Being carried onto an ambulance at the start? But this is America!

After passing through two dilapidated blocks, the number of homeless people gradually decreased.

Li Fan suddenly stopped and lowered his voice: "Brother, I can't hold it in anymore, I need to relieve myself."

Li Ping understood and nodded.

Public restrooms in Los Angeles are scarce, so the streets and alleys are filled with a faint smell of urine.

Having fallen into homelessness, one should simply accept local customs and not be picky.

The two brothers would just find any alley to urinate, but when it came to defecating, they would go to a fast food restaurant or library to find a place to relieve themselves.

Li Ping stood alone by the roadside, with two bulging bags at his feet and a brand-new sleeping bag wrapped around his arm.

The heavy weight made his palms turn red.

Just then, a clanging and jingling sound came from afar.

Two Black men, one tall and one short, swayed along pushing a cart piled high with bottles and cans, their eyes scanning the surroundings like vultures searching for food.

Li Ping glanced at it; it was quite common. A thought flashed through his mind:

If only we had a stroller.

Cars are considered a valuable resource among the homeless.

The two men also saw him.

A single, thin Asian woman, with two bulging bags at her feet and a brand-new sleeping bag in her hand.

In the world of the homeless, this is practically like holding up a sign saying "I'm here to rob you."

"Bro, that yellow-skinned kid." The shorter man nudged his companion with his elbow.

"It's great to have new faces."

The tall man licked his lips. "Teach him the rules here."

The two naturally changed direction, and as they pushed the cart, it clattered and rattled in front of Li Ping before suddenly stopping, blocking his path from both ends.

The short man wearing a dirty Nike headscarf reached for the sleeping bag, spewing a foul stench from his mouth.

"Fuck you yellow-skinned monkey! Where did you steal this? This is our territory! Understand? Hand over what doesn't belong to you, or you'll be kneeling on the ground begging me soon!"

Li Ping frowned and took half a step back, his eyes turning cold.

He's only alone, does he look that easy to bully?

A closer look revealed that the two men were wearing loose vests and shorts, and were not concealing any weapons.

If there were a gun or a knife, he would definitely back down immediately.

It reeked of the sour smell of leaves, and its body was flabby; it was clearly just for show.

You can do it yourself.

On the street, once you show weakness, you're forever labeled as someone who can be bullied.

Li Ping slapped Hei Zi's dirty hand away. "Blackie, if you don't get your dirty hand off me, I'm going to punch you!"

The Black man's hands didn't stop; instead, he bent down to pull the sleeping bag.

"Yellow-skinned monkey, what are you saying? Dare to say it again?"

Without further ado, Li Ping suddenly exerted force with his waist and legs, and kicked the other man hard in the shoulder socket.

"Bang!"

The man rolled backward like a bag of garbage, and after two or three meters, he plunged headfirst into a filthy puddle in the corner of the wall, curled up and unable to get up for a while.

Li Ping was also stunned for a moment. How could that kick be so powerful?

Or is he just too bad?

"Fuck you, buddy! You want a fight? We're the Grey Heads."

The tall man, wearing a faded number 8 jersey, was both shocked and angry. He spoke fiercely, but his legs instinctively took a step back.

Fighting for a sleeping bag? Getting beaten up by an Asian? That's so shameful.

"fight?"

Li Ping threw down his sleeping bag, stretched his wrists, and moved closer to him. "Buddy, I was just playing around with him."

"Hey buddy, maybe we..."

The number 8 jersey wasn't finished speaking—

"You dare touch my brother!"

A thunderous roar erupted from the alley entrance.

Li Fan charged out like a runaway bison, his speed creating a gust of wind.

He didn't pull back at all, he lowered his shoulder and charged, his elbow slamming into the back of the number 8 jersey.

"Thump—click!"

The bones thudded against the wall.

The person was sent flying like a broken doll, crashing against the wall and bouncing to the ground, whereupon there was no further movement.

The short man, who had just struggled to his feet, was now fully awake.

He looked at Li Fan, who was over 1.9 meters tall and muscular, and then at Li Ping, whose eyes were cold, and his throat went dry.

"It's a misunderstanding... Bro, I was just joking..."

The short Black man flashed a wide grin, revealing a set of white teeth, and forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Are you kidding? Want to hear me sing 'Sunshine, Rainbow, and Little White Horse' for you?"

Li Ping ignored him, went up and kicked him, then pointed to the unconscious Lao Hei next to him.

He understood instantly, scrambled to his companion's side, and, trembling, slapped him twice.

"Wake up, let's go!"

Blackie No. 8 groggily regained consciousness, and the two of them, supporting each other's limp bodies, stumbled away, not even caring about the cart or the bag of bottles.

Li Ping squinted at the direction they disappeared in and whispered, "Hurry up."

He pulled Li Fan up, and didn't forget to take the trolley and two bags of jars with him.

The wheels creaked and groaned as they rolled over the potholes, disappearing into the street.

After passing through several more streets, we came across an open-air recycling station enclosed by wire mesh, with a rusty sign that read "Everything Recyclable".

Li Ping's eyes lit up, and he pushed the cart straight in.

Weighing, sorting, and calculating.

Aluminum cans are $1.73 per pound, and plastic bottles are $1.38 per pound.

The two large bags may look like a lot, but they are only worth twenty-five dollars.

But what surprised the two the most was that under the tattered canvas at the bottom of the cart, there was a bundle of carefully stripped copper wire.

It weighs a full fifteen pounds.

"Copper, today's price, is $4.25 per pound."

The recycling station owner, a middle-aged Latino man with a face covered in grease, glanced at the bundle of purplish-red metal and announced the numbers in a calm tone, but it was enough to excite the Li brothers.

After accounting for all the waste, the calculator finally showed a figure of $89.

"I'm rich..."

Li Ping took the few green banknotes that the shopkeeper had counted out of the greasy cash box.

Franklin's face looked especially friendly in the dim light of the recycling center.

Carefully smooth out the four twenty-dollar bills, fold them in half, and stuff them into your inner pocket.

There was also a handful of coins clinking together, which he handed over to Li Fan for safekeeping.

Using a rubber hose from the recycling station, the two carefully washed the cart inside and out, with the wastewater mixed with rust flowing into the ditch on the ground.

Then, they neatly stacked the sleeping bags, food, and other belongings they received into the dry truck bed.

A truly personal, cargo-carrying asset was born.

Pushing the creaking cart away from the recycling station, Li Fan clutched the heavy handful of coins and couldn't help but grin.

"Brother, we finally have money!"

Li Ping smiled too, but his smile carried a more grounded confidence.

"This is just the beginning. Once we've established ourselves and saved some money, we'll rent a big house."

He paused, then lowered his voice, "Of course, in this godforsaken place, you get a rifle, and I'll get an AK..."

"But that's all bragging. The right thing to do is to send you back to school if the opportunity arises."

Li Fan was listening intently to the grand vision for the future, but his smile froze at the last sentence: "Brother, what did you say about going to school?"

Li Ping patted his younger brother's sturdy arm. "You're still young, of course you have to go to school!"

Li Fan's face immediately fell, and he shook his head like a rattle drum.

"Brother, please spare me! I'm really not cut out for studying. If anyone should go to school, it's you. I'll carry bricks and sacks to support you, no problem at all!"

Making him sweat it out on a construction site is fine, but making him face a book is simply unbearable.

Seeing his younger brother's fierce look as if he were facing a tiger, Li Ping laughed: "We'll all go then. Have you heard of the 'happy education' here in America? It's more interesting than you think."

He said it half-jokingly, but his mind was already planning much further ahead.

With the untapped secret of seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune, coupled with his experience from two lifetimes and the information gap, he was confident he could make a name for himself.

If one could obtain a higher-level identity, such as one related to finance... would they be able to directly provide investment advice on how to avoid risks and seek good fortune?

I can live in America from now on. On this "free" land, I won't feel guilty no matter what I do...