I rubbed my hands together and said, "Ancestors, everyone must be tired too. Let's go and rest for a bit."
Wang Xizhi said, "Xiao Qiang, you've been drinking all day and you're very thirsty. Find something to soothe your throat."
Now I'm in an even more difficult position. The most accomplished artist I've ever met was a painter from the city's art association, invited to our school's anniversary celebration. He wouldn't drink anything but Xinyang Maojian tea, and in the end, our principal had to send the dean of students to buy it. What should someone of Wang Xizhi's caliber drink?
"Grandpa Wang, we don't sell tea here. Why don't you wait a moment, and I'll take you to a teahouse?"
Wang Xizhi waved his hand and said, "No need, something to quench my thirst is fine."
I rushed to the bar and asked, "What's the best thing to quench your thirst here?"
“Mineral water…” Sun Sixin gave me a strange look.
"No way!" I easily rejected this idea; I couldn't let the masters think I was just going to serve them cold water.
"Then these are all the drinks we have." Sun Sixin brought out a whole bunch of colorful bottles. I grabbed them all and ran back to place them in front of the old men. Yan Liben picked up a bottle of Sprite and examined it, saying, "This can be used for painting." I quickly told him it wasn't paint and helped him open it. Yan Liben took a sip and nodded, offering no further comment.
Bian Que took a sip of the cola and said, "It tastes very strange. Do you know what kind of medicinal herbs are used in it?"
Just kidding, if I had known, I wouldn't be here. The Coca-Cola formula has been a mystery for over 100 years, and some estimate that the formula alone is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
I asked him, "Can you tell the difference?"
Bian Que first shook his head, then said, "There must be some herbs here that I haven't seen before. Given time, it won't be difficult to deduce them."
Well, once he calculates it, adding some carbonation and caffeine should make it pretty close. The old men seemed quite satisfied with their drinks; they were much easier to please than the members of the Municipal Art Association.
After a while, I helped the national treasures into the car, then suddenly remembered something and rushed back to the bar. Sun Sixin was tidying up the table they had just sat on. I grabbed my sleeve and started wiping it haphazardly—wiping away all the works that the famous calligraphers and painters had hastily made with alcohol. I reckon even like that, the table could sell for ten thousand yuan. I asked Sun Sixin, "Those guys didn't leave any notes or anything, did they?"
"No," Sun Sixin noticed that I was rambling a bit.
"That's good..." I ran to the car again. Then I remembered that there were six of them, and Liu Laoliu's mode of transportation was a sidecar motorcycle that I had discarded. So how did they get here? Could it be that the Calabash Brothers were playing out a "seven missing one" version on this motorcycle again?
Liu Gongquan finally explained to me: "Liu Laoliu led the way and hired a car for us."
Oh, they came by taxi. Old Liu is really bold. Isn't he afraid the driver will run away halfway? Kidnapping these six clowns is much more lucrative than kidnapping Gates. As long as they are fed and cared for, their random scribbles can be sold for millions—even if it's just a plea for help.
When the car arrived at the school gate, because the road inside was still being paved, the last leg of the journey had to be walked. A group of people got off the car, and Wu Daozi immediately spotted our school flag. Pointing dramatically at the sky, he exclaimed, "What's that thing hanging there?"
Regarding this school flag, which is often mistaken for a set square, I could confidently say to others that it is abstract art, but under the noses of these guys, I dared not be presumptuous and said shyly, "That is our school flag."
Wu Daozi put one hand above his head, as if a pile of dung was floating in the sky, and kept saying, "Take it down, take it down, aren't you ashamed!"
I immediately did as instructed, pulling on the pulley to lower the flag. Wu Daozi held it in his hand and asked me, "What are you drawing?" Wang Xizhi chimed in from the side, "And the calligraphy is so ugly!"
I honestly pointed and said, "This is a little person, and this is an adult. Because we are a school of both arts and martial arts, this represents the level of not compromising or being afraid in the face of evil forces..."
As an art master, Wu Daozi quickly understood what I meant and said, "The meaning is good, but the painting skills are too poor. The person who painted this must be no more than 10 years old."
Art is universal... it transcends national boundaries and races, and now it seems that the span of time is not a problem either. Wu Daozi truly had keen insight!
Wu Daozi found a flat spot to put the painting down, then sat cross-legged on the ground. He took out a paintbrush and a box of ink from his pocket and murmured, "I really can't bear to see you embarrass yourself every day, so I'll add a few strokes for you."
I leaned forward and said ingratiatingly, "Why don't you just redraw it for me?"
Wu Daozi, without looking up, said, "I don't have time for that." Seeing there was no water nearby, he poured some of the half-empty bottle of cola into the inkwell, ground it a few times, dipped his brush, and carefully sketched around the little figure and on the sun. The print spread across the fabric, instantly adding a touch of landscape, making the two figures appear more three-dimensional. After finishing, Wu Daozi handed the brush to Yan Liben: "As for figures, only Master Yan can do that." I had overheard their casual conversation and mutual praise, and I knew that Yan Liben was most skilled at painting figures, especially expressions.
Yan Liben smiled and said, "No need to call me 'Master' all the time. I'm a few years older than you, so I'll shamelessly call you my virtuous brother."
Wu Daozi was also eager to see Yan Liben in person, so he handed the paintbrush forward and said, "Brother Yan, please."
Yan Liben didn't take the pen. Instead, he stretched out his right hand, dipped his little finger in the ink, and smeared it on the faces of the two figures in the flag. Then he rubbed his hands together and said, "Hehe, mission accomplished."
Looking again at the two figures in the painting, one glaring angrily, the other exuding an imposing aura, their forms and spirits leaping vividly from the paper. Wu Daozi held the canvas, gazing at it intently, repeatedly exclaiming, "Wonderful, wonderful indeed..." Yan Liben smiled and said, "Brother Wu, aren't these strokes also masterpieces of divine inspiration?"
Wang Xizhi took the canvas, picked up a brush, and said, "The painting is finished, but the calligraphy is really ugly. I am not talented, but I will take the liberty of correcting it for you."
I muttered to myself, "That's an original work by Li Bai..."
Upon hearing this, Wu Daozi chuckled and said, "It was written by Xiaobai, no wonder it's so elegant. Don't worry, I'm an old acquaintance of his. Just say that I was the one who suggested the changes, and he won't blame you. Besides, to receive a piece of calligraphy from Brother Wang Xizhi is an honor beyond measure."
Later I learned that Wu Daozi not only knew Li Bai, but was also 20 years older than him. No wonder he dared to call the Poet Immortal "Little Bai"...
Wang Xizhi, brush in hand, smiled as he began to revise Li Bai's original calligraphy. Because the canvas was limited, there wasn't enough space to rewrite, and besides, it didn't look right. We are Yucai School of Arts and Martial Arts, not Yuyucai School of Arts and Martial Arts… Even the largest campus shouldn't have an echoing name.
So Wang Xizhi simply widened the edges of the original characters, making each one look as if it had been rewritten. The great Wang seemed to be enjoying his wine and was in a good mood. With a few casual strokes, he first connected the characters for "亡月" (Wang Yue), restoring our school to its original name. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he outlined the characters for "才文" (Cai Wen). Looking at the three characters for "育才文" (Yu Cai Wen)—I can't tell if they're good or bad, but at least they look perfectly natural. Wang Xizhi couldn't help but say, "Hmm, these three characters today are even more satisfying than the 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion'." Just as he was about to trace the next characters, he saw Liu Gongquan eagerly trying his hand at it, so he handed him the brush: "The rest I'll leave to Brother Liu."
Liu Gongquan nodded without a word, picked up his brush and began to write. It seemed he had been preparing himself emotionally for a long time, and thus, the three characters "武学校" (Martial Arts School) were reborn under his pen. Only now do I recall the saying "Yan's sinews and Liu's bones," a phrase I only knew referred to two people with excellent calligraphy, but I'd never inquired about their names. It seems "Liu's bones" most likely refers to Liu Gongquan. The last three characters, written by him, were exceptionally vigorous; even I, a layman, found them fascinating, especially the character "武" (Martial Arts), which exuded a powerful, imposing presence.
After the four old men finished demonstrating their unique skills, they smiled at each other and then said to me in unison, "Let's hang it up and take a look."
By then, I had carefully folded the school flag face down and tucked it into my pocket...
Under their watchful eyes, I had no choice but to reluctantly raise the flag again. Our flag fluttered in the wind, and within it, two figures were locked in a fierce battle, the most intriguing aspect being that their evenly matched pose somehow allowed one to subtly sense the spirit of determination emanating from the little figure. The lifelike depiction surpassed even 3D animation; from a distance, it looked as if two real people were hanging on a pole—quite terrifying. As for the inscription beside it, laymen won't comment, but even though we later used replicas, our school flag continued to be stolen repeatedly. We caught quite a few of these sophisticated thieves, but we couldn't punish them directly because they were all people who frequently appeared on television. In the end, we had no choice but to add many well-known figures from the art and calligraphy associations in the city to our school's unwelcome list…
Chapter Eight: The Brush Washing Pool
The old men admired the flag for a while and were quite satisfied. Wu Daozi said regretfully, "It's a pity Li Bai isn't here. If he had composed a poem on the spot, wouldn't that have been a timeless tale?"
I said, "I'll bring him back whenever I have time. He's with Du Fu now." After Old Zhang moved back home, Li Bai simply followed him there too, and the two old men are now inseparable.
I led a group of masters to the old campus, and on the way, we paid our respects to the old master Su Wu. Lord Su was quite satisfied with his self-imposed exile. He wore an old cotton-padded coat, held his stick tightly in his hand, set up a pot at the door of his small house, and went to the canteen every day to pick some vegetables to cook for himself. He was quite content with his life.
With the heroes gone to Singapore for the competition, the old campus is now practically deserted. I demonstrated some common sense in front of everyone, then found Xu Delong and told the masters to ask him if they had any questions in the future. As a military officer, Xu Delong simply showed the proper respect to the luminaries of the previous dynasty. As for the old men, they had no idea what the so-called Yue Family Army was and only nodded to him.
This is one of the biggest problems that we at Yucai School will face now and in the future. Apart from Qin Hui, the people who come here are all heroes, famous figures, uprising leaders, and outstanding individuals from various generations. I think they should all cherish each other and get along harmoniously, but currently they lack basic understanding of one another, especially the older generation towards the younger. Secondly, I have to teach each newcomer basic life skills and answer all sorts of strange questions. I've explained bicycles and light bulbs no less than 20 times, which is exhausting.