My Life as an Awoken

I asked, "Huh, Why?"

"Haha, because I’m more attractive than her and wearing something noticeable."

"Why would she be scowling at that?"

"That’s just how some women are. They don’t like seeing other women get all of the attention. If a woman is attractive or dresses in a way to get attention they can get scorned for that."

"That’s kind of stupid. If I saw a guy dressed up like that I would think I really have to up my game and dress like that myself or get into better shape."

"Different standards and ideals. Guys think that if they try hard enough they could look like that too. But, women have a different perspective. I won’t go too far into it, but there are things that they wouldn’t do or what they think wouldn’t suit them, so they don’t even try."

"Mmm, like they think it is cringe or something?"

"Kinda like that, yeah. Anyway, let’s go look at a different gallery."

"One that has actual skilled painters."

After that we went from one gallery to the next and everything was eerily similar yet starkly different. Nothing was as bad as the one gallery, but every gallery had basically the same style.

The style that has all of the swirls and sagged lines of color. The demented fever dreams brought to life. The kind that just gives you a headache to look at.

The only sensation I feel when I look at them is the smell of burnt plastic, the nausea and dizziness that I would assume that comes with heavy drug use, and a headache that feels as if a crackhead was stabbing me in the eye with a used needle.

I don’t understand who would want to have a piece of art like this. Who would hang this in their house and willingly look at this in their free time?

I don’t understand why all of the art galleries in the area favor this style of art so much. I have yet to see more than 10 pieces that are not indicative of the artist’s heavy drug use.

When I look at art, I want to feel calm and serene. Perhaps even have a feeling of grandeur or of heroics.

But there just isn’t any here. In my eyes the only art here is crap.

I just want something in a more realistic style, maybe a little impressionism. I just don’t want something that looks like drug use vomited onto a canvas.

Xue Qing voiced softly, "I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would turn out like this."

"Its not your fault. I understand that to the art world this is amazing. But, I just don’t understand that."

"Here. Let’s go to one more. I had my people look into it, to find a place that we will like. So, let’s just go to one more and see how it goes."

"Ok, one more."

With that decided we got into the car and drove to a completely different area. All of the other galleries were in the same area. So, we walked to each of them. Now we were back in the car heading to a new area.

This gallery looked like all of the others, but the art was completely different.

They had actual quality pieces of art. Almost all of the art was really good. There were still a few pieces that had demented quality, but most were pretty nice.

Out of all of them I found 4 pieces that I really liked.

One was an impressionist night view of Venice, the only odd thing was that there was a dragon or something that looked like that flying in the moonlit sky.

Second was a realistic painting of a blue orchid on a black background. I thought it was beautifully lonely.

Third was a dual canvas piece, it had a vertical background piece and a horizontal main piece that laid over the other. It was a waterfall with a rocky cliff edge holding an elegantly curved little pine tree.

The final piece was a landscape of Suzhou, with its winding waterways and aquatic gardens. It was a masterful piece that was absolutely captivating. It was as if I could feel the moisture and smell the vegetation.

It made me wonder if maybe there were people that had painting related abilities. Maybe they could paint or draw something and then bring it to life. That would be kind of cool.

I decided to buy all four of them since they have different meanings and they would be a good memento. They weren’t expensive but that was only my perspective. They were all around $10,000. Nothing to me but still a ton to a normal person.

I actually thought they were on the cheap end for such quality. I guess if they are not the deminted category they aren’t priced higher.

We arranged pick up and transportation for the painting then we left.

We had been walking for hours and it was evening, so we decided to get something to eat before returning.

We decided to stop at a hotel’s scenic pavilion. We got a private room that looked out over the waterway. The restaurant was undeniably high class, normally I would be a bit tense in this kind of environment.

Perhaps because I have a significant amount of money or was with an extremely attractive woman, but I didn’t feel any of the usual jitters.

Though it could just as easily be because of the absence of emotion I have felt in a while. Today, so far, has been a good way to try and break out of that state. Even if she didn’t intend for it to happen that way.

Because of how irritating I found all of the art in the galleries, then the subsequent relief to see something I like. The build up and release of that emotion has actually worked at relieving whatever was holding me back.

I looked out of the window at the glistening water shining with the evening glow as Xue Qing ordered our food. I felt for a moment, just a brief moment, a bit of peace.

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