CH 50

October 27, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 50: Enthusiastic Media

The next two days, the exhibition was fully open to the public. Anyone who bought a ticket could enter. Because Gongxi Qiao’s ‘Palace Banquet’ received so much attention from friendly foreigners, many domestic reporters almost blew up Senhe Entertainment’s phone in order to grab headlines. Chen Ke was in such a mess that he didn’t even dare turn on his cell phone.

Chen Ke, who had been harassed by the media for a whole day, was regretful. He would have asked Gongxi Qiao for an admission ticket if he’d known that it would cause such a big sensation, so that he could at least go to see that international art and cultural exchange atmosphere. It would be better than staying at home.

Chen Ke didn’t get any peace and quiet. As the company’s president, Xiang Hong wasn’t much better. Many people tried to find out news from him by all means. Ringstar and Double Deer were even more blatant. They didn’t even bother to cover up their intention of undermining them.

Right now, Xiang Hong was both surprised and happy. He was surprised because he didn’t expect the artist he signed to have such a big reputation. He was happy because Gongxi Qiao won glory for the country and was praised by people from all walks of life, which would bring in a large amount of audience affinity.

The audience’s affinity was something very subtle. Some people acted all their lives, but they weren’t popular. And some people just acted in a couple of roles, but the audience would have a deep impression of them.

Nowadays, the trend in the circle was for artists to have plastic surgery. They had large eyes, double eyelids, a high nose and a pointed chin. Not only could the audience not recognize them, even the artists were sometimes confused as to who was who after makeup.

Some entertainment companies would even take the initiative to arrange for artists to get plastic surgery. They didn’t care about the side effects that plastic surgery would bring to the artists, as long as the artists could get hot and help them make money.

Senhe had never asked their artists to do this kind of thing. However, there were several artists under them who had gone for some minor cosmetic surgery on their own. Unfortunately, after being in the industry a long time, they still didn’t make it big.

He was secretly pleased that he had signed Gongxi Qiao. Then, Xiong Hong received news that a traditional calligraphy and painting enthusiast had publicly criticized Gongxi Qiao on the internet, saying that the “Miraculous Hands Growing Flowers” technique he performed abroad was just a small technique, and that this ink blossoming technique wasn’t particularly new, and that he was just being opportunistic.

There was no shortage of these kinds of people in any profession, who stood up and stepped on others when they saw someone become famous. Otherwise, how could they show their uniqueness?

The person who publicly criticized Gongxi Qiao was an almost forty-year-old calligraphy and painting enthusiast named Wei Ming. He was also a calligraphy and painting teacher at a university. Soon after publishing his remarks, they received a lot of attention.

In order to prove that he also knew the skill of ink blossoming, he also posted a video of himself painting on the internet. He demonstrated the principle of ink blossoming by means of a landscape painting, which gained a lot of praise and onlookers.

After seeing a lot of netizens watching, Wei Ming became even more energetic and publicly said, “I have never appreciated those who make art stained with fame and fortune. For example, someone who has a few accomplishments in painting and calligraphy, but has to go to the dirty entertainment circle to compete for fame and fortune. Such behavior is simply an insult to art.”

These words were clearly criticizing Gongxi Qiao, but many entertainers who had nothing to do with this matter also felt a little uncomfortable after seeing it. What did you mean by dirty entertainment circle? Every circle had a dark side, but there were also many people who developed by virtue of their own ability. Wei Ming’s kind of statement, which clearly discriminated against the entertainment industry, was a little too ugly.

Did Wei Ming, who said this, really not know that he had offended people with his words? Maybe he knew, maybe he didn’t. At least, the result of this was that he attracted more and more people’s attention.

The news soon spread abroad. Wei Ming’s remarks caused great discontent among several elders who admired Gongxi Qiao. Old Xia even said in an interview with the National Station, “Some people aren’t really interested in art, they just use art to satisfy their own vanity. His jealousy is too strong to be suited to this.”

Right now, Gongxi Qiao was winning glory for the country and the officials were happy, so they were also unhappy with Wei Ming’s behavior of finding something wrong with nothing. It was just that, if official pressure was used to solve this kind of thing, it wouldn’t look too good.

That evening Minister Liu personally found Gongxi Qiao and asked his opinion on the matter.

Gongxi Qiao laughed lightly, “It’s normal for artists to compete with each other. Don’t worry, Minister Liu. The rumors back home won’t affect me.”

The next morning, Gongxi Qiao, who was usually too lazy to update his Weibo account, sent out a Weibo post.

Gongxi Qiao V: Painting and calligraphy can bring people beauty, and the entertainment industry can bring people joy. Both are art. Art has no borders, and there should be no distinction between high and low. Today, I will use my painting to make friends. I’m not competing for high or low. I just want to make everyone smile. [Video]

In this video, Gongxi Qiao painted a landscape painting with an elegant and leisurely posture. Then, unlike Wei Ming who needed to sprinkle water several times, he just calmly passed his water-soaked hand a few centimeters above the scroll. They suddenly saw sunshine, birds and trees appearing in the originally barren mountains. It was much more sophisticated than Wei Ming’s gradual landscape painting.

It seemed that it wasn’t enough to only paint such a picture. He painted a few more peonies in bud, using the same method as before to make the flowers bloom slowly. More miraculously, the petals of these peonies were well-defined and very beautiful, as if they were all carefully drawn with a brush.

“This is just somebody’s private interest in painting, to make you smile.” In the video, Gonxi Qiao wiped the water on his hands with a towel and smiled towards the camera. Finally, the video turned dark.

After this Weibo was sent out, it drew a flurry of re-posts from entertainers of major entertainment companies. At this time, they were on the same side as Gongxi Qiao’s position. Who wants to be told that their work is dirty?

Gongxi Qiao’s video was really effective in slapping faces, to the point that it drew praise from all netizens, and even the official media came out to express their positive attitude towards Gongxi Qiao.

You said there was nothing good about mine. That’s OK, ah. I’ll just slap your face with real skill.

“Hahahaha. My Qiao is really handsome. That landscape painting surpassed someone by eighteen blocks. Someone’s face was smashed.”

“Saying that others value fame and fortune but in reality, it’s he himself who values fame and fortune. He can’t stand to see others doing well, it’s strong jealousy, he’s lived decades in vain. The real people in the painting and calligraphy circle didn’t come out to say anything, but he couldn’t wait to come out to brag about his existence, wanting to be popular like crazy.”

Netizens were always good at choking people with words without using expletives. Now, Gongxi Qiao defeated Wei Ming with practical actions, making Wei Ming completely lose face.

Not only did netizens feel that Gongxi Qiao could get full marks for his face slapping skills, but many entertainers also had a positive impression of him because of this incident. Anyway, he had defended the honor of entertainers with his practical actions.

After this incident, Wei Ming was gutted. He originally thought that Gongxi Qiao was only in his early twenties, and even if he knew the ink blossoming technique, it was just to the point of bluffing friendly foreigners. Therefore, he wanted this opportunity to promote himself. How could he know that the other party was really familiar with this painting technique at such a young age? Even a layman would know that his own work was hardly elegant if they compared it to Gongxi Qiao’s video, which required real skills.

Now his face was trampled on the ground by Gongxi Qiao. He was full of hatred and helpless. Comparing his painting ability, he was no match for the other side. Comparing his approval rating, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

This matter had already become so noisy. He took the opportunity to be interviewed by several media outlets. When he tasted the sweetness of fame, he couldn’t let it go.

However, seeing the online cursing, he was a little afraid. What should he do in case it ended up being impossible to put a stop to it?

Finally, he gritted his teeth and typed a row of words on the computer screen.

Wei Ming: at this young age, he’s so fond of showing off his skills. His mind is too impetuous, it’s embarrassing.

After netizens saw this post, they almost wanted to send condolences to Wei Ming’s whole family. How could a person be shameless to such an extent? Somebody didn’t pay attention to him before and he said that person had no real skill, just a little skill. Now that person hit him in the face with his real skills, and he’s saying that person is just trying to show off.

They really never thought that there could be such a shameless person in the world. No amount of expletives could describe their disgust.

At this time, Master Xi spoke up.

Xi Qing V: A person like you is a teacher. You really have no teacher ethics. What qualifications do you have that are worth showing off to others? You should look in the mirror and see whether there’s a puddle of mud or a person in the mirror. You don’t have any shame. The netizens still have to eat, don’t come out and disgust people.

Primordial First Panda: What the hell, Master Xi actually has such a poisonous tongue. Did your account get stolen?

Don’t Wanna Eat Meat: The level of Master Xi’s poisonous tongue …… Is actually quite high.

The head of the school where Wei Ming worked saw this Weibo and his legs almost went soft. Their school just fought for the Xi Group’s academic sponsorship. Now, the teacher of his own school offended him?

The head of the school then looked at the causes and consequences and his face instantly turned green. This Wei Ming usually pretended to be high-minded in school. How did he also offend so many people on the Internet, causing their school to be scolded as well? They were basically shot while lying down.

Gongxi Qiao was still young and won glory for the country. Everyone was happy. However, he came out to sling mud. As a result, his skills were inferior to the other person, and he failed to sling mud at them and instead, he caused a fuss. It would be fine if he stopped at this time, but he was still scornful and making unscrupulous remarks. What could this be except looking for a sense of existence?

Thinking that such a teacher was teaching students, the school director furrowed his brow, and finally made a decision.

Soon Wei Ming was expelled from the school. He made a big fuss on the internet, saying that the school leaders were currying favor with the rich and afraid of the powerful or something. However, netizens were already tired of his self-promotion and self-destruction routine, and not many people paid attention to it at all.

The media had no desire to pay attention to this kind of loser who crazily wanted to be popular. They all turned their attention abroad. Many official news reports also translated some of the foreign news reports. The words of praise and admiration for Gongxi Qiao made the Flower Country people blush.

The enthusiasm of the foreigners was really sappy.

This also reflected the popularity of Gongxi Qiao’s artwork. Even though many reports were very sappy, people still had a good time reading them.

There were also enthusiastic netizens abroad who translated the relevant comments on foreign online platforms. Everyone found that in addition to praising the magic of Gongxi Qiao’s paintings, there was a group of people scrambling to marry Gongxi Qiao, which made domestic fans very dissatisfied. Qiao Shao was theirs, and no one was allowed to grab him.

Gongxi Qiao was indeed really popular now. The news media lurked outside the hotel all day long, just to wait for Gongxi Qiao to show up. Some journalists even pretended to be customers and paid a high price to book a room in the hotel just to get a photo of Gongxi Qiao.

These journalists also gave Gongxi Qiao a very vulgar nickname, calling him the “Fairy from the East”[1], which made Gongxi Qiao eat less than half a bowl of rice at noon that day.

Finally, when the three-day exhibition ended, Gongxi Qiao was dog tired. Even when ‘National Industry’ was a big success, he wasn’t surrounded by so many journalists.

At 10pm, Gongxi Qiao changed into his robe and was about to go to bed when he heard the doorbell ring.

He frowned in confusion. The Do Not Disturb sign had been hung outside the door. Who could be looking for him at this hour?

After a moment’s hesitation, he got up and walked to the door. He opened it a crack, and saw a bearded foreigner with curly hair standing outside. His bulging belly made him look a little more approachable.

Before Gongxi Qiao had a chance to speak, the other party said with eyes full of light. “My God, you look better in person than on TV. Oh my God, oh my God, this is God’s masterpiece.”

Somewhat speechlessly twitching the corners of his mouth, Gongxi Qiao smiled dryly and said, “Gentleman, may I ask what you want?” It seemed a bit rude not to open the door when speaking, but since the man’s identity was unknown, he chose this rude way.

“Oh, oh,” the fat man then came back to his senses and said very apologetically, “I’m very sorry to disturb your rest, but I have something very important to talk to you about. Can you please give me five minutes of your time? Just five minutes!”