The Spy

Chapter 351 Going Crazy
"Hay."

Arai lowered his head and accepted the order, but in his heart he looked down on Kamei even more. He was overambitious and incompetent. Xu Qingyun had a great reputation and even the chief section chief couldn't do anything about him, but Kamei was determined to catch Xu Qingyun.

When he thought so, he forgot that he was also confident that he could catch Xu Qingyun before.

I thought I could find someone from the Shanghai station through the pillars, but I didn't expect that the Shanghai station would use others to send money to the outside world, so my goal was not achieved.

But this is normal. If it were like this, it would be easy to find them. How could Xu Qingyun have his current record?

Arai was not discouraged at all, but was full of fighting spirit.

"Go, find them as soon as possible."

Kamei waved his hand, and after Arai left, he continued to make tea in a good mood.

Arai is right. The peripheral personnel are from the Shanghai station. If we can catch more peripheral personnel, it will be a blow to the Shanghai station.

Many section chiefs before, whether in Tianjin, Shanghai or Wuhan, none of them had ever caught Xu Qingyun’s real subordinates.

He was the only one who caught two shortly after arriving in Shanghai.

Even though he was just a small fry, his achievement was unmatched by any previous section chief.

This is true. When the Japanese instigated Wan Jinwen, the chief of the intelligence team of the Shanghai station, to defect, Xu Qingyun was still in Wuhan and did not come to Shanghai.

He was the only one who actually caught Xu Qingyun's men.

After the report was completed, Arai immediately assigned tasks.

Find out immediately to whom this company has given such money. After finding out, investigate these people and keep a close eye on them.

Arai firmly believed that this was a loophole in the Shanghai station, and he wanted to find these people before the action team did.

The action team also had a perimeter, but fortunately they were faster, otherwise the action team would have gotten there first and the credit would have probably gone to them.

Takeda is still in charge of investigating the case.

He found the employee of the financial company who had been bribed before, but no matter how much money he offered this time, the other party was unwilling to sell the company data.

They knew Zhuzi before and could explain the situation to him for money, but this time the Japanese wanted all this data. If they gave it, they would be able to easily trace it back to him if anything happened to these people.

If he is exposed, it will not be as simple as being fired. The Americans will definitely send him to jail.

"Did not say?"

Takeda came back to report, and Arai asked in surprise. The less the other party said, the more he felt there was something strange.

"Section Chief, could it be that he is deliberately helping to conceal it?"

Takeda said softly. Arai thought about it and then shook his head: "If he wanted to hide it, he wouldn't have told us the situation last time. Try finding someone else."

The other party is from the concession, so he can't move without permission. He has to investigate from other aspects first.

He is not the only one in the financial company.

As for whether the other party was from the Shanghai station, Arai had no doubt about this. If he was really from the Shanghai station, he would have been exposed when they asked him. The other party also knew that he had been exposed and it was impossible for him to continue to stay in this company.

Of course, nothing is absolute. Arai has investigated this person.

He really has nothing to do with the Shanghai station.

"Hay."

Takeda took the order and continued to bribe other people. Arai's order to him was to get all the lists at any cost.

While the Special Higher Police were conducting an investigation, Yamada came to Smith again.

Through investigation, he has learned that there are still three companies that have been in contact with Smith recently, including Xu's Company.

It seems that Xu's Company is also interested in this batch of goods.

Xu's Company is much more financially powerful than his, so he must get the goods before Xu's Company.

He paid someone to inquire and learned that Xu's Company offered $650,000 to package all the goods at once. Someone offered $650,000. It was no longer possible for him to buy the goods for $600,000.

Even if he offered a higher price, he couldn't let Xu's Company get the goods.

After several days of negotiations, he finally reached an agreement with Smith.

Six hundred and eighty thousand dollars, paid in full, and then the goods would belong to him.

“Wait until I raise the funds.”

After signing the contract and paying the deposit, Yamada shook hands with Smith with excitement.

Before signing the contract, he inspected the goods again, this time very carefully. He brought more than a dozen employees and asked them to carefully unpack and conduct random inspections.

With so much merchandise, it is unrealistic to check them all one by one, so random inspection is the most appropriate.

With such a large-scale random inspection, problems are bound to be discovered, but it is normal for everyone to report it.

Following orders, Xu Fuzhong has bribed most of the people in Yamada Trading Company.

If you can get something done by spending money, it’s not a thing.

Yamada was not kind to his employees and often withheld their wages. These people had long been dissatisfied. Someone found them, offered them high rewards, and asked them to deliberately deceive Yamada. These people immediately agreed.

Even Yamada's fellow townsman was included.

He treats everyone like this, so how can he make his employees truly loyal to him?
Xu Fuzhong offered a lot of money, and after they succeeded, he would give them a reward. This money was the salary they could not earn in ten years at Yamada Trading Company even if they did not eat or drink. Who could resist such temptation?

Moreover, the people who were looking for them were also Japanese, and they were very brutal.

They were only given two choices: either pay money to get the job done, or their entire family would die.

These people have really killed people, many people. No one dares to use the lives of their entire family to help a boss who treats them badly.

Yamada's fate is already determined.

After the inspection, Yamada resealed the box and ordered someone to put a seal on it. He paid a deposit and the goods now belonged to him. Once he paid the balance, he could pick up the goods immediately.

Six hundred and eighty thousand dollars is not a small amount.

Yamada currently has about $300,000 in cash on hand. He mortgaged his three shops, his house, shops and all other properties, borrowed $300,000 from the bank, and borrowed another $80,000 from a loan shark.

Yamada has already made a plan and will sell the goods at a lower price as soon as he gets the goods.

He sold the stockings, which originally had a market price of five dollars, for only four dollars, and used the cheap price to recover the funds first.

In addition, he also contacted some of his out-of-town customers, gave them lower prices, and asked them to pick up the goods first, so that he could at least recover $200,000 in funds.

The 80,000 high-interest loan can be fully repaid, and there is no need to worry about the bank.

Then sell it slowly. If it sells slowly, lower the price again and sell it for three dollars. Such goods will definitely sell well at three dollars, and many people will rush to buy them.

Even if it's only three dollars, he can make more than double the profit compared to his purchase price.

The most important point is that people who come here will not just buy stockings, but will also drive the sales of other goods in his shop. Yamada is confident that he can make back his investment and pay off all his debts within less than half a year, and then it will be pure profit.

After selling this batch of goods, he would not completely defeat Xu's Business, but at least he could make his own business able to compete with Xu's Business.

Yamada’s imagination is indeed beautiful.

Special Higher Section, Takeda comes to Arai's office.

"Team leader, I found it. This is the business list I took of them."

Not everyone can resist the temptation of money. After a few days, Takeda successfully found someone who was willing to help them get the information, and today he got back the entire customer list of this company.

"Great."

Arai was very happy. He took the photos and immediately looked through them quickly. There were quite a few photos, more than a dozen large photos. After looking through them, he raised his head.

"Why so many?"

"I don't know either. This is all the similar businesses in their company."

Takeda shook his head. The list was indeed quite long, with more than 300 people on it, including not only Chinese, but also British, Americans, French, and even Japanese.

And there are quite a few Japanese.

The financial company sends someone to deliver money to them every month, just like a postman.

More than 300 people may seem like a lot, but when divided into daily tasks, there are actually only about ten people, so one person can deliver all the tasks, and not much labor is needed.

Arai lowered his head and continued to look through the pages.

According to the two people they caught, their monthly salary was three dollars.

Not only in the concessions, the ocean is the most useful in the entire China, and it is stronger than the legal currency. These people only want the ocean.

After looking at it, he looked up again.

There are more than a hundred people who receive three yuan per month.

After thinking for a while, Arai immediately ordered: "These one hundred people are the focus, and we should investigate them first."

"Hay."

Takeda nodded his head and accepted the order. The intelligence team only had about forty people, so it was a bit difficult to investigate more than a hundred people. But fortunately, there was no time limit for them, so if they investigated slowly, they would still be able to find out all the situations of these more than a hundred people.

After Takeda left, Arai lowered his head to think. According to Zhuzi's explanation, there were at most fifty people in their group. Arai originally thought that there were only these fifty peripheral members in the Shanghai station.

From what we can see now, their number outside may be even greater, and they are divided into at least two groups.

The salary of the peripheral staff is low, only three dollars per person per month. Even if there are a hundred people, it is only three hundred dollars. However, the peripheral staff can do a lot of things for them, including collecting intelligence.

If any one person collects an important piece of information, it is worth more than everyone’s salary.

Xu Qingyun is indeed smart. This is a deal that will definitely not lose money.

Arai seemed to have discovered Xu Qingyun's big secret and was very happy.

The stronger the opponent, the better, so that he can have a greater sense of accomplishment by catching the opponent.

Smith Warehouse, International Settlement.

"Pleasant to work with."

After Smith counted the cash that Yamada brought, it was $580,000, not a penny less. He had already paid a deposit of $100,000.

This kind of scam makes me feel more satisfied, I can cheat so many people at one time.

As expected, if scammers want to expand, they also need capital.

"Pleasant to work with."

Yamada was equally happy, he had checked the seal and there was no problem, the goods here had not been replaced.

However, for safety reasons, he still had people open a few boxes and check the contents. Only after confirming that there was no problem did he give the balance to Smith.

After receiving the full payment, Smith immediately handed over the goods and the warehouse to Yamada.

The warehouse is rented, and there is not much time left on the lease, so it can be given to this sucker.

“Take out three boxes and deliver them to the store first, and send the rest back to our warehouse.”

After receiving the goods, Yamada was full of energy. He wanted to do something big and expand the scale of his business again.

For this batch of goods, he specially hired a group of bodyguards to escort it. Although the stockings are light, they are much more valuable than oceans. It can be said that these boxes are full of money.

After returning to the Japanese Concession, Yamada took his daughter directly to the restaurant and ordered a table of delicious food and sake. He wanted to celebrate today.

"I'm going to the toilet."

The Japanese woman who had been following him said with a smile, Yamada waved his hand, and the woman left slowly, but she left the hotel and got directly into a car.

Not only did the women leave, but employees from several stores also left in large numbers.

In particular, almost all the shop employees in the concession left, and not only did they leave, they also took away a large amount of goods in the shops.

The mission is accomplished, they will not wait to be liquidated by Yamada. In fact, Yamada no longer has the ability to liquidate them, but it is better to be able to avoid it.

"Why haven't you come back yet?"

Ten minutes later, Yamada frowned. The woman had been in the bathroom for more than ten minutes, so she should have come back by now.

This woman is nice and obedient, and she doesn’t ask for money. He can keep her for a while and then dump her when he gets tired of her.

"Mr. Yamada, there's a phone call for you."

Twenty minutes later, Yamada was about to go to the bathroom to check on the situation when the restaurant owner suddenly called him.

"I'm Yamada, who are you?"

Yamada answered the phone first and spoke directly in Japanese.

"Mr. Yamada, are you closing your shop?"

The person who called was one of his creditors, a loan shark.

People who lent him money were most concerned about his situation. These businesses were the basis for Yamada to repay the money. After discovering something unusual, they immediately called to inquire. After finding out that Yamada was in a Japanese restaurant, they called this side directly.

"What do you mean by I'm quitting?"

Yamada was very unhappy. Even though he was a creditor, he couldn't curse him like that. He was just about to make great plans and expand the scale of his business several times.

At this time, I naturally don’t want to hear unpleasant words.

"Go and see for yourself. All the goods are gone, and so are the people."

After the other party finished speaking, he hung up the phone. Yamada was stunned. What do you mean the goods are gone and the people are gone too?

Without thinking too much, let alone caring about the woman, he drove out in a hurry and came to the Japanese Concession first.

Fortunately, the store in the Japanese Concession was still open. I guess the person who called made a mistake.

But when he entered the store, he was immediately stunned.

There were supposed to be six sales clerks working in the store, but now there was only one left, staring at him eagerly.

Not only that, the shelves were almost completely sold out.

"boss."

"What's going on? What's going on? Where are the things? Have they all been sold?"

Yamada shouted in surprise. His instinctive thought was that business was suddenly booming today and all the goods were sold out, and he had no time to put in new goods. As for the other store clerks, they had all gone to deliver goods to customers.

If this is true, it is a good thing, which means his business is about to enter a period of explosive growth.

"Boss, the items were not sold. They took them away and said they would pay their wages."

The only remaining clerk was also bribed by Xu Fuzhong, but was not taken to count the goods last time.

He was timid and didn't dare to take the things away.

But he didn't dare tell the truth to Yamada.

"I agree?"

Yamada was startled, and immediately thought of something, and asked anxiously: "Where did they go?"

"I do not know."

The clerk lowered his head. In fact, he knew that these people had gone to the concession. The people who looked for them once said that they would protect them after they succeeded, and Yamada would not pose any threat to them.

"I don't know. What do you do for a living? Do you still want to work?"

Yamada was so angry that his body was shaking, and the clerk was too timid to say anything back.

If it were any other clerk, he would probably just say "no" and quit.

However, the employee who dared to say this has already left and is no longer in the store. If he had the courage, he would not stay.

Yamada thought of something and left in a hurry, driving to the concession.

The International Settlement was even worse than the Japanese Settlement. The cargo containers were empty and there was no one left.

The same is true for the French Concession.

Yamada did not dare to stay and went to the warehouse immediately. Fortunately, the warehouse was guarded by his newly hired bodyguards. After all, the goods were extremely valuable and his clerks could not guard them. He needed someone with weapons to help. Seeing that the warehouse was fine, Yamada sat down on the ground.

Although the store was emptied and the loss was huge, as long as the warehouse was intact, he still had a chance to make a comeback.

There are more than $600,000 worth of goods in here.

With this batch of goods, he will be fine.

"Boss, what's wrong with you?"

When the captain of the guard learned that the boss was there, he hurried over. The guards were all retired Japanese soldiers. Although they were old, they were very strong in combat, especially their marksmanship was excellent.

There were twenty people in total, guarding the warehouse for Yamada.

"I'm fine, open the warehouse."

Yamada took a few breaths. He didn't know what had happened or why all the employees ran away, but his instinct still made him realize that something was wrong.

When he went to inspect the work before, it was these employees who helped him.

He now began to worry about the goods in the warehouse.

The captain of the guard opened the door honestly. The goods were all there, just as they were when they were put in. Yamada steadied himself, walked in and picked open a box with a knife.

He picked up the top pair of stockings, no problem, it was the same one he had seen before.

I hope the goods are fine.

He continued to look through the pages, and after just a while, his expression suddenly changed. The feel of the stockings below was obviously different from that of the stockings above.

He took it out and looked at it carefully, and almost fainted.

Just from the appearance, you can tell that this pair of stockings is different from the ones above, and it doesn't feel as silky to the touch.

The two are the same color, but there is a big difference in quality.

"it's okay no problem."

Yamada kept comforting himself that it didn't matter if the quality was a little worse, at least it was still valuable.

Good, expensive stockings can be sold for five dollars, and the inferior ones can be sold for one or two dollars.

His purchase price is already very low, as long as he can sell it for money.

The worst that can happen is that I won’t make that much money this time.

But when he took off the stockings and saw the tear caused by a slight force, he was completely stunned.

Just a little force and the stockings are torn?

Is this still stockings?

How do you sell stockings like this?
The captain of the guards had been nearby and he couldn't see any difference, but he noticed that the stockings in the boss's hand were torn and felt a little sorry.

These are top-quality stockings. He also wants to get one and let his wife wear it when he gets home.

His wife is old, but if she wears such stockings, he is confident that he can become a strong man again at night.

"Boss, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing that Yamada was in a daze, the captain of the guard asked curiously. His voice woke Yamada up, and Yamada immediately pulled out all the stockings in the box and checked them frantically.

It's broken, it's still broken.

In a box, except for the top layer, it was full of these low-quality stockings.

Stockings that break at the slightest effort cannot be sold at all.

Only rich people can afford silk stockings, and they simply look down on such inferior products. In later generations, some of these luxury goods in the hands of truly wealthy people are only used once and then discarded.

If such stockings are sold at a particularly low price, such as one or two cents, perhaps some can be sold to ordinary people with strong vanity.

But after they bought it, they found that it was broken and wanted to return or exchange it immediately.

Even if we don't return it to them, how many can we sell after the reputation is ruined?
What's more, if he really sells it at this price, he will lose everything.

"Hurry, help me open all the boxes."

Yamada shouted in panic. His urgent task now was to find out how many of these low-quality stockings there were.

If that's all, he can go back and hang himself, because he won't have any chance of turning things around.

All the guards came in and helped him check, and it was not until the evening that they finally counted and found that about 10% of the stockings were in good condition.

One percent is not bad, it won’t make him lose all his money.

But even if he sold all of this, it would still not be enough to pay off his debts.

He owed a debt of $380,000. Loan sharks are not easy to deal with, but don't think that banks are easy to deal with.

He couldn't pay back the money, so they took away all his belongings.

"Smith."

It was not until this time that Yamada realized that it was Smith who had tricked him, and he immediately took his guards to cause trouble for Smith.

As a result, it was already late and he didn't even enter the concession.

Even if he could get in, it would be of no use, so Smith boarded the ship in the afternoon and returned to the United States.

At this moment, he was grinning foolishly in the first-class cabin.

The Chinese kept their word, completed the task, and paid him $68,000.

One tenth of the amount defrauded.

One percent may not sound like a lot, but all the goods were provided by Xu's Company. Xu's Company helped him with everything, including the people around Yamada.

These investments are not small, and the money given to the employees of Yamada Trading Company alone is a huge sum of money.

He got so much for just acting.

With this money, he can return to the United States and live the life he wants.

Sixty-eight thousand dollars in this era can be said to be equivalent to several million dollars in later generations.

In an instant he became a millionaire in later generations.

Yamada didn't sleep all night and he thought a lot.

First, there was the woman. She suddenly disappeared and did not return to his home.

There must be something wrong with this woman. She has been saying that Smith's goods are very good. She even put on Smith's stockings to make him excited and inspire his determination to get this batch of goods.

Secondly, his employees must have been bribed.

And as for Smith, this was obviously a trap, but unfortunately he was not careful and fell into it.

Who is actually harming himself?

He is a businessman and has offended many people in the course of his business, but not many people are really capable of retaliating against him in this way.

A name came to his mind.

Xu's firm.

It must be Xu's Business. He wants to compete with Xu's Business now and asks people to slander the other party in the newspaper. Xu's Business found out that he was playing tricks and deliberately set up this trap for him.

He wanted to seek justice from Xu's Company.

Before dawn the next day, Yamada led his men to the concession and went straight to Smith's residence.

He had the door forced open, but unfortunately no one was inside and even Smith's personal belongings disappeared.

Needless to say, the other party must have run away.

"Let's go to Xu's Company."

Yamada was so angry that he was shaking and said with gritted teeth. As soon as he went out, he saw a lot of people standing at the door.

There were loan sharks and bank managers.

These people are well-informed. They already know what happened yesterday. Yamada was tricked and lost a lot of money.

They must get their money back and recover their losses as soon as possible.

Otherwise you may end up getting nothing.

"Why are you here?"

Yamada was very surprised. He didn't expect that the creditor would appear in front of him just after he got into trouble. He knew better than anyone what the creditor was going to do at this time.

This is because they are afraid that he cannot pay back the money, so they come to add insult to injury.

"Mr. Yamada, we have discovered that there are major problems with your business operations. According to the agreement, we are now going to call in the loan in advance. If you cannot repay, we will confiscate the collateral."

A British bank manager first said that Yamada borrowed tens of thousands of pounds from their bank and then converted them all into US dollars.

The main thing is that Smith only wants US dollars and no other currency.

"Mr. Yamada, we are the same."

Another American bank manager followed up and said that the loan sharks were coming over now. They were even more rude and looked straight at Yamada: "We know about your situation. Pay the money back immediately."

There is no collateral for usury. If they want to recover their losses, they must snatch everything from Yamada, otherwise they will lose everything.

"Damn it, someone instigated my employees. I've called the police, and they will be caught. I still have a warehouse full of goods, and you don't trust me at all?"

"Is the cargo in the first warehouse the garbage stockings?"

A Japanese loan shark said contemptuously that Yamada used to be a successful businessman with considerable assets, and they naturally respected rich people.

But now everyone knows what happened to him and Yamada is about to become a pauper. Who will care about him?

It was normal for them to know that Xu's Company secretly informed them.

In fact, even if Xu's Company did not report the news, they would be able to find it out themselves, it just would not take that long.

"You went to my warehouse?"

Yamada was shocked. Although that batch of stockings included a large number of inferior products that could not be sold, there were also 80,000 to 90,000 pairs of good stockings.

If he could sell these stockings for five dollars, he could still get a lot of money back, at least enough to pay off the loan shark.

"We've taken your stuff and will see how much we can get for it. If it's not enough, come back and ask for it again."

The Japanese loan shark replied that they had raided Yamada's warehouse before dawn today and found, in addition to the inferior products, there were also high-quality stockings that had been sorted out by Yamada.

These stockings are worth a lot of money, and he will not be able to get back the loan if he doesn't.

"No, you can't handle it, let me sell it, don't worry, I will definitely pay you back."

Yamada hurriedly shouted, "Let these loan sharks deal with it. The value of that batch of stockings will instantly drop by half, or even lower, and he will no longer have any chance of turning things around."

"here you are?"

The loan shark looked back at him, smiled slightly, and left.

If I hand it over to him, I might not even get my capital back. Yamada has been trapped by someone else's scheme and is completely finished. Who would give him a chance at this time?

The Japanese loan shark left, and another loan shark hurriedly chased after him.

They failed to rob the warehouse, and since Yamada's last remaining funds were taken away by his peers, they needed to talk to their peers and get their money back.

Yamada was destined to get nothing.

Loan sharking is not a business that anyone can do if they want to. All those who engage in loan sharking have enormous power behind them.

During the Han Dynasty, loan sharks even lent money to the imperial court and recovered all the principal and interest afterwards.

This shows their ability.

"No."

Yamada hurriedly got into the car. He wanted to get the goods back, otherwise there would be no chance of turning things around this time.

You may even end up in debt and be forced to death by your creditors.

"Mr. Yamada, I'm sorry, you have already mortgaged this car and you can't drive it away now."

When he was getting into the car, the bank staff stopped him. Yamada was stunned again, and then his face showed anger: "Baga, you deserve to die."

They are all people who take advantage of others' misfortune. Now he wants to kill someone.

He was accompanied by ten guards, including the captain.

At this time, Ishida had lost his mind. Seeing that the bank was going to take the car, he immediately shouted, "Kill them."

The guards didn't move. They were not fools.

Besides, Yamada was just their employer, not their superior. They were paid to protect him, not to kill him on their own initiative.

Besides, if we kill these foreigners in the concession, will they survive? We can't bring guns into the concession, and if we really fight, we don't know who will kill whom.

Another point is, Yamada is in this condition, can they still get their salaries?

Who wants to work for nothing?
"Assholes, didn't you hear me?"

Yamada was almost going crazy. He didn't expect that even the guards he hired would no longer listen to him.

The captain of the guard still didn't move, and the other guards naturally didn't move either.

The bank staff drove away Yamada's car in front of him. Yamada fell into the trap and there was no chance of recovery. In order to avoid losses, the bank had to take the money first.

Don't think they will abide by the rules and wait until the time comes to collect the collateral.

When they first made the loan, they added a clause that if they found that Yamada was not doing well or was in danger of not being able to repay the money, they could ask for repayment in advance.

Given Yamada's current condition, there is no possibility for him to repay the loan in advance, and his collateral must be collected first.

All of Yamada's cars were driven away, and he and his guards were left to wander on their own.

"Go to Xu's Company."

Yamada's eyes were red. If there was no car, he would take a rickshaw. The headquarters of Xu's Trading Company was in the International Settlement, so it was just the right time to go there.

He arrived at the door of Xu's Company in a rickshaw with his guards, but he didn't even go through the door.

He brought ten guards with him, but Xu's Company had more guards, all of whom were foreigners.

There are also policemen watching closely nearby.

"Come in."

Yamada understood that it must be Xu's Company that was playing tricks on him. He had to go in and see the person now. As for what to do after seeing the person, he hadn't thought about it at all.

In fact, he is a little crazy now.

The guards didn't move, but he was caught and shouted that they were going to rush into Xu's Business. That would be disastrous.

Including his guards, everyone was taken to the police station.

Yamada, who was detained in the police station, did not know that all his properties had been confiscated. He borrowed money from two loan sharks. The Japanese loan sharks finally agreed to give part of the extra money to the other group.

The batch of high-end stockings that were snatched away in advance by Japanese loan sharks were eventually taken over by Xu's Company.

But it was only $80,000.

Eighty thousand is already a high price, after all, Yamada only spent sixty-eight thousand to buy this batch of stockings.

Of the 80,000 US dollars, 70,000 was directly withheld by the Japanese loan shark company.

40,000 yuan in principal and 30,000 yuan in interest.

If the other group of loan sharks were not so powerful, they would not even be willing to give up the 10,000 US dollars.

(End of this chapter)