Taoist priest goes to America

As soon as the subway entered the station, it came to a stop with a screeching sound of brakes.

A shoe wearing a black sneaker was stuck in the gap of the train door. When the door opened, it finally came loose and fell onto the platform with a "thud".

A strong smell of tobacco, mixed with the white man's pungent body odor and body odor, wafted out of the carriage with the flow of people.

On the platform, the crowd began to surge. Passengers getting off squeezed out from both sides of the doors, while passengers boarded poured in. Li An, following the crowd, grabbed the corner of Lao Bai's tent cloth with his right hand and pulled Lao Bai in.

Old Bai, with stiff steps, followed Li An into the carriage.

The carriage was crowded and smelly, with no seats available, and the temperature was frighteningly high. An Li, dissatisfied, led Lao Bai to the next carriage.

Squeezing through the crowd and passing the connecting area between the two carriages, Ang Lee entered the more spacious carriage and then stopped.

Although this carriage was more spacious than the previous one, the people inside were acting very strangely.

The closest person to him was a woman lying face down on all fours on the carriage floor. She wore heavy eyeshadow, which extended from her eyelids all the way to her cheekbones.

She wore a black leather collar around her neck, with a leash attached to the collar. The other end of the leash was held in the hand of a person wearing a rabbit-head mask.

The man stood there, holding a rope in one hand and gripping a subway handrail in the other. The long ears of the rabbit mask on his head stood up, and the edge of his mouth split open, outlining two arcs to reveal two rows of blood-red teeth.

Behind the eye holes of the mask, a pair of eyes were slowly moving, as if surveying their territory. And the woman, who was being led like a dog, would occasionally stick out her tongue and lick the back of the man's hand.

Further away, a middle-aged woman took off her shoes and sat on a bench, propping up her dark right foot. She was vigorously scrubbing off layer after layer of white skin from her heel with a foot scrubber, and a small pile had already accumulated under her foot.

Not far from the older woman, a young white woman lay naked on the carriage floor, her neck and ankles covered in dark red liquid.

In some places, it had dried out and formed a hard, brown crust, while in others it was still damp. Under the subway lights, my whole body gleamed with a sticky sheen.

Ang Lee smelled the pervasive stench of blood in the air and could determine that the red color was animal blood, not paint.

Beside her stood a sign made of cardboard with a line of large characters written on it in black marker:

"Ban on eating animals—animals also have the right to live!"

The lettering was large, and the cardboard was covered with animal paw prints of all sizes—cats and dogs. The woman had her eyes closed, her ample chest rising and falling slowly; she was probably trying to use the role of a corpse to call for animal protection.

In the innermost corner of the carriage, there was another person.

One of the white men was sitting on a bench, holding a dog in his arms. If you looked closely, you would see that it was a taxidermied dog with its fur intact, two black glass beads embedded in its eye sockets, and its mouth slightly open, revealing pink gums and a few white teeth.

The man held the dog specimen tightly in his arms, pressing his forehead against the dog's forehead, muttering something in a very soft voice, which was difficult to understand, but sounded like a spell or a prayer.

The last one was far from everyone else and looked the most normal in the carriage, like a middle school student, a fair-skinned little boy with a schoolbag, playing a game on his phone.

Faced with this carriage full of extraordinary people, Ang Lee curled his lip in disdain, but he still turned his head and whispered to Old Bai behind him, "Follow me." Then he stepped into the carriage.

There was nothing he could do. Ang Lee glanced at the opposite carriage, which was also packed. This carriage was the only one that was relatively empty. He guessed that the people who had come in had been scared away to other carriages.

There was no other way but to bear with it for now. He really didn't want to squeeze onto the subway like before, especially not with those white people who had a strong body odor.

Ang Lee ignored everyone and walked to the corner at the other end of the carriage, where there was a row of empty seats.

He gathered the hem of his Taoist robe, let Lao Bai sit down by the window, and pulled out a cell phone from his sleeve—the same Apple phone that the bald black man had.

Ang Lee pulled something out of another small pocket inside his Taoist robe: a human thumb.

The bald black man's phone had a fingerprint lock. He tried it, but the password didn't work after several attempts. The only thing that could unlock it was the bald black man's thumb.

Ang Lee pinched his thumb and pressed it against the fingerprint sensor on the phone. The screen lit up briefly, and it unlocked.

He opened the navigation, typed "Manhattan Chinatown" into the search bar, and clicked to start viewing the search results.

Ang Lee swiped the screen, his gaze sweeping over the names and addresses of the shops. Chinatown had several long-established paper craft shops, reportedly importing yellow paper and cinnabar from China since the 1980s. One of them was called "Fudetang"...

The subway car was still swaying, and the lights in the tunnel outside the window swept past one after another, casting streaks of light and shadow on the window glass.

During his observation, people entered the carriage, but most were frightened away and fled to other carriages. Only a few chose to stay in the carriage.

Just as he was engrossed in looking for a store, the door at the junction of the carriages was pushed open.

Ang Lee first heard a woman's high-pitched, disgruntled complaint: "...I really can't stand it anymore, this carriage smells like everything, I almost stepped on someone's foot just now!"

Another male voice replied in a deep, reassuring tone, "Don't say anything more, let's walk forward a bit, there are fewer people up ahead."

"There aren't many people ahead? Are you sure?!" The woman's voice rose eight octaves.

Two people entered the carriage. The one in the lead was a disgruntled woman, wearing a beige mink coat, with long golden hair cascading over her shoulders, and carrying an expensive-looking black handbag.

She was very pretty, with exquisite makeup on her face, but at this moment her features were scrunched up because of all sorts of disgust.

She covered her nose, her eyes scanning the carriage, letting out an exaggerated exclamation every time she saw a remarkable person.

The man following behind her was a tall Black man wearing a dark leather jacket and a gray scarf around his neck.

He had regular features, gentle eyes, and a consistently calm and unhurried tone. He was carrying two shopping bags, looking like a "porter" accompanying his girlfriend shopping.

"Look, there are seats over there." The black boy pointed to the row of benches directly opposite Li An. Only one man holding a dog taxidermied dog was sitting at the far end of the row of benches, and the other seats were empty.

"Have we found a less crowded carriage now?"

The white girl looked in the direction he was pointing, her furrowed brows relaxed slightly, but she was still muttering:

"There's a strange person in a theatrical costume sitting opposite us, and next to them is a strange fellow wrapped in cloth. There's also a strange smell. Can you be sure they're normal?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Maybe they had their reasons for doing that," the Black man said softly, patting the back of her hand as he pushed his girlfriend toward the bench.

The white girl reluctantly sat down, put her bag on her lap, crossed her legs, and tapped the floor with the toe of her shoe in frustration.

The Black man sat down next to her, put his shopping bag at his feet, and casually put his arm around her shoulder.

"Relax, we're almost there in four stops."

"Four stops?" the white girl's voice rose again. "Four more stops? I don't think I can stand it for another second."

"You've already been to two stops..."

"That's because I didn't know these carriages were so disgusting!" she said in a low voice, but the carriage was quiet and her words could still be heard.

Ang Lee sat opposite him without looking up. He was engrossed in studying the detailed information about "Fudetang" on his phone screen, but he could also sense the gaze on the other side—the gaze of the white girl.

The girl's gaze kept sweeping back and forth between him and Lao Bai.

Ang Lee wasn't really interested in her. He swiped up and saved the address of "Fudetang" to his notes. He planned to eat first and then go check it out. If the quality of the yellow paper and cinnabar wasn't good, he'd go elsewhere.

Just as he was about to exit the browser, the white girl opposite him suddenly stood up.

Her movements were exaggerated, and her expression turned ugly, shifting from initial disdain to a mixture of anger and excitement. Her lips, painted with lip gloss, were pressed into a thin line, and her eyes were fixed on Li An's hand holding the phone.

"You're taking pictures of me without my permission!" she shouted.