(Thanks to Alstonke for being the leader, see the end for more details.) ）

Austria

World Heritage Site, Melk Monastery.

At this time the sky is still bright,

The morning rain was falling over the small town of the river valley, and a couple who had just flown from Los Angeles to Austria yesterday waited in a café on the edge of the town with a little excitement and a little nervousness.

Across from them sat business agents in gray suits.

"The wedding ceremony officially began at 7:45 a.m. and ended at 8:15 a.m., and we borrowed the Marble Room for 30 minutes, which will be attended by a monastery priest, and no photographs are allowed during the ......"

The business agent looked at the timetable on his phone, and his eyebrows fluttered as he checked the process for the last time, and his tone was quite proud.

Half an hour or so is a bit too tight for a wedding ceremony.

however

This is Melk Monastery.

Known as one of the most ornate churches in the world, it is currently the largest medieval art library in Europe and the official royal monastery of the Old Habsburg Dynasty.

Everything in Melk Monastery was built to the standards of the royal palace.

Baroque grandeur, amber palaces, wall decals carved in gold powder, twenty-four bronze archangels, and masterful art frescoes – hailed by fashion magazines as the world's most fantastic wedding occasion.

Being able to make an appointment to hold a wedding here, even if there are many rules, and it is only half an hour, is also a reflection of the ability of their wedding office.

Rich earthen buns can wave bills casually and decorate their wedding banquets with gilded plates.

Being able to take a marriage contract in Melk Monastery is a status symbol.

The melodious sound of an organ coming from outside the café caught the attention of business intermediaries.

Isn't it time for the wedding yet?

He loosened the Armani tie at the neckline and turned his head to look at the church behind him.

In front of the main hall of the church, two heavy dark oak doors have suddenly opened.

The staff rolled the heavy red carpet from the ramp of the church entrance to the marble square in front.

Choir children in white vests and dark suspenders are lining up to the sound of the organ.

"OMG, this session is not on the schedule, is this a surprise arranged by your firm?"

Seeing such an event, the newcomers were moved.

They were a little unhappy that they had spent so much money to get to Melk Monastery for half an hour.

But now it seems that the whole formation is full of rituals.

"No...... It's not our arrangement, it's ...... Something big is coming. ”

The business representative muttered to himself, and he took off his glasses and wiped them vigorously against the hem of his suit.

"Wait, that's ......" he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

At the gate of the monastery, a fat old man wearing a small yarella Santa Claus appeared at the foot of the steps in front of the monastery.

He didn't look good-looking, but he was dressed in a Roman purple robe, and on his chest was a pure gold cross the size of an adult's palm, which shone like molten gold in the sunlight.

Purple has always been one of the most noble colors in European culture.

Among the millions of clergy and billions of believers around the world, all of them are the most honorable high-ranking priests of the Holy See.

This is an archbishop!

All the wedding agency can arrange for the marriage is an ordinary priest.

Archbishop?

No kidding,

In the Middle Ages, an archbishop even had the right to vote on the electors of the emperor and decide whether the ruler of the empire would stay or not.

Even in modern times, there are only a handful of cardinals and the pope himself who are more honorable than the archbishops in the entire Church of Rome.

The business agent took out his phone and wanted to see the news.

He wondered if there might be some state visit to Austria today, whether the Prime Minister had come, or how the abbot of Melk Abbey would have personally greeted him at the gate.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a heavy engine from far and near,

A convoy of two dark Mercedes GLS off-road vehicles and a Rolls-Royce stopped at the entrance of the abbey.

The butler-like man instructed the nurse to remove the wheelchair from the back compartment of the vehicle in front of him, and helped the VIP out of the open door of the limousine in the middle.

The business representative could only faintly see the side face of the distinguished guest, who looked like a young girl.

Which royal family in Europe is the princess?

……

"Anna, welcome."

The abbot of Melk Monastery walked down the steps, bent down and politely hugged Anna in a wheelchair.

"Got a call from you yesterday. To be honest, I was quite surprised. According to the tradition of the Elena family, I thought the next time I saw you would be at your wedding. ”

The archbishop said with a smile.

Many of Europe's long-established aristocratic families have their own family traditions.

For example, the Welf family, an old-school German prince, is very oriental, with a traditional preference for a pair of stone lions in front of the family property, and the family of the Duke of Hunt, who used to eat a quail before the male members joined the army......

The Yelena family is an artistic aristocracy.

The family tradition is also very artistic – every member of the family comes to Melk Monastery when they are baptized at birth, married after falling in love with someone, died and have important decisions to make.

They will ponder under the famous dome mural of Athena Riding the Lion's Chariot in the monastery, and make important decisions or park the coffin.

However, Anna seems to have a very average interest in religion.

She wasn't much of a devout believer.

Even though she was baptized according to the family tradition when she was born, Anna rarely went to church, and only a few times from childhood to adulthood.

At this point, she wasn't even a qualified believer.

The last time I came to Melk Monastery was because of my aunt's funeral.

"Miss Elena, do you want confession, or do you need God's guidance? I would be happy to arrange the sacraments for you personally. ”

Dean Melke, dressed in a purple robe, asked with a smile on his face.

This old aristocracy has always been the most important patron of the church.

Even though Anna was not keen on church activities, the dean's attitude was good.

"No, I just want to be quiet, please give me a prayer room."

Anna shook her head.

……

Melk Monastery, royal prayer room.

In the magnificent hall, at the girl's request, there were no nurses and no priests.

Anna did not pray in front of the statue of Jesus.

She sat quietly in her wheelchair, staring at the goddess of wisdom who drove the lion chariot on the towering circular dome.

Yesterday

Anna felt happiness like never before.

The so-called gravitational pull of the soul is that two people who are separated from each other in the sky, but can still beat together with the same breath and the same heartbeat.

This is both a tacit understanding and a miracle.

"Impressionism is nothing more than inner emotions and pure visual enjoyment, we don't depict gods, we just record sunlight and air. We don't follow dogma, because what is beautiful will remain, and the pain will pass away. ”

This passage of the detective cat is so perfectly in line with her understanding of impressionist art.

When that sentence entered her ears, Anna even felt a tremor of electricity slipping through her whole body.

At that moment,

Anna felt that she had never been so close to the soul of the female painter she had never met.

It's a good feeling.

From this moment,

She no longer regrets that she has no talent for drawing.

Because Anna knew that she had found the painter she was destined for.

She silently pondered the thoughts that had been swirling in her mind for a long time under the Athena fresco.

Perhaps it was the goddess who rode the lion chariot to fight in the realms that gave Anna the strength to make up her mind.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and found a number left for her by her aunt in the address book.

"Uncle Osborne, I would like to ask you for one thing......"

Anna made a phone call.

The Uncle Osborne she spoke of was an old friend of the Elena family.

The other party and his aunt were college classmates, and the Elena family knew him well, and Anna's grandfather arranged for Osborne, who was still a poor boy, to work at the Scholastic publishing group.

Scholastic Publishing Group – The dominant publishing group, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, with annual net revenues of more than $2 billion.

Just look at the names of the acting authors and artists it has worked with to see the publishing house's heavyweights — Andy Warhol, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, and Harry Potter author J. K Rowling.

Osborne is now the vice president of Scholastic Europe and one of the most important contacts his aunt has left to Anna in the art world.

"Anna? It's you. A serious man's voice came from the other side of the microphone.

"Well, Uncle Osborne, is it convenient for you to speak?"

Anna heard a noise on the other side of the microphone.

"You guys go out first, and we'll talk about it in the board of directors in the afternoon......"

The man commanded, and then his voice softened: "Anna, how did you remember to call your Uncle Osborne, is there something wrong?" ”

"Yes, I do have something I want to ask you for."

Anna didn't deny it.

"It's Fandoorn's business, it's true that you are not mature enough to do this, and if you can not offend people, you must not offend people. It's very irrational to offend such an artist on an influencer video. ”

The man unceremoniously blamed Anna.

Anna listened quietly.

"But ...... the Paintings magazine swept you out of the house, it was Sir Brown's fault. In any case, your surname is Yelena, and it is too much to deceive people by driving the last heiress of the Elena family out of the magazine. ”

Osborne's tone hardened.

"Well, now that Anna has spoken. Sir Brown, I'll talk there. I can also solve it with De Jong Van Doorne, since he is an illustrator, he will not give me this face anyway, and it is better if this incident never happened...... How is it? ”

There was confidence in Osborne's tone.

As the head of Europe for a large publishing group, Osborne is the equivalent of Party A in the chain of interests.

It would be an exaggeration to say that De Jong Van Doorn could be killed.

However, now that Osborne has opened this mouth, Van Doorne will not be entangled with Anna too much.

"Thank you, but today I'm calling you...... Actually, it's not for this thing. Anna hesitated for a moment, and for some reason, did not immediately agree.

"Hmm...... What else? ”

There was something strange about Osborne's tone.

"Can I recommend an artist to be an illustrator for a book?" Anna asked.

"Oh, it's a little thing, this kind of thing is a matter of words." Osborne smiled, "Tell me, my child, which book is it?" ”

"Scholastic Publishing Group is preparing for a republication of The Little Prince, right?" Anna asked softly.

"The Little Prince...... Uh......"

This time it was Osborne's turn to fall into a brief silence.

The Scholastic Group publishes thousands of books a year.

A trivial matter like appointing an illustrator for a book is theoretically not worth mentioning to Osborne.

But "The Little Prince" and other books are not a concept at all.

The Little Prince is a famous children's (adult) fairy tale written by French writer Saint-Exupéry in 1942, and it is one of the best-selling books in the world.

In Europe and North America, where books are generally expensive, the cumulative sales of "The Little Prince" have exceeded 100 million copies in 50 years, and they are still increasing at the level of one million copies per year.

Basically, only the Bible is left for books with a larger print run than "The Little Prince", and even the total sales of "Harry Potter" are slightly worse than "The Little Prince".

The original rights to The Little Prince were in the hands of Scholastic Group competitors, the Townsensman Publishing Group, and for decades brought astronomical revenues to the publishing house.

This kind of book belongs to a profitable cash cow, and it is also the core business interest of a publishing house.

It is basically impossible to acquire the copyright.

But as half a century passed, around the turn of the millennium, the copyright of "The Little Prince" expired, and it officially entered the field of public books.

It also provides an opportunity for other publishers to enter the market.

The Scholastic Group has been preparing for the republication of The Little Prince for a long time, re-translating 17 languages, including German, Swiss, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish.

And as the main sales of the English version, the master translator Mr. Hawke, head of the Department of English Literature at the University of Oxford, was invited to write it.

In just one short story, it took five years to translate and polish, which can be called a classic sentence and reach the exemplary level of faith, attainment and elegance.

The internal review committee of the publishing house, which has seen Mr. Hawke's translation, believes that the new edition of The Little Prince is much better than the previous version translated by Catherine Woods in terms of linguistic beauty, fluency, and fit to the original author.

If it is not bad, it may even become the most classic translation of the Little Prince in the next half century.

The significance of this kind of work is extraordinary.

Mr. Osborne's hesitation is understandable.

Thank you to the great alliance leader.

I overslept today, and I'm only finishing writing now.

Plus there must be, I promise.

But in a few days, I can only promise what I can accomplish, and I am getting late to finish it these days, and I have to adjust it.

(End of chapter)