Chapter 180: Brother Li, Help!
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Seems like business is good," Li Du said.
"Of course. Hoffman owns Flagstaff’s only large-scale old goods market. Its well-known all over Arizona."
Li Du pointed to the Bridal Boutique and said, "I’m referring to that—there’s a lot of people buying second-hand wedding dresses."
"Of course, why not? Wedding dresses are so expensive, and these things aren’t necessities, so why not just get a second-hand one? It's still beautiful, and cheap to boot."
Li Du explained, "What I mean is, they can just rent wedding dresses—wouldn’t that be cheaper?"
Hans shook his head and said, "Not really. Also, if they can buy it, why rent it? Isn’t it much better to buy one for themselves?"
"You already said that wedding dresses aren’t necessities. Besides on wedding days, these things are useless."
Hans scoffed. "You amateur, how would it be useless after? Don’t you know how sexy a woman is in a wedding dress? Think about it: a woman wearing a white wedding dress lying on the bed, pure and—"
"Sh*t!" Mr. Li interrupted him. This man’s thoughts were only filled with lust.
After some window shopping, Hans ran off to some unknown place. Li Du continued casually looking, and then he saw a stall selling electronic products. There were many things such as cameras and speakers.
Seeing these electronic products, Li Du suddenly had an idea. He went over to ask, "Do you have any wireless monitoring devices?"
The owner was a young black man; he pointed to a stack of items and said, "Of course, they’re all there."
After chatting with the owner for a while, he picked out a few things, and then Hans appeared again with ice-cream in his hands.
Li Du said with a laugh, "Are these second-hand?"
Hans said guiltily, "How could there be second-hand ice-cream? Don’t tell me you saw me licking it?"
"*sshole!"
"It’s just a joke. Don’t worry and eat it—ha!."
Li Du gave him the finger. He held the ice-cream in front of Ah Meow, and seeing the ocelot stick out its tongue to take a lick, he could then finally relax and eat.
Ah Meow was a very picky and prideful cat, and, besides food that Mr. Li had eaten, wouldn’t even look at leftovers from other people.
There were three more days until the weekend, which meant three more days until the auction for their motorcycle. With that, they went back home. Hans continued snooping for information on storage auctions so that they could prepare for another fight.
For a week or so, they didn’t have much profit. Hans was a heavy spender, and he also had the welfare home to take care of, so he was starting to find himself in a financial crunch again.
Li Du wasn’t bothered that Hans was in some financial trouble, since he had plenty of his own funds in the bank, and wasn’t that urgently in need of work.
He sent some money back home during this period, saying that it was some extra money he made from interning with a professor.
His parents didn’t ask much; they knew from watching television that students had some opportunities to make money when learning from professors. Also, Li Du only sent 7,500 dollars back, so it wasn’t a lot.
However, his father told him that there was no need to send money home again, and advised that he kept it at home for emergencies. Or, he could try to curry more favor with the professor and ride his coattail.
Li Du said "okay" to everything, but his parents didn’t know that he didn’t have a teacher anymore.
Before hanging up the phone, Li Du’s father secretly advised him, "If you find the right girl, don’t be stingy, and remember to spend a lot of time with her. Buy her snacks or jewelery or whatever."
His mother added, "If you don’t have enough money, then tell us the truth. We only have one son, and all our money we earned for you."
Li Du continued agreeing to everything, and then said, "You two need to change your mindset; if there’s anything you like to eat, then just buy it. Same goes for anything else that you want to get. Don’t just save up money for my sake. With a master’s, don’t you think I can provide for myself?"
Li Du’s parents agreed to whatever he said as well, but Li Du would be a fool to believe them. He knew far too well about his parents’ thriftiness…
In the late evening, he received a call on his phone. He picked it up suspiciously and asked, "Hello, who is this?"
A voice that was out-of-breath came through the phone. "Brother Li, Brother Li, it’s me, Xiao Lin Zi—I’m Lin Ping, can you hear me?"
"Lin Ping?" Li Du remembered him, so he said, "Why can’t I recognize your voice? What’s wrong, Xiao Lin Zi? Where have you been after leaving school?"
Lin Ping was a countrymate that he met at National University in Flagstaff. The two of them were from Northwest China, and spoke a similar dialect, so they clicked well.
Because Lin Ping had a similar name to Lin Pingzhi from "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," the Chinese students liked to call him "Xiao Lin Zi." After some time, he had taken a liking to the nickname, and called himself that as well.
But soon after, Li Du and Lin Ping’s friendship turned lukewarm, and though they didn’t exactly go their separate ways, their relationship turned fairly normal.
Li Du had a somewhat stubborn personality, but when interacting with friends, he was still quite easy to hang out with. His tolerance toward his friends was quite high.
The reason why he couldn’t sustain his friendship with Lin Ping was mainly that the guy liked to gamble.
Unlike Li Du’s down-to-earth family background, Lin Ping came from a relatively wealthy household.
Most people born with a silver spoon tended to have some uncommon hobbies. Liu Jin Long, whom Li Du met previously, loved guns; he chose to study here because of America’s Gun Laws. Lin Ping chose to study here mainly because gambling was illegal in most parts of China, and America had legal casinos.
Liu Jin Long was good at studying. Li Du, to some extent, was good at studying. Lin Ping however, was terrible. He got in through money, and said that he was going to buy himself a certificate. Thus, he came to the diploma mill, which didn’t bother to look into their educational histories.
The two hadn’t contacted each other in half a year. To suddenly receive a call from Lin Ping, Mr. Li felt that something was off.
Indeed, people don’t seek a temple unless they are trouble. Lin Ping said anxiously on the phone, "Brother Li, you’re still in Flagstaff, right? I’ve read about you in the papers."
Li Du wanted to tell him that he had already left Flagstaff, and even left Arizona, but hearing what Lin Ping said about the newspapers, he had to admit it. "Yes, I am, what’s up?"
Lin Ping heaved a sigh of relief. "That’s great, Brother Li. Can you help me out? I’m in some trouble."
After some hesitation, Li Du asked, "What kind of help? If it’s related to the casino, then to tell you the truth, Lin Ping, Brother Li is…"
Hearing the reluctance in his tone, Lin Ping desperately called out, "Brother Li, help me—please help me! Besides you, there’s no one else in Flagstaff that I can trust—please help me, save me!"
Li Du sighed. He didn’t want to poke his nose into any troublesome business, but both of them were Chinese men in a foreign country; if they don’t help each other, then who else could they count on? Americans? They often didn’t treat him as a citizen of this country, so why would they help him?
"Let me hear about it. The important thing is that I might not be able to help you."
Lin Ping heaved a sigh of relief. "No problem, Brother Li, I’m sure you can. As long as you promise."
"Talk."
"It’s like this, Brother Li: I’m currently in Comanche Casino. I’ve met the people from Immigration, they’ve asked me for my documentation, but I didn’t bring it. It’s in the motel."
Li Du felt suspicious, and said, "Then just go and get it from the motel."
Lin Ping said, "No—if I go to the hotel, then I’ll have to give up this round of poker. I’m sure to win this round! I was hoping to trouble you to help get the documents for me? I trust you, but I’m afraid that other people would throw away my documents after getting them, and then I would be screwed!"
The request wasn’t that difficult. Li Du resigned and said, "Sure, but I don’t have the keys."
Seeing that he agreed, Lin Ping was elated. "No problem—my room has a number lock, I just need to tell you the code for it. The documents are under my pillow."
"Send me a text stating that you’re asking me for help to get the documents." Li Du wanted to make some precautions. He was afraid of encountering any trouble that he couldn’t explain if he were to enter Lin Ping’s room by himself.
After hanging up, he sent a text.
In the casino, with a flat-top hairstyle and a skinny frame, Lin Ping said to the Native American opposite of him, "Mr. Haris, I’ve done as you asked."
The Native American revealed a generous smile, and said, "Thank you, Chinese friend. Here, let me tell you what to do next."