Lao Yang trotted all the way to the small square in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda. He lowered his head, lowered his voice and told Mr. Cao what he had just seen.
Almost in the next second, Mr. Cao's face turned red due to the rapidly rising blood pressure. His hands were trembling, his breathing became heavy, and his chest heaved up and down.
"Mr. Cao, what has happened has already happened. There is no point in being anxious. Take care of yourself."
With quick eyes and quick hands, Lao Yang grabbed the old man's shoulders and leaned his body against the little old man's torso, fearing that Mr. Cao would fall to the ground due to excessive anger.
"What happened? What's wrong with Mr. Cao?"
"Are you suddenly feeling unwell? You were fine just now."
All the professors, artists and staff who followed Mr. Cao to worship Buddha in front of the Buddhist niche all noticed something was wrong with the atmosphere.
As Mr. Cao's assistant, Lao Yang, ran over and said something in his ear, Mr. Cao's expression suddenly changed.
Many people in the crowd suddenly became confused when they saw Mr. Cao's abnormality.
The old man is the backbone of this project and cannot afford to miss anything.
"I don't know. I seem to have heard something related to Mural No. 17. It seems to have been destroyed by someone."
Some people who were closer to Lao Yang when he spoke just now vaguely heard something.
"Mural No. 17 is the "Picture of Worshiping the Buddha and Protecting the Dharma" from the Gongbang Dynasty Tusi Period. Mr. Cao is said to have put a lot of thought into it." This is an artist who knows the importance of this mural.
"What happened to that painting? Yangon officials have closed the tourist access to the Shwedagon Pagoda. Only project staff can get close. Who dares to damage it? Has the police been called?"
Mural No. 17?
Tanaka Masakazu's ears perked up.
He knew that the number he secretly exchanged from among the few mural number plates in the special mission box was No. 17.
Unexpectedly, I won the first prize. The painting was the work of Mr. Cao.
And it seemed that Mr. Cao valued that painting very much.
Tanaka Masakazu was secretly happy in his heart, but he pretended to be confused on his face. He pretended to be confused and discussed with the people next to him: "How could such a thing happen? Who dares to tamper with Mr. Cao's works!"
He stared at Mr. Cao with a pair of thief eyes, looking forward to the moment when the other party would get angry.
Mr. Cao was very angry.
His hand holding the cane was shaking.
Mural No. 17 is one of the three most important murals for me in this work project. The other two are repaints of large-scale murals, and only this one is a restoration.
This may be the painting with the most demanding mural skills in the entire project. As early as he made up his mind to take over this project, the investigation of Mural No. 17 had already begun.
He made many drafts in advance in his own studio in Hamburg and consulted countless materials.
We also held remote video conferences with painters with experience in mural restoration from Dunhuang, Paris, and Istanbul, in order to restore the "Picture of Worshiping the Buddha and Protecting the Dharma" to perfection.
That's why, his first job after the project started was to complete the outline of the incomplete parts of the Dharma Protector Diagram.
As a result, now, in just one afternoon, everything was over.
"This is life."
This thought flashed through Mr. Cao's mind.
When Lao Yang saw Mr. Cao's face turning red and his lips trembling, he was afraid that there was something wrong with Mr. Cao's health, so he immediately moved a chair and took the quick-acting Jiuxin pills and warm water from his pocket.
Mr. Cao drank some water and finally calmed down.
He strongly resisted the urge in his heart to tear that Gu boy into pieces.
"That's it, take me to see the paintings."
Cao Xuan's chest rose and fell violently, he closed his eyes slightly, and finally breathed out slowly, and he said to his assistant.
Lao Yang was a little surprised that Mr. Cao didn't get angry in public or call the police.
He knew that the old gentleman was serious about painting and valued art.
It is impossible for Mr. Cao Xuan to change his temper for Gu Weijing.
Not to mention Gu Weijing, none of Mr. Cao's apprentices in their forties or fifties had ever been hit with a palette by the old man because they were not careful when painting.
"Okay, let's go see the murals first... Sigh." The old man sighed again.
"As for that Gu Weijing."
The little old man stood up little by little, leaning on his crutches. The wrinkles on his face were intertwined, and he looked much older.
"Whether it's the child's fault or not, even if you just want to express yourself... in short, you should be stricter with your mouth and don't talk nonsense. Just say that the wrong brand was issued. Don't ruin this child, there is a good talent. not easy."
Mr. Cao warned in Lao Yang's ear again.
Lao Yang was silent.
He didn't expect that Mr. Cao would handle it this way.
To put it a bit too much, this kind of unauthorized manipulation of the master's manuscripts, even in an ordinary studio, can call the police and request judicial intervention.
How much is a monument worth? How much is a piece of work that Mr. Cao put his painstaking efforts into worth? This is already difficult to measure in terms of money alone.
Does Mr. Cao hate Gu Weijing?
Of course he hates it. No matter what the reason is, he doesn't want to see this young man now.
If he were twenty years younger, he would have wanted to break the opponent's legs with a cane.
But the old gentleman is old.
The older gentleman prefers to think about those who come after him.
Mr. Cao Xuan knew that if he casually said a harsh word at this moment, his entire artistic career might be over.
After all, he still loves talent.
It can be seen from the previous pen sketch that no matter what, this Gu Weijing is a young man who is willing to work hard on the journey of painting.
Since the mural was irreparable, he didn't want to cast a shadow on the future of a serious and hard-working child.
"So be it."
Mr. Cao gave Lao Yang a stern look.
Lao Yang smacked his lips in his heart.
While I admire the master's mind, I also lament the good luck of Gu Weijing.
What he hopes most is that the impact of this incident can be minimized and that he will be less implicated.
But, I guess this guy doesn’t even want to go to Master Lin Tao’s studio.
It's really touching that such a good young man has just gained the master's attention and then personally killed the opportunity.
The Buddhist ceremony was originally coming to an end, but when something like this happened, it ended immediately.
Everyone followed Mr. Cao and quickly returned in the direction of Mural No. 17.
Many people along the way still didn't know what was happening, but the atmosphere was already slightly depressing.
Tanaka Masakazu didn't see the expected hair boom, and he felt a little regretful, but he thought it was just the calm before the storm.
The small steps he moved were like a shivering rat following a large army.
Mr. Cao leaned on his cane and called his disciples Lin Tao, Kazunari Sakai and other experts who were familiar with the field of mural restoration.
He could already imagine what the mural would look like.
If the color is too light, it may be possible to make up for it.
But the most common mistake that novices make when repairing murals is to apply the paint too thickly, causing it to become thick and mushy.
The New Yorker, the world's best-selling cultural weekly, once reported a case in which a French student team made such a mistake when restoring an 800-year-old Madonna statue.
The entire sculpture was discolored and was covered in green and red patches with bright, turbid paint.
The restoration was described in vicious rhetoric in the weekly magazine as "painting the Virgin like a monkey."
Cao Xuan's eyes could already see the colorful and messy paintings on the mural.
This made the fingertips of his cane turn slightly white.
