Chapter 684: Hundreds of Millions Is a Conservative Estimate

It shouldn't be.

Yu Dazhang felt he had been taking things for granted.

One cannot force two parties together just because they share a single similarity.

There is still another issue.

Is this bathhouse, the hiding spot for the people, Zhang Jiangke's, or does it belong to the person who paid to buy the girls?

Think from the other side's perspective.

Yu Dazhang thought from Zhang Jiangke's point of view.

After sending someone to fetch the girls, he could completely skip the step of reselling them and simply drag them straight to the buyers.

This would both omit a step and achieve the goal in one move, directly exchanging people for money.

There is another key point.

Zhang Jiangke, this second-hand trafficker, would not hire so many people to guard the abducted women.

Moreover, opening a bathhouse is not the modus operandi of a human trafficker.

Using a legitimate business to cover up criminal acts is even less of a plan a trafficker would conceive.

Furthermore, whether hiring people or operating a bathhouse requires vast capital to run; for Zhang Jiangke, the cost is far too high.

Therefore, this bathhouse is most likely operated by that mastermind.

Once he made this deduction, Yu Dazhang closed the investigation record and returned it to that officer.

Leaving the technical department, he returned to the observation room, just in time to see Captain Xu walking over from the direction of the office.

Seeing his eyes full of bloodshot veins, Yu Dazhang couldn't help but ask with concern:

"Why didn't you sleep a bit longer?"

"Slept enough." Captain Xu rubbed his temples:

"When something weighs on your mind, you can't sleep soundly, and with increasing age, sleep becomes less and less."

Actually, this counts as an occupational hazard for criminal police.

When encountering tricky cases, staying up late becomes the norm; over time, it forms a habit.

Yu Dazhang in his past life was just like this.

While handling cases, he often stayed up continuously; when he was truly too sleepy, he would nap for a while, sleeping one or two hours before being able to last another day.

Over the long term, this caused neurasthenia.

This is also the main reason why the average lifespan of frontline police is only 48 years.

The current Yu Dazhang would not do such a thing; unless it is a special situation, he would not ruin his health just to show dedication.

Afterwards, the two walked together into the temporary office next to the observation room.

Just as they sat down, Yu Dazhang opened his mouth and asked:

"Have you checked the background information on the bathhouse?"

"Checked it." Captain Xu picked up a document from the desk and handed it to him:

"This bathhouse officially opened for business five years ago; the business was neither good nor bad, and the boss has been maintaining it."

"Until last October, an intermediary contacted him, saying someone wanted to buy his bathhouse."

Yu Dazhang flipped through the document while Captain Xu added explanations on the side:

"According to that boss, the price offered by the other party was higher than his psychological expectation, making him unable to even bring himself to haggle."

"We also checked the legal representative; it has been confirmed that the other party found someone to take the fall. Back then, someone gave him twenty thousand yuan to act as the legal representative."

Finding someone to take the fall as a legal representative; is twenty thousand yuan too little?

If you have that thought, it shows you don't understand the market rates.

Go to the countryside or rural areas, find those who have lost their labor capacity; five thousand yuan is a huge price, and they will cooperate to do anything.

Many financial crimes in the country are done this way.

There are also many 'lying flat' gods who will sell their ID cards for just two hundred yuan.

"The other party buying this bathhouse back then was premeditated."

Yu Dazhang thought for a moment and said:

"This shows the mastermind did not act on a whim; he prepared the hiding place before deciding to buy the women."

"Moreover, within the entire country, the other party has not only bought this one entertainment venue."

He frowned slightly and said thoughtfully:

"Truly not short of money; buying entertainment venues of this scale, just to hide people."

"Hiring people to guard them is also a huge expense; for such illegal criminal acts, if the money offered is too low, no one would be willing to do it."