Chapter 72: Unrest on the Streets

"Carter, is something wrong?"

In the living room, Carter's unusual behavior not only caught the attention of Kazim and his older brother but also drew the three old men who were smoking, drinking, and chatting about gang matters in the dining room.

Standing behind the sofa in the living room, Carter, with a furrowed brow lost in thought, waited quietly.

"Huh? Nothing major, just the strange surge in silver prices. It doesn't make sense. But for us, it's a good thing. If you guys have silver or silver jewelry, you should be able to sell it for a good price during this time!"

Feeling the sudden quietness, Carter, now awake, smiled and waved, signaling to everyone that it wasn't a big deal.

The abnormal rise in silver prices made Carter assert that there was mischief afoot behind it! Speaking of which, he himself had visited the New York Stock Exchange and even made a small operation under Julian's help and guidance.

Naturally, he understood that to increase the trading price of a commodity, there was only one way: to increase demand! If demand increased and the supply couldn't keep up, naturally, the unit price would rise.

It sounded easy, and the logic was simple, but could market demand increase so easily? The households and factories that needed silver were a fixed number, and the annual demand was generally stable. It was simply impossible to push the price of silver to double in a short period!

So this increase in demand was peculiar. Even if there were new factories needing a large amount of silver, it took time from the start of construction to increase production, let alone building one production workshop after another!

It was totally implausible that a large amount of silver would be needed all of a sudden. Maybe in China, there was a tiny possibility, like a massive silver demand to support a key national project, resulting in a surge in silver prices, and so on.

But in the United States, that was absolutely impossible. This country simply didn't have such a huge organizational mobilization capacity, to put it bluntly, it was like a pile of loose sand.

At least until it was involved in a war on its own soil, without feeling the pressure of life and death, this country and its people couldn't possibly mobilize so efficiently!

With this in mind, Carter's train of thought became clearer. Since real demand wouldn't increase, then what about fake demand? Who would create fake demand?

Speculators!

It could only be speculators, but these speculators, or rather, this group of speculators, seemed to be making quite a stir.

"Really? Gobray, did you hear what Carter said? Do we have any silver jewelry at home?"

After hearing Carter's words, Duke rubbed his chin, then turned to ask.

"We had a silver necklace when we got married, you gave it to me, but I don't think we have anything else."

"Cough cough... You should take it out and let Carter have a look. If it's valuable, we can sell it first, and later, we can buy you a bigger one! No, let's buy a gold one!"

A silver necklace, at most, was one ounce. It was bought when they got married. Judging from Kazim's age, Carter could easily calculate the approximate year and month when Duke and his wife got married, and the silver price at that time.

It seemed to be around $2 per ounce?

Thinking like this, it seemed like it had depreciated, huh? No wonder Duke looked a bit embarrassed.

"You should calculate it. Didn't the TV say that gold prices are now over $500 per ounce? If you have the money to spend recklessly, why not give it back to Carter? The bail money was returned, and the lawyer's fees were covered by him!"

Duke's wife grumbled as she went upstairs to get the necklace, leaving Duke looking embarrassed and awkwardly at Carter.

"Carter. Don't worry, I don't mean to dodge the payment. You might not understand since you live in the southern part of the city, but everyone in the west knows, I, Duke, have never owed anyone."

"It's okay, Duke Uncle. I understand, and besides, Kazim and I are good friends. I'm not in a hurry for the money, so whenever you guys are ready to repay it, it's fine with me."

Carter waved his hand with a smile, not really concerned about claiming the lawyer's fee. Or rather, Carter never even thought about claiming this lawyer's fee. Using a sum of money to exchange for Kazim's feeling of indebtedness to him was like securing two years of tranquility on campus in the future.

This deal had to be done!

Besides, after realizing the abnormal rise in silver prices and judging that someone was up to something, Carter subconsciously thought, should he also get involved?

But soon, Carter realized that he had no money now! No, to be precise, he had small change but no large sums. And without a large amount of spare capital as a principal, what use was it to invest a small amount of money? Even if the silver doubled, what was the point?

Twenty thousand turned into forty thousand? Then during the period of silver price increase and selling afterwards, would the whole family have to tighten their belts?

"It's this one, Carter. You take a look, see if it's valuable? If it is, you can take it. Consider it as our family repaying you for the lawyer's fee. We'll slowly pay you back the difference later!"

Duke's wife, holding the necklace, went straight to Carter and handed it to him, saying.

"No need, Mrs. Duke! This is a memento of your marriage, I can't accept it! I just said it casually earlier. If you don't want to sell it, just keep it. Silver may have a price, but feelings are priceless!"

Pushing back Duke's wife's hand, Carter silently wiped off the non-existent sweat.

This thing was definitely not to be accepted! If he accepted it, it would turn into a transaction. Besides, his plan was to bind Kazim with a favor. How could he accept this necklace? Besides, his family didn't lack this thing, did they?

In this day and age, private bankers, although not big players, were relatively wealthy in their local areas.

Previously, when the silver price was low, Nicole had bought many of these seemingly useless things in Carter's eyes, even she and Anna, Melissa, all had a lot.

"All right, it's getting late. I should be leaving too. Uncle Duke, Dureldrick, Barry, I'll head back first, or Jenny will be worried. You guys have fun!"

Pushing back Duke's wife's hand, Carter got up and twisted the keys, ready to start the car. Knowing that if it was too late, leaving Carter in the Black neighborhood wouldn't be a good idea, Duke didn't refuse, and quickly sent Carter out of the house with his two old friends.

Just before Carter got into the car, Dureldrick suddenly said:

"Carter, in recent times, make sure to lock the doors and windows at night! The streets might not be safe."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

This seemingly random sentence made Carter pause, turning his head to look out of the car window with suspicion.

"There's nothing major. Didn't we talk about the incident at the Olwick Brewery? One of O'Neill's boys got into trouble, knowing his temperament, he definitely won't let it go. These days, he might take some people south to cause trouble for the rednecks."