American homeless people, surviving in the city

This was the first rain Lin Qi encountered after his time travel.

The sky, now completely dark, was filled with gloomy clouds; not only was the sun nowhere to be seen, but even the moon was nowhere to be seen.

There was no lightning or thunder, no gale; dense raindrops gathered into a curtain of rain and fell silently, bringing a chill that went deep into the bones.

Lin Qi frowned slightly.

Damn it, why did it have to rain at this time of year!

Before the time travel, a light rain wouldn't have affected Lin Qi's life at all.

You can walk with an umbrella, ride a bike with a raincoat, or simply call a ride-hailing service.

If all else fails, just get through the rain, finish what you're doing, and then take a hot shower when you get home.

But for Lynch, who is currently homeless, this rain really brought significant obstacles!

Because he hadn't noticed the cold rain coming, Lynch didn't bring an umbrella or raincoat with him.

For ordinary homeless people, once their clothes get wet in the rain, they are often in danger.

Because they are homeless, the homeless often find it difficult to dry themselves quickly in the almost open-air camp.

Seattle in late autumn and early winter often has temperatures of only 6 to 10 degrees Celsius, and nighttime temperatures are often even lower.

In this situation, wearing wet clothes for an extended period can cause rapid hypothermia. Even if you return to camp immediately and dry your clothes, you are still very likely to catch a cold due to the rapid change in body temperature.

To make matters worse, it's well known that medicine is very difficult to buy on the streets of America...

The homeless can only rely on their physical strength; once they can no longer withstand it, all that awaits them is a cold death.

Lynch is now facing this very predicament.

Of course, with his young and strong physique, plus the system by his side, he was not going to be "killed" by a mere cold rain.

However, if one catches a cold or gets sick as a result, it will greatly affect future plans.

What should we do now...?

Should we wait and see if the rain stops anytime soon? Or should we go back and get another trash bag to use as a raincoat?

Lin Qi pondered to himself.

Just as he was pondering, a hoarse male voice suddenly reached his ears:

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Lynch?"

who is it?

Lin Qi suddenly snapped out of his reverie and realized that there were two other burly men in suits and sunglasses, with shoulders as wide as double-door refrigerators, standing with him in the hallway on the first floor of the apartment building.

He was just thinking about how to solve the problems caused by the rain, so he didn't notice it for a moment.

Lin Qi sensed no hostility from the two men, so even though the unfamiliar burly man called him by name, he wasn't too flustered.

She simply nodded calmly: "Yes, that's me. Is there something you need?"

The burly man, as imposing as an iron tower, nodded silently: "Yes, please wait here for a moment, Miss will be here shortly."

"Hmm?" Lin Qi thought for a moment and immediately understood who the "Miss" was, so he nodded silently.

The three stood silently in the dimly lit hallway. A few dozen seconds later, the elevator beside them started running again.

When the elevator doors opened again, Sylvia's beautiful figure appeared in the elevator's light.

She was carrying something in her arms when she rushed out of the elevator. She spotted Lin Qi immediately, slowed down, and stood in front of him.

"You left too quickly! If Spike and the others hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have known you had finished your work and were ready to leave..."

Spike is probably the name of one of the two iron towers next to it.

But why did this girl chase after me again? Is she going to ask me where I found out about all this shady stuff again...?

Sensing that new trouble was about to arise, Lin Qi silently took two steps back, carefully choosing his words before slowly speaking:

"...My work is finished, so I'm preparing to leave and won't bother you any further..."

"No, how could you call it a bother!" Sylvia quickly retorted, "You helped me, and I'd like to thank you properly!"

But she seemed to realize the obvious distance in Lin Qi's tone, so she stopped talking about it and just looked towards the end of the corridor:

"It's raining outside..."

"Ah, yes." Lin Qi followed her gaze and looked outside; he was also wondering how to deal with the rain.

Seeing that Lin Qi didn't shy away from the topic, Sylvia's lips curled into a slight smile, but her tone remained calm:

"However, it seems that you, Mr. Lynch, do not have any suitable rain gear on hand right now?"

"Yes, I forgot to bring it when I went out." Not wanting to reveal his homeless identity, Lin Qi secretly told a harmless lie.

Seeing that Lynch's answer was exactly as expected, Sylvia revealed her true intentions, slowly extending her hands and handing something to Lynch:

"In that case, please use my umbrella."

It was only then that Lin Qi noticed that the thing Sylvia had been holding in her arms ever since she stepped out of the elevator was actually an umbrella!

"You... just happened to come down with an umbrella?"

He looked at Sylvia with some surprise.

Sylvia's expression remained unchanged, her eyes filled with a smile:

"Isn't it 'just right'...?"

"In any case, I wanted to thank you anyway. Since you happen to be without rain gear, please feel free to use my umbrella!"

"Is this...is this appropriate?" Lin Qi subconsciously declined, following the habit of people from Dongda University.

However, Sylvia didn't understand this kind of etiquette from the Far East and thought that Lynch really didn't want to accept it, so she quickly added:

"What's inappropriate about it! After all, it's just an umbrella, not something valuable."

"I live right here, so I just need to wait for the rain to stop. If this umbrella can help you in an emergency, then it will have truly served its purpose!"

"Is...is that so? In that case, I'll accept it."

Lynch took the umbrella from Sylvia. It was a black, long-handled umbrella with a wide canopy and thick ribs. It felt heavy in his hand and was clearly a finely crafted umbrella.

He looked at Sylvia and said, "Thank you. I'll return the umbrella as soon as the rain stops."

"There's no need for that... I don't usually stay here."

Sylvia blinked. "There's no need to come all this way to return it. Just give it back to me when we unexpectedly run into each other again!"

"...Since that's the case, we'll have to accept it. Thank you for the umbrella."

After thanking him again, Lin Qi took Sylvia's umbrella and several bags of trash and walked towards the stairwell. Standing in front of the eaves in the drizzling rain, he opened the umbrella.

In an instant, the pitch-black umbrella suddenly opened, blocking half of the gloomy sky.

"...Bye now."

After waving goodbye to Sylvia, Lynch carried the trash into the Seattle night.

There was no time to chat; he was in a hurry to throw away his trash in the designated area and then rush back to the camp to rest!

Behind him, Sylvia stood at the entrance of the building, watching Lynch gradually disappear into the distance.

Leaving aside trivial matters like throwing away trash and taking the subway, an hour later, after a long and arduous journey, Lin Qi, whose back ached, finally saw the scattered lights in the green belt campsite again.

I'm finally home!

Just a few days ago, Lin Qi would never have imagined that he would so quickly make this small tent in the green belt his home.

But now that he's off work, he really wants to get back to his little tent as soon as possible and get some rest.

However, as Lynch approached, he was somewhat surprised to find that the greenbelt campsite seemed much more lively than usual tonight!

Before he could figure out what was going on, a person wearing a light yellow raincoat suddenly rushed up to him.

Lifting the brim of the raincoat, I saw that this guy, who was still full of energy at night, was indeed Raul.

Even in the drizzling cold rain, his tone remained cheerful:

"Lin Qi! You're back! What were you doing today, making you so late!"

"Ah, never mind anything else, we have something big to do tonight!"

He grabbed Lynch's hand and pulled him towards the camp, shouting as they ran:

"We have new recruits joining our camp tonight!"