BXBX NOVEL Chapter 554: Longing for Home
"His name is Yin Jia. He came here because he needs a lot of money, at least tens of thousands of dollars. I want to help him, but I don’t have money either..." Annie explained.
Annie didn’t really grow up the American way either. Her father was from Hong Kong and came to this town in the US many years ago. Her father met her mother, and they got married but as soon as Annie was born, her mother passed away.
Although her father wasn’t able to give her the best life then, they had still been able to survive. But due to the economic crisis, her father went bankrupt and could only live in the poor region of the Chinese Back Street. Due to them living in an off-the-grid way her father and her didn’t get much help from the government either. Furthermore, her father was an alcoholic, so most of their money was used for buying alcohol. She had very little money to spend.
Annie met the sister and brother of the Yin family in the Chinese Back Street, and she fell in love with Yin Jia. Yin Jia and his sister needed money desperately, but she had no way to help, so Yin Jia could only come fight here. Because he had some power and 2 or 3 normal people were no match for him, Annie supported him to come fight here.
Recently, the town started holding a ’boxing king of Mesica Town’ tournament. The first place could get you 100.000 USD, the second and third could get you 50.000 and 30.000 respectively. Thus, Yin Jia had signed up without hesitation. Although the sign-up fee was only 300 USD, the competitor needed a backer who also needed to pay 1000 dollars as insurance. The two of them only had 1000 USD together, so Annie had gone out to earn some money somehow.
Hearing this, Ye Mo was speechless. This woman went out to sleep with others to help the person she loved raise money. Should she be praised, or was she an idiot? Ye Mo soon thought that perhaps she simply thought differently to him. Perhaps she thought sleeping with someone wasn’t too big of a deal?
Although Ye Mo couldn’t understand her actions, he knew that everyone had their own means to keep in mind and perhaps from her perspective, she was doing the right thing.
Seeing Ye Mo be silent, Annie felt like she should keep apologizing. She had already given the money to Yin Jia to sign up. If this Mr Ye didn’t want her to lead the way anymore, she wouldn’t know how to give the 200 back.
Wooosh- Ye Mo looked over and saw a Chinese guy get beaten down from the stage. Ye Mo had been watching the fight ever since he came in.
The Chinese guy spat blood and he slowly stopped breathing. The black man who had won was full of excitement.
Many people threw money on the stage and a woman wearing a bikini picked the money up. She did all sorts of seductive poses to attract people to throw more money.
People casually got beaten to death? Ye Mo looked at those people in shock.
Noticing Ye Mo’s surprise, Annie quickly said, "If you want to go further inside to take a look, you have to pay more. By the way, just like that man, most winners get rewarded even if they don’t reach the top 3."
"The government doesn’t care?" Ye Mo asked with a frown.
Annie shook her head, "Of course they don’t. Sometimes, some people come here for a check but before they do, everyone here gets notified, so there can’t be any problems at all.
"Aren’t you worried that Yin Jia might also be beaten up like that?" Ye Mo thought it weird that being Yin Jia’s girlfriend, she wasn’t being the first to stop him from going up there. Instead, Annie seemed very supportive of Yin Jia fighting.
Annie shook her head, "Yin Jia can win. I trust him, so why should I worry?"
Ye Mo was speechless. But he was didn’t care either way and just scanned the underground fighting ring. It was just as he had thought - although there were a lot of Chinese here, he didn’t recognize anyone. In fact, there weren’t that many Chinse women.
"Let’s go, take me to the Chinese Back Street," Ye Mo said. He had some hopes for that place.
If Sister Yan was in the town, there was a 90% chance she was there, because that was the ghetto for Chinese people. She had come there by herself, so she wouldn’t have had anywhere else to go.
.....
The Chinese Back Street really was a slum indeed. Seeing the place, Ye Mo realized that even in the US, not every place was rich.
The street was narrow and dirty and actually pretty hidden. If it wasn’t for Annie taking him there, he would never have known about the place.
80% of the people there were Chinese, with a few black and white people. Ye Mo subconsciously looked at Annie. Her father was from Hong Kong, so why did she look completely white? Ye Mo even considered the tought that her mother might have cheated on her father.
"Annie!"
Annie was obviously very welcome. On the street, many Chinese would greet her. Annie had a smile on her face and talked with everyone.
No wonder her Chinese was so good.
"Annie, something happened to Yin Si, hurry up and find her brother." A Chinese man rushed over with a trolley and stopped Annie.
"Something happened to Sister Sisi?!" Then, Annie didn’t even say anything to Ye Mo and ran out in a hurry.
Ye Mo saw this and didn’t blame her. But ’Yin Jia’ and ’Yin Si’ - the two added together formed ’Si Jia’, which meant ’the longing for home’.
The man was about to leave when Ye Mo suddenly asked, "Where is Annie going? What happened?"
The man studied Ye Mo and didn’t hesitate much since Ye Mo had come together with Annie. He said, "Yin Si was working at a restaurant, and I heard she offended a customer and needed to compensate a lot of money, so she’s being held back at the restaurant."
"Where is the restaurant? Also, isn’t America supposed to be a very lawful society, how come something like that is happening?" Ye Mo asked in confusion.
The man had a face full of contempt and said coldly, "Lawful? That’s only for some people. I think you’ve been reading too much democratic propaganda. It’s as easy as drinking water for rich people to have you put in jail here. Young man, you must have only just arrived here, right?"
Then, the man walked off and didn’t even tell Ye Mo where the restaurant was.
Ye Mo felt helpless. He knew he didn’t understand life in the US, but even he knew that there was a difference in the lives of the rich and poor. Although that man’s words had been a bit extreme, he wasn’t completely wrong.
Ye Mo stopped a middle-aged lady and asked her about the restaurant. This time, Ye Mo was pointed the right direction. As soon as Ye Mo got to the restaurant, his spirit sense noticed a white man on the second floor raging at a girl in her twenties. But Ye Mo didn’t understand a thing he said.
A Chinese man beside him was also joining him in cursing at the girl.
Annie held the girl, who had a slap mark on her face and seemed full of worry. Ye Mo was surprised. Annie had been a very optimistic American girl all along, so he felt strange seeing the worry on her face.