America, starting as a trainee police officer

Chapter 147 I'm starting to admire him.

Effie stood at the entrance of the Central Wilshire Precinct, pulling her coat tighter around herself.

Los Angeles looks like it's been ravaged by bombs.

Thick smoke billowed in the distance, with black smoke rising from at least three directions, mingling with dust and the acrid smell of natural gas, creating a tangled mess in the air.

Across the street, a taco store sign lay on the ground, shattered into pieces, its neon lights still flickering resentfully, emitting a buzzing electrical sound.

An overturned Toyota Camry lay across the middle of the road, its four wheels pointing upwards, and the owner was nowhere to be found.

She took a deep breath.

The dust made her cough twice.

Her hands had stopped trembling after killing him, but her stomach was still churning. The warmth of the man's head from last night seemed to linger in her palms.

She looked down at her hands.

Nothing.

Now is not the time to panic.

Li Wei gave her a task, and she had to complete it.

She pulled a crumpled list from her backpack, containing several addresses. These were the locations Li Wei had told her about in the car last night—shops in decent locations in the southern district, but unlikely to survive the earthquake.

But before going to the South District, she had one more thing to do.

She flagged down a taxi that was still running; the driver was Asian. Effie got in without worry and gave him an address.

The car stopped in front of a relatively intact office building.

Monica Stevens' law firm is located here.

When Effie pushed open the door, Monica was sitting behind her desk on the phone, her tone professional and indifferent.

Seeing Effie come in, she raised her hand to indicate that she should sit down first, then continued talking on the phone for a few more minutes before hanging up.

"You came to work during an earthquake? You're a real workaholic in the legal world." Effie sat down in the chair.

Monica leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms on the table, and looked her up and down: "And what makes you any better? You're not here to catch up, are you?"

"I need you to draft a few contracts for me."

"What contract?"

"Shop Transfer Agreement"

Monica raised an eyebrow: "You're opening a shop?"

"It wasn't me. It was Li Wei."

Upon hearing the name, Monica's expression subtly changed.

Of course she remembered Levi. That intern police officer who hired her as a legal advisor for a dollar and then introduced her to a bunch of gangster clients.

In the past few months, the profits brought to her by Li Wei have accounted for one-third of her law firm's income.

"He's buying up shops right after the earthquake?" Monica asked, a hint of surprise in her voice. "Such a quick reaction?"

Effie didn't hide anything and briefly explained Li Wei's plan: to take advantage of the fact that the shops couldn't withstand the earthquake, to buy up prime locations in the southern district at low prices, and to sell them for double the price after reconstruction.

As Monica listened, she tapped her fingers lightly on the table, a complex light flashing in her eyes.

After Effie finished speaking, she was silent for a few seconds, then chuckled.

"If your Officer Li weren't wearing that police uniform, I'd really suspect he was the Wolf of Wall Street in his past life."

"He's not from my family," Effie said expressionlessly, but she didn't deny it too strongly.

Monica didn't expose her. She opened a drawer, took out several template contracts, and began modifying the terms. She moved quickly, clearly having done this countless times before.

"How much do you plan to enter for the transfer price?"

Effie gave a number.

Monica stopped writing, looked up and glanced at her.

That number is ridiculously low.

Are you sure the other party will sign off on this price?

"The earthquake just happened, and the whole street is losing money. It's good enough if someone takes over; nobody cares about the price."

Monica stared at her for two seconds, then looked down and continued filling out the form.

After filling it out, she put the contract in a document bag and handed it over.

Effie took it and was about to get up.

"etc."

Effie turned around.

Monica leaned back in her chair, twirling a pen in her hand, her gaze somewhat meaningful.

"When Li Wei came to me for cooperation before, I only thought he was a smart intern police officer who knew how to monetize the resources at his disposal."

But while everyone was busy escaping the earthquake, he was already thinking about how to buy at rock-bottom prices. This man is far more decisive than I imagined.

She paused, then a slight smile played on her lips.

"I'm starting to admire him."

Effie glanced at her but didn't reply.

She silently thought to herself, "I'm not in a relationship with Li Wei, so what's the point of her saying that? Does she think I'll get jealous?"

I have no idea what this red-haired bitch is thinking.

Effie walked out of the law firm and stood by the roadside for almost twenty minutes before finally managing to flag down a taxi that was still running.

The driver was a white man in his fifties, wearing a baseball cap, chewing gum, and looking impatient. The back seats were covered in dust, clearly indicating he hadn't had much business that day.

After getting on the bus, Aifei gave her address.

The car started and wound its way through the ruins. Every now and then, you could see a few black people moving things out of the window. Some were carrying things out of stores, and others were rummaging through overturned cars. Their movements were so practiced that they looked like they were participating in some kind of Olympic event.

Effie glanced at it twice, then looked away. Zero-dollar purchases are something even an earthquake couldn't stop. She wondered if these people had this kind of drive during their regular workdays; the US GDP could double.

The first store was a pizza shop.

The sign read "TONY SPIZZA," but the "Since 2002" part below was half smashed by a fallen gutter. The roller shutter door was half-open, and a bag of flour that hadn't yet been delivered to the store was piled up at the entrance. The bag wasn't sealed tightly, and flour was spilled all over the floor, mixed with broken glass and dust, like a layer of grayish-white snow.

A large crack appeared in the brickwork at the corner of the wall, through which the streetlights could be seen.

Effie pushed open the door and went inside.

The shop was a mess. Tables and chairs were overturned, and the pizza topping price list hanging on the wall had fallen to the floor, bearing several footprints. A layer of dust covered the kitchen countertop, and the large pizza oven was still lit up, but no one was using it.

A white man in his fifties sat behind the bar, a glass of whiskey in front of him, staring blankly at the cracks in the ceiling.

Hearing someone enter, he stirred slightly but didn't turn around.

"It's closed."

The sound seemed to be coming from the bottom of a dried-up well.

Effie didn't leave.

She looked around. There was a crack in the wall big enough to fit a fist, several floor tiles were warped, and half of the ceiling had collapsed, revealing a dark, porous structure. The wooden bar counter, which had been in use for twenty years, had been chipped by a fallen beam, and the splinters of wood at the edges were still fresh.

"I know."

She walked to the bar, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

The old man finally turned to look at her. His eyes were cloudy, as if he had been crying, or as if he simply didn't have the strength to cry anymore.

"Then what are you doing here?"

"What are you planning to do with this shop?"