Chapter 606: The Crazy Plan

Fifty thousand per family.

What an even split.

After Yu Dazhang heard the contents of the call, he had a rough guess in his mind.

This 1.5 million in cash must have been exchanged for gold.

Because these six suspects combined couldn't scrape together that much money.

Since it's confirmed it was exchanged for gold, the rest isn't hard to guess.

Because there are only a few channels for trading gold for cash.

1. Professional gold-buying brick-and-mortar shops.

These shops specialize in buying gold, with transparent, real-time-updated prices, weighing and testing on the spot.

2. Pawnshops.

They support gold collateral and redemption, suitable for short-term cash turnover.

But you need to provide proof of purity and an invoice, and the buyback price is slightly lower than at the brick-and-mortar shops.

3. Banks and gold stores.

These two places are even more formal, and the procedures required are also more cumbersome.

4. Online platforms.

This one can basically be ruled out.

Yu Dazhang returned to his SUV; in the relatively independent and enclosed space, he could better settle his mind.

Putting himself in their shoes.

"If I were the Tan brothers…"

"Of these four channels, only a pawnshop can barely meet my needs."

"And it would have to be the kind of pawnshop that can operate under the table."

Nowadays in the country, the mafia has already vanished from sight.

Because the traditional mafia long ago changed its appearance, one after another switching to other industries.

And among them, pawnshops became one of the favorite trades of these so-called "men of the streets."

This line of work is very wild; without connections, or without guts, you simply can't keep this business going.

First, you have to dare to take in some tricky items.

The greater the risk, the higher the profit, as they say.

Now it's been rephrased: the bigger the waves, the pricier the fish.

No questions about the source, no questions about identity, only appraising the goods—often in such transactions, the price gets driven down very low.

It's said that in these black-market-like trades, the price gets cut by at least half.

"I would contact the other party in advance and agree on the transaction amount, so the other party can prepare a large amount of cash ahead of time."

Yu Dazhang rested his right hand on the steering wheel, his index finger tapping in rhythm:

"If I sell at half the black-market price, I need twelve thousand five hundred grams of gold—that's 25 jin of gold—to get 1.5 million in cash."

"That price is too tempting; even if the other party clearly knows they're fencing stolen goods, they'd still trade without hesitation."

"Then it gets simple: I'd have the fence split the money into three portions, deliver them separately to those three families in the village, and tell those three families how to explain the source of the money."

At this point, he suddenly stopped, and after a while, continued muttering:

"Counted fifty thousand short—it's actually four families. I'd set aside a sum for my own family too, except I'd deliver that money to them personally."

That's not right.

Yu Dazhang suddenly noticed a loophole.

It's 1.5 million—what if the fence, tempted by the money, just runs off with it?

Thinking about this problem for a while, he then shook his head.

"The fence wouldn't dare pocket this money. Every trade has its own rules; even the black market cares about reputation."

"And I'd let the other party see the remaining gold too, giving them the illusion that we could do long-term business."

"Nobody's not greedy. With reputation intact and the chance to earn even more money, anyone with sense knows which choice to make."

Reasoning to this point, Yu Dazhang suddenly stopped.

What about the remaining gold?

The best way, naturally, is to find a place to hide it.

Compared to cash, gold has another advantage: it's easy to hide.

Paper money can go moldy from moisture, or get gnawed by insects, but gold won't have such problems.