Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 743 "Hope"

The two returned to their rented apartment, took out the takeout they had bought on the way, and continued their previous conversation while eating snacks.

The monkey picked up a few bites of mushrooms and complained, "Cousin, we're out working until the middle of the night every day, and it feels like we're not earning enough money. It's tiring, and there's so much to do. I feel like I'd rather be doing some illegal work. This shady business is really boring!"

The effeminate man buried his head in his noodles and said, "Money laundering? I might make you a thousand or so bucks today, but the police will be at your door with your head down the next day. If you want to die, don't drag me into it!"

"Money laundering" is essentially money laundering. To put it in detail, it's the lowest level, yet the first step, in the entire money laundering process: providing your legitimate account for others to illegally transfer funds.

To put it bluntly, they received the least amount of money, but they were also the first ones the police would arrest.

This feels a lot like Foxconn, which manufactures for Apple. Apple gets the lion's share of the profits, while the factories that painstakingly organize hundreds of thousands of workers only get a small fraction of the profits.

But if China were to impose sanctions one day, the first to suffer would almost certainly be Foxconn, which manufactures and assembles Apple products in China.

The monkey grabbed a tissue from the table to wipe his mouth, a hint of smugness in his eyes. "Cousin," he said, "the 'running score' I was talking about is an upgraded version. Now, you don't need the four-piece set anymore. Just give me a QR code or bank account number. Once I receive the money, I'll transfer it for you—super safe! There'll even be a leaderboard to see who transfers the fastest and most; it's quite interesting! The only downside is that you need to pay a deposit beforehand."

The so-called "four-piece set" refers to the citizen's ID card, mobile phone SIM card, bank card, and U-shield (USB security token) required for successful money transfer. Nowadays, anti-fraud publicity and crackdowns in China are very strong, such as the "card-breaking campaign" and punitive freezing of accounts. Even opening a savings account at a bank is much more strictly regulated for ordinary people.

As a result, the price of the four-piece set has skyrocketed. At the beginning, a bag of eggs could be exchanged for a complete set of the necessary accounts for the transfer, but later, even thousands or tens of thousands of dollars might not be enough to obtain a complete set.

The effeminate man kicked his cousin, who cried out in pain. He scolded, "With your pig brain, even the best business will be trash that no one else wants in your hands. Don't be stupid enough to get slaughtered like a pig and then smile and count the money for them! If you think that other place is better, you can go there now!"

Seeing his cousin's angry expression, Monkey huffed and puffed, then said with a fawning smile, "Brother, I was just saying, don't be angry. If you hadn't brought me out to see the world, I might still be stuck in my hometown, mooching off other people's meals."

Seeing his cousin admit his mistake, the effeminate man's tone softened considerably, but he still lectured him: "Hey, what gives you the audacity to say you're involved in shady dealings? Running a score-running service, doing QQ friend-calling, taking advantage of loopholes—is that your understanding of shady dealings? Have you forgotten about the time you went to get a loan and got scammed into doing free money transfers?"

Back in his hometown, when Monkey ran out of money, he would take out online loans. Later, he defaulted on too many loans and couldn't get approved anymore, so he went to the business cards of loan companies posted on the walls of roadside toilets and called them one by one.

As a result, the person came over dressed in a suit and tie, and said in a serious tone that they needed to review the account first. Then, they pretended to say that the monkey's transaction history was not enough and that they needed to make some transaction history before the bank would release the loan.

After a series of grand promises, the monkey was immediately hooked. Thinking he didn't have much money in his account and that it was impossible for him to be cheated out of his money, he nonchalantly helped the man scan his face to transfer funds.

After the final transaction of hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan was completed, the person laundered their dirty money, leaving a few hundred yuan in the card as payment for meals to cooperate with the audit, then they left and told the "monkey" to go home and wait for further notice.

So far, even if the case hadn't gone up, he'd made a few hundred yuan in half a day. But if the police traced his activities back to the source, he'd definitely be an accomplice to fraud, and would probably be stuck in jail for a few years, working on a sewing machine.

Thinking of this, the effeminate man suddenly paused, wondering if the few hundred yuan that the man had slipped to his cousin in the parking lot earlier was also a big trap.

"Cousin, but we're doing this every day, and our bodies really can't take it anymore," Monkey said, looking down and sounding a little aggrieved.

The effeminate man, whose train of thought had been interrupted, sighed and revealed the secret he had kept hidden in his heart: "Let's do a few more heists to save up some capital, and then I'll take you to Myanmar."

"Myanmar!" The monkey jumped up, kicking the small stool he had been sitting on, and exclaimed excitedly, "Cousin, shall we go and get involved in telecom fraud too?"

The monkey's eyes gleamed, his mind filled with images of being a minor leader under his cousin, leading a gang of thugs to bully men and women. He'd spend his time beating up piglets or raping women; of course, he'd also have his indispensable fragrant sex slaves at home. The effeminate man snorted coldly, got up, and went to the toilet.

It was called a toilet, but it was just a small storage room with a wooden bucket for people to use and a bucket full of tap water.

The effeminate man scooped up a few bowls of water, washed his face, and said, "We don't do scams."

"If we're not going to scam anyone, what are we going to do over there?" Monkey craned his neck and asked suspiciously, "Cousin, didn't you just run a gambling operation with Brother Song a while ago?"

Song Ge is the effeminate man's childhood friend. A few years ago, he was heavily in debt from loan sharks back in his hometown. He made a desperate decision to run away to the Golden Triangle and worked his way up in the KK Industrial Park. After a few years, he became a minor boss, nicknamed Zorro Song.

The effeminate man stood in front of the mirror fixing his hair, somewhat amused and exasperated: "Do I look like the boss of a trading platform? It's just that I recently met a rich guy and want to set up a scheme to make some money through Ah Song's futures trading platform where the data can be modified in the background."

He stared at his somewhat presentable reflection in the mirror, pondering how doing things one by one in China was not only inefficient but also unlikely to earn him much money. Moreover, if he did it too often, he would eventually end up in jail.

Thinking back to my recent contact with my childhood friend, and how he kept flaunting his wealth, I couldn't help but feel a strong urge to do the same.

If Ah Song, who used to follow him around wiping his nose when he was a child, could make money, then it goes without saying that he could too.

However, he felt it would be embarrassing and awkward for him to go directly to Ah Song.

We need to find a different approach, at least one that doesn't immediately reveal that we're targeting him.

As for the woman in my possession, I need to cut her off as soon as possible, as a way to cover travel expenses.

In the blink of an eye, the effeminate man made up his mind.

"Oh, cousin, what are we going to Myanmar for? To open a casino?"

The effeminate man returned to his room and began cleaning up the leftover food on the small table. He said, "One of my cousins ​​is a reseller over there. We'll follow his lead."

"Account sellers? Providing WeChat and QQ accounts?" said the monkey who had tinkered with the social networking app Lashou.

The effeminate man nodded: "Pretty much, and Soul and things like that."

"Oh, oh." The monkey seemed to understand but not quite. "Cousin, is this profitable?"

"Not bad. I've looked into it; a yearly VIP account can sell for around a thousand yuan." The effeminate man packed everything on the table into a trash bag, picked it up, and walked out. "Alright, you should go wash up and go to bed. We need to make a few more trips to save up some capital. Otherwise, we'll be like pigs over there."

"A thousand or so dollars? I'd rather follow Brother Song and do online gambling," Monkey muttered, drifting off to sleep with the anticipation of becoming a small leader.

After throwing away the trash, watching the sky slowly brighten, the effeminate man took a deep breath, also filled with hope for the future.

(End of this chapter)