Reborn in Russia as a Big Shot

74. Money laundering through fake orders

Xia Dongyuan went to the cafeteria to get breakfast and brought it to Yong Ge and his daughter.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Baizhi was not there.

Where did she go?

"I don't know, I drank too much last night, and she wasn't here when I woke up this morning." Yong Ge picked up the wheat porridge, took a sip, and said with a look of disgust, "Why does it taste like milk? What did they put in it?"

"I don't like Russian breakfast either." Xia Dongyuan had already finished eating in the cafeteria. "This pancake is alright, it's a bit like our pancakes."

A little while later, before Yong Ge had even finished his meal, Zhang Baizhi returned.

Xia Dongyuan immediately went to greet him and asked, "Did you go to see Li Xiang?"

"Yes." Zhang Baizhi nodded in agreement.

Yong asked with concern, "Why do you look even more tired than me?"

"How could I not be tired after not sleeping all night?" Zhang Baizhi yawned deeply. Seeing his father and Xia Dongyuan looking at him at the same time, he quickly shifted the blame, "It's all your fault. You insisted on dragging Li Xiang to drink."

"Have you even discussed anything serious? All you do is drink. You throw up all over yourself, he throws up all over the floor, and after I take care of you, I have to go take care of him."

"Going to sleep!"

Yong Ge looked bewildered and said to Xia Dongyuan, "It's just a little drinking, why are you so angry?"

Xia Dongyuan guessed, "Did she mention the financing to Li Xiang, but he didn't agree?"

Yongge turned to look at his daughter's back and said, "Zhang Baizhi, don't sleep yet, come here."

Zhang Baizhi pretended not to hear and slammed the door shut.

Yong Ge got up, wanting to find out what was going on, but Xia Dongyuan stopped him, saying, "Let's wait until she wakes up."

Yong sighed and sat down again. "This is also my fault. I forgot to tell you guys that Li Xiang can read micro-expressions, so you can't lie to him."

"I'll have a frank talk with him later. If it works out, great; if not, then forget it."

Afraid of being left behind, Xia Dongyuan wanted to build rapport, so she deliberately followed Yong Ge's lead, "Micro-expressions? Like Lam Bo-yee from 'The Mind Detective'? Isn't that made up? Do people really know how to do that?"

"You don't understand, do you? TV dramas are more dramatic than real life, but they also originate from it. My brother here is a genius."

Just as Yong Ge started bragging, Zhang Baizhi suddenly opened the door, yawning, and said, "Li Xiang won't talk to me about the financing. He said I'm his niece and that you should go to him."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Yong Ge got up to leave.

Xia Dongyuan's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Let's go this afternoon, he's not up yet." Zhang Baizhi closed the door again.

-

Zhang Baizhi slept until dark.

Yong was sitting in the living room waiting for her, with his suitcase next to him.

"Why are you packing your luggage? Are you going back?" Zhang Baizhi woke up and came out of his room, preparing to wash up and then go check on Li Xiang.

"The financing deal is done. Now we'll go back and raise the money."

"How did you negotiate?" Zhang Baizhi asked expectantly as he sat down next to his father.

With his arms crossed, Yong Ge explained to his daughter point by point: "We will definitely get a share in the Series A round, but we can only co-invest. The timing, valuation, and how much we will get are all uncertain at the moment."

"What I mean is, give some to Xiaoyuan, and we'll cover the rest ourselves. Invest as much as we can, go all in. If we don't have enough money, we'll sell the house."

"Selling the house? Is that a huge gamble?" Zhang Baizhi was a little worried.

Brother Yong grinned and said, "Once you're at the gambling table, there are only two possible outcomes."

"Go all out, make ten times the profit, and we'll be among the wealthy."

"You've lost everything by now. You can use this opportunity to test Nicholas Tse and see if he's still willing to marry you now that you're broke."

Brother Yong, full of wicked schemes, instructed his daughter, "Even if Nicholas Tse proposes to you before the official start of the marriage ceremony, you cannot accept."

"If you're not married, it's called premarital property; if you're married, you have to share half with him."

Zhang Baizhi said, "A prenuptial agreement can be signed."

"That won't work either." Yong cleared his throat and said, "Li Xiang has another condition for our family to participate in the investment, which I've already agreed to on your behalf."

Zhang Baizhi, with his neck stiff, said, "What? You're going to agree?"

Brother Yong said, "He wants you to terminate your contract with China Star and transfer to his company. All you have to do is nod, and I'll take care of it for you."

"Don't do anything reckless." Zhang Baizhi was also reluctant to stay at China Star.

"I know what I'm doing," Yong said, beaming. "The Xiang family wants to switch to opening a casino. Gambling licenses in Macau are so expensive. I'll talk to them and see if they're interested. If they are, I'll have them come to St. Petersburg."

"Regardless of whether this casino will eventually open, as long as they've set their sights on it, they'll have to release the people obediently. You're trying to jump ship to Li Xiang's company; if they won't even give you this much face, how will you ever ask them for favors in the future?"

"Opening a casino isn't that simple. How can you run a business without a local partner?" Zhang Baizhi thought his father was being a bit delusional.

Yong Ge slammed his fist on the table in excitement, "We have a partner!"

"I heard Li Xiang say that VK's major shareholder is a casino owner. They own all the high-end casinos in St. Petersburg. I forgot what the group is called, it's a bunch of English letters."

-

Peter's dormitory.

Li Xiang came to find Peter for drinks, chilled whiskey, which he drank straight from the bottle like beer.

"Peter, Shopee has been ordered to rectify its practices within a specified period. Taking advantage of these last few months while the company is still in a state of chaos, I'm planning to make a big move."

"If all goes well, we can raise the ransom for Andrei before the end of the year. If we hurry, we might even be able to get it by Christmas next year."

The Christmas next year that Li Xiang mentioned is actually this year.

The Christmas of the Eastern Expedition Church is January 7th.

"This is great! What do you need me to do?" Peter asked excitedly.

Li Xiang had no idea what Elena was thinking.

She suddenly said she wouldn't do the part that was originally her responsibility, and asked Li Xiang to find Peter, thus handing over this opportunity to "make a contribution".

Andrei is in the present tense, Peter is in the future tense.

Being able to fight alongside the Crown Prince would also be beneficial for Li Xiang, a son-in-law from another family.

"Fake orders".

"Andrei's ransom is 250 million rubles. Based on the price of an iPhone on Shopee, that would require about 17,000 orders."

"After Apple lowered its price, it sold very well in Russia, and demand exceeded supply. Ten thousand orders is normal, thirty thousand orders is not unusual, and fifty thousand orders is not an exaggeration."

"Including 17,000 fake orders won't show up in the data, but the risk lies in the fact that those involved in the fake orders must be trustworthy."

Peter imagined himself clapping excitedly, "That's why you had me recruit my old team ahead of time to work at Shopee. This is the moment I've been waiting for."

"Just tell me, how exactly do I need to process this order?"

Li Xiang said, "It's very simple. You find someone to place an order online, the account is not registered under a real name, and then you take the cash to the self-pickup point to pick up the phone."

"Nobody knows who bought this phone."

"After you get the iPhone, secretly send it back to the Red Star Factory."

"We buy and sell to ourselves, and the cash and logistics behind each order are real, so these transactions are real."

"Once the money goes into Shopee, everything else will be easy; just leave it to me."