Chapter 341: Xia Te's Final Arrangements
It was already evening when Su Mingzhe arrived in Haicheng.

There is no airport in Haicheng, so Su Mingzhe took a different bus to get here.

Xia Te had been waiting in the living room on the first floor. When he heard the sound of a car outside the door, he opened the door to greet it and just saw Su Mingzhe getting out of the car.

"Xiao Su, you're here."

"Teacher Xia, sorry to have kept you waiting."

This time when Su Mingzhe came, he brought two boxes of gifts, one box of food and one box of drinks, both bought by Assistant Fang.

Normally, when Su Mingzhe goes out, he seldom brings gifts himself, so it is always his assistant who takes care of it.

The two entered the Xia family's house. Su Mingzhe took a quick look and found that there were many more furniture in the hall on the first floor than the last time he came.

However, Su Mingzhe did not see the sisters Xia Jiji and Xia Mimi coming out to greet him.

At this time, they should have finished dinner and are doing homework in the bedroom.

Feeling a little sorry, Su Mingzhe sat on the sofa with Xia Te and started chatting.

"Teacher Xia, how many people have come to you recently? What's the highest price they've offered?"

"There were more than a dozen, and the highest offer was over $200,000, but I rejected them all."

Xia Te still thought that he was not suitable for negotiating prices, so he simply rejected all of them and wanted to wait for Su Mingzhe to come and ask him for help.

Su Mingzhe suddenly felt heavy in his heart for this trust.

Everything he did was actually out of lust for the beauty of the Xia Jiji sisters, but now he unexpectedly gained Xia Te's trust.

This situation of wanting to do bad things but being labeled as a good guy made Su Mingzhe feel guilty.

"How about taking one and letting the other go?"

There were mixed thoughts in my mind, but it didn't stop me from chatting with Xia Te.

The two chatted for a while and exchanged views.

Mainly, Su Mingzhe was talking and Xia Te was listening.

After waiting for Su Mingzhe to stop drinking tea, Xia Te hesitated for a moment, then said haltingly:
"Xiao Su, there is actually something I forgot to tell you."

"Teacher Xia, if you have anything to say, just tell me. You're welcome."

Su Mingzhe felt a little displeased when he saw Xia Te, a grown man, hesitating, but when he thought of his two beautiful daughters, he suppressed his impatience and let him speak his mind.

Anyway, for your daughter's sake, I won't embarrass you.

"That's right. Actually, I not only paint traditional Chinese ink paintings, but I also paint some oil paintings."

Xia Te stumbled over the situation.

When he was learning to paint, he was influenced by the thoughts of his elders and wanted to learn both Chinese and Western cultures and integrate them, so he not only learned Chinese painting, but also oil painting.

Later, his family fell into poverty and he could not afford good brushes, ink, paper and inkstone. He could only make his own oil paints and usually spent his time painting oil paintings.

In addition, he taught his eldest daughter Xia Jiji oil painting.

"So, Mr. Xia, you mean that you still have more than a hundred oil paintings at home?"

Su Mingzhe was completely stunned.

Last time I was wondering why Xia Te, who had been painting for more than 20 years, only had more than 50 ink paintings. This number of works was too small.

Now I know that Xia Te had no money to buy brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, so he could only make his own oil paints and paint oil paintings to satisfy his hobby.

Su Mingzhe quickly asked Xia Te to take him to see his oil paintings.

Oil painting is different from ink painting.

The ink painting can be rolled into a scroll, then wrapped in oil paper and stored in a small cardboard box. Not to mention being able to withstand thousands or tens of thousands of years, it can at least be stored for decades without having to worry about it.

Oil paintings need to be placed in a dry, cool place and properly stored, and they need to be checked every one or two years and ventilated and maintained.

The weather in the south is rainy and the air is humid.

When it comes to preserving oil paintings, one must be very careful.

However, the Xia family was very wealthy in the past and had a specially built cellar which was dry and cool, perfect for storing oil paintings.

Xia Te took Su Mingzhe directly into his own cellar.

Su Mingzhe then saw an entire cellar of oil paintings, all wrapped in simple wooden frames and plastic film.

Using a simple method of counting soldiers on a battlefield, I counted the number of oil paintings in the cellar. There are more than a hundred, almost three hundred.

Su Mingzhe immediately raised his own question, the number of so many oil paintings did not match.

Xia Te quickly explained that although there were nearly three hundred oil paintings here, half of them were games between him and his daughter, and they were just random doodles.

This Chat is really interesting. Isn’t oil painting just random graffiti?

Su Mingzhe first looked at a few of Xia Te's masterpieces.

It feels a bit like copying, and is far inferior to the level of his ink paintings.

As there were too many oil paintings, Su Mingzhe couldn't do it late at night.

In the end, I could only make an agreement with Chat to come back and check out these paintings tomorrow.

Xia Te also knew that there were so many oil paintings that it would take some time to complete. After they agreed that Su Mingzhe would come again tomorrow, he sent Su Mingzhe away.

As for the question of whether Su Mingzhe should stay overnight since there are many empty houses at home.

Chat didn't even consider it.

With two precious daughters at home, Xia Te would definitely not let a strange man stay overnight at his home.

Su Mingzhe came to visit for more than an hour tonight, but Xia Jiji and her sister did not come out. It was obvious that Xia Te had specifically warned them not to come out.

Su Mingzhe was also a father and had a daughter, so he understood Xia Te's thoughts, so he didn't dwell on it too much. Anyway, Xia Te was suffering from a terminal illness, so he could only protect Xia Jiji and her sister for another two or three years.

After two or three years, Xia Te would be gone, and Xia Jiji and her sister would only be sixteen or seventeen years old. By then, they would have no choice but to seek shelter from Su Mingzhe.

Su Mingzhe can afford to wait for these two or three years.

the next day.

Su Mingzhe arrived at the Xia family early in the morning before Xia Jiji and her sister went to school.

This is unavoidable.

Xia Te could only watch as his two daughters greeted Su Mingzhe enthusiastically, and then the two daughters looked at Su Mingzhe with admiration.

Before Su Mingzhe came, Xia Te was a poor "teacher". Even his wife ran away with a foreigner. His two daughters had to depend on each other. The family of three could only make ends meet.

After Su Mingzhe arrived, he first discovered Xia Te's talent, and gave him enough respect and attention. Finally, he spent a lot of money to buy Xia Te's works and help promote them.

Today, the Xia family not only has no worries about food and clothing, but also has entered a well-off life. With the arrival of reporters and media, Xia Te has become a cultural celebrity in high school and in Haicheng.

Because of this, the Xia Jiji and her sister were highly valued in school, and their classmates began to envy the two sisters for having a "good father".

However, the Xia Jiji sisters themselves understood that although Xia Te’s hard work and persistence in creation were responsible for changing the fate of the Xia family, the greater credit should be attributed to Su Mingzhe.

There is an article "On Horses" in the junior high school textbook:
"There are horses that can run a thousand miles only when there are Bole. There are always horses that can run a thousand miles, but there are not always Bole. Therefore, even if there is a famous horse, it will only be humiliated by the hands of slaves and die in the stable, and it will not be called a thousand-mile horse..."

Although my father is talented, he is considered a good horse.

But if Su Mingzhe had not been his father's mentor, then Xia Te would have been "even if he had the ability to run a thousand miles, but he was not well fed, his strength was insufficient, his talent and beauty were not visible, and he could not even be compared to an ordinary horse, so how could he expect to run a thousand miles?"

Therefore, the Xia Jiji sisters all understood that Su Mingzhe was the one who truly changed the fate of the Xia family.

What's more, Su Mingzhe not only has vision, but also talent, and most importantly, he is handsome enough!

A teenage girl's view on love is rarely not influenced by appearance.

In the movie, Li Bala ignored the fact that Zhang Yang already had a girlfriend just because he was handsome enough. She didn't even mind being his mistress and followed Zhang Yang wholeheartedly.

Xia Mimi is younger, only thirteen or fourteen years old, and doesn’t understand much of this.

But Xia Jiji is already fifteen or sixteen years old, at the age of innocence and love, and has already set her heart on Su Mingzhe.

Xia Te stood aside and saw that the two girls had forgotten their reservedness and their eyes were always on Su Mingzhe. He coughed twice and told them to go to class quickly.

Xia Jiji and Xia Mimi had no choice but to pick up their schoolbags and go to school.

Su Mingzhe smiled and waved goodbye to the two sisters of the Xia family.

Afterwards, Su Mingzhe and Xia Te began to move the oil paintings in the cellar out.

Xia Te is not in good health, so Su Mingzhe does most of the work.

The two worked for nearly two hours, and nearly three hundred oil paintings finally "saw the light of day."

Su Mingzhe checked the recent international oil painting market last night, and now he examined Xia Te's works one by one, and finally came to a conclusion.

These oil paintings are not of great value, far inferior to Chateau’s ink paintings.

After hearing Su Mingzhe's evaluation, Xia Te felt a little sullen for a moment.

In fact, he already knew the answer.

After all, he started learning ink painting since he was a child. Not only did he have a family tradition, but he also studied under famous teachers.

If you count it up, he has been immersed in Chinese painting for thirty years, and his skills in Chinese painting are so profound that few people in the country can compare with him.

Although he has been studying oil painting for some years, it was only in the last ten years or so that he started to work hard on it. As his family fell into poverty, he gradually changed his direction in order to cater to the market.

The result was that the oil paintings he had high hopes for in order to cater to the market were only at the level of an ordinary master.

"Well, Xiao Su, can this oil painting be sold?"

Xia Te felt bad when he saw his work being belittled by Su Mingzhe, so he could only pull himself together and ask Su Mingzhe.

He now wants to sell it for money and leave some assets for his two daughters so that they will not be bullied by others after his death.

"Teacher Xia, from a businessman's perspective, I would like to give you a suggestion. It is best to wait a few years before selling these paintings. That way, they will have the best value."

Although Su Mingzhe looked down upon these oil paintings, he was realistic and gave a way to sell them.

It is nothing more than using a few years to make Xiate a master of Chinese painting.

When Xiate's status rises, when he sells these oil paintings again, others will pay high prices for them because they are all "produced by Xiate".

"I can't wait any longer."

Xia Te didn't want to hide the truth from Su Mingzhe at this time, so he told him that he had a terminal illness:

"Xiao Su, my illness means I can only live two to three more years, even if we estimate it in the best case scenario. Jiji and Mimi are too young, and they can't be saved if they have these things hidden at home."

After hearing this, Su Mingzhe also agreed deeply.

If a child carries gold in a busy street, it will bring disaster upon himself.

"I just want to convert everything into money and set up a trust fund for them."

Xia Te was really concerned about his children.

A trust fund is a method of inheritance that many elders set up for their young, underage descendants when they pass away.

This is to prevent the inheritance from being taken away by outsiders or other relatives.

However, Xia Te could not have imagined how bumpy the future opportunities for his two daughters would be.

All I can say is, it’s time and luck.

(End of this chapter)