There is no rain or cloud in Yangon today.
The sun carries strong ultraviolet rays and falls from the sky. While it coats the towering golden pagoda with a layer of Buddhist light, it also adds a bit of summer-like heat to the air.
A monk from a nearby Buddhist temple rang the bell for prayer.
Sakai Tsunamasa put down his brush and stretched as if relieved. He went to the staff to return the brushes and paints, and his stomach made a growling sound.
"I want to eat Thai food for lunch today...I heard that there is a restaurant in an old house on Wa Dan Street that serves very fresh seafood."
There is a unified lunch break time from 11:00 noon to 2:00 pm every day.
This is a holy place for Buddhism. Whether you are a painter or a staff member, as long as you are a member of the mural restoration project team, you can go to the monks' hall at any time with your work permit when you are hungry.
There are plain porridge, side dishes, vegetarian dishes such as vegetarian meat available at any time, as well as Myanmar’s characteristic sour rice noodles and fried noodles made with vinegar.
The vegetarian food is quite exquisite, and it is a good choice to change the taste occasionally. There are many vegetarians among the art professors, which is a bit refreshing.
But if you can’t accept vegetarian food, you are not forced to eat in the temple.
Yangon is a tourist city, and there are many restaurants of various styles. However, food from outside cannot be brought into the Shwedagon Pagoda.
Sakai Tsunamasa had already reserved a seat at the hotel on his mobile phone in advance.
He saw Gu Weijing still selecting among the piles of paint, staring at the manuscript spread out on the table, seeming to be thinking about something.
"Aren't you going to eat?"
He rubbed his shoulders and asked Gu Weijing.
"Um."
Gu Weijing didn't want to eat, he was choosing the right cinnabar on the table.
Practice is the only criterion for testing truth. He wanted to quietly try out whether the statement in "The Notes of Mojie" made sense when he was alone at noon.
In order to maintain consistency with other walls, no modern artificial polymeric chemical pigments were used in the entire mural restoration process, and the craftsmanship of the painters hundreds or even thousands of years ago was fully restored.
Among the paint supplies for the long table are ready-made cinnabar ink tablets.
Artists who pursue authenticity are very picky, and the paints provided by Yangon here are all of the highest quality.
Gu Weijing picked up a carton that looked a little yellow and found that it was an old cinnabar mine produced by the Dongxia State-owned Chenzhou Ink Factory in Hunan Province.
Since the Han Dynasty, Chenzhou has produced the highest quality cinnabar. In his notes in his mind, Wang Wei called cinnabar cinnabar, which is why.
In modern times, with the environmental protection requirements and the depletion of mineral veins, many of the best-quality natural mineral veins have been closed to mining, and synthetic products have been used instead.
He saw the date of appearance of this batch of cinnabar ink on the steel stamp on the box. They were generally old cinnabar inks from the 1950s and 1960s. There is even a piece of ink written with the mark of the 27th year of the Republic of China. It is almost a century old.
These ink strips themselves are considered semi-curios. Although they are not yet ready for auction, it is not difficult to exchange them for the latest Apple mobile phones.
Painting itself is a very expensive profession.
"Aren't you done with coloring enough?"
"Uh-huh."
"cut……"
Tsunamasa Sakai subconsciously wanted to complain.
However, he seemed to have thought of something. He looked around and made sure that there was no round figure of Uncle Sakai around him, and then he felt relieved.
Sakai Tsunamasa tossed his hair and said coolly.
"A true artist disdains the work of a painter."
"Uh-huh."
"What do you mean you keep humming?"
"Uh-huh."
Without raising his head, Gu Weijing took out a piece of red cinnabar the size of a baby's fist from the inside of the box.
Cinnabar ore...well...it is not uncommon to be used as red pigment, but in murals...it is too easy to precipitate, and the degree of it is difficult to control...Can it really achieve the good effect as in Wang Wei's notes...It's worth trying Give it a try.
Gu Weijing has been immersed in the newly acquired notes for a long time. He repeatedly studied the paint formula that came to his mind. A large amount of information flowed through his mind every second.
He didn't want to talk, and he didn't even fully notice what Tsunasa Sakai was saying.
"Pretending."
Sakai Tsunamasa felt that he was insulted, and he said softly.
"Let me tell you the truth. This afternoon, my father's old painters will follow Mr. Cao to the zodiac shrine (a Buddhist feature in Myanmar) to pour water and pray according to the local tradition. They will not be back until at least three or four o'clock. You will die here. No one can see it no matter how hard you try.”
"Um?"
Gu Weijing raised his head and his tone finally changed.
"Oh, in that case, do me a favor and get me another task card. I estimate that wall No. 9 will be painted in half an hour and it will be finished."
"Okay, okay, do it if you like."
Sakai Tsunamasa muttered, "Being a craftsman is useless."
He turned around and walked away.
In fact, despite his tough words, Sakai Tsunamasa still had some admiration in his heart that he didn't want to admit.
He just didn't understand why someone would stand in front of a painting for a whole day. Just like he doesn't understand why his sister has been favored by the old painter more than him since he was a child.
Tanaka Masakazu, who has been quietly paying attention here, took in everything that happened here.
The bet he made with Gu Weijing was that the winner would stay and the loser would get out.
However, the bet did not clarify whether he meant being an artist or leaving the project.
Therefore, Tanaka shamelessly continued to stay in the project as a staff member.
Although there was no substantial loss, in the past few days, Tanaka found that even his classmates at Tama Academy sometimes looked at him with unabashed ridicule.
After all, painters have to let their paintings speak.
For a person like Masakazu Tanaka, not everyone in the school knows what he is.
Normally, a team of five and six might be quite impressive, but being defeated by a Yangon native with a crushing advantage in a self-initiated competition, there are not many people who are hurt.
He now hates Gu Weijing so much that he even resents the Sakai siblings who were involved in it.
"Change the brand name." - Masakazu Tanaka was ready to teach this talented Yangon native a lesson, and this is what he came up with.
A sneer appeared on his lips.
According to the staff, the murals were divided into three grades - special grade, first grade, and second grade, respectively corresponding to the difficulty of coloring and restoring the murals.
The more influential, ancient and valuable the murals are, the higher the grade is and the more experienced painters are in charge of them.
All murals assigned to young painters were of the simplest second grade.
He noticed that every time Tsunamasa Sakai came to receive a task, he would not check what his number was at all, but would just sign and confirm it without a care in the world.
He planned to quietly change the murals assigned to Gu Weijing and Sakai Tsunamasa from second-class to special-class wall No. 17.
This is not to give the opponent a chance to perform, this is called flattery.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young artist who secretly painted a mural of an old painter. If the painting was ruined, he was an arrogant person who didn’t know the heights of the world. He became another joke in the circle.
It's impossible to paint better. By any chance, your paintings are almost the same as those of old painters.
I really think that all those old painters are moral saints. When they see your works, they will tremble and shout that this child's future is limitless and so on.
Don't be naive, my friend.
The reality is more likely to be - what, what the hell do you want to do, are you here to cause trouble or are you trying to make me famous?
Even if you are unlucky and your painting is not that bad compared to experienced painters, it is still considered a grudge.
This trick has almost been used to death in the entertainment industry.
Tanaka Masakazu also listened to the words of the Yakuza leader who was closely related to TV Tokyo and was drinking with his father, Team Leader Tanaka, at the wine table.
At that time, even the people at the table drinking wine were girls who had just joined the idol group.
The team leader boasted that in the RB entertainment industry, this is one of the best methods to use when encountering a thorn in the side who disobeys him.
No need for coercion or inducement at all.
Why do they arrange famous songs for newcomers in a variety show with a higher melody than the seniors? Ask people to verbally order newcomers who don't know anything to go to the boss's exclusive dressing room, and then turn around and tell the boss that the other party is playing a big name... Anyway, it's similar. s method.
The feud has finally been settled. There are newcomers on one side and seniors on the other. As long as you don't encounter anyone whose singing skills are too exaggerated, there's no need to say which side won't make it on stage.
The leader of the Yakuza team can even pretend to be a close and good brother.
If it happens just once, the other party will either cry and beg me to mediate, or get out.
Tanaka Masakazu broke into a cold sweat while listening to this at the dinner table.
