Extra: Art Exhibition

       *

       “Hey, Gu’an, do you want to take a look at this art exhibition?”

 

       Gu’an was dragged by his best friend to the entrance of the art exhibition. At this time, he still had a skewer of kebabs sprinkled with chilli powder that he had just bought after school stuffed in his mouth.

 

       “Ah, wait a minute, I haven’t finished eating yet. Besides, I don’t know anything about art, why don’t you go ahead.”

 

       While looking at the exhibition board, the best friend clicked his tongue and said something strange, “No, no, I’ll wait until you’re done eating. You must visit this exhibition, this painter looks like you, I feel like you will look like this in another twenty years.”

 

       Gu’an moved a few steps forward and leaned forward. The exhibition board described the painter’s life experience in detail, saying that he was born to be in engineering and learned art halfway through his career without solid foundation or training, but showed extraordinary ability and talent in art. Then suffered from depression for a long time, during which time he continued to create until now, when he held the first exhibition of his life.

 

       Depression, huh…

 

       Gu’an’s eyes slowly turned upwards and met the painter’s photo.

 

       He was stunned for a moment and felt very sad for no reason as if a huge boulder had fallen from the sky and pressed against his heart. At that moment, he felt so depressed that it was difficult to breathe smoothly.

 

       It really was…like that. It was just that the familiarity was so overwhelming, that he had to convince himself that he had never seen this painter before this.

 

       For a moment, he even forgot to chew his favourite spicy skewers. When his best friend saw that he seemed interested, he grabbed his few remaining spicy skewers and threw them into the trash can, pulling him hurriedly into the art exhibition centre.

 

       *

       Once they were inside the exhibition, that strange feeling is no longer so noticeable. Gu’an came back to his senses and sighed involuntarily when he saw his friend turn on his phone to take pictures and punch in with familiarity.

 

       The painter revealed that he was over forty years old, but this was the first time in his life that he had an art exhibition. Gu’an looked around, and even he who was not good at art could see the excellence and brilliance of the works inside. The content of this exhibition was mainly about landscapes. The painter’s use of colour was realistic and even sombre as if everything is shrouded in this gloomy weather, which makes the atmosphere of the exhibition quiet and gloomy.

 

       Gu’an thought of the exhibition board calling him an  ‘artist on a cloudy day’, and then thought of his long bout of depression, and couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow.

 

       The art exhibition should be very reputable, and there were many visitors around. He walked along with the crowd and got separated from his best friend. He had to wait for him at the entrance for a while, Gu’an thought helplessly.

 

       As he rounded a corner, he suddenly found that there were very few people at this corner, and he planned to take a breath there. Here, there was also a painting hung on the exhibition board, but it was very out of place with all the previous works, and even the painting skill was very different.

 

       —It was actually a cartoon painting of a young boy playing basketball under the sun. It looked like it was painted very carefully. Unlike all the gloomy works he had seen before, the whole painting style of this painting was very bright and cheerful. It was even somewhat childish and amusing.

 

       However, Gu’an felt that familiar sad feeling come back to him. He couldn’t help but look away and found that in addition to him, there was another tall and slender man standing in front of him. He also stood in front of the painting and looked steadily, his expression was calm, even solemn—even if he was facing such a painting.

 

       “Ah, Gu’an, you are here?” The best friend came up from behind and chattered continuously, “I was looking for you. Why did you disappear after taking a picture? Hey, why are you looking at this…how can this be hung up too? I feel like I can draw it too… No, even you can draw it, hahaha.”

 

       “Shh!” Gu’an rolled his eyes as he resumed pondering the painting in detail at his best friend’s comment. Every line, every colour… it seemed a little familiar, and he felt like he could actually draw something like that—not that he was bragging.

 

       The men had left at some point, and only he and his best friend were left in this area. He always felt uncomfortable in this exhibition, so he whispered to his best friend, “Why don’t we go? …My mum’s going to say something about me again if I’m getting home late.”

 

       “Hahaha, then I’ll come with you. Your mother won’t say anything about you if I go to your house to eat dinner.” The best friend naturally put his arms around Gu’an’s shoulders and laughed wickedly.

 

       Gu’an simply couldn’t do anything about him, so he said helplessly, “Mmmm, let’s go, let’s go.”

 

       When they left the exhibition, the sky was a cloudless blue sky, and the sun was shining just right. The two quickly forgot the artwork they had seen earlier and hurried into the distance.

 

END

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The author has something to say:
The last part of His Present was also on previous Weibo’s 10,000 fans welfare¹information from Rin: when a Weibo user reached 10k followers, they usually will create some sort of celebration

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Notes:
I supposed that one guy Gu’an met was Ji Qin, but whatever, he’s happy now. That’s what matters~
I know this is supposed to be in BE collection but I was surprised too that Youlan’s angst work ended up ‘happily’
If you like this series, rate it on NU here~

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