Chapter 127 Preparing to Go to Little Britain

Wang Xiuyuan took out a pair of gloves from his space ring and put them on. Then, he went to the kitchen, grabbed a few knives and forks, and used them to arrange a Nazi Swastika symbol on the dining room table.

He believed that once Cornelius Gurlitt returned from walking the dog and saw this symbol, he would definitely understand what had happened.

Cornelius Gurlitt had never married, never held a job, and rarely interacted with his neighbors throughout his life. The core reason was his fear that those around him would discover his identity.

Wang Xiuyuan's use of this Nazi symbol to warn Cornelius Gurlitt would certainly be highly effective; at the very least, the man would never dare call the police to report a burglary.

For Wang Xiuyuan, this was enough. At least he didn't have to worry about the police continuing to investigate the matter.

After returning to the hotel, Wang Xiuyuan immediately arranged for their departure from West Germany.

"We can leave now. There's nothing else here that we want. Holt, arrange the flight tickets now."

Upon hearing the command, Holt was a bit dazed. His team had been painstakingly staking out the place for over a month, and it was ending just as mysteriously and confusingly as it had begun.

After putting in so much sweat, not knowing what had actually happened the entire time—anyone would be dazed.

Most importantly, Wang Xiuyuan told him to book tickets but didn't say where the destination was. How was he supposed to book them?

"Boss, where is our next stop?"

Facing Holt's question, an exceptionally long phrase blurted out of Wang Xiuyuan's mouth: "The Little-Britain-About-to-Lose-Northern Ireland, Don't-Know-If-It's-United, Stirs-Up-Trouble-Everywhere-Anyway Kingdom."

This short sentence maxed out the level of mockery toward the UK.

The UK is a very interesting country, practically the world's premier shit-stirrer.

After World War II ended, under the joint disruption of the two superpowers, America and the Soviet Union, the 'Empire on which the sun never sets,' whose colonies spanned every corner of the globe, shattered into pieces, and various colonial nations declared independence one after another.

However, the British have a rogue nature—if they can't benefit, they won't let anyone else have it easy either. They caused all sorts of trouble during their withdrawal.

Nowadays, if there is a territorial dispute between any two neighboring countries in the world, one doesn't need to overthink it; just check if that shit-stirrer, the UK, once colonized the area.

The vast majority of territorial disputes are messes intentionally left behind by the UK.

For example, the Partition of India and Pakistan and the Kashmir issue directly caused the two nations to fight on and off for decades.

The establishment of Israel in Palestine was a result of a full push by the UK. Although both America and the Soviet Union were happy to see this outcome, the UK was definitely one of the primary culprits.

The Middle East, which has seen decades of war, is the biggest mine planted by the UK. Originally, the religious situation in this region was already particularly chaotic and complex.

When the UK withdrew, they allocated areas where Shia followers gathered to Sunni countries, and allocated regions with high concentrations of Sunni followers to Shia-led countries. This was like poking a hornet's nest, causing the entire Middle East to fight for decades.

Countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have rarely had a moment of peace.

It's one thing for the UK to plant mines all over the world, but they haven't even managed their own affairs well.

Ireland, a major part of the UK, declared independence in 1949, leaving only a small portion of Northern Ireland under British control.

Even that is barely maintained. Northern Ireland experienced thirty years of violent conflict from the late sixties until 1998, eventually resulting in the establishment of a semi-independent power-sharing government, causing British control over Northern Ireland to plummet.

Scotland, which has been part of the union for over three hundred years, has never acknowledged itself as part of the UK. The Scots wish the English would all just bloody well die every single day.

As a nation that loves football passionately, when the English national team is eliminated from the World Cup, the Scots are happy enough to hold celebratory parades in the streets.

Regarding such a shit-stirring country, Wang Xiuyuan had already developed a habit of insulting it, just as he routinely mocked the French.

"Where? Boss, stop teasing me."

This nonsensical phrase left Holt even more bewildered; he truly didn't understand it.

This is a flaw of the English language. If it were an ideographic writing system like Chinese, basically any Chinese person could have deduced the destination from Wang Xiuyuan's mocking words, but English can't do that.

In English, the words 'beef', 'mutton', and 'pork' have no linguistic connection. 'Grape', 'wine', and 'raisins' are also three completely unrelated words; no one can effectively link their meanings just by looking at them.

So when Wang Xiuyuan said 'The Little-Britain-About-to-Lose-Northern Ireland, Don't-Know-If-It's-United, Stirs-Up-Trouble-Everywhere-Anyway Kingdom,' Holt couldn't associate it with the UK's full name: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Even setting that aside, given the education system implemented in America, Holt probably didn't even know that 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' was the UK's full name; he likely only knew it as Britain.

Although America hadn't yet started its 'happy-go-lucky' dumbing-down education system, the teaching quality of the public education system was already beyond description.

Wang Xiuyuan said cheerfully, "The UK. Book tickets directly for a flight to London tomorrow morning. We're going to Suffolk County; another group of brothers is working over there. "

"Hopefully, we'll have some gains over there."

After returning to his room, Wang Xiuyuan locked the door and drew the curtains tight, eager to admire tonight's haul.

As the first package was opened, a bizarre oil painting appeared before his eyes.

Distorted patterns and strange faces—it looked odd no matter how one viewed it. Wang Xiuyuan truly couldn't appreciate this style.

If he hadn't seen the Picasso signature in the corner of the frame, Wang Xiuyuan would have honestly thought it was a random doodle by an elementary school student.

Seeing that it was a work by Picasso, Wang Xiuyuan felt relieved.

He wondered why this messy oil painting had looked so familiar at first glance; it turned out to be the bloody smell of money!

Picasso was a world-famous great painter. Even a bumpkin like Wang Xiuyuan had heard his name, and his works were incredibly valuable!

As for whether the painting looked good or fit his aesthetic standards, that didn't matter at all. He really couldn't appreciate Cubist works.

Compared to the distorted style of Picasso's Cubism, Wang Xiuyuan preferred the works of the dutch school, represented by Rembrandt.

The paintings of the dutch school placed more importance on Realism, emphasizing the precise depiction of details and the skillful use of light and shadow to create a sense of space and texture.

Even an ordinary person who had never encountered oil painting before could quietly appreciate a work from the dutch school for a while. But Picasso's Cubism wouldn't work; an ordinary person looking at a Cubist piece would only keep complaining about what kind of trash the painting was.

(Rembrandt: The Storm on the Sea of Galilee)