This is used to praise the mysterious, alchemist-like ability of blending Eastern and Western art styles in his works.

Uncle Sakai glanced at Hanks without speaking.

He just said it offhandedly.

The photo Shengzi posted is just a base image; this painting can only be said to have a style design similar to Wu Guanzhong’s work.

In terms of the final effect, it is far from comparable to those top-tier artists.

Like the gap between a children’s go-kart champion and an F1 world champion.

The problem is,

this rate of progress is truly frightening.

Every time Yakai Ichiro thought he had already viewed this kid highly, Gu Weijing still managed to surprise him.

A master arises from humble beginnings, Schumacher also emerged as a go-kart champion.

The wife wasn’t wrong at all; given Gu Weijing’s age, the ability to handle this style of painting is indeed astonishing.

"Young people these days are impressively annoying!"

How old is he?

He’s still just at the beginning of the path to mastery,

what about five years, ten years later?

From the perspective of artistic competition, Uncle Sakai even feels a sense of crisis about the new generation replacing the old one.

The total share of the cake is limited, and if your work doesn’t endure,

the rise of new stars in the new generation signifies a reshuffling of the art market, with old artists becoming passé and discarded by collectors.

At Uncle Sakai’s current age, he can still be considered a mid-generation artist.

He thinks he can still kick around in this vast market for another 10 or 20 years and doesn’t want to be quickly washed up by youngsters.

Then he remembered the two most talented young people he had met, one being his daughter, the other his daughter’s sweetheart.

If you round it off, the kids being awesome is equivalent to him being awesome.

Uncle Sakai became joyful again.

"This painting already shows a clear personal style, quite impressive, the younger generation is indeed formidable." Uncle Sakai put the receiver back to his ear and continued to flatter his wife: "Our daughter’s taste is indeed excellent, Shengzi has seventy percent of her mother’s skills back in the day."

"Humph, shameless, back in your student days, you didn’t have this level of mastery." Mrs. Sakai teased, still in a good mood.

"I genuinely think our Shengzi really likes him. If that’s the case, then the kid is lucky. I think the path of art requires patrons, so whenever you have time, guide Gu Weijing and help him where you can." Mrs. Sakai instructed.

"What kind of magic potion did that kid give you to make you so willing to help him?"

Uncle Sakai was a bit surprised by his wife’s change in attitude.

"Is that little rascal deserving?"

Mrs. Sakai lightly scoffed, still saying helplessly, "It’s all for our daughter."

"The more you help him, the more he will cherish and dot on our daughter. Shengzi’s status in Gu Weijing’s heart will only grow."

That’s how relationships are.

The more effort each side’s family puts into the relationship, the more indulgent and entitled one becomes, and someone who relies on others doesn’t have much room for betrayal.

Conversely, seeing your daughter madly in love while the mother-in-law is dissatisfied with the son-in-law, causing trouble and showing a bad attitude, in the end, it’s still your daughter who gets hurt.

In school, Mrs. Sakai had always been dismissive of the students there, because their social status didn’t even warrant her facade of interest.

When it comes to art, the difference in social status could be bigger than between humans and dogs.

But once she realized her daughter might have fallen for Gu Weijing,

no matter how much of an eyesore the other party was to Mrs. Sakai, she never resorted to harsh words, but rather held back, patiently establishing three rules of engagement with him.

"Our daughter is too soft-hearted. That little rascal must know that Shengzi’s affection is a blessing he’s earned through generations. As long as he makes Shengzi happy, I’m willing to give him a successful Cyan Cloud Ladder."

Shengzi isn’t a daughter who’s arrogant and loves showing off,

but Mrs. Sakai doesn’t mind showing that local boy in Yangon how precious having a lover like Shengzi is.

"What do you think?"

"I’ve got no problems here. It’s just... the guy already has Lin Tao as a teacher, and half the Cyan Cloud Ladder has already been laid for him. There’s no need for much more of my involvement."

Uncle Sakai laughed.

He considered himself better at oil painting than Lin Tao, but for teaching a novice like Gu Weijing, Professor Lin Tao was already overqualified, and he wouldn’t make a significant difference.

"You’re such a distinguished artist, surely you can do something, otherwise, why don’t I contact a few international art foundations for sponsorship scholarships?" suggested Mrs. Sakai.

"Sponsorship scholarships, hmm, but at most, it’s seven or eight thousand US dollars a year, plus travel reimbursement and whatnot, it’s not a big deal... and many scholarships from these foundations have additional requirements, there are many stipulations. They call it a scholarship but might end up taking a cut from his future painting sales, it’s unnecessary,"

shaking his head, Uncle Sakai replied: "If we want to provide timely help, we should make it substantial."

"Hmm, now that you mention it, I do have an idea, and something happened to come up recently..."

He suddenly turned to look at Hanks on the side, squinting his eyes as if a shark had spotted a clumsy seal poking around for food on the ice.

Hanks, who was trying hard to listen to the conversation, inexplicably felt a shiver of goosebumps at the back of his neck.