Organic Farm Author: Farmer is flying

Chapter 67: Buying a Painting

After breakfast the next day, Tian Chuan and Professor Zhao went their separate ways, regardless of the teachers and students shopping, and ran to the Art Institute of Chicago alone. This is one of the largest art museums in the United States, with a large collection of paintings, sculptures, armor and physical exhibits.

Tagawa started with the European and American Pavilion, then went to the Indian Pavilion, and finally the Asian Pavilion. He carried a camera and a large amount of film and batteries, and took a lot of photos in the museum, which consumed more than a dozen rolls of film.

In addition, he brought a sketchpad, but when he entered the pavilion, he was told that he could not use it. After talking to the security guard who stopped him, he realized that his drawing board was too large and might affect other people's visits. Finally, he bought a sketchbook with a hard cover at the entrance so that he could enter the museum and copy it.

In the pavilion, Tagawa sketched several oil paintings and drew more than a dozen sketches. His sketches mainly focus on the demeanor of the characters, and most of his paintings are sculptures.

It wasn't until around two o'clock in the afternoon that he left the museum and had lunch at a fast-food restaurant outside.

Leaving the exhibition hall, Tagawa noticed that there were many galleries and art shops on a nearby path, and he couldn't help but walk over.

While browsing, he saw Chinese paintings for sale in a gallery. There are three paintings hanging out, and the paper and ink of the paintings are a little old. If you look closely, one of them turned out to be Fu Baoshi! The other two he had never heard of. The price tags for the three paintings range from $100 to $300, and it can be seen that they are based on the size of the paintings. Fu Baoshi's figure is the smallest, with a price tag of $100. Tagawa carefully looked at the brushwork of the painting, the classical facial features, and the folds of the clothes are very distinctive, especially the clothes, which are very expressive in the wind.

Tagawa asked the shopkeeper, "If I buy a painting here, can I take it out of the country?"

The shopkeeper said that as long as the receipts in the store are kept and can prove the legitimate source, it is fine. Tian Chuan pointed to the painting of Fu Baoshi and tried to bargain, but the middle-aged shopkeeper shook his head and disagreed: "These Chinese paintings were left by my grandfather, they are very precious, and they can't be lowered." All he left me was these paintings, look at them, how beautiful they are. ”

Then he changed his heavy tone and said, "My grandfather attaches great importance to these paintings, he loves me, and I love him." ”

Tagawa made a helpless look: "Okay, okay, just $100." I respect your feelings for grandpa. Then, he looked at the other two paintings, shaking his head as he looked at them, the technique of these two paintings was obviously worse, a small freehand starling grape, a black lump, and he couldn't see any artistic conception. The other tiger picture is full of ingenuity, and the ferocity of the tiger is not visible at all. He finally gave up and said, "That's it, remember to help me get a receipt." ”

The shopkeeper still didn't give up, and said, "Sir, there are still some Chinese paintings left by my grandfather, do you want to take a look?"

Tian Chuan suddenly became interested and said, "Where? Take it out and I'll take a look." ”

The shopkeeper dragged an old suitcase out of the back workshop, opened it, and saw that there were seven or eight painting scrolls inside. When he opened them one by one, Tian Chuan found that there was a calligraphy by Kang Youwei inside, and the others were paintings, and the author didn't know them. Two of them caught his attention, one of the Hanlin pictures had a strong Zhao Mengfu style, and he had not heard of the name of the inscription. Another painting of flowers and birds is not too large, with a strong Japanese style, delicate strokes, rich and full colors, which makes people unforgettable at first sight.

Tian Chuan no longer looked closely, took out Kang Youwei's characters, Japanese paintings and the Hanlin picture, and asked the shopkeeper to quote.

The principle of the owner's offer is still the same, calligraphy 200 dollars, because only this one, unique. Hanlin Figure 300, because of the large size. Japanese paintings have a unique artistic style and are boutiques, and the owner offers $1,000.

Tagawa returned the Japanese painting to the shopkeeper: "This one is too expensive, I don't want it." The owner was not reconciled, and tried every means to sell, and finally took the initiative to reduce the price to $700. In the end, Tian Chuan spent $1,300, about a little more than 10,000 yuan, to buy the four paintings he liked.

In the evening, Tagawa returned to the hotel to meet Professor Zhao and them. Wei Wenqiang had already bought the tickets, but Tian Chuan didn't buy the gloves he wanted. "I asked, and there are all kinds of baseball equipment at the sports store next to the stadium, and it's easy to buy," he said. And each person's hand shape is different, so it's best to try it on the spot. ”

After dinner early, the group went to the baseball stadium together, and at a large sporting goods store outside the stadium, Tagawa bought his own gloves. In addition, he bought ten baseball caps for the White Sox to give away.

Out of the store, they saw a bearded middle-aged white man playing baseball with a teenage boy on the lawn not far away, looking like a father and son. Both men wore White Sox jerseys, wore gloves, tossed a ball around, and had a great time. The middle-aged man constantly changes the position and power of the ball, and the little boy runs around catching the ball, making him sweat profusely. On a whim, Tian Chuan shouted at the father and son who were 30 meters away: "Hey, throw one over!" The father saw that he was also wearing gloves, and after a little hesitation, he threw a high throw ball, and the ball landed very accurately, less than one meter away from Tian Chuan. Tagawa moved half a step, reached out to catch the ball, and threw it back with a high throw. The two tossed each other, approached each other at the same time, and the trajectory of the toss became straighter and straighter. After a few reciprocations, the distance was only a dozen meters, and the two had changed to flat balls. The bearded white man has a lot of power, and the ball thrown is almost straight and whizz, with a spin, Tagawa feels a strong vibration every time he catches the ball, and later Tagawa uses the Tai Chi technique to cushion it, and the catch is relaxed. Tagawa's ball is not distinctive, the speed is not fast, the spin is not strong, but the ball is fast, the ball stays in the hand for a very short time, and the landing point is very accurate, which makes people very comfortable to catch.

After tossing and catching more than a dozen times, Tian Chuan threw the ball in his hand to the little boy and walked over to greet the father and son: "I am Tian Chuan from China, and it is a pleasure to meet you." You're really good at throwing your balls. ”

The middle-aged man responded with a hearty smile: "It's been a long time since I've met you to take over so well." I'm Steve, a pitcher, and I played fifth on the team that year. This is my son George. ”

Tagawa greeted George: "Lad, you are awesome, you will be a good outfielder. ”

Little George was a little shy, plucked up the courage and stammered a little and said: "Hello, I'm George, your ball is awesome, few people can catch my dad's ball so accurately." Are you taking over?

Tian Chuan smiled: "There are too few people who play baseball in China, and I haven't played in the team yet, so I don't know where I fit." ”

The bearded Steve was surprised and said, "Oh my god, you're the best takeover I've ever seen, and you don't even know where you stand on the team." China is truly a magical country. ”

Tian Chuan spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "No way, there are too few people who play baseball in China, it is difficult to form a team, and even if you form a team, you can't find an opponent to play." China doesn't have a professional baseball team at all, and certainly no league. ”

Steve looked incredulous and said, "How can this be? Such a great sport, in a country with a population of one billion, no one plays it." You know, after Bruce Lee, it was more common for people in the United States to practice Chinese kung fu. ”

After chatting for a while, it was time for the audience to enter the game, Tagawa and Steve left each other's contact information, agreed to go to his farm tomorrow as guests, and entered separately.

After entering the stadium, I found that on the curved stands of the fan-shaped stadium, more than 10,000 seats were filled with enthusiastic fans, many of whom were wearing gloves. Before the game had even started, the fans burst into laughter.

Finally, the game began, with the White Sox defending in the first half of each inning and attacking in the second half of each inning. The White Sox got off to a bad start, dropping two points in the first inning. The rest of the game was dull, with the score of 2-0 continuing into the fifth game.

In the second half of the fifth inning, the White Sox finally seized the opportunity, the fourth batter hit a hit, and the second baseman who had gone to second base successfully stole the base under the cover of the third baseman at first base and scored a point, and in order to cover the second base, the third batter was directly blocked between first and second base, and the fourth batter went to first base, and the situation was good. But then the fifth bat was directly killed by the pitcher with a burst of character, and the White Sox's offensive inning was over, the two sides exchanged offense and defense, and the game entered the sixth inning.

In the first half of the sixth inning, the White Sox's pitchers made a mistake and were scored by the opponent to steal a base, and the score gap was restored to two points.

In the second half of the game, the White Sox attacked. The first two offensive players were killed by one and the other was killed, and just when everyone thought that this half of the inning was going to end flatly, Qifeng protruded, and the third, fourth, and fifth batters of the White Sox team hit hits one after another, and there was a full base situation on the field with all people on one, second and third bases. The sixth player was a tall, strong black man who was a substitute for the White Sox. White Sox fans in the audience cheered "home run, home run!" If this home run occurs, the White Sox will score four straight points, which is the limit of a single stroke in baseball, known as the "golden home run."

From the analysis of the situation, the situation at this time is indeed very favorable to the White Sox. You know, the strong bats are not involved in defense, and generally only appear in the third to fifth positions when attacking, they have great power, a high success rate of hitting the ball, and they generally hit multiple home runs in a season, and they can often cause points after playing.

The gorilla-looking black powerhouse was clearly a high-profile player, waving his hands to the crowd as he walked out to further stir up the atmosphere, while the home crowd cheered louder with his gestures. He is a right-handed player who stands in the direction of second base facing Tagawa and prepares to hit the ball, while the three players on base are also ready to run the base.

In normal games, when encountering this kind of super base, you can directly throw four bad balls away from home plate and send him to first base to avoid a home run scoring directly. But the current situation is that there are people on all three bases, and if he is sent to base, the offensive players on the base will advance in turn, and the players on third base will go straight back to home plate to score, and the unfavorable situation of full base will continue, which is a difficult choice.

The opposing head coach chose to take a gamble, as long as the pitcher threw a beautiful strong spin ball, it was possible to kill the opponent or induce the opponent to hit a close court high ball and catch the opponent to end the game.

The two sides didn't seem to want the suspense of the game to end like this, and the throws and hits again and again had no effect, and soon reached three balls and two hits, as long as the batsman missed the swing again, it was three shocks out of the game, and the result of being thrown and killed, the game would also be over. If the pitcher throws one more bad ball, it is four bad balls and the White Sox will score one point.

The most crucial ball was finally thrown. The gorilla players of the White Sox team swung their bats with all their might, and the ball was hit squarely, drawing a high arc, sticking to the sideline of the fan-shaped court, past second base, flying in the direction of Tagawa, past the field fence, and flying directly to Tagawa's seat before landing. Tagawa stood up high, stretched out his gloved left hand, and took the ball firmly in his hand.

At this time, the stadium was already filled with the cheers of the home fans, and a golden home run, which is rare in a year, appeared. Tagawa felt very lucky that he only watched it once and caught it, and he also received this ball, which is enough to brag to Steve tomorrow.

In the next game, both sides played well, scoring one after another, and the game was full of excitement. At the end of nine innings, the White Sox came back from 11-7 to victory, giving the crowd a wonderful half-time game.