In a ploy straight out of an eighties soap opera, a man ordered two girls to seduce a painter and photograph it in order to extort money from him. An ingenious plan, except it didn’t work; the three were arrested and have been charged on suspicion of theft and extortion by blackmail.

The dastardly scheme involved the two girls, surnamed Li and Wei under the orders of the male accomplice, Xu, posing as students in order to get close to the famous artist so they could obtain his paintings for free and then re-sell them for a large profit.

The two girls paid a visit to painter Mr. Zhang’s house and the next day the painter went to a hotel and slept with Wei, whilst Li sneakily took photos and sent them to Xu.

Afterwards Xu ordered Li to call Mr. Zhang and send him the pictures hoping to illicit 100 landscape paintings from him with a total worth of 800,000 RMB. Zhang, realizing he was in hot water tricked them in turn by pretending to comply but in fact called the police.

When Li and Wei went to collect their prize they were apprehended by waiting officers with Xu later being caught as well. Hopefully everyone learnt a lesson here, including Mr. Zhang who might think twice about sleeping with mysterious students who appear at his house from now on.

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Keywords: Gang of Three Tries to Blackmail Artist