"I really want to go."
Sakai Katsuko's eyes lit up, and then she said with some disappointment: "It's a pity that I can't go."
"I have to attend the advanced class taught by my mother in the afternoon. Komatsu-senpai and I are both teaching assistants in the advanced class, so we can't get away... As soon as school is over, I have to go back to the Aman Hotel with my mother."
Shengzi looked at Gu Weijing: "My mother doesn't let me run around in Myanmar. She also doesn't let me go out at night with people of the opposite sex except Komatsu-senpai."
The security environment in Myanmar is indeed not good. Although Yangon is already the most stable place, it is still a good suggestion for a beautiful girl not to run around at night.
Of course, the answer to who Mrs. Sakai was targeting when she issued the prohibition not to go out with other wild boys that night was actually very obvious.
Gu Weijing was obviously on Mrs. Sakai's blacklist, and he was an unstable factor that could take away their precious baby cabbage at any time.
"By the way, I remembered something. I went to the Shwedagon Pagoda on the weekend, and I haven't given you this thing yet."
Having said this, Sakai Katsuko's tone became cheerful again.
She took out a gift box from her schoolbag and handed it to Gu Weijing.
"Every artist who participated in the Shwedagon Pagoda restoration project has a souvenir issued by the officials of the Yangon Tourism Department. I helped bring your share by the way."
National cultural relics protection projects led by important painting masters like Mr. Cao are highly valued by the government.
This should be a commemorative gift box sent by the government to the artists after the first phase of the restoration project is completed.
Young people like Gu Weijing took advantage of it and got a share.
Sure enough, he saw the words "Yours sincerely, Mr. Gu Weijing" written on the note on the gift box, and the signature was the official government seal of the Ministry of Culture of Myanmar.
"Take it apart and you'll find a surprise." Sakai Katsuko said with a smile.
Gu Weijing opened the large envelope and the first entry was a letter of thanks.
[On behalf of the Shwedagon Pagoda Management Committee, Yangon Culture and Tourism Bureau, and the Myanmar National Government, I would like to thank the artist Mr. Gu Weijing for his outstanding contribution to the Shwedagon Pagoda cultural relics protection project...]
This English thank you letter is typed by computer and the language is relatively formulaic.
The highlight is that, in order to show respect and attention to the artists, the signature is the autograph of a very high-level official of the Ministry of Culture of Myanmar.
Gu Weijing's eyes stayed on the signature for two seconds.
He estimated that the surprise Miss Sakai was most likely not referring to.
This kind of thank-you letter signed by a national leader is so popular among local young painters that they would like to frame it and put it on the wall every day.
In Southeast Asian society, this kind of handwritten thank-you letter from a senior official is the most representative thing that reflects the social status of a painter.
Not only do local painters look up to you, but the underworld also shuns you.
It's not a big problem to hang it on the wall and bluff foreigners, and the store's business may be reduced by several percent.
However, Sakai Katsuko’s character shouldn’t care too much about this.
Moreover, Ms. Sakai comes from a family of great artists and is a model who has seen the world.
Uncle Sakai once painted a set of Ukiyo-e paintings for the Tokyo Olympics, and also worked on government projects in the cultural field.
Judging from Instagram, during the few years of bidding for the East Olympics, Katsuko probably met double digits of heads of state and senior officials from major countries with her father.
You should be used to this kind of thank you letter.
Gu Weijing put the thank-you letter aside. There was also a set of painted calendars in the gift box. Each page of the illustrations on the calendar was completely composed of the murals they painted during the Shwedagon Pagoda restoration project.
He turned to mural No. 17.
Even through the photos taken by the photographer, the "Picture of Worshiping the Buddha and Protecting the Dharma" written by Mr. Cao Xuan is still as shocking as before.
Under the calendar insert, written in beautiful cursive letters - [Joint Restoration Artists: Cao Xuan, Gu Weijing].
Mr. Cao Xuan was unwilling to take away the children's credit, so he added Gu Weijing's name to the most important mural registration form.
Theoretically,
From now on, as long as he is a little shameless, he can claim to have had formal joint artistic creation with Cao Xuan.
Even...it's not even about being thick-skinned.
When most young painters encounter this situation, they would like to cut the photo out of the calendar and stick it on their forehead, showing it off wherever they go.
The great master of painting is willing to co-sign with you as a child. It must be because the seniors want to support young people, and it is also a great affirmation of your level.
If nothing else,
If Gu Tongxiang hadn't been his grandfather and he was too young, just relying on the resume signed jointly with Mr. Cao.
In some local calligraphy and painting associations, Gu Weijing's name might even be ranked in front of his grandfather.
It's like in physics, if you and Einstein jointly publish a paper, even if it's just a small popular science article, because the boss's status is too high, your academic status will also rise.
The home page cover of the calendar is a photo of a dark gold-plated monument.
This monument was just completed in the tourist square outside the Shwedagon Pagoda. It is engraved with the names of all 47 invited artists who participated in the project.
The thirty or so people at the top are all experienced painters.
The first place is of course Mr. Cao, and the second and third place are Kazunari Sakai and Professor Lin Tao respectively.
His grandfather Gu Tongxiang ranked 35th, ranking last among famous painters.
To Gu Weijing's expectation, he himself ranked at the top of the list of the nephews and students of these artists who came to "gild".
Right after his grandfather's name, he ranked 36th, even higher than the name of Katsuko Sakai, who was 37th.
As for Sakai Tsunamasa, he was only ranked 41st.
"The order of the list for us young people is based on the amount of tasks completed, the length of work and the evaluation of you by master artists. Gu Jun worked very hard, and our names are next to each other. Look at this -"
Sakai Katsuko stretched out her fingers and picked up the last item in the gift box for Gu Weijing.
It was a small box lined with dark velvet cloth, and inside the box was a string of delicate agarwood beads.
The bracelet has a slight smell of vegetation smoke from burning incense ash, and the head and tail of the beads are each inlaid with a small jade ring.
On the jade ring at the top, exquisite jade workers used extremely fine carving knives to carve the name "Gu Wei Jing", while the jade ring at the bottom is engraved with Buddhist blessing seal patterns.
"A consecrated bracelet?"
Gu Weijing looked at the bracelets.
In religious holy places all over the world, no matter which god they believe in, from Tianzhu to Jerusalem, almost all have blessings and consecration services.
From consecrating bracelets, bracelets, and crosses, to consecrating the latest IPHONE, graphics cards, and XBOX game consoles. As long as you can't think of it, no one can do it.
The Shwedagon Pagoda is an important place for Buddhism, and Myanmar is a Buddhist country.
The Myanmar government gave the artists a consecrated Buddhist bracelet as a gift, which was both unexpected and reasonable.
It seems that the Ministry of Culture has spent a lot of money this time.
Such items, blessed and consecrated by serious eminent monks, are not cheap. Apart from anything else, agarwood is a precious wood, and the texture of those two small jade rings looks very good.
"Officials from the Yangon Tourism Bureau said that the souvenir gift boxes presented to the artists this time are all the same. Only the jade rings on this bracelet are different in quality. Although they are all Laokeng jadeite, they are ranked higher on the monument. The closer it is to the front, the better the texture of the jade."
"Mr. Cao, my father and Professor Lin all grew glass jadeite. When we got here, it has turned into ordinary ice jadeite."
Sakai Katsuko raised her right hand, and Gu Weijing noticed that Miss Katsuko also had a bracelet hanging on her wrist that was the same as the one in front of her.
The glass type is the most precious clarity among jadeite, followed by the ice type.
Even though the piece on the bracelet is only the size of a small fingernail, it costs tens of thousands of dollars in the international market. If it is imperial green, it may be doubled again.
Even the ice jadeite in front of Gu Weijing costs thousands of dollars.
The government is quite willing.
Of course, on the other hand, all jadeite in Myanmar is state-owned, and it is very easy to get good jadeite. People also like to use jadeite as national gifts or various diplomatic gifts.
If it were given to a great artist like Mr. Cao, it wouldn't be worth tens of thousands of dollars, and it wouldn't be a loss either.
A world-class art master is willing to carry a jade bracelet with him.
In high-end art venues where various celebrities gather, the invisible advertising effect is much stronger than sending a dollar-a-bundle of rubbish at the door of a tourist attraction and then being thrown into the trash can.
"You are number thirty-six and I am number thirty-seven. The official told me that the jade rings on our two bracelets happened to be mined from the same pebble-sized ice jadeite ore. No matter how moist it is, The degree and color are almost the same.”
Sakai Katsuko took off her bracelet and placed it with Gu Weijing's bracelet.
Sunlight shines in from the window. Two strings of jade rings with almost identical color and clarity are as clear as ice. The slight white cotton-like impurities in the jade rings are not ugly, like one after another small stars solidified in the ice crystals.
"Exactly the same, next to each other."
Sakai Katsuko tilted her head and said softly, "That's great."
"Let me put it on for you."
Miss Sakai stretched out her hand, gently untied the silver buckle on the bracelet with a gentle expression, and tied it on for Gu Weijing.
…
afternoon,
Dulwich College, Gift and Talented classroom.
Mrs. Sakai's class today is coming to an end.
"Ms. Sandanu, this is your corrected homework." Sakai Katsuko walked up to a student holding the student's portfolio of works that her mother had reviewed.
"Thank you, Miss Sakai, what do Professor Cruz think of the portfolio I designed?"
Mona took her homework from the little artist princess' hands with respectful hands and said with a smile.
Before the class started, Mrs. Sakai collected the portfolios that all of them were preparing.
There are only six students in their improvement class.
Counting Mrs. Cruz, Miss Sakai and Mr. Komataro, the two teaching assistants, there are three teachers.
The biggest benefit of this type of high-quality small class teaching is that the teacher-student ratio can reach 1:2.
That is, the professor can tailor different modification suggestions based on the works submitted by each student, judge the painting level of each student, and give different modification suggestions based on their respective shortcomings.
I've only had a few classes.
Mona repeatedly rejoiced in her heart about how wise her decision to visit Mrs. Sakai in advance was.
A great artist is a great artist.
This kind of teaching conditions could not be provided by the original Dulwich College anyway.
Mona took her portfolio.
She didn't look through it in a hurry, but instead focused her gaze on the face of this young lady who was almost destined to leave her own page on the international art stage in the future.
"Ms. Sakai, do you want to eat cake? I baked a small cake at home and added a little bit of honey. I wonder if you will like it."
While talking, Mona took out her own small Lock and Lock lunch box from her schoolbag, which contained a layer of cupcakes: "By the way, can I just call you Shengzi like a friend?"
Mona has always hoped to make friends with Miss Sakai, who has an extraordinary background.
But she always had a vague feeling that Miss Sakai had some opinions about her.
There is a total of one teacher, two teaching assistants and six students in the class.
When painting in the studio, one teacher can directly give detailed painting guidance to two students.
Of course she most wanted Mrs. Sakai to take care of her.
Unfortunately, Professor Cruz chose Myo Angwin, who had the best grades, and another student.
Among the remaining people, there were only two girls, myself and another girl named Marley.
Including Mona, everyone thought that according to the custom, Girls help girls (girls help girls), Miss Sakai would of course choose two girls to paint together.
did not expect,
When selecting students, Miss Sakai stared at Mona for a moment, but avoided her and chose another student intentionally or unintentionally.
Mona was a little disappointed, but she was not surprised.
She was a bit embarrassed to be raising her status in the class, not only did Miss Sakai seem to treat her "differently", but also other Dulwich classmates.
Even if they didn't know that they had visited Professor Cruz in advance,
But students in the advanced class will always realize that Mona's entry into Mrs. Sakai's class did not rely entirely on her own painting ability.
It's like the principal forced his nephew with average grades into the top class.
No one would say anything openly, but privately they would inevitably point fingers at Mona and gossip a bit.
Even behind Jerry's sunny smile towards Mona, there seemed to be something "condescending" about it. This made Mona, who had always been a good and diligent student, feel uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable is uncomfortable.
Mona has a very good psychological quality and can pretend not to hear people talking behind their backs.
What does this mean?
How long can you remember this kind of thing, a week or a month?
So what if I will be discussed for a semester. When she enters a broader stage in the future and becomes famous, trivial matters such as how she entered the advanced class will have long been lost in the dust.
She will only be remembered as Mrs. Sakai's student.
Just like decades later,
Gu Weijing may still be spending time in the small gallery in Yangon at home. No one will recognize him, and no one will remember how outstanding he once was.
If that's the price you have to pay for taking shortcuts, Mona is happy to pay it.
(End of chapter)
