Almighty painter

Chapter 658 The Godfather

“The other party is very professional.”

Uncle Ale rewound the video on his phone and pointed to the midday news playing on TV in the background.

The reason for broadcasting the midday news is definitely not because the kidnappers were distracted by current political events while recording the ransom video.

All TV stations broadcast programs at fixed times.

The purpose of the other party doing this is to prove that this video was not recorded in advance. At least it can show that Gu Lin was definitely still alive when the news was broadcast.

This is just a small detail.

However, novice kidnappers often do not pay attention to these details. Only experienced veterans will be so familiar with all the processes.

"Is this a good thing? Or a bad thing?"

Katsuko Sakai asked.

"For the police to solve the case, facing professional kidnappers is certainly a bad thing, but for the family members, it depends on the situation." The female bodyguard replied.

The bodyguard's job involves providing professional advice to the employer in such situations, and she has received relevant professional training.

"Family members are different from the police. What they care about most is the safety of the kidnapped persons, not the law, justice or anything else. Compromising with the criminals and letting them get what they want is a disgrace to the dignity of the judiciary, but it is a feasible option for the family members. Some professional kidnapping gangs, including pirates, have been engaged in related criminal activities for many years, so they pay more attention to..."

She chose her words carefully.

"Create a brand image." Uncle Alai said with his usual dry humor.

"Uh, yes, you can describe it that way. They pay attention to the brand image of the criminal group." The bodyguard shrugged. "They all have their own fixed crime patterns and often commit crimes multiple times in the local area. Therefore, in order to ensure that they kidnap high-value hostages every time, the family members will pay the money obediently. These professional kidnapping gangs may be willing to be more 'honest' and release the person immediately as long as they receive the money."

Katsuko Sakai nodded.

The female bodyguard saw the meaning in her expression and shook her head with a wry smile. "You didn't understand what I meant. I said that some professional criminal groups would pay attention to the so-called 'rules', but this is Myanmar."

"What do you mean? This is Myanmar. Is Myanmar different?" Miss Katsuko was puzzled.

"The reason why criminal groups are willing to be honest is not because they are all good citizens with good morals, or righteous underworld brothers. They are cunning, they do evil, and they are capable of all kinds of evil. The only morality of criminals is that they have no morality. The reason they are willing to be honest is only because of the pressure from the police and from violent agencies. The kidnappers do not want the desperate family members to seek help from the police, and they try to avoid unnecessary confrontation and conflict as much as possible. Therefore, they are willing to talk about some basic "honesty." Uncle Ale said.

"But this is Myanmar, and the local police are notoriously powerless to deal with similar cases. Tens of thousands of similar cases occur every year, so the criminal groups here have formed another industrial model. They don't care about police searches at all, and they don't make money by 'honesty'. They make money by the despair of the families."

"To these people, the hostages they hold are like pigs locked in a cellar."

"They ask for a sky-high price, starting with a million dollars. They don't care whether the family can afford it or how much they can give. They just slowly drain the money. Maybe the family can give 50,000, or maybe 150,000. But even if you really give a million dollars, the other party may not release the person honestly."

Uncle Alai looked down at the windowsill, the stone slabs on the windowsill reflected his black crystal eyes.

"Perhaps they will sell the pigs to other 'kidnapping parks', or maybe they will call again after two days and continue to ask the family members to pay money. You will hear the family members crying and telling you how much pain they are in, begging you to do what the kidnappers say. If you don't pay or hang up, you will soon receive videos of your family members being whipped, locked in a water dungeon, having their nails pulled out, or being raped in turns."

"One hundred thousand, fifty thousand, ten thousand, or even two or three thousand yuan, it's all fine. No matter how much or how little the family members beg, as long as they pay every time, it's fine. They will do it slowly, just like bleeding a pig, slowly draining the blood of a family in the long torture and despair of the family members."

Katsuko Sakai understood what Uncle Ale meant.

It doesn't matter how much the other party offers.

Because this is just like in some private hospitals, where family members spend money on their vegetative children who are intubated in the ICU.

Confused and helpless, wasting money and feeling heartbroken and desperate.

Everyone knew clearly that letting go was the best choice, but the parents just couldn't bear it and told the doctor to remove the feeding tube and watched him starve to death little by little.

It was a despair that could not be described in words.

People looked at the thin, gaunt, yet extremely familiar face on the hospital bed.

They don’t even know whether, deep in their hearts, they should hope that he “hold on and hug mom and dad again” or “die quickly”.

Even without considering money.

They also don't know which one is better for the children.

I can only struggle in vain day by day, using the empty probability of a miracle happening in ten thousand to deceive myself that there is still hope.

People can only survive by relying on hope?

Is not it.

The same goes for this kidnapping gang. What they squeeze out is a family's hope, draining it dry and leaving a riverbed of despair.

In the end, the family members had actually become numb.

But when your child is crying and begging you on the other end of the phone, is being slapped, and begging, "Mom, Mom, it hurts," do you really have the heart to hang up?

They knew it was a bottomless pit, but they still mechanically transferred the money they raised.

Tens of thousands, thousands, or hundreds.

Both sides know that even if the money is paid, it will not make them release the child. The family members may not expect this anymore, they just hope that these few hundred dollars can allow the child to have one or two meals and two or three nights of undisturbed sleep.

That's it.

In the very end, maybe the family members finally stopped receiving calls, maybe they really gave up, or maybe they were completely drained.

And then... there was no news about this person at all.

Maybe he is dead.

Maybe she has become one of the tens of millions of people trafficked internationally, becoming a child prostitute, a laborer, or a human mule carrying drugs inside her body.

Maybe worse.

……

Gu Weijing didn't say anything.

He just stared at his phone quietly, as if he was in a trance.

It was too abrupt.

Why did it happen now? Just wait a little longer, a week longer, no, just a few days longer. They would be on a plane and starting a new life.

His cousin will go to study at university in the UK, his grandfather will go to be the "great painter Gu" he longs for, and Gu Weijing himself will fly to Singapore with Shengzi to attend the art exhibition.

This was his first international biennial in his life, and perhaps it was also a turning point in his destiny.

If he is lucky enough, he might become Master Cao's last disciple.

If he is lucky enough, he may be able to hold a private exhibition in the Louvre in Abu Dhabi next year. The Louvre in Abu Dhabi is also a Louvre, which is an honor that many painters can only look up to but cannot touch in their lifetime.

And he was only eighteen years old, and by then, only nineteen.

If he is lucky enough and everything goes well... maybe when he is eighty years old and looks back on his life, he will find that he has become a respected figure in the art world like Mr. Cao, and a great painter worthy of being recorded in the history of art.

Oh, yes, it seems like a gift from fate to him.

When he arrived at the studio today, he received a sample issue of "Asian Art" and his and Katsuko's paper was published on the cover of the journal.

If nothing unexpected happens, if he can write such a paper, perhaps even Mr. Cao will look at him with admiration after knowing it.

Sir Brown once attacked Detective Cat for "not understanding what art is", but now he has this AHCI-level cover paper as a foundation.

Even in the serious art academic world.

Not to mention being on par with Sir Brown, but from now on, the name Gu Weijing can be regarded as "number one figure".

These were his dreams as a child, weren't they?

Once upon a time, such a life was something Gu Weijing could only dare to fantasize about in his dreams, but now, it seemed that everything was finally becoming within reach.

Miss Sakai said, let your heart tell yourself, I'm ready.

Just when he woke up this morning, Gu Weijing looked out the window at the rain and fog on the Yangon River. He just felt that he could calmly say to himself in the window, "Hey, Gu Weijing, I'm ready."

And when he took out the sample issue of his thesis from the airmail bag in the studio, he was filled with joy for a moment, thinking that he had changed from Nobody to Somebody.

it's time.

He is ready to face a new life and a new life.

He has gone from being an unknown person who was ignored by everyone to a warrior who walks onto the world stage with his head held high.

It just happened at this moment.

Just at this moment when a beautiful life was waving at him across the street, Gu Weijing received such a phone call, which put everything on pause.

It's really abrupt.

It's so abrupt that it's ridiculous.

This is as ridiculous as the beggar Zhu Yuanzhang standing on the bow of a warship on Poyang Lake, watching Chen Youliang's navy being engulfed in flames and fleeing in the blaze. He had already felt the call of fate, but was shot right in the heart by an arrow that came from nowhere.

of course.

Maybe the world is absurd.

Gu Weijing recalled Fitz's world history textbook. Nelson, a famous admiral of the British Royal Navy, defeated the offensive of the Franco-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar and saved the British Isles. At the same time as he was crowned the greatest naval commander in the history of the British Empire, he was killed by a random shot from the French fleet during its retreat.

A British foreign teacher who teaches world history once quoted four-star General Patton's words with deep emotion in class - "The best destination for a general is to be killed by the last bullet in the last battle." to commemorate this legendary British ancestor.

Even if this is true, then death would occur at the moment the war ends.

Whether it was winning honor or dying a worthy death, the general had witnessed his own end.

What does it mean to have your knee broken by a cold gun before you even step onto the battlefield? Is that the most unfortunate outcome?
If Nelson had seen the masts of the Franco-Spanish fleet's warships appear on the distant horizon through the telescope, ordered his flagship "Victory" to lead the column in the attack, and sent out the famous flag signal "England expects every man of its people to do his duty", he would have been immediately shot through the spine by a flying lead bullet.

Think about it.

It would be difficult for this "Napoleon of the Sea" to utter "God and my country" as his last words in a very heroic manner and then die peacefully with his medals on his head. Instead, he would die with his eyes wide open and full of resentment, right?
This is how Gu Weijing feels at this moment.

Eating hotpot and singing songs, everything was fine. They were about to head to the next stop of their glorious destiny, and then his cousin was kidnapped by kidnappers.

Gu Weijing suddenly laughed, and his laughter was filled with helplessness and relief.

He knew this couldn't be a coincidence.

Is not it?
Just when I was about to leave Yangon, my family disappeared. How could such a coincidence happen in the world?

Moreover, one million dollars, considering the habits of local kidnapping gangs, this price is too high, isn't it? Aren't they afraid of scaring away the family members?
Even though their family is relatively wealthy locally, they are not rich enough to spend one million dollars.

How could an ordinary kidnapper control the time and the price so skillfully?

Not only Gu Weijing knew this.

In fact, Koko and Uncle Alai, everyone knows what the situation is. They are just waiting for Gu Weijing to make a choice.

The sun was already setting on the horizon.

Bright orange sun, deep blue sky, fiery red clouds.

Three colors are layered alternately in the sky.

Twisted, enchanting, and gorgeous.

Gu Weijing was actually a little distracted in his thoughts. He suddenly thought that if someone painted the sunset in the same way as Van Gogh's "Starry Night", it would probably look like this.

Koko looked at Gu Weijing quietly. She seemed to want to say something but didn't know how to start.

The girl's chin moved gently like a kitten's.

Every time she lowered her head, the small metal grass-leaf hairpin on her hair tied behind her ear made a very slight tinkling sound.

Ding ding, ding ding, ding ding…

In the quiet studio, it's like a wind chime knocking on your heart.

Gu Weijing turned his head and nodded to her, signaling her to be at ease. He then turned to look at Shengzi and thought for a moment. He felt that he should not hide such a big thing from his girlfriend.

He made a gesture to Miss Sakai to keep quiet, then took out his cell phone and dialed a number in his address book.

Gu Weijing picked up the phone and pressed the speakerphone.
-
"—— Johnny Fontane sat on the ground. He was once a popular star in Hollywood, a well-known artist admired by everyone. But now, the humiliation and nausea overwhelmed him. But before long, the grassroots resilience that helped him survive in the jungle of Hollywood made him pick up the phone and call a car to take him to the airport.

Someone can save him.

He was going back to New York, he was going back to the one man who had power, wisdom, and trust. His godfather, his "Don"... Mr. Vito Corleone.

The middle-aged man stood by the window, turning the thick pages of the novel in his hand. The words "The Godfather" were written on the gold-stamped cover of the book.

This is the first edition of Mario Puzo's novel, published in 1969, from which the famous film "The Godfather" was adapted.

After the man became successful, he bought the book for $56,000 at a charity auction in New York.

(End of this chapter)