Rangoon

Gu's calligraphy and painting shop.

On weekends, it's another day off when you don't need to go to Shwedagon Pagoda.

Gu Weijing opened the top drawer of his bedroom cabinet and poured all the red envelopes inside on the bed.

Today he contacted a welfare home to visit, and before he went, he was going to prepare some gifts for the children there.

He was going to take an inventory of all the money he had saved over the years.

Like most places in Asia that have been influenced by the Chinese cultural scene, Yangon has plans to give money to children for the New Year.

And the red envelope is not one, but two.

The first one was issued at the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and it was a normal red envelope.

The second is on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, when he went to the neighborhood merchants who had just reopened after the Chinese New Year on the same street as Gu's calligraphy and painting shop, and said some auspicious words, usually using a red envelope to give a small gold coin to the children, this red envelope is called Kaimenli.

Each store will prepare.

Correspondingly, his grandfather would also buy some small gold coins for other neighbors' children.

Burmese people love gold, and these gold coins weigh about half a gram or a gram, which is not very valuable, and it is just a bargain.

Many children spend their New Year's money that year.

Gu Weijing has had a relatively low materialistic desire since he was a child, and there is no place to spend money.

Over the years, I have also saved a lot of gold coins or small jewelry, and this time I plan to sell them in a gold store outside and exchange them for money.

The calligraphy and painting shop is a duplex structure, with a front shop and a back house, with a total of three floors.

When Gu Weijing went downstairs, he happened to hear the sound of talking in the living room of the conference.

"I heard that someone gave Gu Weijing a set of painting tools, which is very valuable."

This is the voice of my uncle.

Although he was born in a family of calligraphy and painting, his uncle's painting level was very average.

After graduating from high school, he followed his father Gu Tongxiang to run a calligraphy and painting shop, and now he is the second leader of the calligraphy and painting shop, responsible for the acquisition of calligraphy and painting and some regular entertainment.

During the Spring Festival, my uncle and aunt took my cousin back to my wife's house, and I just came back a few days ago.

"Sending Gu as a scripture? Oh, no matter how valuable it is, it depends on our father's fame in Myanmar, otherwise who would give such a young child a paintbrush. And how expensive can an oil paintbrush be? ”

The aunt's tone was full of gossip.

She also works as the store's accountant, managing finances and is naturally sensitive to numbers.

When I heard that someone had given my nephew a valuable gift, my ears pricked up.

The uncle didn't speak, but seemed to just gesticulate.

"Two? 200,000 kyats? That's a lot of money, and there's no need for a child to use such a good paintbrush. ”

The average beginner oil painting brush set is about 89,000 to 10,000 kyats, and 200,000 kyats is about 100 US dollars, which is already a very good brush. It's worth a month's salary for an ordinary worker in Yangon.

"It's 20,000."

The uncle was silent for a moment: "But the unit is dollars." ”

"Twenty thousand dollars!"

Gu Weijing heard his aunt exclaim in a low voice.

"It's the Lukes Master suit, the equivalent of Hermès, and it has to be couture. $20,000 is just the selling price, and ordinary people can't buy it. If you put it out and sell it, it is estimated that it will cost more than 50,000 dollars. ”

50,000 US dollars, my aunt quickly converted it in her mind, and even according to the official exchange ratio, this amount is hundreds of millions of kyats.

"Crazy, this is all a car, what is our father's plan?"

"The old man didn't say anything else, only said that it was Gu Weijing's stuff."

The uncle shook his head, and when he first learned the news, he was no less surprised than his wife.

$20,000 oil painting tools, I have only heard about the existence of this luxury on the Internet.

"The old man doesn't really want to give this set of painting tools to a child, does he? That's tens of thousands, tens of thousands of dollars! The economic environment has been so bad in recent years. Tell the old man that it's better to sell it to subsidize the family......"

Knock Knock......

Gu Weijing felt that it would be a little embarrassing to listen to it again.

He knocked lightly on the door to the conference room, then pushed it open.

There was silence in the living room.

"Good morning, I'm going to go outside."

Gu Weijing pretended not to hear anything, and nodded to his cousin who was sitting on the sofa with a mobile phone.

My uncle and aunt have a daughter named Gu Lin.

She was seven months older than herself, and she was in the same school as herself.

It is difficult to learn to paint, and my aunt does not want her daughter to continue to follow the path of art.

So the other party is in an ordinary class, with a jumpy personality, a slightly chubby figure, and average academic performance.

A few days ago, during the Chinese New Year, the other party followed his uncle and aunt back to his parents' house, and now the holiday is halfway over, and he has just come back in the past two days.

Gu Weijing saw that on the coffee table was the set of Lukes's master painting tools that Lao Yang had given him, and the black walnut painting box was opened, revealing the messy paintbrushes and the open lapis lazuli paint box inside.

Lapis lazuli is one of the more expensive gemstone pigments, and the Lukes box contains a master pigment set, as well as a small plate of various mineral pigments.

Among them are 150 grams of white pearl powder, 5 square meters of gold leaf, and 30 grams of lapis lazuli powder, among others.

These valuables are only used when painting a special breed.

For example, lapis lazuli powder is the main ingredient in ultramarine blue pigments.

In his book Art, the Italian painter Cennino Chinini commented on ultramarine blue – "a noble color, incomparably beautiful, the most perfect pigment in the world." ”

Even in medieval cathedrals, where nothing is worth a lot of money, some lapis lazuli is only used to paint the statue of the Virgin or the angel.

It has an international market price of $2,500 per ounce, which is somewhat higher than the price of gold.

Cousin Gu Lin held a new iPhone for the New Year next to the black walnut box, which seemed to be filming TikTok.

Douyin has a high international reputation, and it is not even inferior to YouTube.

Many people are aware of TikTok's lawsuit in the United States, but even children in the Middle East are now using Tiktok as a tool to understand the world.

My cousin also has a Douyin account, called "Little Princess in the Gallery in Yangon".

The daily content is to show off some expensive paintings and calligraphy in the gallery.

It is still relatively rare in Myanmar Gallery, and her account also has three or four thousand followers.

It looks like his master suit has become a new toy for his cousin to show off.

The aunt pretended not to see anything, and Gu Weijing also pretended not to see anything, so the uncle was a little embarrassed.

"Uh, that ......"

Uncle opened his mouth, he knew that Gu Weijing might have heard the conversation in the living room and wanted to say something.

"Just don't break it."

Gu Weijing waved his hand.

"Okay, Xiaolin, don't shoot, that's not your thing, put it away for my brother." The uncle looked at his daughter with a frown.

"What's the matter, just shoot a few short videos, why talk so much."

My cousin was a little impatient with my father's discipline: "Look at Mona in our class, everyone has a jewelry store at home, and they all have more than 30,000 fans. ”

"What about the Chinese New Year, what are you murdering your children? It's all a family, so can't you be generous? ”

The aunt looked at her husband and was a little unhappy with his fierce tone.

"Xiao Lin is just taking a video, and he won't get a hair off the brush."

Gu Weijing knew that this was actually for himself.

His aunt may not have any bad intentions, but she is just a philistine who is shrewd.

After all, people are elders, and Gu Weijing can't say anything.

When he was a child, he knew that his aunt thought that his grandfather Gu Tongxiang was eccentric, and he clearly wanted to keep the most valuable calligraphy and painting shop in the family to himself.

Over the years, I also prefer to inherit the family's painting skills rather than my cousin.

So there is a bit of an opinion about him as a nephew.

But......

Alas......

It can only be said that every family has a scripture that is difficult to read.

In fact, from the bottom of Gu Weijing's heart, he really didn't mind selling this master suit.

He felt that he should not be able to use such a good paint for a long time.

And even a conservative estimate of $30,000 is enough for him to upgrade several skills to the professional level.

It is also appropriate to take out some money to subsidize some household expenses. For well-known reasons, the number of tourists has been decreasing in the past two years, and business has not been so good.

From her point of view, her aunt's plan was naturally for the sake of her family.

But after all, this set of painting tools was a gift from Lao Yang to himself.

People give you something on the front foot, and the back foot appears on the online market.

I didn't borrow flowers to offer Buddha, so what would Lao Yang think when I saw it?

Or maybe the master's assistant doesn't care about any of this at all.

But Gu Weijing can't do that.

Gu Weijing shook his head, made an appointment with a UBer taxi on his mobile phone, and took his coat.

"Shhhh It's full of gold coins. It's when we're not at home for the New Year this year, the old man secretly gave it. Your daughter doesn't, the old man is too eccentric. ”

"I told you that when you are young, you don't earn money for your family, but the old man gives so much money, which is doting. Maybe people will do something with it, everyone will be badly taught, otherwise there would not be an underworld coming to the door before......"

When Gu Weijing left the reception room, he heard his aunt's muttering voice that was lowered but deliberately let him hear.

He didn't turn his head and explain it back, and it was useless to explain this kind of thing, so he could only sigh softly.