msmithbooks Chapter 241 Chinatown
Chapter 241 Chinatown
The two packed their things and quickly left.
The morning sunlight slanted across the towering buildings of Fifth Avenue, making their glass curtain walls shine brightly.
On the street, a homeless performer is hoarsely singing folk songs while holding a worn-out guitar.
A long line formed outside the Starbucks not far away, with well-dressed white-collar workers brushing past ragged homeless people.
Xiao Yuan, carrying a backpack, took a deep breath of the air, which was filled with car exhaust and the smell of hot dogs. He looked up with a look of rapture at the skyscraper that pierced the clouds in the distance.
"Linzi, look at this building, it's really impressive!"
"The people here walk with such a swagger; this is the legendary free America!"
Xiao Yuan is a graduate student who has recently arrived in New York and still cherishes that golden dream of freedom.
He looked at the young people with brightly colored hair who were whizzing by on skateboards on the street, his eyes filled with longing:
"I've made up my mind. I'll stay here after graduation, no matter what. This is where young people should be."
"Freedom, so much freedom!"
Yang Yang, who was walking beside him, just sneered.
Xiao Yuan had only been in the United States for a short time, so everything was new and exciting.
But he had been here for two years and had long since passed the stage where everything was new and exciting.
Moreover, I never intended to stay.
Yang Yang suddenly stopped and pointed to an Apple store on the side of the road that was boarded up tightly and had broken glass scattered all over the ground.
"See? This is the freedom you wanted."
A mocking smile curled at the corner of Yang Yang's lips:
"There was a 'zero-dollar purchase' event here last night."
"Those homeless people and freedom fighters, carrying baseball bats, emptied the store right in front of the police."
"In America, if you can run fast, every shop in the city can be your storage room."
"This is the kind of free freedom they tout."
Xiao Yuan shivered, looking at the mess on the ground, and subconsciously touched his pocket:
"Forget it, I can't handle this kind of freedom. Who knows, I might eat a peanut one day and not even know how I died."
"Compared to this kind of free freedom, I still think that the safe and happy life of eating barbecue on the streets of Shanghai at three in the morning is more important."
"Hurry up, if we don't make it to the flag-raising ceremony by nine o'clock, all this early morning effort will have been for nothing."
As the two were talking, several black men with their arms around each other walked towards them.
They wore oversized hoodies, their pants so low they almost reached their ankles, and carried huge tape recorders, swaying as they walked.
Just as the two were passing each other.
One of the burly young Black men suddenly stopped.
He turned around, facing Yang Yang and the other person, and with an extremely frivolous and malicious twitch of his eye, he raised a middle finger in an insulting manner.
That's the most notorious discriminatory gesture against Chinese people.
Yang Yang suddenly stopped in his tracks.
What was originally a peaceful state of mind exploded like an oil drum ignited by a spark!
I've been in the US for two years now, and in those two years I've encountered quite a few people with such low moral character.
The way to subdue them is to be tough.
"Damn it! You bastard!"
Yang Yang cursed angrily and turned to rush forward.
"Linzi! Don't be impulsive!"
Xiao Yuan was startled and quickly grabbed his arm tightly:
"This is New York! Those guys might have weapons!"
"Besides, the flag-raising ceremony is about to begin. If we start making a scene now, we definitely won't make it in time!"
Yang Yang pushed Xiao Yuan's hand away, her eyes as cold as ice, each word seeming to be squeezed out from between her teeth:
"The flag-raising ceremony isn't important, at least not right now!"
"If I can't even uphold this dignity, what face do I have to stand under that red flag and watch it rise?"
Yang Yang straightened his chest and strode back to the group of black men, staring intently into their eyes.
The young Black man clearly hadn't expected these two thin Asian students to dare to come back.
A flicker of panic crossed his eyes, but he quickly replaced it with a slovenly expression, spreading his hands and shrugging.
"Hey man, what's up?"
"You know what you did."
Yang Yang didn't back down an inch, and said in a very standard American accent:
"This is New York, but it's not a place where you can run wild."
"See that street corner ahead? That's Chinatown."
Yang Yang pointed to the crowd that had begun to gather not far away, his tone revealing a chilling confidence:
"Today is our National Day, and thousands of my compatriots are gathered on that street now."
"If you think your fists are hard enough, or you have enough allies, I don't mind shouting it out right now and seeing if you can run faster or if their anger will burn faster!"
As Yang Yang finished speaking, several Chinese students passing by stopped and gathered around with hostile looks.
In a foreign land, the bond of blood ties was fully displayed at this moment.
The young Black man looked at the growing number of black-haired, yellow-skinned people around him, and then at Yang Yang's fierce eyes, and finally chickened out.
"Okay, okay, it was just a joke, my bad, buddy."
The young Black man muttered a couple of things, then slunk away with his companions into a nearby alley.
Yang Yang watched their retreating figures and let out a long sigh of relief.
"Lin Zi... is awesome."
Xiao Yuan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"I was really afraid he'd pull out a peanut."
Yang Yang turned his head and saw a fiery red color gathering in the direction of Chinatown not far away.
"What's there to be afraid of? Chinatown is just ahead; he wouldn't dare cause trouble on our turf."
"Besides, even if it blows up, it won't matter."
"We're in the right. We don't provoke trouble, but we're not afraid of it either!"
"After all, Mom is very strong and will stand up for us!"
Soon, the two arrived in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Turning off the street filled with American-style architecture, the scene suddenly changed.
Everywhere you look, there's a sea of red.
Bright red lanterns are hung high, and shops along the street are covered with gold-stamped "Fu" characters and Spring Festival couplets.
In the air, there was even a faint, unique scent of scented paper and popcorn, a scent that belonged only to my hometown.