Chapter 160
Wang Jiazhi couldn't believe that he actually took her out to play.
Of course, she still couldn't see the sun and go out for a walk, but this was already a rare blessing, and she didn't even think about it.
It was also the day before before going to bed that he asked her if she wanted to go to a Chinese painting exhibition organized by a friend of his, which featured calligraphy and paintings by many famous artists.
When she heard this, her eyes lit up and she kept saying that she wanted to go, yes, she wanted to go.
The next morning, before he left, he told her he would pick her up that evening. Afraid she might meet someone he knew, she dressed up to avoid embarrassing him.
It was almost six o'clock when Lao Yao came to pick her up.
When she went in, she found that there was no one else except the guards. The exhibition closed at five o'clock. Everyone had left before she came to see it.
She saw two people in long gowns talking in front of her, and one of them turned out to be him. She couldn't believe it.
She walked towards him, he turned and saw her coming, smiled at her, and the man also looked at her.
When he approached her, he gave her a brief introduction. The woman nodded and greeted him, then left.
That person was his classmate. Although they were about the same age, they had completely different temperaments, the carefree and self-satisfied nature of a scholar.
Even though they were past middle age, there was a hint of youthfulness in their conversation, and she seemed to see them when they were young.
But it was obvious that this person was not any of the Fujibako group.
The exhibition hall was very large, and now that there were only the two of them, it seemed even more empty. He put his arms around her and looked at the paintings one by one with her.
Wang Jiazhi really liked ***'s paintings of fruits and vegetables: long, plump, light green loofahs with vertical ridges and a large yellow flower on each loofah, hanging one by one on the vine; large, round, rose-red peaches, with a touch of bright red on the tip and a few strokes of gamboge on the back, several of them hanging on the branches or in bamboo baskets; a large basket of lychees, each one a light red round ball with densely dotted bright red bumps on it.
The freehand, unrestrained paintings of fruits, vegetables, and flowers are embellished with meticulously crafted insects. A few bees flutter around the loofah; a mouse steals a bite from the lychees; a red dragonfly or white butterfly beside the flowers; a grasshopper or a praying mantis on the pumpkin vine.
This combination of movement and stillness, and the feeling of coarseness yet subtlety is very interesting.
Wang Jiazhi felt that these paintings were particularly like the illustrations of the nursery rhymes her grandmother told her when she was a child, with the big peach, the big loofah, the little mouse stealing oil, and the little bee collecting honey.
She smiled and said, "These three paintings are 'getting better and better'."
In front of it are three pictures of crabs from the early, middle and late periods.
She said, "At first, the crab shell was just a blob of ink, then the brushstrokes became visible, and later on, it became very clear that the crab shell was composed of three distinct strokes. It's very lifelike."
"It's the same with drawing shrimps, it looks like this."
Moving to the side, I saw shrimps of different ages.
She smiled and said, "I like this."
A pair of cooked red crabs and a large cabbage next to it, the orange-red color is particularly bright.
She laughed and said, "When I was a kid, I read about Red Su Shou and Yellow Vine Wine, and it reminded me of eating crabs with rice wine. It's the same now."
He said, "This color is very beautiful. Doesn't it look like a flower I've seen in the north? It's very large and has many colors, including this very bright orange-red."
She said, "It seems so, like a dahlia."
One painting shows several corn plants in autumn. The stalks have turned yellow, revealing mature kernels. Morning glories, with dark green leaves and bright red flowers, are entwined on the yellow stalks. A praying mantis perches on the corn leaves, and a dragonfly flies over the flowers.
He smiled and said, "I like this. The fields in the north in autumn are like this. The corn is all dry and brown, and the morning glories are blooming in the fields."
She smiled and said, "This is very poetic, like a dead tree coming back to life in spring. Although the corn is dead, it is wrapped in bright flowers."
"You think so, but I think it's great. It feels like a good harvest."
"True, but autumn is really strange. Late autumn is that kind of prosperous and gorgeous to the extreme, and then it becomes lonely when everything turns to its opposite."
She liked late autumn, but its beauty was sad, and she also died in late autumn.
Seeing ***'s paintings, he asked, "Do you like ***'s paintings?"
She shook her head and said, "I don't like it. Although it's in the same vein as ***, I feel the charm is different. I don't like his eagle painting either. It looks weird."
He smiled and said, "I like ***'s eagle. Look, don't you like it?"
It was the first time she had seen several of ***'s paintings. She had no impression of this painter in the past. She only knew that he was famous and had seen one or two of his paintings in magazines.
She exclaimed, "His eagle is so beautiful. Its feathers are so light, they feel like cicada wings."
He said, "Look at this one. The outermost layer of white fur looks like a layer of snow."
Wang Jiazhi has always had an insatiable love for fur, but she had little interest in birds. Fur is soft, while bird feathers feel hard. This was the first time she had felt the soft fur on a bird of prey like this.
The eagle painted by *** is actually somewhat ethereal. Perhaps this is because birds gain more spiritual energy when they cultivate to become immortals.
There is another painting, which shows a pine branch under the bright moon, with pine cones hanging on the branch.
She said, "I always thought pine trees and eagles were too serious and rigid. I never thought they could also have the poetic beauty of a bright moon and a gentle breeze. It's rare that they have not lost their original majesty. It's amazing."
What shocked her most was that there were authentic works by Tang Bohu and Su Dongpo. Wang Jiazhi thought that this was the only time in her life that she could see such a close-up painting, and she focused on every detail.
He said, "It's not his, it was borrowed from someone."
She wondered, who would dare to lend such a valuable item to someone else? Aren't they afraid of it being swapped? Then she realized that no one would dare to mess with someone who had such a collection.
There is another painting of a white lotus with thousands of petals. The petals are stacked layer upon layer, like clouds and snow, so pure, beautiful and graceful. The center of the flower is also very beautiful, with a small green lotus pod surrounded by a circle of thin yellow stamens.
She only paid attention to the flower, and later noticed that there were two green dragonflies painted on the center of the flower...
The belly of the water dragonfly is particularly slender, and its posture is really beautiful, like two slender dancers dancing.
Butterflies are not good, their bellies are too big and look ugly. Mammals are even worse, they look very vulgar.
Thinking of it like dancing, she couldn't help but think of it again...she lowered her head shyly.
He originally thought it was nothing, but when he saw her ears blush, he smiled and said, "There's nothing to be shy about."
"Hate!"
She covered her face, not knowing how he had come up with so many ideas. Before that, the knowledge she had gathered from novels was mostly just those few, but who knew he would overturn them all right away.
They looked at the paintings one by one and gradually walked through the entire exhibition hall.
She felt as if she were in a dream. It was all so unreal. In such a big place, they were the only two walking quietly. It was the first time for them to walk such a long distance together.
After looking at the paintings, he went to thank the man and say goodbye.
The man put his arm around his shoulders and said with a smile, "You're really something. When you were young, you didn't talk about it, you just played around. Now that you're old, you're like this instead."
He smiled and said, "I won't talk about it now. Don't ask me to tell you about what happened back then."
She was watching from a distance, and they looked fine.
She thought they were going back, but he actually took her to eat Cantonese food again.
She hasn't eaten hometown food for several years.
It was rare to have enough to eat in Hong Kong. When I went to my aunt's house, it was hard to describe. I was hanging out with several ladies, and the food was either Sichuan or Hunan. Now the chef at home cooks Shanghai cuisine.
He said the chef is an authentic Guangzhou chef, but in order to cater to the tastes of locals, he now likes to add more sugar, so this time he deliberately asked him to make it according to the original taste.
The dishes are quite authentic, although one or two are a bit sweet. Maybe it's because I've been here for a long time and I can't change it now.
It was almost nine o'clock when we got back.
She rested her head on his shoulder, quietly watching the dim lights outside.
He just thought she was tired, not knowing that she was thinking that for the first time, they could go back together, enter the house together, and then sleep until the next morning.
In the past, they would enter the house together and then leave. It was rare for them to go back to his place together, so he dropped her off at the entrance of the alley, and then they went back one after the other.
But she didn't dare to ask for anything. She was very satisfied and happy to be like today.
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