Searching for Treasures in the Clouds

After Park Ya-yeon finished her speech, there was warm applause from the audience.

After a while, Yu Ru brought Sister Shan in.

As the two of them walked toward the center of the stage, the female host introduced: "Now appearing is the silver medal winner of this competition, Ms. Yu Ru, and her assistant, Ms. Xing. At the same time, our Ms. Yu Ru is also the winner of this year's Super Popular Star Award. Welcome!"

Yu Ru smiled and waved towards the audience as she walked.

After she and Sister Shan came in front of the host and the host finished the introduction, Sister Shan began to help Yu Ru read her speech.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Ms. Yu Ru's assistant. Due to some special reasons, Ms. Yu is temporarily unable to speak, so I will speak on her behalf. The following is Ms. Yu's speech."

"Hello everyone, I am Yu Ru. Here, I would also like to solemnly thank Ms. Qu Shengyin, a master of Chinese studies, Ms. Fu Lingwei, a particularly outstanding urban planner, and Mr. Chen Shuyun, a master of architecture, for their generosity in teaching me and answering my questions.

Jiangcheng is a city surrounded by three rivers and five lakes, and was born from water. The vastness of the mist and the integration of water and sky are the most charming characteristics of this city. In order to adapt to such characteristics, I used ink painting, which uses thick and thin ink to depict the scene and combines the virtual and the real to form the space, as one of the design inspirations. Ink painting is a unique traditional treasure of China, and it originated from this place thousands of years ago..."

When Sister Shan was reading the previous text, everything was normal. But when she read the part about the historical origin of ink painting, the expressions of several guests in the VIP seats changed slightly.

Lan Youde, as one of the important people in power in Jiangcheng, also attended the award ceremony and sat in the VIP seat. His fat body, like a grub, slumped on the seat, and the fat on his belly trembled like a short spring. The extra fat weighed him down, so he had to lean back and lean completely against the chair behind him.

"Who is he? He looks quite arrogant." He narrowed his eyes and murmured while looking at Yu Ru on the stage. "But he is quite unique. His eyes... are really well-shaped. He is charming yet resolute. It's really rare."

……

After the winners gave speeches and shared their design inspirations, it was time for everyone to discuss freely. Everyone could leave their seats and communicate freely with whoever they wanted to communicate with.

Lan Youde followed several of the biggest investors and some officials of this grand ceremony to the private VIP lounge he arranged here to communicate. This lounge is very large, occupying an entire floor, and it has all the layout and equipment. A group of people entered the lounge, observed each other's words and expressions, and accurately found a suitable seat to sit down.

There was someone else in the center position. Lan Youde's position was closest to the center among all of them. The others sat down in order from left to right and from right to left, surrounding him and the person in the center like stars surrounding the moon.

"Oh..." He half-closed his eyes, leaned on the sofa, smacked his lips lazily a few times, and then his gaze went straight to the president and vice-president of the organizer of this competition.

"Presidents, have you learned in advance about the speeches of the winners who will be speaking on stage at this ceremony?"

Chairman Zheng was a man who looked to be in his early 40s, wearing a pair of glasses and looking gentle and elegant. He smiled and replied: "Mr. Lan, don't worry, everything has been reviewed. We will only allow them to speak after we confirm that everything is correct."

Lan Youde took a deep breath, raised his right hand, opened his index and middle fingers, and took the cigar handed over by the waiter. He took a puff of the cigar before continuing, "Then why are the statements of the two winners of the bronze and silver awards contradictory? One said that the ink painting was from Han Country, and the other said it was from China."

"Well..." The chairman turned to look at the vice chairman beside him.

The vice chairman was a woman in her early thirties, wearing a light blue business suit, and looked very capable and sophisticated. She was neither humble nor arrogant in response to Lan Youde's questioning: "Mr. Lan, this ceremony has gathered many distinguished guests, and the scene is too big. Among the contestants this time, half have never participated in a competition of this scale. In front of so many people and in their own joy, it is inevitable that they are nervous and make mistakes. At present, we have launched an emergency plan to remedy the situation. After the ceremony, we will issue a clarification statement."

Lan Youde sneered and said nothing, just tasting the cigar in his hand. The man sitting next to him, who was in the center, said, "Presidents, tell me, which country is ink painting from? What is its origin history?"

After saying that, he casually threw the cigar that he and Lan Youde had taken at the same time onto the ground. "Cigar waiter, come here, put away this cigar and give me a new one."

"Mr. Jiang, the ink painting is from China," Chairman Zheng replied.

Hearing this, the man looked at him, the gleam in his eyes hitting him like a hammer, "Chairman, then tell me, what is its historical origin?"

"Mr. Jiang, I am not very knowledgeable. I only know that it is from China, but I don't know much more. I would like to ask Director Ma here to answer this question for you. What do you think? He is a master of traditional Chinese art and has in-depth research on this."

Director Ma was startled when he was called. He broke out in cold sweat on his back and beads of sweat flowed down his armpits. He glanced at Chairman Zheng, then looked at Mr. Jiang, and said with a flattering smile: "Mr. Jiang, ink painting is, is..."

He hesitated and was still afraid to come to a conclusion, but when he met Mr. Jiang's eyes, his inner fear overcame his remaining conscience.

"The ink painting is from Han Country..."

"Very good." Mr. Jiang suddenly smiled, nodded, and asked again: "What about its history? Don't make me ask again, I don't like to drag it out."

Cigar sommeliers are not qualified to stay here. Currently, only Lan Youde's personal assistant is standing in the corner waiting for orders. When he heard the man ask for a cigar, he came to him immediately. Now that he had finished speaking, he took advantage of the gap and asked softly, "Mr. Jiang, do you need a new cigar? I'll call the cigar sommelier over now."

"Go ahead." The man waved his hand.

Soon, the cigar waiter came over. Following the instructions of Assistant Lan Youde, she squatted down in front of Mr. Jiang and picked up the cigar he had thrown away. At the same time, she apologized to him, "Mr. Jiang, I'm very sorry. I will replace it with a new cigar right away."

Mr. Jiang looked down at her and suddenly stepped hard on her shoulder. Mr. Jiang had a big belly and his calf looked like a fat pig's hoof. The impact was so great that the waiter fell to the ground.