Chapter 197
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Chapter 197 The Painting Falls, the Characters Appear
“What do you mean?” Zhang Xuanqi was immediately very dissatisfied: “You’re driving a Passat, you peasant, and you dare say this isn’t authentic? So many experts have confirmed it, what more do you want?”
Су Rui shook his head: “I didn’t say it’s not authentic, I was just stating a premise. If you insist on thinking that way, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Fine, come up and look, let’s see if you’re really an expert!” Zhang Xuanqi sneered: “Let’s be clear, if it’s authentic, you must buy it for 100 million!”
“Of course.”
“I hope we won’t be laughing at you later! For a peasant to pretend like this, you’re truly one of a kind, a combat peasant!”
Su Rui couldn’t be bothered to give him another glance and walked straight onto the stage. If he was a combat peasant, then Zhang Xuanqi must be a combat idiot.
Looking at the painting, Su Rui’s expression gradually became serious.
Those lotus flowers looked so lifelike, as if they had come to life.
Were these lotus flowers that had traveled through time?
Su Rui wanted to reach out and gently touch the painting, but was stopped by Zhang Xuanqi.
“Peasant, if you dirty my painting, can you afford to compensate me?”
Su Rui glanced at him and continued to focus his attention on the artwork.
However, his eyes no longer saw the lotus flowers, but instead changing winds and clouds, with smoke rising everywhere.
Watching Su Rui’s focused expression, Gu Wan’er’s long eyelashes fluttered a few times.
One minute, two minutes… after a full five minutes, Su Rui was still staring at the painting without looking up.
“Look, if you don’t understand, don’t pretend to be a big shot here. Everyone present is an expert, and if you want to pretend, at least make it convincing,” Zhang Xuanqi said impatiently.
Su Rui looked up and said softly: “This painting is fake.”
This painting is fake!
Though spoken softly, the words were like a bomb dropped into a calm lake, causing huge waves!
The director’s eyes practically glowed green, and he clenched his fist, whispering: “Well done!”
For the director, ratings were most important, and now this appraisal show had such dramatic twists and turns that it rivaled any novel. If broadcast, the ratings would surely explode!
Fake?
Upon hearing Su Rui’s words, Gu Wan’er immediately showed a puzzled expression. She had studied Wu Daozi’s paintings for years and shouldn’t make such mistakes. Was Su Rui just pretending?
The experts all wore contemptuous expressions, clearly seeing Su Rui’s words as a challenge to their authority. On one side was a young man in his twenties, on the other were several famous old experts in China. Who was right and who was wrong? Anyone could tell just by looking at their ages!
“You just don’t want to pay that 100 million, right? Why disgrace yourself like this?” Zhang Xuanqi’s face was full of mockery.
“Indeed, young man, are you questioning the judgment of us old folks?” an elderly expert said very unhappily. “We’ve been studying these things for decades! Probably longer than you’ve been alive!”
Su Rui looked at him and coldly replied: “Sometimes, being older doesn’t necessarily mean having more insight, and being young doesn’t mean being ignorant.”
The old expert immediately became angry: “Who are you calling ignorant?”
“I didn’t call anyone ignorant, unless someone with a guilty conscience thinks so,” Su Rui shook his head. “Actually, there’s no need to get angry. With antiques, everyone makes mistakes sometimes.”
“Are you plainly saying that our entire expert panel collectively made a mistake?” The old expert was good at stirring up resentment, bringing the whole expert team into it, and angrily asked, “What if you’re the one who’s mistaken?”
“I won’t be mistaken,” Su Rui stared at the “Hundred Lotus Painting” and said very seriously.
“Hmph! Such arrogance!” The old expert waved his sleeve, preparing to leave!
But at this moment, Su Rui took a bottle of mineral water from the table and, in front of everyone, poured the entire bottle onto the “Hundred Lotus Painting” worth 70 million!
Seeing this crazy action, the entire audience was stunned!
Zhang Xuanqi was also stunned for a moment, then almost screamed hysterically: “Do you know what you’re doing? You’ve ruined my painting!”
Su Rui expressionlessly tossed the empty water bottle aside, watching as the painting was slowly soaked by the purified water!
The experts were also about to go crazy. Who was this idiot who would do such a thing! This authentic work by Wu Daozi was a thousand-year-old antique. If soaked in water, its collection value would be greatly reduced, possibly to less than a tenth of its original value!
Under the soaking of the purified water, the colors on the painting had already begun to blur and become chaotic!
Zhang Xuanqi cried out in pain: “My painting, my painting! 100 million, you owe me 100 million!”
Su Rui coldly smiled: “I said it’s fake, so it must be fake, just a very good imitation.”
“Bullshit, you’re talking bullshit!” Zhang Xuanqi could only howl in pain. Looking at the water-soaked painting, he didn’t dare touch it, fearing the rice paper would be completely ruined by the water!
As the purified water gradually soaked the painting, the lotus flowers on the “Hundred Lotus Painting” began to fade, with colors mixing together, clearly losing all value!
Seeing this, Zhang Xuanqi’s heart was bleeding! 80 million, 80 million just gone like that!
Gu Wan’er wasn’t feeling good either, and her confidence in Su Rui began to waver. For people like them who loved antiques, such behavior was truly sacrilegious! What was this man thinking? Was he insane?
But at this moment, something unusual began to happen!
After those lotus flowers gradually faded, some characters that had never appeared on this painting began to slowly emerge!
The old experts forgot their anger and hurried over to look, becoming more shocked the more they saw!
“Haha, I bet you couldn’t tell this is a forgery, just a casual imitation I made. I guess you couldn’t see these characters, and I don’t have the bad habit of not signing my paintings, so I had to leave my name on this painting!”
Below was a line of bold, flowing characters!
“Year of Wu Yin, written by Zhou Xianwei!”
The meaning of these characters couldn’t be clearer—a person named Zhou Xianwei painted this picture in the Year of Wu Yin!
Regardless of how well the painting was done, these characters alone would qualify for the ranks of top calligraphers!
Seeing the words that appeared on the paper, the old experts fell silent!
They hadn’t expected that, as Su Rui said, this painting was completely fake!
And not only was it fake, but the person who painted it had arrogantly left his name in special ink on the back!
Through these characters, they could almost see the arrogant face of the original artist!
“Wait!” an old expert suddenly said: “The Year of Wu Yin, wasn’t that the year before last?”
Indeed it was!
These so-called experts had actually identified a replica made three years ago as a super antique with over 1,500 years of history! This was like slapping them in the face repeatedly!
Immediately, these old experts all felt their faces burning with shame!
Through this painting, they seemed to see the forger’s mocking and smug cold smile between the lines!
The entire scene immediately fell into extreme awkwardness! Perhaps the only one still excited was the show’s director!
Gu Wan’er looked at Su Rui in disbelief. She really couldn’t understand how, when so many experts firmly believed this was Wu Daozi’s authentic work, this excessively young man could distinguish that it was fake?
He definitely wasn’t guessing, but was very confident, otherwise he wouldn’t have had the courage to risk ruining a painting by pouring water on it!
Gu Wan’er found it incomprehensible, but there were still too many things in this world beyond the imagination of this daughter from an antique-dealing family.
In terms of painting skill, this forger had reached the pinnacle. Even if Wu Daozi came back to life, he probably couldn’t tell whether this was his own work or not! Such a person, if not imitating others, would certainly have a place in the painting world!
If she hadn’t never heard of this “Zhou Xianwei,” Gu Wan’er would even suspect that this was a masterpiece deliberately created by a famous master as a prank!
Zhang Xuanqi’s face turned extremely ugly. He wasn’t a fool and could naturally distinguish the authenticity of this painting. However, his focus wasn’t on the appraisal result of this painting!
If Su Rui hadn’t stood up, if he hadn’t poured that bottle of mineral water onto the painting, then what he had in his hands would still be considered Wu Daozi’s authentic work, and could still fetch a sky-high price!
But he had stood up and pointed out that this painting was a forgery, which not only cost Zhang Xuanqi 80 million but also made him lose face! This was a TV show, and that damn director would never cut this part out. Once the show aired, he would become the laughingstock of all of Ninghai and even the whole country!
“Damn bastard!” Zhang Xuanqi looked at Su Rui with venomous eyes, wishing he could flay him alive!
The old experts lowered their heads in shame. In terms of the ability to identify Wu Daozi’s authentic works, they were still far behind this young man! Thinking of their earlier boastful words, the feeling of being slapped in the face was not pleasant.
The scene had completely lost control, and the audience was in an uproar, each craning their necks to see the characters on the painting clearly. Today’s show was truly too exciting, even more thrilling than watching magic. They almost suspected this was a pre-arranged plot!
Su Rui didn’t seem to have any intention of mocking the experts. He was still staring at the characters on the painting, his expression very complex, with a smile in his eyes, but also a hint of bitterness in that smile!
If Zhou Anke, the financial deputy director of Bikang Group, were here, he would certainly recognize that all the characters appearing on the painting were in Liantang style!
“Bastard, I knew you weren’t dead,” Su Rui said softly.
