Fox Song

Chapter 18 Flaming Lips
When Zixuan's eyes inadvertently swept across a painting stall, she felt her heart was about to jump out.

She couldn't believe her eyes and her expression was dazed for a moment!

How is it possible? Why does this painting look so much like...

"Sister, what's wrong?" Xiaojing shook Zixuan's hand and asked again.

"Oh, sister, I'm fine." Zixuan came back to her senses and seemed to realize her previous gaffe.

She explained calmly, "I just remembered some things and people from the past, and I feel a little abnormal."

"Oh, really?" Xiaojing looked puzzled, and then asked with concern, "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" "Don't worry! I'm fine." Zixuan forced a smile and said to Xiaojing.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay!"

"The calligraphy and paintings on these stalls seem to be okay. It's nothing, let's go and take a look." Zixuan said with a look of surprise.

After saying that, without waiting for Xiaojing's consent, she pulled Xiaojing towards a stall in front of her.

The stall owner was actually wearing the school uniform of a nearby college and looked like a young student working to pay for his studies.

The stall owner was immediately excited when he saw someone coming to buy calligraphy and paintings. The two stall owners nearby looked at him with shining eyes, full of envy and jealousy.

Zixuan could see that the calligraphy and painting business here was not very good.

In fact, when Zixuan came last time, she didn't see any stalls selling calligraphy and paintings on Fallen Street. There were many stalls selling cross-stitch - that kind of cross-stitch, using embroidery thread to make a cross, embroidering according to the pattern, easy to learn and understand, and there are many types, including flowers, birds, fish, insects, people, poems, etc., so it is deeply loved by female students.

Of course, Zixuan didn't know that in this semester, three colleges in the university town jointly launched a dormitory design competition. The activity required that the competition be held within the school first, and the winners would be selected. Then the winners would be compared with other schools to select the first prize.

The dormitory design competition has attracted great attention from students and is in full swing. Although not every dormitory expects to win a prize, it is related to the image of their own dormitory and will not lose points in front of male and female classmates. Therefore, many boys and girls want to buy something to decorate their dormitories, and calligraphy and painting naturally become a good choice for them.

However, as this booming event came to an end, almost everything that needed to be bought had already been bought, and the business of those who took the opportunity to sell calligraphy and paintings on Fallen Street was obviously not as good as before.

Although the stall owner is young, he has some business experience. Before this, he was considering clearing out his stock and changing his career, so he naturally didn't want to miss any business opportunities.

Zixuan doesn't look like a college student, but judging from her dress, demeanor and temperament, she is undoubtedly a potential high-quality customer.

"My lady, how may I help you?" He walked forward enthusiastically and asked with a smile.

"Let's take a casual look first."

His goodwill did not receive the expected response.

But he was not annoyed. He smiled and introduced what they were looking at to the two people.

Zixuan looked around the stall casually, then took two steps and, under the stall owner's astonished gaze, reached out to the pile of paintings in the corner of the stall.

He couldn't remember how long these paintings had been there, and no one was interested in them. Most of them were graffiti or exercises collected from art academies, so they were naturally of little value and could not be sold at a good price. In the past two days, he had made up his mind to treat them as waste paper, so he picked them out and piled them together randomly.

I wonder if this owner has any special hobbies or habits, and is here to shop on Taobao?
He had no way of knowing what she was thinking and could only make wild guesses.

Zixuan rummaged through the books and picked out a painting -

"Boss, how much is this painting?"

The young man took one look at it and was delighted. After choosing for so long, isn’t this the one shown above?
"Sister, why do you want to buy a painting here? Let me see!"

Xiaojing, who was beside her, snatched it and took a look, and was stunned.

What kind of painting is this? It's not even framed. It's just painted on a simple oilcloth.

Besides, what is this painting about?

It was an oil painting, the whole picture was almost red. There was a sun or moon in the upper right corner, which was actually oval. In the middle of the picture, there was a woman in a blue veil dancing, her face was blurry and invisible. There was a line of small words written in pen under the drawing paper: Flaming Red Lips.

"Flaming Red Lips? Tsk, what kind of name is that? Red, that seems to make sense, maybe it's Flaming, but red lips? Not necessarily, it's obviously not clear, maybe she's a transvestite?!"

She was still brooding over what happened in the past and couldn't help but speak.

Zi Xuan laughed secretly in her heart, but said seriously, "You don't read books, so don't talk nonsense if you don't understand! This is a surrealist work, of course you can't look at it from a realistic perspective!"

"Surrealism, so high-end? It can be used to deceive people, right?"

"This beautiful lady really knows what she's talking about. This is indeed a work of Western surrealism."

"Oh, it really is! Well, I didn't mention it just now."

"Surrealism originated in the West. It was first used in literature and later integrated into painting art. It is one of the three major schools in the world today. This painting can be said to have captured the essence of surrealism. Whether it is the use of pigments or the treatment of tones and colors, it can be said to be perfect..." The young man talked eloquently.

It seems that this painting is a national treasure of a great master. For some reason, it has been wandering on the streets. Unfortunately, the people it meets are all mediocre. It can be said that it is a talent that is not appreciated and its ambitions are difficult to achieve. Therefore, it is particularly eager to be discovered and appreciated by knowledgeable people.

Zi Xuan was both angry and amused. This boy selling paintings was also a weirdo, he was extremely shameless! If he graduated and went into business in the future, he would definitely not be a good person.

Seeing the young man's boastful look, Zixuan really wanted to hit him with a brick if there was one on the ground. She just wanted to inspire her little sister and get her to study, so she casually mentioned surrealism, but she didn't expect this guy to take advantage of the situation and brag about it. ...

"Stop, stop, stop! Stop talking nonsense. How much is it?" Xiaojing was overwhelmed by what he said!
"Since we are destined to meet and you are sincere in buying it, I won't quote a price. Just 100!" the young man said seriously.

"This crappy painting is so expensive. It only has a few patterns. How can it be worth 100?" Xiao Jing sneered, "Do you think we are all idiots?"

"100 is still expensive, lady. Have you heard of the Sotheby's auction in New York?" The young man seemed to be well aware of the principle of "asking for a sky-high price and bargaining on the spot", and said without changing his expression.

"I've heard of it, but I don't have a deep impression of it." Xiao Jing said.

"Then did you know that at an auction, the work 'Blackboard' by the late American abstract artist Tom Twombly set a record high price of 7053 million US dollars. Do you know what is drawn in this painting? It is just a few simple patterns. It is 6 rows of continuous circles on the blackboard. The painter sat on his friend's shoulders and let his friend shake freely, and drew them on the blackboard continuously with chalk."

"Is this possible?" Xiaojing was so surprised that she couldn't close her mouth.

"There's something even more amazing! Let me tell you about it." The young man became interested and actually took out a notebook from his backpack. The notebook seemed to contain a lot of written information on this subject.

He flipped through a few pages and read word by word, "For example, Pollock's 'No. 1948, 243.8' is like this. This painting was painted on a canvas with a length of 120.9 cm and a width of cm. Pollock used the drip method..."

"What is the sprinkle-drip method? Do you understand it?" the young man asked, looking up.

"I don't understand. What is that?" Xiao Jing said frankly, with the look of a studious and inquisitive primary school student.

"The sprinkle method is to use a pen or a spoon to randomly sprinkle paint on the canvas. Do you know how much it costs? ... Don't you know? $1.4 million!"

The young man told Xiaojing everything like the back of his hand.

Zi Xuan smiled without saying anything. She could see that the young man had said so much just to ask for a sky-high price.

Sure enough, after the young man finished speaking, he continued, "Now, this painting is only 100 yuan, what do you think, it's not expensive..."

"Not expensive." Xiao Jing said, and then heard a cough. She finally came to her senses, her face darkened, "It's just a piece of waste paper, I'm too lazy to tell you, just reduce the zero and buy it!"

"90? This price is too tight. Sigh, business is hard, okay!" The young man remained expressionless, secretly happy in his heart.

Xiao Jing reacted quickly, "Hey! One less zero is 0, not 10. Handsome guy, are you out of your mind?"

The young man lost his temper after being scolded and shook his head, "This price? It's not even enough for the paint."

"This price is acceptable." Xiaojing said.

"Can you add some? Otherwise I really can't sell it."

"I'm a straightforward buyer!" Xiaojing quoted again, "20!"

"I always buy goods for 50 yuan each, I can't afford to lose money," said the young man.

"50!" Xiaojing blinked and said again.

She seemed to enjoy the pleasure of bargaining in the market.

"The shipping fee is not enough, add some more..."

"If you don't add more, you'll have to buy it if you don't sell it."

Xiaojing pulled Zixuan and was about to leave.

Zixuan followed very cooperatively. Since we were acting, we had to do it well.

The young man sighed and waved, "Come on, come on! Okay, okay, I'll sell it to you for 50 yuan, I'll sell it to you!"

Xiao Jing thought, this is also possible!
"Sister, do you want to buy it?" She glanced at Zixuan. Zixuan didn't care about the price and nodded.

Under the young man's eager gaze, the two then walked back to the stall.

"I'm losing money at this price!" The young man said with a wry smile, "If I didn't think you guys were knowledgeable and like-minded, I wouldn't have sold it to you. Well, let's just consider it as making friends today."

Xiao Jing winked at Zi Xuan when she heard this, which meant, look at my bargaining skills, isn't it amazing!
"Sister, pay!" Xiaojing urged.

The young man rolled up the scroll and picked up a plastic bag to put it in.

"Wait a minute!" Zixuan raised her hand to stop him.

"What? You don't want it anymore?" The young man was a little nervous, afraid that they would not buy it.

"No, of course!" Zi Xuan thought for a moment and said, "I want to buy a few more of these. Do you have any?"

"What?" Xiaojing was petrified instantly.

For this kind of painting, it's fine to just buy one, but do you want to PI it?
(End of this chapter)