“Ms. Zhou, don’t worry, I’ll go talk to the homeowner for you right away.” Ding Da’s company mainly deals in the sale of courtyard houses. He had only been with the company for a short time and needed orders to boost his sales performance. Chu Yu had the financial means, and Ding Da was going to great lengths to close this deal.
He helped her negotiate the price with Lao Zhao.
When Old Zhao heard that this dilapidated courtyard house could be sold for 15,000 yuan, he excitedly said:
“The price is negotiable, but, Xiao Ding, this girl looks quite young. What does she do, and how can she afford to buy a house for 15,000 yuan?”
Ding Da didn't know Miss Zhou's identity; he only knew that her boyfriend was very powerful.
"I don't know the specifics, but he's a wealthy man. Uncle Zhao, could you lower the price a bit? Your house is a bit small, and there's a tree in the yard. There are plenty of better courtyard houses on the market."
Old Zhao was in dire need of money. Seeing that Chu Yu was interested in buying, and knowing that the price was higher than the market price, he figured he wouldn't find a buyer like him again if he didn't sell. So, he waved his hand and made the decision:
"Fourteen thousand, if she agrees, then it's a deal!"
Ding Da returned excitedly with the price quote, but Chu Yu didn't feel anything. Having seen better houses, she was just making do with this one.
Fortunately, the price was cheap; a courtyard house costing just over ten thousand yuan was more than enough for her.
This place is very close to Yorkham, and Chu Yu wants to renovate it so that Shu Hui can come and live here, making it convenient for her to go to work.
If Shu Hui is scared, she can clean out a few rooms to make do with staff, or find staff to live with her.
Chu Yu was a straightforward person and too lazy to come over and look again. She had money in her pocket anyway. Yorkham's business was good, and Shu Hui earned enough in a day to buy a courtyard house. Why would she want to spend time carefully selecting one?
If all else fails, just buy a few more; surely one of them will be suitable for living.
"Okay, let's sign the contract then."
Ding Da said happily, "Miss Zhou, please wait for me and Uncle Zhao. I'll go prepare the contract right away."
Old Zhao was quite excited that his wish had come true. As soon as Ding Da left, he pulled Chu Yu aside to chat about everyday things.
"Young man, you look so young, where do you get so much money?"
Old Zhao is quite approachable, but the two aren't really close, so Chu Yu tends to only say half of what she means.
"I made money from running a clothing store."
"You own a clothing store? No wonder you're dressed so fashionably," Old Zhao said excitedly, chatting with her for a while before finally getting to the point, "I have a mutual aid society here, would you like to give it a try?"
Mutual aid society? Chu Yu had lived two lives and had never heard of such an organization. It sounded similar to Chen Jinnan's Heaven and Earth Society.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Old Zhao started spitting as he spoke:
"Young lady, you don't understand, do you? Let me tell you, mutual aid societies are a great thing. You invest a sum of money, and in just two months, you can get a 30% profit! The more you invest, the higher the profit. For example, if I invest the money from selling my house, I can get at least 5,000 yuan in interest. If I invest 100,000 yuan, I can get 150,000 yuan back. If I invest more than 300,000 yuan, I can get a 100% profit! Isn't that amazing?"
Chu Yu understood. This wasn't a mutual aid society; it was clearly a Ponzi scheme, a scam tailor-made for middle-aged and elderly people.
Ponzi schemes are not uncommon; they have existed in every dynasty. In this era, they are called mutual aid societies, and in later generations, they would be called P2P lending platforms. People who invest in the early stages can receive returns, in order to get these people to recruit others to join.
Later, as more and more people joined, the interest rates also increased.
The purpose is to lure more and more people in.
Once the pyramid scheme of a Ponzi scheme is set up, the number of people joining increases exponentially, and the amount of money invested quickly reaches an astonishing level.
More sophisticated Ponzi schemes might even involve selling products to lure elderly people into buying them, promising higher returns for the more they sell. Once the elderly are deceived and join in, they find themselves trapped and unable to escape the scheme later.
To protect their own interests, they will bring in people around them. The higher-ups will promise them that the more people they bring in, the higher the profit margin will be, and the sooner their principal will be returned to them.
Which category does Lao Zhao belong to?
Chu Yu sized up the enthusiastic old man in front of him. He wore black-rimmed glasses, was tall, neither fat nor thin, and looked quite energetic, not like someone with bad intentions.
Chu Yu pondered, "Mr. Zhao, you're selling your house, not to join the mutual aid society, are you?"
Old Zhao said happily:
"Young lady, I won't lie to you. I stole some money before, and I got several hundred back in less than a month. I can make money much faster than working. You think you can earn several thousand yuan a day if you work? But as long as I sell the courtyard house, the money I make will appreciate much faster than the value of the courtyard house itself."
These old houses don't appreciate in value at all. Only a young girl who hasn't seen much of the world would spend money to buy such an old house.
Old Zhao was full of confidence and wanted to bring Chu Yu into the mutual aid association so that he could curry favor with the association leader.
"Mr. Zhao, who recruited you into the mutual aid society?"
Old Zhao chuckled: "He's a colleague of mine. He made a lot of money through mutual aid societies. I had to use a lot of persuasion before he finally agreed to get me involved."
"Where is the president of the mutual aid association from?"
"Well... I don't know," Old Zhao said. He didn't know much about the chairman, but he had heard Old Ding mention that the chairman's accent sounded like someone from Deyang, as if he was from out of town and his Mandarin wasn't very standard, without any Beijing accent.
"From Deyang?" He's from the same hometown as Chu Yu.
I never expected Deyang to have such a person.
After thinking about it, Chu Yu decided to tell him the truth.
She couldn't bear to see the old man work so hard his whole life, only to have all the money he had saved up swindled away.
"Mr. Zhao, I have heard of a scam that originated in the Zhejiang area. It is similar to your mutual aid society. It lures people to join with promises of high profits. At the beginning, you can indeed get money when you join, but as the number of members increases, the leader can no longer afford the high interest and will run away with the money. Many people are scammed out of their money, losing everything, and some even lose their lives."
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