In a common business vehicle in the Bronx District of New York,
El was smoking a joint while fiddling with a Nokia phone.
Since the singer he followed had shot "New York Pride" 2Pac in Los Angeles, his chances of becoming famous had been completely severed.
When El returned to New York, he was astonished to find that the Asian thief had actually beco a bestselling author!
So, out of desperation, he planned to find Wang Jian and beco his lackey or sothing.
Even though bestselling authors don’t have a crowd of star friends as singers and athletes do,
he had taken him in when he was performing community service, after all.
Uh...
Even if the rent was a bit pricier than other places.
But in the Bronx District, taking in an Asian carried certain risks.
As for the later shooting incident, blaming it on Wang Jian,
co on, he was just a lackey!
Without any real right to speak!
But when El found out Wang Jian’s address in Brooklyn, the guy had moved already, to Manhattan, of all places!
When he arrived at the swanky Manhattan apartnt, he was promptly kicked out by the security guard.
He rembered that there were two cops patrolling nearby at the ti!
And when he shouted "racism," those two cops just pretended not to see!
In the end, El, like many black people, turned to the path of selling addictive drugs.
But in his spare ti, he would pull out his phone and read the stuff his forr roommate had written.
He rembered initially thinking, "How can a thief beco an author?"
But after a while, he found it... kind of enjoyable to read.
El’s favorite was "Extre Heavenly Demon," and "Prison Break Special Forces."
As for "Arcane Throne," he didn’t quite get it.
With "Anomalies and Creatures," with all those won, a simple Fuck would suffice.
Because of his line of work, El didn’t dare use personally identifiable Visa cards.
Most of what he had was cash and bearer bonds.
The awkward part was, such things weren’t very convenient for top-ups.
He could only read small parts of these novels.
Whenever this happened, El would feel the urge to find a legitimate job.
Then... he’d drop the idea.
Today, he was sitting in the car again, looking at the first half of "Extre Heavenly Demon."
Shit!
The protagonist was looked down upon by Zeus, what cos next?
"Huh, PayPal?" El muttered with a bit of confusion, playing with the pawned phone.
Once he clicked the button, he was surprised to find that this PayPal account actually supported bearer bonds.
El took out ten US dollars and threw it into the box.
"I’ll exchange it for one of these."
"What are you trying to do?" asked his companion.
"Never mind," El waved his hand dismissively.
Once he got the bearer bond, he scratched off the security code.
Banks usually used this to exchange for cash.
"Ars..." El typed a row of letters and was surprised to find he could actually continue watching.
"You can see the second half of ’Extre Heavenly Demon’ now?" his companion asked in surprise.
Although he wasn’t as obsessed with novels as El, he had also skimd through them during the tedious waiting tis for transactions.
"Mm-hm," El exhaled a plu of smoke, a happy smile on his face, "Super cool, you wanna see?"
"Yeah!" his companion answered loudly.
Half an hour later, another ten US dollars were thrown into the box.
But this ti it was his companion who threw it.
"Fuck!" El exclaid, "The protagonist’s encountered a big sea monster?"
"That’s Cthulhu!" his companion replied with disdain.
"Uh..." He rummaged through his pockets and looked at El, "I’m out of money."
"I don’t have any either," El replied.
The two exchanged glances and then looked toward the cardboard box together.
Inside, there was still a stack of bearer bonds.
After ten minutes of silence, El turned to his companion, "Do you want to look?"
"Yes," his companion answered without hesitation.
"Just now..." El’s eyes shifted, pointing out the car window, "didn’t soone from the Limp Gang pass by, trying to steal our goods?"
His companion paused for a mont, then began nodding vigorously.
He dragged El out of the car and pulled out a handgun, firing several shots at the vehicle.
"There are too many of them, and they have too many guns; we can’t beat them!"
El tugged at the corner of his mouth and climbed back into the car.
This ti, they both started scraping off the bonds.
"Hmph, the boss would never guess where the money really went."
"Ha, our boss can hardly recognize a few words!"
...
In a public elentary school in Manhattan.
Little Gene stood obediently at the end of the line, watching other kids chatter and laugh while serving their food.
Although his mother had said that this was the best school in New York, Gene didn’t like it here.
Apart from the ti the Asian brother ca to give a speech at the school and classmates paid attention to him out of curiosity for a while, he quickly beca invisible.
It wasn’t that no one invited him to play, it’s just...
His classmates all carried their parents’ Visa supplentary cards and spent carelessly.
Gene understood that his mother couldn’t afford such high expenses.
What he had was a debit card that required a password for transactions.
"Sigh, the weekend is coming up; I can finally go ho and rest."
"When I get ho, I’ll take a nap first and then enjoy reading ’Anomalies and Creatures.’"
"I heard ’Anomalies’ is being adapted into a TV series, and the lead actor looks a lot like the description in the book."
"Not at all!" another kid shouted in disagreent, "The lead should be super handso!"
"It’s plain and ordinary!" a classmate pulled out a phone, starting to press the buttons.
"Look!" he pointed at the phone screen, speaking to the one who had just spoken.
Unexpectedly, another classmate asked loudly, "What’s this PayPal thing?"
"PayPal?"
The first child took the phone back, looking at it with confusion.
Monts later, he raised his head and shouted, "Who has a debit card?"
Everyone looked at each other and all pulled out their Visa cards.
"It says here, PayPal temporarily doesn’t support Visa cards, and it needs to be set up."
"Uh..." Gene hesitated, then stretched out his hand, "I have one."
"You really have one, don’t fool us!" several prominent figures on campus shouted as they rushed over.
"But the money on the card is limited; it’s all for my living expenses." Gene shrank back a bit.
It must be said that those who study in this school are either rich or noble.
Another child pulled out a Visa card and waved it.
"Whatever you need, I’ll buy it for you."
"Right, what’s your password?" a child turned to Gene.
"Uh..." Gene hesitated.
"My dad always said that money has to be in your own hands," a kid spoke with the gravitas of an adult.
The leading child frowned and directly made his way to the front of the line.
"Seven French steaks with mushroom soup."
"Thanks," a few kids greeted the one who was treating, grabbing their trays and rushing forward.
"Gene, you co too!" soone urged.
"?" Gene touched his nose and asked in confusion.
"Yes, join us at the highest table later."
A few minutes later, Gene, who was originally invisible, arrived at the table reserved for those of high status amidst the envy of others.
"Hurry up, Gene," the leading boy handed over his phone, "you just need to subscribe to five Chapters..."
"Ah no, ten Chapters will do!"
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