The Versatile Master Artist

Gu Weijing felt that this embrace lasted a long time, maybe fifteen minutes, maybe half an hour, or perhaps even longer.

He indeed closed his eyes.

At this moment, time seemed to have lost its meaning.

A fluffy thing jumped onto Gu Weijing’s stomach.

Without opening his eyes, Gu Weijing knew it was Ah Wang.

When Little Girl Jasmine was taken away by Uncle Ah Lai, she considerately left the cat behind.

The cat Mi Lord, graciously didn’t run around.

It lay quietly by Miss Sakai’s feet.

Now, Ah Wang was probably attracted by the coolness of the evaporating lake water on Gu Weijing’s body, or perhaps the tabby cat too wanted to be embraced by the big sister like this.

It sniffed Gu Weijing’s body with its pink nose, licked the water droplets on Gu Weijing’s neck twice with its tongue, and then rubbed against Miss Sakai’s arm, signaling her to make some room for it too.

Ah Wang squeezed over.

It tucked its tail between Gu Weijing’s neck and lay down sideways on his body with an air of importance.

Resting on Miss Sakai below and with his cat on his chest.

Gu Weijing smiled, feeling that life was truly beautiful.

As the ancients said, beauties are the graves of heroes.

Gu Weijing somewhat understood the feelings of those foolish kings who indulged in their harems and never governed morning court again.

No matter how passionate an embrace, there always comes a time to end.

When Gu Weijing felt that all the moisture on his body was starting to show signs of evaporating dry, and Ah Wang’s tail was restlessly twitching, nearly poking his nostrils.

To be honest.

He realized that Ah Wang had indeed gotten a bit chubby under Koizumi Katsuko’s care now.

So, Gu Weijing finally opened his eyes.

He nudged Ah Wang’s chubby butt, pushing the aggrieved cat off him, then looked directly at Koizumi Katsuko.

Koizumi Katsuko was also looking at him.

“I’ll still paint for a while, I really feel great right now. Don’t worry, I think my state is very good, I’ll just paint a little while.”

“It won’t be a problem.”

Gu Weijing didn’t know why Shengzi always insisted on stopping him from practicing painting.

As an artist.

The right painting state is always a rare encounter.

Every second and minute he experienced now, was the wonderful state he had desperately cried for, but couldn’t achieve.

He believed that as long as he picked up the brush, even though he didn’t have the right Wisteria tree inspiration scene this time, it shouldn’t be difficult to produce works at the level of “Heart with Many Feelings”.

Letting such good emotions and breakthrough opportunities go to waste.

Gu Weijing always felt a great sense of guilt in his heart, feeling he was wasting a treasure.

“Hmm, I believe that. In your current state, you can definitely paint very well.” Koizumi Katsuko’s mouth curled up, dimples appeared on her cheeks in a playful smile.

“But still no.” She changed her tone, said seriously.

“Why?”

Gu Weijing sat up from Koizumi Katsuko’s embrace, puzzled, and asked.

“Because you just went through an emotional turmoil, current Mr. Gu is like an athlete who has just finished a long run, you think everything is over. Actually, the aftershocks of emotions have not completely receded. This is not a good time to practice painting.”

“Shengzi, I really am over it. Really, you don’t understand my feelings, I now feel very at ease, very tranquil, yet my mind is very active. Just five minutes of painting, I think five minutes is enough to consolidate my current emotional state. Is that okay?”

Gu Weijing asked, shaking his head.

Koizumi Katsuko calmly shook her hand.

“My father says, the mind of an artist is like a porcelain cup. Every intense emotional upheaval is like this porcelain cup being struck by a heavy hammer, some fragile artists only leave behind sharp shards that hurt them in their heart, scattered everywhere. Some brave artists can return to tranquility.”

“The process of returning to tranquility is like a skilled craftsman pasting back these pieces of porcelain. No matter how well it’s repaired, before using it again to withstand the force of holding water or drinking tea, it needs to be given enough time for the glue to solidify, otherwise, hidden damage will linger.”

“You think you’ve fully recovered, but then at some point, when plunged between alternating cold springs and hot tea, you suddenly and unexpectedly shatter.”

Koizumi Katsuko took Gu Weijing’s hand, gently explained.

“Did Uncle Sakai say, an artist’s mindset is…a porcelain cup? Without proper care and repair, it would crack under pressure.”

Gu Weijing recalled his previous emotional state, pondering over the profound meaning in Professor Yakai Ichiro’s metaphor.

“Hmm, Shengzi?”

“You speak.”

“Did your father ever say, if well-repaired, could he return to his original emotional state?” Gu Weijing was slightly conflicted.

This was the first time in his life he had experienced such intense emotional issues.

He felt good now.

But Gu Weijing worried whether his future would be overshadowed by the shadow of this emotional breakdown.

“No, that’s impossible.”

“Once porcelain cracks, it remains cracked. Everything from the past leaves its mark on everyone’s heart, unless like in TV dramas, one loses memory, otherwise it’s impossible to return to the state as if it never happened.”

Koizumi Katsuko took out a small wooden comb from her pocket, patted her thigh, letting Gu Weijing lie over so she could slightly fix his hair messed by the lake water.

“But don’t worry, this does not mean you will become a fragile person. If an artist can draw strength and gain insight from turbulent emotions, he will grow stronger.”

“Having a porcelain piece with a crack does not mean it becomes cheap. Every crack in your mindset is your story, also uniquely your strength. You can choose to let the crack be your perpetual weakness, or you can choose to let it become your unique pattern.”

Koizumi Katsuko slowly ran the comb through.

The girl allowed the ginger-colored comb teeth to push little by little through Gu Weijing’s hair.

Growing up in a top-tier artistic family nurtured girl.

On how to adjust mentality, how to deal with emotional setbacks that might meet in professional careers, such family education.

Gu Weijing, who lacked some paternal and maternal love from a young age, and his girlfriend’s gap might be greater than the surface family background gap between the two.

“Choosing to let the crack become your pattern?”

“Mr. Gu, have you heard of Ge Kiln?” Koizumi Katsuko thought for a moment.

“Yes, of course. The most expensive among the five famous kilns, I heard a cup can cost tens of millions at Christie’s.”

Gu Weijing nodded.

He roughly understood what Koizumi Katsuko wanted to convey.

Ge Kiln is historically the most expensive to produce, with the lowest yield porcelain cup among the five great kilns, famous for its black crack patterns.

It’s said that, in the Song Dynasty, the making of Longquan craftsmen had a saying of life and death in a line.

Either forming unique crack patterns on the surface due to rapid thermal expansion and contraction during kiln opening or directly shattering into pieces due to uneven internal stress of the porcelain cup.

In the current antique craze, Ge Kiln and Yuan Blue and White almost firmly occupy several top spots on the most valuable porcelain records list.

“A plain white porcelain without any pattern is bland and flavorless, while a porcelain cup full of crack shard patterns on its surface might be a battered and scarred broken cup worth less than fifty US cents, or it might be worth more than five million US dollars, an exquisite masterpiece of Ge Kiln from Dongxia.”

“If you only regard them as cracks, they are merely weaknesses in your mindset. If you consider them your ‘Golden Thread Iron Wire’, your ‘Ink Pattern Plum Blossoms’, then they become supreme treasures of the antiques world. Countless people are willing to pay thousands just to glance at it.”

Koizumi Katsuko stroked his forehead.

“From a girlfriend’s perspective, I hope you get more rest after the recent ordeal.”

“From the perspective of an artistic partner, since you’ve been tormented by pain, I don’t want my Mr. Gu to only gain the harvest of a beautiful Wisteria blossom. The more sorrowful you were just now, the greater strength you can derive from it.”

“I’m greedy; you deserve more.”