I am a local in North America

Chapter 76 The Key and the Crossroads (4100 words, please subscribe!)
The old Mustang was parked in the Seattle airport garage for several days, incurring a total parking fee of $270, calculated at $30 per day.

Standing in front of the exit gate, listening to the numbers ticking on the meter, Su Jierui secretly felt a pang of regret as he reached for his wallet.

I feel a bit silly for forgetting about parking fees before leaving home; I should have just taken a taxi.

The pet carrier containing the little golden shaded puppy was placed on the front passenger seat and secured with a seatbelt, while the trunk was also packed full.

Having made an appointment in advance, he left the airport and drove straight to the law firm where he had previously signed the contract. Today, he would officially receive the keys and property registration documents for the beaver ranch.

Procedures such as purchasing home insurance and signing documents at the escrow office were all handled by lawyers and real estate agents, and the transfer of ownership has been submitted to the land registry for formal registration.

With the keys and documents in hand, Beaver Ranch could finally be completely owned by Jerry Su.

The immense sense of accomplishment from finally buying that large ranch I had been longing for for over a year was far stronger than winning first place in a leg of the Bass Bass Fishing Championship.

Unlike the leisurely pace of the "Living in the Wild" program, the organizers of the Bass Bass Fishing Championship handed the $20 champion's check to Su Jerry on the spot yesterday, and it is currently in his suitcase.

This prize money, along with the "biggest single-digit prize" and the record-breaking $8000 bonus check, will be subject to taxation afterward.

He made quick money one after another and suddenly became rich.

With just over two months left until the tax deadline of April 15th, and considering the large amount of taxes he will soon face, Su Jierui feels he should find a professional registered tax agent as soon as possible to help him plan how to save money.

I arrived in downtown Seattle with ease and drove into the underground parking lot of an office building.

Su Jierui parked the car, made sure to open the window a crack, briefly greeted the parking attendant, skillfully handed over a $2 tip explaining the situation, and then left the kitten in the car before going upstairs alone to retrieve the keys and documents.

All the contracts, invoices, certificates, and evaluation documents were placed in a thick brown paper bag.

After a brief congratulatory message from the lawyer, Su Jierui quickly grabbed his things and took the elevator downstairs again. On the way, he sent a text message to his grandfather and mother to tell them the good news that the handover of the beaver ranch had been successful.

His family knew he won the award yesterday, and there were still many news reports about Su Jerry this morning.

The news is quite exciting, but the data on YouTube hasn't shown any significant changes yet. Yesterday, I only earned a little over $280 from old videos, and after the hype died down, I was completely back to square one.

Eager to get home, he continued driving, a journey that took a total of seven or eight hours, leaving Su Jierui exhausted.

The chubby kitten in the crate seemed to be enjoying itself quite a bit. Apart from occasionally meowing softly and entertaining itself in the pet carrier, it spent most of its time sleeping.

One was exhausted, the other was having a blast.

While waiting at the traffic light, Su Jierui glanced at the little golden shaded cat. To be honest, he was a little worried that his parents wouldn't let him keep a cat at home, especially since they had just replaced their sofa with a genuine leather one last year.

As we all know, leather sofas and cat claws have been natural enemies since ancient times.

In addition, he was worried that if the little guy slept well during the day, he would be restless and make a fuss at night.

After much thought, Su Jerry felt it was necessary to clean up the old holiday cabin at the beaver ranch and hire some help before spring.

On his drive home, Su Jierui thought of a whole bunch of random things, including returning to school, his graduation project, how to develop gold mines and ranches, and how to further manage his video account. He felt like he wouldn't be able to relax anytime soon.

For example, regarding the upcoming gold mine development plan, he has no clue how to obtain development permits, whether to find partners, or whether to take out a loan directly. He has to figure it out himself.

Moreover, his elders had little experience in business matters, so he couldn't get much help from them. However, they were all experts at fishing and were quite hardworking.

The scene of family welcoming him, which he had imagined, did not materialize.

When Su Jerry returned to his home at Fisherman's Wharf and opened the door, the house was pitch black.

The older sister, Ah-Xin, got married, and the younger sister, Ah-Rou, went back to MIT to study. As for their parents, they were probably busy going out to sea to catch Dungeness crabs, and they had been working hard for the past few days to finish their Dungeness crab quota as soon as possible.

"Little one, come out and play, get familiar with your surroundings. This is your temporary new home. Once I have the money to build my own house, I'll move you to a more spacious place..."

After talking to the little golden tabby, Su Jerry opened the cage and let it out, allowing the little guy to sniff around on the living room carpet.

Just then, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't bought a litter box, cat food, cat bowls, cat bed, and so on.

Su Jierui, who had just sat down on the sofa, reluctantly stood up again to prepare to leave.

He took out his phone to check nearby pet stores, but when he saw the message notification bar on the screen, he realized that his grandmother had sent him a voice message more than 20 minutes earlier, asking if he wanted to go back to the old house by Lake Washington for dinner that night.

It would take quite a while to drive there, and Su Jierui was really tired today; all the muscles in his body were protesting.

Suddenly relaxing, all the fatigue from the past few days came rushing back. I can only say that being a fisherman isn't so easy.

After thinking it over, I finally replied with a voice message saying that I would rest at home for a while and could just find a place to have dinner anywhere.

After sending the message, he stuffed his phone into his pants pocket and his gaze fell on the kitten trying to climb up the sofa leg.

After thinking it over, Su Jierui decided to bring the kitten along to prevent it from running around the house and causing damage. If it scratched the new sofa, his parents would be even less supportive of him keeping the little guy.

There were no pet stores nearby, so I drove towards the city center again.

The car arrived at an intersection. It was already getting dark, and the streetlights had just come on.

Su Jierui suddenly heard a screeching sound of tires screeching, and then saw with surprise that a car in front of him suddenly skidded and lost control while turning, crashing headfirst into the stone wall on the side of the road.

The accident happened suddenly, startling passersby. Fortunately, it seems no one was hit.

Su Jierui's heart tightened. He had initially thought it was better to avoid trouble, but when he saw the faint white smoke coming from the front of the car, he immediately pulled over to the side of the road without hesitation, unbuckled his seatbelt, and ran over to check the situation.

The airbags on the steering wheel of the Porsche 911 involved in the accident have deployed.

As he quickly opened the car door, a smell of gunpowder from the airbags, mixed with perfume, wafted towards him.

Upon first seeing those long, black-stockinged legs beneath the airbag... Su Jierui immediately felt that his act of being a good citizen to save someone was the right thing to do.

The girl's face was obscured by the airbag, making it impossible to see what was happening. Su Jierui quickly asked:

Hey! Are you okay? Can you hear me?

"Ugh...my head...it hurts!"

A young woman's voice, trembling with sobs, came from behind the airbag.

The girl struggled to raise her arm, slapping open the somewhat limp air sac in front of her, revealing a face contorted in pain, yet still undeniably beautiful. Her forehead and nose were bright red, with traces of blood at her nostrils.

Judging from the immediate special vision that Su Jierui activated, there seemed to be no major problems, and his health status was still listed as "excellent".

He instantly felt relieved, carefully helped her unbuckle her seatbelt, and assisted the beautiful white woman out of the driver's seat, asking as he did so:

"Don't worry, I saw someone making a phone call. They must have called for help for you. How are you feeling now? Besides your headache, is there anything else that's bothering you?"

After helping her sit against the wall, Su Jierui noticed that she was wearing a white turtleneck sweater that accentuated her exaggerated figure. Her beauty was so striking that he forgot his current situation and couldn't help but scrutinize the white girl several times.

Hitting the wall itself wasn't too bad, but it seems like the airbags that launched me out of the air made me a little dizzy.

Surrounded by several passersby, the white girl covered her forehead, squinted, looked around, and then fixed her gaze on Su Jerry, whispering:

"Make a call for me, the code is 000909...call Uncle Alex."

A kind-hearted, plump woman then squatted down and asked:

"Young lady, are you feeling alright? I've already called an ambulance."

The brown-haired white girl frowned, closed her eyes, and said:
"I'm okay, just a little dizzy... Thank you. Did I... did I bump into someone?"

Su Jierui picked up her phone, which had fallen to her feet, and busied himself unlocking it and looking through her contacts, casually replying:

"No, you only brushed against the wall. Luckily, the surrounding buildings are all old brick and cement houses, which are quite sturdy..."

He found "Uncle Alex's" number, dialed it, and briefly explained the situation.

After hanging up the phone, Su Jierui said to her again:
"We got in touch. Your uncle said he'll be there soon."

Then, looking at her long, stockinged legs, he took off his coat to cover them so she wouldn't catch a cold.

Sitting in a car with the heater on, it's fine to wear less clothing, but it's still very cold outside. Today, the temperature in Seattle is only around zero degrees Celsius.

Ambulances and police cars arrived quickly. Paramedics conducted a preliminary examination of the young white woman and confirmed that apart from a possible mild concussion and minor bleeding from her nose caused by the airbag impact, she was otherwise unharmed, but recommended that she go to the hospital for further examination.

The detectives began to investigate the scene and record the events of the accident. As the first person to help, Su Jierui was also asked a few questions, and he truthfully recounted what he had seen.

Just when he thought there was nothing more for him to do and was about to say goodbye and leave.

A black Rolls-Royce Cullinan sped up and silently pulled over to a stop at the side of the road.

The car door opened, and a man in his fifties, dressed in a smart trench coat and with his hair neatly combed, hurriedly stepped out.

"Lillian! Are you alright?" The middle-aged man pushed through the crowd and asked with concern.

"Uncle Alex!"

When Lillian, who was lying on the stretcher, saw the person who came, she seemed to have found her pillar of support and called out aggrievedly with a sob in her voice.

A look of surprise flashed across Su Jerry's face, because he also recognized this middle-aged man with graying temples. He was an old acquaintance of the Lancaster family, the one who had helped him write his high school recommendation letter, and Alex's father.

He quickly leaned closer and shouted:

“Mr. Lancaster? The doctor examined him; it's just some minor injuries.”

Alex Lancaster turned around at the sound of the voice and was surprised to see Jerry Su: "Jerry? What are you doing here?"

Su Jerry briefly explained:

"I happened to be passing by and stopped to help when I saw the accident. And this lady is...?"

Seeing that his niece was conscious, Alex calmed down a bit and explained:
“Her mother is my sister Miranda, whom you should have met, the one who married and moved to Texas.”

"Miranda got divorced a few days ago and just brought Lillian back to Seattle. I never expected this to happen. Luckily, she wasn't seriously injured. It scared me to death."

“Lillian, I told you, this car is still too much for you. How am I supposed to explain this to your mother now…”

"...Uncle, stop talking now, I feel very dizzy."

Lillian interrupted him on the stretcher, and as she was being put into the ambulance, she muttered under her breath, "Seattle winters are awful."

Su Jierui wanted to remind her that his coat was still on her, but the medical staff had already quickly closed the car door.

He had no choice but to give up, feeling that there was no need to bother them with such a trivial matter.

Watching the ambulance drive away, Mr. Alex Lancaster, who practically monopolized the luxury car market around Seattle, hurriedly followed to the hospital and patted Su Jerry heavily on the shoulder:

“Let’s talk later, Jerry. I saw your dad’s Facebook post; he won the bass fishing competition, right? Congratulations. I’ll have this car towed away first. Could you please check if Lillian’s personal belongings are still in the car? I’ll leave them with you for now and contact you later.”

"No problem, you go and take care of her first..."

Su Jierui nodded in agreement.

After Mr. Alex got into the car and left, at the police's instruction, he opened the 911 door and checked it for a while. He found only some loose change, car keys, half a pack of tampons, a Hermes handbag, cosmetics, and so on.

Except for the car keys, I took everything with me for the time being and put it back in my old Mustang.

Having lived in Seattle for so long, the Lancaster family members were the wealthiest acquaintances Su Jerry had ever known since childhood.

The family's assets are at least hundreds of millions of dollars. They own 20 to 30 large chain car dealerships and repair shops in Washington state, as well as wineries, farms, forests, and other businesses, and have invested in numerous companies.

Driving a Cullinan and using a Hermès handbag are perfectly normal occurrences among members of the Lancaster family.

Su Jerry had even heard his grandfather mention that Alex's father, Mr. James Sr., had invested in some Starbucks stock and regretted not buying enough in his early years.

He used to be a little envious.

However, with the beaver ranch now successfully acquired, even though no gold has been mined yet, Su Jerry's mindset has subtly changed...

(End of this chapter)