Chapter 13
Runren Wang Qiang
"You...you're robbing me!"
When Li Wei got closer, he saw a middle-aged man wearing square black-rimmed glasses and with a somewhat overweight and out-of-shape figure vehemently accusing Lyon in Chinese.
"Mr. Wang Qiang, please calm down," Leon said slowly while trimming his nails. "This new model of headphones has been out for a long time, and yours has absolutely no resale value."
"But...this is a collector's item!" Wang Qiang was furious, but helpless. "I...I...I won't sell it."
"Please feel free to do as you please."
Wang Qiang waved his hand, signaling the guest to leave.
Wang Qiang put the headphones on the counter into his pocket, turned around and left.
"A Chinese?" He turned his head and saw Li Wei nod before whispering, "Don't sell anything to him, he's a swindler."
Li Wei stepped aside to make room, smiled, and said nothing.
After Wang Qiang left, Li Wei went to the counter, took out four gold coins from his pocket, and laid them out in a row.
"I have four more gold coins here, also pure gold," Li Wei said, activating his [Clumsy Eloquence] skill. "Could we raise the price a bit more this time?"
His mental strength has improved significantly compared to the previous version 1.0, and his skills have also been upgraded twice. Li Wei has a feeling that he should be able to get a better price this time than last time.
Lyon stared at the gold coins that Levi had taken out, without saying a word or expressing his opinion.
Just as Li Wei was wondering if the skill had failed to work, a familiar "ding" sound finally rang in his mind.
At this point, Lyon slowly said, "You're right, this thing has a high collectible value, and the resale price should be even higher."
"The last buyback price was $500 per coin," Levi said with a smile. "What's the highest you can offer this time?"
...
When Li Wei came out of the recycling shop satisfied, he saw Wang Qiang squatting by the roadside smoking, looking gloomy.
"Young man," Wang Qiang said earnestly, patting his backside as he saw Li Wei emerge a few minutes later, "I told you, that old Frenchman loves to rip off us Chinese. Why did you still go and sell things to him?"
"It's alright," Li Wei said, without telling him that he had sold four gold coins worth $1600 for $3000. "I only come here occasionally."
"Sigh...you young people," Wang Qiang said, adjusting his glasses as he noticed Li Wei's simple attire. "You look unfamiliar. You haven't been here long, have you? Are you here to study?"
Li Wei nodded without saying anything more.
When fellow villagers meet, they stab each other in the back; he doesn't plan to reveal his personal information for now.
“My son is about your age and goes to Franklin High School. He hasn’t been here long, so his English is a bit weak and he has to take language classes. Luckily, my wife’s English is pretty good,” Wang Qiang said. “By the way, you don’t seem like a bad kid. Where do you live? If you also study around here, my Haoran can look after you.”
"I live near Sunset Park," Levi casually gave a general area, "and I live with my relatives."
Wang Qiang was stunned for a moment, then looked Li Wei up and down through the thick glasses. His indignation towards the unscrupulous businessman vanished instantly, replaced by a sense of superiority mixed with pity.
His back straightened noticeably.
"Oh my, the environment around Sunset Park is so dirty and messy, how can anyone live there?" Wang Qiang clicked his tongue twice. "Unlike the apartment we rent in Flushing, although it's a bit expensive, $3000 a month, at least it has windows and good lighting, so people won't get sick living there."
"But America is great, so it's a multi-ethnic society where everyone is equal and there are opportunities everywhere," he remarked, completely forgetting that when Li Wei met him, he was still selling secondhand goods. "And you can make money so fast. Back in China, I worked in civil engineering and only made about 8,000 yuan a month, even if I worked myself to the bone. But after I came here, I worked for a Chinese foreman and I made more than 100 US dollars a day. That's almost 1500 yuan a day back in China."
"Indeed," Li Wei said, taking a step back discreetly to create some distance. "I have to go to my part-time job this afternoon, so I won't bother you any longer."
Wang Qiang's smile froze for a moment. But he quickly found a way to save face, waving his hand: "It's okay for young people to have a bad start. Young people these days just haven't endured enough hardship. Take care of yourself, I have to go to work now."
He then got into a secondhand Ford Raptor that was almost as dilapidated as Don Quixote's Toyota, and left as if he had extracted a lot of emotional value from Li Wei.
Watching Wang Qiang's departing figure, Li Wei shrugged. He could roughly sense that Wang Qiang didn't have any particularly bad intentions; he was just using him to gain a pitiful sense of superiority and psychological comfort.
...
At 3 a.m., the sounds of sirens and gunshots still lingered over Brooklyn.
Li Wei hid in the cubicle, carefully calculating the amount of cash he had, his pen constantly jotting down notes in his notebook.
Now that his mental strength has been upgraded, his need for sleep has decreased significantly. Even if he goes to bed at 3 a.m., he still wakes up refreshed at 8 a.m.
His part-time job at Dolores' boutique is his only source of income. After deducting his expenses for transportation, groceries, and gym memberships in the past few days, plus the $3500 he earned from selling five gold coins to Don Quixote, he now has just over $4000 left.
If you include the $6000 in his card, his total assets have exceeded $1.
However, he was still short of money to rent an apartment in a slightly safer place and escape his basement situation—no, he was far short.
布鲁克林相对安全一点、脱离现在这种半破产半流浪汉的处境的街区，例如贝岭或者是本森赫斯特，2B2B（2间卧室2个卫生间）的公寓租金普遍都在3200美金一个月以上。
Besides rent, there are also agency fees, electricity bills, gas bills, internet fees, and other miscellaneous expenses. Even if Li Wei paid the rent and Don Quixote paid the other expenses, it would probably be difficult to make ends meet each month.
Moreover, when renting a house in the United States, many landlords require a credit score from a bank or credit card company. For someone like Don Quixote, who is often late on payments and has a semi-blacklisted credit history, his credit score is definitely not enough.
If you want to bypass the credit score requirement, you'll have to pay more. With a deposit of 3 months' rent and 1 month's rent in advance, plus a brokerage fee for half a month's rent, Li Wei needs to prepare at least $2 before he can even start considering moving out.
Just as Levi was considering whether he could do laundry at the gym to save $3 a day on laundry fees, he heard Don Quixote's snoring suddenly stop.
It's time for the Lone Knight to be deployed again.
He still has 17 gold coins left to collect from the Knight's Path quest. Once he completes the quest, he'll have enough money to move out!
After leaving the cubicle, Li Wei indeed saw Don Quixote wearing armor with his eyes closed.
Upon seeing him, the other party shouted, "Livi, my servant! Come with me to the war against the witches!"