Chapter 464

Chapter 464: Draft are also valuable?

Chen Huan wouldn’t sell this after drawing such an artwork.

He also felt reluctant to tear it up like the previous two after seeing the greatness in this artwork.

After some thought, Chen Huan decided to take it with him to school and gift it to his math teacher He Qiang.

He Qiang didn’t know that Chen Huan was actually academically challenged and could only have such a genius mathematical ability thanks to the Good Lord. He even thought that it was his own teaching that led to Chen Huan’s enlightenment.

Right.

He never said that he thought of Chen Huan until he became like that but just showed Chen Huan the path and that every Chen Huan’s success was his own.

No one else believed that and even if He Qiang played a little role, it was already ample for a top student.

So in the latter half of the past year, He Qiang’s long awaited ‘National Special Grade Teacher’ was finally issued to him, which was to encourage and praise his doing.

This made He Qiang feel a bit embarrassed and said to Chen Huan that Chen Huan gave some of his light to him.

Chen Huan liked honest people so he had a lot of respect for He Qiang.

Since it was the Spring Festival and Chen Huan never gifted anything to him, he would gift those calligraphy to him since he happened to have nice ones.

He Qiang didn’t care at first.

He was a mathematical nerd and knew nothing about calligraphy or painting.

Although the hype around calligraphy and painting had been going crazy in recent years, he didn’t have the money or leisure to go care about it.

However, He Qiang was still very happy since it was a gift from Chen Huan and he opened the gift on the table when he went back home and enjoyed it.

His wife was stunned when she saw it, “Chen Huan can write such great calligraphy?”

Although she knew nothing of calligraphy, the words looked powerful and vigorous, very nice to look at so it definitely wasn’t random scribble.

“How would I know? But this kid still has some filial piety.” He Qiang laughed.

In front of his wife, he definitely showed off that he taught some famous masters.

This was indeed what He Qiang was boasting about.

He had a simple and honest personality, he was just bragging a bit to his wife.

Wang Ling was different as in the school and her circles of friends, they all knew that her husband taught Chen Huan math and was awarded a ‘Nation’s Special grade Teacher’.

Although there were many special grade teachers in Lin’an for math, physics, chemistry, Chinese and English, there were not many in each subject.

In particular when this special grade teacher taught a world-class mathematician, which was even more remarkable.

There were countless relatives and friends that begged Wang Ling to add their children in He Qiang’s math class.

There were many children who were about to do their college entrance exams but couldn’t make it to Chen Huan’s tutoring lessons so they wanted He Qiang to open a tutoring class during the holidays to teach them math.

However, He Qiang didn’t agree to it because he wanted to listen to Chen Huan’s class and further his study in mathematics but this decision didn’t affect Wang Ling’s status.

The wives of those extremely wealthy families used to be haughty but now they were polite and flattering when encountering Wang Ling.

After all, who had no children?

Which child didn’t want to have a good teacher, study well and be admitted to a good university?

If they didn’t respect the special grade teachers, who were they going to respect?

Wang Ling, who was in a happier mood recently, looked more beautiful and a lot younger.

“Alright!” Wang Ling suddenly said, “Hurry up and hang the calligraphy on the wall behind the sofa. Later when Old Zhu, Old Chi and Little Qu come, let them see how good your student is!”

“Is that necessary?” He Qiang scratched his head.

The people Wang Ling talked about were all He Qiang’s good friends since he was a child.

The Chinese New Year was almost there and everyone agreed to do a gathering at He Qiang’s house tonight.

Wang Ling naturally wanted to show off so she bypassed He Qiang’s objection and simply went to hang the calligraphy by herself.

When the three old friends came with their families, they did their greetings and other polite words before Little Qu stared at the calligraphy.

“Hey, Brother Qiang, this calligraphy is from who? It looks quite nice!” Little Qu said with a pleased expression.

“It’s for your Brother Qiang’s student Chen Huan who gifted it to him.” Wang Ling waited for this occasion to explain it with a grin, “I saw it was well written so I hung it up on the wall… Old Chi, you’re an expert, come take a look!”

“Oh, it’s Teacher Lu’s work?” Old Chi, an antique enthusiast, walked over with a smile.

He couldn’t look away the moment he glanced at it.

Old Chi’s eyes lit up as looked from the beginning to the end and from up to down.

Taking a closer look, Old Chi suddenly blurted out, “Damn! Isn’t this calligraphy from Mr. Hai Cun?”

“What Hai Cun?” Old Zhu Nearby asked.

“This… wait!”

Old Chi didn’t say anything as he took out his phone and searched for a picture online before comparing it with the one on the wall.

Then he said, “That’s right! It’s written by Mr. Hai Cun! Look!”

He then showed his phone to the few of them.

The calligraphy was exactly the same as the ‘Ode to Redcliff’ in the phone.

Old Zhu took the phone and looked at it before laughing, “It looks similar but it’s an imitation, right? Otherwise where did your picture come from? Moreover, there is no signature or tampon, how could it be authentic?”

“You don’t understand.” Old Chi said with a smile, “This ‘Ode to Redcliff’ disappeared 20 years ago and it’s also definitely not the one hanging on Old He’s wall.”

“Then what’s to talk about?” Old Zhu spread his hands.

“Then let me finish talking!” Old Chi gave him a glare, “When a calligrapher writes, they don’t usually write seriously on the first try but will write a few times to get their feelings right. After they get the feels, they will write the official one.”

“I get it now!” Little Qu said in realization, “This is one of the many drafts that Mr. Hai Cun wrote before he made the official one!”

“Right!”

Old Chi nodded in satisfaction.

“That can’t be right.” Wang Ling looked at He Qiang, “Didn’t you say it was written by Chen Huan?”

He Qiang was also stunned and started to really think about it before he said, “Chen Huan just said it’s the Chinese New Year so sent me a calligraphy and hoped that I would like it…”

“Then he didn’t say he wrote it?” Wang Ling asked.

“No. I thought…”

Before He Qiang could continue, Wang Ling interrupted him, “Exactly! The other party only gifted it to you, when did he say he wrote it himself? His attitude was a bit casual and you thought it was something he wrote himself, right?”

He Qiang nodded.

“Old Chi, how much do you think this calligraphy is worth?” Little Qu asked with a smirk, “Mr. Hai Cun is a well-known calligrapher and profession in Zhejiang, I think it’s worth between thirty to fifty thousand Yuan, right?”

“Thirty to fifty thousand Yuan?” Old Chi snorted, “He has a very high renown in Zhejiang with many disciples and his work is worth 50k per square foot! This calligraphy is written on eight foot xuan paper, which is one size larger than the original six foot xuan paper, which is 26 square feet in total! According to the estimate I just quoted, it would be at least worth 500k yuan!”

“500k!?”

Wang Ling was shocked, “Didn’t you say this is just a draft? Even draft is that expensive?”

“Although it is just a draft, it’s well written and there’s no difference from the finished product.” Old Chi said, “It’s worth the price! It’s even more precious now that the work disappeared! I know who gave it to Teacher Lu and maybe even Teacher Lu doesn’t know the value of it!”

“I don’t believe it!” Old Zhu shook his head, “It would be worth thirty or fifty thousands and even if it was Hai Cun, it would be worth at most 70-80k for a draft, no way it’s worth 500k!”

Everyone else also expressed their disbelief.

Old Chi smiled and said, “Okay, how about I take a picture of it and show it to the artwork group chat and let them give an estimate? There are many rich people in it and maybe they will be willing to buy it for 500k!”

“Haha, no way!” Wang Ling waved her hand, “Take a picture then! Let us see how much it’s worth.”

Everyone regarded it as a game and He Qiang didn’t stop him either.

Old Chi didn’t brush around the bush and directly took a panoramic picture of the calligraphy before sending it to his group chat.

He also added a sentence to it.

“I saw a nice calligraphy, I wonder what everyone think its worth is?”

After sending that, he laughed and said, “Let’s us eat first. We know more later!”

“Alright!”

Wang Ling didn’t take it seriously and quickly put the alcohol and food on the table as everyone began to eat and drink happily.

Alcohol was a must for adults to get together.

While the adults were drinking, the children didn’t stay idle as Old Chi’s son took his phone to play games with the other children.

While everyone was on the soda drinking tea, Little Qu remembered the little game they had earlier.

“Where’s your phone Old Chi? Take it out and see what they said!”

“Okay!”

Old Chi drank a lot and subconsciously touched his pocket when he heard that but couldn’t find his phone.

“Where’s my phone? Weird, where did it go?”

“Is it in your son’s hand?”

His wife said something when she saw that before he walked to where the children were and took back the phone.

“Haha, this kid only knows how to play games all the time! He doesn’t have that much enthusiasm when it comes to studying.”

Old Chi teased a little bit before he checked the artwork group chat on his phone.