Almighty painter

Chapter 670: The Painting of Breaking Through the Realm (Part )

Think again about the scene when I first met Boss Chen.

Many things actually already have answers.

With current technical conditions, sound can be easily disguised. Not only can you use the sound card, the other party can also use it.

This underworld tycoon, Hao Ge, is not like Corleone in the novel "The Godfather". He started his career by collecting protection fees from Italian-Americans. He is used to walking around the streets and alleys. Even the bakery master and the small owner of the funeral home can recognize him.

He was probably engaged in business such as money laundering, political brokerage, and middleman in arms smuggling transactions, so he had always been low-key and mysterious, hiding behind the scenes.

Koko said that even the police did not have a frontal photo of him.

Boss Chen is a tycoon who returned from China. He suddenly appeared in front of the world in a few years and his every move was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But after thinking about it, Gu Weijing realized that he, or many local people, had only seen Boss Chen's name in the newspaper, heard of his wealth and power, but had never heard of where the other party's money came from.

This is a completely "The Count of Monte Cristo" story.

suddenly.

A count with great pomp and circumstance returned to Paris, and it was said that he had made a fortune by doing business in the Far East.

He is very elegant.

He is gentle and polite.

He seemed richer than the king.

Everyone at the banquet he hosted could enjoy the enjoyment of an emperor, and the Count casually gave his friends "a mere 20,000 francs for travel expenses, which is not a big deal."

With the same amount of money, one could buy an endless territory in the provinces of Paris and become a local tyrant, or find a way to get the royal family to "donate" a lord title.

Every gentleman and lady in the upper class was vying to spread the praises of the Count's generosity, telling about his broad knowledge in the salon, and portraying him as a top gentleman who was "decent and noble".

But it seems.

The only thing that no one could explain was how the Count made his fortune in the Far East and how he built up such a respectable family business. He called himself a Count, but which Count was he? A Count from Paris or a Count from the provinces? A Count from the Bourbon Dynasty or a Count from the Orleans Dynasty?
The old aristocrats of the military clique, or the new bourgeois nobility?

The origin of The Count of Monte Cristo against the backdrop of the turmoil in France at that time.

Everyone has an opinion, but no one can explain it clearly.

Against the backdrop of Myanmar’s turmoil in recent years, here is the story of Boss Chen’s origins.

Everyone has an opinion, but no one can explain it clearly... It's not necessarily that everyone doesn't know about it. Koko's father should be one of the people who know about it.

At least the other party will have some guesses in his mind.

That day in the orphanage, when Gu Weijing met Chen Shenglin, wasn't Officer Dan following behind him?
later.

According to what Miss Koko told him, the other party's father has been in charge of the investigation of Brother Hao's case, and has been investigating it for a long time.

Why would a senior police inspector who was investigating a money laundering gang go around with Boss Chen?

The two sides are not on the same side.

At first, Gu Weijing thought that Boss Chen was a very popular person and everyone wanted to get close to him.

Then it dawned on him.

Probably at that time, the police officer should have sneaked over to investigate the situation as a senior escort.

therefore.

Facing the check that Gu Weijing took out, Koko's father's fear and his words "I can sell anything except my daughter" all had a new explanation -

The poor old father must have misunderstood something.

He thought that he and Boss Chen were in cahoots, which was why he was so rich. From his perspective, Gu Weijing's behavior was full of warnings.

It's just like when my daughter receives a bouquet of roses on her way home from school, with a greeting card saying "A gift from Brother Hao" on it.

Officer Dan must have been really scared these past few days, and he couldn't even explain this to his daughter for fear of causing any new complications.

That evening.

The other party was actually begging me, or Chen Shenglin who was "behind" me.

I am sorry.

Really sorry.

"I was wrong. I did whatever you told me to do. Please, please have mercy on me and don't do anything to my daughter. Please, don't hurt or torture Koko."

Officer Dan was drinking heavily at the table, but Gu Weijing didn't drink. However, he kept drinking beside him, glass after glass.

When the middle-aged man looked at him with his glass in hand, his eyes were actually saying these words.

It's just that the other party got something wrong.

Gu Weijing also made some mistakes.

Both sides said their own things and were not on the same channel, so he felt a little strange after such a long time.

In fact, Officer Dan is not the only one who feels strange.

There were many things wrong with Boss Chen's identity, and they had always been there, but Gu Weijing had selectively ignored them all before.

For example, that time when Mr. Chen donated money to help him with the [Healthy Millions of Families: Free Diagnosis and Treatment Project for Children's Genetic Diseases].

"That children's free clinic project." Gu Weijing stared at Boss Chen's face and said softly, "It was actually very strange."

"Oh? Weird? Someone took money that shouldn't be touched?"

The man frowned for a moment under his gold-rimmed glasses.

"Do not."

Gu Weijing shook his head.

The strange thing is not that someone took his money.

Quite the opposite... The strange thing is that no one is greedy for his money.

In total, he spent more than 120,000 US dollars and gained about 12,000 free experience points.

This conversion rate is ridiculously high.

He originally estimated that it would cost $200,000 to achieve such an effect.

Gu Weijing knew clearly how strict and demanding the conversion standards of free experience points on the system panel were.

Only money that is truly and strictly used for charity will be converted into free experience points.

Ms. Sakai is almost raising Jasmine as her own sister.

Gu Weijing is also very nice to little girl Jasmine.

But he noticed that he would occasionally buy some small gifts for Jasmine and send her to a very good local primary school. In addition, the salary he paid to Uncle Alai was basically spent on Jasmine... According to the system's standards, none of these expenses would be counted as "pure charitable acts."

The conversion rate of the free medical consultation project reached 97%.

This conversion rate is almost the same as when Gu Weijing first bought clothes, bread and toys for the children in the orphanage and chartered a car to deliver them.

No.

Higher than that.

At the beginning, Gu Weijing bought things entirely based on his imagination and had no experience in doing these things.

Many of the things he bought were too much for the children to finish, and the toys he bought were too much for others to play with. A small portion of them were helplessly wasted. All in all, it was less than 97%.

Gu Weijing worked as a volunteer in the orphanage for about half a year.

He is very clear.

With the system being so picky and nitpicking, some losses are almost impossible to avoid.

The larger the scale, the more so.

Like many large private charitable foundations in the United States, the annual salaries of the various managers assigned to them are generally not low. This may be their freedom. Even those large foundations may have a need to hire elite managers with high salaries.

But according to the system's standards, if a charity makes a profit from high management fees under the guise of charity, it certainly cannot be counted as a "true act of goodwill."

This free medical consultation project is not as simple as buying a few truckloads of bread and taking them to the streets to distribute to everyone.

It is a truly large-scale public welfare project that will cover thousands of people.

The 97% experience point gain ratio almost means that every penny spent by Gu Weijing was completely and purely spent on practical purposes.

Please.

What kind of place is Myanmar? Various corruption problems are very serious.

Society has always been troubled by this.

Gu Weijing was fully convinced that Boss Chen would definitely not look down upon a small sum of tens of thousands of dollars and would not take his money at all.

However, it is inevitable that when one's subordinates act clumsily, there will be some gray areas where one turns a blind eye.

No one is perfect!
In the end, no one took his money.

Not only was there no one trying to make money, even people like Gu Tongxiang, who liked to steal public oranges, take advantage of small profits, and secretly take a few bottles of mineral water home, almost never showed up.

This kind of thing defies logic.

It is not that Chen Shenglin is so powerful in the business world, or that his personal character as the president of the Myanmar Charity Chamber of Commerce has influenced his subordinates. These simple reasons can explain it clearly.

Gu Weijing smiled.

In this kind of occasion and in this kind of situation, he actually laughed.

It's not the kind of laughter that makes you hold your belly and fall forward and backward, nor is it the kind of quiet, faint laughter where only the sound of breathing can be heard.

"Ah……"

He laughed softly.

The young man seemed to have discovered something funny and laughed non-stop. Finally... at this moment, he finally understood what was going on.

It’s not that all the bad guys in the world have suddenly disappeared; it’s not that those people who steal oranges or secretly take bottles of mineral water have all disappeared.

But everyone just doesn’t dare.

But Boss Chen is the worst bad guy.

He is the biggest crocodile under the pool and the most ferocious beast in the cage. This project must have been instructed by Brother Hao himself.

So there are always people watching and no one dares to do anything wrong.

Who dares to secretly reach into the plate of the underworld godfather? Who dares to secretly grab food under the nose of Brother Hao?
The underworld does not abide by the law, the principles of sentencing, or the principle of proportionality between crime and punishment.

If you extend your hand where you shouldn't, and steal an orange from him, he will eat you up without even frowning - until not even a bone is left.

Gu Weijing thought about how hard he had tried to do something for the children in the orphanage, wanting to bring them electricity and drinking water, but was extorted by various local petty bureaucrats.

And Brother Hao.

He is the biggest local gangster, but he is elegant and respectable, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, speaking in a soft voice, modestly and politely.

He is even the president of the Myanmar Charity Chamber of Commerce, and he speaks in the news with compassion and a bright and sunny tone.

In the projects done by Brother Hao, everyone from top to bottom is honest and selfless, and it seems that they have almost become a harmonious society.

The general gangsters sell some drugs and collect some protection money. They hold knives and say, "If you don't pay, we will kill you."

Hao Ge could easily get hundreds of millions of embezzled money with just a wave of his hand, but when they met, he patted his shoulder and said to him: "The almighty Virgin Mary may really be omnipotent, but she has neither helped these children nor illuminated this city. If this continues, how will the people survive?"

"Xiao Gu, if you really want to paint a moving work, please compose it like this."

This world is such a fucking black humor.

Some people look like ghosts.

Some ghosts look like saints.

"Today I really saw what the ancients called the painted skin." Gu Weijing said with a smile.

……

"I crept through the window and peeked in. I saw a ferocious ghost with a green face and sharp teeth like saws. He spread human skin on the couch and painted it with a paintbrush. Then he threw the paintbrush away, lifted the skin like a piece of clothing, and put it on his body. Then he turned into a woman, whose color was extremely beautiful."

——(Qing Dynasty) Pu Songling, "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio·Painted Skin"

……

Brother Hao was not angry either.

He really looks like a well-mannered and nice guy.

He stood there, waiting for Gu Weijing to stop laughing, and then he spoke calmly: "People can't always live in an ivory tower. Sometimes, the older you get, the more you will understand that the rules of this world are not what you think."

"I called yesterday, and your secretary told me that you were not in the country. If I choose to give up Gu Lin, then... probably once this matter is over, Mr. Chen's phone will suddenly be accessible again." Gu Weijing said.

"Yes, if you don't come to Xihe Hall today and choose to go to Singapore, then Brother Hao will still be Brother Hao, and Chen Shenglin will still be the same Chen Shenglin. I will go to the Singapore Biennale and buy your painting."

Boss Chen smiled.

"I promised you a price you couldn't refuse. I've even contacted the curator. I always keep my word."

He walked into the house.

As he walked, he said, “In school, teachers always ask you, what kind of person do you want to be?”

“But once you enter society, you will understand that it is meaningless to decide what kind of person you want to be. The only thing that matters is what things and this world make you become.”

"All roads lead to Rome. This is for those who are born in the clouds. As for those who are born in the mud-"

Brother Hao walked to the wall and looked at the "Bust of a Woman" hanging in front of him.

He stared at the face in the painting that had become distorted due to the repeated overlapping of space.

"There is only one way, and you never have the power to choose."

“Whether the end of the road leads to the throne of Rome or burning ruins, you have no choice but to keep going.”

"Just like today, Gu Weijing, you didn't want to come, but you came anyway."

The two people in the room were back to back.

One was facing the bookshelf, the other was facing Picasso's famous paintings, and not far between them was a golden Buddha statue.

The incense sticks in the small incense burner in front of the Four-Faced Buddha have not yet burned out.

The three incense sticks flickered brightly and dimly, emitting misty smoke, like a hazy curtain separating the middle-aged and young people.

“A beautiful work of art cannot be described by critics, it speaks for itself. A noble soul cannot be bound by the world, it will seek freedom on its own.”

Chen Shenglin stretched out his hand and tapped the famous painting which was worth at least half a million euros.

"Mr. Xiao Gu, don't you think this sentence is strange? A noble soul cannot be bound by the world, she will seek freedom--"

"You are wrong. This is too arrogant and full of hypocritical lies from the upper class aristocrats. What determines whether a person has freedom is never the nobility of the soul. No, what determines whether a person has freedom is power."

“Freedom is a luxury that must be purchased.”

Chen Shenglin turned his head.

“Some people are born to live in palaces, and some are born to stand in the mud. It seems that those who live in palaces should always live in palaces for all their lives. They are destined to be elegant, noble, and decent. Those who stand in the mud are destined to struggle in the mud for all their lives. They are always vulgar and low-class people who are not worthy of being on the stage.”

"Those peasants also want freedom! They also want to be high above others, they also want to fly freely in the sky! Go to the Yangon River and take a look! Those porters who carry sedan chairs for European tourists, those call girls who sleep with different tourists every day, don't they want freedom? Do they like to carry others and be ridden by others?"

"Is it the nobility of a person's soul that determines whether he is kneeling and carrying others, or being carried by others, whether he rides on others, or is ridden by others, and whether he has freedom?"

Chen Shenglin scolded angrily.

"It's money, it's power, that's all."

"I listened to Miss Elena telling the story about this sentence at this European Art Annual Conference... It sounds really touching, doesn't it? Countless people burst into tears, but I don't think so. What does it mean to be bound by the world? A noble lady who disobeyed her family was arrested and locked in a cellar. Is this what it means to be bound by the world?"

"Then what is the reality that countless people in this world are experiencing? Is it hell on earth?"

"I don't like this. I don't want to cry, I just want to ask, why?"

"I like art, too. Why should I be different from them? If I was born with endless wealth, I could be very kind, do good deeds all my life, or just wave my hand and donate 5 billion. But I have nothing, so I can only rely on my own efforts to get it."

Chen Shenglin took a deep breath.

"What's the difference between us? Why can the Elena family live under the spotlight of the whole world, and why am I the one who has done all the evil? Where did their family get their money? Did they make their money by telling touching stories and doing good deeds?"

"Her family has millions of acres of land, horse farms, and manors in Africa. Were they all given to them for free by others because they were attracted by the personal charm of Elena's family? Didn't her ancestors' cavalrymen stain innocent blood? When her ancestors and Kruber were in the steel business, didn't they make war profits? Didn't innocent child laborers die in the factories?"

"Which of these old European nobles is really clean? Which of their homes has mountains of gold coins that are not stained with blood? Miss K., when she disobeyed her family, she acted quite strong. But when she spent her family's money, when she was basking in the sun and having afternoon tea with servants serving her, did she ever think of saying no? The money spent by the daughters of noble families like them on a dress ordered in Paris could probably buy the lives of two hundred people in the colonies!"

"The family just didn't want her to paint. It only damaged such a small, tiny bit of 'freedom', but the story was printed in hundreds of thousands of magazines and sung for a whole hundred years. They said they wanted to pay tribute to her and that she was a truly noble person. And what about those who died in the process of Elena's family's prosperity? Will anyone remember their names?"

Chen Shenglin raised his arm and pushed open the window on one side.

He said quietly.

"The only difference between them and me is that they got rich earlier and enjoyed a few more centuries of prosperity. However, they have completely whitewashed themselves, so they can call themselves - nobles."

"He who steals a hook is a thief; he who steals a country is a marquis; the one who succeeds is a king and the one who fails is a bandit; heroes have been writing about history since ancient times, and it is nothing more than this."

……

Gu Weijing had his back to Chen Shenglin.

He wasn't actually listening to the other person very seriously, he was just thinking.

On the way to Xihe Guild Hall, he had figured out a lot of things.

After confirming that Brother Hao was Chen Shenglin, or Chen Shenglin was Brother Hao, he figured out more things.

now.

Gu Weijing only had one last thing left, which he had not figured out for a long time...Chen Shenglin's words.

It's not that I haven't thought clearly about whether what Chen Shenglin said makes sense.

But he didn't think clearly about why Chen Shenglin said these words to him.

why?
Why is he?
Why does the other party keep holding on to me?
That night, when Gu Weijing called Chen Shenglin, he thought to himself, please, brother, tell me what you like about me, and I will change it immediately.

This sounds like a joke, but not a joke.

No matter how powerful Brother Hao is, he is still the godfather of Yangon. Normally, I can never get in touch with people of his level.

He doesn't want Brother Hao's money. There are many great artists in the world who want to take Brother Hao's money.

Why do you have to hang yourself on this tree?

When the two identities of Brother Hao and Boss Chen were combined into one, Gu Weijing felt even stronger.

Please.

He is just a nobody.

Even if I could participate in the Singapore Biennale and even if I had the appreciation of Mr. Cao, I would still be a nobody in front of a powerful figure like Brother Hao.

Don't you want to cleanse yourself?
Aren’t you a famous entrepreneur?
Isn't it said that multinational arms dealers have left behind a fund of $1000 billion, and just taking one or two from it would be an astronomical figure?
You are right, absolutely right. Aren’t these the things you should be busy with?

Picasso's paintings worth tens of millions of euros are casually placed in the smoky study, and it looks normal.

Why is Chen Shenglin holding on to me?

Gu Weijing felt that this was incomprehensible on behalf of Boss Chen. The other party had millions of dollars to spend, so why would he stare at him all day long?

Isn’t other people’s time valuable?
Are you sick?
Please, please, please, people like you should consider buying a Monet, a Van Gogh, or a Picasso. If you are unhappy, you can just buy a Da Vinci.

Who does he think he is?

(End of this chapter)