Chapter 24
A Date Today?
It was near noon, near a construction site in Queens.
Don Quixote was driving while scrolling through TikTok on his phone with a cracked screen.
"Tch, these young people these days are really..." he lamented as he scrolled through his phone. "What's wrong with this society? Does America even have a future?"
Suddenly, he came across a new short video notification. The scene in it looked somewhat familiar, as if it were a neighborhood he occasionally drove through.
The video shows a naked, muscular Latin American man running down the street, covering his face with one hand and rubbing his own face with the other. A group of people are surrounding him, taking pictures of him with glee.
"Fuck!" Don Quixote nearly jumped out of the driver's seat in shock. "My eyes! How did this thing even pass censorship?!"
...
"How did you do that?!"
On the other side, the gym had already dispersed, and Michael looked at Li Wei, who was taking the water cup, with some disbelief.
"What? How did you do that?" Li Wei took the water glass and put it in his bag with satisfaction. "I didn't expect that this bonus wouldn't be taxed. I thought I would be taxed at nearly 20% again."
"How did you do that?" Michael scratched his head. "When you first started at the gym, you could barely do 80 reps, and you—"
"Is it possible that I'm just that strong?" Li Wei replied casually, putting the protein powder into his bag as well. "If that big guy hadn't been so foul-mouthed, I wouldn't have had to teach him such a lesson."
Even if it meant wasting a [Rage] spell here, Li Wei wouldn't feel any regret.
After arriving in America, he discovered the hypocrisy of the people there.
While the United States officially prohibits racial discrimination, it is actually ubiquitous, and the discrimination is more severe among those at the bottom of society.
Racial discrimination is like a taboo, something that everyone knows about, that is everywhere, but that no one will talk about.
Li Wei had seen Black or white people in the subway more than once giving him hateful and disgusted looks for no reason, as if he had offended them somewhere.
At least now that Latino idiot knows to respect Asians and knows what it means to keep a low profile.
"I'm leaving," Li Wei said to Michael. "I have things to do."
"I'm leaving too," Michael shook his head. "I have to do community service; the church still needs me."
I didn't realize that Michael, the young black man, was religious.
Li Wei said goodbye to Michael and went to the Upper East Side to continue his part-time job.
Mrs. Dolores was not in the shop today, and hardly anyone came to the shop all afternoon.
The wooden crates that Li Wei had brought last time had been opened, allowing him to see the artwork he had moved.
This is an abstract human-shaped metal sculpture that appears to have been formed from a single piece.
Li Wei instinctively felt that something was wrong. First, the metal sculpture didn't look like it weighed 300 kilograms. Second, when he was moving it last time, he heard something shaking inside, which made him think that it wasn't full.
The sculpture in front of us looks like it was made from a single piece.
However, Mrs. Dolores certainly wouldn't tell him the reason, so he couldn't ask any further questions.
However, he did become somewhat curious about Mrs. Dolores and the shop, because judging from the turnover, it was simply a pipe dream for the shop to break even, and from Mrs. Dolores' attitude towards her employees, it was clear that she didn't seem to care about such small amounts of money.
What company provides part-time employees with suits costing over ten thousand US dollars as work uniforms?
The three-hour part-time job flew by, and at 5 p.m., Li Wei changed back into his regular clothes and took the subway back to the store in Lyon.
Lyon's expression changed the moment he saw Levi.
"You dare come back, kid!" he roared angrily. "You lied to me!"
"Hmm?" Li Wei asked, "How could I have lied to you?"
"There's no such game company at all!" Leon pulled out the gold coin Levi had sold him and slammed it on the table. "It's just ordinary 24k gold! It has absolutely no collectible value!"
"Oh, I see..."
Li Wei calmly walked forward, activating his upgraded skill – [Eloquent Conversation].
After upgrading my skills, I can now persuade greedy people like Leon with a 100% success rate.
"Listen to me, I wouldn't lie to you..."
As Li Wei recounted the story, Leon's expression shifted from anger to confusion, and finally to sudden realization.
"So, it's because the search language is different that I couldn't find this game company?" he said somewhat embarrassedly. "I knew it. Most people wouldn't use pure gold coins to mint souvenirs..."
"That's right, so you've wronged me," Li Wei nodded, then took out 16 more gold coins. "I have 16 left. Give me an estimate."
With the completion of the job change quest, Li Wei has 17 gold coins left, and he will never receive any more.
He plans to keep one as a special memento and sell the remaining 16 to raise enough money to pay the rent for moving out as soon as possible.
While he was arguing with Leon, trying to change his perception and make him believe that the collectible value of these gold coins had increased once again, and was planning to sell them to this unscrupulous merchant at three times the original price, his phone suddenly rang.
"Hey? Uncle Don Quixote," Levi said casually, "I'm... I'm selling something at my shop in Lyon... Okay, I'll wait for you at the door."
"Strange," he muttered after hanging up the phone, "Why would they call me at this hour?"
"Deal!" Leon finally succumbed to Levi's brainwashing, gritting his teeth as he said, "$1200 each, I'll take them all!"
原价能卖400美金1枚的金币，李维最终以1200美金1枚的价格出了16枚。
In the end, he left the Lyon recycling shop with $19200 in cash.
Including the money he had saved up, he now had more than $27000 in cash, which was enough to rent the two-bedroom apartment he had his eye on.
Although living with the landlord will still have some impact on daily life, Li Wei has nothing to complain about at this stage. Moving out of the basement as soon as possible is the best solution.
Thinking this, Don Quixote's dilapidated Toyota pulled up in front of him, the window rolled down, revealing Don Quixote's somewhat pale face.
"Get in the car," he said. "I'll take you somewhere."
Li Wei got into the car, somewhat bewildered, and watched Don Quixote drive towards Manhattan, the heart of New York City.
After getting on the train, Li Wei was somewhat surprised to find that Don Quixote had actually taken the time to tidy himself up today.
He shaved his beard, tidied his hair, and put on a somewhat oversized but clearly bespoke suit. Li Wei could see the initials of Don Quixote Cervantes on his cuffs.
"Got a date today?" Li Wei joked. "Why are you dressed so smartly?"