S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to clear Chicago, leaving only the Chicago police and demon hunters and vampires to face off, so things are not in a hurry. Kai first asked Bobby and the Wen brothers to contact all the demon hunters and tell them to be careful. It is best to gather around the various branches of the Chicago Police Department. In those places, vampires must also keep a low profile.
Then Kay asked Matthew to check those people from Homeland Security to see how the vampires made those DHS appear in Chicago and forcibly cleanse the land for vampires. In fact, this is not important. Kai just wants to see who actually works for a vampire. It would be a shame to rape such a person to death.
As for Kay himself, of course it was to the Art Institute of Chicago. When an old friend came, he had to go and see him. He had done nothing immoral, so there was no reason to be afraid of seeing his old friend.
…
Since the Louvre will hold a joint exhibition with the Chicago Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago has really become popular during this period. Taking advantage of this hot spot, many art exhibitions have sprung up. For a time, the Art Institute of Chicago only relied on rental exhibitions. The museum made a huge profit. You must know that it costs money to lend exhibits to the Louvre. Otherwise, how do you think the Louvre can survive?
Just for tickets? Don't be ridiculous, the ticket price is just a drop in the bucket compared to the maintenance costs of those antique works of art. Lending out exhibits like this is the big deal. Of course, cultural people cannot be so straightforward. It will hurt the self-esteem of Gallic chickens. Nowadays, Gallic chickens only have strong self-esteem. It would be much better if we could communicate through art. Gallic Chicken can proudly say that it is spreading French culture and exporting culture.
Isn't he much taller?
But it is undeniable that the United States cannot lead the world in terms of antiques and art, even if it is a superpower. Who says the United States only has a history of more than 200 years? And from ancient times to the present, the United States has never surpassed Europe in art.
So with the reputation of the Louvre, the Art Institute of Chicago has indeed gained a lot of fame, and by the way, the money earned from renting out the exhibition hall is cramped. Otherwise, you would think that the Art Institute of Chicago is really willing to spend so much money to hire the Louvre. Palace exhibits?
When Kay arrived at 111 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, preparations had already begun for a painting exhibition. This is an exhibition of modernist painters. Anyway, when Kai walked into the exhibition, the people watching the exhibition were all well-dressed, looking at the paintings attentively, and even pointed and made some inexplicable comments. Kai listened for a while and found out that it was about clouds and fog, various line tensions, the use of colors, and the author's expressions. In short, it was very mysterious.
It reminded Kai of reading comprehension when he was a child.
"Why are the curtains blue?"
Answer: Blue represents melancholy, and the curtains block the sunlight, implying that people live in darkness under the rule of the feudal government. In this way, the author expresses his dissatisfaction with the society at that time.
Author: The curtains are fucking blue.
The same is true for this group of people. They look at the things in the paintings and say that the author is a silent accusation against the injustice of the world, accusing your sister! Others may just have trembling hands!
Also, Kai still can't understand what the hell these things are drawn on... some are just messy lines, some are just painted randomly with ink, and some of the paintings can be seen as what they want to draw, but all of them are cut and twisted. , it makes people’s heads hurt when they see it... How can this be good-looking? It’s also damn expensive. What do the people who spend money think?
Thinking of this, Kai suddenly remembered that he had heard before that many people now like to use art to launder money, especially such abstract and difficult-to-understand modern paintings, which are deeply loved by criminals. It is not the current crime. The artistic accomplishment of the molecules is so high that they can appreciate such messy paintings. In fact, such paintings are easy to deceive people and easy to cash in.
In the art market, especially the modern painting market, hype is everywhere. As long as you are willing to spend money to speculate, it is easy to make a painter famous. The key is that it's easy to speculate. Find some art connoisseurs, spend money to buy reviews, and then spend your own money to buy the paintings. As long as it's not outrageous, it's easy to raise the price.
Paintings that originally only cost a few hundred dollars on the street, those speculators dared to sell for hundreds of thousands!
As long as the price goes up, the artist's paintings will not worry about sales. When the time comes to sell the goods in hand, the money will be laundered.
Anyway, they join forces to deceive people. In fact, the people being deceived don’t really understand anything. The key is that this kind of thing is difficult to explain. Could you tell others that you don’t understand it at all? In fact, not many people can truly understand the modern style of painting. This industry is one where 'the truth is in the hands of a few people.' Whether the painting is good or not is determined by a small group of people. Other shit people know shit and can't overturn their definition, so this kind of business lasts forever.
Thinking of this, Kai curled his lips and thought about asking the bureau to check the organizer and sponsor of this art exhibition. See what's fishy.
Fortunately, Kai still remembered his main purpose. Kai had contacted the security director of the Louvre before. The person in charge of the French side of this art exchange exhibition was none other than Diana, Diana Prince. This was Diana's pseudonym during World War I.
When Kai wanted to talk to the person in charge of this art exhibition, the other person told Kai that Diana was visiting this art exhibition.
After searching around, I finally found Diana in front of a statue.
It is said to be a statue, but it is actually a square thing made of a bunch of scrap wires, and then combined together, it becomes a work of art. This bunch of gangsters was even named the best work of art in this exhibition. It is a piece of art. An environmentally friendly piece of art, well, that’s what they say. Anyway, I gave this thing to Kai, but Kai felt it was dirty.
Kai wasn't sure whether Diana really understood this thing, but seeing her looking at the scrap metal attentively, Kai felt...she should understand.
Diana wore a very neat OL outfit, which was fashionable yet stable. She does look like a strong urban woman.
Diana seemed to be immersed in the artistic atmosphere and didn't feel anyone approaching at all. Maybe she knew about it, but she thought she was a boring chatter, so she didn't want to pay attention. Kai waited patiently, but ten minutes passed and Diana still didn't move.
This is a bit embarrassing.
"Ahem...what, is this thing really that good?"
Diana did not turn her head, but said coldly: "Maybe it would be better if I didn't bother you."
"Um..." Kai looked at the thing carefully and couldn't see how good it looked. Then he said helplessly: "Diana, there's no need to be so cold. After all, we haven't seen each other for decades."
Diana's body trembled suddenly, and she turned her head to finally look at Kai. She found that the man looked familiar, but felt strange at the same time. She was convinced that she had never seen him, and she was extremely confident in her memory.
Seeing Diana's blank expression, Kai suddenly felt that this was very interesting and had a mischievous feeling.
"Who are you?" Diana asked with a stern face.
Kai saw a sudden flash of golden light on Diana's wrist. He recognized that thing, the Lasso of Truth. Seeing that Diana was planning to take action, Kai immediately revealed his identity. I saw a trace of fire burning in his eyes - the fire of the desert!
Seeing this familiar flame, Diana was immediately stunned.
"You...you are..."
"That's right, long time no see, little girl from the Amazon." To Kai, Diana could only be considered a little girl. In the era when Kai was active, her mother's appearance and birth had to be considered separately.
"It's really you! Kai!" Diana screamed like a little girl, threw herself at Kai, and hugged Kai. Fortunately, the girl was wearing a one-step skirt, otherwise she would have been all over Kai like a koala.
This startled everyone else. For art exhibitions, of course people have to look like dogs, so making noises is prohibited. Diana’s actions caused many people to frown, but when they saw a pair of handsome men and beautiful women embracing, many people showed their faces. He smiled knowingly, and then looked away very gracefully.
Good-looking people always have some privileges. If you saw two ugly men and women hugging here, someone would have hired security guards, which would be an eyesore.
…
After a long time, Diana calmed down and came to her temporary office with Kai.
Her office is inside the museum. When they saw Diana dragging a handsome boy into her office, all the staff along the way cast their eyes with envy and hatred. With Diana's looks and figure, there was no shortage of suitors during this period. In fact, when she was in France, she had many suitors. After all, she was a Gallic chicken. Like Italy, she regarded handsome gangsters as romance.
Even more so when she came to Chicago. Some time ago, Tony Stark even asked her to go out for dinner. Unfortunately, this iceberg beauty is extremely disgusted with Tony's playboy style.
There was no way, as an Amazon woman, she couldn't accept Tony's arrogance. After all, in Diana's education, they were the stronger ones. Even if they had to spend money, it would be her who would spend money on Tony, not the other way around.
Because it is a temporary office, the conditions are limited and very simple. So there was nothing to entertain, but Diana was still very happy.
Diana had a crush on Kai, which she had never denied, but it was just a crush. What really makes Diana happy is that there are still friends in this world.
The comrades and friends who fought together in the past died one by one with the passage of time. Coupled with the rapid changes in the new century, she felt extremely strange to this society. Now she can understand why neither Kai nor her family members I repeatedly warned myself not to fall in love with mortals. But she was too young at the time to understand. Only after Steve died did she realize that those were good words.
Steve didn't die in the war, but he still died of disease, cancer. This may be an aftereffect of exposure to German poison gas. Well, a good girl is afraid of being pestered by a man. In the end, Steve and Diana ended up together, but unfortunately their time together was too short.
Never mind that love is the greatest. When the people she loved passed away one by one because they could not withstand the ravages of time, and she was unable to do anything, Diana understood that she was always different from human beings.
If you don't have it, you won't lose it.
So Diana returned to Paradise Island. She chose to stay away from human society and repair her wounds. But humans once again disappointed her. The outbreak of World War II gave her no reason to excuse humans. In the past, she regarded humans killing each other as the masterpiece of Ares, the God of War, even though Kai kept telling her, Ares, the god of war, cannot control people's hearts. But she still didn't believe it. But what about World War II?
Ares, the god of war, has been sealed, but human beings are killing each other even more cruelly.
If Diana hadn't been kind in nature, she might have turned dark as Ares expected. There is no way, at this point, even Kai, as a human, has nothing to do.
It is also because of this that Diana has been hiding on Paradise Island and has never come out again. Had it not been for the Amazon priest telling her that the world would be tested this time, she probably would not have appeared in the human world.
Diana didn't know much about that prophecy. After all, it was too abstract. The world was going to be tested. Whose test would it be?
Diana immediately thought of Ares. After all, Ares was not killed, just sealed. So Diana came to the human world to look for the statue of Ares, and this led to the creation of Diana Prince, who worked at the Louvre in France.
Although Diana saw the world coming and going and being extremely prosperous, when it came to her, she still felt lonely.
That's why Diana was so happy to see Kai.
"You suddenly disappeared, which shocked me. I went to the South American rainforest with Cotterman, Captain Nemo and others, trying to find your traces, but found nothing. Where did you go?" Dai Ana asked impatiently as soon as she sat down.
Kai felt a little like he was in another world. Coatman, Captain Nemo... they were really familiar names. From Kai's perspective, they were drinking and chatting with him a few years ago, but in the blink of an eye, they were all gone.
Nothing is ever more permanent than this.
Kai briefly talked about his original encounter, the lost world, the power of creation, etc.
Even Diana was fascinated by it. She never thought that the world could be so wonderful.
As they talked, they turned the topic to Diana again.
"Wait a minute? You mean...Ares is missing?" Kai didn't know about this from beginning to end. In his opinion, only a few people present at the time knew about Ares. Even among the Atlanteans, only their king and princess knew about it. So he always thought that no one would know about Ares being sealed, but now someone told him that Ares was missing!
Of course Kai would not think that someone would steal that statue simply for its artistic value!
That's ridiculous.
That statue is indeed considered an antique now, but how can a sculpture from the First World War be considered an antique? And the sculpture is not the work of a famous artist, and its value is not high at all. Whoever eats too much will steal it.
Then those who steal sculptures must know their true value!
This is a bit fatal. Is this the rhythm to release Ares?
They worked so hard to seal Ares back then, but they didn't expect that less than a hundred years later, someone would release him? And there is a very high probability that humans themselves released him!
Even as a human being, Kai still gnashed his teeth in hatred of humans' tendency to seek death.
…
Just when Kai was worried about Ares reappearing, a group of researchers were experimenting on a statue in a secret base of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's the statue of Ares!
One-eyed Director Nick Fury is there too.
"This is the 101st experiment. You must produce results, otherwise your funding will be cut. Dr. Edgar Sisko."
Nick Fury said coldly to a dwarf who was born a dwarf and looked ugly.
The dwarf Edgar Sisko wiped the sweat from his head. He said a little embarrassed: "You can't blame us, it's because you gave us too little information. You only let us study the special features of this statue, but you never told us what this statue is, and you still don't let us Let’s destroy the statue. What do you want us to do?”
Edgar Sisko is a top scientist with a degree in physics and medicine. But he didn't know what SHIELD was going to do. They just asked him to study this broken statue, but they didn't give him any information and forced him to study...
"Your job is to tell me what's so strange about this statue!" The origin of the statue is one of SHIELD's top secrets. Naturally, it was impossible to let others know. Besides, they didn't want to release Ares, but wanted to study the ancient gods through the statue.
