Chapter 1991: Chapter 1951: Can’t Understand It

There are a lot of famous traditional Chinese painters in the Capital City, including professional appraisers, various collectors of antiques and famous paintings, as well as painters themselves.

After all, the Capital City is right under the Son of Heaven’s feet, full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, talents everywhere. This type of literary person is really not in short supply. This elder of the Cao Family made a phone call and invited two celebrity painters over to appraise the works.

Those two celebrities, after learning that the Cao Family’s Third Great-Grandfather’s birthday had brought in quite a few famous paintings, also wanted to come have a look.

By the time Ye Qiu and the four women including Cao Ling went inside, it was afternoon, and there were even more guests here to celebrate. Of course, there were more activities arranged for the afternoon as well.

Ye Qiu and Cao Ling and the others found seats and sat down, tasting dim sum, drinking tea, and watching the acrobatic performers the Cao Family had invited put on their show.

Young Master Zhou looked at Ye Qiu and smiled. "Doctor Ye, we just got some news this afternoon."

"What news?"

"It’s about that rumor of the Ye Family’s Eldest Young Master being sick. Turns out he really is sick, but it’s not AIDS. It’s some other illness, and it looks quite serious."

"Oh."

Ye Qiu only let out an "oh," looking like he didn’t really care.

These rich kids of the Capital City like Young Master Zhou, within this circle, as soon as anything happens to any of the Capital City rich second generation, they’ll definitely hear the news very quickly.

Ye Feng was being treated over at Xiehe Hospital. Even though it was done very secretly, in reality the news still got spread out by other people.

Severe body odor and bad breath—those don’t really count for much.

But in the morning, the word got out that he had AIDS.

For a while, a lot of people in the Capital City were shocked. The Ye Family’s Eldest Young Master, who usually wasn’t that into playing around with women, actually had AIDS?

Not only would Ye Feng himself be on edge, all the women who had had contact with him were probably nervous too.

But by the afternoon, it was found out that Ye Feng didn’t actually have AIDS.

However, he really did have quite a few other STDs.

Like syphilis and so on—those had already come out in the tests, showing positive.

He has syphilis?

How is that possible?

Ye Feng refused to believe it, certain that the attending doctor at Xiehe Hospital must have messed up his test.

But very soon there was more news: from the scans and all that, it seemed Ye Feng might have cancer.

Cancer?

Ye Feng was even more unwilling to believe that. He had two physicals every year, and his body had always been in great shape. How could he have some kind of cancer?

But from the scans the doctors at Xiehe took—in fact, from the results they got last night—they had already discovered that in several parts of Ye Feng’s internal organs, the images were somewhat different from those of a normal person.

However, they couldn’t confirm yet if there was a mistake, so when they followed up with the blood tests, they found that it was very likely there really was a problem.

As Young Master Zhou talked about Ye Feng’s situation, Ye Qiu just sat there listening, still looking the same as ever.

"How can this Ye Feng be so unlucky, getting all these illnesses at once?" Cao Long asked in disbelief.

"When someone’s unlucky, even drinking water goes wrong. Who knows?"

Ye Qiu said.

And the two Cao Family elders had called over two famous Capital City painters who were also masters at appraising traditional paintings: Han Yu and Li Shiping. The two of them were professors at the Capital City Academy of Fine Arts.

"Professor Han, Professor Li, for Third Great-Grandfather’s birthday, many guests sent in famous paintings. Please take a look and estimate what they’re roughly worth, since they’ll have to be returned someday."

These gifts weren’t something the Cao Family could just accept and be done with. Later on, they’d have to send gifts of equivalent value back to those people who had given them.

That’s what "courtesy demands reciprocity" means.

Either you accept or you don’t. If you don’t accept, then you reject everything. If you accept, then you accept everything.

Right now, the two Cao Family elders in charge brought the two professors into a room where all the received paintings were kept.

"Professor Han, Professor Li, please take a look. They’re all here."

"Didn’t expect Third Great-Grandfather Cao to receive so many gifts for his big birthday celebration!"

"Of course. It was supposed to be a funeral, but it turned into a happy occasion, so people sent a lot of gifts. You could say this is a major joyous event for the Cao Family."

Han Yu and Li Shiping opened the first traditional painting. It was by a modern painter who had a certain level of fame. This painting was probably worth around eight to nine hundred thousand.

Of course, that’s based on current collectibles prices.

"Master Cao, this painting is worth around eight to nine hundred thousand. Of course, it should appreciate and become more expensive in the future."

Gold in troubled times, collectibles in prosperous times.

This is the same all over the world. Right now, Huaxia is in a prosperous age, and the prices of these collectibles really are going up year by year.

It might even double by next year.

The fact that he said that meant this painting really was an authentic piece.

If it were a fake, that would be awkward.

Of course, even if the guest had given the gift, that guest themselves might very well not know it was a fake.

In that case, the recipient wouldn’t know what to say either. At most, they’d send the painting back to the other party later.

Han Yu and Li Shiping went through the paintings one by one, appraising as they looked. Among these traditional paintings and calligraphy pieces, there were a total of fifteen, and they all looked pretty good.

They were all in the range of a few hundred thousand to one or two million.

"Professor Li, Professor Han, these last three were delivered by Doctor Ye this afternoon. We looked, but we really couldn’t figure these three out."

Who was this Doctor Ye?

The two of them naturally had no idea.

But that Cao Family elder said, "He’s the very Doctor Ye who treated Third Great-Grandfather and saved his life."

So it was this Doctor Ye who cured Third Great-Grandfather’s illness?

Then this Doctor Ye’s Medical Skills were insanely good.

As the two of them looked at the first Shoushan Fuhai Painting, they first studied the mounting. It was in the Capital City mounting style. Then they looked at the content of the painting itself.

The two of them were surprised. Judging from the brushwork, this painting was definitely at the level of a master.

But there was only the painting, a poem, and a date. There was no signature, no seals.

All these years, this was the first time they had ever seen such a painting.

Of course, if it were a fake, in order to make it look real, those forgers would absolutely not forget to add seals and so on.

But here there weren’t any seals at all, and no one knew who had actually created it.

The brushwork looked like it was a recent work?

Yet the two of them had studied the works of essentially all known painters. Everyone had their own style, and had already been recognized by the market.

They hadn’t expected that when they looked at this traditional painting, they really couldn’t make sense of it.

The painting was excellent, and the poem was excellent.

But they just couldn’t figure out whose work this came from.

Han Yu and Li Shiping pondered as they looked. Then they looked at the second traditional painting, the Pine and Crane Painting, and it was the same situation.

As for the third traditional painting, the content written on it was, in fact, little ghosts offering birthday congratulations.

The moment they saw this painting, the two of them were so shocked they almost couldn’t speak.

Because it was somewhat similar to a Zhong Kui Longevity Picture.

Zhong Kui catching ghosts is a Huaxia folk custom during the Dragon Boat Festival. In the Jianghuai region, every household hangs a portrait of Zhong Kui to ward off evil and protect the home. In the painting, Zhong Kui is imposing and ferocious, holding a sword and looking sideways, as if about to leap out, embodying the idea of warding off evil spirits. It expresses the beautiful hope of Huaxia’s working people to dispel evil, avoid calamity, and pray for blessings.

If this painting were a Zhong Kui Longevity Picture, then without a doubt, just like the other two paintings, it would fit the occasion perfectly. But right now, the two of them simply couldn’t quite make sense of it.