Starting from South America, speeding through the world

Chapter 124 C-SPAN
10:54 PM.

Linda Morales held the door with one hand and rummaged through her bag for her keys with the other, moving much more slowly than usual.

The alcohol made her a little dizzy, but not to the point of losing control; she was mostly just tired.

Over the past three days, she has visited four different places.

Two buyers, an inheritance case, and a thorny judicial administration property.

Being able to sit in a bar for two hours today is already a rare moment of relaxation.

Linda finally pulled out the key, gripped the doorknob, and took a deep breath.

The door was pushed open.

The room was pitch black.

Linda frowned, reached for the switch on the wall, and pressed it.

The light is off.

"Damn, the power's out?"

She cursed, threw her bag onto the cabinet in the entryway, and was about to take out her phone to contact the property management.

at this time--

Suddenly, the floor lamp next to the white sofa in the corner of the living room turned on.

Linda's heart almost stopped for half a second.

The light cast a shadowy figure.

"You've made quite a bit of money lately, Linda."

The man was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and had his hands on his knees.

"you"

Upon seeing his face, Linda instinctively stepped back, her heel hitting the coffee table and nearly causing her to fall.

"Don't fucking move." Zhou Yi stood up. "I don't want to shoot."

Upon hearing this, Linda froze on the spot.

After a long pause, she tried to calm herself down: "You scared me. I thought you—"

"died?"

The man interrupted her, then shook his head. "Too bad, it wasn't me who died."

Linda's breathing became rapid, and her face turned slightly pale.
“Listen to me—that’s not what I meant. That deal was legal, really. I thought you didn’t—”

Don't bother explaining it to me.

As Zhou Yi drew closer, Linda's gaze shifted, and she assumed she understood his intentions.

She nervously tossed her hair and was about to kneel down.

But the next second he was roughly pulled up.

“You listed the house as ‘unclaimed property’.”

“They forged transaction records and had the state land administration department perform a ‘return to system for re-auction’ operation.”

"Then, coordinate the process with your friend at the McCormick Trust."

"The operation was very clean, and it also bypassed the auditing system."

"How brave."

Linda swayed, her mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't utter a single word.

How much money have you made?

Hearing this, she seemed to snap out of a daze and quickly said:
"I can, I can give you the money back, I beg you, I really—"

Zhou Yi ignored him and repeated the question: "How much money have you made?"

"Four hundred thousand, six hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, really, eight hundred thousand!"

"Eight hundred thousand." Zhou Yi sighed. "Do you know how much work I had to do to earn that eight hundred thousand?"

"I can return it to you! I really can return it to you!"

Linda grabbed his arm suddenly. "Give me a few more months. Just a few more months! I promise!"

"How many months?"

"Is this your sincerity in redeeming your life?"

"I don't really have much cash on hand. I've converted most of it into cryptocurrency!"

"The price was rising then, but it's been hammered down in the last two months. Give me a few more months, I promise."

"What kinds are there?" Zhou Yi asked.

Linda paused for a moment, then stammered, "Three hundred and seventy bitcoins."

Zhou Yi's expression remained unchanged as he took out his phone from his coat and unlocked the screen.

"Where? The stock exchange?"

“No…it’s not…on exchanges.” She shook her head repeatedly. “It’s a cold wallet, Trezor, the first generation kind.”

"It looks like a USB drive. It's in the bedroom drawer."

"What about the private key and mnemonic phrase?"

“They’re all there. I made paper copies, and they’re right there. If you want them, I’ll give you everything.”

Zhou Yi nodded and opened the market information page on his phone. He stared at the screen for a few seconds and read softly, "Six hundred and ninety-three US dollars, Bitstamp." [1]
"Approximately 250,000."

"Although there was a discount, it barely covered part of the cost."

Linda's eyes lit up, but before she could speak, the man continued, "And what about the rest?"

Her expression changed instantly: "The rest of my money... I tried shorting LTC before, and I got liquidated."

"I also have a deposit in Mt. Gox that's stuck and I can't withdraw it. It seems the platform is freezing withdrawals. I really don't want to default on my debt, I just—"

Hearing this, Zhou Yi couldn't help but interrupt her:

"So, you exchanged my 800,000 for a bunch of worthless cryptocurrencies and an account on a dying platform?"

Linda's lips trembled as she sensed the murderous intent in his question.

The next second, she pounced on him, hugging his leg and pleading incessantly:
"Don't do this, John, don't do this. I'm not begging you, you love me, don't you? I still—"

"Fuck you, Linda."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yi pressed down on her chin with one hand and supported her skull from behind with the other, then twisted her head violently.

The room fell silent again.

Zhou Yi stood still, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it.

A few seconds later, he sighed and sat back down on the sofa.

Oh shit.

What a loss.

Apart from a little over 300 bitcoins, they got nothing back.

Why bother speculating on cryptocurrencies when everything is fine?
Smoke rose, and Zhou Yi stared at the ceiling in silence for a few seconds.

Then, as if resigned to his fate, he sighed again, picked up his phone, edited a text message, and sent it.

"You're about to be finished, Lucas."

We lost money.

I can't be the only one who's annoyed.

Similarly, Linda wasn't the only one who deserved to die.

A few minutes later, the phone vibrated twice.

—“??”

The text message replied with two question marks.

—"The house you used to hide the documents was secretly sold."

—Guess who the buyer is?

—“Mike Castelli’s baby son.”

"So, if you don't want to go through several days of hearings, or even be discharged from the military, you'd better find someone to help me clean up the mess."

This time, the waiting time for news was even shorter.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

The next second, the caller ID popped up.

Before Zhou Yi could even greet him, Lucas launched into a barrage of questions:
What did he see?

Did you take those documents?

How much stuff is still left at the scene?

Zhou Yi didn't rush to answer.

He first stubbed out his cigarette on the corpse's clothes, and then slowly said:
"I've checked the items; they're still there for now. The woman has also been dealt with."

"And what about Castelli?"

"I didn't touch him."

Are you forcing me to take action?

"Don't be so sensitive. I just don't like killing, especially in my own home."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Immediately afterward, Lucas's hesitant voice rang out: "Are you sure they really saw those documents?"

At this moment, Zhou Yi finally regained his composure and said expressionlessly:

"I remember that these past few days, Republicans have been using defense funding as leverage to force the White House to make concessions on the healthcare bill."

"Guess what the reaction would be if, at this very moment, a libertarian who constantly clamors about the 'slippery slope' suddenly went on a C-SPAN live stream and called you out for bypassing Congress and stuffing several anonymous grants into the Pentagon budget that were not audited by OCO?"

"."

Lucas didn't say anything, but he was clearly convinced.

After a long pause, he spoke again, his voice tinged with resentment:
"I've only been away from it for a few months, and you've already let the house be sold."

“Don’t make it sound like I did it on purpose,” Zhou Yi said, feeling quite aggrieved. “I lost over 500,000 yuan because of this.”

　[1] Parallel worlds, different prices

　　
　
(End of this chapter)