Chapter 3: Mona Lisa (Added for the Operation Officer + Silver Meng @ Blue Tears Against the Wind)_4

Zong Yi was both excited and regretful, clutching Meng Xin Zhi's hand and swinging it as she said, "You remember, don't you, sis? The purple dress I touched, it got moldy the following year."

"Uh... that did happen."

Meng Xin Zhi could not remember whether Zong Yi had touched the purple princess dress, let alone if any had become moldy.

All she wanted was to seize every opportunity to prevent her sister from being misled by movies.

"It's so interesting, so that's why," Mona Lisa "is so expensive, because Da Vinci was messing with the paint and touching it randomly, aha!" Zong Yi happily spun in circles, "Hahaha, that definitely does increase the maintenance cost, just like I often increase Mom's burden."

Finally, Zong Yi's logic was consistent.

She laughed in classical scales and went downstairs to sleep happily.

She left Meng Xin Zhi, who had watched "The Da Vinci Code" over a dozen times, in a daze on the fifth-floor rooftop.

She did not believe there was a real Da Vinci code.

In Meng Xin Zhi's opinion, the study of Da Vinci's paintings in the movie was like the study of "Dream of the Red Chamber"; many details were overanalyzed.

Like the theory that Jia Baoyu is the emperor's illegitimate son, or even the crown prince.

And the so-called "fake Baoyu" is actually the "real Baoyu."

Whether it's ceaseless debates over "The Da Vinci Code" or endless arguments about "Dream of the Red Chamber".

It's all about treating a novel as historical fact.

In the eyes of Meng Xin Zhi, who has a background in cultural relics and museum studies, this approach is completely meaningless.

If you speak of historical fact, of belief, she only believes in unearthed cultural relics.

History is past, only cultural relics can restore the truth, or at least, a part of the truth.

Yet, strangely,

she often had bizarre dreams.

Like after watching "The Da Vinci Code," she dreamed about Mona Lisa.

About Madam Lisa the person, not the painting.

In the dream, Madam Lisa sang for her.

Meng Xin Zhi had never heard such a beautiful voice in real life.

Or like after visiting "The Picture of the Rhapsody on the Goddess Luo" at the Liaoning Museum, she dreamed about the love entanglements of Cao Zhi and the Goddess Luo.

In her dream, she danced with the Goddess Luo over the water, pondering why there was so much unrequited love in the world.

It was quite fantastical.

But everything in the dream was too real.

Reasons like Da Vinci's paintings being harder to preserve due to paint mixing issues than those from the same period were ones she learned communicating with Madam Lisa in her dreams.

At that time, Meng Xin Zhi was just six years old and illiterate.

In her daily life, there was no way for her to have come across such information.

Two years later, on her first overseas trip with her father, they went to the Louvre Museum, and she made a point of seeing the "little" "Mona Lisa."

She just wanted to see and didn't expect any answers.

Like most tourists, after briefly admiring it and hastily snapping a photo, she was ready to leave.

However, as she was about to leave, she inadvertently got a piece of information from a Chinese-speaking staff member.

It's a fact that "Mona Lisa's" maintenance costs are far higher than those of other paintings.

Issues with Da Vinci's paint mixing are indeed one of the reasons for the high cost of maintaining his masterpieces.

The staff member also specifically cited "The Last Supper."

He said that Da Vinci did not like to use fresco paints that had been widely used since the Middle Ages while painting.

Instead, he used his own "organic" new paints mixed with eggs and milk.

This caused many severely flaked areas of his paintings to be beyond complete restoration.

The staff member's words could be perfectly aligned with the information Madam Lisa had given her in her dream.

As a result, Meng Xin Zhi began to pay special attention to her dreams.

She dreamed of Madam Lisa again later on.

At that time, she was already in high school.

Perhaps it was because she had listened to her father sing "Who is Mona Lisa?" all night long.

Then she dreamed about it because it was on her mind during the day.

In her dream, Madam Lisa told her that Mona Lisa's identity was different from all subsequent speculations.

Madam Lisa said she was a singer with a voice like the heavens, just as Meng Xin Zhi had heard the first time she dreamed about her.

Madam Lisa also said that she and Da Vinci shared a mutual appreciation for music.

She was the first to usher Da Vinci into Florence's artistic sanctum.

It was she who made Da Vinci's looks and talents known to the people of Florence.

They were confidants for life.

Therefore, Da Vinci would take her portrait with him wherever he went.

Even when he left Florence to become a court painter in France in his later years, it was the same.

Indeed, in the dream, Mona Lisa told Meng Xin Zhi that Da Vinci initially rose to prominence in Florence as an attractive musician.

Not as a painter, not as a scientist, but as a musician.

And the emphasis was on handsome, very handsome, incredibly handsome.

After waking up, Meng Xin Zhi researched extensively in the library.

No source could provide a clear answer to the question of who Mona Lisa was.

But the fact that Da Vinci was handsome when he was young and debuted as a musician turned out to be true!

The historical Da Vinci was not only a great singer,

but his skill in playing the flute and the lyre was also extraordinary.

It really confirmed the phrase from "Dream of the Red Chamber"—when falsehood is taken for truth, truth becomes false; where nothing can be made to derive from something.

These dreams also solidified Meng Xin Zhi's determination to study cultural relics and museum studies in university.