Fortunately, Wang Daxie is now directly in charge of international student affairs. He has adopted a compromise strategy. On the one hand, he condemned and warned the international students, but on the other hand, he did not really do anything to the international students.
And he also informed the International Students Association about Qiu Jin.
There were already female foreign students in the clubhouse before, but they were not too old. As for international students, of course they will not object to female students coming...
Wang Daxie sent a telegram back to Li Yu.
In addition, Li Yu also received telegrams from Lu Xun and Ma Junwu.
Li Yu must have known about Ma Junwu, but he never expected that he was actually studying chemistry at Imperial College.
I have established contact with him, and I can help introduce Yu Heqin to Japan to study chemistry in the future.
Every time a telegram comes, Li Yu can drink coffee or matcha brewed by Konoe Akiyuki.
The key now is the telegram sent from Japan, and Konoe Akiyuki is very interested.
Anyway, it wasn't a big deal, so Li Yu just put it on the table for her to see.
After knowing the identity of Konoe Aki, Li Yu felt that he should also catch her and give her some innocuous information from time to time.
After Konoe Akiyuki left, Lu Bicheng came to him with Repin's oil painting.
Lu Bicheng has always cherished this portrait painted by Repin. Even if it is not a meticulous work by him, it is still a masterpiece of a master's standard.
Lu Bicheng said: "When I moved that day, I accidentally broke a corner of the picture frame, and the oil painting inside was also slightly damaged. What should I do?"
It’s quite troublesome to preserve oil paintings. I didn’t have enough time in Russia at that time, so I just put them in frames.
Because the paint is very thick, the surface of oil painting is actually a bit uneven, which is very different from traditional Chinese painting. Lu Bicheng really doesn't know how to deal with it.
But this question also stumped Li Yu. Lu Bicheng knew some Chinese painting, but he only had a weak sketching skills in elementary school and had no understanding of art at all.
Li Yu scratched his head and couldn't think of any good solution.
It happened that Qiu Jin came to the door.
Li Yu first showed Wang Daxie's telegram to her: "Good news! Mr. Wang Daxie, the general supervisor of Japanese students studying abroad, said that you can study in Japan. He also arranged for a representative Japanese female student named Shimoda Utako to receive you."
When Li Yu went to Japan, he met Utako Shimoda.
For Qiu Jin, this is absolutely great news: "Great! I'll be ready to go to sea when I get back!"
She suddenly saw Lu Bicheng looking gloomy and unhappy, so she went over and asked, "Good sister, what's wrong with you?"
Lu Bicheng pointed to the oil painting in front of him: "This painting is damaged."
Qiu Jin picked it up and took a look, what a guy! He smiled and said, "We all had a portrait together? When did it happen?"
Lu Bicheng said: "Don't mention this for now. Sister, please think of a way to repair it."
Qiu Jin said: "It's simple, just find the painter who painted it."
Lu Bicheng wondered: "Where can I find this painter in St. Petersburg, Russia?"
"This is difficult to handle," Qiu Jin thought for a while, "but I remember that there are Western painters in the capital, and Western paintings must be restored by Western painters."
After hearing that there was a way, Lu Bicheng's frown relaxed a little.
At noon, an American parked in front of Li Yu's house in a rickshaw.
"Please inform me that I am the counselor of the U.S. Embassy."
Li Yu was a little confused as to what the counselor of the American Embassy wanted to do with him. But he was a diplomat after all, so he received him in the main hall.
The American counselor took out an invitation: "Minister Connor and his wife will hold a salon this evening, and we solemnly invite Mr. Li Yu to attend."
"Salon? What salon?" Li Yu asked.
The American counselor said: "In view of the current situation in Japan, Russia, and your country, Mr. Minister hopes to ease the tense atmosphere through the salon."
"Can this be alleviated?" Li Yu asked puzzledly.
The American counselor said: "In line with Mr. President's open-door policy, it is necessary for us to mediate and mediate the situation in the Far East."
Well, now America wants to be the world’s policeman.
However, Li Yu knows very well that the United States currently does not have a strong voice in international relations. It is even like a transparent person who only cares about making a fortune in silence.
After further questioning, I found out that it turned out that the French ambassador wanted to organize a formal note to mediate the situation between Japan and Russia. Unexpectedly, the envoys from Japan and Russia were at war with each other. They couldn't stand each other at all, and they were about to fight in the next second.
In desperation, the relatively neutral American Minister Connor was asked to organize a cultural salon, invite as many cultural celebrities as possible, and gather envoys from various countries together to explore the bottom lines of both sides.
The current international relations are very complex. When it comes to countries like Japan and Russia, which are said to be relatively innocent, countries are also intrigues.
The most obvious one on the surface is the Anglo-Japanese alliance.
There were already complex conflicts between Germany and Russia, but regarding the Russo-Japanese War, Germany supported Russia's eastward advance. The reason is obvious, because Germany hopes that Russia will intensify conflicts with Britain and Japan, so that it can force Russia to transfer some of the troops opposing it on the Western Front and reduce the pressure.
When the Baltic Fleet went on an expedition, it was Germany that was willing to add coal to the Russian fleet.
As for France, it has a Franco-Russian alliance with Russia. But in view of Germany's position above, France does not want Russia to transfer its troops to the Far East, because once Germany calms down on the Russian-German border, the pressure will be on its side. Therefore, France takes a wait-and-see attitude towards Russia's eastward policy.
The United States, of course, continues its "open door" policy and hopes to intervene in China's affairs everywhere. The United States felt that after Russia occupied Northeast China, it would definitely not be able to deal with it. It would be better for the British and Japanese to deal with it. Therefore, it is somewhat biased towards the Anglo-Japanese alliance to a certain extent.
In addition, the United States secretly hopes that they will fight so that it can buy its own weapons and make a lot of war fortune.
In the final analysis, all countries consider maximizing their own interests, which is a more complex game model.
The American counselor said: "Zai Zhenbeizi from your country will also participate, and has brought the popular performing artist Yang Xiaolou. In addition, there are ballet dancers from France and opera performing artists from Italy. Overall, it is a very lively cultural salon. But without Mr. Li Yu, the most important celebrity in the capital would be missing."
Li Yu knew very well what they were thinking, but in fact they didn't really want to go.
Qiu Jin suddenly asked: "Is the wife of Minister Connor of your country an oil painter?"
The American counselor said: "Yes, Madam also painted a portrait of your Queen Mother."
If you dare to paint a portrait of Cixi, you should be a serious oil painter.
Cixi was a very fond of beauty, and would not be happy if her paintings were not good at all.
Qiu Jin said, "How about going and taking a look?"
Li Yu looked at Lu Bicheng with great expectation, so he agreed: "Okay, let's just go and have a meal."
The U.S. Embassy is on the south side of Dongjiaominxiang Road, opposite the Russian Embassy, and to the side are the Dutch Embassy and Russia's Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank.
The United States just expanded its embassy last year, and the area has increased a lot.
Zhao Qian drove Li Yu and Lu Bicheng to the embassy, of course still holding the precious painting.
They arrived early, and upon entering, they met the wife of the American Minister Connor who greeted them.
The staff of the embassy made tea and invited them to sit down. After a while of greetings, Li Yu raised the issue of oil paintings that Lu Bicheng was concerned about to Mrs. Connor: "I heard that Madam is an excellent painter and once painted a portrait for the Queen Mother."
Mrs Connor said: "Oh my gosh, you have brought up a very painful memory."
"Painful?" Li Yu asked.
Mrs. Connor held the saucer, took a sip of black tea and said, "It's very painful! I don't know if you understand, but actually painting a portrait is not a difficult task. The only difficulty lies in the subject's requirements for the painting. Once the camera is pressed to take a picture, Once the shutter is released, it cannot be modified, but oil paintings can be changed and modified according to various situations.”
"I understand." Li Yu said.
One of the characteristics of oil painting is that it is easy to modify.
Mrs. Connor said: "The Queen Mother of your precious country has too many requirements. Of course, she can't be ugly, but she can't be too beautiful; she can't be too old, and her eyebrows are too curved... In short, there are too many requirements, and the painting process From time to time, she would be interrupted by the ministers in court. When the Queen Mother sat back down, she would often no longer maintain her previous posture. Oh, my God, it took me three weeks to paint just one painting! But the Queen Mother was still not satisfied. , I painted four more paintings for her, and finally there was one that the Queen Mother liked more."
Speaking of which, there were quite a few portraits painted for the Empress Dowager Cixi. In addition to Mrs. Connor and others, there was also a Dutch painter who painted a private portrait of Cixi.
After the Dutch painter returned to China, he painted another portrait of Cixi based on his impression.
These paintings have been handed down from generation to generation. Purely considering the artistry, the one from memory by the Dutch painter may be higher, because this one has not been shown to Cixi herself.
Lu Bicheng asked: "If the painted portrait is damaged, is it possible to repair it?"
"Of course," said Mrs. Connor, "show me."
Lu Bicheng took out Repin's painting, pointed to the corner and said, "Here it is."
Mrs. Connor exclaimed in surprise: "What an excellent painting! Such superb perspective skills, excellent use of lines and color processing, and the expression of the characters' emotions so naturally! It's many times better than me! Whose is this?" Handwriting?"
Li Yu said: "It's the painter Repin from St. Petersburg."
Mrs. Connor said: "Oh my god, it's him! I'm really surprised to be able to invite a painting by a top Russian writer to this salon today."
After Mrs. Connor talked about it, Lu Bicheng became more convinced of how precious this painting was, so she asked, "Is it difficult to restore it?"
Mrs. Connor looked at the painting carefully: "Fortunately it's just the corner, otherwise I really wouldn't dare to do it."
Lu Bicheng breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, madam."
In any case, I really need to learn how to take care of oil paintings in the future. Even if they were not painted by Repin, the paintings themselves are of great significance to me.
(End of chapter)
