While the Boeing 777 carrying the three elders was still traversing the skies over the ocean, an excited Xiao Changkun, clutching the portrait Ye Chen had given him, drove the Rolls Royce Cullinan given to him by Fei Kexin and arrived at the downstairs of the Calligraphy and Painting Association.
At this moment, Xiao Changkun’s face was overflowing with confidence, as if he had just won a key victory and was waiting to raise his eyebrows in front of those regular troops.
In the Painting and Calligraphy Association, Xiao Changkun was indeed somewhat unpopular.
Most of the people who mingle here are literati, some of whom have no real talent and are purely affiliated with the society, but at least they know what it means to be “affiliated”.
If you are not a professional and you come here to act as a sidekick and give the professionals more space to pretend to be a professional, you are called “subservient”;
If you don’t have a professional level, and you come here to be the second in command, it’s not enough that you’re a corpse, but you’re also forcing yourself to act like one all day long, that’s not called being subservient, it’s redefining elegance.
The former is the indispensable survival ground for the literati, while the latter is the arch-enemy of the literati.
Xiao Changkun is the arch-enemy who redefines elegance.
He actually knew nothing about antiques and calligraphy, and when he saw others playing, he followed suit, but he played superficially, with little real skill.
Such a person was more or less unqualified to join the Painting and Calligraphy Association as an accompaniment, but he was allowed to climb to the position of executive vice-president step by step, which naturally made many people red-eyed and indignant, so everyone had great opinions about him.
President Pei also knew that Xiao Changkun was a big waterboy, but he did not dare to offend him, after all, Xiao Changkun had great face in front of Master Hong.
However, other people are not like President Pei, who covets Xiao Changkun’s connections, so just because President Pei can put up with Xiao Changkun doesn’t mean others can put up with him.
When Xiao Changkun parked his car and arrived at the entrance of the Painting and Calligraphy Association with his painting in his arms, he heard someone inside saying, “Hey I say, our executive Xiao, he hasn’t got any exhibits that he can show off so far, has he?”
Another person laughed shamefully, “Him? He doesn’t know anything about calligraphy and painting, so how can he get anything good for the exhibition?”
“Exactly!” Another person echoed, “Last time I found a painting by Cai Ze, a painter of the Qing Dynasty in Jinling, and brought it to him for tasting. He said that the painting was not like mountains or water, and that it was not a masterpiece, so I didn’t even bother to pay him any mind.”
The man from before said with a smile, “Our Vice President Xiao is a typical waste of dim sum. If it wasn’t for Chairman Pei, I would have scolded him to his face. If he doesn’t produce anything decent at this exhibition, I will report him and ask for a new executive vice president!”
“That’s right!” Others echoed the sentiment, wanting to join forces and put pressure on Chairman Pei right now.
Xiao Changkun’s face turned blue as he listened from the doorway, and he walked in with an exasperated look on his face as he clutched the picture tube, “All of them are acting like old ladies, whose tongues are they chewing here?”
When they saw him coming, they didn’t take him seriously, and one of them sneered, “Oh, Vice President Xiao, this painting and calligraphy exhibition will start soon, and you, the executive vice president, can’t even produce a decent piece of artwork, that’s not appropriate, is it?”