American homeless people, surviving in the city

Before setting off, Lin Qi rummaged through the car and took out his backpack, then checked the dashboard of the wrecked vehicle.

The pointer on the oil gauge dial trembled as it pointed to about a quarter of the way down.

Of course, he didn't plan to drive to where the relief food truck was located—it wasn't far from the small campsite in the greenbelt, and walking there would be a good opportunity to stretch his muscles.

It was just a convenient opportunity to check yesterday's fuel consumption.

But looking at it again, yesterday's fuel consumption didn't seem right. This old car either has an oil leak or something is stuck in the fuel tank. Otherwise, it's impossible that just a trip to the suburbs would use up three-quarters of the tank of gas.

...well.

Lin Qi sighed inwardly. Even with all these problems, he had no choice but to put up with it!

What can you do when this beat-up car is the most valuable part of his current assets and his only means of transportation?

...The little money I have left should be enough to fill up the car with gas, but I need to drive it to Maple Valley tonight. I don't know if a tank of gas will be enough.

While pondering what details he needed to pay attention to during today's itinerary, Lynch walked towards the relief food truck.

Unexpectedly, after leaving the green belt area and stepping onto Third Avenue, he saw two familiar figures standing not far away.

One fat and one thin, one tall and one short, were DeShawn and Martin, two petty thugs.

When Lin Qi saw them, the two people opposite him also saw Lin Qi and hurriedly staggered towards him.

As the two approached, Lynch gradually realized that they looked much more disheveled than when they last met. DeShawn's arm, which Lynch had stabbed, was bandaged and hung limply at his chest, while Martin had a bruise around his left eye—but Lynch had no recollection of hitting him in the eye, so he guessed the guy had been beaten up somewhere else.

Despite their miserable state, the two of them held a woven bag respectfully, as if it were some precious treasure.

As the one who started this whole mess, Lin Qi was still somewhat wary when he saw the two of them walking towards him.

But soon he realized that the [Rat's Sense] had not returned any sense of danger, so he calmly stopped and stood by the roadside to wait.

Soon, DeShawn and Martin stepped forward and stood in front of Lynch.

"...Boss Lin Qi."

Martin's face was plastered with a smile, revealing his uneven teeth, and he wore a fawning expression; DeShawn's expression, on the other hand, was unpredictable, unable to muster any smile, but instead filled with fear, resentment, and anger.

Martin quickly shoved him from behind, and DeShawn managed to regain his composure and speak shakily:

"...Boss Lin Qi, we've returned your things to you."

"...My things?"

Lin Qi was stunned, and for a moment he didn't realize what DeShawn was talking about.

Martin's expression changed drastically; he thought Lin Qi was being sarcastic and hurriedly began to explain:

"...Boss, this is something we 'borrowed' from you a few days ago... uh,."

After saying this, Martin, fully aware that what he had done was immoral, quickly added:

"Ah, of course, we were blind to your worth and took advantage of your inattention to borrow this package... But yesterday! After yesterday, we realized our mistake and thought we should return it to you as soon as possible..."

As Martin urged him on, DeShawn placed the woven bag between the three of them. Martin quickly opened the bag and showed Lynch the neatly folded clothes inside.

"Boss, everything's here. We swear we haven't touched anything inside!"

"Yes, yes," DeShawn couldn't help but chime in, "I did a quick look through it and found it was mostly old clothes and stuff, so I just left it there untouched..."

"Ragged clothes?" Lin Qi glanced at the fat, dark-skinned man with a half-smile, which startled DeShawn into quickly shutting his mouth.

Martin kicked DeShawn back: "What do you mean 'tattered clothes'? Those are the boss's best stuff!"

Then, he turned to Lynch: "Boss Lynch, DeSean isn't much of a talker, but what he said, though rough, makes sense. We really didn't touch anything inside! We even folded up the clothes that were messed up!"

Lin Qi took the woven bag, weighed it in his hand, and felt that it was quite heavy.

To be honest, the robbery happened almost immediately after he transmigrated into this body. At the time, Lin Qi was so caught up in the sudden transmigration that he thought everything he had experienced was a dream. He had no sense of reality about being robbed and had almost forgotten about it.

He didn't even know what was in that woven bag!

But since the two had voluntarily returned the woven bag, Lin Qi naturally accepted it with a smile. He looked up at them and said, "You two were waiting for me here so early in the morning just for this?"

"We've discovered we took something we shouldn't have, so naturally we have to return it to you as soon as possible, boss," Martin said with a smile, nodding and bowing.

DeShawn muttered from the side, "...Who knows if you'll hold a grudge...Here's your stuff back, and we'll keep to ourselves from now on!"

Lin Qi could tell that this fat, dark-skinned man was straightforward and would say whatever was on his mind.

He really didn't want to deal with these two low-class street thugs anymore, but seeing how foul-mouthed DeShawn was, he couldn't help but tease him a little more.

Lin Qi frowned and sneered, "Heh, you think you can get away with this by returning what rightfully belongs to me?"

DeShawn was taken aback by these words and couldn't help but glare at Lynch, but he didn't dare to make any further moves, only muttering under his breath, "Then... what do you want!"

Seeing that DeShawn was being sarcastic again, Martin, fearing he would further displease Lynch, sighed with exasperation. Then, gritting his teeth, he pulled a small bag from his waist:

"Of course we wouldn't dare. Um... I have a hundred dollars here, Boss Lynch, consider it compensation for the hardships you endured. Is that alright?"

...Oh my, I didn't expect that just bluffing these two guys would yield such an unexpected result? Lin Qi raised an eyebrow.

However, he was naturally happy to accept money that was offered to him like this; at least he would have money for gas and food today.

Lynch snatched the hundred dollars Martin handed him and clutched it in his hand.

Then, looking at the fear in the eyes of those two guys, I just felt a little ridiculous.

In front of ordinary homeless people, these two were arrogant street bullies; but after being beaten up, they cowered like maggots in front of him, showing no backbone whatsoever.

Dealing with this kind of person is really boring.

Lin Qi sighed and waved his hand:

"Alright, that's settled then. I don't hold grudges. You can leave now, but don't show your face in front of me again."

"Yes, yes! Boss, we definitely will!"

Upon receiving Lynch's promise, DeShawn and Martin breathed a sigh of relief as if they had received a pardon, and then scrambled away.

Lin Qi watched their figures disappear around the street corner, shook his head, and then returned to the small camp with the woven bag.

Since we unexpectedly retrieved the woven bag, it's safest to put it back in the car first.

Back at the camp, Lin Qi took the woven bag into the tent, and then, with a sense of anticipation like opening a blind box, opened the woven bag.

Although he estimated that the bag would only contain some daily necessities that the original owner of this body used when he was a wanderer, and nothing of value, Lin Qi was still very curious.

Because from these things, they might be able to find out the identity of the body they transmigrated into!

If this body weren't an illegal immigrant, but a legally registered American, his life might be much better from now on!

With a hint of anticipation, Lin Qi began rummaging through the woven bag.

Just as the duo of thugs said, most of the things in the bag were tattered clothes that smelled of sourness.

But soon, Lin Qi touched something noteworthy; it felt hard, like a small brick.

He pulled the object out of the woven bag.

It turned out to be an old Nokia keypad phone.