Yunding Ranch

Chapter 285 The Lady Arrives
Lu Li turned his head, looked in the direction of the stairs, and saw a red dress.

The bright red skirt, like a touch of sunset glow in the sky, dances gently, and the dense red is curling up, flamboyant and enthusiastic, bold and sure. Light up the whole space and make the world brighter.

It was a young lady, about 24 or 25 years old. Her long dark brown hair was tied up in a bun, revealing her snow-white and gentle neck, and her sharp jaw line was dyed with a thin layer of The red color vividly outlines the sassy and frankness that does not make the eyebrows unattractive.

"Evelyn, aren't you going to work today? Why are you free?" Anna rushed over like a whirlwind.

Her name is Evelyn, which seems to be a softer name than her personality.Lu Li guessed that maybe her parents expected their children to be more restrained. It seems that she let them down.

"A client asked me to meet at four o'clock in the afternoon. I came out a little early to catch my breath." Evelyn walked briskly and twirled slightly. The skirt bloomed like petals, and she gently hugged Anna After a moment, he sat down at the bar, "A glass of Pimm's, Norman."

Norman nodded, "Immediately." Then he raised his chin and pointed to Lu Li behind him, "Someone is interested in your painting."

"Oh?" Evelyn raised her voice slightly, turned around, looked at Lu Li, and showed a big smile, "Thank you for your appreciation, but this is not for sale."

"Why?" Although Lu Li didn't intend to buy it, he couldn't help but wondered, "Do people always want to buy this painting?"

"No, you're the first." Evelyn shrugged and said neatly, "But I've always wanted to say this, you know, to show off and satisfy my vanity. Now I finally say it I'm so happy to be out. Thank you, you've brightened my day." Evelyn walked up and extended her right hand generously.

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, then a smile rose from the corner of his mouth, and he held Evelyn's right hand, "You're welcome, it's my pleasure."

Evelyn walked to the side of the oil painting and sat down, "Do you really like this painting?"

"No, I'm just curious." Lu Li sat down opposite Evelyn, "If I say, I saw a similar painting, would you believe it?"

"Ha, of course I believe it." Evelyn said without any hesitation, "When the Chrysler Building was just completed, almost every painter joined in the fun and drew a picture of their own Chrysler; even in Europe, many amateurs , can’t afford the boat ticket, they will copy one.”

"It's like Jack Dawson." Lu Li said half-jokingly - Jack from "Titanic".

Evelyn immediately caught the humor of this sentence and laughed, "It's like Jack Dawson."

"So, who painted this painting? Is there any special history?" Lu Li changed the subject.

Anna rushed over in a hurry, put Evelyn's Pimm's on the table, and said loudly, "What do you know? This painting is not for sale. This is Evelyn's own privacy. Why do you want to?" Scouting? Don't you know it's very bad manners in England?"

"Anna?" Evelyn raised her voice and patted Anna's arm. "This is a bar, not a high-end restaurant."

British society, so far, still has a very deep class concept, and the aristocratic consciousness remains deeply in all aspects of life.But the bar, this is the only space where you can ignore class, put down your airs, and communicate with everyone on an equal footing.Even if the queen is here, she will put down her airs and have fun with the people.

Anna glared at Lu Li sullenly, then turned around and sat down at the bar, and didn't continue talking, but Lu Li could tell that her ears stretched out to the elders, and she was eavesdropping on their conversation, like a stubborn same as children.

"My grandfather." Evelyn replied directly without making a fuss, "My grandfather is an art lover, and he is best at oil painting. According to my grandmother, he paints an oil painting at least once a week, even in the It didn’t stop when World War II broke out. This is the last painting he left at home. You can see that he didn’t finish this painting because he was temporarily sent to China. After that, he Never came back again, so this painting has never been completed."

"Your grandfather was also British?" Lu Li asked tentatively.

Evelyn laughed heartily, "No, no, he is German, and I am also German. I just work here."

Lu Li immediately became excited. The Germans were dispatched to China during World War II to paint oil paintings, and the style was so close.Things are finally connecting!

Although, there are still many questions that have not been answered, for example, why this ring was in the hands of Yuan Qingzhu's teacher; for example, why Evelyn's grandfather disappeared... There are still many questions about such details Waiting for confirmation.But if it is said that the creator of this painting is the owner of the ring space, then everything makes sense.

"So, he's an officer?" The answer he's been looking for for a long time seems to be right in front of him, and Lu Li is also a little anxious and a little excited.

Evelyn did not continue to answer, but showed a puzzled look, and looked at Lu Li seriously, "Why are you so curious?"

It was only then that Lu Li noticed his urgency.Whether Evelyn's grandfather was an officer or not had nothing to do with the painting on the wall, obviously he asked too carefully; but Lu Li's thought was that according to rumors, that Degas was stolen from St. Petersburg , if the rumors are true, then the German officer is the best explanation - of course, the army's quartermaster is also a good guess.

Lu Li stepped back slightly to calm himself down, and then said, "Actually, I own a painting, which looks like a complete version of this painting, you know, all the colors and all the lines have been painted. It's done. However, I don't know its creator, and I've always been very curious about the story behind that painting."

"Are you serious?" Evelyn frowned slightly, with a look of disbelief.

Lu Li didn't blame her. After all, the two had just met for less than 5 minutes. Evelyn was willing to say so much, which was considered very hospitable.

"Lying, he must be lying!" Anna yelled again, "He must be a liar! He wants to lie to this painting!"

"Just for this painting?" Evelyn rolled her eyes and complained directly, choking Anna, turned around sullenly, and complained dissatisfiedly, "Anyway, I think he is abnormal, it is simply inexplicable ..."

Lu Li didn't make any excuses, but took out his phone.When he first discovered the ring space, he took photos and asked Marianne about the origin of these paintings, and those photos are still in it.

Of course, he could take the painting out of the ring at any time—he had wanted to hang it in the ranch living room, but kept forgetting, so it was still in his ring.But this is really too shocking, it is better for him to obey the rules.

After searching for a while, Lu Li found the photo and handed it to Evelyn.

"Jesus Christ!" Evelyn exclaimed directly, then zoomed in on the photo, carefully examined the lines on the painting, but then shook her head, "It's really too blurry to see clearly. My god, your photography skills are terrible, what's the matter with this light? The shadows are completely invisible."

"I didn't expect to have such an encounter during this trip to London, so I didn't take pictures from a professional perspective." Lu Li said jokingly.

Evelyn didn't show any shyness at all, she still had a professional expression on her face, handed the phone to Lu Li, and shook her head, "It's not very clear, there is no way to make an accurate judgment."

"Evelyn is the manager of the art gallery, she is an expert in this field!" Anna's voice of explanation sounded from the side, which made Lu Li suddenly understand.

Lu Li took the phone, "So, you can tell that this painting was drawn by your grandfather?"

"If I saw the original painting." Evelyn nodded confidently, "My grandfather was indeed a military officer, a military officer." Evelyn said generously, without hiding the slightest bit.The Germans are always willing to face their history directly, reflect, review, and improve, "He has always been on the battlefield, and the farthest, he has been to Russia. Oh, no, the farthest has been to China. However, in After that, he didn't come back."

"Did you die on the battlefield?" Lu Li didn't remember that Germany joined China's battlefield, but before World War II, Germany was always the main supplier of weapons to China, and would regularly send delegations to China.

Evelyn shook her head and denied Lu Li's guess, "He was arrested and sent to a concentration camp." Lu Li was stunned. He never knew that German military officers would also enter a concentration camp? "The official line is that he shielded the Jews, which was absolutely illegal at the time."

Jew, the first thought in Lu Li's mind was: Albert Cohen, grandma's teacher seems to be a Jew.However, all of this is Lu Li's guess, and even Yuan Qingzhu has no way to confirm it.After all, when Albert passed away, Yuan Qingzhu was still too young to know much information.

"He died in a concentration camp in the end." After Evelyn finished speaking, she was stunned for a moment, as if she was immersed in memories. After a while, she shook her head and shook her messy thoughts out , "When my grandmother passed away, I sorted out their belongings and found the paintings he left behind. His paintings are very messy, there are still lifes, figures, buildings, and imitation paintings, most of which are imitations Those famous paintings."

"Honestly speaking, he is not a good painter. His brushstrokes are too immature. He can only be said to be a lover. But in this Chrysler Building, you can see his use of color and mature lines, even if it It's not finished yet, so I framed this painting." Evelyn shrugged and said in a sigh, "As a souvenir."

(End of this chapter)