"What's that?" The two sailors' expressions changed, and they simultaneously raised their binoculars.
About 200 meters away from the cargo ship, two speedboats cut through the waves and headed straight for it.
By the light of the lamps hanging at the front of the speedboat, the two sailors simultaneously saw several figures on the speedboat standing up, holding machine guns with the muzzles pointing directly at the cargo ship they were on.
"What the hell..." two Brazil sailors cursed simultaneously. They exchanged a glance, then turned and ran towards the back of the deck, shouting a piercing warning, "Pirate!"
The two hundred meters were covered in an instant. Before the two sailors had even run a few meters, a series of flames spewed from the two speedboats, instantly turning them into sieves.
The speedboat rapidly approached, then suddenly slowed down just before colliding with the cargo ship. Di Zhen and his group grabbed onto the cargo ship's sampan and jumped aboard.
Footsteps sounded, and a group of armed Brazil poured out of the cargo hold, shouting. Before they could even see what was happening, Di Zhen and his men, who were standing in front of the deck, had already fired a whole magazine of bullets.
Gunshots rang out across the sea.
Chapter 553 The Storm Begins (Part Two)
In a Portuguese Macau Hotel, the bodies of Singh and his two white bodyguards had already been dragged out. The room still retained a faint, lingering smell of blood. Song Chunzhong and Gu Tiancheng stared blankly at the one million Hong Kong dollars in cash on the table.
"Uncle Zhong, how should we divide one million?" Gu Tiancheng turned his head blankly and asked Song Chunzhong.
Song Chunzhong frowned. "When did the Thailand become so rich? I heard they're still at war over there..."
Gu Tiancheng interrupted Song Chunzhong: "Who cares about whether there's a war or not? Now that we have the deposit, let's find a chance to slip away!"
"Something's not right. There's definitely something fishy going on." Song Chunzhong shook his head, took out a stack of brand-new Hong Kong dollars, and examined them carefully. "I've seen suckers before, but I've never seen one this blatant. Who gives such a large deposit without even seeing the goods?"
Gu Tiancheng frowned and nodded in agreement. "You suspect there's something wrong with this money?"
As he spoke, he mimicked Song Chunzhong by grabbing a wad of cash and examining it repeatedly.
A few minutes later, the two put down the banknotes at the same time, looked at each other, and shook their heads slightly.
From any angle, there was nothing wrong with the Hong Kong dollars in their hands. Song Chunzhong was self-evident, and Gu Tiancheng, having previously worked in the Silver Head, was an expert at identifying banknotes. He could even tell whether a banknote in his hand was problematic just by touch.
But this time, no matter how they looked at it, the money in their hands seemed perfectly normal.
"Give me the knife." Song Chunzhong reached out and took the knife from Gu Tiancheng, carefully cut open a Hong Kong dollars, pulled out the gold thread, and then gently rubbed the cross-section of the counterfeit bill with his fingers.
"Damn it, I almost got scammed." Song Chunzhong stared at the Hong Kong dollars that had been split in two in his hand and cursed under his breath.
Gu Tiancheng grabbed the gold thread from Song Chunzhong's hand in surprise, then rubbed the cut banknotes together like Song Chunzhong did, shaking his head in confusion.
"The gold thread is real, the problem lies in the paper." Song Chunzhong said, taking out a Hong Kong dollars bill of the same denomination of five hundred from his pocket, splitting it in half, and explaining to Gu Tiancheng, "Hey! Let me teach you a lesson. Both of these bills are made from cotton and linen pulp, including the process of sprinkling fiber powder on them, which is exactly the same as the bank's. However, the price difference lies in the ink."
"Ink?" Gu Tiancheng raised an eyebrow and immediately focused his attention on the ink on the banknote.
Pointing to the cut side of the counterfeit bill, Song Chunzhong continued, "The ink used by Hong Kong banks is fluorescent ink imported from Britain. This ink is characterized by its fineness; once applied, it won't seep into the paper. Take a look at this one."
As Song Chunzhong spoke, he handed the half of the counterfeit bill to Gu Tiancheng. Gu Tiancheng, using the hotel lights, examined the cut surface of the counterfeit bill closely.
The only difference between counterfeit and genuine banknotes is that when a counterfeit banknote is cut open, you can see that the ink in the paper's interlayer has seeped through, leaving tiny cracks on the surface that are even finer than a hair.
Unless you cut the paper open and look closely, no one would notice this tiny difference.
"Fluorescent ink isn't something just anyone can get their hands on. I bet the person who made this counterfeit added something else to the regular ink to make it about 80% realistic. Quite a master," Song Chunzhong chuckled. "But it's still fake. You're still a bit short of fooling your father."
As Song Chunzhong had predicted, the counterfeiter, Kondo Kohei, indeed had to use ordinary ink and other techniques to create the most perfect counterfeit banknotes possible because he lacked fluorescent ink. His printing equipment consisted of three banknote printing machines looted from banks during the Japanese occupation. The entire printing process was flawless; the only drawback was that, apart from professional bank staff and people like Song Chunzhong, no one else could distinguish between the real and fake banknotes.
"The world is a dangerous place!" Gu Tiancheng threw away the counterfeit money in his hand, glanced back at Song Chunzhong, and asked, "What's the next step?"
Song Chunzhong closed the briefcase, calmly saying, "No rush. Didn't the Thailand guy just ask me to help him find someone? Go and inform He Xian that my nephew is still working for him in Hong Kong. Ask him to help deal with these Thailand guys."
Gu Tiancheng licked his lips. "Those Thailand guys came from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is their stronghold, isn't it?"
Song Chunzhong grinned. "I'll call the people in Hong Kong and tell them that all the money the Thailand have is real, but it's because they have a printing press. What do you think the gangsters and police in Hong Kong will do when they find out?"
Gu Tiancheng thought for a moment, then revealed a smile that was hard to decipher.
Xu Pingsheng's face was extremely grim, his hands trembled slightly, and his chest heaved as he stared intently at Xu Enbo, who had stormed into the meeting hall. "What are you planning to do by letting the ship from Brazil dock?"
Xu Enbo glanced at Song Tianyao, gritted his teeth, and remained silent.
But even this small gesture, in the eyes of everyone in the hall, had a very clear meaning.