41: Dinosaur

"Yo, the video's deleted. Could it be that she had a mental breakdown?"

In the evening, while waiting for the intelligence to refresh, Ye Su had nothing to do and wanted to see if the Dou+ promotion he bought for the Snorlax video he helped with during the day had made her go slightly viral.

As a result, he searched by user ID and found that the video had already been deleted by the other party, and all other videos had been set to disallow comments.

"Is she so triggered that she had a mental breakdown from being flamed?"

You have to hand it to the netizens nowadays; their moral compass is spot on. Even a high-attack, high-defense Snorlax could be flamed into shutting down.

"Well, that's thirty bucks wasted. I didn't get to see any drama at all, missing out on a spectacular performance by modern netizens."

Regretful, Ye Su could only watch the young ladies working hard to make a living by dancing energetically online while waiting for today's intelligence to refresh.

[Ding!]

[Today's Intelligence (Level 2): Scrap recycling station at No. 16 Qianxing Street received a box of old magazines last night. One of the magazines contains a 1999-edition 100-yuan banknote with a Dinosaur serial number. Recommended selling price: 17,000 yuan.]

"What's a Dinosaur serial number? A single banknote can be worth 17,000?"

Ye Su certainly knew that some banknotes with special serial numbers were very valuable, but that was about it.

Having never learned about this subject, this was the first time Ye Su had heard of the "Dinosaur serial number" mentioned in the intelligence.

He picked up his phone to search for it, and Ye Su understood what it was all about.

A Dinosaur serial number refers to a banknote where the last seven digits of the serial number are the same.

Similar ones include Elephant serial numbers, where the last six digits are the same, and Kirin serial numbers, where all eight digits are the same.

"A regular 1999-edition 100-yuan Dinosaur serial number banknote is only worth a few thousand yuan. The 17,000-yuan Dinosaur serial number banknote mentioned in the intelligence is probably either a special prefix or an uncirculated new banknote."

"But this banknote has already been collected by the scrap recycling station. How can I get my hands on it?"

"Forget it. It's useless to overthink it now. Time to sleep."

After experiencing intelligence reports so many times, Ye Su was already able to remain calm in the face of a situation.

At this hour, the scrap recycling station was long closed, and he couldn't just go and pry open their lock.

Ye Su simply turned off the lights and went to sleep. He could get up a bit earlier tomorrow and go over to see what the situation was.

...

At nine in the morning, when Ye Su arrived at Qianxing Street, he saw from afar that the scrap station was already open. A middle-aged man in his fifties was holding a spray bottle and spraying water on a pile of cardboard, probably to avoid fire hazards.

"If the owner of the scrap recycling station finds out, or if that box of magazines has already been resold, that would be hilarious."

As he rode his electric scooter over, Ye Su quietly breathed a sigh of relief: Thankfully, the item was still there.

In Ye Su's line of sight, in a corner of the scrap recycling station, a cardboard box placed on a pile of cardboard was emitting a faint glow.

"Handsome guy, what can I do for you?"

Seeing Ye Su stop his electric scooter at the entrance and peer into the room, the owner stopped what he was doing to see what Ye Su wanted.

"Hello, boss. I wanted to ask if you have any old books or old magazines here that you could sell me?"

"Old books and magazines? There's a pile right here." The owner looked at Ye Su suspiciously: "But what do you want to buy these things for?"

On the way here, Ye Su had already concocted an excuse: "I want to buy some undamaged second-hand books and magazines to take back to school for a stall."

"Oh, so you're a student." The owner could tell that Ye Su didn't look like someone who had already entered society.

"Yeah, it's the weekend, so I was thinking of seeing if I could do a little business at school to earn some living expenses, so I don't have to keep asking my family for money."

Upon hearing this, the owner gave Ye Su a thumbs up: "That's great, Handsome guy. You already know how to work-study while still in school; you're much better than my two sons."

"Don't say that. I'm just acting on a whim, wanting to see if I can make money this way."

"Alright, I'll take it as supporting your college student entrepreneurship." The owner pointed to the place Ye Su had just been looking at: "That side has newly collected old books and magazines that I haven't watered yet. See if there's anything you can use, but don't mess things up, or I'll have to re-sort them."

"Okay, thank you, boss."

Ye Su parked his electric scooter and came to the box of magazines, starting to pick through them in a feigned manner, not paying attention to what the owner was fiddling with.

There was a surveillance camera overhead, and Ye Su was afraid of giving himself away, so he just rummaged through the box of magazines briefly before shifting his target to the pile of old books.

Finally, Ye Su grabbed a cardboard box, packed about twenty old books into it, and then placed it along with the box of magazines in front of the owner.

"I'll just take this much. See how much it is."

"Is this enough? Don't you want to buy some more?"

"Let's just buy this much for now; I need to see if I can sell them first."

"Okay." The owner placed both boxes on the electronic scale: "It's thirty-six jin in total. I'll count it as thirty-five jin for you, one yuan per jin."

Thirty-six jin? And selling it to me for one yuan per jin?

Ye Su looked at the two cardboard boxes, then at the smiling owner, and instantly understood what was going on.

However, he didn't expose him, pulling thirty-five yuan in cash from his wallet and handing it to the owner.

"Handsome guy, take care. If they sell well, feel free to come back next time."

"Alright, thanks, boss."

Watching Ye Su ride away, the owner triumphantly flicked the banknote in his hand, put it in his waist bag, and then adjusted the electronic scale again.

...

There was no electronic scale in his rented room. After moving the things back, Ye Su had no way of knowing just how deep the tricks of the scrap recycling station went.

"Let me see what a 100-yuan bill worth 17,000 looks like."

Pushing the box of second-hand books to the side, Ye Su started flipping through the magazines one by one.

"Not here." "Not here." "..." "Found it!"

It didn't take much time before a 100-yuan banknote, deeply inserted between the pages of a magazine, caught Ye Su's eyes.

"JU, seven 7s. This is a Dinosaur serial number starting with a replacement prefix. No wonder the system quoted a price of 17,000."

Among the various prefixes, the most valuable is definitely the FA first-issue prefix.

Ye Su checked, and a recent auction sold a 1999-edition 100-yuan Dinosaur serial number banknote with the FA first-issue prefix for nearly 40,000 HKD, setting the latest record high for a 1999-edition 100-yuan banknote.

Below the first-issue prefix is the replacement prefix like the one in Ye Su's hand, which is priced at roughly 75% of the FA first-issue prefix, and one in good condition can sell for over 20,000.

Ye Su agreed with the 17,000 recommended selling price given by the system.

The rest are those with ordinary prefixes; ordinary digital Dinosaur serial numbers that aren't 8, 6, or 9 can also sell for several thousand yuan, and if they are brand new without spots or creases, exceeding 10,000 is not a big problem.

"No wonder when withdrawing money, even if you withdraw 10,000, the serial numbers in the middle are always broken. Turns out there are so many tricks involved in this."

"Next time before spending cash, I should pay attention. Who knows, I might get an unexpected windfall."