I am not Ximen Qing.

The artist's eyes sparkled, gleaming with an irresistible beauty, like a dreamlike heroine from a nightmare, the pretty girl who ran away from home, longing to return! Ah, it immediately reminded me of Carrie's old flame, who abandoned everything for Carrie's love, abandoning his family. He discarded all the old-fashioned things, pursuing fashion, love, and happiness. You can't really blame him; he went mad for Carrie's love, because Carrie's beauty could drive him to the brink. That's the allure of love; it's truly irresistible to be tempted by the kind of beauty Carrie possesses! Even Artis himself admitted that when he was young, reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, he was often captivated by Anna Karenina's beauty. In fact, being captivated by beauty knows no age. Anna Karenina's beauty truly caused the artist Anna Karenina considerable pain due to her illusory love and affection. It shows how easily people can fall into the trap of love and affection, whether it's a love that doesn't exist in reality or in fantasy. Perhaps love and affection are truly poisonous. It seems that girls all love this dream of Carrie, even the most shrewd Carrie, in a fictional love film. Du Ruo'ai was undoubtedly the luckiest, enjoying the mermaid-like love and affection of Carrie early in high society. Her old lover appeared, losing his rationality and drowning in the paradise of desire and loss of Carrie's love and affection. Of course, this is the nature of girls. Don't blame girls for being so vain; under the temptation of money, there is no pity, only the relentless devouring and tormenting power of money!

An artist kneeling before a dreamlike woman is not a disgrace. What's wrong with kneeling in pursuit of perfect love and affection? If the artist had learned from Ximen Qing's womanizing techniques in *Jin Ping Mei*, he would have had far more lovers than he does now. Meeting a celestial beauty like Ru Meng would have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Axe, however, feigned ignorance, pretending to be a decadent and infatuated man, merely trying to make Ru Meng believe he was her admirer, her true suitor. At least in the pursuit of love, Nana and Qianqian played countless absurd and laughable tricks on the artist. When Nana and Qianqian finally declared their love for the artist, it's unimaginable how he truly lost his mind, almost ending up in a mental hospital. See? Artist knew the traps of love and the destructive power of love, no less than a Romeo and Juliet-esque tragic love story. But the more love and romance are like this, filled with unbearable, insurmountable pain, the more addictive it becomes. If love didn't have these painful genes and elements, what kind of love would it be? Love must cause pain. That irresistible feeling! Ru Meng was the true goddess of spring, her appearance shattering Artest's preconceived notions of what a girl truly was. Her beauty was subversive; could such beauty truly exist in the world? It was simply impossible, unbelievable. So when the artist, not out of impulse but feigning ignorance, knelt before Ru Meng's allure, his heart was filled with excitement and greed. He saw Ru Meng's slender feet and her fair, supple skin—enough to dazzle the eye. In truth, kneeling before a beauty, before a woman, was not shameful at all. On the contrary, it was filled with boundless fantasy. The artist understood that the longer the courtesan's bloom lasted, the more beautiful it became; he wanted to witness her blossoming beauty. That requires patience, and the artist has plenty of patience now. Springtime doesn't allow just any suitor to make Ru Meng, the queen of flowers, fully bloom like a red rose of desire. Actually, the rose doesn't best represent a girl's nature; it's the innate, magical fragrance of love and romance that Ru Meng possesses. Quietly, Ru Meng is born with the scent of roses—truly beautiful. Girls are naturally able to seduce lustful men, aren't they? The artist suddenly remembered a girl's fatal love and the weakness of human nature in love, like Achilles, like the foot in the glass slipper of her life. It's said that a girl's feet can directly reach the love heart. His heart sank, and he imagined Pan Jinlian before him, the spirit of Ximen Qing possessing him, the love and lust in *Jin Ping Mei*, especially the moment Ximen Qing was awakened by the curtain and his eyes met Pan Jinlian's. Love locked in that moment—what was that? That was the moment of passionate love between Romeo and Juliet! The descriptions of love and affection in *Jin Ping Mei* are quite interesting. The women are all portrayed as passive in their love and affection. The artist still doesn't understand how the female poet in the school managed to make the "bag carrier" act like a slave, carrying his water bottle, thermos, blankets, and all sorts of other things all day long, turning him into her servant. Now, it seems like it's starting to dawn on me: damn it, the bag carrier is the most shameless! His way of pursuing women is at least Quasimodo's and the Laughing Man's—those fools! He's been exonerated. It reminds me of that pig-like idiot from Shucun, who turned a Chengdu girl into a demure old lady. All this stems from his past failures in love and affection, all because of Rumeng. Why did he fail? Because Rumeng was too beautiful. Missing out on such a celestial goddess would be utterly despicable. Rumeng probably despises Ates's crazy behavior, the shamelessness of the truth. Possessed by Ximen Qing's spirit, the pursuit of love and romance has truly begun. Why is it that the more shameless he is, the more this kind of shamelessness makes such a beauty fall into love and romance? The more Ru Meng despises Artist's shamelessness, the closer love is to her. This further fuels the artist's crazy actions for love and romance, opening the window and the door to Ru Meng's love and romance. For love and romance, what does it matter if he becomes the clown Caliban? Caliban is noisy and wants Miranda to give him a bunch of monsters, a bunch of ugly monsters. As long as he can become Father, Ru Meng's mind is twisted. Love and romance, if it's a childhood sweetheart, then there's no fun in it at all. Childhood sweetheart-style love might be a pure Platonic fairy tale; love stories can never come true.

What exactly do you want?

"Foot massage"

"I don't want foot massages. I hate men's foot massages, especially foot massages. I don't want to have my feet massaged."

Why do you dislike men giving foot massages? It's good for your health!

"You think you're so great? I want to laugh. Go ahead and try to show off your historical shamelessness, like the ugly Clown Quasimodo, the Laughing Man, Caliban's touchstone. Can you become Othello? Can you become Othello?"

"Oh my god, do you like Black people?"

"No, can't I like the great Gatsby and I like Elon Musk?"

"No, no, no, no, it's not like a dream. Listen to me, girls don't like it. You couldn't possibly like Gatsby, you're lying. How could a girl like Gatsby? You're the last person who could love Gatsby. You hate all those so-called luxury products. And oceanfront villas, oceanfront villas facing the sea, including grand balls and parties—that's too cliché. That's Gerald's fantasy in Paris, a decadent fantasy. But the decadent fantasy of Paris now is too unappealing. Even Uncle Pons's stubborn socialite, when he was replaced by a concubine, showed a grand Parisian taste of arts that's a million miles away. American writers have fallen; they don't have the Parisian flavor. That's not what you're asking for. Like a dream, a dream is really like a dream. Forgive me, you're not my Pan Jinlian, and I'm not your Ximen Qing. Does pure love and affection, which I long for, even exist? The gravitational waves of love and affection will produce ripples of..." Love. You like my Pan Jinlian, and I am your Ximen Qing. Jin Ping Mei is just a mirror of magical realism, at least it can participate in some standards of pure beauty.

"Alright, wake up. Anyway, your head is probably full of nonsense. You've read plenty of *Jin Ping Mei*, haven't you? Poor child, can you create the dream I want? I'm desperate now. What kind of dream? A jumbled mess. Everyone wants me to be Venus released from prison, in the name of art and painting. In the name of art, there are no taboos about art photography—how ironic! The experience here is too barbaric. They're all cowardly cowards with lustful desires but no guts. My dream is to become Caesar's Lover, to become Sulla's wife in Socrates, to become Spartacus's Lover... But then I think again..." Cleo Patra seems to be everywhere, completely rotten. Can you resist the Queen's temptation like Octavian? And what about artists? Can you become like Ovid, Virgil—they were all poets. Sure, but if I became the real Venus, these hypocrites couldn't satisfy Venus's love. Can men's dreams be expressed with Picasso-esque organs? But Picasso is supreme; he can sacrifice a girl's beauty, ah, the taste of art! At least Picasso could seep abstract dreams from a girl's soul, couldn't he? You say you love me, can you steal the dreamlike soul's dream?

"I once thought you were my Athena, the Athena who gave me countless wisdom."

"Don't change the subject, Aster, you hypocrite! I'm not your Athena! When did I ever imply that I was Athena?"

Artes could only say that Ru Meng was his Calypso, while Ru Meng's statement about the artist had some depth; at least the poet could understand it. Why did Bob Dylan have to sing the Iliad and Ulysses songs from his heart?

"Like a dream, you are Faust's Mother, and the Assumption Mother is also my Holy Mother. At least the Art Soul can remain unchanged within the Mother's bosom."

If I've been watching "Of Dream Love" with Ru Meng for so long, I've almost forgotten how to meet my dream lover. Then I remembered, one day I got drunk with Lao Ji, drinking both spirits and cocktails. We danced at a bar in Sanlitun, and then Dionysus and Apollo were occupying our souls and minds. This is something artists always do when they can't find inspiration or lose their soul; it seems artists have developed a habit of suddenly opening up to "Of Love." The biggest gain from struggling in Zhongguancun, Beijing, is getting to know many love girls and dream girls—this is part of love and romantic life. This life of pursuing love, pursuing love and dreams, is so pleasant. The true love of Babylon and the beauty of romance... a bodyguard and a boss disappeared, and a waiter came over. Asking the artist to swipe the POS machine caught her off guard, making her think something unimaginable was about to happen. This was because, according to her old habits, Ru Ru Meng (the artist's nickname) always swiped the POS machine after interacting with anyone for a certain period of time, a practice she had cultivated. She always paid Art Beauty value in cash when interacting with Dream Beauty. It was precisely because the artist adhered to these rules and customer-centric practices that...

“刷1万送1万，还是刷2万送2万，刷3万送3万的先生对service满意吗？”

"No, no, no, I don't need CashCascashcass..."

Both sides were quite excited, as if it were a battle of wits, and for some reason, many bizarre and strange things were happening tonight. But that's life; it's full of traps. Artes' intuition told him that if the artist swiped his bank card at the POS machine, the game would be over immediately.

"You know I love scheming, I really love scheming, understand? This is my personal principle."

"Sir, isn't technological innovation and financial innovation the same as swiping a card?"

"There's a logical problem here; cash and credit card payments are obviously different."

I trust my intuition completely, without even knowing why. I just stare at it like a dream, sticking to my old habits no matter what. Because POS machines have a kind of memory, that's the root of the problem I'm watching, and it involves so many issues. I don't know why I'm so insistent, but the pride that comes with cash and swiping a POS machine are completely different. They're different from any angle. Cash brings a sense of security.

"Congratulations, Astor, you won your bet."

"Ru Meng, I didn't gamble. I just never use credit cards; I prefer cash."

"So this is a game of love, and you won."

"I just love the feeling of money raining down from the sky. It's so lively, I get to see perfect smiles, I get to see your dream perfect smile—it's unforgettable."

This place will no longer exist.

There was a sense of loss in Ru Meng's voice as she spoke, as if this place held her boundless hopes and dreams—perhaps her artwork, the bathroom Ru Meng created, with its domes and walls adorned with the most exquisite stories of Roman and ancient Greek mythology.

Where will I find you now?

"Artist, your flaw is that you overthink things and are too greedy. Isn't what you have enough? Why do you still want to think about the future?"

"No, I can't lose you, Dream."

Ru Meng is so beautiful! Her rose-colored pomegranate dress makes everything seem dreamlike. I'm afraid Ximen Qing will be reincarnated. What if Ximen Qing travels to the modern era and competes with Art for Ru Meng's love? Just thinking about it is terrifying. Even Ximen Qing is irresistibly drawn to Ru Meng's beauty. The artist is a little excited and removes Ru Meng's rose mask. That beautiful face, those full, red lips... Now I understand, this kind of beauty is a dreamlike beauty, a beauty that doesn't exist in reality. Sometimes, you don't have to become a high-ranking official like Ximen Qing to encounter sudden love and romance, do you? Ru Meng's beauty is the fullness and maturity of Venus, the beauty of a pomegranate. Her perfect curves are alluring. Was Ru Meng truly asleep or just pretending? For the artist, love and romance are dreams, emptiness, poetic existences. It's as if anything can happen. It seems like he's trying to find something in the beauty of Ru Meng's body. What a beautiful red rose! Rose-colored love and affection are not without origin and reason. The birth of rose-colored love and rose-colored beauty can only be produced by a dreamlike, dynamic being. Even if one is still immersed in this passionate love and dream, one can finally break free from the constraints of love and affection and become a free and unrestrained lover. An artist would never dare to commit any desecration; the beauty before us, the perfect art being, is not an illusion, not emptiness!