America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 210 Trading

Zhang Ailun told Sieg and the others to wait at Old Pick's auto repair shop while he drove alone to Old George's pawn shop. After passing several traffic lights, he arrived at his destination and parked the Wrangler outside.

Upon entering, one sees old George chatting with a customer, but his girlfriend is nowhere to be seen.

Zhang Ailun felt surprised and waited patiently for a while until the customer in front of him completed the transaction, took the money, and left before he came to the counter.

"Sir, it's been a long time! You finally remembered to sell me your good stuff?" Old George greeted his regular customer warmly.

"What was that person selling just now? A painting?" Zhang Ailun glanced at the rolled-up white paper in a box on the counter.

Old George didn't try to hide anything and directly spread out the paper for Zhang Ailun to see. It was an uncut, bright green test paper for US dollars, with denominations of 20 and 50.

Zhang Ailun was immediately surprised. This thing could be sold?

"It's nothing much, just an uncut dollar test paper brought from the printing press in the late 70s. The customer said he traded a bottle of vodka for it with a good old neighbor. These things don't have much collectible value these days. He wanted $4000, but I could only give him $2500 at most," Old George said casually.

Using the Dragon Slayer Sword to bargain was one of his usual methods, but the Grand Master could tell from his expression that the truth was definitely not as simple as he made it out to be.

This test paper from the banknote printing plant features portraits of many celebrities, along with serial numbers and professional ratings from various institutions. If one weren't in a hurry to sell, they would generally choose to consign it at an auction house to maximize their profits.

That old guy found another bargain; he must have made a lot of money.

"Where's your girlfriend? Isn't she here with you while you work?" Zhang Ailun didn't rush to get to the point, but teased, taking an empty wine bottle out of his handbag.

I snatched this thing when I was scavenging weapons and beef for free in the suburbs last time, and it's been sitting in the trunk of my Wrangler ever since, with hardly any time to sell it. This time I finally got rid of it.

When Old George heard the Grand Master mention his young girlfriend, his face immediately contorted with pain, and he waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't even mention it! We've already broken up! You have no idea how chaotic her private life is! God, I thought I'd found true love, that she was a pure and innocent girl, but it turns out I was too naive! I just took her to a party at a shower bank, and she cheated on me with some pretty boy celebrity! I'm so angry!"

Old George was indignant; he had caught them in bed together and was quite aroused.

If the other person wasn't white, and was a male celebrity, he would definitely consider shooting them dead.

Is that even possible?!

Zhang Ailun was instantly stunned. No wonder he didn't see his girlfriend; they had broken up.

She glanced at old George with a hint of pity, but at least he'd found someone younger. He's getting on in years; breaking up wouldn't be a huge loss for him. That's just how relationships are; they're always on and off.

The other person is young, fair-skinned, beautiful, and has long legs. If they don't like your money, do they like you as a person?

Wake up! Don't you have any self-awareness? You're just secretly happy that you got a good deal.

He comforted her, saying, "At least you saw through her true colors beforehand and cut your losses in time. If you had waited until you were old and unable to walk, lying in a hospital bed, only to discover her true colors when it came time to divide your inheritance, and then had a huge falling out with your own children, the damage to you would probably have been even greater!"

I often walk by the river, so how can I not wet my shoes?

Old George, momentarily captivated by the gentle embrace of women, sighed, not wanting to dwell on such painful memories. He casually picked up the wine bottle, put on his glasses, and examined it closely, recognizing its origin.

The review reads: "A bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild from 1787, and from Thomas Jefferson's private cellar! Oh, this is a real gem!"

He added with some regret, "What a pity. If it were a perfectly preserved bottle of red wine, it would be worth at least $100,000. But now it's just an empty bottle, so the actual price is greatly reduced. I can only give you $2000 at most."

"$3000, fixed price."

Zhang Ailun had long seen through George's tactics and raised the price a notch.

"If you want to sell it for a better price, I have a suggestion: just fill the bottle with red wine, have it repackaged by the manufacturer, and put on an anti-counterfeiting label. Wouldn't that allow you to sell it for a higher price?"

Businessmen will do anything for money; those without conscience will earn even more.

"How come I didn't think of that?" Old George raised an eyebrow. "How come you're even darker than him?"

"However, I won't do this kind of business; it's easy to ruin my reputation and cause trouble."

"That's why I asked you to do it," Zhang Ailun said with a smile.

Old George: "..."

However, what was unexpected was that Old George had just experienced the failure of a relationship, and after rising from the ashes, he had severed his emotions and desires, and was reborn from the ashes, with the Dragon-Slaying Saber sharper than ever before.

The old man only cares about money now, and only does recycling business, so of course he's not willing to give up his profits.

"$2500, that's the most I can offer you. If you don't agree, take it back and put it in your recycling center to sell slowly. Without connections, most people wouldn't recognize its value and wouldn't collect it. It wouldn't sell for ten days or half a month," Old George said.

"Don't rush into a decision. This is just an appetizer. I'm a big and successful person now. You don't think I'm here just to do a few thousand dollars in transactions, do you?" Zhang Ailun slowly began to cast his bait.

Old George, as expected, took the bait and asked with some curiosity, "What other good stuff is there?"

His expression changed in an instant, and he said with a smile, "Sir, if you really have any other valuable items at a reasonable price, I might consider buying this wine bottle collectible for $3000."

Seeing that he had become interested, Zhang Ailun also placed the heavy bundle containing the gold bars on the counter and unzipped it for him to see.

"Of course, we're doing big business together. Can you even stomach all this?"

"Where did you get so much gold? Did you rob a bank vault?" Old George was stunned. He picked up a 350g piece of gold and estimated its value: this was worth at least half a million dollars!

That's right. It's definitely a big business opportunity!

While the short-term profit from gold may not be obvious, it is a store of value and a hard currency, making it much more reliable than antiques and paintings. It is impossible to fake with professional instruments, and there are plenty of people willing to buy it. If you have the right channels, you can quickly convert it into cash.

If it were just a gold necklace and gold ring, old George wouldn't have been so emotionally affected, but with twenty-five shiny gold bars in front of him, even he couldn't ignore them.

"We don't have any plans or ideas about robbing a bank yet," Zhang Ailun smiled. "This batch of gold was salvaged from a shipwreck container at the bottom of the sea by my employees."

"You're really lucky..."

Old George sighed.

You must be God's illegitimate child.

They started testing the quality and purity of the gold, which had the logo of the Antique Bank on it, but who cares where it came from when it's been fished out of the sea?

I picked up each gold bar and cut off a corner to verify its authenticity; the instrument flashed a green light. The gold bars were 999% pure, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with them.

Old George pondered for a moment and said, "The market price of gold is $71. If it were anyone else selling, I certainly wouldn't give them that price. But given the size of this gold shipment and the fact that you're a regular customer, I can consider buying it at the market price. Including the wine bottle collection, the total is $571,000!"

"But I can't give you cash, I can only do it via online banking transfer or cryptocurrency. What do you think?" Old George asked.

"Deal." Zhang Ailun readily agreed, taking out his showerhead savings card. "Same as always, give me a receipt and transfer the money to this bank card."

Old George readily agreed, took the bank card, turned around and went back into the house, completed the transfer, and soon came out with the receipt.

Zhang Ailun also received a transfer notification.

+571000 USD.

The remaining deposit is US$1,426,000.

Zhang Ailun, feeling refreshed, put away the receipt, said goodbye to Old George, and turned to leave the pawnshop.

I got into my Wrangler, started the vehicle, and headed to the old Pick repair shop.

After passing through several traffic light intersections, I received a message from Tommy while waiting.

Tommy: Dude, I have a big business deal to discuss with you! This deal is practically tailor-made for you, I guarantee you'll love it! Just like when we first met, you and your team are reliable and trustworthy partners.

Burger King: What business? I'm just an ordinary car repair shop and bar owner. You overestimate me. I don't want to get involved in street fights.

Tommy: Dude, everyone else can call themselves an ordinary boss, but you, my friend! You probably don't know how big your name is, do you? I heard you recently started an armed nation? Now your men are truly fearless on the streets. After all, nobody wants to be sent to their death by an RPG rocket in their dreams!

Burger King: What are you saying? I'm a law-abiding, five-star citizen of Los Angeles! Are you trying to tarnish my reputation? If I could, I'd rather be nobody.

Tommy: I get it! You Asians all like to make money secretly and develop stealthily. It's a family tradition. Most of the bosses in Chinatown are like that too. I've figured you all out!

Burger King: Enough with the nonsense.

Tommy: I can't go into the specifics here, but you can guess what kind of business it is.

Burger King: No need. My intelligence network has also picked up some information. You've been getting quite close to a certain DJ star producer on the West Coast lately, haven't you? Is that producer named Rip? He co-founded a new Great White Shark Entertainment with you, but his former employer doesn't seem too happy about it and hired a bunch of suburban motorcycle gangs to steal his stuff. I guess that's why you're here to see me!

Tommy: Oh shit! How did you know?! You really scared me! Dude! How did you know?!

Tommy, who was taking a bath in his West Hollywood apartment, was so startled that he jumped up.

Upon seeing the Grand Master's reply, he immediately began to question the meaning of life.

I was once again impressed by Burger King's intelligence capabilities.

Suddenly, I felt completely unsafe sitting at home with my bare bottom exposed, until I sat in the bathtub again and felt warm.

He quickly replied, "That's right! That's why I came here. I knew I hadn't misjudged you. That damned black guy wasn't satisfied with just swallowing the breach of contract penalty; he even tried to hire someone to intercept the goods as revenge. But it turns out they succeeded—they stole the $280 million worth of erotic music rubbings USB drive! They even injured someone! My friend is furious! He wants me to find a reliable group of people to help him resolve this, and you were the first person I thought of! Mr. Jin! My friend! You absolutely have the ability to help him with this."

Burger King: Why should I help him? Go and offend those Black people on the West Coast? How much is he willing to pay?

Tommy: Don't worry! The reward will definitely be very generous. He's willing to offer $60!

Burger King: I'm not interested.

Tommy: Okay, he's willing to give you $80, plus a share of the record sales. But that depends on how well you handle things. You absolutely cannot involve the employer in this, because nobody wants to offend those black guys at this point. And your intelligence network and professional team can definitely get this done!

Burger King: I need to discuss this with my team before making any decisions.

Tommy: If you're interested, you can bring someone to our villa in the upscale West Hollywood area for a meeting tonight. [Location coordinates].

Burger King: OK.

After agreeing on a time, Zhang Ailun put away his phone. When the red light turned green, he stepped on the gas and drove off the street. A few minutes later, he arrived at Old Pick's Auto Repair Shop and parked the Wrangler in the backyard.

When they arrived, they saw the Beggars' Sect disciples busy in the repair shop, helping customers maintain their vehicles. Sig and his companions were idle here, which seemed a bit superfluous.

It's alright, they're free for now, the Grand Master will soon assign them new jobs.

Arriving at the front desk of the auto repair shop, he waved and called the group to the office on the second floor. He closed the door, turned off the lights and windows, and drew the curtains.

Zhang Ailun took out the downloaded intelligence and images, and connected the data cable to the computer host.

Upon seeing this familiar scene, Sieg and his companions immediately realized that this must be another job related to vehicle recycling!

As expected, the leader turned on the projector and projected a silver Bentley onto the screen, along with a bespectacled, gloomy-looking middle-aged white man with a buzz cut, wearing a black and white striped prison uniform, holding a sign that read his date of imprisonment.

The same Labor reform style as the little mute boy.

There was also a small, dilapidated storage warehouse in the suburbs, where a few Mexicans and three private cars were parked. The filming location was also from a passerby's perspective.

Zhang Ailun said, "There are two work projects that need to be taken care of. Don't worry, they are both recovery tasks with little risk, and the steps are roughly the same as the last operation."

"One is a silver Bentley worth $37 parked in the underground parking lot of the upscale apartment complex at 167 Tianlong Avenue. The owner was sentenced to 19 years in prison for molesting a minor and needs to post $15 in bail to be released. He is currently still incarcerated and will be forcibly detained for 15 days."

"The Eagles team in Seventh Street, the auto repair shop run by Mexicans, got into a fight with Silver Fox and Old Black last time. They both suffered heavy losses, which allowed the Mexicans to expand their street business. But they didn't fare much better. Because of their blatant greed, they got into a shootout with other black theft gangs in other blocks, firing shots in the street. They were then arrested and jailed by patrolling officers! Illegal possession of a gun and committing violence in the street—they won't be out anytime soon."

"They acquired three stolen vehicles worth $5 each and stored them in a suburban warehouse, where they remain unclaimed. Our job is to retrieve these vehicles."

"If the plan goes smoothly, this deal could bring us at least $30 in revenue. If we can find a good seller, we could earn even more like last time!" Zhang Ailun said.

Sig and his companions were no novices in this area, and once the leader finished explaining the vehicle retrieval mission, they immediately nodded and said, "Boss, just tell us how to do it."

The decryption software Blitz had them download last time is still on their phones and works well.

Zhang Ailun pondered for a moment and said, "Jorsen and Melvin, you two take some men to the suburbs and take care of those three private cars. Sig, go to the upscale apartment complex on Tianlong Avenue and retrieve the silver Bentley. Try to finish this quickly."

He then gave the three of them another $3 in cash to share the profits.

The three men beamed and happily accepted the money, saying, "Thank you, boss!!"

"It's still daytime, don't we need to wait until night to take action?" Johnson asked, somewhat curious.

"We have a bigger deal to discuss tonight; this is just a small one."

After Zhang Ailun finished speaking, he turned on the indoor lights and turned off the main unit. "As long as you plan a reasonable route and avoid trouble and traffic cameras, it will be fine."

Melvin couldn't help but complain, "In less developed areas like South Los Angeles, which can't compare to downtown, there are more Black people in places without security cameras than in the slums. What's the difference between day and night?"

Once the stealth mode is activated on the Vt exchange, you can walk around the police in broad daylight, play hide-and-seek with them, and if your bicycle is stolen from the supermarket entrance, the police won't even glance at you. You won't be able to get it back without some serious skills.

The police officers' job is to maintain public order, not to help you find your car. Nothing else is their responsibility. If you're lucky, they might be able to find it for you; if you're unlucky, you'll just have to buy another one.

How much tax did you pay? You dare to boss around police officers and expect them to find you a car?

You have to hand over cookies to help the officer get promoted!

Once outside, Zhang Ailun handed the car keys to Sieg and watched him get into the Wrangler. Johnson and Melvin, on the other hand, drove their van to the streets of District 5 to recruit members for the Beggars' Gang.

(End of this chapter)