After Long Zhan and Sophia exchanged information, he revealed Sophia's only flaw - her overly delicate face, which was painted with dust and black ash from the exhaust pipe to make her look less eye-catching.
The Mexican uncle, who had been away for more than ten minutes, also brought over his familiar little snake head.
After introducing Long Zhan and Sophia to the little snakehead, the Mexican uncle saw that it was already late and said goodbye to Long Zhan before preparing to leave.
To express his gratitude, Long Zhan gave the Mexican uncle another $1,000.
He also promised to go to his house to pick up the things after finishing the matter at hand, and then thank him again. The two ended their short friendship.
If we meet by chance and can talk about speculation, it can barely be regarded as friendship.
Before the little snakehead came here to meet Long Zhan, he knew about Long Zhan's needs from the Mexican uncle.
After the Mexican uncle drove away, he returned home with Long Zhan and Sophia, and straight to the point asked for $10,000 in "shipping costs."
That's $5,000 per person.
This is still a friendly price.
Normally it costs seven to eight thousand US dollars each, but during peak smuggling seasons the price may even rise to over ten thousand.
There is no need to bring any capital, and there is no need to take any big risks. Even if you are caught during the smuggling process, the most serious punishment will be to be deported to the country by the US Immigration Service.
Mexico's judicial system has long been so corrupt that you can just spend some money to get on with it.
And even if you only transport 20 people per smuggling trip, you can earn tens of thousands of dollars per night, millions of dollars a month, and tens of millions a year.
There are only a handful of companies in Mexico with annual net income of tens of millions of dollars.
A truly profitable industry!
No wonder when Black Fox responded to a question from a Macaroon government official, the most valuable item on the US-Mexico border, the correct answer was not drugs but people.
Long Zhan carried 10,000 US dollars with him, and gave the total to the Mexican uncle 2,000.
Faced with the shipping fee of up to 10,000 US dollars, Long Zhan really couldn't afford it, and he couldn't force it with force that could easily crush the little snake's head.
As a last resort.
Long Zhan can only use the psychology, linguistics and other majors he has learned, plus his excellent diplomatic skills, to deal with the little snakehead in all aspects.
After several minutes of verbal war, the little snakehead was finally convinced.
And he said it with all his heart.
…
The little snakehead happily put away the US dollars, and his work efficiency was not bad.
After calculating the time and there being a "car" tonight, he immediately took Long Zhan into his Chevrolet car and left the town and headed straight for the northern border.
Less than an hour.
The eastern sky showed a faint white fish belly. The Chevrolet car in which Long Zhan and Sophia were riding passed a checkpoint guarded by four gun-wielding men and arrived at a small village that did not look serious at first sight.
This small village at around five o'clock in the morning is completely different from the previous town.
The night in that small town was very quiet before, it was so dark that there was no light at all, and not a single pedestrian was seen on the street.
But this small village is brightly lit.
Not only were the shops on both sides of the street open, but there were also various vehicles passing by on the road.
It's like a busy city during the day, very noisy.
The smuggler did not stop in the small town, but drove all the way through the center of the small village and stopped in an open space with an area of thousands of square meters to the east.
There are many vehicles parked around here, and under the illumination of various headlights and small searchlights, you can see two groups of people standing in awe.
One of the groups, in groups of twos and threes, guarded the surrounding area with guns.
Another group of people gathered in the middle, including men, women and even children. Everyone was carrying luggage, as if they were traveling far away.
There is a roof-top house on the right side of the open space, built with a steel frame structure.
The little snakehead who brought Long Zhan and Sophia here stopped the car and told them to wait here, and then entered the house alone.
Long Zhan Guess...
The house is the home of the Snakehead Group. When various snakeheads bring people here, they all need to enter and report, and then carry out unified transportation.
After leaving for less than three minutes, the little snakehead returned to Long Zhan.
"I have already discussed the matter with you. You go and wait over there, next to the minibus. Just hand this to the person who comes over then."
After the little snakehead finished speaking, he handed Long Zhan two playing cards with a name and number written on them.
The names are all Locke, and the numbers are 46 and 47.
Then, without waiting for Long Zhan to reply and ask questions, he got in the car, started the engine and left in a hurry, as if he was rushing back to get some sleep.
"This guy should be a second-rate dealer. He is only responsible for pulling people in, not giving them away." Long Zhan curled his lips.
It is illegal to smuggle immigrants. The people who work as smugglers to help smuggle immigrants are also second-rate people. It is normal to have a poor service attitude.
If it were the same as a regular station, Long Zhan would feel something was wrong.
The direction that the snake head pointed before leaving was less than 20 meters away from the location of Xinglong Zhan, located in the right corner of this wide field.
It was the center of the open space where the group of people with their luggage gathered together.
"We have reached this point and there are so many people. Is America really paradise?"
Long Zhan roughly counted and found that there were more than 20 people, and he couldn't help but sigh and shook his head.
"Let's go there!"
Long Zhan adjusted Sophia's peaked cap to make her face less conspicuous, then pushed down his captain's hat and raised the collar of his clothes.
He patted Sophia on the shoulder comfortingly, and walked towards the front of the minibus with a suitcase containing a bunch of sundries used to disguise his identity.
"so many people!"
Sophia looked at the scene of people coming and going in front of her. She never thought that so many people would gather together to smuggle across the border. This upright smuggling operation shocked her even more.
"This is the other side that the world cannot see. You will understand it when you grow up."
For a young girl who is not yet an adult, Long Zhan doesn't want her to be exposed to the dark side of the world, so he doesn't explain it in depth.
He walked all the way to the front of the minibus and loudly asked everyone sitting on the floor: "Excuse me, I just arrived, who should I talk to?"
"Just wait, he will be back soon."
A young man about 25 years old said that he looked up and down at Long Zhan and Sophia. Seeing that they were dressed in the same shabby clothes as them, he tightened the blanket around his body and said nothing.
The sun here is very hot during the day, and you can feel a distinct coolness at night, especially in the early morning.
The clothes on Long Zhan and Sophia were all second-hand bought from their uncle's house in Mexico, and some areas had faded.
Pinlian’s street stalls that cost 5 yuan a piece can’t even keep up.
Dressed in civilian clothes like this, and with some dust on their faces, they looked like rough and sallow skin tanned by hard labor. They really looked like two inconspicuous "Mexican refugees."
The young man took the initiative to answer Long Zhan's words because he was tall and strong enough and might be able to help him during the stowaway process.
There will be no love without reason in this world.
Smugglers only lead the way and do not care about safety. In order to avoid border law enforcement agencies, the smuggling routes are located in very remote areas, all in inaccessible areas.
There are many dangers in the undeveloped wilderness, and people will die on the road every time they stow away.
Some of them were walking in the dark, and when passing by the river, they stepped down and fell into the water. No one came to help and they were washed away.
Some of them accidentally fell into a pulp when they needed to climb over a steep cliff with only a simple rope to hold on to.
Others were so exhausted that they separated from the large army and ended up getting lost in the vast border desert.
Stowaways are just ordinary people, and they are refugees who don't even have enough food and drink. Their physical fitness is relatively poor, so they want to take a gamble in "paradise".
This series of smuggling processes is not dangerous, every step is a kind of hell gate for them.
If you can pick up a strong stowaway and lend a hand to help you on the way, you can at least increase your survival rate by more than 50%.
