Mazu Special Administrative Region is quite a unique place in the country.
The uniqueness lies in the fact that casinos can be operated here.
With casinos, naturally a lot of pawnshops emerge to help desperate gamblers cash out.
Chen Yiyang had been to Mazu once before, but it was for tourism. He left after a day and only visited Mazu Temple, the origin of the place's name.
Although it's been over a year and his pass may have expired, renewing it is convenient now, and the only cost is the airfare.
"How much are they willing to offer?" Chen Yiyang asked.
"If the item is good, they are willing to offer over six hundred thousand."
In that case, it's worth making a trip.
Chen Yiyang didn't ask how much this store was offering. People made it clear. The item is good, but lacking sales channels. If Chen Yiyang is willing to sell it at a super low price to them, they'd be happy to slowly find channels to sell it, but Chen Yiyang obviously wouldn't agree.
However, the transaction speed at the pawnshop was truly fast.
In less than an hour, they had processed the contract and payment matters, concluding the deal with Chen Yiyang.
Just as Chen Yiyang walked out, he saw the young girl who had run out crying earlier come back in.
As the girl re-entered the private room.
Chen Yiyang curiously asked the nearby staff, "What's with this girl?"
"She probably heard somewhere that luxury brand bags retain their value, so she brought a bunch of bags she previously bought to sell."
"And something worth a million is now only pawned for a hundred thousand?" Chen Yiyang thought, even if luxury goods don't hold value, the bargain couldn't be that steep.
The staff was likely concerned that if Chen Yiyang left with a bad impression of the pawnshop, it would damage its reputation, so he patiently explained,
"It's not that luxury brand bags don't hold value, only classic luxury items retain their value."
To ensure Chen Yiyang understood, the staff further explained, "Luxury brands like Chanel and Gucci release many styles and types of luxury goods each year, and prices vary. Some popular styles even require customers to buy other styles for the opportunity to purchase them.
However, the selling price from these luxury brands has nothing to do with us. Our pawnshop's buying price is based on the second-hand market.
For example, a luxury bag sold at three hundred thousand, if very trendy, would see a lot of demand, causing our purchase price to exceed three hundred thousand.
But for non-popular styles, even if sold at five hundred thousand, our purchase price might only reach one hundred or two hundred thousand, or even lower."
With that explanation, Chen Yiyang immediately understood.
It's not that luxury bags hold value; it's the buyers of luxury goods who do.
However, regardless of the low price offered by the pawnshop, the girl still had to sell it there.
Because pawnshops inherently come with a commercial credibility attribute, and buyers of second-hand bags would choose this reliable option to avoid buying fakes.
Otherwise, if you sell online, you can't guarantee authenticity.
Even if sent to manufacturers for verification, they typically don't offer authentication opinions or certificates.
This is similar to how most game companies discourage account trading; if everyone buys second-hand, who do they sell new to?
After leaving the pawnshop, Chen Yiyang began preparing for a trip to Mazu.
He doesn't have much cash on hand, just a little over one million.
If he receives another tip about a discount house, this money would be quite stretched.
If he had about one million five hundred thousand in cash when selling the house with Chang Yuning, he would have definitely chosen to buy the house himself with one million and then lease it back to Chang Yuning to earn rent.
So, cash is crucial, and this trip to Mazu must be made soon.
Chen Yiyang booked a flight for the next noon.
He planned to wait and check the discount tip tonight. If it's local, he'd handle it in the morning and then fly to Mazu by noon.
If it's elsewhere, he'd decide based on the potential gain whether to cancel the flight and reschedule.
Twelve midnight.
Hans hadn't slept yet, and Chen Yiyang placed his feet on Hans, gently pressing. Finally, annoyed, Hans left his kennel and hid under the sofa.
Today's tip, CZ seventy-five thousand: A personal seller on an online second-hand trading platform, 'Qing Yun Still,' listed a product that includes a notebook with a lot of game account passwords. One of them contains a Steam account's username and password. It's a find snagged for under ten thousand.
Game account find?
Chen Yiyang glanced at today's push notification and searched for this personal seller.
The seller only had one item for sale, with a description explaining: My cousin's brother unexpectedly passed away in the United States, and his family sent me loads of his game discs and a notebook recording his game account passwords.
I don't play games and have no idea what these are worth. However, the brother's family was quite wealthy, and reportedly, he spent a lot on games. Interested buyers can place an order.
Oh, not only game accounts; he also includes over ten game discs.
These are PS4 physical discs of popular games but come without boxes.
The seller priced everything at a ridiculous five thousand, which explains why there's been no interest.
Chen Yiyang directly sent a private message, "I'm interested in your product. Where are you based? Can we deal in person?"
"I'm in Hai Zhu. Is dealing in person meeting in real life? Isn't that unsafe?"
"How could it be unsafe if we trade face-to-face? You can choose a place, and I'll find you tomorrow afternoon."
"Sure." After a long wait, the seller replied.
"Then please take down the product listing first."
The seller obediently took down the listing.
That was too easy to fool.
Chen Yiyang thought, if he asked the seller to take photos of all the usernames and passwords in that notebook and send them over, he might actually do it.
He'd even get them for free that way.
Unfortunately, Chen Yiyang has a good enough personal ethic that he firmly adheres to honesty in transaction credibility.
After waking up the next day, he took Hans out to the pet store.
Today Xu Qing was also working.
"Hey, hey, are you here to drop off Hans again?" Xu Qing squatted down and petted Hans while asking.
"I have to go on a business trip. It'll probably take a day or two."
"Why not leave him with me? You just need to provide the dog food; I've got everything else covered." Xu Qing squinted and smiled at Chen Yiyang.
"Alright, that sounds perfect. Thanks a ton, General." Chen Yiyang joked, referencing their previous conversation.
"As long as you know." Xu Qing giggled, patting Chen Yiyang on the shoulder. "Leave Hans here then. I'll take him home after work."
"Okay." Chen Yiyang bought Hans's dog food and freeze-dried treats at the store and handed them over to Xu Qing.
"I'm off then, gotta catch a flight." Chen Yiyang said, pointing to his cheek.
"What are you doing?" Xu Qing asked knowingly.
"I want a kiss."
"You should say, 'General, please kiss me.'"
"General, please kiss me." Chen Yiyang said without any embarrassment.
Seeing Chen Yiyang play along, Xu Qing immediately stepped over and tip-toed to kiss Chen Yiyang's cheek a few times.
Then, Chen Yiyang took the chance to exert some force, directly lifting Xu Qing into a hug.
"And a high lift hug too." Chen Yiyang whispered in Xu Qing's ear.
Though both were wearing quite a bit of clothing.
At that moment, the heat radiating from their bodies felt like a powerful wave crashing against each other.
Xu Qing buried her head into the crook of Chen Yiyang's neck, rubbing her cheek against him a few times.
"Learning from your cat, huh?" Chen Yiyang laughed.
"How does Hans usually play with you?" Xu Qing asked.
"Well, he definitely licks all over." Chen Yiyang pretended to stick out his tongue immediately.
"No, that's gross." Xu Qing quickly covered Chen Yiyang's mouth with her hand.
So, Chen Yiyang settled for touching his forehead to Xu Qing's.
"I'm leaving now."
"Bye-bye." Xu Qing waved goodbye to Chen Yiyang.
Love is damn beautiful.
While sitting in the taxi to the airport, Chen Yiyang reminisced about the faint scent Xu Qing left behind.
Flying from Jin City to Hai Zhu City takes three and a half hours.
Chen Yiyang took the flight at noon, and by the time he landed in Hai Zhu, it was already afternoon.
He took out his phone and sent a message to Qingyun.
"I've arrived in Hai Zhu, where should we meet?"
"Here." The other side sent over a location.
Chen Yiyang looked and saw it was actually the entrance to a police station.
"This."
"It's safer this way." The other side quickly replied.
How could there be someone in this world who's both smart and silly?
Chen Yiyang had no choice but to take a cab to the location given.
Thankfully, the distance wasn't far, and it was easy to get a cab here. He arrived in half an hour.
"Are you the one I'm supposed to pick up the trash from?"
A girl who looked underage was carrying a big box. When she saw Chen Yiyang get out of the cab, she cautiously walked over to ask.
"How many have you asked?"
"Fourth. It's really you!" The girl excitedly raised the box in her hand, "I've been waiting for you for half a day."
"Take out your phone." Chen Yiyang took out his own phone and transferred five thousand yuan to her.
"Thank you. Here, this is your stuff." The girl handed the box to Chen Yiyang.
"Hold on, let me check." Chen Yiyang flipped through the box and found the password notebook.
He opened it and turned the pages.
One page meticulously recorded a Steam account, the bound email account, and the security recovery code for the mobile token.
All the account information was complete. With these, Chen Yiyang could directly change the bindings on the account.
"Have you shown this notebook to anyone else?" Chen Yiyang asked the girl.
"No." The girl shook her head decisively.
"Have you taken any pictures of the content?"
"No."
Seeing the girl answer so firmly, her eyes were full of naïve innocence untouched by the world.
Chen Yiyang felt at ease.
He stuffed the notebook into his pocket and then handed the box back to the girl.
"You're not buying it?"
"Not really, I'll give you an address. Can you send it there for me?" Chen Yiyang said while transferring an extra hundred yuan to her.
"This hundred yuan is for postage and a reward, is that alright?"
"Yeah, yeah." Hearing that Chen Yiyang wasn't going to ask for the money back, the girl nodded decisively and agreed.