Chapter 17 14

Wu Qicheng gently wiped the sweat off his wife's forehead. In the tiny apartment they had just settled in, she lay on a mattress in her bedroom, shivering, running a fever and drenched in sweat. This ground-floor house is located in an alley on Canal Street in the middle of Chinatown.It was the agent introduced by Ma Jimi who found this house for them. He was a robber, Wu Qicheng thought angrily.The rent was ridiculously expensive, and the skinny guy was getting a handsome commission.The house is filthy and smelly, there are few pieces of furniture, and there are cockroaches running amok on the ground. Even at this noon, there is a moment when sunlight penetrates into the room through the dim window panes.

He looked at his wife worriedly.On the Fuzhou Dragon, Yongping suffered from headaches, drowsiness, hot and cold and other symptoms, and he always believed that it was caused by seasickness.However, now that they are on land, these symptoms have not improved at all.It seemed that she was really sick with something. Mrs. Wu slowly opened her dull eyes.If I die she said weakly. You will not die.Wu Qicheng said, but even he wasn't sure he believed it. He thought of Dr. John Song on the Fuzhou Dragon, and regretted not asking him more about his wife's condition; on the ship, he treated several sick smugglers, but Wu Qicheng was afraid that he would charge a fee, so he didn't ask him to come see him. Look at Yongping's illness.

Go to sleep, Wu Qicheng said: You need to rest.Just get some rest and you'll be fine.Come on, get some sleep. If I die, you must find another woman.Find a woman who can take care of our children. You will not die. Where is my son?Yong Ping asked. Langer is in the living room. He looked through the door and saw the child sitting on the sofa while Jane was hanging the laundry on a line that ran across the middle of the living room.After they arrived at the place, the whole family took a shower one by one and changed into clean clothes that Wu Qicheng bought at a cheap clothing store on Canal Street.After eating (Yong Ping didn't eat a mouthful), Zhenmei coaxed her younger brother to sit in front of the TV, while she used the kitchen sink to wash all their clothes soaked in salt water.Now, she is hanging these clothes on the rope one by one.

Mrs. Wu squinted her eyes and looked around, as if trying to remember where she was.Finally, she gave up and threw her head back on the pillow. What is this place here? We are in Chinatown, which is the Manhattan of New York. But she frowned, unable to speak for a while with her feverish head.evil spirits.Man, we shouldn't be here.It's not safe here.Sam Zhang said, we can't stay. Oh, devil he waved his hand.He has gone back to China. No, Yong Ping said: I don't believe it.I'm worried about the child, we have to get out of here as soon as possible, as far away as possible.

Wu Qicheng told her: No snakehead is willing to risk being arrested just to shoot and kill a few escaped stowaways.You're not so stupid that you can't even figure this out, are you? Please, husband.Sam Zhang said Don't mention the surname Zhang, he is a coward, he shouted: We just want to stay here.He was angry, but the sight of the poor woman in agony softened him.He said gently: I'll go out and find some medicine for you. She didn't answer.Wu Qicheng got up and walked into the living room. He looked at the children and saw that they were looking anxiously into the room where their mother lay.

Mom will be all right?asked the eldest daughter. No, she will be fine.I go out for a while and come back in half an hour.He said: I'm going to buy some medicine. Dad, wait a moment Zhenmei stammered and lowered her head. how? can i go with you No, you stay here to take care of your mother and brother. But how? I want to buy something. Buy fashion magazines?Wu Qicheng thought so angrily.cosmetic?Hair spray?Does she want me to spend my dinner money on her face?buy what? Please let me go with you, I will buy it myself.Her face was all red. What exactly do you want to buy?he asked sternly.

I need a little of that, she whispered, dropping her head even lower. that what?He said loudly: "Say it!" She swallowed.I'm here.You know, cotton pads. Wu Qicheng was taken aback, and immediately understood.Averting his eyes from his daughter's face, he pointed unhappily to the toilet.Can't I use the toilet paper inside? No, that would be very uncomfortable. Wu Qicheng was quite unhappy.This kind of problem should be his wife's job. He has never seen a man buy that kind of thing.good!He shouted: "Okay, I'll go buy what you want."He didn't even ask which brand his daughter wanted, and planned to buy the first box of sanitary napkins he saw in the store closest to here.She has to use whatever she buys.He strode out the door, turned and locked the door.

Walking on the busy streets of Chinatown, Wu Qicheng heard various languages ​​around him!Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Korean.And, of course, English, mixed with dialects and accents he had never heard. He looked at the shops and shops on the street, at the high piles of goods, and at the tall buildings rising in the city.New York seems to be ten times the size of Hong Kong, and perhaps a hundred times bigger than Fuzhou, where he grew up. I'm worried about the kids, we gotta get out of here as fast as possible But Wu Qicheng had no intention of leaving Manhattan.This is the dream that the 40-year-old has cherished all his life. Even his wife's illness, or the uncertain threat of the bully snake head, cannot make him leave.Wu Qicheng is about to make a fortune here, and he will become the richest person in the family.

Since he was in his twenties, he has worked in the Eden Hotel on Hudong Road near the hot spring park in the center of Fuzhou, starting as a waiter and working as a junior assistant, serving wealthy Chinese and Europeans.At that time, Wu Qicheng had already determined to become a successful businessman in the future.He worked hard in the restaurant, and although he handed over a quarter of his income to his parents on time every month, he saved money and joined a joint venture with two brothers to buy a restaurant on Gutian Road near the famous Mao Zedong statue. A grocery and souvenir store.With the money earned from one store, they bought another, and opened two more.After they plan to operate for a few years, when they have saved enough money, they will start buying houses and put their funds into the real estate market.

But Wu Qicheng made a mistake. China's economy has completely changed.Free economic zones are booming, and even the highest-ranking politicians say private business is welcome Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once said: It is glorious to be rich.But Wu Qicheng overlooked one thing, he forgot the first principle of Chinese life: the Chinese Communist Party controls everything.Therefore, Wu Qicheng bluntly advocated the development of closer economic and trade relations with Taiwan, the end of the iron rice bowl system that guarantees employment regardless of productivity, and severely condemned the corruption and bribery of party and government officials and the arbitrary collection of taxes.The irony is that Wu Qicheng doesn't care much about the words he promotes: his focus is only one, and that is to attract the attention of Western trading partners.He dreamed that both Europeans and Americans brought money to invest in him, because he is the voice of the new Chinese economy.

However, it was not Westerners who listened to the words of this skinny man, but the leaders and secretaries of the Communist Party.One day, government agents suddenly appeared in Wu Qicheng's store and found dozens of violations of health and safety regulations!Many of them were even made by agents on-site.The Wu brothers were unable to pay the heavy fines and soon went bankrupt. Despite this, Wu Qicheng, who has always been ashamed of his low birth, still refuses to give up his dream of becoming a rich man.He longed for the United States where opportunities are everywhere, so he led his whole family and illegally smuggled here at the risk of danger.He will become a landlord in Chinatown, and he will take a limousine to work. At that time, he will travel back to China. He will enter the Eden Hotel and live in the most luxurious room on the top floor of the hotel. How many people have moved their luggage into the room. No, his dream has been delayed too long; even the devil can't make him leave this capital of money. Wu Qicheng found a Chinese medicine shop.He walked into the store and described his wife's symptoms to the Chinese medicine practitioner in the store.After listening carefully, the doctor diagnosed that it was the result of insufficient Qi and anemia, and it was exacerbated by a severe cold.The doctor bundled up a large package of medicine and handed it to Wu Qicheng, but he reluctantly paid another high fee of eighteen dollars, and once again resented thinking that the doctor must have made him a lot of money. Leaving the Chinese medicine store, he continued down the street to a Chinese grocery store.Before his courage disappeared, he quickly flashed into the store, picked up a basket, and grabbed a few things he didn't want at all.He rushed into the medicine area, took a box of sanitary napkins for his daughter, and hurried to the counter to check out.As the cashier counts items, he keeps his gaze on a glass case of ginseng behind the counter. The gray-haired woman at the cash register lifted up the items in his basket one by one. Although she didn't smile or make any special movements, Wu Qicheng knew that she must be secretly laughing at him.He left the grocery store with his head down, his face as red as the Chinese flag. Wu Qicheng turned and walked towards the apartment, but after five minutes of brisk walking, he suddenly slowed down and walked slowly along the street.Of course, his wife's illness was on his mind, and he was also thinking about the children who stayed in the apartment.But God knows, today is going to be like a nightmare.He nearly died at sea, abandoned all his belongings, and was ripped off by Majimi and the real estate agent.And, worst of all, he'd lost all his face and self-respect by buying the thing that was now in the pouch he was carrying in his right hand.He decides he needs to relax now, needs a little reassurance from his male companion. In less than five minutes, he found the place he wanted to go: a casino run by Fujianese.After showing the banknotes to the guards at the door, he was given permission to enter. He sat silently at the gaming table for a while, playing thirteen, smoking, and drinking a few glasses of white wine.After winning a little money, he began to feel more comfortable.After two more glasses of clear, strong spirits and making sure the grocery bag was completely hidden under his chair, he finally relaxed completely. He started chatting with people nearby, and the thirty dollars he just won was a lot of money to him!He generously invited everyone to drink.With his drink and sense of humour, he told a joke that had everyone in the neighborhood laughing.When men get together, it's all about bad wives, bad kids, where they live, jobs they have or want to have. Wu Qicheng raised his cup.This is a toast to the God of Wealth.he said drunkenly.He believed that the God of Wealth would give him special favor.Everyone drank the wine. Having never seen you before, an old man said: When did you come here? Wu Qicheng was a little proud of being the focus of everyone's attention, deliberately lowered his voice and boasted: I just arrived this morning, and I was on that sunken ship. Fuzhou Dragon?A person asked, raising his eyebrows immediately.There was this news in the news today, and they said it was because the weather at sea was too bad. It's not just bad, Wu Qicheng said: The waves are 15 meters high!The smuggler wanted to kill us all, but I escaped with a dozen of us and had to dive underwater to cut the ropes of the lifeboats on the deck.I nearly drowned, but managed to get everyone to shore. You did it alone? He lowered his head and said sadly: I can't save everyone, but I really tried my best. Another asked: Is your family all right? fine.Wu Qicheng said with a smell of alcohol. Do you live near here? Just down the street. What kind of person is that evil spirit?another person asked. He only bluffs, is a coward, and never leaves his gun.If he had the guts to put the gun down and fight like a man with only a knife, I bet I'd take him down at will. Having said that, Wu Qicheng suddenly closed his mouth, and what Zhang Sam had said appeared in his mind.He felt that he shouldn't talk too much, so he quickly changed the subject.Does anyone know?I want to see that statue.Can someone tell me where that statue is.The man closest to Wu Qicheng asked: Statue?which one?There are statues everywhere. The statue is famous, it's a woman holding a ledger. Books?another man asked. That's right, Wu Qicheng explained to everyone: You can often see her in American movies.She seemed to be standing on some island with a torch in one hand and a ledger in the other.She had to carry the torch so she could see how much money was left in her estate at any time of the day or night.This statue is in New York, right? Yes, there is this statue.said a man, unable to hold back his laughter.Several people couldn't hold back their laughter.Wu Qicheng laughed along with everyone, although he didn't know what was so funny about it. You go to a place called Paotaishan Park, take a boat there, and you can see the statue. I must go when I have time. Another person smiled and said: This is a toast to Ms. Account Book.All the people in the casino drank up their wine and continued with the next game of gambling.