Miss you
Xia Tangyue took a sip and put the cup down.
He Ruicai smiled shyly: "Well... Actually, I am your fan."
Xia Tangyue: "Huh?"
She stared at He Ruicai blankly and asked hesitantly, "What did you just say?"
He Ruicai touched the back of his head sheepishly and said, "I am your fan. I have liked your paintings for a long time. Do you still remember the painting "Hairpin Flowers in the Night"? "
Xia Tangyue recalled.
"Hairpin Flowers in the Night" was a painting she won in her early years, and later it was bought by an unknown collector. Although she won the championship, her fame has remained tepid over the years, and it is hard to believe that there are people who like her.
She stared at He Ruicai with suspicion.
"It's true. I didn't lie to you. Look." He Ruicai took out his cell phone and handed it to Xia Tangyue: "Your "Hairpin Flowers at Night" is hanging in my gallery. Someone offered to buy it before, but I didn't sell it."
"……Thanks."
He Ruicai took out his business card and said, "This is my contact information. If you need to find a painting in the future, please contact me and I will try to see if I can help you."
"Okay." Xia Tangyue accepted the business card. As the saying goes, more friends mean more paths, maybe he will really be needed in the future.
The banquet lasted until after ten o'clock in the evening.
After all the social activities, Xia Tangyue drank a lot of wine. He was not drunk, but slightly tipsy.
Chen Yanqiu met an old classmate at the banquet. The two agreed to find an old teahouse to continue their conversation and left early.
Xia Tangyue was also preparing to go home. She took out her cell phone to call a taxi, and He Rui came over.
"Are you going home? I'll take you out."
The two walked side by side to the entrance of the hotel. The evening breeze blew gently, blowing up Xia Tangyue's long black hair, revealing her porcelain-white profile and slender neck line. The moonlight flowed over her light pink lips, which were delicate and translucent.
He Ruicai was stunned and called out to Xia Tangyue just before she was about to get on the car.
"Can I ask you out more often in the future?"
Xia Tangyue was slightly stunned and speechless for a moment, then said: "No, my boyfriend will be unhappy."
He Ruicai lowered his eyebrows in disappointment, pursed his lips, and forced a bitter smile: "Okay, I understand, be careful on the road."
"Thanks."
Feeling drunk, Xia Tangyue leaned back on the headrest to rest. Her cell phone vibrated twice. She squinted and saw that it was a message from Wen Zheng.
"My brother will be staying in the United States for the next two weeks." followed by a GIF emoticon of a grizzly bear hugging.
Xia Tangyue sighed silently.
The leak case is going through the judicial process. Mulin Art Museum has been proven to have plagiarized. It has been investigated by the cultural supervision department and the exhibition involved has been completely stopped. As the attorney, Cha Chunfeng is fully responsible for collecting evidence and formulating litigation strategies for this case. On this day, she came back with a stack of newly sorted case files and told Xia Tangyue.
"I just met with Gu Jiaping, and he said he wanted to see you."
"What do you want to see me for?" Xia Tangyue said with disgust.
Gu Jiaping leaked her plan to Mulin Art Museum, causing her nearly three months of hard work to go to waste, and he even had the nerve to ask to meet her!
"He said he had something important to explain in person." Cha Chunfeng observed her expression and lowered his voice: "But I suggest you don't go. The case is at a critical stage, and it will not be good for you to contact the other party alone."
"I don't bother with him." Xia Tangyue said.
After returning to the art museum, Xia Tangyue immediately plunged into the intensive curatorial work.
She had received investment from Zhushang, so she had to make some achievements and not let down the trust.
After much deliberation, she decided to use the painting "Umbrella Shadow under the Bauhinia Tree" given to her by Wen Zheng as the core exhibit. Focusing on the image of "brother and sister sharing an umbrella" in the painting, she explored the diverse forms of family relationships during the Republic of China period and planned the "Old Images of the Times" art exhibition.
After organizing his thoughts and writing them down, Xia Tangyue encrypted the file and sent it to Zhu Shang's mailbox.
If the proposal is approved, she can start looking for paintings that fit the theme.
Xia Tangyue stretched himself, put the scattered curatorial materials into the drawer, and prepared to go home. Unexpectedly, he was stopped by someone as soon as he walked out of the door.
"Tangyue, can we talk?" Gu Jiaping stood in front of Xia Tangyue. He had a scruffy beard and a wrinkled shirt, looking very different from his usual image.
Xia Tangyue said coldly: "I have nothing to talk to you about. See you in court later."
She walked straight past Gu Jiaping, who quickly followed her, saying sincerely, "Tang Yue, I have something very important to tell you. It will only take ten minutes."
In the coffee shop.
Xia Tangyue had a cold attitude and crossed his arms.
"You mean, someone instructed you to leak my plan just to embarrass me? To make me stuck in a quagmire and unable to get curatorial resources?"
"Yes." Gu Jiaping nodded confidently: "Although that person didn't say it explicitly, I guess that's the case."
Xia Tangyue frowned: "Who is it?"
Gu Jiaping paused and said, "If I tell you, can you withdraw the lawsuit and not hold me responsible?"
Xia Tangyue smiled coldly, it turned out that was what he was thinking. She said bluntly: "No, you can talk about it or not."
After saying that, she got up and left, not bothering to say another word to Gu Jiaping.
She guessed that this matter was not that simple, but she didn't expect that someone would directly instruct Gu Jiaping to leak the information. Who exactly wanted to make things difficult for her?
Xia Tangyue was puzzled.
The new plan was quickly approved, and Zhu Shang was very supportive, saying that the budget was sufficient and additional investment could be made at any time.
With his words, Xia Tangyue was finally able to put her creative ideas into practice. She first flew to Shanghai and visited several old-fashioned Republican-style galleries to learn how other art galleries presented the context and humanistic spirit of Republican-era paintings. Then she posted messages on social media to find paintings with suitable themes.
However, the words were spoken, but the effect was minimal, and there were no paintings that were particularly suitable for the theme. Some of the characters were either too sweet, and some were superficial, lacking the sense of the times, which was far from the old pictures of the Republic of China that she wanted to show.
Xia Tangyue was quite worried. After all, all the paintings of a decent standard had been bought by institutions or collectors. She did not have a wide network of contacts, so she had no way to directly access these private collections, and she did not know these people.
After Xina knew about this, she gave her a suggestion. She asked her to go to an art salon where many big collectors would be present, so she could try her luck.
In fact, Xia Tangyue had a painting in mind, but after asking many people, no one knew who had the painting now.
So, she followed Xina's advice and tried her luck at the salon to see if anyone knew the whereabouts of the painting.
The salon was held in a hotel. Xia Tangyue shuttled among the well-dressed people with a bottle of champagne in her hand, with a proper smile on her face, asking various collectors and art brokers for information. After asking around, she didn't get any valuable clues, so she found a seat in a corner and sat down, rubbing the corners of her mouth that were stiff from smiling.
"Ms. Xia?"
A slightly surprised voice came.
Xia Tangyue raised his eyes and saw that it was He Ruicai, the gallery owner he had met last time.
He smiled and sat down next to her.
"What a coincidence, we meet again."
Xia Tangyue curled his lips tiredly: "Hmm..."
He Ruicai faced her: "I didn't expect to see you here. By the way, I just heard them say what kind of painting you are looking for. Can you tell me about it?"
Xia Tangyue said briefly: "It is a painting by Lin Zhou, a painter from the Republic of China."
Lin Zhou was a new-school painter in the Republic of China. In the 1920s, he went to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France for further studies. Influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, he gradually formed a painting style that integrated Eastern and Western aesthetics. His works often used traditional Chinese imagery as the skeleton and Western light and shadow techniques as the flesh. Among them, the painting "Night Rain on the Wutong Tree" is particularly famous and is hailed as a milestone in the new Chinese painting movement.
She felt that Lin Zhou's paintings were very suitable for this exhibition. If she could borrow his paintings, they would surely become the focus of media reports and attract more heavyweight collectors to pay attention to the art museum.
"Lin Zhou's paintings..." He Ruicai hesitated for a long time before saying uncertainly, "I remember the last time his paintings appeared was in Hong Kong. I'll ask my friends in Hong Kong to help you find out."
"Thank you."
"It's okay, it's just a piece of cake."
Perhaps because this is a corner, those who smoke gather here unconsciously.
He Ruicai looked at Xia Tangyue's slightly frowned brows due to the smoke and asked, "Do you want to go out for some fresh air?"
Xia Tangyue nodded, walked from the banquet hall to the outdoor corridor, and took a deep breath of fresh air. Suddenly, a middle-aged man in a suit came up behind her and said to her with a stern face, "Miss Xia, our CEO Li wants to see you."
Xia Tangyue looked at him suspiciously. She felt that he looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him.
"Who is it? Do I know him?"
Hou Yongyan did not answer her question, but said bluntly: "You will know when you meet me."
"No." Xia Tangyue said coldly.
Who is he showing off to? He doesn't even know who he is. She doesn't want to meet him.
Hou Yongyan was very surprised to be rejected, but he could do nothing about Xia Tangyue, so he had to walk a few steps away and make a phone call to report the situation.
After a while, he came back and said to Xia Tangyue, "Just wait here. Director Li is about to arrive."
Xia Tangyue glanced at him indifferently.
She came out to get some fresh air and cool off. What does that have to do with them? And they told her to wait here. It's really funny.
She turned around to leave, but suddenly found someone pushing a wheelchair towards her.
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