noffsinger 443: We've been set up.
443: We've been set up.
Qiao Ming looked at it again in disbelief.
He shook his head, his brows furrowed, and took a step back, bumping into the sofa.
"Impossible, this video must be AI-generated!"
The manager was startled by his words, especially when he felt Xiao Musheng's gaze sweep over him. He became even more nervous and immediately retorted.
"Don't talk nonsense. Take a good look at my video. There's not a trace of AI here."
His second master was still standing there. Was Qiao Ming deliberately trying to mess with him?
The manager now strongly suspects that this person was sent by his competitor with the aim of ousting him.
But Qiao Ming's appearance didn't quite match up. He himself was shocked, his face turned deathly pale, as if he was unwilling to accept this fact.
"You must be an AI, otherwise why didn't you show me before?"
He seemed to be trying to convince himself.
The manager was extremely helpless after hearing this: "If anyone can watch the surveillance footage whenever they want, wouldn't that be chaos? I wouldn't need to come to work every day; I could just stay in the monitoring room and show you the footage."
What is the status of Yue Du Tai? It's one of the top auction houses in the country. If they could just show the surveillance footage to whoever wanted to, what kind of prestige would that have?
Normally, if someone wants to view the surveillance footage, they either need to have permission or the police need to come to investigate.
"how so……"
Qiao Ming looked utterly defeated, muttering to himself as if he had lost his soul.
Seeing his expression, the manager finally realized that the person in front of him might not actually be faking it.
A bold yet reasonable conjecture popped into his mind, which could explain what happened to Qiao Ming.
Thinking of this, he lowered his head and asked Xiao Musheng in a low voice, "Second Master, was he set up?"
Xiao Musheng gave a faint "hmm," as if he already knew.
"Nine times out of ten."
It's practically a certainty.
The manager's gaze toward Qiao Ming suddenly turned pitiful.
If that gilded bronze Buddha statue were real, it would be worth at least six million today.
He had seen Qiao Ming's profile; the man came from an ordinary family, and six million was not a small sum for him.
However, it is precisely because they are an ordinary family, yet they possess a gold and bronze Buddha statue worth over six million yuan, that they have attracted the attention of others.
There are too many such cases. Since it has been confirmed that it has nothing to do with Moon Crossing Platform, there is no need for them to get involved in the rest.
The manager planned to send someone to safely take him home and hand him over to his family once he calmed down a bit, so that he wouldn't do anything rash on the way.
They've been causing trouble at the Moon Crossing Platform for so long; they've done more than enough.
The second master didn't say anything and kept watching the surveillance footage, leaving the manager somewhat puzzled about his thoughts.
For those of them who work under someone else, they need to be good at figuring out what their boss is thinking. If they happen to guess correctly, the opportunity for promotion and a raise may come their way.
Xiao Musheng leaned back on the sofa, placing the tablet computer that housed the surveillance cameras on his long legs.
He heard intermittent crying, but he seemed not to hear it. He picked up a lighter and lit a cigarette.
"Alright, stop crying,"
As the crying grew louder, Xiao Musheng glanced at him, felt sorry for him, and said a few words to him.
Where do you usually keep your Buddha statue?
Qiao Ming raised his face, looking haggard and visibly distraught.
Upon hearing Xiao Musheng's words, he replied with a look of utter despair, "No one but me can open the safe."
Xiao Musheng flicked his cigarette ash and slowly asked, "Then why did you suddenly want to bring it over for appraisal?"
"Yes, it's my brother-in-law. He said he wanted me to come and have it appraised to see how much it's worth."
Xiao Musheng turned the computer screen on his lap so it was facing him.
He stubbed out his cigarette, bent his knuckles, and tapped a man's name on the screen with a muffled, short, and crisp sound.
He just paused the surveillance footage. The footage that was paused was from more than half a month ago, when Qiao Ming first came to Yue Du Tai with the Buddha statue to have it appraised.
At that time, besides him, there was another man standing next to him.
"It's him, isn't it?" Xiao Musheng asked.
"Yes, this is my brother-in-law. We came together that day..."
Qiao Ming's mind went blank for a moment. He didn't know why Xiao Musheng was asking these irrelevant questions. He looked at him with a puzzled expression, waiting for him to continue, but Xiao Musheng remained silent.
After a few seconds of silence, he hesitantly asked, "Sir, do you mean it has something to do with my brother-in-law?"
This guy is a complete idiot; no wonder he's being targeted.
Xiao Musheng remained noncommittal. Qiao Ming was getting anxious, but he couldn't tell what was wrong from Xiao Musheng's face. So he turned to the manager with a pleading look on his face.
Manager: "..." Second Master has already gone this far.
As someone skilled at reading his superiors' minds, he realized that the Second Master intended to give this person a hint, so he spoke up directly.
“Mr. Qiao, your brother-in-law is indeed a prime suspect. Even if he wasn’t the one who took the Buddha statue in the end, he is definitely someone who knew about it.”
That fake was a very good imitation; it was clearly premeditated.
The person who made the move must have known that Qiao Ming had this Buddha statue, or perhaps they had seen it before and then got the idea.
He may have taken a photo, secretly had a fake statue made based on the photo, and then waited for the opportunity to switch the statue with the real one.
Qiao Ming himself just said that the Buddha statue is usually kept in a safe, and only he can open it.
In order to complete the exchange, he needed to find a reason to get Qiao Ming to open the safe and take out the real item.
His brother-in-law fits both criteria perfectly, and judging from his encouragement of Qiao Ming to appraise the Buddha statue, he is highly suspicious.
Furthermore, he and Qiao Ming came to Yue Du Tai together at the time, and there was plenty of time to switch places along the way, so he was certain.
The manager has seen many such cases; those who can orchestrate these kinds of schemes are mostly people close to him.