Chapter 21: Sky-high Price Calligraphy
Come to show your love? Li Jia sneered, looked Tang Shuo over and asked, "What kind of love are you showing?"
Tang Shuo looked at Li Jia as if he were an idiot, and said with pity, "Of course you're going to participate in the auction. Are you not smart enough?"
"Then why didn't I see you bidding? It seems like you were hiding here eating." Li Jia laughed.
Tang Shuo was wearing a suit that Lu Wanqi had bought for several thousand dollars.
This outfit might be fine for the working class, but it's a bit shabby for these gentlemen who often wear high-end custom-made suits.
Moreover, Tang Shuo did not have any other decorations on his body, and he did not even have a decent watch on his wrist, making it difficult to classify him as a rich man.
This is also an important reason why Li Jia dared to deal with Tang Shuo.
"Didn't they say that this banquet allows for temporary collections?" Tang Shuo said, "I see that the calligraphy on the stage is pretty much the same as mine, so I'll just write one and put it up for auction."
This time, not only Li Jia, but also some people who heard Tang Shuo's words started laughing.
A middle-aged man turned around and said to Tang Shuo, "Young man, this calligraphy is an authentic work of Mr. Qiming. This 'Seven Tang and Song Dynasty Poems in Running Script' was sold at auction for over 400,000 yuan more than ten years ago. The price should have tripled by now."
A man with a beer belly nearby added, "Mr. Qiming is the master who created the 'Qi style' of calligraphy and one of the best contemporary calligraphers and painters. Do you think you're comparable to him?"
“What a joke!”
“…”
Li Jia smiled and said to the waiter beside him, "Go find a set of paper, ink, brush and inkstone, and let this master write a piece of calligraphy."
The waiter naturally ran to help the customer find it without saying a word.
"When you finish writing, I'll arrange for someone to take it up. Then we'll see if anyone buys your calligraphy." Li Jia said to Tang Shuo with a gloating look.
Tang Shuo shrugged indifferently, picked up another piece of cake and started eating.
Lu Wanqi, who had been keeping an eye on Tang Shuo, became a little concerned when she saw him surrounded by a group of people. She smiled apologetically at the man who was chatting him up and said, "Excuse me, I need to go to the restroom."
While waiting for the waiter to come back with the things, Li Jia saw the female star Lu Wanqi looking at him as she walked towards him, so he grinned, straightened his collar, and at the same time deliberately revealed the limited edition hollow watch from the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak series on his wrist, putting on an appearance that he thought was very handsome.
He had played with many female celebrities before, and many of them were willing to throw themselves into his arms, but he had never met anyone of Lu Wanqi's level.
If he could hook up with Lu Wanqi, he could regain some of the face he lost yesterday.
When Lu Wanqi walked up to him, Li Jia was about to speak, but unexpectedly Lu Wanqi walked straight past him and started chatting with his number one enemy.
Do these two people know each other?
…………
"Tang Shuo, what's wrong?" Lu Wanqi looked around at the surprised eyes and asked in a low voice.
Tang Shuo replied, "It's alright. I'm going to write a couple of calligraphy and put it up for auction."
Lu Wanqi frowned and asked doubtfully, "You?"
"Yes." Tang Shuo said, "Just think of it as a gesture of love."
"Ms. Lu, do you know him?" Li Jia couldn't help but asked.
Lu Wanqi was about to scold Tang Shuo for his antics when someone interrupted her and asked in confusion, "Who are you?"
"My last name is Li, Li Jia." After introducing himself, Li Jia asked again, "Does Miss Lu know him?"
Lu Wanqi nodded instinctively and asked, "What's the matter?"
Li Jia thought Lu Wanqi had been deceived by Tang Shuo and kindly warned her, "This guy is a liar. Miss Lu, please don't be fooled."
"Is there any misunderstanding?" Lu Wanqi asked with a frown.
At this time, two waiters came over with a complete set of pens, inkstones, and paper. Li Jia saw this and said to Lu Wanqi with a smile, "This guy didn't have an invitation and came in to eat and drink for free. After I found him, he said he wanted to write a calligraphy and put it up for auction."
As early as when Lu Wanqi came over, this corner attracted the attention of some people. In addition to the things in the waiter's hand, in addition to some people who were bidding for "Seven Tang and Song Dynasty Poems in Running Script", nearly a quarter of the people in the hall gathered around to see what was going on.
Wang Kai, who had been cheated by Tang Shuo twice before, was attracted by Lu Wanqi. When he saw Tang Shuo talking to Lu Wanqi, he thought he saw a ghost.
The day before yesterday, he witnessed Tang Shuo breaking into the Jiang family. After half a day, he still didn't come out, so he hurriedly drove away.
He had been keeping this matter in his heart for the past two days and had not told anyone.
He originally thought that Tang Shuo had been killed by the Jiang family, but he didn't expect that this guy was still alive and well and appeared here.
Could it be that he really knows someone from the Jiang family?
If that's the case, why would this guy be Lu Wanqi's bodyguard?
…………
Tang Shuo ignored the onlookers' gazes and took the paper and pen from the waiter. The pen and ink were very ordinary, and the paper was a five-foot-long piece of raw rice paper. Obviously, these were all found by the waiter in a hurry, so Tang Shuo did not ask for anything else.
The waiter tidied up the table where the cakes and drinks were placed, and Tang Shuo laid out paper on it.
Li Jia snorted coldly, wanting to see how Tang Shuo would perform. He would send whatever Tang Shuo wrote over to be auctioned, and then he would step forward and publicly humiliate him.
Wang Kai was a little confused by all this and asked the person next to him, "What are you doing?"
"This guy said his handwriting is similar to Mr. Qiming's, and he wanted to write a piece for an on-site auction." A short man replied.
"That's outrageous," a man nearby chimed in. "We'll see how he embarrasses himself later."
“It would be fun if no one took pictures of it when I sent it up.”
"I think this guy is just grandstanding. I don't know what he does. He is so shameless."
“…”
…………
Li Ruiyi accidentally turned around and saw that most of the people in the back half of the banquet hall were gathered in a corner. He said to a man in his thirties next to him, "Go see what's going on in the back."
After a while, the man came back and said, "Someone wants to write a copy of the calligraphy on the spot and auction it off."
"Who is it?" Li Ruiyi asked.
"I don't know him." the man replied.
…………
"Tang Shuo, are you okay?" Lu Wanqi tugged at Tang Shuo's sleeve. "Otherwise, let's go."
"It's okay, don't worry." Tang Shuo smiled at Lu Wanqi, revealing a row of neat teeth, and replied, "If no one buys it later, you can buy it later."
Seeing that there was no turning back, Lu Wanqi had no choice but to nod.
She decided that if no one bought it, she would spend 100,000 yuan to buy it.
Tang Shuo picked up the pen and took a look. It was an ordinary hard-bristle pen, a factory-produced model, but it was barely usable.
After spreading out the paper, testing the weight of the pen, and dipping it in ink, Tang Shuo began to write.
"Don't lean on the railing when you are alone. The mountains and rivers are endless. It's easy to leave but hard to meet again."
"Flowing water, falling flowers, spring is gone, heaven and earth are gone."
More than twenty characters are written in cursive script in one stroke, with bold opening and closing, and each stroke is powerful.
When Tang Shuo finished writing and put down his pen, he couldn't help but think: If Master Zhuge knew that I wrote Li Yu's poem, he would probably scold me.
The Master Zhuge that Tang Shuo mentioned was Zhuge Taihe, a friend of his lame master. The master had a strange personality and lived alone in a thatched cottage on a small hill, rarely having contact with the outside world.
He first met him when he was eight years old. At that time, he only knew that he had a master who taught him how to write and play the piano.
From that year on, Tang Shuo would be sent to study with his lame master every three months until Zhuge Taihe passed away when he was thirteen years old.
In the last moments before his death, the man took the few words Tang Shuo had just written and said with a smile, "You can start your apprenticeship now."
…………
After seeing Tang Shuo's calligraphy, the discussion among the onlookers became even louder.
These two lines are from "Lang Tao Sha Ling" written by Li Yu, the last emperor of the Southern Dynasties. The poem is a famous quatrain that has been passed down through the ages, but the problem is that Tang Shuo wrote it in cursive script, and most people present did not recognize it except for a few words.
After the middle-aged man who first started to ridicule Tang Shuo recited the poem, everyone finally understood what Tang Shuo had written.
Li Jia sneered, picked up the words Tang Shuo had just written and walked straight to the stage. He couldn't wait to make Tang Shuo look bad.
What the hell is this written about?
It's clearly a scribble. Even if I hold the pen with my feet, I can still write to this level.
After Li Jia handed the calligraphy to a staff member at the front desk, he remembered that he didn't know the other person's name. He opened the calligraphy and took a look at it. He said, "This calligraphy was written temporarily to participate in the auction. There is a signature on the calligraphy."
He was a little embarrassed to admit that he didn't recognize the name on the signature.
The staff member who was temporarily assigned to organize the auction was an employee of Tianhong Group and had met Li Jia several times. So after taking the calligraphy, he immediately notified the host to participate in the auction.
The auction of "Seven Tang and Song Dynasty Poems in Running Script" had just been completed. After receiving the notice, the host immediately took the stage and said, "The next piece of calligraphy was written temporarily. The calligrapher is called Tang Shuo. The starting price is 50,000."
Then someone came out holding Tang Shuo's calligraphy. Compared with the previous beautifully framed "Seven Tang and Song Dynasty Poems in Running Script", Tang Shuo's calligraphy was directly held in the hand, and it had already lost in terms of hardware.
After seeing the words clearly, the entire banquet hall fell into a brief silence.
Lu Wanqi was extremely nervous. She couldn't understand the calligraphy, but her intuition told her that the calligraphy was not bad. If she looked at it from a different angle, she would find it to have a unique beauty.
She thought it would be best if someone else had the insight to recognize the value of the calligraphy and stepped forward to take a picture of it. That way, Tang Shuo would look much better.
Tang Shuo didn't care about this. He didn't doubt his ability. If no one took the photo, it would only mean that these people had a problem with their vision.
Just as Lu Wanqi was about to raise her hand, the middle-aged man who had ridiculed Tang Shuo in the first place said, "One hundred thousand."
"One hundred and fifty thousand." Then a man in his forties in front shouted out the price.
Hearing the offer from the front, the middle-aged man gritted his teeth and said, "Two hundred thousand."
He is an avid calligraphy collector and has some research on calligraphy himself.
As soon as Tang Shuo picked up the pen and wrote two words, he could already see that Tang Shuo was extraordinary.
This calligraphy was written in one stroke, with occasional discontinuities, but the flow is continuous, the momentum is bold and unrestrained, and it already has the style of a master.
The fact that he was willing to spend 100,000 yuan proved his determination to get it. You know, no matter how good this calligraphy is, 100,000 yuan is still a high price.
But someone argued with him, so the middle-aged man had to grit his teeth and add another 100,000.
This was the limit of what he could endure.
Calligraphy works that are often sold at high prices are actually not worth much, and most of them are due to the fame of the writer himself.
But Tang Shuo was just an unknown little person, and he was willing to spend 200,000 to buy this calligraphy definitely because he loved it.
Just as everyone was puzzled, another offer came from the hall, not loud but shocking to everyone: "One million."
"Two million." Jiang Tiantong, who had hardly spoken since entering the venue, raised his hand and said lightly.
The woman who had bid one million raised her hand again and shouted, "Three million."
After this offer, the entire banquet hall was in an uproar.
You have to know that Mr. Qiming's calligraphy was only auctioned for 1.3 million. Who on earth is this Tang Shuo? Someone was actually willing to spend 3 million to buy his calligraphy.
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