Almighty painter

Chapter 744: Mr. Gu and Miss Anna met for the first time. The atmosphere was not good at first (Part )
Miss Elena picked up the coffee cup and stared straight at the man in front of her in a navy blue formal coat.

The light in the cafe was warm and sleepy, the young man's dark pupils were bright, and on the wall next to him, the avant-garde-style decorative paintings were colorful.

During the colonial era, the British here used to hunt tigers using fresh meat and rope nets.

After they caught the tiger in the jungle, they skinned it. A colorful tiger skin could easily sell for more than 30 pounds. In the 1900s, when Queen Victoria's authority still covered a quarter of the earth's land, 30 pounds was still worth more than gold.

It is said that it was this kind of hunting behavior that led to the complete extinction of the precious Singapore tiger.

Just right.

The place where the hunters caught the hunted tigers was the bar and recreation room of the Raffles Hotel. In other words, it was the room where they were sitting.

The furnishings here still maintain the style of a hundred years ago.

and so.

Miss Elena could easily imagine that a hundred years ago, the colorful posters hanging on the opposite wall might have been placed on the spot where the colorful tiger skins had been.

She smelled a sweet smell of blood.

Tigers eat people.

Man hunting tiger.

She sat in a warm and quiet cafe, holding a cup of Geisha coffee with latte art.

She was also sitting in the wilderness of life, in the jungle where the shadows of trees were swaying, the roar of tigers, the light of torches, the sound of hunters' gunfire, and the hot steam of nature were blowing on her woman's face.

To be or not to be.
Be the hunter or be the hunted.

Hunters with guns were wandering around.

You must always be smart enough, alert enough, and vigilant enough to be invincible in this wilderness game of life.

For tigers, this is true.

This is especially true for a sloth that moves so slowly.

The woman blinked her beautiful eyes and said softly, "I'm sorry, Mr. Gu, this is not a question I can answer for you. For all interviews and conversations hosted by Oil Painting, no scripts are provided in advance. This is the rule of our industry."

In that case, why did she come to see me again?
Gu Weijing frowned inwardly and became more alert, thinking whether the other party's words were a way of asking for a price...

Or in a threatening way.

He was not one to compromise under the gun of a hunter.

He didn't like the feeling of being forced into a corner.

"What kind of interview you will face is a question that depends on you, not me. Why don't you tell me about the paper yourself?" The woman stared at him and took a sip of coffee.

Even while drinking coffee, her body was stable and almost motionless, with only the round pearl hanging on her earlobe shaking slightly.

"You are the first author of that paper, Mr. Gu. I learned from my personal sources that you are the more important one among the two co-first authors of this paper. What you wrote and how you wrote it are the focus of the interview. As long as there is no problem with the writing process of this paper itself, I can't think of any reason why you must get the script in advance, right?" Anna's tone was playful.

Gu Weijing's expression showed no emotion.

He leaned back in his chair, holding the bone china teacup in his palm, slowly rotating it, and the heat slowly diffused out from his palm.

Both of them had their eyes shrouded in smoke.

No one backed down.

After a few dozen seconds of silence, Gu Weijing put the teacup aside and said, "Okay, I am a sincere person. Out of respect for the Elena family, I will also answer your questions sincerely."

"What do you want to know from me?"

"Kara."

Miss Elena directly reported the name that she was most concerned about, "The real name of the female painter named 'Carol' that you wrote in your paper."

"Yes."

Gu Weijing nodded.

"I heard Katsuko Sakai talking about the mysterious connection between Carol and Kara - that was your idea, wasn't it?"

"To be precise, we found all the information we could find together, and then one by one, we eliminated the possibilities one by one. We wrote this paper together, and it is difficult to say which person's idea was for a certain part of the paper, a certain separated argument, or a certain single sentence." Gu Weijing thought for a while.

He saw Miss Elena staring at him, as if she was not buying into this overly high-sounding statement.

"Be sincere." - She reminded with her chestnut eyes looking at me - "You just promised me to tell the truth, didn't you?"

"Actually, what I said was the truth." Gu Weijing added, "I don't think there is any extra meaning in continuing to dwell on this issue, but if you must explore it, well, in the end, in the paper, I will focus my speculation on Carroll's true identity on the female painter with golden red hair who once appeared on the banks of the Paris River and was mentioned in Monet's letter. It's more of my stubbornness."

"From the perspective of many debates on the Internet today, from a 'smart' point of view, maybe there were better results when I wrote it."

"Regret it?"

"Now I am still... very determined."

Gu Weijing laughed at himself.

Anna didn't smile.

The woman pressed on, "What are you determined to do? Are you determined to conclude that Kara is smarter than Monet's wife, or..."

The inference of maximizing benefits?
"——Or, it is a better inference." Gu Weijing interjected.

"Good? What is good? What is bad? Can you explain it to me?"

The woman opposite seemed to be nitpicking about this issue.

"I can understand that the inference that Carol's true identity is Monet's wife Camille will normally bring more financial rewards than Carol's true identity being the unknown painter that Monet once mentioned in a letter. According to my sources, the painting "Old Church in a Thunderstorm" is now in your possession, right?"

"Yes, I don't think there is anything shameful about this. What's wrong with an archaeologist holding a fossil he found? I clearly stated this in my paper."

Gu Weijing replied.

"A paleontological fossil, under normal circumstances, would not be worth tens or millions of dollars. But the work of the first female Impressionist painter would be." Anna reminded the other party that such a simple concept replacement should not be made.

"This is not my fault."

Gu Weijing said calmly.

After a few words of conversation, the vague smell of gunpowder in the two people's words once again surged up.

Miss Elena pursed her lips.

"So I can understand what a smarter conclusion is. What do you mean by a better conclusion? Are you more firmly convinced that Kara is Ms. Carol's true identity? Excuse me..." Anna's tone was not presumptuous. Instead, it sounded like a female general who had cleverly seized the opponent's logical loophole in the debate and won the game with one blow. "I have read your paper. I am not kidding. I have carefully read every word in the paper. Based on the information you have, Mr. Gu, at least based on the information you presented to the public in your paper, a few lines of diary, a few letters... I don't think this is enough to support your unwavering determination."

"I'm confused." She sneered in her heart and stared at the other person's face.

Check it out.

Is the fox's tail now exposed?
Anna Elena has this aggressive speaking style when she is working.

It was like a fencing match. She was a swift and light sword. With one trick, she shook off his defense and beat him to a pulp.

Sir Brown has suffered from Anna many times.

Now let’s talk about Gu Weijing.

Miss Irena guessed that if the other party really knew something in advance, such as Goethe's book, then he would most likely pretend to be a noble scholar and use his firm stance on "Kara" to curry favor with Irena's family.

Then, a logical paradox arises.

If he had not known any news in advance, between Monet's wife "Camille" and "Carla", how could he say that the latter was a "better" choice?
If it is not for the greater good, where does this stubborn determination come from?

She was just forcing the other person.

Forcing him to make a choice between admitting that this firmness is false or admitting that this nobleness is false.

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No matter which one.

He lied about everything.

Miss Elena's mind moved slightly, unless -

……

Gu Weijing just shook his head in response.

"Do not."

The young man opposite said softly, "I have never firmly believed that Carol's true identity is Kara. No one knows who Carol is. The materials that Ms. Sakai and I have are far from enough to give the academic community an indisputable conclusion. Otherwise, all the debates surrounding the paper today would not exist."

"Ms. Elena, you are right."

Not firm again, Anna thought. Changeability is not a virtue for men.

“But I remain determined.”

"But what I meant by firm is that I firmly believed that during the days when Ms. Sakai and I discussed Carol's identity, Kara was the most likely one among the countless possible right or wrong guesses in front of us."

"This painting has brought me a lot. More than you can imagine. So I have respect for it, and also for the female painter who has been forgotten by time. In return, I unswervingly chose the one that is closest to what I think is most likely Ms. Carroll. She is the unknown Carla, not the famous Camille." Gu Weijing said silently.

"Even if that's a tiny difference between 5 percent and 1 percent?"

Anna stared into the other person's eyes, like a contestant with a light sword, trying to determine whether the other person's posture was intentional.

If she judges it correctly, she might attack and score.

If she made a mistake in judgment, she might fall into the trap prepared by the hunter.

Gu Weijing slowly lowered his head.

He stared at the amber tea in the cup for a long time before he said softly, "Yes, Miss Elena, even if the difference is only between 5/10,000 and 1/10,000, I will still make this choice—"

“It’s not about the number of possibilities, it’s about the possibility itself.”

It was not the kind of answer Miss Elena appreciated the most, waving the fist, staring back at the opponent's eyes as unwavering as a nail, and then making a declaration as hard as iron and full of leadership qualities, like a shot of adrenaline to boost morale, a drop of water in hot oil or a charge, using powerful momentum to force the opponent to surrender involuntarily, that was the answer Anna liked.

This answer is a bit too quiet.

It’s like the opponent suddenly gave up resistance, dropped his sword, took off his mask, and sat there quietly, waiting for your decision.

What is puzzling is.

This action touched Miss Elena involuntarily and touched the deepest part of her heart.

Gu Weijing raised his head.

"That painting, 'Old Church in a Thunderstorm', is by Carla. Well, let's just call it Carla for now. It was a gift from Miss Carla 150 years ago, as a senior painter to the younger generation. And this paper is my gift to Miss Carla as a return gift to the senior painters, one hundred and fifty years later, as a junior painter to the senior painters."

"Kara is not a person, but an attitude. From the moment I started writing to now, I have always thought so, and I have never regretted it."

Gu Weijing said.

"That's why I said she was my best choice. People may guess wrong, but attitudes won't."

"That's all."

"Even though this may involve the loss of tens of millions of dollars, and the possible loss of huge fame and social popularity?" Anna looked at Gu Weijing and asked, "Are you sure? How many people will believe your answer?"

"As someone who donated artworks worth more than $5 billion at the European Art Conference two months ago, Miss Elena, you are the last person to ask me this question. Am I right?"

Gu Weijing looked back at Anna calmly.

The woman looked at the young man's cheek.

The Olympic-level fencer stared closely at his opponent.

After taking off the mask, the slightly pretty face revealed not the confused and helpless look like a frightened animal after a lie was exposed, but a quiet, peaceful and calm look.

Anna once again thought of the painting of "Wisteria" and the painting of "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sunshine".

I have finished what I have to say.

Believe it or not.

It’s up to you whether you want to stab it or not.

I am who I am, what you think has nothing to do with me.

Miss Elena suddenly smiled.

This time it was not a fleeting smile, but a serious one. After entering the interview state, the "blade" that had been firmly erected like an eye snake slowly fell to the side.

He did not give the answer that Anna appreciated the most, but he gave the answer that Anna expected the most.

Again.

Right in the bull's eye.

100 points.

"I like the way you put it." Anna said this time.

(End of this chapter)