In China.
At Zhang Ye’s maternal grandma’s house.
Zhang Ye’s parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties, along with his sisters had all gathered together to watch the live broadcast. All of them were getting frantic from watching.
“Aiyo, I’m dying of anxiety!”
“What’s wrong with our brother!”
“Little Ye only brought five grams of tea leaves?”
“It’s over, we’re done for.”
…
At Old Wu’s parents’ courtyard house.
Wu Changhe and Li Qinqin were also watching the livestream.
“This Little Ye, what is he doing!”
“What are you going on about?”
“Since it’s a matter of outdoing the Japanese and Koreans, he should have done more than what he did!”
“It’s just an auction.”
“Just an auction? This is a matter of national pride!”
…
At Central TV.
In the News Channel’s office.
“Has it ended?”
“Not yet.”
“When the results come out, quickly write the draft. We’re waiting to report about it on the news.”
“OK, understood. Hai, Zhang Ye is not contributing to the efforts.”
…
Seoul.
At the venue of the charity banquet.
The auction was coming to an end.
The items for auction from several heavyweight Asian celebrities were slowly revealed!
An Asian S-list celebrity from Korea brought out the original manuscript of the lyrics for his new album to be auctioned off. It was a manuscript that he repeatedly wrote and polished the lyrics to and was an extremely valuable item as there was only one copy of it.
“150,000!”
“200,000!”
“210,000!”
It was auctioned for an astronomical sum!
They reclaimed first place!
Chinese Heavenly Queen Xu Meilan’s auction item was a pair of her own earrings. Just the market value of the earrings alone was $50,000 USD. It received yet another round of crazy bidding.
“160,000!”
“170,000!”
“190,000!”
Unfortunately, it couldn’t cross the $200,000 USD mark.
Xiaodong shouted, “Aiya!”
Amy said, “This is bad!”
Big Qi said, “It was so close!”
The Chinese celebrity team was sighing with regret.
Finally, Ning Lan’s auction item was revealed. However, the auctioned price wasn’t high and it only went for $10,000 USD. The main issue was that the item she had put up for auction was rather boring. Ning Lan’s attitude was similar to Zhang Ye’s. These two people did not have a strong collective sense of honor and were mainly here just to participate.
Li Xiaoxian’s calligraphy was brought out at this moment.
The words were clear and she wrote in a running-standard style.
Huo Dongfang commented on it even though he did not seem to know much about calligraphy. “Good writing.”
Li Xiaoxian blushed. “It was just my attempt at calligraphy.”
Jiang Hanwei smiled and said, “It’s really not bad.”
Big Qi said, “In the future, there’s going to be a great calligrapher in our entertainment industry.”
Li Xiaoxian was getting praised so much that she felt rather embarrassed.
Zhang Ye looked up to take a look. However, he did not say anything and carried on with what he was doing. This running-standard did look rather beautiful at first glance. But in his opinion, it had no soul. All of the words looked lifeless to him. Zhang Ye guessed that this must be because she had been imitating the running-standard of famous ancient Chinese calligraphers. By doing so, she had lost the grace of her own writing. This kind of calligraphy was at most amateurish or slightly better than how an amateur would write, although it was still pretty good.
Quite a few people at the venue knew calligraphy as well.
Over with the Japanese, a man in his 50s gave a look of disdain.
A female Japanese star asked, “Master Miyamoto, how is this calligraphy?”
Miyamoto shook his head. “It’s a bunch of scrap paper.”
A male Japanese star laughed and said, “If it’s compared to your work, wouldn’t all other calligraphy be unacceptable?”
Li Xiaoxian’s calligraphy was auctioned off for $6,000 USD, which was quite a good price.
In the end, they still needed to depend on Zhang Yuanqi.
Zhang Yuanqi’s popularity was at the top, be it within China or in Asia. Old Zhang had put up the same item to be auctioned off as she always did in previous years. It was a bid for a date with her. Whoever bid the highest would get enjoy lunch with her. Further, Old Zhang would be the one treating. The winner could bring however many people they liked and order as many expensive dishes they wanted. This was the standard item Old Zhang put up for auction every year at the Asian Charity Banquet. However, this year, Zhang Yuanqi added on an item for the auction. With the “buy one, get one free” gimmick, she also brought out a calligraphy piece to be included with the lunch date.
The auction item was displayed.
It was calligraphy with only one character: I!
Zhang Yuanqi stood onstage and said with a smile, “Everyone, please don’t laugh at me.”
Endless applause came from the audience.
Li Xiaoxian said in surprise, “Sister Zhang knows calligraphy too?”
Amy said, “What an imposing word!”
Big Qi said, “Great! It’s great!”
Zhang Ye also found it quite surprising. The calligraphy was indeed pretty good, or at least much better than Li Xiaoxian’s writing. It was at the level of a professional calligrapher. Heh, Old Zhang, not bad!
Getting to dine with her?
And to have her treat?
And even get a calligraphy piece from her?
This was as good as buy one, get three free!
Quite a few people were showing great interest in the item!
A Japanese businessman shouted, “100,000!”
A Chinese businessman shouted, “150,000!”
Another Chinese businessman shouted, “180,000!”
A Korean CEO shouted, “200,000!”
Finally, Qian Haitao made his move.
The richest man in China raised his paddle and calmly said, “300,000.”
The venue burst into an uproar!
“Wow!”
“It’s higher than last year’s bid by $100,000 USD?”
“How generous!”
“This is the highest bid of the night!”
“The richest man indeed!”
The Chinese businesspeople looked at one another and put down their paddles, all smiles. There was no need to keep bidding.
The Japanese and Korean CEOs hesitated for a bit before falling silent.
The host dropped the hammer.
$300,000 USD! The Chinese celebrity team reclaimed first place!
Xiaodong applauded. “Sister Zhang, impressive!”
Amy said, “We still have to depend on Sister Zhang in critical moments!”
Huo Dongfang smiled and said, “We’re definitely going to win!”
Ning Lan laughed and said, “Sister Zhang was even forced to bring out calligraphy of her own. If we still don’t get the top honors, that would be unjustifiable.”
Big Qi cheered. “Yes, the Koreans don’t have any other celebrities left to front their auction items. $300,000 USD, that’s almost 2 million RMB. At last year’s charity auction, the highest hammer price was $240,000 USD. Unless some spendthrift stepped forward to bid for the remaining items, it’s really difficult to catch up to us.”
At the Korean celebrity teams’ tables.
Lee Anson was shaking his head.
The others started smiling bitterly knowing that there was nothing left to compete for.
Those on the Japanese celebrity team were also looking at one another. There was nothing else they could do.
But it was at this moment that a voice rang out!
Miyamoto stood up dismissively and said, “Can you even call that calligraphy?”
The crowd was stunned. Everyone turned to look at him.
When the camera cut to him, countless people all over Asia who were watching the live broadcast were slightly taken aback.
“Who is this person?”
“I don’t know.”
“I know him! That’s a Japanese calligraphy master!”
“Ah? That’s Miyamoto?”
“Yes, it’s him! He just won an Asian gold award for calligraphy!”
“One of the world’s best calligraphers? Miyamoto Shinshou?”
“Damn, he’s a calligraphy master!”
“Why is he also here this year?”
The people at the venue were pointing and whispers could be heard.
Somebody popped up and poked his nose in, and no one was prepared for it. Zhang Yuanqi and Li Xiaoxian’s calligraphy were not good enough? Of course it was not good enough. They were not professionals, after all. This was a charity auction where everyone would contribute to the cause and have fun. If you really wanted to nitpick their work, then more than half of the items put up for auction tonight would have to get taken out to the dumpster. This auction was mainly to raise funds and not a place to compare professionalism.
Zhang Ye narrowed his eyes. “Who is this bastard?”
Li Xiaoxian recognized him and immediately introduced him to everyone. “This is a true calligraphy master. Sister Zhang and my work definitely lack luster in his presence….”
Amy cried out, “But he still shouldn’t undermine the efforts of others in this way!”
Jiang Hanwei was also slightly angered. “It’s live, what is he thinking?”
But Miyamoto Shinshou was unrelenting. It was like he had sand in his eyes that he could not rub out. He walked onto the stage and said, “Can we add another item to the auction?”
The interpreter also walked on to communicate with the host.
The Korean host smiled. “Of course you may. The auction has not ended yet.”
Shinsho Miyamoto said with a straight face, “Alright, I don’t have anything with me today, so let me make a calligraphy piece on the spot. I’ll show everyone what calligraphy is all about and also do my part for charity!”
“What?”
“Make a calligraphy piece on the spot?”
“This’ll be interesting.”
“We’re in for a good show.”
Many people were waiting to watch the spectacle.
The Korean celebrity team was delighted by this turn of events.
The Japanese celebrity team members were also getting excited!
The organizers held an emergency discussion, and soon, the Four Treasures of the Study were brought onstage.
Everyone turned their attention to the stage.
The cameras also focused on the table on it.
Calligraphy existed in Japan and Korea as well and was spread by China. But even so, some differences existed between the calligraphy of each country. For example, in Japan, they focused on improving their writing techniques until it reached the “Dao” of the skill. Their calligraphy was generally split between two styles, with one being regular script that pursued a powerful execution in writing, and the other being cursive that pursued elegance and Zen. This was in line with the sentimentality ingrained in the Japanese people.
Grinding the inkstone.
Picking up the brush.
Miyamoto Shinshou began writing with no emotions on his face!
There were similarities between both the Japanese Kanji and Chinese characters, with the former looking much more like traditional Chinese. However, there were also slight differences, although it was still generally understandable when read. The content of the writing did not carry too great of a meaning. It was nothing more than describing X person, doing X activity, in X year. It might have been a famous story that happened in ancient Japan and described in detail, but that was not the focus. It was something other than this ancient story!
It was the words!
When Miyamoto Shinshou put the brush to paper and started writing, voices of praise sounded around the venue!
“Great artistry!”
“This is what real calligraphy is!”
“Now that’s a true master!”
“His writing flows so naturally! This is what art truly is!”
“Hai, calligraphy done by a master is just different. Just watching him move the brush is a sight to behold.”
“The gulf between a pro and an amateur is enormous.”
“The Chinese stars’ calligraphy pieces can’t even be considered amateur works.”
“Nothing stands up well to comparison!”