America: A Prodigy of Stereotypes

On the green phone screen, the pixel triangle moved up and down repeatedly.

The old man glanced at Liqun, assuming Liqun was playing the Snake game on his phone.

"Liqun, help Dad clean up this pile of stuff."

"it is good."

The old man was directing Liqun from the side, and Liqun moved the piled-up old things one by one to an empty space.

“Johnny must have pawned his things to me, so he remembers me, but I don’t remember him,” the old man said.

"Dad, when do you think 'Johnny' came to the store to pawn something?" Li Qun asked.

“He looks to be under forty, and it won’t be long.”

“Dad…” Li Qun hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

"what happened?"

“This pile of things doesn’t look like it’s from forty years ago, it looks like it’s from sixty years ago,” Li Qun said, reminding his father of the time period.

"He was standing outside the shop looking at something here," the old man said, puzzled.

"Open this box and let me see it."

A locked wooden box, the key to which could no longer be found, was opened by Li Qun using his golden cudgel. Inside were mostly worthless items, the most valuable of which was a mechanical pocket watch, which was probably all of Steve's possessions back then.

The pocket watch had a name on it: Steve Rogers.

“His name is Steve Rogers. Dad, do you know that name?” Li Qun looked at his father, who frowned.

The old man began searching through his distant memories, his memories of World War II.

"Is this even possible?" the old man murmured.

More than sixty years ago, he did see a thin, short young man who looked like Johnny. He recalled the day the suitcase and its contents were pawned. The young man seemed to have made a great decision when he pawned the items, and he generously gave the young man extra money.

But if someone told him that the thin, short young man from over sixty years ago was the tall, strong amnesiac patient Johnny he met today, Dad wouldn't believe it.

"Dad, can I help him redeem this box?" Li Qun asked.

"How much money do you have on you right now?" the old man asked.

Li Qun reached into his pocket and pulled out five dollars.

"Give me."

"Here, take this box."

The old man turned and walked away.

"Restore everything else to its original state."

"Okay, Dad."

Li Qun put Steve's wooden crate aside and rearranged the other pawned items as before.

After finishing his work, Li Qun took out his phone and called Peter.

"Hi, this is Peter."

“Peter, do you have time? I found something from Steve Rogers.”

"What? Where did you find it?" Peter's voice on the phone was very excited.

"It's in Dad's shop."

"Oh my god! I'm coming right away, just wait for me."

Peter hung up the phone with Li Qun, and the old man looked at Li Qun in confusion.

Is Steve Rogers some kind of big shot? Why do Li Qun and Peter know about him, but he doesn't?

The old man wanted to know, but he didn't ask Liqun directly.

Forty minutes later, Peter arrived on his bicycle, covered in sweat.

After moving the bicycle into Old Man's shop, Li Qun and Peter took Steve's suitcase upstairs to the second floor.

“Peter, what I actually wanted to tell you is that I’ve found Steve Rogers.”

As Peter bent down to watch Li Qun carefully open Steve's wooden crate, Li Qun whispered to Peter.

"What? What did you just say?" Peter was stunned.

“Steve Rogers, Uncle Ben’s idol, he hasn’t left this world, he’s living right here among us,” Li Qun said earnestly to Peter.

"what!"

Peter's eyes widened, feeling that Li Qun was joking with him.

"He lost his memories and became a homeless man."

"If it weren't for New York's recent efforts to address homelessness, he might still be sleeping on the streets of New York."

"Captain Steve wasn't sent to the internment camp, was he?" Peter asked Li Qun anxiously.

“My dad and I just got back from the shelter. Captain Steve doesn’t know his own name, so we gave him a temporary one, Johnny,” Li Qun said.

“We have to tell Uncle Ben,” Peter said.

"Liqun, why did you and Dad send Captain Steve to the containment facility?"

“I tried to get my dad to take Captain Steve in, but he refused. I then suggested that my uncle give Captain Steve a job, but my dad still refused.”

“Dad doesn’t want any trouble, so it’s up to you now, Peter,” Li Qun said.

“Liqun, look at this. This is almost the same person as Captain Steve in the photos Uncle Ben collected.”

Peter found a photograph in the box; it showed a thin Steve Rogers.

Li Qun only discovered the name, but the photo Peter found further proved Captain Steve's identity.

It's quite unexpected that Dad had crossed paths with Captain Steve sixty years ago.

Captain Steve left the photo, possibly to prove that he was once the owner of the box and that he still wanted to redeem it.

"The changes in his facial features are not very obvious," Li Qun commented.

"Is Uncle Ben busy lately?" Li Qun asked Peter, looking up at him.

“That would be too busy,” Peter replied.

"Uncle Ben hasn't been home for several days; he's practically been sleeping at the newspaper office."

“Should we tell Gwen?” Peter asked.

“I’ll call Gwen right now.”

Li Qun took out his phone, and Gwen answered it quickly.

"What is it?" Gwen asked.

“A momentous event has occurred, and the entire world will be changed by what Peter and I discovered today,” Li Qun said earnestly.

"You and Peter are going to win the Nobel Prize?" Gwen's tone became exaggerated.

"I can't explain the specifics, Gwen. Let's meet at Peter's house."

“OK, you’d better really have something important to say.” Gwen hung up the phone.

"Dad, I'm going to Peter's house!" Li Qun and Peter left Dad's pawnshop.

Peter put Captain Steve's box on the bicycle, and Peter pedaled the bicycle while Li Qun ran on his own two legs on the sidewalk.

Peter was stunned by Li Qun's running speed.

……

Half an hour later, Peter and Li Qun arrived at their destination, covered in sweat, while Gwen was sitting on the stairs in front of Parker's house, playing on her phone.

"Gwen, how did you get here so fast?" Peter asked breathlessly.

“I’ll take a taxi,” Gwen replied casually.

"Tell me, what's the matter?"

Li Qun took the box down, Peter pushed the bicycle into the garage and parked it, and the three of them went inside, went up the stairs and went into Peter's room.

Both Li Qun and Peter looked serious, which made Gwen unconsciously become serious as well.

The three of them sat cross-legged on the carpet in the room, with the box in the middle. Gwen watched warily as Li Qun opened the box.

She was afraid it was a prank box and that a clown would pop out of this "weird" wooden box.

“Steve Rogers, this is his old trunk. He pawned all his belongings to Dad more than sixty years ago,” Li Qun said.

"This box summoned Captain Steve to Dad's shop, and unfortunately, Captain Steve lost his memories and became a homeless man."

Li Qun explained to Gwen.

“Look, these are photos.” Peter carefully showed Gwen the original photos of Steve in the box.

"Wait a moment..."

Peter pulled out the cardboard box from under his bed where Uncle Ben kept Captain Steve's belongings. Peter had forgotten to put the box back after he moved it down from the attic last time.

Open Uncle Ben's box; inside are photos of Captain Steve after his modifications, but the photos Uncle Ben collected aren't very clear.

"Are these two people the same person?" Gwen carefully compared the photos.

“It would be better to meet the real person,” Gwen said.

"If he really is Captain Steve, the superhero described in Uncle Ben's notebook who can fight Nazi bio-engineered humans, he won't be anything ordinary."

“Hey, Gwen, I just remembered, didn’t Uncle George say that the crime rate in New York has been declining in recent years? Maybe it’s because Captain Steve, now a homeless man, is quietly fighting crime in New York,” Li Qun said.

"How did you come to that connection?" Gwen asked.

"The time with the used car, which was the same day Uncle George taught us not to meddle in other people's business, we all saw a homeless man knock out a Mexican."

“There were actually a lot of details in the alley that day. I don’t know if you noticed them, but Uncle George and I did.”

"Liqun, hurry up and get to the point," Gwen urged.

"The Mexican man who was knocked unconscious had a gun and a knife. But his pistol was disassembled into parts and scattered on the ground, and the knife was also lying next to a pile of garbage."

“An ordinary homeless person could not do this.”