In this small space, they are always invincible. But once they appear in other people's stories and are narrated from other people's perspectives, they suddenly lose all their glory.

Some protagonists in the previous works are eloquent, ambitious, and clever enough to trick the "evil spirits", but in "Le Père Goriot", he huddles in a shabby apartment and silently watches the miserable wind and rain in Paris outside the window, and then is betrayed and imprisoned. In "Disillusionments" and "The Rise and Fall of a Courtesan", he appears from the perspective of others, as a priest or even the director of the Paris Secret Police.

When the boundaries between words are broken and the cage bars are raised, the stories of 11 million words pour out and merge together. Everyone changes from the protagonists under the spotlight to ordinary animals struggling to survive in the turbulent Paris Zoo.

They are no longer the kings of the date pits, the masters of the territory.

They are both hunters and prey.

When the tide of great change comes, everyone struggles and rises equally in it.

Away from their familiar environment, everyone is equally vulnerable and equally embarrassed.

When I grew up and became the editor of Oil Painting magazine, I started to write art reviews. One day, I suddenly realized something: the world is a human comedy, and every name I write is the protagonist in Balzac's story.

When artists pick up a paintbrush, they are the masters of the canvas.

When they stay in their own studio, they are the kings of free will.

But when they walked out of the studio, the sunlight shone on their faces through the darkness, and they heard the horns of the early morning buses in their ears, they became ordinary people again.

A common beast.

The expressionist master Amedeo Modigliani is the pride of the Italian people. In 1910, he was admitted to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. At that time, my grandfather's grandfather was the director of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. His evaluation of Modigliani was that "he had amazing talent, but he also squandered his talent and money amazingly." This is a correct comment. Modigliani achieved amazing achievements in the field of art in the first thirty years of his life, but he failed miserably in life and died of alcohol and drug abuse at the age of 36.

In terms of success in the secular sense, Picasso is perhaps the most worthy painter of all time to be praised as "successful and famous". In the entire art world, when Picasso's name is mentioned, everyone will add adjectives such as "outstanding", "incredible", "brilliant" and even "cunning". Even such a cunning and skillful person could only quietly and even embarrassedly shrink into the studio when the German army occupied Paris on June 1940, 6, using abstract brushes to silently protest.

Picasso was one of the few painters who chose to stay in Paris.

In the pre-war years, Paris has always been the undisputed center of Western art. When 400,000 British and French troops began to retreat to Dunkirk to avoid being surrounded and annihilated by the German army, hundreds of artists also fled Paris in a hurry. There are many outstanding painting masters among them. In the next few years, some of them will, like Picasso, transform into a more profound and outstanding artistic style in the baptism of war.

Many of them will die from disease during their escape, from bombings, from suicide in despair, from the gas chambers of concentration camps, or from torture beyond recognition - just like the tens of millions of ordinary people who died in the war.

Within the studio, masters may be able to do anything.

Outside the studio, they are just ordinary people.

The birth of a crystal may require the grace of nature and the nourishment of hundreds or thousands of years. But to break them, you only need a gentle push.

Just like hunters casually put the crosshairs on the prey's forehead and then pulled the trigger. No one cares whether it is the last passenger pigeon in the world.

They may be monuments in art history, but when the world's true malice strikes, they are as powerless as everyone else.

But I always wonder, if they knew what their fate would be, would they change their choices?
Balzac said in The Human Comedy:

"Do you want to live a long life? Then you should be pure in heart and desire. This way you can avoid all pain, sorrow, all the painstaking struggles and the pain of failure. However, your life will be without joy and happiness. Do you want to be happy? Do you have desires? Then fight for it at the cost of your life!"

"A man of true talent is always kind, frank, straightforward, never reserved, and unwavering. For those brave beasts, adversity is not the touchstone of fate."

This is why I love them so much, and if I could, I would like to keep such a beast in my heart forever. 】

——Column editor Anna Irina, excerpted from "Oil Painting"
-
"It's sunny now, which is rare."

Gu Weijing took a dried practice version of "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sun" from the frame in the corner of the studio and handed it to Katsuko Sakai.

Ms. Sakai rolled it up and put it into an oil painting tube on the side, preparing to pack it away along with all the oil paintings she had practiced during this period.

Koko jokingly draped the yellow velvet tablecloth from the small coffee table next to her over the shoulders of little girl Jasmine, and made various suggestions, trying to dress her up as a "Vietnamese girl wearing ao dai."

They were about to go to Singapore, so they spent the afternoon packing up, sorting out the things that needed to be taken away from the studio, and leaving things that didn't need to be taken away, such as the coffee machine, with the female director of the orphanage.

Gu Weijing moved the easel to the window and looked up.

The skyline after the rain looked like it had been washed, and appeared dark blue.

The leaves of the trees in the yard were covered with moist water droplets, and even the huge chimneys of the factories in the distance looked smooth and clean at this moment.

After the continuous heavy rains in recent days.

Finally, there was a rare good weather in Yangon.

Beep, beep, beep.

Gu Weijing's cell phone, which was placed on the windowsill on silent mode, vibrated. He leaned out and took a look at the number shown on the caller ID.

"It was a call from my grandfather, probably wanting to ask me whether I would like to have dinner when I go back home in the evening." Gu Weijing said to Shengzi.

"Let's go together. My mom originally wanted to find an opportunity to invite Grandpa Gu to dinner in the next two days. My dad just happened to be here too. The two families can celebrate our art exhibition and thesis together. Why not do it today?" Sakai Katsuko suggested with a smile, "Invite your aunt, cousin, etc. as well."

Gu Weijing hummed to Shengzi and nodded.

Katsuko Sakai saw Gu Weijing pick up the phone with ease, press the answer button, and put it to his ear.

"Grandpa, I have good news for you—"

Gu Weijing's words were stuck in his mouth before he could finish them.

"For the Sutra...listen to me."

Grandpa's voice came from the phone.

Old man Gu didn't seem to realize what Gu Weijing was saying at all. His voice was hoarse and low, as rough as two pieces of sandpaper polished together.

"I want to tell you... I want to tell you something." Gu Tongxiang panted hard, "Your sister, Gu Lin, Gu Lin, is missing."

Katsuko Sakai saw it.

Almost instantly, Gu Weijing's expression changed.
-
Twenty minutes later.

Koko had already patted the little girl Jasmine on the head and pushed her out. Instead, the female bodyguard that Uncle Ale and Mrs. Sakai hired for their daughter came in.

No one spoke. The air was as cold as ice.

Gu Weijing lowered his head in silence, looking at the phone in front of him.

The matter itself is not complicated -

My cousin Gu Lin received a call last night and was asked by her classmates to go out and play, so she didn’t come home all night.

The adults didn't take it too seriously at first.

Although Myanmar is in chaos, Yangon is still a relatively good city. In addition, students in international schools basically live in wealthy areas with good public security conditions.

My grandpa and aunt thought that my cousin probably wanted to take advantage of the last bit of time before going abroad to have some fun, and no one thought anything would happen.

Noon.

Aunt sent a message to Gu Lin, asking her to go home quickly and pack up her luggage.

She waited for a while but found that no one replied to her message and no one answered her phone call, so she began to worry.

Grandpa first contacted Gu Lin’s classmates, then contacted his teachers, but no one knew where Gu Lin had gone.

The aunt still held on to some hope, and consoled herself by thinking her daughter might have played too wildly outside and didn't know her cell phone was out of battery.

Until half an hour ago.

Gu Tongxiang received a call asking him to add a Telegram account. After adding the account, the other party sent him a video.

The video is about two minutes long.

On the screen, Gu Lin was sitting on a stool in a closed room with disheveled hair. Behind him was a TV, which was silently playing the noon news program.

From the outside, she didn't look injured, just in a mess. Her face was as pale as a dead person, and it was obvious that she was terrified to the core.

The reason for my cousin's fear was obvious.

In the video, a man whose face cannot be seen is pointing a gun at her head.

“Read.” The man said in Burmese.

Gu Lin's lips trembled as he read the words on the note in his hand.

The gist of the message was that she was very hungry and hadn't eaten or drunk water for a long time. She owed money outside and hoped that her family could help her pay it back.

Once the money is received, the other party will release the person.

"Have you called the police?"

The female bodyguard pulled Katsuko Sakai away from the window, looked out the window for a moment, then pulled the curtains tight, pulled out the Taser in her hand and placed it on the table, and asked.

Gu Weijing shook his head.

Koko also shook her head.

Gu Weijing's shaking head meant that his family had not called the police yet.

Koko shook her head, meaning that calling the police might not be useful.

This kind of thing... those who understand will understand.

If her father was still a senior police official, perhaps calling the police at this moment would make some sense, but now, it would really just be a pure psychological comfort.

It has been more than a day and a night since Gu Lin disappeared. After such a long time, it is not certain whether she is still in Yangon. In some places, even if her father is a police inspector, he is of no use.

In the video.

The other party didn't even mention not to call the police, which clearly shows that they don't care whether you call the police or not.

Just whatever you want.

Koko handed Gu Weijing a cup of hot coffee, looked at him worriedly, and said nothing.

"How much does the other party want?" Miss Sakai asked softly, not understanding Burmese.

"one million."

The answer came from the female bodyguard next to him. She glanced at Gu Weijing and added, "US dollars."

Katsuko Sakai felt a little relieved.

One million US dollars is of course a very large number. It is a sum that an ordinary Burmese person cannot earn even if he works for a thousand years without eating or drinking. Even the "great artist" Old Man Gu cannot earn this amount even if he sells his blood, kidneys, and organs.

But for Katsuko Sakai, it is still within an acceptable range.

The kidnapping of Gu Weijing's cousin was of course a very worrying matter, but the situation did not seem to be completely unsolvable.

To put it another way, even if all methods have been tried, Gu Lin still cannot be found.

A ransom of one million dollars was paid, and that was it.

She doesn't even mention her parents.

Compared with Anna, Katsuko Sakai may be so poor that she is not even worth looking at. However, according to the wealth concept of 99% of the world's people, Miss Sakai herself is a wealthy woman.

Her pocket money over the years, including the contract she signed with the Tokyo Gallery as a young artist and the various creative allowances paid to her on time every quarter, all added up, she has at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in her personal account.

"Don't worry, there will be a way."

Katsuko Sakai forced herself to smile and tried to comfort Gu Weijing.

however.

she found.

Except for Katsuko Sakai herself, no one else in the studio had a smile on their face, not even a forced smile to pretend to be relaxed.

Gu Weijing didn't laugh.

Uncle Alai and the female bodyguard did not laugh.

Even Koko didn't smile.

(End of this chapter)