The Versatile Master Artist-Chapter 75 - 67: Are You There?

Austria, inside Yilena Manor.

It was now 7:45 in the morning, and the tall French butler was instructing the servants to push a cart to the door of the study.

"Miss’s breakfast."

The nursemaid sitting behind the desk at the office entrance said.

As a traditionally cultivated female heir of an upper-class family.

Though the Ilyena family had always been known as art enthusiasts, traces of the militaristic and workaholic ethos of the old German and Austrian military lords and aristocrats could still be seen in Anna.

Miss Anna’s daily routine was extremely regular and disciplined, precise as if she were a well-wound clock.

She never stayed up late and maintained an hour and a half of upper body yoga daily.

Unable to walk, she also had a dedicated therapist to spend an hour in the evening massaging and relaxing her corresponding muscles to prevent muscle atrophy in her legs.

Anna went to bed at 10:30 PM and rose at 6:30 AM daily.

After a simple wash-up, she would handle an hour of business in the morning, reading the day’s political newspapers and various art magazines.

If necessary, she would also draft relevant review outlines.

At 7:45 in the morning, the butler would instruct the servants to deliver breakfast, mainly organic corn cereal and decaffeinated coffee.

She would finish her breakfast in the study.

If she needed to work or had formal social activities, the butler would select suitable clothes for her and arrange the driver to prepare for departure.

If it was an unscheduled rest day, she would handle some personal matters before lunch.

Day after day, year after year, she was as regular as if she was not a young woman in her twenties.

However, today, uncharacteristically, the study door did not open with the usual buzz from the nursemaid sitting in the secretary’s office at the door.

"Miss Anna? Your breakfast."

The nursemaid pressed the intercom inside the room.

"Oh, please come in."

A few seconds later, just as the servants began to suspect that the lady of the manor might be unwell, Anna’s voice came from inside.

The butler pushed open the door.

On Anna’s desk was an open MAC, and she sat behind the computer, staring bare-faced at the screen.

"Just leave the breakfast cart here, I’ll eat in a while."

The mistress said without looking up.

Though curious, the butler naturally wouldn’t question his employer’s decisions.

He instructed the servants to place the breakfast cart and hot towel for face-wiping aside, turned around, and quietly left.

Before leaving,

he noticed that the newspapers and magazines he had placed in the room corner that morning were still there, untouched.

The butler felt that Anna had been acting very unnaturally lately.

Especially since the day the program recording crew flooded into the manor, he often saw Anna frowning, appearing absent-minded.

...

"Quick, why hasn’t there been a reply yet."

Anna’s fingers clicked the refresh button on the top of the screen on the touchpad again.

Her face remained cold, but her slightly furrowed brows and fingers tapping lightly on the table showed that her mood was anything but calm.

The webpage on the computer was Gu Weijing’s Detective Cat store.

The page displayed that Anna had sent numerous messages to the other party. Yet that mysterious Detective Cat still hadn’t replied a single word.

"What is she doing?"

"Did she see my messages?"

"If she saw them, why hasn’t she replied?"

"Could she have been scolded online? Could she be upset."

"Has she been deceived by those damned art vampires into signing an unworthy contract?"

Countless chaotic thoughts flooded Anna’s mind, causing this usually composed and graceful critic to lose her usual composure.

Since the day Thomas’s video recording was completed, Anna could not stop thinking about contacting this Detective Cat Lady.

If not for the confidentiality contract requirements, before Thomas’s video went live, she couldn’t divulge any related information nor contact any of the seven illustrators.

She would have messaged Detective Cat the day she saw the other’s work.

The excitement of discovering an outstanding genius, wanting desperately to converse with a master, was not the only thing in Anna’s mind.

More so, it was pure concern.

Based on the behavior of someone with master-level painting skills yet still selling cheap, popular illustrations online, Anna guessed the other party’s living conditions might not be good.

Suddenly gaining fame, various complex messages were pouring towards her all of a sudden.

With so many people online, as much as there was praise, there would naturally be people who felt he was unworthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with Jean Arnou, leading to scorn.

Anna didn’t think this illustrator, who made a living from selling paintings online, would handle it well.

She might even fall into some traps.

This is why masters like Elder Cao require specialized art assistants and agents to handle contracts and related content for them.

And the formula for these closest staff is usually high salary plus commission.

The great painter could make a total of one billion dollars a year, and these assistants could easily reach a salary level of tens of millions of dollars.

It’s not that the master is pompous, or has too much money to spend, but countless predecessors have fallen into these pitfalls.

Not to mention that many masters themselves have worrisome abilities to manage finances, and their life skills are practically like disabled people; the many twists and turns in contracts can be hard for even normal people to understand.

High commissions aren’t much of a deal.

What is scary is some small galleries might like to arrange seemingly generous signing bonuses, which actually involve breach terms that are impossible to meet.

Like some Korean art management companies denounced by the media as sweatshops.

Signing a 10-year contract which, on the surface, appears glorious, but after finishing, you find you still owe the company money.

These unscrupulous art merchants love to exploit talents like Detective Cat, who possess excellent painting skills, were originally unknown, and suddenly gained massive traffic.

To them, it looks like a goldmine.

They would slave-drive their painters like masters, squeezing their labor and inspiration, then mercilessly discard them.

Such stories aren’t limited to the domains of painting and music nor are they recent occurrences. Anna was well-versed in such matters, knowing that even Balzac was almost driven to jump off a building by his publisher.

Yet there is a unique element in the painting field... which is money laundering.

No need to shy away.

In the ever-increasing art market, with its artistic and antique treasures, aside from the legitimate art economy, there are also shocking money laundering activities.

Certain inexplicable auctions might even be backed by heartless activities like Latin American drug lords or human trafficking.

If inadvertently associated with such people, a painter might be ruined.

Even if none of these happened, if, in a rush to make money, they undertook projects they disliked or were ill-suited for, that would also be a major career blemish.

Faced with the sudden temptation of wealth, could that Detective Cat really hold her restraint?

Anna worried whether the other might have signed an unenviable contract, whether someone wanted to launder money through her works, or whether envious trolls would emotionally break her...

She felt like a worried mother, unable to sleep well for several days.

"Mrs. Detective Cat, are you there?"

Anna typed once more.