Chapter 12: Old Friend in Los Angeles
"How much did you get today? Compared to yesterday, it seems not enough."
Zhang Ailun took a look at Dominic's bag and found that it had shrunk a lot. It seemed that there were not as many cans as the one he picked up yesterday.
"Don't mention it, man. I had bad luck today. I went to the neighborhoods I usually go to, but almost every trash can had been searched. In the end, I could only run back and forth between several collection stations and try my luck nearby. In half a day, I only picked up more than 10 cans and made about $."
Dominic sighed, looking helpless.
It feels like the competition has become increasingly fierce recently, as many people have started picking up cans on the side, which has greatly reduced his income.
Because it’s already the middle of the month.
The subsidies and shopping vouchers will be distributed for 16 consecutive days starting from the beginning of the month, and we will no longer care about you after that.
The crime time and crime rate on Skid Row also follow certain patterns. Everything in the world has its own patterns.
The streets may be a little calmer in the first half of the month, because the homeless are basically doing well and will squander the subsidies and shopping vouchers as soon as they get them, living a life of drunkenness and debauchery. But the second half of the month is when competition is the greatest!
We have entered into competition mode, where the fittest will survive, and another group of people will be eliminated soon.
There will definitely be a new group of people coming in later.
The life expectancy of street drug addicts is generally only 3-5 years. Dominic has seen life and death during his two and a half years of wandering the streets.
The crematorium even prepared body bags on time and purchased a batch of fuel and energy. Even the stock market indices of various energy companies rose by a few points today.
When Zhang Ailun saw Dominic's depressed mood, he realized that he might have to go back to his old job in a few days!
Not wanting to see the other party embark on a path of crime, Zhang Allen immediately said, "Don't worry about not making money, Dominic. Since you can't find many cans in other neighborhoods, you might as well not go too far. You can narrow your scavenging route and only pick up cans on Wapson Street. After all, that's our territory. My stuff is your stuff."
Other places and wealthy areas are basically occupied. Dominic is weak and it is easy for him to have violent conflicts with others there.
The other party is not as good at fighting as him to ensure his own safety. He is delicate and tender. Even if he runs himself to pieces in an ordinary neighborhood, he won't make much money in a day.
Homeless people cannot afford guns, otherwise they wouldn't be in such a miserable state. Those who can afford guns are basically street gangs.
"Isn't that your territory? I can't steal your things, man."
Dominic was a little surprised and tempted, but he quickly shook his head to refuse. Subconsciously, he had no intention of taking advantage of his own people.
"Don't be polite to me, buddy. You are the first friend I made on the West Coast. Without your support, I would still be sleeping on the street! From now on, you can pick up cans over there with peace of mind. No one will compete with you. If anyone dares to bully you, come back and tell me."
Zhang Ailun clenched his fists and said confidently: "I will break their spines so that they can't take care of themselves! Let them see why the flowers are so red!"
As long as you have a strong fist and a bad temper, you will challenge others and beat them half to death if you disagree with them.
Then it’s actually quite easy for you to get along on the streets, and other homeless people will be very friendly to you!
There is no racial discrimination at all.
"Well, thank you for your generosity, Alan. I'll rely on you from now on! Man, you've really built up those muscles!"
Dominic Kao also accepted it with pleasure, and also took the opportunity to envy Zhang Ailun's figure.
"I'll give you a share of the money I make from picking up cans on that street."
The place where Dominic has made the most profit from picking up cans so far is on the two relatively busy streets of Sanji Bar and strip club.
Apart from zero-yuan purchases, other high incomes basically come from picking up good things from trash cans in wealthy areas and commercial plazas and then selling them. However, working in high-level resource areas is not only highly competitive and risky, but the income is actually not stable.
When encountering rainy, windy and extreme temperature weather, it is impossible to go out and hunt normally.
"Then you better work harder, man. I'm counting on you to give me hundreds of dollars in dividends every week! Hahahaha."
When Zhang Ailun heard that there was money to be made, he immediately became motivated. He wanted to take over two more streets and declare that all 50,000 streets in Los Angeles were his territory.
Be the king of the jar.
"Dominic, don't we have little Lori here? Lori Louis 19 was named after him, why didn't he help you teach Ethan and the others a lesson?"
Zhang Ailun was puzzled by this. He had heard from other scavengers that Dominic was bullied outside and even his territory was occupied by others. He was a little confused. How could this old black man not do anything about it?
Didn’t we agree to help each other?
Maybe it was because they didn't collect membership fees? The other party had no obligation to cause trouble for them.
Dominic shrugged his shoulders. "Little Lori basically doesn't care about this kind of thing. He is either smoking weed or on his way to smoke weed every day. He only cares about keeping outsiders from breaking into our place. Street fights have nothing to do with him. When we are out there, each of us has to be responsible for our own words and deeds. We can't count on others."
"But little Lori would always clean windows and beg in other people's territories, and those people wouldn't dare to say anything. But it's different for us."
After all, isn't this still bullying the weak and fearing the strong? Whoever has the bigger fist is right?
Two homeless people were fighting over a bottle and their heads were bleeding. You might think they were too narrow-minded.
When two gangs fight over a block, you will feel that they only care about profit and will do whatever it takes. When two countries fight over an oil field, everyone will just hope that peace will come soon.
The underlying logic is no different.
As long as humans are alive, they will never stop fighting.
No matter where you are, the rules remain the same, and the competition at the bottom is even more intense, brutal and bloody.
Zhang Ailun didn't want to continue discussing this matter, so he turned to ask Dominic about his identity documents.
"I got my fake ID from an Asian dealer. He sometimes appears on the street and sells it to passers-by. You can get a green card and a passport for $200-800. But if you can provide the sample information you want, you only need to pay $50 for the materials to print it, but the authenticity and quality are not guaranteed."
"You need to pay a lot of extra money to make it real! Those people have the means to enter your identity data into the immigration system and give you a stamped legal identity certificate."
After obtaining legal proof of identity, owning assets locally, and having a tax payment record at the tax bureau, documents are basically no longer important.
No matter who you were before or whether you entered the country illegally, you have been assumed to be a legal citizen.
Because you paid taxes.
The more taxes you pay, the better citizen you are.
Have you ever seen a criminal travel thousands of miles just to pay taxes to America?
Please, please bring more people like this, the more the better! We in America welcome such philanthropists. Wouldn't it be better to fatten them up and then harvest the leeks?
Taxpayers with evidence are good taxpayers, and those foreigners who have no evidence and are disloyal are just hidden dangers.
It's fine when nothing happens normally, but when there is a change, the first ones to be hit are these rich immigrants.
Dominic said, "But I don't know exactly when he will show up. You know, people in this industry are all very secretive and have their own secret bases. The base may be in an abandoned factory in the suburbs, in the city, or even in the home of an immigration officer!"
Zhang Ailun expressed his understanding of this.
He can't just go to the California Immigration Department and ask if they will take private work or issue documents by showing him a small card for making fake documents, right?
That's so rude.
People still have to save their dignity.
The threshold to reach that group of people without the middleman must be very high, or even impossible.
We all know that the water of the Ganges is dirty, but you cannot prove how dirty it is unless you drink it or soak in it.
"I have already applied for my identity on the website and passed the facial identity verification on social software. If I had a printer, I might be able to make one myself, but if I want to be more reliable, I still have to go through those immigration employees... fake ID dealers!"
Zhang Ailun also took out his mobile phone to show the other party the two files he had downloaded.
"Hamburger Juan King?" Dominic was a little surprised.
"If they're all fake identities, man, who would use their real name?"
Zhang Ailun smiled and said, "I'm not that stupid. Apart from the eye color and the photo, I can also falsify my height and weight. But it won't be too different."
"You're right. No one would be stupid enough to write their real information on a fake ID. My Texas driver's license also uses another name and fake information. My name is Franklin." Dominic nodded.
Then he said, "I'm sorry, Alan, I may not be able to help you with this matter for the time being. But don't be discouraged. I will help you ask other people on the street someday. Maybe they will have information in this regard."
"It doesn't matter. I'm not in a hurry to use this identity." Zhang Ailun waved his hand.
In fact, even if Dominic gained nothing, he was not worried about it.
With daily intelligence in hand, you never know when the information you need will be refreshed.
There are plenty of talented people on the street, it just depends on whether you can find them and whether the other party is willing to help you.
"You used your portrait on US dollar bills, the police officers will definitely give you face."
Zhang Ailun laughed: "You remind me of an old friend in Los Angeles. He was a black man."
“Yes, this is my freedom.”
Dominic chuckled and asked in surprise: "You have a black friend? Is his name also Franklin?"
"Yes, he also robbed the federal bank, worked for the CIA, stole nuclear weapons, and finally retired as a billionaire."
Dominic: “…”
(End of this chapter)
