Chapter 168 Painting

An hour ago, in the lobby on the first floor of the Qingshui Bay Villa.

Han Zhong was lost in thought as he stared at the message from Jiang Wu on his phone. Rong Anzhou beside him said impatiently, "If you want to ask, just ask. You're so hesitant. You're not a man at all!"

Han Zhong glanced at him and said, "Do you know what I want to ask?"

"Don't you just want to ask when he will come back, and whether he will stay in Purple Garden or Shanti Green?"

“…”

Han Zhong put away his phone and said, "He and I don't have any special relationship. There's no need to ask these questions. It's too inconsiderate."

Rong Anzhou was convinced by him, thinking what a bullshit sense of boundaries, you want to hide people in your quilt every day, and now you say you have no sense of boundaries after being asked a few questions. You will die if you don’t pretend, right?

"If you don't ask, I'll ask for you."

As he was about to take the phone out of Han Zhong's pocket, he immediately attracted the curious gazes of the guests around him. Han Zhong stopped his hand and said seriously, "Stop making trouble. Is everything arranged outside?"

"Um."

Rong Anzhou glanced at the well-dressed men and women in the hall, and finally looked at the old man with a cane not far in front of him. His tone was cold, "There are a group of people with guns and a group without guns. I told them that if there is any unusual movement, just kill them directly. Don't worry about anything else."

As if noticing his gaze, Qin Jiawang, who was talking to someone in front, looked up and met his gaze. Then he said something to the person he was talking to and walked towards them with a smile.

Rong Anzhou frowned, "Didn't you say that he was seriously ill? Isn't this good? Is this a last gasp of life?"

Han Zhong nudged him with his elbow, signaling him to keep a low profile, and nodded to Qin Jiawang who was approaching, "Mr. Qin."

"Didn't I tell you to call me uncle? You are still as serious as when you were little." Qin Jiawang said and looked at Rong Anzhou again, "You are Han Su's child, right? You have grown up so much, are you married?"

Rong Anzhou was a little speechless. His parents were too lazy to care whether he got married or not, but he didn't expect to be urged by this evil old man with evil intentions. He said in a cold tone, "People who try their best to reproduce are usually because they are afraid of death. I am not afraid of death, so I have no interest in reproduction."

Qin Jiawang seemed not to hear his sarcasm at all. He chuckled a few times and looked at a naughty junior with a tolerant attitude. Rong Anzhou was so scared that his skin was covered with goosebumps. He found an excuse that he had to pee urgently and went out.

"Young people are different, full of vitality." Qin Jiawang sighed with a smile as he watched him leave, then looked at Han Zhong, "What do you think?"

Han Zhong paused slightly, somewhat surprised that he would continue with this topic, "Everyone has their own choice."

His reply was very polite, but Qin Jiawang continued to ask, "If you are facing aging and death, will you wait for death in despair, or will you desperately seek ways to survive?"

"There is also a third way. Before that day comes, I can choose to die peacefully, as long as I don't leave any regrets."

"No regrets..."

Qin Jiawang smiled through his wrinkled eyes and said with some emotion, "Life is full of regrets."

Han Zhong didn't intend to discuss this topic with him. Just as he was about to find an excuse to leave, a short-haired woman in a white dress suddenly came up to Qin Jiawang with a scroll and said, "Mr. Qin, the painting is here."

Painting?

Seeing Han Zhongwang coming over, Qin Jiawang smiled and explained, "I bought Zheng Xiaoxu's new work."

"Didn't Zheng Xiaoxu announce to the public that he would stop writing?"

"He has put down his pen. This painting is his last work."

“Is this true or false?”

“…”

The guests around came over while discussing, looking very interested. However, everyone knew that although Zheng Xiaoxu was famous, he was still alive. The people present were all businessmen. To them, paintings by deceased painters were the most important and valuable.

But they all knew that Qin Jiawang liked to collect calligraphy and antiques, and Zheng Xiaoxu was a master of classical court painting, and his works were also very much liked by Qin Jiawang, so they liked them too.

Han Zhong was not interested in these upper-class social etiquettes, nor did he plan to participate in them. The spring outing painting he had bought at the charity auction was also intended to be given to Li Mu as a design inspiration. He himself was not interested in calligraphy and painting, so he simply left the crowd and planned to look for Rong Anzhou who was "in a hurry to pee".

Just as he turned around, someone bumped into him from behind. He paused. At this moment, the new work by Zheng Xiaoxu had been placed on the wooden frame and slowly unfolded. He heard someone hesitantly reply, "Why is the style of this painting a little different from Zheng Xiaoxu's previous style?"

Han Zhong turned around subconsciously, and his gaze fell on the scroll in the center of the crowd through the crowd. He was suddenly stunned there.

It was a painting as tall as a person. Unlike the complex composition of the court paintings that Zheng Xiaoxu had painted in the past, there were no flowers or plants, nor graceful ladies. There was only one person, a long-haired man wearing a black robe embroidered with gold patterns. He had a pair of phoenix-shaped eyes, and he looked up at the sky with his head slightly tilted back, quiet and lonely.

Han Zhong stared at the person painting the mountain, from the familiar eyes to the inexplicably shorter hair at the left ear, to the casual standing posture. He looked at it over and over again, and finally confirmed the guess in his mind.

...Jiang Wu?

People around him commented on the painting. Some said that Zheng Xiaoxu's painting skills were very advanced and this painting was his masterpiece. Mr. Qin was lucky. Others said that this painting was too different in style from Zheng Xiaoxu's previous paintings. It didn't even have a background of flowers and plants. It was not as good as the flower and bird painting that Mr. Qin had collected before.

When everyone was arguing, Han Zhong suddenly asked, "Does the person in the painting have a prototype?"

As soon as his voice rang out, the others fell silent and looked at Qin Jiawang.

"have."

Qin Jiawang turned around and looked at the person in the painting, and said slowly, "This person is the last imperial teacher of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and also the last regent, Jiang Hegui."

Jiang Hegui...

Han Zhong frowned and thought for a moment, then thought of something, "Hegui is his name?"

Qin Jiawang looked at him in surprise, "Yes."

"What's his name?"

"no."

Someone nearby couldn't help but ask, "Since he was the regent of the Great Zhou, how is it possible that he didn't even leave his name behind?"

Moreover, he had never heard of this name. Could it be that Zheng Xiaoxu found it from unofficial history to cheat people out of money?

Although others didn't say it out loud, they basically had the same idea.

Only Han Zhong said, "There is no such name in the history books of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Where did Mr. Qin hear it from?"

"Of course I saw it from this painting." Qin Jiawang smiled and looked at Han Zhong, "To be honest, this painting was not created by Zheng Xiaoxu, but a copy. I bought the original from a calligraphy and painting collector. It not only has a signature, but also a line of small characters."

Han Zhong's heartbeat quickened slightly. "What's it written?"

"I made this painting to celebrate the birthday of the Imperial Master and to show my appreciation for the favor of Heaven. It was made in the spring of the eighteenth year of Tianxu, in the East Pavilion of the Zhaixing Tower in the Wujiang Palace, with the inscription by Cao Wuyue."

“…”