America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 12 Old Friends in Los Angeles

"How was your day? It seems a bit short compared to yesterday."

Zhang Ailun glanced at Dominic's bag and noticed that it had shrunk considerably; it seemed to contain fewer cans than he had collected yesterday.

"Don't even mention it, buddy. I had some bad luck today. I went to my usual neighborhoods, but every single dumpster had already been searched. In the end, I just had to go back and forth between a few shelters and try my luck in the neighborhood. After half a day, I only managed to collect a little over two hundred cans, which earned me about $10."

Dominic sighed, looking quite helpless.

The competition seems to be getting fiercer lately, with many people starting to collect cans as a side job, which has significantly reduced his income.

Because it's already mid-month.

The subsidies and shopping vouchers will be issued for 16 consecutive days starting from the beginning of the month, after which they will no longer be issued.

The timing and rate of crimes in poor neighborhoods also follow certain patterns; everything in the world has its own rules.

The streets might be a little more peaceful for the first half of the month, because the homeless are generally doing quite well. They will squander the subsidies and shopping vouchers as soon as they receive them, living a life of debauchery. But the second half of the month is when the competition is the fiercest!

The competition has begun, and the fittest will be eliminated; another batch of people will soon be left behind.

Then another batch of new people will definitely be added.

Homeless people addicted to drugs on the streets generally only live for 3-5 years. Dominic had seen life and death many times during the two and a half years he had been on the streets.

The crematorium even prepared body bags on time and purchased a batch of fuel and energy. Even the stock indices of various energy companies were sporadically boosted by this.

Seeing Dominic's depressed state, Zhang Ailun realized that he might go back to his old ways in a couple of days!

Not wanting to see the other person turn to crime, Zhang Ailun immediately said, "Don't worry about not making money, Dominic. Since you can't find many cans in other neighborhoods, you might as well not go too far. You can narrow down your scavenging route and only collect cans on Wapson Street, since that's our territory. What's mine is yours."

Other areas and affluent neighborhoods are mostly occupied, leaving Dominic vulnerable and making him susceptible to violent clashes.

The other party wasn't as good a fighter as him to ensure their own safety. They were fair-skinned and delicate, and even if they ran themselves ragged in an ordinary neighborhood, they wouldn't earn much money in a day.

Homeless people can't afford guns, otherwise they wouldn't be in such a miserable state. Those who can afford guns are basically from street gangs.

"Isn't that your territory? Buddy, I can't steal your stuff."

Dominic was somewhat surprised and tempted, but quickly shook his head and refused, as he subconsciously had no intention of taking advantage of his own people.

"Don't be so polite with me, buddy. You're the first friend I made on the West Coast. Without your shelter, I'd still be sleeping on the streets! You can go ahead and collect cans there without worry. Nobody will compete with you. If anyone dares to bully you, just come back and tell me."

Zhang Ailun clenched his fist and said confidently, "I'll break their spines, rendering them unable to take care of themselves! I'll show them why flowers are so red!"

If you have a strong enough fist and a bad temper, you'll be ready to fight someone and beat them half to death at the slightest provocation.

You'll actually have a good time on the streets; other homeless people will be very friendly to you!

There is absolutely no racial discrimination.

"Alright, thanks for your generosity, Allen. I'll be counting on you from now on! Dude, those muscles you've built really well!"

Dominic Kaw readily accepted, and even took the opportunity to express his envy of Zhang Ailun's physique.

"I'll share with you all the money I make from collecting cans on that street."

Dominic has made the most money collecting cans so far, on the two relatively bustling streets of Sanji's Bar and the strip club.

Other high-income sources, besides zero-yuan purchases, mainly rely on scavenging good items from trash cans in wealthy areas and commercial plazas and reselling them. However, hunting in high-level resource areas is not only highly competitive and risky, but the income is also not stable.

In rainy, windy, or extremely hot weather, it's impossible to go out and hunt normally.

"Then you'd better work harder, buddy. I'm counting on you to give me a few hundred dollars in bonuses every week! Hahahaha."

When Zhang Ailun heard that there was still money to be made, he immediately became enthusiastic, wishing he could conquer two more streets and declare that all 50,000 streets of Los Angeles were his territory.

Become the king of jars.

"Dominic, don't we still have little Lori here? Lori Louis XIX is named after him, why didn't he help you teach Ethan and his gang a lesson?"

Zhang Ailun was puzzled by this. He had heard from other scavengers that Dominic had been bullied outside and that his territory had been encroached upon. He was a little confused. Why didn't this old black man do anything about it?

Didn't we agree to help each other?

Perhaps it's because no membership fee was collected? The other party has no obligation to cause trouble for themselves.

Dominic shrugged. "Little Lori basically doesn't care about this kind of thing. He's either smoking marijuana or on his way to smoke marijuana every day. He only worries about whether outsiders break into our place. Street fights have nothing to do with him. When you're out in the game, you have to be responsible for your own words and actions. You can't rely on other people at all."

"But Little Lori would always go to other people's turf to clean windows and beg, and those people didn't dare to say anything. But it's different with us."

Ultimately, isn't this just bullying the weak and fearing the strong, and whoever has the bigger fist is right?

Two homeless men fight tooth and nail over a bottle; you might think they're being petty.

When two gangs fight tooth and nail over a single street, you get the impression that they're only interested in profit and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Two countries are fighting tooth and nail over an oil field; everyone just hopes for peace to come soon.

The underlying logic is no different.

As long as humans have breath, they will never stop fighting.

No matter where you are, the rules remain the same, and the competition at the bottom is even more intense, brutal, and bloody.

Zhang Ailun didn't want to continue discussing this matter, so he went to ask Dominic about his identification documents.

"I got my fake ID from an Asian vendor who sometimes goes out on the street and sells it to passersby. He can get a green card and a passport for $200-$800, but if you can provide the sample information you want, you can print it for as little as $50 for materials, but he doesn't guarantee its authenticity or quality."

"You'll need to pay a huge extra fee to make it real! Those people have ways to get your identity data into the immigration system and issue you a stamped, legal identity certificate."

Once you have legal identification, own assets locally, and have tax payment records with the tax bureau, documents and such become largely unimportant.

Regardless of who you were before or whether you entered the country illegally, you are now considered a legal citizen.

Because you paid taxes.

The more taxes you pay, the better citizen you are.

Have you ever seen a criminal travel thousands of miles just to pay taxes in the United States?

Please, we need more people like this, the more the better! We Americans welcome philanthropists like this; wouldn't it be better to fatten them up and then harvest their wealth?

A good taxpayer is one who has something to hide; foreigners who betray their country without any evidence are just potential threats.

When nothing happens, it's fine, but when something changes, the first to be affected are these wealthy immigrants.

Dominic said, "But I don't know exactly when he'll show up. You know, people in this line of work are all very secretive, and they all have their own secret bases. Their headquarters might be in an abandoned factory in the suburbs, or it might be in the city, or even in the home of an immigration officer!"

Zhang Ailun expressed his understanding of this.

He can't just show up at the California immigration office with a fake document card and ask if they take on freelance work or make documents, can he?

That's so impolite.

People still have some sense of shame.

The threshold for bypassing intermediaries and reaching those people is certainly very high, or even completely impossible.

Everyone knows the Ganges River is dirty, but you can't prove just how dirty it is unless you've drunk from it or soaked in it.

"I've already obtained my identity online and passed the facial recognition verification on social media. If I had a printer, I might be able to make one myself, but to be on the safe side, I have to go through those immigration officers... fake document dealers!"

Zhang Ailun also took out his phone to show the other party the two files he had downloaded.

"Hamburg Juan King?" Dominic asked, somewhat surprised.

"Since they're all using fake identities, buddy, who would actually use their real name?"

Zhang Ailun chuckled. "I'm not that stupid. Aside from eye color and photos, which can't be changed, even height and weight can be fabricated at will. But it wouldn't be too far off."

"You're right, no one would be stupid enough to put their real information on a fake document. My Texas driver's license was also registered under a different name and with forged information; it was called Franklin." Dominic nodded.

He added, "I'm sorry, Allen, I probably can't help you with this for now. But don't be discouraged, I'll ask around among the other people on the street another day; maybe they'll have some information on this."

"It's alright, I'm not in a hurry to use this identity." Zhang Ailun waved his hand.

Even if Dominic gained nothing, he wasn't worried.

With daily intelligence reports at your fingertips, you might find the information you need someday.

There are plenty of talented people on the street; it just depends on whether you can find them and whether they are willing to help you.

"If you use the image of a US dollar bill, those police officers will definitely give you face."

Zhang Ailun laughed and said, "You remind me of an old friend from Los Angeles, he was a black man."

"That's right, it's my freedom too."

Dominic chuckled, then asked in surprise, "You have a Black friend? His name is also Franklin?"

"That's right, he also robbed the Federal Reserve Bank, worked for the CIA, stole nuclear weapons, and finally retired as a billionaire."

Dominic: "..."

(End of this chapter)