Rebirth 93: Break off the engagement at the beginning and marry Bai Fumei

“I completely agree with Mr. Jason’s description,” Dean Zeng, who was standing next to the painting, said in an almost intoxicated tone. Her gaze lingered on the surface of the painting as if she were admiring a rare treasure. “This painting, ‘Untitled,’ the title itself is a provocation, like a silent mockery, challenging all those who try to understand art with conventional thinking.”

She gently raised her hand, her fingertips tracing the outline of the painting in the air. "When viewers try to find meaning in the painting itself, every drop of paint on the canvas mocks: chaos is the truth. Look at these wild brushstrokes, these seemingly random yet profound color collisions, they are like the energy bursting forth during the Big Bang, full of primal power."

Dean Zeng's voice grew increasingly agitated, "Those tangled lines are just like the nerve endings of modern people. They crisscross and intertwine, just like the unspeakable anxieties and confusions deep within each of us. You think you are creating order, but you are just repeating the randomness of the universe. This is Pollock's genius; he used a seemingly chaotic way of expression to reveal the essence of existence."

Upon hearing this impassioned speech, both Old Geng and Chen Yang turned to look at Song Kaiyuan. They saw Song Kaiyuan's expression gradually become strange, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. Chen Yang couldn't help but grin, leaning close to Song Kaiyuan's ear and saying in a slightly teasing tone, "Master, you've been mocked by a painting! It seems this painting has quite a spirit; even an old artist like you can't understand what it's trying to express."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Song Kaiyuan rolled his eyes at Chen Yang, his face full of disapproval. "Chaos is the truth, you idiot. This Zeng is really good at going along with the foreigners. He makes a painting sound like a book written in heaven, talking about neural pathways and the randomness of the universe. It's enough to give you a headache."

"Their rubbish is just random ink splashes; we can't do that. The things left by our ancestors are much better! At least they're easy to look at."

As the group whispered amongst themselves about the absurdity of the claims, they suddenly noticed a figure slowly approaching the painting. The bearded expert walked solemnly to the painting, bent down, and squinted, carefully examining every detail. His gaze lingered on certain spots for a long time, and his brows gradually furrowed into a knot.

Finally, he slowly straightened up, turned to Jason, and said in an unquestionable tone, "Mr. Jason, I suspect that this Pollock Untitled is a forgery!"

The bearded man's words exploded like a bombshell in the exhibition hall. The guests looked at each other in disbelief. This was an international art exhibition; every exhibit had undergone rigorous authentication and selection. How could there be a fake?

Sitting below, Chen Yang observed the shocked expressions on the faces of those around him, a strange ripple stirring within him. His gaze involuntarily fell upon the bearded man. This seemingly ordinary expert had seen through the deception at a glance; he was undeniably a true connoisseur. Even seasoned professionals in the art world, with years of experience, couldn't spot the flaw, yet this bearded man had pinpointed the problem with remarkable accuracy. His insight was truly admirable.

A long-forgotten memory flashed through Chen Yang's mind: a sensational art world scandal from 2011. In the United States, a shocking oil painting forgery case was officially exposed. The forgers used astonishing skills to replicate numerous masterpieces, including those by Pollock.

This case spanned 20 years, defrauding over 60 collectors and causing a staggering loss of $8000 million. The untitled painting before us is one of the works involved in this case. Recalling that world-renowned art forgery case, Chen Yang couldn't help but admire the bearded man's keen eye even more. In this exhibition hall filled with professionals, only he and the bearded man had discerned this astonishing secret.

In 2011, another heated argument erupted in a luxury mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side. A wealthy businessman named Pierre stood in the center of the living room, facing his sophisticated yet sharp-tongued wife, his anger finally reaching a breaking point. In their twenty years of marriage, their initial sweetness had given way to endless arguments; every conversation felt like a meticulously planned battle, filled with sarcasm and mutual accusations.

This time, when his wife once again flew into a rage over a trivial household matter, Pierre felt his nerves were stretched to the limit. Staring at the priceless painting on the wall, he suddenly realized that this marriage, which had long since lost its warmth, was like the chaotic lines on the canvas—incapable of weaving anything beautiful into it.

The thought of divorce surged forth like a flood, unstoppable. One quiet afternoon, he finally told his wife the decision that had been swirling in his mind for so long. Surprisingly, the two sat down calmly, as if they had been waiting for this moment, and began to discuss dividing the assets left by their marriage. Pierre gazed at the Manhattan skyline outside the window, his heart filled with mixed emotions, yet also a strange sense of relief.

Pierre, as the CEO of a large investment firm, already earned an annual income that was beyond the reach of ordinary people. His office was located on the top floor of a skyscraper in the most bustling part of Manhattan, where he handled hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions every day. However, at this moment, facing the upcoming division of his assets, he appeared unusually generous. Perhaps because he was tired of the years of arguments, or perhaps he wanted to use money to buy inner peace, he actually offered to divide all his assets in half.

In the presence of their lawyer, mansions, yachts, stocks, and jewelry—asset worth a fortune—were meticulously listed, and the two displayed unprecedented tacit understanding and harmony during the division process. However, when they arrived before the famous painting hanging in the center of the living room, Pierre's steps suddenly became heavy.

This painting is not only a treasure he purchased from the Noller Gallery for $1700 million, but also embodies his boundless love and pursuit of art. Gazing at the dancing brushstrokes on the canvas, his heart began to struggle violently, and even his fingers trembled slightly involuntarily.

With the division of the painting nearing completion, Pierre found himself in a dilemma. On one hand, he knew the value of this masterpiece would only increase over time; on the other hand, as a successful businessman, he understood that an accurate valuation was crucial for a fair division. On the advice of his lawyer, they decided to have the painting professionally appraised by experts appointed by the court.

However, fate played a cruel trick on him, as the expert in charge of the case was an analyst with very little knowledge of oil paintings. Faced with this masterpiece full of expressionist elements, the expert was completely unable to understand its artistic value, so he chose a seemingly scientific but actually risky method—to determine the painting's age through chemical analysis. He carefully extracted a small sample of paint from the edge of the painting and sent it to the laboratory for testing, hoping that this unconventional method of authentication would provide a definitive answer.

However, this seemingly rigorous scientific examination yielded a shocking result. The laboratory report revealed that the pigments used in the painting were produced in 1970, while the artist who created the painting, a great artist, had passed away 14 years earlier in a car accident.

This absurd time paradox struck Pierre like a hammer blow, shattering his heart. He stared in disbelief at the cold, hard report, his mind blank. The famous painting he had bought with all his savings, the piece he was so proud of in his collection, was actually a fake! This cruel truth not only caused him enormous financial loss but also dealt a fatal blow to his artistic taste and connoisseurship honed over many years.

Upon learning that the $1700 million he had purchased was a fake, Pierre felt dizzy and his mind went blank. At that moment, his resolve to separate from his wife was instantly replaced by anger. The divorce was put on hold, and now all he could think about was getting back the exorbitant amount of money he had been cheated out of.

Filled with rage, Pierre went straight to a top-tier legal team, preparing to sue the Noller Gallery. However, fate seemed to be playing a cruel joke on him. Just as he was confidently preparing to file the lawsuit, he was shocked to discover that the Noller Gallery had quietly and permanently closed down several years ago.

This blow nearly broke Pierre, but he didn't give up. Instead, he chose an even more explosive approach—exposing this shocking scam to the public. He contacted several mainstream media outlets and detailed his experience. This bombshell news in the art world immediately caused a huge uproar in the global art community.

The painting that Pierre so deeply regretted was none other than Pollock's "Untitled," now displayed in the exhibition hall. Chen Yang was absolutely certain of this, because he had personally witnessed the painting's true form at a high-profile auction in his later years. At that time, a top art appraisal expert from the United States was using this forgery as an example in a sensational feature report.

Chen Yang clearly remembered that the expert, holding the painting, used the most advanced technology to conduct a highly professional comparative analysis of the forgery techniques and details of the genuine work. It was precisely because he had witnessed this scene firsthand that Chen Yang was able to make such a confident judgment about the authenticity of the painting before him.