please don't believe me

Even though everyone thinks that the "announcement letter" is just a prank, Selawi has also made contingency plans in order to ensure the safety of the industry's reputation.

That is to completely transform this "accident" into—at least in the eyes of outsiders—a performance promotion arrangement at the Selawi Theater.

Although the story of the strange thief can bring many legends, and may even push Serawi to the top of the national topic; but it cannot be denied that the "success" of the strange thief is bound to severely damage Serawi, breaking its consistent "indestructible" image of.The Seravi security system, which can be broken through by one's own efforts, will definitely shake the cooperation between collectors and Seravi.

Therefore, Chris, the helm of Serrawi, finally decided to abandon the opportunity to push this auction to the top of the legend in order to seek longer-term development.

What's more, weaving the auction itself into a bizarre story may not make Selawi famous.

The above is the whole set of ideas that Chris quickly expanded after the young David put forward the simple "birdcage idea".

In the contingency plan decided, the auctioneer, blue skirt dancer, band conductor and an audience sitting in the front row are all "observers".These four are the closest people to "Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea" from all angles, and they can fully control every change of the painting.When they find that any accident happened or is about to happen in the painting, they have the right to immediately send out a specific signal, so that the entire Serawi Theater will enter the chapter of "The Advent of the Strange Thief".

Turning off the lights, lowering the birdcage, turning on the lights, and disappearing the painting, the audience has an illusion about the length of time in the darkness and panic; the sound of the iron chain running and the huge movement of the birdcage hitting the ground make them almost think that the cage will disappear when the lights go dark. Cover the easel.However, the "Phantom Thief" was not blocked at this point. In the darkness where it was difficult for others to move forward, he successfully avoided the interception of the birdcage. "The Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea" seemed to disappear out of thin air between darkness and light.

Now, no one has come out to explain what happened just now, only the birdcage and the empty easel stand in the light, facing everyone's discussions.The band finished playing the song "Shadow" smoothly, and the ending variation style changed, and the last song sung by the blue skirt dancer sounded again.Although there was only pure music this time, people could still hear a little taste.

"That girl... went to 'a place only we know'."

Below the stage, several security personnel were nervously guarding a table, constantly looking towards the entrance and exit of this space.During the auction, it was forbidden to enter and exit, so not only the side of this table, but also a security guard at the entrance and exit.

The entrance door was opened by the security guards outside, and Chris' figure finally appeared.He didn't even wear a coat, and strode in, followed by the secretary and the young assistant.

The boss looked very gloomy, and asked as he walked, "What's the problem?"

"Mr. Chris." A team leader let him go to the table, "After the lifting platform came down, we put the painting here directly. Come and see."

The young man followed Chris to the table and looked around.I saw that "Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea" was being put on display, everything was in good condition, printed with dim light, and there were words under the frame.

It was a short word of a few letters, written by hand.Each letter straddles the pattern on the frame, and the uneven frame makes the notes crooked, and the height of each letter almost fills the entire width of the frame.

"'F'..." the young man whispered, "'Fake'?"

"Has it been changed?" the secretary muttered, "No, maybe it hasn't been changed..."

Chris picked up the painting and handed it to the secretary: "Arrange inspection immediately."

"Okay, Mr. Chris." The secretary hugged the painting, "Is it just to check the authenticity of the painting? Do you need to do anything else..."

"First remove the painting to check its authenticity, and keep the frame well."

"understood."

Chris turned to young David: "Call all the 'observers' and confirm that the scene related to this painting will be sealed off."

The youth asked: "Does it include the VIP corridor?"

"Yes...no." Chris squinted his eyes, obviously remembering that there was an "annoying" VIP there, "I will go to the VIP corridor myself."

"Okay, Mr. Chris."

At 06:30 in the evening, the auction had already ended.All the audience and even some of the staff have left the Selavi Theatre, and the rest, except for the security personnel guarding the entrance and exit, are in the office of the director of the theater—or outside the office door.

The young David stood at the door of the office and put four "observers" in to talk to Chris one by one.Rather than saying that he is responsible for opening and closing the door here, it is better to say that he is supervising these people to prevent them from colluding with "confessions".

After all, these four people were the closest to the painting at the time of the auction.Whether intentional or unintentional, Chris does not want others to interfere with what they see, hear, and think, especially not to let the person who talks first throw questions to those who have not talked in advance.Perhaps knowing the question in advance can answer the question more comprehensively, but something strange happened, and what Chris needed was a subconscious and direct reaction.

In the office, Chris sat at the desk, and the auctioneer sat across from him to accept his inquiries.On the sofa at the other end of the office, the secretary was getting together with two art appraisal experts to appraise the painting that was marked as a "fake".

"I understand." Chris leaned against the back of the chair, with his arms half resting on the armrests, and his fingers intertwined. "I don't have any other questions for now. Do you have anything to add?"

The auctioneer said, "No more, Mr. Chris."

"If you have anything to add, feel free to come to me." Chris waved his hand, "You can go back today first."

The auctioneer stood up, said goodbye, and left the office.Taking advantage of this gap, the secretary came over, leaned over and whispered something in Chris's ear.Even though Chris had been prepared in his heart, he still frowned when he heard the result.

The young man opened the door and poked his head in to have a look. The secretary waved at him, and the young man retracted knowingly and closed the door.

Chris stood up and walked around the desk: "Is it possible to judge the approximate range of the painter?"

The secretary thought to himself that only the police would "portrait" the suspect, but this matter must never be reported to the police.He followed Chris, winked at the two art experts who were looking over, and signaled them to answer Chris's question.

"No." One of them replied, "Imitation works have too few personal characteristics, and the imitators are probably not known to the general public."

"I understand, thank you very much for your help." Chris came over and shook hands with them one by one, "This is a big matter, I hope that no unnecessary words will come out of your mouths."

Both of them are frequent visitors to the Selawi industry, and they understand Chris' nature, so they agreed to his request.

The secretary saw the two experts off, and by the way called the band conductor outside the office.The assistant young David pointed to himself and silently asked if there was anything else to be done.

The secretary himself wasn't sure if there was one, but he didn't dare to let people go at a time like this, so he could only let the assistant stay where he was.

After sending people back, what the secretary saw was the young man half lying on the waiting sofa.

"Has anyone come out?"

Who is the "person" in these words referring to? The young assistant didn't ask at all, and replied directly: "No."

The secretary sat down beside him: "Tired?"

"A little bit." The young man got up and sat up straight, wiped his face, "I've been tense lately, I didn't expect something to happen today."

The secretary looked at the closed office door: "There is still work to do."

"Guess." The young man sighed, "The person in charge of the theater has finished checking the press release...will you come back?"

"Then it depends on where the boss puts the battlefield tonight."

The young man leaned closer to the secretary and asked in a low voice: "When I saw the two appraisers leave, they didn't look like they had good news?"

The secretary glanced at him and didn't speak, but the young man knew that this was the default.

"What's going on? I sound like the one in the audience who gave the signal first?"

"Indeed." He probably thought that the young man would find out sooner or later anyway, and the secretary didn't hide it too much." He said that while he was staring at the auction, he suddenly noticed something vaguely wrong with the frame. At first he thought it was because of the lighting, but the handwriting It became more and more obvious that there seemed to be commotion around him. So, he raised his cards."

"Hold the sign" is the secret signal of this "observer".When he raised his card, it was not an auction bid, but his belief that an immediate emergency should be entered.

So after the auctioneer reported his number, the lights went out, and the orchestra pit, birdcage, and lifting platform started up one after another.

"There is commotion around him!" The young man said in amazement, "So he's not the only one who saw it? I'm afraid we can't hide it."

"Maybe it's just some people in the front row who are different. After all, not everyone can read this word clearly." The secretary replied, "The risk of news leaking is indeed great, but the boss intends to insist that it's just a performance by Selawi."

Yes, Selawi’s explanation is one version, and the gossip is another version. This is what an urban legend should be.The young man smiled silently, and asked again: "That word has never been there before, and it gradually appeared after the auction... Should we check it?"

The secretary replied: "The boss will not ignore the things we all think of. Sealing the picture frame separately may mean checking."

The two were chatting when the conductor of the band came out of the office. He saw the two talking outside, closed the door with his hands behind his back and pointed inside: "I'm calling you."

The secretary wiped his face and stood up: "Let's go, this is just the beginning."

The young man let out a long sigh of relief while leaning on the sofa, and then stood up: "It seems that I have to remind the boss that it's dinner time."

The secretary glanced at him with a half-smile: "He still has the mood to eat now? Speaking of which, you reminded me of today's breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is much more useful than that assistant before."

As Chris' order agent, the secretary's words sometimes meant what Chris meant.In the past, Chris said, "If there is an opportunity in two months, I will keep someone in Selavi." Now the secretary directly says, "It is more useful than the previous assistant." It seems that it means to let the young people completely replace the original assistant.

The young man who has always been able to understand a little is pretending to be confused at this moment, just laughing: "No matter how busy you are, you still have to eat if you lose your appetite? You can't fight a protracted war with a hungry stomach."

Besides, it's just the beginning for you, but most of the way for me has already gone through.

Your protracted battle has less than 48 hours left for me.