The Versatile Master Artist-Chapter 53 - 45: Aunt

Yangon,

Gu’s Calligraphy and Painting Shop.

It’s the weekend, another rest day when there’s no need to visit the Great Golden Pagoda.

Gu Weijing opened the top drawer of his bedroom cabinet and poured all the red envelopes onto the bed.

Today, he contacted a welfare institution for a visit, and before going, he planned to prepare some gifts for the children there.

He intended to tally all the New Year’s money he had saved over the years.

Just like most places in the Asian cultural sphere influenced by Huaxia, Yangon also considers giving children New Year’s money.

Moreover, it’s not just one red envelope but two.

The first is given on New Year’s Eve, which is a regular red envelope.

The second is on the eighth day of the New Year. After celebrating with neighborhood businesses on the same street as Gu’s Calligraphy and Painting Store, he says some auspicious words, and typically, children receive a small gold coin in a red envelope called the "Opening Fortune."

Each shop prepares this.

Correspondingly, his grandfather also buys some small gold coins for the children of other neighbors.

People in Myanmar love gold; these gold coins are about half a gram or one gram, not very expensive, just for luck.

Many children spend their New Year’s money within the year.

Gu Weijing has always had low material desires and nowhere to spend money.

Over the years, he has saved quite a few gold coins or small jewelry, and this time he plans to sell them at a local gold shop for cash.

The painting shop has a duplex layout, with the shop at the front and the home at the back, totaling three floors.

When Gu Weijing went downstairs, he happened to hear voices coming from the main living room.

"I heard someone gifted Gu Weijing a set of art supplies, they’re very expensive."

This was the voice of his uncle.

Despite being born into a family of calligraphers and painters, his uncle’s painting skills are quite average.

After graduating from high school, he followed his father, Gu Tongxiang, to run the painting shop, and now he’s the second in command, responsible for purchasing paintings and some regular social gatherings.

During the Spring Festival, his uncle and aunt took their cousin to visit his wife’s family, and they had just returned a few days ago.

"Giving them to Gu Weijing? Ha, it’s only because of our father’s considerable reputation in Myanmar. Otherwise, who would gift such a young child with painting brushes? And how expensive can oil painting brushes be?"

Aunt’s tone was filled with gossip.

She also served as the store’s accountant, responsible for managing finances, and was naturally sensitive to numbers.

Upon hearing that someone gave her nephew an expensive gift, her ears perked up.

Uncle didn’t say anything, he seemed to have just gestured.

"Two? Two hundred thousand Myanmar Kyat? That’s quite a sum of money, there’s no need for a child to use such good brushes."

Generally, a beginner’s oil painting brush set costs about eight to ten thousand Myanmar Kyat, and 200,000 Myanmar Kyat is around a hundred US dollars, which is already a very nice set of brushes. It equals the monthly wage of an ordinary worker in Yangon.

"It’s 20,000."

Uncle paused for a moment: "But the currency is US Dollars."

"Twenty thousand US dollars!"

Gu Weijing heard his aunt exclaim softly.

"That’s a Lukes Master Set, equivalent to Hermes, and it’s custom-made. Twenty thousand US dollars is just the retail price, not everyone can buy it. If you sell it outside, it would probably fetch fifty thousand dollars or more."

Fifty thousand dollars, his aunt quickly calculated in her mind, even at the official exchange rate, this amount translates to hundreds of millions of Myanmar Kyat.

"Are you insane? That’s the equivalent of a small car, what’s Dad planning?"

"The old man didn’t say much else, just mentioned that it belongs to Gu Weijing."

Uncle shook his head; when he learned about it, he was no less surprised than his wife.

A set of oil painting supplies worth 20,000 US dollars, he had only heard about such luxury goods online. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"The old man doesn’t seriously intend to let a child use this set, right? That’s tens of thousands, tens of thousands of US dollars! The economy has been so bad these past few years. Talking to the old man about selling it to help with household expenses..."

Knock, knock...

Gu Weijing felt a bit embarrassed to continue listening.

He gently knocked on the door of the main living room and then opened it.

The living room suddenly quieted down.

"Good morning, I’m heading out for a while."

Gu Weijing pretended not to have heard anything, nodding towards his cousin sitting on the sofa with her phone.

Uncle and aunt have a daughter named Gu Lin.

She’s seven months older than him and is in the same grade at the same school.

Painting is tough to excel in, Aunt hopes her daughter doesn’t continue down the artistic path.

So she attended a regular class, had a lively personality, a slightly chubby physique, and average academic performance.

A few days ago during the New Year, she went back to her hometown with her uncle and aunt. Now the holiday is already halfway over, and she has just come back these past two days.

Gu Weijing saw the set of master-level art supplies given by Old Yang placed on the coffee table. The black walnut wood art box was open, revealing the messy brushes inside and the open box of lapis lazuli pigments.

Lapis lazuli is a relatively expensive gemstone pigment. The Lukes gift box includes a master-level set of paints and a small tray of various mineral pigments.

Among them are 150 grams of white pearl powder, 5 square meters of gold foil, and 30 grams of lapis lazuli powder, among other things.

These precious items are only used when painting special types of artwork.

For example, lapis lazuli powder is the main component of ultramarine blue pigment.

Italian painter Gennaro Ginanni commented on ultramarine blue in his book "Art"—"a noble color, unrivaled in beauty, the most perfect pigment in the world."

Even in the splendidly wealthy medieval cathedrals, lapis lazuli would only be used for coloring statues of the Virgin or angels.

Its international market price is $2,500 per ounce, slightly higher than the price of gold.

Cousin Gu Lin was holding the newly swapped iPhone next to the black walnut wood box, seemingly shooting a TikTok video.

TikTok is highly recognized internationally and is even no less popular than YouTube.

Many people know about TikTok’s lawsuits in the United States, but actually, even children in the Middle East have started using TikTok as a tool to understand the world.

His cousin also has a TikTok account called "The Little Gallery Princess in Yangon."

The usual content is flaunting some expensive paintings and calligraphy from the gallery.

Galleries are still somewhat rare in Myanmar, and her account has three to four thousand followers.

It seemed that his master-level set had become his cousin’s new toy for showing off.

His aunt pretended to see nothing, and Gu Weijing also acted as if he hadn’t seen anything, but his uncle seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Uh, well..."

His uncle opened his mouth, knowing that Gu Weijing might have heard the conversation in the guest room, wanting to say something.

"Just don’t break it,"

Gu Weijing waved his hand.

"Alright, Xiaolin, stop filming. That’s not your stuff. Put it away for your brother," his uncle frowned at his daughter.

"Why, just shooting a few short videos, why so much fuss."

His cousin was a bit impatient with her father’s scolding, "Look at Mona in our class, her family owns a jewelry store and she has over 30,000 followers."

"It’s New Year’s, why are you scolding the child? We’re all family, can’t you be a little more generous?"

His aunt looked at her husband, displeased with his fierce tone.

"Xiaolin is just shooting videos; she won’t even knock a hair off the paintbrushes,"

Gu Weijing knew this was actually meant for him to hear.

His aunt might not have any malicious intentions; it’s just that people tend to be a bit shrewd and practical.

After all, she is an elder, and Gu Weijing couldn’t say much.

When he was young, he knew his aunt believed Grandpa Gu Tongxiang was biased, clearly intending to leave the family’s most valuable calligraphy and painting store to him.

Over the years, they favored him inheriting the family’s painting skills over his cousin.

Therefore, she had some opinions about him as her nephew.

But...

Sigh...

All one can say is that every family has its own difficulty.

In truth, deep down in Gu Weijing’s heart, he wouldn’t really mind selling that master-level set.

He felt he probably wouldn’t use such good pigments for a long time.

And even a conservative estimate of $30,000 would be enough to elevate several of his skills to a professional level.

Taking out some money to supplement household expenses is appropriate. Due to well-known reasons, the number of tourists has been decreasing in the past two years, making business difficult.

From his aunt’s perspective, her intentions to think for the family are understandable.

Yet, after all, this set of supplies is a goodwill gift from Old Yang to him.

If the person gives you something and it turns up on the online marketplace shortly after,

it’s not justifiable borrowing even by the standards of gifting practices.

Although Old Yang might not care about these things,

Gu Weijing couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing.

Gu Weijing shook his head, booked an Uber on his phone, and grabbed his coat.

"Shh, did you see the plastic box in his hand? It’s full of gold coins. It’s probably what the old man secretly gave since we weren’t home for New Year. Your daughter didn’t get any; the old man is too biased."

"I’m telling you, being so young and not earning for the family, yet given so much money is just spoiling. Who knows what he’ll do with it; people are getting spoiled, otherwise, there wouldn’t have been those gangsters before..."

As Gu Weijing left the guest room, he could still hear his aunt’s muttering, deliberately lowered but intended for him to hear.

He didn’t turn back to explain, knowing that explanations wouldn’t help with such matters. He could only sigh softly.