Cinderella Innocent and Boss Charming - Chapter 212

Chapter 212 I Believe in You
The painting exhibition was held on schedule. Du Xiaoxian was a little bit nervous. With some worries inside, she didn’t sleep well last night but got up early in the morning. She selected a slightly mature dress on purpose. Then, she went out to buy breakfast. When she came back, Du Huayue had just got up. He especially asked for a leave today in order to back her up.

Before nine o’clock, they had arrived at the gallery. They planned to help with some preparations. But in fact, everything was ready and there was nothing that needed them to help.

Zhou Xuan called them to the office to have some tea. He liked the art of tea and had a set of exquisite tea table made of tree root, carved with blooming plums. The details of the tree branches were clear and even the veins of its leaves were legible. The table had been used for a long time that one could even find its thick enameled patina. The table was as gentle as a piece of jade with a very good touch. Even Du Xiaoxian, who knew nothing about the art of tea, kept praising the table’s artwork, “This is really beautiful.”

“This is called tea table. It was handed down from my family ancestors. I only know that my grandfather used it to make tea and then it was passed on to my father. Now it’s mine.” Zhou Xuan was somewhat proud. “A collector once wanted to buy it with a large sum of money. I refused his offer because I’m not willing to give it away. A family heirloom cannot be easily sold like this.”

He Sen smiled, “That means you are not satisfied with the price the collector has offered. If the collector decided to pay more, I’m afraid that you’ll hesitate.”

“I’ll never sell this table to him unless he could pay me a sky-high price.” Zhou Xuan said, “If my father knew I had sold it, he must impose a severe punishment over me. Our family can be regarded as an artistic noble family, doing art-related businesses. So we’re more or less lofty. Only I’m a bit more worldly.”

As he spoke, the water started boiling. He Sen made the tea, shook the cup, and poured the tea water into the hidden duct under the tea table. Du Xiaoxian became a little bit curious upon seeing it, “Why do you pour it off?”

He Sen explained, “This is a step of tea making, called washing tea. People could only drink the second cup of tea.”

Du Huayue said, “You people living in the city are really exquisite that you even washed such good tea leaves.”

“It’s not because the tea is dirty, but because the first cup of tea is always having a strong flavor and doesn’t have any good taste. That’s why we don’t want it.”

“In my hometown, tea is expensive. So people would only put few tea leaves into the teapot. It’s already good enough to have some faint tea flavor and few people could drink a mouthful of strong flavored tea. But you city dwellers are doing it in the exact opposite way. If my mother knew it, she would definitely criticize you for your prodigal behavior!”

His talk made everyone burst into laughter.

Zhou Xuan put the tea into the cups in front of everyone. The tea was golden, bright, and fragrant. When Du Xiaoxian raised the teacup and was about to drink, she found that He Shen wasn’t going to drink the tea in a hurry. Instead, He Sen put the teacup under his nose and sniffed it before taking a sip slowly. She was puzzled when Du Huayue said, “Mr. He, is it necessary for you to be so cautious when drinking the tea? Are you afraid that it doesn’t taste good?”

Zhou Xuan laughed loudly, “He is smelling the tea fragrance. This is also another step of tea drinking. He likes to pretend to be elegant. There is no need to learn from him.”

“It’s such a small cup of tea. I drank it without tasting it.” Du Huayue pushed the empty cup forward and said, “Boss Zhou, give me another cup of tea. This time, I will learn from Mr. He to drink and taste it slowly.”

Zhou Xuan served another cup of tea for him. Seeing that Du Xiaoxian’s cup was empty, Zhou Xuan also served her another cup of tea. Du Xiaoxian listened to their talking and laughing but was a little bit absent-minded. She glanced at the clock on the wall from time to time.

The painting exhibition started at 9.30 a.m. It was already 9.40 a.m. And no one ever came in. Du Xiaoxian became uneasy and hesitated a few times before finally saying, “Let’s wait a bit longer. If no one comes in, then let’s just take off those paintings and leave a sound business environment for Boss Zhou.”

“Xiaoxian,” Zhou Xuan waved his hand, “you don’t have to worry. It’s still early. In addition, you are going to become a painter in the future. You should be confident about yourself. Don’t worry. There must be at least a visitor coming in before ten o’clock.”

Even Du Huayue said, “This is merely a beginning. Don’t ever give up. Just like what Boss Zhou has said, be confident in yourself. At least, I believe in you.”

Du Xiaoxian lowered her head and said nothing. She was not confident at all, and she was afraid of getting someone else involved in this trouble. That’s why she couldn’t help but say so. In fact, she knew that she lacked self-confidence.

Seeing that Du Xiaoxian didn’t say anything, He Sen started kidding, “Xiaoxian, Boss Zhang is still counting on your paintings to earn money for him. But before that, you even discouraged yourself first. It really hurts Boss Zhou’s heart!”

“No, I’m rather confident about Xiaoxian.” Zhou Xuan took a sip of tea and said, “I’m even worrying that those paintings will be more popular than my expectations that our supply will fall short of demand!”

Everyone laughed. At this time, a staff came in and said that a visitor had come into the exhibition hall.

The news greatly boosted everyone’s spirit and all of them rushed out to take a look. However, they found that the visitor was in fact Zhou Xuan’s acquaintance. Both of them went upstairs while talking. He Sen pushed Du Xiaoxian forward and said, “Go and say hello as well.”

“I think it’s unnecessary.” Du Xiaoxian was timid and hesitated even though she was pushed forward by He Sen.

“It would also be nice if you could bring the visitor a glass of wine,” said He Sen.

That was acceptable for Xiaoxian. So she went upstairs and looked at the wine tower at the sign-in reception desk on the second floor. The glasses are full of red wine with a sparkling color, shining brightly under the light as if a piece of amethyst crystal.

Du Xiaoxian was quite familiar with tea and water service. That was what she had done in the Gu Family in the past. So she humbly offered a glass of wine. That visitor didn’t care about her and thanked her while taking it over.

When Du Xiaoxian was about to turn away, Zhou Xuan stopped her, “Xiaoxian, let me introduce to you. This is Mr. Chen, who is also engaged in the painting industry. He is an expert in painting appreciation. You are welcomed to learn more from him.”

Before Du Xiaoxian could respond, Zhou Xuan introduced her to Chen Guohua, “This is Miss Du, the central figure of today’s exhibition. She is a very talented new artist with great potential. I’m glad if you could help her more in the days to come.”

Chen Guohua was shocked. He thought that the young girl was merely a waitress, so he didn’t pay much attention to her. He never expected that she was Du Xiaoxian. So he hurriedly stretched out his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Miss Du.”

This was exactly what Du Xiaoxian was afraid of most. She hurriedly reached out her hand as well and said, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Chen.”

Chen Guohua looked at her blushed face and became even more shocked, thinking that this girl was so shy! Moreover, she was quiet and timid, without the slightest bit of an artist’s temperament. Although her paintings were quite interesting, they could not make a great coup in the market. But it was indeed intriguing for Zhou Xuan to be willing to hold a painting exhibition for her!

Although Zhou Xuan and Du Xiaoxian didn’t know each other for long, He Sen did mention Du Xiaoxian in front of Zhou Xuan, so Zhou Xuan knew that Du Xiaoxian would feel uneasy in front of any strangers. Therefore, Zhou Xuan found an excuse to let her go downstairs.

Once Du Xiaoxian had left, Chen Guohua asked, “Zhou Xuan, where did you find such a person? It seems that she’s not reliable enough!”

Zhou Xuan said, “Don’t look at her appearance. Her painting is the most important.”

“Her paintings are interesting, but the vigor of strokes is just among the average.” Chen Guohua commented, “However, she has her unique characteristics of using colors.”

“Paintings nowadays focus on the beauty of personality. Paintings with unique characteristics are always profitable.”

Chen Guohua became a bit skeptical, “I know you’ll never do anything that you are not fully confident about. I don’t know if those paintings could be sold at a satisfactory price. How dare you invest so much in her paintings? What kind of relationship do you have with her?”

“We don’t have any close relationship. One of my friends introduced her to me. After I looked at her works, I found them not bad. That’s why I decided to invest in her painting exhibition. We don’t have any complicated relationship as you have imagined.” Zhou Xuan said with a smile, “Old Chen, you ought to change your skeptical character.”

“Really?” Chen Guohua was still suspicious, believing Zhou Xuan was clever and sophisticated enough that he would never do any non-profitable business. When he had glanced at Du Xiaoxian just now, he found that she was really beautiful. So Chen Guohua was thinking if Zhou Xuan was holding the painting exhibition in order to win the beauty’s favor.

More visitors came one after another. Du Xiaoxian was standing at the sign-in reception desk and offered a glass of wine to each visitor. So people started to believe that she was in fact a waitress here. Occasionally, people would come over and ask her where the smoking area was, or where the toilet was. Someone else even asked her who the painter was. Upon hearing such a question, Du Xiaoxian’s face would turn red and she couldn’t give a clear answer. Her disappointing look made Du Huayue become very anxious aside. So Du Huayue would come over and directly introduce her to everyone else, “This is Du Xiaoxian. She drew all the paintings here.”

However, when hearing this, people would look at her with disbelief and laugh. Then, they walked away.

Du Huayue could no longer bear it and started to complain to her, “Xiaoxian, I beg you to become more confident, okay? No wonder no one would believe me when I told them that you are the painter.”

“Brother Yue, you know I’m very timid.” Du Xiaoxian whispered. When she turned around, she found Mrs. Qin was coming with her son. So she quickly ran over and greeted them, “Mrs. Qin, your visit is really surprising me.”

Little Zhi, Mrs. Qin’s son, was a high school student. Looking at this lively situation, he smiled and said, “I never know that a beautiful painter is living next door to our family. You are really awesome!”

Mrs. Qin glanced at her son and said, “That’s why I take you here today. Xiaoxian and you are at a similar age. Come and see how excellent she is. She could even hold her own painting exhibition here.”

Little Zhi said, “Mayor Wei and you are at a similar age as well. And she is also a woman. But she is already a mayor while you are still a housewife.”

Mrs. Qin was having a complicated feeling. She stared at her son reproachfully and said, “You are really talkative. I’ll thank goodness if you could study hard.”

Du Xiaoxian smiled and said, “Little Zhi is also good enough. I still remember that he got first place in his school’s speech contest.”

“He’s just good at talking and never comes down to the earth.” Mrs. Qin turned to look at the crowd in the exhibition hall and said while pointing at them, “There are quite a lot of people here. Alright, go ahead to take care of your own business. We’ll see around by ourselves.”

Du Xiaoxian wanted to tell Mrs. Qin that she was not busy at all since Zhou Xuan and He Sen were introducing those paintings. She was just doing what she could do and had a lot of free time. But Mrs. Qin had already taken Little Zhi away. So she could only get back to the sign-in reception desk and stayed there. When Du Huayue saw her coming back, he said, “It’s okay to leave me alone here. You can go around and listen to people’s comments and suggestions about your paintings.”

Du Xiaoxian felt that he was right. She was actually afraid of being praised, but she was never afraid of criticism. Praising her would make her feel at loss. However, she would accept all pertinent criticism.

With her hands in her pockets, she silently went through the crowd. As expected, she heard someone say, “These paintings are too childish. The painter is really bold enough to have openly held this exhibition. If I knew it sometime earlier, I wouldn’t come.”

Someone else at a side said, “The reason why you believed those paintings are poor shows that your aesthetic appreciation value needs to be improved. I think those paintings are quite good. Although they are not realistic paintings, the artistic conception is terrific. In particular, the use of colors is really bold and has brought to us great visual impact.”

Another person agreed, “I also feel the same way. Although the painter is not a well-known figure and her paintings are a bit exaggerating, she has unique characteristics. The artistic conception is very good and the price is affordable. I’m quite interested in a small painting. You guys, go and help me review it.”

A group of people left. Du Xiaoxian was standing there with a smile on her face. It was awesome that someone is willing to buy her painting!

After a while, she heard Zhou Xuan’s voice coming from the loudspeaker, “Today, the first painting was sold at 2,888 RMB! Congratulations, Mr. Li Chaoqun!”

Du Xiaoxian was about to scream. How exciting she was to have closed a deal! She was so excited that she wanted to tell Du Huayue. But when she turned around and saw a familiar figure, she became stiff as if someone had tapped her acupoint.