When Zhang Zhong published his book, he never considered awards at all.
Otherwise, he could have written a few more science fiction novels, preferably a few novels and a few short stories, and then he could have won all the awards at once.
On his way home, Zhang Zhong suddenly received a call from the gallery manager.
The gallery was specially built for Pengpeng by Zhang Zhong because she had too many paintings.
At first, the gallery was filled with Peng Peng's paintings, but later Xu Yuhan's paintings were also hung in it.
The gallery is open to the public, but because there is no publicity and it is not a famous artist, not many people usually go there.
Zhang Zhong found a housekeeper for the gallery. Usually Zhang Zhong and the others would not go there, so the housekeeper would stay there.
There is also little contact between the two parties. Usually, Zhang Zhong will bring some paintings to the gallery to hang them every two or three months. In addition, the gallery steward will call Zhang Zhong every two weeks to report the situation.
It had only been four or five days since the last time the gallery steward reported the situation to Zhang Zhong, so Zhang Zhong was a little surprised when he received the call from the gallery steward.
"Hey, Lin Yang, what's the matter?"
"Mr. Zhang, a customer came to the gallery and said he wanted to buy our paintings." Lin Yang said.
Zhang Zhong frowned and said, "Didn't I tell you before that the paintings in our gallery are not for sale."
"Yes, Mr. Zhang, you said that our gallery's paintings will not be sold out, but this customer's quotation is really high. I think it is necessary to report it to you and let you make a decision." Lin Yang said.
The quotation was very high? Zhang Zhong was very surprised and he became somewhat interested in the quotation.
"Which painting does he want to buy and at what price?" Zhang Zhong asked.
"He wants to buy five paintings, two of which are by Ms. Xu and three by Miss Pengpeng. For these five paintings, the price he quoted is 2.8 million."
Not to mention 2.8 million, Zhang Zhong was shocked by this number.
Of course, 2.8 million is nothing to Zhang Zhong. It's almost a drop in the bucket, if not a drop in the bucket.
But he never expected that someone would pay such a high price for Peng Peng and Xu Yuhan's pictorials.
2.8 million, on average a painting is close to 600,000, which is already the price of a well-known painter.
Even for a painter like Liang Xiao, a painting usually sells for less than 600,000 yuan.
Moreover, these paintings should not be large in area. Maybe the two paintings by Xu Yuhan are larger in area, but they are only about five or six square feet.
Pengpeng's paintings are even smaller, basically one or two square feet in size.
After being surprised, Zhang Zhong's first reaction was whether the person buying the painting knew about Peng Peng and Xu Yuhan's relationship with him, so he was willing to spend so much money on the painting.
Although he has never publicized the gallery's affairs to the outside world, he has not deliberately concealed it. It is normal for interested people to find out.
Take Lin Yang as an example. He is the manager of the gallery, so he naturally knows about the relationship between Zhang Zhong and Peng Peng. He may also tell others about it, and even the security guards in the gallery may reveal the information.
But no matter what, Zhang Zhong had to go and see this guest.
First, he wanted to find out whether the other party knew about his relationship and wanted to buy the painting.
If so, it's very simple, just send it away.
But if the other party really wanted to buy paintings, Zhang Zhong would have to ask him why he spent so much money on these paintings.
Of course, no matter what the other party's reason is for buying the painting, Zhang Zhong will not sell it. At least for the time being, he will not sell any painting in the gallery.
"Ask that guest to wait a moment, I'll be there in a moment," Zhang Zhong said to Lin Yang.
"Okay, I'll tell the guest right now."
After hanging up the phone, Zhang Zhong said to the driver, "Lao Li, go to the gallery."
…
After arriving at the gallery, Zhang Zhongli saw two people sitting in the lounge area from a distance.
Li Yang was sitting face to face with a middle-aged man. The man was wearing an ordinary black trench coat, had a crew cut, and looked unattractive.
When Zhang Zhong approached, Li Yang saw Zhang Zhong and stood up immediately, "Mr. Zhang, here you are, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Zhu Guoyun, who wants to buy the paintings of Teacher Zhang and Teacher Xu."
"
Zhang Zhong kept staring at Zhu Guoyun, wanting to see his reaction.
Zhu Guoyun, who was chatting with Lin Yang, suddenly saw Lin Yang standing up and turned to look at Zhang Zhong in surprise.
At this sight, he was even more stunned, because the person in front of him also looked familiar. Isn't this Zhang Zhong?
To say that Zhu Guoyun knew Zhang Zhong, there is a little story.
Zhu Guoyun was engaged in printing textbooks in the early years, and relying on his family connections, he became successful in the job.
Later, the profits from the teaching material printing business were not satisfactory, so he quit in time and spent money to purchase a batch of machines from Germany to start the imitation stone business.
Of course, I also rely on my family connections to do government projects.
Although he previously ran a teaching material printing business, he is not a cultural person himself, so he does not usually read.
The reason why I got to know Zhang Zhong was because a German expert came to their factory to provide technical guidance.
When they were chatting during the reception, the expert mentioned Zhang Zhong, and when he mentioned Zhang Zhong, he boasted about it. For this reason, Zhu Guoyun even looked up Zhang Zhong and even read two Zhang Zhong's books.
But I really don’t like to read books. I read two books in full and didn’t read any more.
But he remembered Zhang Zhong.
As for why he came to buy paintings, it has to mention his other hobby - collecting.
He is neither a cultural person nor a professional collector.
The main reason was that the relationship at home was too strong, the business was too easy, and I didn’t have much to do, so I started to imitate others and start an art collection.
Today he passed by this gallery and ran in to take a look.
After looking around, I couldn't find a clue, but I also vaguely saw something like surrealism, fauvism, postmodernism, romanticism and the like.
I thought about buying a few paintings to go back and play with, but after asking, I learned that the paintings in the gallery were not for takeout.
When Lin Yang told him that the paintings were not for sale, he felt itchy because the better things were, the harder they were to buy.
Then he quoted a price that he thought was relatively high, wanting to see the other party's reaction.
Although he didn't understand art, he wasn't someone who was taken advantage of. He was observing Lin Yang's reaction when the quotation was made.
At that time, Lin Yang did not immediately agree, but he also did not refuse immediately, showing a tangled look.
Seeing Lin Yang's performance, Zhu Guoyun felt that his offer was reasonable.
But now, when he saw Zhang Zhong in front of him, he suddenly began to admire himself for being so discerning.