The Versatile Master Artist

Because there are quite a few Chinese people, there is a shop selling soy milk and fried dough sticks, a typical Chinese breakfast, on the embankment in front of Gu’s Painting and Calligraphy Gallery.

Every day after Gu Weijing finishes his morning run, he buys a newspaper and then casually buys a basket of buns and a thermos of soy milk to take home as breakfast for the family.

After breakfast, the family members go to work or school.

However, today Gu Weijing came back from his run a little late and seemed to be a bit out of spirits.

Last night, as he slept,

Gu Weijing was still immersed in the sensations brought by creating illustrations, constantly savoring the feeling of emotions intertwining layer by layer.

This resulted in him not sleeping well, and he was late buying breakfast.

Aunt was checking the time while constantly complaining.

Next to her, Gu Lin just perched on the table, looked up at Gu Weijing, and then continued playing on his phone.

Cousin Gu Lin has always been more time-conscious than Gu Weijing.

Since three years ago,

Cousin believed that ”a teenage girl entering adolescence needs enough time for beauty sleep.” So, she canceled her morning runs, and she only needed to get up to eat breakfast.

If she was still late, it could only be said that her alarm was set too rigidly, and she overslept.

”Hmm, oh, okay.”

Gu Weijing didn’t get angry, just casually responded, and took from the coat rack the Fitz school uniform jacket and tie that aunt had already steam-ironed in the morning.

He was long used to aunt’s nagging.

Middle-aged women are like that, after all, the cousin was her flesh and blood, so it was normal for a mother to be biased.

Aunt wasn’t necessarily bad, just worldly and greedy.

What Gu Weijing was most thankful for now was that he did a pretty good job of keeping his Detective Cat identity a secret.

With aunt’s personality, if she knew he had just added a few thousand US dollars to his account and hadn’t even warmed up, yet all got donated,

she would be furious enough to tear the roof down.

Even the grandfather who always liked him, Gu Tongxiang, would surely be happy the grandson could make money, but would probably not accept such a big donation get-away.

He had not yet reached adulthood to live alone, legally this kind of personal income was under a guardian’s supervision right.

If Aunt wants to nag, let her nag.

Arguing with elders and breaking a relationship by clearing up right and wrong, even if the reason side is this one, then what? Ultimately, it will still be the grandfather who really finds it hard to deal with.

Soon to be going to college, having lived under the same roof for so many years, doesn’t lack these few months.

For the nagging voice of middle-aged women, Gu Weijing adopted an in-one-ear-and-out-the-other attitude.

As he tied his tie, he immersed himself in his own world, pondering how to finally lift that last veil and push the emotional expression to a deeper level.

He hadn’t thought for long,

before the noise of cousin Gu Lin asking for money interrupted his contemplation.

”Mom, I need some money for school, can I take 150,000 Myanmar Kyat from your wallet?”

”150,000 Myanmar Kyat?”

Aunt frowned, glancing at her daughter rummaging through the wallet in the jacket on the clothes rack.

”Are you all going to tutoring classes?”

”Some classmates are having a party, rented a villa for a party by Yangon River, with only a 150,000 Myanmar Kyat drink fee per person.”

Gu Lin casually said, ”It’s very cheap, almost everyone will go. You can ask my brother if I’m lying.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Weijing glanced at his phone.

Last night he seemed to see many people talking about the party in the grade chat group.

He was busy drawing and didn’t look closely.

Now he flipped through the history and indeed found a related message.

13th Grade - Miao Angwen: [After school on Friday, I’m hosting a party at the Seaside Holiday Village north of Yangon Bridge. Everyone is welcome to join. (B.Y.O.B—75 USD or 150,000 Myanmar Kyat)]

”Someone’s throwing a party?”

Gu Weijing wasn’t surprised by this news. There’s always a wealthy kid organizing various parties at school.

As a classic aspect of western campus life, party culture is embedded in many aspects of Fitz International Middle School.

There are music parties, Halloween costume parties, May flower lover’s day dances, all part of the broader party culture.

The so-called B.Y.O.B is an abbreviation for a western party format, taking the initials of Bring Your Own Beer, meaning to bring your own drinks.

This kind of party is common among various student parties or big company lunch events.

The host provides food and music, and attendees just need to bring their own beer or juice drinks.

In schools in Europe and America, wealthy kids hosting large parties mostly follow the B.Y.O.B model.

In Myanmar, however, there’s a local twist. You don’t need to bring your alcohol, just pay separately for the drinks (beer).

It’s not that the hosts can’t afford to supply drinks, mostly it’s to avoid trouble.

In Southeast Asia, drug issues are significant, and underage drinking is strictly prohibited by law.

Myanmar is considered lenient,

next door in Thailand, underage drinking can land you in juvenile detention, and in East Asia, where shows like ”Love of Siam” were popular, all drinking-related scenes are blurred and banned.

In Myanmar, drinking at home might not get you in trouble, but this kind of group party providing alcohol can easily attract police attention.

The greater risk is the rampant drug issue in Yangon.

Some trouble-making students engage in wilder things than you’d expect.

Even in strict Fitz, periodically someone is caught using drugs on campus and expelled.

What if someone spikes drinks with hallucinogens, gets reported, and it gets traced back, whose responsibility is it?

Imagine if the party host gets taken away halfway through the event.

So now, when the rich kids in international schools host parties or birthdays, they entrust them to specialized commercial party service providers.

Contractors provide the venue, music, and other entertainment facilities, also supply juice drinks.

Then they subcontract smaller teams to sell beer and drinks.

When you pay the B.Y.O.B fee, the drinks at the venue are essentially treated as your own private purchase, circumventing legal risks.

The cost generally correlates with the party’s tier, the Seaside Holiday Village north of Yangon Bridge consists of a series of finely decorated water view villas.

Built specifically for parties,

they feature infinity pools, water slides, professional DJs, and if you want, you can even hire professional singers and bikini dancers as ambiance crew.

Even Jerry, a top Fitz second-generation wealthy kid, when throwing a banquet party, it’s only at this tier, only inviting his basketball circle and pretty girls from the cheerleading squad.

For someone like this dude inviting nearly a hundred students from the art classes combined with regular classes... he’s like a little emperor with such extravagance.

Booking such a venue costs a lot of money,

the 75 USD entrance fee is really just a formality, barely covering the cost of two kegs of Munich draft beer.

Indeed,

this sensational news stirred the class group instantly.

[Miao Angwen... I appreciate your sense of humor, but it’s not April Fools’ yet, right?]

[North of Yangon Bridge, Seaside Holiday Village? Is this for real, that costs a lot. Miao, did you sell your house?]

[Trying to show off, gone crazy trying, making up such stories, really boring.]

In Gu Weijing’s memory, this Miao Angwen is a skinny and dark fellow in the class.

He has good drawing skills, but at Fitz’s kind of environment, he can only be considered lowly.

Just like the old me, almost entirely at the bottom of the campus, frequently even hanging out with some well-off kids at school, running errands and ghostwriting for them to make money.

In this pyramid-structured society like Yangon, a week’s pocket money for those rich kids might be more than what an ordinary family earns.

Unfortunately, Miao isn’t a beauty, couldn’t become a sugar baby with open legs and abundant wealth.

In the student’s hierarchy of contempt, he’s always on the lower rung.

He wants to host a party?

And at a place like Seaside Holiday Village?