Master Benedict patted his chest and swore his fealty to Maximilian. Then he looked at Maximilian with flattery, “I heard you have developed an interest in jade and antiques, and there’s a jade exhibition tomorrow. Will you pay a visit to it?”
“Jade exhibition? Why would I see it? Their price will be far more than their real value once they are put into the market. There’s no point in buying them.” Maximilian said while shaking his head.
“But this one’s different. All of the jades are natural. They are mainly Hotan Jade, and others on display are Qingtian Stone, Balin Stone, etc. It’s said there are many kinds of primary ores.”
“Primary ores? Well, I guess I can go there tomorrow.” Maximilian was convinced.
The villa was quite big, but was lack of matching decorations, so Maximilian thought it would be better if he could buy some rough stones and carve them himself. Hence, the stones can be shaped according to his preferences, and he could choose the best material.
The materials in the market were not the best in Maximilian’s eyes and the prices were rather high. So Maximilian decided to do it himself.
After having settled the time with Benedict, Maximilian sent him away.
When the dusk fell, the Griffiths had all recovered to themselves. Maximilian left with Marcus after Samuel and Darian complimented him.
Marcus was silent all the time. He didn’t dare to say a word in front of Maximilian, as he was so afraid of him now.
After he sent them off, Maximilian told others that he was going to a jade exhibition.
Marcus wanted to go with Maximilian after he heard it. Victoria pondered for a moment and felt she should go with them. Flora was interested in it to.
After they all agreed to go to that exhibition, they started talking about it.
The jade exhibition would be held in the International Exhibition Center in H City. Not only Houtan Jade and the Four Famous Stones would be exhibited, other newly emerged raw stones would be displayed as well.
The Four Famous Stones were Shoushan Stone, Balin Stone, Changhua Stone and Qingtian Stone, all of which were popular because they were good materials for sculpting and printing. In recent years, some qualified materials were even refined to make stamps.
However, after so many years’ exploiting, the output of the mining fields became less and less, and their price went up year by year.
The price of some stones even went up to millions of dollars.
Due to the price surge, substitutions emerged. Badusapun and Lao Stone, for instance, were the good substitutions of them.
Gradually, they were accepted by the market and their price became higher and higher. Once a dozen bucks could a square of them, but now the price had increased to hundreds and thousands of dollars a square.
“This little lad, what did you just say? I took it an offense to out art. It’s something we write with our souls and it should not be judged by someone who knew nothing about art.”
“Do you know anything about art or calligraphy? We write with our life experiences to express our feelings. It’s not something you can understand at this age. When you grow old, you might be able to catch a small trace of essence of it.”
“We don’t write words in an ugly way. You just call it ugly. Besides, our handwriting is way better than the ancient masters. Their time has passed and the future is ours.” The middle-aged artists said, as if their art had been acknowledged worldwide.
Maximilian and his fellows were all impressed by their narcissism. They had never met someone who was so shameless.
Canaan stepped forward and looked at them with disdain. “Don’t insult yourself. You are nothing, compared with the ancient master. I guess your brains must be damaged.”
“Now the youngsters are unreasonable and lack literal education. They barely know a thing about calligraphy!”
“We are invited by the organizers to show our calligraphy, which you can see later. You will definitely be impressed.”
Then they strode towards the Exhibition Center, ignoring Canaan and his group.
Canaan was infuriated. He rolled up his sleeves and bellowed, “If I had clung to calligraphy, I would have been much better than these so-called artists. I’m related to Master Quill. No, I’m still better than them now!”
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