Thank you astonke for being the leader. Please see the end for more details about the alliance.
Austria,
World Cultural Heritage, Melk Abbey.
It was still bright at this time,
The morning rain was floating in the sky above the small town in the river valley. A couple who had just flown to Austria from Los Angeles yesterday brought with them A little excited, a little nervous waiting at the cafe on the edge of the town.
Across from them sat a business agent wearing a gray formal suit.
"The wedding ceremony officially starts at 745 in the morning and ends at 815. We have borrowed the right to use the marble hall for 30 minutes. A monastery priest will attend and no photography is allowed during this period."
The business agent looked at the time schedule on his mobile phone and checked the process for the last time with great excitement, and sounded quite proud.
About half an hour is a bit too tight for a wedding ceremony.
However,
This is Melk Abbey.
It is known as one of the most gorgeous churches in the world. It is the largest medieval art collection, ancient library and the official monastery of the old Habsburg royal family in Europe.
Everything in Melk Abbey was built according to the standards of a royal palace.
The magnificent baroque decoration, amber palace, wall decals made of gold powder carvings, twenty-four bronze archangel statues, and master-level art murals have been praised by fashion magazines as the most dreamy in the world. The occasion for a wedding.
Being able to make an appointment to hold a wedding here, even if there are many rules and it only lasts for half an hour, is a reflection of the capabilities of their wedding agency.
Rich bumpkins can wave banknotes casually and decorate their wedding banquets with gold-plated plates.
Being able to swear a marriage contract in Melk Abbey is a symbol of status.
The melodious sound of the pipe organ coming from outside the cafe attracted the attention of the business agent.
It shouldn’t be time for the wedding to start yet
He loosened the Armani tie at the collar, turned his head and looked at the church behind him.
The two heavy dark oak doors in front of the main hall of the church suddenly opened at some point.
The staff rolled out the thick red carpet from the slope at the entrance of the church to the marble square in front.
Children in the choir, wearing white vests and dark overalls, were lining up amid the sound of the pipe organ.
"Og, this link is not on the schedule. Is this a surprise arranged by your office?"
Seeing such an event, the newcomers were moved.
They were originally a little dissatisfied with spending such a large sum of money to get an appointment at Melk Abbey for just half an hour.
But now it seems that the entire formation is full of ceremony.
“No, this is not our arrangement, some big shot is coming.. "
The business representative muttered to himself. He took off his glasses and wiped them hard with the hem of his suit.
"Wait, that's" He couldn't believe he saw it What.
At the gate of the monastery, a fat old man wearing a small round hat and looking like Santa Claus appeared at the steps of the monastery. Wearing a Roman purple robe, there is a solid gold cross on the chest that is the size of an adult's hand, showing the luster of molten gold under the sun.
Purple has always been one of the most noble colors in European culture.
Among the millions of clergy and billions of believers in the world, the most distinguished high-ranking priests in the church are all qualified to wear purple robes.
This is an archbishop
The only person the wedding agency can arrange to perform the marriage is an ordinary priest
The archbishop
Don't be kidding.
If it were the Middle Ages, an archbishop would even have the right to participate in the voting of the emperor-elect to decide whether the ruler of the empire should go or not.
Even in modern times, the entire Roman church is more noble than the archbishop. There were only a handful of cardinals and the Pope himself.
The business agent took out his mobile phone to check the news.
He wondered if there might be some state visit to Austria today, whether it was the Prime Minister. Come here, otherwise why would the abbot of Melk Abbey personally greet him at the gate?
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a heavy engine coming from far away.
A convoy of two dark-colored Mercedes GS SUVs and a Rolls-Royce stopped at the entrance of the monastery.
A man who looked like a butler directed the caregiver from the back of the vehicle in front. He took out the wheelchair and helped the distinguished guest out of the opposite door of the limousine in the middle.
The business representative could only vaguely see the profile of the distinguished guest, who looked like a young girl. /p>
Is she a princess from any royal family in Europe?
“Anna, welcome to your presence. "
The abbot of Melk Abbey walked to the steps, bent down and politely hugged Anna in the wheelchair.
"I received your call yesterday. To be honest, I was quite surprised. According to Elena's family tradition, I thought the next time I saw you would be at your wedding. "
The archbishop said with a smile.
Many noble families with a long history in Europe have their own traditional family culture.
For example, the old-school German prince Welf The family has a very oriental style. Traditionally, they like to place a pair of stone lions in front of the family property, and the Hunter Duke family is used to eating a quail before male members join the army
The Irina family is an art Noble.
The family tradition is also very artistic. Every family member will come to Melk Abbey to be baptized at birth, to get married after falling in love with someone, to die and when important decisions need to be made. .
They will think, make important decisions or lay their coffins under the famous dome mural of Athena riding a lion chariot in the monastery.
However, Anna seems to have a very general interest in religion.
She is not a devout believer.
Even though she was baptized according to family tradition when she was born, Anna rarely went to church and only went to church a few times since she was a child.
From this point of view, she is not even a qualified believer.
The last time I came to Melk Abbey was because of my aunt's funeral.
"Miss Elena, do you want to confess, or do you need God's guidance on something? I will be happy to arrange the sacraments for you personally."
Mei, wearing a purple robe Dean Erke asked with a smile.
This kind of veteran nobleman has always been the most important sponsor of the church.
Even if Anna is not keen on church activities, the dean's attitude is very good.
"No, I just want to be quiet. Please give me a prayer room."
Anna shook her head.
Melk Abbey, royal prayer room.
In the grand hall, according to the girl's request, there are no nurses or priests.
Anna did not pray in front of the statue of Jesus.
She just sat quietly in her wheelchair, looking at the goddess of wisdom driving a lion chariot on the towering circular dome.
Yesterday,
Anna felt unprecedented happiness.
The so-called gravity of the soul means that two people are on opposite sides of the world, but they can still beat together with the same breathing and the same heartbeat.
This is both a tacit understanding and a miracle.
“Impressionism is nothing more than inner emotions and pure visual enjoyment. We don’t depict gods, we just record sunshine and air. We don’t follow dogma, because beautiful things will stay and pain will end. will pass away."
This passage from Detective Cat is so perfectly in line with her understanding of Impressionist art.
The moment those words entered her ears, Ana felt a faint shiver of electricity running through her whole body.
At that moment,
Anna felt that she had never been so close to the soul of the female painter she had never met.
This feels so good.
From this moment,
She no longer regretted that she had no talent for painting.
Because Anna knew she had found the painter she was destined to be.
She was silently thinking about the thoughts that had been lingering in her mind for a long time under the mural of Athena.
Perhaps this goddess who rode a lion chariot to fight in all realms gave Anna strength, and she finally made up her mind secretly.
She took out her mobile phone from her pocket and found a number in her address book that her aunt had left for her.
"Uncle Osborne, I want to ask youYou have something to do"
Anna made a phone call.
The uncle Osborne she said was an old friend of the Irina family.
The other party He and his aunt were college classmates, and the Elena family was kind to him. Anna's grandfather arranged for Osborne, who was still a poor boy, to work in the Schostic Publishing Group.
The overlord of the Schostic Publishing Group. A world-class publishing group, the world's largest children's book publisher and distributor, with an annual net income of more than 2 billion US dollars.
You can tell this by looking at the names of the agent authors and painting artists it has worked with. Publishing heavyweights Andy Warhol, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling
Osborne is now Schostic’s European deputy. The president is also one of the most important connections left to Anna in the art circle by her aunt.
“Ana is you. "A serious man's voice came from the other side of the microphone.
"Well, Uncle Osborne, could you please speak?"
Anna heard some noise from the other side of the microphone.
"You guys go out first. We will talk about the report at the board meeting in the afternoon."
The man ordered, and then his voice became softer, "Anna, why did you think of giving me O Uncle Spen called, what's the matter?"
"Yes, I do have something to ask you. "
Anna did not deny it.
"It must be Van Dorn's thing. You are indeed immature in this matter. If you can't offend others in the art world, don't offend others. It is very irrational to offend such an artist on an internet celebrity video. "
The man accused Anna unceremoniously.
Anna listened quietly.
"But the oil painting magazine kicked you out, it was Sir Brown's Something is wrong. No matter what, your surname is Elena, and it is too much to bully the last heiress of the Elena family out of the magazine. "
Osborne's tone became colder.
"Well, now that Anna has spoken. I'll go talk to Sir Brown. I can also solve it with De Jong Van Doorn. Since he is an illustrator, he will not deny me this face no matter what. How about just pretending that this matter never happened."
Os Ben's tone is very confident.
The big fish eats the small fish. As the head of the European region of a large publishing group, Osborne is equivalent to Party A in the interest chain.
It may be too exaggerated to say that he can kill De Jong Van Dorn.
However, now that Osborne has made this move, Van Dorn will not be entangled with Anna.
"Thank you, but that's not why I called you today. "Anna hesitated for a moment, and for some reason, did not agree immediately.
"Well, what else is there?"
Osborne's tone was a little strange.
"Can I recommend a painter to be an illustrator for a book?" Anna asked.
"Oh, it's a trivial matter. This kind of thing is just a matter of one sentence." Osborne smiled, "Tell me, my child, which book it is"
"schostic The publishing group is preparing to re-publish The Little Prince, right?" Anna asked softly.
"Little Prince Uh"
This time it was Osborne's turn to fall into a brief silence.
Schostic Group publishes tens of thousands of books a year.
Theoretically, such a small matter as appointing an illustrator for a book is not worth mentioning at all to Osborne.
But The Little Prince is completely different from other books.
The Little Prince is a famous children's and adult fairy tale written by French writer Saint-Exupéry in 1942. It is also one of the best-selling books in the world.
In Europe and North America, where books are generally extremely expensive, the cumulative sales of The Little Prince have exceeded 100 million copies in 50 years, and are still increasing by the order of millions every year. .
Basically, the only books with larger print runs than The Little Prince are the Bible, and even the total sales of Harry Potter are slightly behind those of The Little Prince.
The original copyright of The Little Prince was in the hands of Townsend Mann Publishing Group, a competitor of Schostic Group, which brought astronomical revenue to the publishing house for decades.
This kind of book is a profitable cash cow and is also the core business interest of a publishing house.
It is basically impossible to acquire copyright.
But as half a century passed, around the turn of the millennium, the copyright of The Little Prince expired and it officially entered the realm of public books.
This also creates an opportunity for other eager publishers to enter the market.
Schostic Group has started preparations for the reprint of The Little Prince very early, and has not only re-translated it into seventeen languages including German, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish.
As the most popular English version, Mr. Hawke, the director of the Department of English Literature at Oxford University, a master translator, was invited to write the book.
This short story took five years of translation and polishing. It can be called a classic, reaching a model level of honesty, expressiveness and elegance.
The internal review committee of the publishing house, which has seen Mr. Hawke’s translation, believes that the new version of The Little Prince is superior in terms of language beauty, fluency and closeness to the original author. It surpasses the previous versions translated by Catherine Woods by many.
If it goes well as expected, it may even become the most classic translation of Little Prince in the next half century.
The significance of this kind of work is extraordinary.
Mr. Osborne’s hesitation is understandable. Please remember to collect it, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft