America: A Prodigy of Stereotypes

"Good and bad are relative. If a person doesn't clean their teeth for several days, but drinks cola, the cola can help clean their mouth to some extent."

"So that's how it is."

"How's school?" Liqun asked Shuangxi with concern.

"It's alright, no one's giving me any trouble."

"Hey bro, do you want to see my report card?" Shuangxi turned around.

“I’ll be graduating high school in six months. If you’ve failed any courses, you’d better catch up now. Otherwise, you’ll be worried about not getting your diploma by now,” Li Qun said.

"Not yet," Shuangxi said.

After the episode ended, Shuangxi took the disc out of the player, switched the TV back to the channel, and started playing the nighttime news.

Shuangxi took a can of iced cola from the refrigerator and then sat down to watch the nighttime news with Liqun.

"Some people at school say that aliens appear in New York at night."

"What? What aliens?" Li Qun turned to look at Shuangxi.

“A pale-white alien will suddenly appear on someone’s balcony or rooftop. When it is seen, it will raise its hand and make a strange gesture to call for an alien spaceship, which will fly over and suck it into the sky and take it away.”

"That's really imaginative."

Li Qun turned to look at the television.

Li Qun thought to himself that Peter's nighttime activity was gradually attracting attention.

Is it dangerous to be mistaken for an alien?

There's also a group of alien fanatics in New York. If Peter gets noticed by them, he'll be cornered on the rooftop by them.

"Brother, do you think it's fake?" Shuangxi asked.

"It might be some kind of misunderstanding."

“Someone did something strange at night, and the witnesses didn’t see it clearly, so they filled in seemingly reasonable explanations in their minds,” Li Qun said.

"I think so too."

"It could be an albino animal that escaped from a laboratory."

"That sounds scarier than aliens," Shuangxi said, letting out a burp as the cola bubbled quite a bit.

"It's best to drink less before bed, even cola contains caffeine," Liqun said to Shuangxi.

“No wonder…” Shuangxi looked down at the cola in his hand.

"Don't you know how to read the ingredient list of Coca-Cola?" Li Qun asked.

“My mom gave me Coke when I was two years old, and I’ve always trusted it,” Shuangxi said.

Liqun looked at Shuangxi in disbelief and asked, "Are you serious?"

"It's true. Ask her later if you don't believe me."

Liqun and Shuangxi continued to sit on the sofa watching TV. After finishing their work in the kitchen, their uncle and aunt went upstairs. The aunt went to the refrigerator, took out a can of iced cola, and started drinking it.

"mom!"

"Are you hungry?" Auntie turned to look at Shuangxi.

"Did you start giving me Coke when I was two years old?" Shuangxi turned around, grabbed the sofa, and asked her aunt with her back to her.

“You were two and a half years old. When you saw me drinking Coke, you cried and begged for some, and you even lay on the ground rolling around. You wouldn’t get up unless I gave you some,” Auntie said.

“But I was only two and a half years old then, and I didn’t understand anything. Now everyone says that drinking cola often is bad for your health,” Shuangxi said.

"Go to sleep."

"Ok."

Shuangxi returned to his room with his Coke.

"I'm going to sleep too." Li Qun also got up from the sofa.

"Good night."

"Shall we go to the supermarket to buy some juice tomorrow?" the uncle asked, looking at his aunt.

"Why don't we buy some fruit and make our own juice? The juice drinks in the supermarket don't contain a single drop of natural fruit juice," my aunt complained.

"That's true."

Every time I go to the supermarket, I have to stand in front of the shelves and check the ingredient lists like I'm defusing a minefield, which takes several minutes. Some ingredients are listed with only the letters that make up the words, but I don't know what they mean, which makes me feel like there's an unknown horror lurking inside.

……

……

Li Qun pushed open the door and walked into the laundry shop. Rows of washing machines and dryers were working. The laundry shop was well-heated and the humidity was also very high.

Li Qun imagined what he would look like if he were still wearing glasses; his glasses would fog up the moment he walked in.

Mrs. Chen's laundry shop is located at the very edge of Chinatown, and residents from several neighborhoods, including African American, Mexican American, and Hispanic, come to do their laundry.

Several Black men sat on a bench, staring at the dryer, waiting for their clothes to dry.

If you don't have time to wait, you can hand your clothes to Mrs. Chen, who will give you a receipt. You can come back in a few days to pick up your cleaned clothes, but the fee will be a bit higher.

"Liqun, come and do the laundry."

"Hi, Aunt Chen. My clothes, I'll come pick them up in a couple of days."

Mrs. Chen stood behind the counter, and Li Qun placed the bag of clothes on the counter.

"it is good."

Mrs. Chen took out the clothes from the bag one by one to check them, made notes in her notebook, and finally put a label on the bag with a number on it.

"Dad hasn't opened the door these past few days, is something wrong?" Mrs. Chen asked Li Qun.

“My dad went on a Christmas trip, so the shop was closed,” Li Qun replied.

"I was worried because the door wasn't open, wondering if my father had gone to the hospital," Mrs. Chen said.

"Dad had a physical exam recently and is in good health."

"That's good, that's good."

Chapter 276 My Favorite Day is Foggy Days

"Hey Joe, how was your day?" Li Qun greeted him.

"It's alright," Qiao replied in English, her head slightly lowered.

Joe, Mrs. Chen's son, had a rather unique middle-part hairstyle that looked like two packets of instant noodles. He couldn't speak Mandarin, but he could understand it.

"Is Chinese New Year on February 10th this year?" Li Qun wanted to chat a little longer.

"The 10th is Lunar New Year's Eve, and the 11th is the first day of the Lunar New Year

"It's still early," Mrs. Chen said with a smile to Li Qun.

"The weather's been pretty strange lately," Li Qun said.

"It's pretty bad."

"The TV said that New York's rainfall is only 60% of the usual amount, and a drought warning may be issued."

"Does that mean the water price might go up? I haven't even seen the news." Mrs. Chen covered her forehead. When you sense the water price is going to go up, it always does.

"It would be great if we could make rain artificially," Li Qun said.

Qiao went behind the counter and quietly helped tidy up the things. When she heard Li Qun's words, she looked up and glanced at him.

“Artificial rain? I’ve never heard of that,” Mrs. Chen said to Li Qun.

"On a cloudy day, even though there are thick clouds in the sky, it just won't rain. At this time, if you fire two special shells into the sky, the water vapor in the clouds will condense into water droplets and form precipitation."

"Is this a good idea?" Joe asked.

"By forcibly bringing rain through artificial rainmaking and depleting the moisture in the sky, the weather will only become drier in the future."

"The water vapor cycle is a complete system, and the water in each part is not a fixed entity." Li Qun began to explain geographical knowledge to Qiao.

"Rain falls from the sky to the ground and seeps into the earth. The moisture in the earth evaporates back into the sky. When cold and warm air masses meet, the water vapor in the sky turns into rain or snow and falls to the ground. This cycle repeats itself."

Li Qun gestured with both hands, and Qiao nodded to Li Qun.

"Are you interested in the weather?" Li Qun asked.

“I like rainy days. When it rains, everyone stays indoors and doesn’t go anywhere,” Joe said.

“I have a friend who is just like you.”

I like foggy days.

"Everything was shrouded in mist, with tiny water droplets floating in the air, giving it a slightly damp feel. Cars on the road also turned on their fog lights and kept their speed very slow," Li Qun said.

"It's been foggy a lot these mornings," Joe said.

“Living by the sea or in the mountains, you often encounter foggy days,” Li Qun said.

"I have never been to a foggy mountain."

“There are usually wolves and bears in the mountains, and even resorts in the mountains cannot avoid this problem.”

"Have you been there?" Qiao Xiangli asked.

"I've been there."

"With whom?"

"Family members."

Mrs. Chen quietly tugged at Qiao's sleeve, reminding her son not to talk about family with Li Qun.

Joe realized that Li Qun's parents had both passed away.

Joe's father just passed away.

One early morning, while his family was having breakfast together, his father suddenly collapsed at the table and died very suddenly, without any warning.

"I'm sorry," Qiao said softly to Li Qun.