The relief center was a dilapidated two-story house with the words "Volunteer Emergency Social Service" written on it. There was a long queue at the door.
Cheng Hao pulled the black man and stood at the back of the line, then asked, "How do we get food here?" He knew of such a place from Cheng Jinhao's memory, but Cheng Jinhao had never received food at a relief center, so he didn't know the procedure.
The black man glanced at Cheng Hao and said, "After you go in, fill out a form and you can get the food."
"What do I need to fill in the form?" Cheng Hao asked again.
"Social Security number, place of residence, etc." The black man said, "If you have received food here before, it won't be so troublesome."
Cheng Hao: “…”
Cheng Jinhao was still smart. When he ran away from home, he had a fight with the couple he was staying with and took his passport with him.
But he had no Social Security number, no proof of utility bills, no many things.
There are no ID cards in the United States. People usually use passports, driver's licenses, and social security numbers to prove their identity. In this era, social security numbers are not popular among children, and many minors do not have this number... Should a passport be fine?
No matter whether it works or not, you have to try it.
Cheng Hao thought about this and looked at the black man again: "Do you know of any place where I can do boxing? An informal place where I can make money?"
Cheng Hao had been thinking about how to make money last night. After much thought, he realized that the only thing he could do was boxing.
He cannot participate in formal boxing matches for the time being. After all, he has no connections and this body has not been trained, so it is difficult for him to win. But he can participate in some informal competitions, commonly known as black boxing.
As a boxer who has won the lightweight world championship, he knows the experiences of many famous boxers in the world, and some famous boxers of this era have experience in underground boxing.
Of course, real underground boxing is not as dangerous as described in some novels, and underground boxing players are not as powerful as described in some novels. In fact, after the emergence of formal boxing matches, the real strong ones generally do not play underground boxing, but run to compete for the boxing championship.
Fighting underground boxing is dangerous and hard, and the money earned is not much. How can it be as exciting as participating in formal competitions and being admired?
So generally speaking, the strength of black boxing fighters is not as good as that of regular boxers.
The venues for illegal boxing are basically places like bars. In his current situation, he can find a small illegal boxing venue to fight a few matches, train at the same time, and restore his fighting ability.
Of course, the most important thing is to make money to eat.
The black man was stunned: "You want to fight?"
"I'm a boxer." Cheng Hao said.
"Oh my God! So you are a boxer! No wonder you are so powerful!" The black man made exaggerated expressions and movements, and his eyes when looking at Cheng Hao completely changed.
If he had the intention to play tricks in front of Cheng Hao before and was thinking about escaping, he clearly no longer had the courage to do so.
"So do you know such a place?" Cheng Hao asked.
"I know!" the man said, "In our neighborhood, there are boxing matches every night in Old George's bar! But they don't let me in, so I've never seen them fight."
"Take me there to have a look later." Cheng Hao said.
The black man immediately agreed, looking very happy, and said, "I've seen boxing matches on TV. Those guys are really amazing... Can I become a boxer?"
This guy is thin, has no muscles, and is timid. He doesn't have the qualities to be a boxer at all. Not to mention his bad character. He even bullied Lin Yuxun last night...
Cheng Hao was about to hit him, but after thinking for a moment, he asked, "How old are you?"
"Fourteen years old!" the man said.
Cheng Hao said: "If you work hard from now on, maybe you can succeed." He was just a minor, so he shouldn't discourage him.
The black man suddenly became happy.
The line at the relief center was very long, with people in front of them one by one, and the speed at which they received relief was very slow.
Cheng Hao waited in line for two hours but it was still not his turn. However, he learned more from the black man.
The black man's name is Chester. He doesn't know who his father is and has always lived with his mother.
His mother became pregnant when she was in middle school, and has given birth to eight children so far. Her low education and constant childbearing have made it difficult for her to find a job, so the family has been relying on subsistence allowances and relief to survive.
As for why he bullied Lin Yuxun... Cheng Hao got some information from him indirectly and guessed the general idea.
In this community, Lin Yuxun is the only yellow person. He has a mute brother but no parents. Naturally, he becomes the lowest class in society and can be bullied by anyone.
The Chester in front of him was actually also a target of bullying in the slums, but his situation was better than Lin Yuxun's. After being bullied by others, he ran to bully Lin Yuxun to find balance.
In addition, Lin Yuxun was bullied because he was incompatible with the people here.
According to Chester, Lin Yuxun is the best student in the school.
When no one else was studying, Lin Yuxun became an outlier because of his good grades, not to mention that he was also very introverted and had no friends.
According to Chester, Lin Yuxun is like "Fu Manchu", and he is a bad guy at first glance.
Fu Manchu is a Chinese villain in Western novels and movies. He has a sinister face and is dressed as a Qing Dynasty official. He is very smart but evil and is determined to destroy the world... In the past hundred years, there have been many movies with him, such as "Doctor Who Fu Manchu" and "The Return of Fu Manchu", which once made Westerners fear the Chinese.
Chester and the others thought that Lin Yuxun was just like Fu Manchu, and must be thinking about how to kill people all day long.
Cheng Hao: “…”
What the hell is going on here! Even though I have good grades, I still get bullied? Even though I'm a bit introverted, I'm considered a villain?
Cheng Hao was feeling unhappy, but Chester said, "Of course, you are different from Fu Manchu. You are like Bruce Lee. You know Chinese Kung Fu!"
Cheng Hao felt a little itchy, so he stretched out his hand, pinched Chester's ear, and twisted it hard: "You'd better not bully Lin Yuxun in the future. If I see you bullying him, I will make sure you feel what Chinese Kung Fu is!"
Chester screamed exaggeratedly and repeatedly assured that he would not bully Lin Yuxun, but the people around him saw this scene but turned a blind eye.
The line finally reached him. Cheng Hao was the first to go in and saw a cabinet inside. A white woman was sitting behind the cabinet. On the wall behind it, there was a line of large characters: "No selling of relief food!"
Cheng Hao expressed his desire to receive relief food, but was rejected.
He has no record of living in this community and he is not yet an adult.
Minors can come to receive relief, but at least their families must first register here and become low-income earners.
Cheng Hao didn't even get a box of milk, and the person in charge of distributing relief food had already started calling the next person.
The next person is Chester.
Cheng Hao was still waiting for Chester to take him to find a place to practice boxing, so he waited there for a while. Then he saw Chester suddenly wiping his eyes and crying: "Oh my God, there is no food at home. My brothers and sisters are almost starving to death... You know, there are so many children in my family. God... please save us..."
He cried so sadly that Cheng Hao couldn't help but feel sympathy. Not to mention the person distributing the food. She obviously knew Chester and comforted him, "Don't cry, I'll give you some food... There's milk and sandwiches today."
Perhaps considering that Chester had a large family, she gave Chester about twenty sandwiches and twenty cartons of milk.
When Chester came out with food, Cheng Hao was a little jealous.
He's still hungry!
Fortunately, Chester was very considerate. After leaving the relief center, he found a clean place to sit down and invited Cheng Hao to eat with him. He also opened a sandwich and said, "Cheng, do you want some? This is great! It's a rare sausage sandwich!"
As he spoke, he took out the thin sausage from the middle of the sandwich in his hand and stuffed it into his mouth. After eating it, he took down another sandwich and took out the sausage from it to eat again.
Cheng Hao was amazed at the way he ate.
Taking ten sandwiches and a few cartons of milk from him, Cheng Hao said, "This is your compensation for bullying Lin Yuxun yesterday."
This man and his friends smashed Lin Yuxun's door, so he had to find a way to repair the door and of course he had to collect some compensation.
Chester didn't mind Cheng Hao taking his food at all, and even said very generously: "Would you like some more? I have plenty of food!"
"You should take it home." Cheng Hao said, opening a sandwich and eating it.
He ate five sandwiches in one go, each of which was large enough to be a meal.
He could feel that his wounds were healing. The reason why they hadn't fully recovered after so long was simply because his injuries were too severe.
But he should be fine after two more days.
By the time Cheng Hao finished his five sandwiches, Chester had already eaten all the sausages in his sandwiches, even taking them out with his hands.
Cheng Hao clearly remembered that this man's hands were covered in mud when he knocked him to the ground, and he hadn't washed his hands since then.
Being stared at by Cheng Hao, Chester looked at his hands in confusion: "What's wrong?"
"Nothing... Let's go back to school." Cheng Hao said. He had told Lin Yuxun that he would go there at noon, so he must go and take a look. Then he could go to the bar where they could play boxing in the afternoon.
"Yes, we should go to school and check. I wonder if there will be any meat in school today." Chester took off his shirt and wrapped up the sandwiches without sausages, then walked forward with Cheng Hao.
At this time, Lin Yuxun had already returned to school.
It's time for lunch at school.
In the past, Lin Yuxun would have taken the plate to get the food immediately, but today he did not do so. Instead, he stayed under the tree at the school gate, waiting for Cheng Hao.
He is a Chinese, and his parents are descendants of Chinese workers who came to the United States to build railroads.
These Chinese laborers were all hardworking and, if nothing unexpected happened, they could have lived a pretty good life through their own hard work. However, the United States not only had the Chinese Exclusion Act, but was also very unfriendly to the Chinese, prohibiting them from doing certain jobs.
His parents have been struggling at the bottom of society. They don't know Chinese and their English is only average. They make a living by selling their labor.
Because of this, his mother left him and his father when he was only five years old after she met a white man who was willing to marry her.
For many years afterwards, he lived with his father, who was taciturn and seldom spoke to him, except occasionally to urge him to study hard.
He studied very hard, but when he was thirteen years old, his father passed away.
His father had no relatives, and at the age of thirteen, he was eventually sent to live with his mother.
At that time, his mother had divorced the white man and lived in this community with the deaf and mute Danny.
The hard life made his mother an alcoholic and a violent person. She even completely ignored her two children. When he first came, Danny was so hungry that he had very little flesh on his body.
He carefully hid the food so that his mother would not exchange it for alcohol, and took good care of Danny. Although he felt that life was difficult, there was always hope.
He is very smart and may have the opportunity to take out a loan to go to college and become a doctor.
I heard that there is a chance that Danny's ears can be cured.
However, his mother passed away.
When his mother was alive, although he was not popular, at least he was not bullied much. After his mother passed away, there were always some people who would look for opportunities to beat him.
Not to mention Danny. This kid might be kicked down by someone suddenly running up just by playing at the doorstep. After a few times, he didn't even dare to let Danny go out.
However, what he couldn't accept even more was that no one talked to him.
Danny couldn't speak, and the people around him didn't talk to him. They even avoided him as much as possible... He didn't know how to deal with all this, and he felt very painful.
His grades were very good, but this was not his strength; instead, it became the reason why he was attacked.
People around me always say, “Look at him, he’s studying so hard…does he think he’s white?”
At the same time, he also found that it was almost impossible for him to go to college.
He couldn't even apply for a loan.
He didn't think he could hold on any longer - he was always being attacked at school, and he didn't even dare to stay in school.
Perhaps he shouldn't even expect something that doesn't belong to him.
He felt that he could not hold on any longer. If he died, Danny would not be able to survive. He might even choose to end his own life...
It was at this time that someone asked him for help, speaking Chinese.
He somehow carried the man back home and gave him the hidden food to eat.
He didn't ask for anything, he just wanted someone to talk to him.
Lin Yuxun was waiting for Cheng Hao at the school gate.
The iron gate of the rented house was broken, the food was gone, and he had offended a few black people - those people were beaten by Cheng Hao, and they would definitely come to cause trouble for him in the future.
He was facing a desperate situation, but he didn't feel too bad...after all, there was someone he could talk to.
Lin Yuxun waited at the school gate for a long time, but Cheng Hao never showed up.
Lunch time was about to end, but Cheng Hao was still nowhere to be seen.
Is he... gone?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
