The next three days were calm and nothing happened.
——At least on someone’s side, that’s true.
Morning: Morning exercises, boxing, and maintaining the status of elderly friends in the community. Just chatting with Mr. Yang and the others and doing household chores. Then go home, wash up early, rest, and go out to do business.
During the day: basically just visit the store, plus have lunch. The location of the meal is not determined, it mainly depends on the amount of ingredients purchased the night before. If you have more, bring your own lunch, if not more, choose a national chain restaurant giant near the piano store, Shaxian Lanzhou
Braised chicken, rice, etc., just take a bite.
Oh, sometimes Xiao Cao, who runs a tattoo parlor upstairs, comes down to buy cigarettes. He passes by and talks nonsense, and they talk about the weird customers they have met recently.
Evening: When you get off work, this time is not necessarily the same. It mainly depends on your mood at that time. If you are in a good mood, close early, if you are in a bad mood, close early... Okay, just kidding. If someone considers himself to be very responsible, he usually closes the door.
It's all around six or seven o'clock, which coincides with the time when the little girl got out of school.
On the way back, I stopped by the market. It doesn’t matter what I buy. The important thing is to hone my bargaining skills and not let them go to waste. After finishing, I enter the community and pass by the brightly lit square, where I may stop to enjoy the square dance of the aunts, or approach the roadside chess stall.
, after saying hello and pointing fingers with the onlookers, he was finally kicked out and went home to cook.
Late night snack: running at night, occasionally having itchy hands and hammering sandbags, then sleeping.
The above is someone's general itinerary for a day, which is basically an ordinary daily itinerary. It goes over and over again, and it will not change easily.
It is true that no sudden changes occurred, including the unlucky Uncle Jianping who was first kidnapped and then changed hands. There has also been no news in the past few days.
The problem lies here!
The current situation is obviously not suitable for the saying "no news is good news". But no matter what the plan is, the prerequisite is to know who the other party is and who to contact.
However, the current actual situation is that we only know that the other party is Filipino pirates, but the specific group of pirates, where they are based, the name of the leader, where the hostage Xie Jianping is currently being held, etc., are all in the dark.
How can we act now? We can only be patient and continue to wait.
The Tang Dynasty had no better way to deal with this. If they were West African pirates, they might be able to learn a thing or two about Southeast Asian pirates by relying on their previous connections in Europe, America, and Africa, and trying their best to find connections with smugglers or arms dealers, etc.
...It can only be said that counting on him is better than counting on Xinwen Lianbo.
As for the Xie family, I can't even point to it.
The news of Xie Jianping's kidnapping is currently only circulated among the top brass of the Xie Group, which is basically the person in charge of each branch of the Xie family. However, these people have a lot of ideas. Some people advocate paying money to ransom people directly, and they plan to contact them.
The Philippine government went out of its way to save people, and it also planned to offer huge rewards to international mercenaries... The excitement was really lively, and the chaos was really chaotic. It was really hard to see.
Of course, saying this does not mean that we have completely given up on investigating. In fact, there is still someone we can hope for, and that is the Rise of Kyushu.
As far as Tang Chao knows, the Lingjiang branch reported the situation as soon as the incident occurred, and has been continuously collecting relevant information in the past few days. Although due to time constraints, it is impossible to exclude and lock down in detail, it does exist.
Not bad progress.
This is the horror of the state machine. Compared with individuals, it is far too powerful in all aspects.
In this calm or anxious waiting, finally, on the evening of the third day, the news came.
It was still an overseas phone call, and it was called directly to Xie Wei’s mobile phone.
In addition to the fact that it took a while to confirm each other's identities when the connection was first connected, the main reason was that the other party's accent was really difficult and the English he spoke was like the language of an eagle. I could hear them calling, but I couldn't tell what they were calling...other than that,
The entire call usually lasts only about ten seconds.
There was no dialogue, just a notice, and you can imagine the general content - Xie Jianping is in their hands, and the ransom is 8 million US dollars.
Now, let’s not talk about other things for now, this is called professionalism.
Think about the Indonesian pirates who kidnapped people ashore without even thinking about asking for ransom. They were only focused on making quick money, and they looked like amateurs at first glance.
This group of Filipino pirates is different. The three-day window period after the transfer was obviously not in vain. From the sky-high ransom amount, it can be seen that the other party has gone through a background check. Regardless of whether the process is rigorous or not, at least there is
This consciousness, knowing how to read people's dishes, is the difference.
As for how the other party knew that the hostages were worth eight million US dollars... Well, I won't go into details. I feel sorry for Uncle Jianping for a second...
…
Now that the connection has been successful, the next step is naturally the negotiation. Although this is never a transaction with equal status between the buyer and the seller, it still needs to be negotiated.
For example, the most basic things include confirming the safety of the hostages, testing the other party's sincerity, and bargaining for the price, etc.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that you feel sorry for the money, but more importantly, you need to show an attitude. To put it bluntly, you can give money, but you can’t give it too quickly, lest the other party will feel regretful and suffer repeated setbacks.
These are only the most basic negotiation skills. The actual situation is more complicated and harder to grasp... In short, negotiation is a science, especially ransom negotiation, which non-professionals cannot master.
In fact, because of this matter, the Xie family successively invited several negotiation experts within a few days, and even contacted a foreign ransom delivery expert... Yes, you read that right, this profession does exist. The latter is said to have quite a lot of experience.
Rich, during the period when Somali piracy was most rampant, participated in many projects to pay ransoms to pirates...
In addition, at the same time as the negotiations were going on, there was also a team of Xie family members who were about to go to the Philippines, led by Xie Wei.
It was not difficult for people to understand in the past. After all, no matter what the outcome of the negotiation, several million US dollars would definitely be required, and it could only be in cash. With the size of the Xie family, of course they can come up with this amount of money. In fact, Xie Jianping alone
Assets are enough to pay for it.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But the problem is that the Xie family cannot directly take the money from China. They can only mobilize and raise money locally or through overseas accounts, which requires a person in charge of the Xie family to go there and take charge.
As for why it was Xie Wei, the reason is simple, she asked for it herself.
It has to be said that although Xie Wei and Xie Jianping, one is directly related to the Xie family and the other is a branch of the Xie family, they seem to be very close to each other, but the actual relationship between the two has not been affected at all.
Basically, when Xie Wei does some more important or personal things, she will think of Xie Jianping, and she has enough trust in the latter, including when she went to the southern suburbs to meet her relative, Tangdou, and she also took the latter to come out with her, which is quite impressive.
The feeling of a golden partner.
By the way, in the early stage of recognizing relatives, someone also specially studied the good relationship between the two.
From someone's point of view, the influence of family ties and bloodline is natural, and it is impossible to write two words of "thank you" in one sentence. But other than that, the more important thing is that Xie Jianping himself is enough to live up to his expectations.
As the saying goes, dragons do not live with snakes. If Xie Jianping is as mediocre in ability as those crooked members of the direct branch of the Xie family, how can the arrogant and arrogant Xie Wei be attracted to him? You must know that even if the Xie family comes from a generation ago
When asked in person, this resolute and resolute aunt sometimes doesn't even use hypocritical words...
Let’s digress and let’s get back to the topic. Xie Wei’s trip to the Philippines this time does not involve much personal risk. After all, she is only going to raise funds, and there is a dedicated person responsible for the actual delivery, so it is impossible for her to come forward.
So, on the evening of the fourth day, we were about to set off. It was still the same Kaifeng restaurant, and it was still the two-person dining table in the corner.
Xie Wei, who had just arrived, and Gao Changfeng, who had been waiting for who knew how long, sat opposite each other.
Everything seems to be the same as yesterday, but this moment is obviously different from that moment.
The most intuitive change is Xie Wei's vitality. After not seeing her for a few days, the haggard look on her beautiful face is easily visible, and the faint dark circles under her eyes cannot be suppressed even by makeup.
However, compared to the panic and anxiety last time, Xie Wei now seemed extremely calm, and even seemed a little relaxed. After sitting down, she looked at the unopened insulated paper cup on the table in front of her and asked proactively: "Give me some."
?"
"Yes, yes." Gao Changfeng still helped order something this time, a cup of coffee, "I don't know what flavor you like, Ms. Xie, so I ordered the most common American style. If you are not used to it..."
Before she finished speaking, Xie Wei had already picked up the cup and took a sip, shook her head, and said with a casual smile: "It's okay, I drank a lot of this stuff in the past few days, and I can't taste it anymore... Well, it's not bad, thank you!
"
"You're welcome." After Xie Wei took another sip and put down the cup, Gao Changfeng asked, "When are you going to the airport?"
"I'll leave later."
Nodding and being silent for a few seconds, Gao Changfeng couldn't help but said: "Have you made a decision? The situation this time is different from last time. Although we are still unable to pinpoint which group of pirates the other party is, based on analysis of known intelligence
, we still recommend that you wait. Try to let us deal with it through high-level pressure and superior negotiation, which may lead to a better result."
Xie Wei nodded slowly, then shook her head firmly: "Thank you, I'm sorry! I really can't wait any longer, and Jianping... I probably don't want to wait any longer!"
Gao Changfeng was silent after hearing this. Indeed, his method was not necessarily wrong, but the effective period was definitely not short. Then, he didn't know what he thought of, and he looked a little hesitant, but in the end he looked away and said casually: "Have you considered other ways?
Rescue, for example... using a tougher method?"
Xie Wei was startled when she heard this. She really didn't expect Gao Changfeng to say these words. When she came back to her senses, she looked at the other person lowering his head to drink coffee, and couldn't help but smile slightly. Then his expression straightened and he replied seriously,
"To be honest, Captain Gao, I have considered it, and several elders also tended to this method, but in the end I stopped them... I don't want to do anything that I'm not sure about, I just want Jianping to come back safely. Of course -
—”
After a pause, his tone was slightly cold, "If the other party takes the money but is unwilling to keep their promise, then I will let them know what it means to be tough!"
"..."
Of course, this is not a harsh word, and Xie Wei cannot do it with her character. On the contrary, since she said this, it means that she really has this plan, and maybe she even has a Plan B. Let’s take the Xie family
Her strong foundation of strength is enough to support her in successfully accomplishing most of the seemingly impossible crazy moves.
Of course, given Gao Changfeng's position, this kind of topic is obviously not suitable for further discussion. He sighed secretly and said apologetically: "Sorry, we can't provide any effective help..."
Xie Wei shook her head and interrupted: "What did Captain Gao say? This is not your responsibility in the first place. Besides, you are already helping, right?"
This is true. Whether it was informing pirate information before, or guiding Indonesian Chinese businessmen, including the suggestions just now, Gao Changfeng and even the Lingjiang branch have done their best to provide help, but there are some things that they really can't let go.
Do.
At this moment, a ringtone suddenly rang. Xie Wei took out her cell phone and looked at it, but did not answer the call immediately. She raised her head and said, "That's it? Thank you, Captain Gao, for your advice and concern. Oh, and there's coffee, we'll see you later."
chat?"
"Um...wait a minute!"
Xie Wei turned around in surprise, and Gao Changfeng smiled and solemnly said: "Be safe and have a safe trip!"
"Ha, okay, thank you."
Watching Xie Wei push the door out while holding the phone, Gao Changfeng, who was sitting still, took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Don't look at it, don't worry. Shao Bai and the others have already boarded the plane in South Korea. She is safe and fine... Uh, what's that look in your eyes? No, I admit that the last time may have been a bit of a coincidence, but what I just said is always fine.
Right? Can you please stop being so sensitive, Hundan!"
"Sorry, it's a reflex. You should speak less politely anyway!" Ignoring the crow's mouth of a certain Zong who was scratching his head in depression, Gao Changfeng picked up the coffee cup in an understatement.
"Fuck!" Zong Qing gestured with his middle finger and grinned, "Seriously, didn't I promise you to ask if that person was involved when I came here? Why didn't you ask just now?"
"No need, I can feel it, she didn't contact that person."
"Okay. Although it's unnecessary to ask, I feel a little better now." Zong Qing shook his head mockingly, his expression becoming more depressed.
Gao Changfeng did not deny his partner's views this time, because he thought so too. From their point of view, if something happened to Xie Jianping alone, he would not necessarily take action. But now with Xie Wei taking the initiative to go to the Philippines, the situation has changed.
It’s really hard to say…
"Okay, don't think too much, maybe our worries are unfounded." Gao Changfeng shook his head, "It's impossible that he doesn't know the cost of saving people. This will expose his mysterious lone wolf identity.
Even exposed!"
"So, I can only hope that he stays rational, otherwise things will get really serious... Uh, is it okay for me to say that?"
"You'd better shut up!"
"..."
At the same time, on the way to the airport, inside the black Mercedes-Benz,
"...Hmm, the matter is a bit troublesome, and it may take a few days to deal with... No need to cancel, I have arranged the itinerary, and you can let Sister Xiaolin take you to play first... Otherwise, you guys will have more time in Jeju Island
Let's play for a few days. I'll try to get it done as soon as possible, and then I'll go over and meet you..."
Judging from the content and tone of the call, there is no doubt that the person on the other end of the phone is Tangdou Tongxiao. The little girl obviously does not know the news about Uncle Jianping's accident. It is impossible for anyone to tell her this until the matter is settled.
After chatting for a few more words, Xie Wei hung up the phone. She leaned back on the back seat with a relaxed posture, raised her hand to rub her forehead and temples, her face full of exhaustion. Then she suddenly thought of something, and sat up again, turning over.
Call records, find the contact signed by 'Xiao Tang', and dial——
What I heard was a voice announcement that the other party had turned off the phone.
I didn't think much about it. Originally, I called her just for daily concern and to tell someone that she was not in Lingjiang recently. But now that I haven't gotten through, I gave up for the time being.
At this point...you should have gone out to buy groceries, right?