Chapter 395: Profitable Business Opportunities Are Everywhere

Inside the interrogation room.

After the basic information had been asked, the officer handling the interrogation asked:

"When did you first start doing this?"

At this moment, Yu Dazhang was sitting in front of a computer in the observation room, watching Yang Jieru on the surveillance screen.

Compared to before, her condition was much worse; the whole person looked listless and drained, her eyes vacant, her face pale as paper.

"The earliest?"

Hearing the question, Yang Jieru thought for a moment, then answered:

"That would have to start thirteen years ago."

"In 2001, I left the village to come to the city to work. Through someone's introduction, I went to a detention station as a temporary worker."

"The job was cleaning. The pay wasn't high, but at least the work was stable."

Her voice was slightly low, as if tinged with a hint of feeling:

"That was when the detention station was at its most chaotic. I saw people being brought in almost every day, and only after paying a ransom could they leave."

"There were also many intellectually disabled vagrants who genuinely needed help, but since they had no home to begin with, there was nowhere to send them back to."

At this point, she paused, thought for a moment, then continued:

"In cases like that, the detention station would send these people to free training institutions, and after the training was done, recommend job opportunities."

"It was right then that I saw the business opportunity in it."

So this thing actually has a prototype... Yu Dazhang figured it out as he listened.

Training the intellectually disabled wasn't something they came up with; the detention stations had already been doing it that way before.

They had simply copied that model over.

And indeed, many of the vagrants wandering the streets were people with intellectual disabilities.

Strangely enough, some vagrants even became famous and turned into internet celebrities.

The most famous of them all was Sharp Brother.

However, after Sharp Brother went viral and was taken back by his relatives, he underwent a series of psychiatric treatments.

That sharp gaze was never seen again; he became fearful of people and overly cautious.

Still, Sharp Brother did live a few good years afterward—at least he wasn't grabbed by a detention station, nor was he abducted to be used as cheap labor.

"And then you found people to grab those vagrants?"

Even the officer himself felt awkward asking that question.

The start-up phase of a business like this is the hardest, because very few people are willing to do something illegal.

Even Yu Dazhang could tell that the officer's question was flawed.

"Of course not."

Sure enough, Yang Jieru denied it immediately:

"I worked at the detention station for nearly two years, until early 2003, when the Yangcheng detention station had an incident, and I was let go."

Yu Dazhang knew she was referring to the incident where a young man surnamed Sun was beaten to death at the detention station.

After that, detention stations became history and were later converted into rescue and management stations.

"After losing my job, I started thinking about going into business."

Yang Jieru continued:

"So I set up a small factory, mainly producing mother-and-son flue pipes."

"Setting up a factory like that didn't cost much at all. Renting a yard in the suburbs was enough to do it, and you didn't even need to get a business license—whenever they came after you, getting one then would still be in time."

"It was only then that I realized the biggest expense in running a business was actually labor costs."

At this point, she stopped, her gaze dropping to the floor, looking as though she was thinking.

After about two seconds, she raised her head again to look at the officer across from her:

"Making mother-and-son flue pipes doesn't require any technical skill—anyone can do it—so I thought of those intellectually disabled vagrants."

"After discussing it with Zhang Chao, he would go out on the streets to grab people first, then give them simple training and put them to work in production."

Now that's logical... Yu Dazhang figured this kind of start was the most reasonable.

Start your own business first, grab people to use in your own factory—you get a taste of the sweet life and accumulate your first batch of cheap labor at the same time.

However, during her speaking, Yu Dazhang noticed a small detail.

Yang Jieru always paused briefly after saying a stretch of dialogue.

At first Yu Dazhang didn't think much of it—when narrating, who can say everything in one breath? Pausing to recall is perfectly normal.

But the problem was, the points where she paused were strange; almost all of them fell right at the transitions between episodes.

It was as if these things were being made up on the spot.

Yet from her expression, there was no sign of lying.

Yu Dazhang stared at Yang Jieru on the surveillance screen, unable for the moment to figure out where the problem lay.

If she wasn't lying, why pause to think while narrating?

Recalling and thinking are two different things.

And they can be distinguished from each other through behavior and manner.

Take the simplest example.

When a person is thinking, they unconsciously look down at the ground.

When recalling, on the other hand, they look upward.

During her pauses, Yang Jieru never raised her head—her eyes were always directed at the floor, and only when speaking would she lift her head to look at the officer across from her.

Am I overthinking this? Just as Yu Dazhang was puzzling over it, Yang Jieru spoke again.

"Later, other factories often came to us to borrow workers. Among those small factories, this kind of thing was actually quite common."

Her speaking pace was a bit faster this time than before:

"After lending them out enough times, we simply rented the people to them, collecting wages normally each month."

"As time went on, we found this was easier and quicker to make money than running our own factory."

That made sense... Yu Dazhang could understand what she meant.

After all, running a factory required considering many things, like procuring raw materials, managing workers, selling products, and so on.

Renting people out, on the other hand, was much simpler.

All you had to do was find a factory that needed workers, agree on a price, and send the people over.

This was a business where one investment brought ten thousand returns.

But then again, if you just tied your conscience to your waistband, businesses where one investment brought ten thousand returns could be found everywhere.

Finally, Yang Jieru summarized:

"We knew this wasn't a long-term plan, so for safety's sake, we called all the people back, shut down the factory, and after that we specialized in doing this business."

What happened next, Yu Dazhang already knew.

They had done this for eleven years straight.

If Fang Peng hadn't been discovered in Songhai, they would have kept running this business.

The provincial department had swept the province's black brick kilns several times in recent years, yet never once discovered them — enough to show how meticulous and covert their operations were.

The interrogation continued.

Yang Jieru brought up the underground prison again — that was the true foundation of their fortune, and could also be called their main base.

Yu Dazhang noticed she was speaking more and more smoothly.

Later on, Yang Jieru barely needed to think, and didn't pause again.

But even after she finished, she never mentioned anything about going out to sea.

Still not being honest... Yu Dazhang knew clearly in her heart that she still had a fluke mentality.

Apart from the very beginning — their startup phase — everything she was now confessing, the task force had already mastered.

After a brief pause to consider, Yu Dazhang picked up the microphone on the desk:

"Ask her how many times a year she goes out to sea."

(End of chapter)