At three o'clock in the afternoon, with the sound of a gong.

The man who looked like the host stepped on a simple rostrum made of several iron boxes, and held a loudspeaker to officially announce the end of the bidding process.

"Calm down, everyone, we are counting the bids in the dark boxes. It takes about half an hour. We have prepared a lounge area for everyone with refreshments and fruits......"

The crowd bustled out of the bidding area.

Gu Weijing saw several police cars following a blue-black anti-riot armored car into front of the warehouse.

The door of the armored car opened, and a group of patrol officers in black uniforms came down.

The men leaned against the side of the car, gathered in a group, and lazily smoked there.

They don't look elite, but they're loaded real guys on their belts.

"There will be a large amount of cash transactions later, and you also know the security situation here, so I don't feel at ease without the police."

The uncle noticed Gu Weijing's gaze, patted his nephew's shoulder, and looked like he had seen a big scene: "The annual jade public market is the big scene, and those jewelry merchants from the Dongxia Continent and the Dongxia Hong Kong and Taiwan regions are billionaires at every turn. In order to ensure the stability and safety of the public market, there will even be a MiG-29 flying on the head. ”

Gu Weijing nodded.

Boss Wu's handicap is a white business.

The people in the audience, except for the young woman dressed as a working woman, no one wanted to take a second look at the "Old Church on a Thunderstorm".

It stands to reason that the robbery will not be able to grab his head.

"You don't have anything to look at. Your Gu Tongxiang's vision is still quite tricky. Koo's Book Gallery is also a big deal in Hong Kong. What do you think? Can you eat the standard king? ”

Boss Wu didn't know where it came out of nowhere.

He had a half-burned cigarette in his mouth, and he was spitting at the side.

"I just bid in the miscellaneous section."

Gu Weijing held the No. 69 number plate he received when he entered, and his eyes swept to the whiteboard in front of the miscellaneous area on the side.

A number of staff members are counting the number boxes in the miscellaneous area.

After a while, after the bid amount for each booth has been counted, the winning bid number will be written on the whiteboard.

"Miscellaneous area, heh, that's the children's playhouse."

Knowing that Gu Weijing didn't hug Brother Hao's thighs, Boss Wu's posture suddenly became much higher, and he didn't even call Mr. Gu anymore, with an attitude of pointing out the juniors: "How can you do business without a little courage." ”

The uncle also smiled bitterly: "Biaowang...... "Mountain in the Snow" has a starting price of more than $10,000, which is too expensive." ”

"You can't say that, there is a reason why you are expensive. The price of Impressionist works has indeed risen in recent years. Some time ago, the private collection of Microsoft founder Paul Allen sold for a total of $1.6 billion, and a few of the impressionist works accounted for 30% of the transaction value. ”

Boss Wu spat out the smoke ring lightly, "If you are too expensive, you can go to the miscellaneous area like your nephew, where you can rent a venue for one or two thousand dollars." ”

"A few thousand dollars to charter a yard and send it to the garbage dump?"

Uncle shook his head: "No one's money is blown by the wind, your miscellaneous area is miscellaneous, how can you even have a bottle of Coca-Cola." ”

"Maybe there's a fool who can do this." A businessman next to him interjected with a smile.

There was a burst of joy in the air.

After about twenty minutes, all the bids in the number box were counted.

The presenter began to hold a small notepad and read the winning number of each booth.

"Congratulations, Mr. 06, for $27,001 to buy the king of calligraphy and painting in the public auction "Mountain in the Snow".

As the number of the winning bidder was heard from the loudspeaker, there was a sparse and polite applause from the crowd.

Gu discovered that the buyer did not belong to any of the few local head galleries in Yangon that he was familiar with.

It turned out to be the uncle who handed him toilet paper, claiming to be the one who would rather eat a bite of fairy peaches than buy a basket of rotten peaches.

This strange uncle seems to be really powerful, and he can eat the whole public market, no wonder he is a collector.

"The rich old man who came to the East Xia for vacation is said to be in the building materials business, and he loves to collect, and he bought a lot of good jadeite in Myanmar during this time."

Boss Wu glanced at the thermos cup uncle and explained: "It's really a river dragon." ”

"Congratulations also to Boss Wu for making a fortune."

The uncle glanced at the uncle.

It's normal for collectors to pay more than their galleries.

Collectors only need to consider whether they like the work they buy or not, and even if they want to invest in appreciation, they often hold it for a long time in 10 years.

Galleries, on the other hand, are in business.

Uncle estimates that if this painting meets a favorite buyer, it may be able to sell for about 30,000 US dollars, and at least there is more than 10% profit margin.

But you have to think about how long it will take to sell the painting.

Pressing tens of thousands of dollars on a painting for a long time is likely to overwhelm the store's capital chain.

The opening of bids for the public market continues.

Uncle won two bids and won once, and the other print was bought by another gallery by $350.

And the Impressionist oil painting with a Lv.6 rating that Gu Weijing had seen before.

It was also won by the old man for $2,700.

Although the old man couldn't see the fame of Gu Weijing's "Old Church" before, his eyesight among ordinary people is indeed not bad.

If it weren't for Gu Weijing's appreciation of "The Dance Party at the Pancake Mill", even he would have almost missed that work.

He didn't have the patience to wait for the host to read it one by one, and he took the lead to wander to the whiteboard in the miscellaneous area on the side.

Every winning bidder and winning bid amount at the main booth will be read out to the audience by the host on a loudspeaker.

Whenever someone wins a bid, everyone applauds, both out of politeness and to satisfy the vanity of the winning bidder.

The miscellaneous area is not so particular, just look at it yourself.

At this time, some people have already begun to stick the winning number plates one by one on the whiteboard with magnets, and Gu Weijing is bidding for booth 159.

As expected, and reasonable, the winning bidder of the booth was No. 69 in his hand.

He walked to the toll booth.

"Miscellaneous Zone, Booth 159, Buyer 69...... Offer $2,500? ”

Gu Weijing immediately handed over the envelope containing the money and the number plate in his hand.

The little brother who charged looked at Gu Wei for a long time like a fool.

After repeatedly using the money detector to confirm that the pile of dollars was not a counterfeit banknote, he handed Gu Weijing a receipt for charging.

At the moment when he got the receipt, the official ownership of all the items on booth 159 was transferred to Gu Weijing.

A large stone fell to the ground in his heart.

When Gu Weijing was about to quietly take the painting away, an accident still happened.

"You have a shady scene in this public market! Who is number 69? ”

As a woman's angry voice sounded in the room, the originally quiet and smooth order in the venue was suddenly interrupted.

Everyone looked curiously in the direction from which the voice came.

"Miss, you are responsible for talking nonsense."

Boss Wu walked out of the crowd and looked at the woman standing by the whiteboard, with anger hidden in his tone.

He opened this kind of scene, and the last thing he liked was that someone accused him of shady.

"I ......"

The female ol, who was dressed like a working woman, knew that she was in a hurry and that she was talking a little inappropriately.

However, there is a police officer not far away, and she herself is an employee of the government, so the woman is not afraid of Boss Wu.

"I want to check the mark, it should be my right."

She looked up and looked directly at the crowd in the room.

"Booth 159, my bid is $300 and I want to know who has a higher winning bid than me. I suspect you're doing something wrong. ”

After the woman found the oil painting that the master wanted, she basically walked around booth 159 all the time.

During this time, only the child, who looked like a student, showed interest in the things at the booth.

The others didn't even mean to stay in front of this booth.

This time, because she didn't want to produce another moth, she even put up a full 300 US dollars as the bidding amount.

Is there a higher number than yourself?

"You put $300?"

Boss Wu glanced at the painting tubes and discarded candlesticks on booth 159 not far away.

If no one buys these broken copper and iron, he is ready to clean up them as construction waste.

Boss Wu immediately stopped being angry.

Nowadays, even foreign tourists are not easy to deceive, and they are willing to spend 300 dollars on these things, which is rare.

"Miss, this is an item that flowed out of the Great Writer's Hotel, and it may be an object used by a famous writer back then. It is not uncommon for someone to offer a higher price. ”

Boss Wu said this, but he really doubted in his heart that his little brother had made a mistake.

Is there anything more wronged than three hundred dollars?

"Take the winning bid form, bring the bidding box, and check the amount of the winning bid."

Boss Wu commanded.

Unexpectedly, the little brother who was in charge of counting the bidding boxes in the miscellaneous area immediately spoke.

"Boss, don't check, the winning bid is No. 69. $2,500 was the highest bid of any booth in the entire miscellaneous section, and I was impressed when I counted it, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. ”

"$2,500? Are you sure? Not the Kyat currency? ”

The working woman opened her mouth wide.

She immediately remembered the boy who looked like a student, and glanced at the crowd behind her.

As those words were spoken, the crowd seemed to be poured into a basin of boiling water, which became boiling at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Who is this bidder?"

"Just kidding, $2,500, no fool really takes the slogan on the booth seriously."

"No, it's really Maugham's used pen, and it's not worth the price."

Boss Wu was also shocked by this number.

"Quiet!"

He is a businessman, a person who is willing to pay a high price for garbage, and for him, the more the better. The mustache is just a little worried about whether he will meet someone who makes a mess of the offer.

Probably not.

Those who can participate in the calligraphy and painting fair are all well-known figures in the local art circle in Myanmar, and ordinary tourists need to pay 200,000 kyats for admission if they want to enter the door.

This money is equivalent to a security deposit.

If an item is purchased, 200,000 kyats is equivalent to 100 US dollars, which can be deducted. I didn't buy an item, and I can return it to you when I leave under normal circumstances.

Boss Wu jumped on the tin box and personally took the megaphone from the host: "Congratulations to Mr. 69, for taking ownership of all the items on booth 159 for $2,500. Who is Mr. Number 69? Let's congratulate this lover of literature and art. ”

The crowd applauded again, but the applause was mixed with bursts of inexplicable laughter.

"Alas......"

Gu Weijing raised his hand helplessly.

He didn't want to make a fuss about buying paintings.

I don't care about the ridicule of these people, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin...... The works of these great painters have not been ridiculed by everyone.

Who is the master and who is the clown, time will tell.

The problem was trouble—his uncle, knowing that he had spent two thousand five hundred dollars on the painting, would come and discipline him.

Sure enough, when Gu Weijing raised his hand in full view of everyone, he was ready to receive the exhibits on booth 159.

Uncle's voice mixed with disbelief and anger immediately rang out from the audience.

"Gu Weijing! You're fucking crazy, $2,500 and you're going to buy this pile of shit and go home? ”

Uncle He also paid a total of 3,000 US dollars from his family for participating in the calligraphy and painting auction this time, and a fine woodblock print that he had studied all morning was not auctioned because it was a few hundred dollars less.

I didn't expect my nephew to have $2,500 there, and the other party used such a large sum of money to buy a bunch of rags.

"My grandfather gave me money to choose freely, and I found a very good impressionist painting, which I think is worth the money."

Gu Weijing patiently explained.

"Very nice painting? Why do you say it's a very good painting, is it signed Monet or fucking Van Gogh on the frame? ”

Uncle was anxious, turned his head to Boss Wu and said, "Boss Wu, the child is not sensible, this painting is gone, we want a refund." ”

"Mr. Gu, what you said is boring. You are also an old man in the industry, and our kind of business is about buying and leaving, and there is no reason to say that you don't want it. In this way, who will dare to do business with your family in the future. ”

Boss Wu easily pushed the uncle back with a soft nail.

The previous picture of "Kingfisher Singing Bamboo", he didn't take care of it.

The old man of the Gu family is a connoisseur with a vicious eye, and he talks about the problems and shortcomings of that painting in the slightest, as if he has seen the painter paint with his own eyes.

In this way, Boss Wu reluctantly returned the money when he heard that Gu Tongxiang's grandson was favored by the tycoon Hao in Yangon recently.

He is now frank and open a calligraphy and painting market, and the grandson of the Gu family is also a bid in black and white.

This kind of good thing that is difficult to find with a lantern, how can there be a reason for the other party to swallow it back.

As for what he wrote on the label, it might have been a pen used by Maugham or something—come on, he's a merchant, is he going to write the word garbage in front of his goods?

When this kind of thing spreads to the sky, people in the industry will only think that the person who believes is stupid [beep-], and will not think that Boss Wu is not righteous.

The mustachioed Boss Wu turned his head and looked at Gu Weijing, who was still expressionless after being ridiculed by everyone and accused by the elders.

"Young master, since you have stepped into the door of this public market, there is no young person who is not young. There is no young and old in the business field, you can have no money, but if you don't have integrity, you will be looked down upon, you yourself say that is not the truth. ”

Boss Wu knows that this kind of young man is the most competitive, vain and good-looking.

He immediately used words to frame Gu Weijing, not giving the other party a chance to repent.

Really.

That Gu Weijing just raised the slip on his palm.

"No refund, and I've already paid, can you give me the painting?"

"It's a pity, Lao Gu is such a shrewd person, what a stupid [beep] grandson was born."

Boss Wu was disdainful, but on the surface it was a praising expression: "Atmospheric." You must be the material for big business in the future, and everyone applauds him. ”

There was another round of applause mixed with mocking laughter, and the galleries in Yangon and Gu's Calligraphy and Painting Shop were the most happy.

"Who is this?"

"Do you know Gu Tongxiang, it is the one whose ancestor was a court painter in the Qing Dynasty, this is the grandson of Lao Gu. Bad luck for the family. ”

"Big business, I think it's a loser."

The crowd was full of jokes.

Uncle was anxious to come over and smoke his nephew's two big mouths, but he was still stopped by the businessmen he knew well.

"Dissipate the gas, dissipate the gas, you also said that children are not sensible, everyone here is watching, go home and talk about it."

"It's useless for you to be anxious now, if you want to open something, you should spend money to buy a lesson."

"Buy a lesson, $2,500 a lesson?"

Uncle was angry, and he didn't care about the expressions of the people next to him looking at the jokes, thinking that his nephew was really stupid from elementary school painting.

A piece of garbage without any value costs $2,500.

Did he think he was some kind of prince who was passionate about art? How much money does his own family have to spoil him so much.

"Gu Weijing, do you know how difficult it is for adults to make money! How much money do we make in our calligraphy and painting shop a month? In order to make up for you and Gu Lin's international middle school and future college tuition, the family gets up early and is greedy for late nights to save money. Your grandfather is so old that he still has to run the business himself, and he is reluctant to even hire a helper. An old car that has been driven for forty years......"

"I'll pay two thousand eight hundred dollars."

The uncle was still angrily scolding his nephew, when he heard a woman's voice.

This sentence was like a block of ice, which quickly froze the atmosphere of the audience.

The second half of the uncle's sentence was stuck in his mouth.

He looked in astonishment in the direction where the voice had come.

The working woman in a brown coat who first questioned the shady nature of the public market clenched her handbag tightly with both hands.

She glanced at Gu Weijing with a bit of resentment in her expression, and then repeated to Boss Wu: "I offer two thousand eight hundred dollars and sell it to me." ”

"Uh...... What? ”

Boss Wu felt that he couldn't understand today's matter.

He looked back at the booth with its broken copper and iron.

There is a high probability that one is willing to pay a high price because he has met a fool, but if there are two who offer a high price......

What's going on?

After playing with the artwork for so long, could it be that he looked away.

He jumped out of the tin box and walked over to check the contents of the stand, but was stopped.

"Boss Wu, since you are buying and leaving, then no matter what is in it, it has nothing to do with you." Gu Weijing walked over directly and took the painting tube.

"Let me see."

Boss Wu smiled wryly.

"Uncle, I'll go home first."

Gu Weijing said hello to the uncle who was already stunned, and put the painttube on his back.

"All I need is this tube, and if you like anything else, everything on the stand is yours." He said a word to the working woman, and prepared to leave.

"I'll pay $3,000, and you sell me the painting."

Miss Translator stopped Gu Weijing.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to sell this painting."

Gu Weijing shook his head.

"$3,200, $3,500...... No, I'll give you four thousand dollars. ”

There was a bit of hatred in the translator's tone.

Half of her heart now regrets that she coveted a hundred dollars in the first place, and the other half is hating this kid who popped out of nowhere and messed up her own good deeds.

Gu Weijing didn't speak, bypassed the side of this workplace ol, and wanted to leave from the gate.

"No, you have to sell me this painting."

The woman grabbed Gu Weijing's sleeve. "Otherwise......"

"How else?"

Gu Weijing was a little unhappy when he was entangled.

"This is a work that a foreign master has specified as desired, and I am his translator." The woman's tone was arrogant.

"Foreigners are superior?"

Gu Weijing asked rhetorically.

In fact, in Myanmar, foreigners are really superior.

And it's really superior in the literal sense of the word.

Tourism is a supporting industry in Yangon, where consumption is low, and there are many backpackers from Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Many Western European tourists work casually for a month in a high-welfare society, which is enough to live comfortably in Yangon for a year.

You can often see an old white man surrounded by a group of local girls in a nightclub.

In order to practice his French, Gu Weijing once chatted with a French tourist in a shop who came to visit the Yangon River, and the other party told Gu Weijing.

His local hotel in Yangon is 2.3 kilometers away from the Google Maps cruise ship on the Yangon River, and the French tourist walked only 19 steps the whole way, and the rest of the time was carried by local coolies like the emperor.

Gu Weijing has always disliked this atmosphere.

This kind of worship of foreigners, in fact, you think very low of yourself, and others look down on you even more.

"The master has a lot of international influence, and he came to participate in government projects, even the mayor of Yangon has seen it." There was a hint of menace in the female translator's tone.

"First, you're just a translator. Second, even if the master came to me in person, my answer would be that I wouldn't sell it. ”

The female translator's face was swollen and red when she was choked.

Gu Weijing flicked his sleeves and turned around to leave.

"What's the noise, let everyone see the painting!"

On the side, some onlookers finally couldn't help it, they were very curious about what the painting that Gu Weijing was unwilling to sell for 4,000 dollars looked like, not to mention, was still favored by some master.

"Mr. Xiao Gu, let's open our eyes, shall we?"

Boss Wu also came up and rubbed his hands. He now has a sixty percent hunch, and he can't figure out if he really treats the boutique as a tattere.

At this time, if he didn't figure out the details of the matter, he wouldn't want to sleep well tonight.

These people had just laughed at themselves, and Gu Weijing had not satisfied their curiosity in the first place.

Besides, the painting had just been placed on the stand, and they didn't have that aesthetic attainment.

But he noticed that the first person who asked to see the painting was the thermos cup uncle.

He leaned over to Gu Weijing's side, looking itchy and unbearable.

The paper that plugs my nose is still given by others.

"Be careful, don't be a double reed."

A companion patted him on the shoulder behind the thermos cup uncle, and the scene in front of him Gu Weijing and the female translator were indeed a bit like scammers who played double reeds and sold family heirlooms on the street.

"No, I have a score in my heart. In the afternoon, I did see this little guy looking at a dirty painting. ”

The uncle had an itchy expression on his face.

"Young man, I like you, you speak hard! But can you show me the painting you were talking about? I'm a good collector. I was curious to see what kind of paintings the master was looking at. I don't know when I enter Baoshan, I also want to learn a lesson, don't I? ”

Gu Weijing hesitated for a moment, but he still untied the painting tube behind him.

"If you want to see the painting, I want a small brush, a varnish for maintenance, and you have to find me a frame."

Gu Weijing was also a little distressed about transporting the painting in a painting tube, and he was ready to maintain the painting on the spot.

"Of course, it should." The mustache nodded.

An ordinary picture frame didn't cost much, and he had.

Gu Weijing pulled the drawing paper out of the drawing tube.

"It's dirty, and it can't be seen."

"How many thousand dollars is this painting worth? Still not on sale? ”

The crowd was like a group of talking mosquitoes, Gu Weijing ignored everyone's discussions, he quickly took out a small brush to clean up the floating ash on the drawing paper.

"Back off, back off. This is our painting, it's worth thousands of dollars, what if you break it? ”

Seeing that things were taking a turn for the better, the uncle immediately drove the crowd back a few steps.

He walked to Gu Weijing's side,

After hesitating for a long time,

Only then did he pick up a small brush and varnish, and helped his nephew clean up the stains on the picture with a complicated expression.

Seriously,

If it weren't for Gu Weijing being his own nephew, even he would be a little skeptical that the female translator was hired by him to sing the double reed.

This dirty painting, how does he look at it, how does it not look valuable.

"Huh...... This painting is a bit interesting, it is an impressionist hand-painted oil painting...... It's really not the same as the other two paintings. ”

Someone in the crowd suddenly sighed, and gradually, many people saw the fame of this painting.

Those who can participate in this calligraphy and painting public market are basically insiders in the painting industry.

They may not have much connoisseurship, but it is not difficult to distinguish whether a painting is hand-drawn or printed.

"But this tone, this subject matter...... This kind of dark theme and church theme is really rare. ”

"It's not a rare boutique, it's just a garbage that follows the trend."

Someone hit the nail on the head.

There was a brief silence in the warehouse.

An oil painting that can be so scrambled for by others, even people who don't know how to paint know whether it is a treasure or garbage.

Not to mention, good works of art have the ability to appreciate both the elegant and the vulgar.

As Gu Weijing used a small brush to clean up the floating ash on the canvas, the intense and subtle changes of light and shadow under the thunderstorm, and the hazy and uncertain diffuse colors formed by the jumping candlelight hitting the glass, regained new vitality as the dust dissipated.

Everyone immediately intuitively felt that the painting was at least beautiful and coordinated.

Boss Wu's face turned green at this time.

The merchant pursued profits, and saw a fine oil painting that was clearly placed in his hand, but he disposed of it as garbage.

This sense of frustration and loss hurts him more than the loss of money.

"What a young man!"

The thermos cup uncle stared at the painting for a long time, "This painting is really beautiful, although I actually ...... I don't quite understand how this painting shows such qualities, it is obviously a thunderstorm, but there is a feeling of warmth. ”

He raised his head, looked directly into Gu Weijing's eyes, and stretched out three fingers.

"The fact that I can't see a painting that I can't understand means the value of the work. I'll pay $30,000, and the painting will be mine, how about it. ”

Coax......

Everyone exploded at once.

In just a few minutes, two thousand five hundred dollars multiplied tenfold.

30,000 US dollars, this price directly exceeds today's bid king. This can buy some low-to-mid Picasso.

Picasso painted tens of thousands of works in his lifetime, and the market circulation was huge, and the price of many works was not as expensive as ordinary people imagined.

Monet's worst paintings typically cost millions of dollars, while Picasso could have bought them for $30,000.

When the thermos cup uncle quoted this price, everyone knew that the young man who came from Gu's Book Gallery today had picked up a big leak.

This kind of story has always been the most popular thing for gallerists, and it is enough to be passed down in the industry for several years.

But envy can't help it, who calls himself not the eyesight of others.

"This grandson of Lao Gu has the ability."

People erupted in bursts of exclamation, and just a few minutes ago, the title they had in their mouths was still that of an ignorant child and a loser.

Human warmth and coldness are such realities.

Boss Wu's face was distorted, the more valuable this painting was, the more he stabbed him in the heart that was already dripping blood.

"Sorry, I'm not selling."

What surprised people even more was that Gu Weijing was still a picture of oil and salt.

Of course he doesn't want to sell,

After selling the painting, he went to copy something, and Gu Weijing didn't think that the painting was only worth $30,000.

The uncle's lips twitched, but in the end he didn't say anything.

"Okay, when you're willing to sell paintings, you can come to me."

The uncle handed the painting back with both hands.

Thirty thousand dollars, which is already a lot.

After all, there are too many impressionist-style paintings in the twentieth century, and if you buy this painting alone, 30,000 dollars is neither high nor too low.

If the painting is not signed, the uncle is even willing to gamble with some money, and if he can recover the work of a famous artist, it will make a lot of money.

But alas, this is a painting by a female painter.

He handed over a business card at the same time. "Thirty thousand dollars, I'll put this price here, when do you speak, when will I buy."

(End of chapter)