Chapter 170: Chapter 109: Li Wei’s Coming-of-Age Gift

A pile of milk crates was stacked neatly in the corner, repurposed into bookshelves and storage cabinets.

The most conspicuous thing was a makeshift table made of wooden planks. On it was a stack of newspapers and an iPad, its screen cracked but clearly charging.

"Pardon the humble abode," the man said, dusting himself off and sitting on an overturned paint bucket. "Make yourself comfortable."

"How do you get water?" Li Wei asked, sitting on another crate and looking at several large, white plastic barrels in the corner.

"Every morning at three," the man said, pointing to the barrels, "a few of us go to Central Park or a nearby fire hydrant to get water."

Li Wei looked at the well-spoken man before him, and the feeling of dissonance grew stronger.

"You seem like a well-educated person," Li Wei couldn’t help but ask. "How did you end up living here?"

"Hmm..." The man glanced around and smiled. "I wouldn’t use the word ’end up.’ Once you get used to it, you’ll find this life isn’t so bad."

"Anyway, let me introduce myself," he said after a moment’s thought. "You can call me Arthur. I used to be a senior partner at a major real estate law firm, specializing in land zoning and holdout eviction cases."

"Sounds like a very lucrative profession," Li Wei remarked.

"Lucrative?" Arthur chuckled. "Of course it was. A seven-figure annual salary. I drafted the documents that helped developers drive people like me out of Manhattan. I designed and pushed for those complex ’anti-homeless benches’ so the homeless in the parks wouldn’t even have a place to lie down."

"But now you’ve ended up here," Li Wei said. "Are you just trying to ’experience life’?"

Arthur suddenly burst out laughing, so hard that tears came to his eyes.

"Because I had an attack of conscience, just once. Only once," Arthur said with a sigh. "I was overseeing the construction of a luxury apartment complex. During the final inspection, I discovered that substandard steel was used in the load-bearing structures. If I didn’t sign off, the project would be halted, and my firm would lose a huge consulting fee."

"But if I did sign, that building would likely collapse within 10 years, and at least 200 families inside would be buried."

"I didn’t sign. And I tried to submit the report to the city’s Department of Buildings."

Arthur picked up a smooth stone and began turning it over in his palm. "I submitted it. The project was stopped. But then I was accused of embezzling public funds and sexually harassing an intern. A large quantity of drugs was ’discovered’ in my home. Then my license was revoked, my assets were frozen, and my wife took the kids and left overnight."

"And just like that, I was ruined. No address, no credit score, no cash flow. I even did a few years in prison. After I got out, my criminal record meant no one would even hire me to wash dishes."

"The temperature in New York hasn’t hit its lowest point yet," Li Wei asked. "Why don’t you go to a shelter? New York City has placement policies for the homeless, right?"

"A shelter?"

Hearing the word, an expression of disgust and fear even greater than when he’d seen Jimmy in the throes of withdrawal crossed Arthur’s face.

"There are no good people in a capitalist society," he said. "Especially not in the heart of capitalism, New York."

"New York is a city for the rich, not for the poor."

"Once you’re in a shelter, you have one volunteer looking after the daily lives of 150 people. If even the slightest problem occurs, well, that’s that. Next stop is prison," he said calmly. "I used to be the one who wrote the contracts for those private prisons and shelter organizations."

"Private prisons are publicly traded companies. They have occupancy rate quotas. If beds are empty, their stock price falls," he said. "I was in a private prison myself. In two years, I ’spent’ 400,000 USD, and they only threw me out when there was nothing left to squeeze."

"After getting out, I was on the streets for a while," he said after some thought. "I even spent time in a psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn. I have no mental illness, but do you know what happens to you once you’re inside? Forced labor, illegal drug trials, even disappearing as a cheap source for human organs."

Li Wei said nothing.

"And the public system?" Arthur sneered. "Look at what Holmes, the Mayor of New York who took office last year, said. Broken windows theory."

"As long as the streets are clean and there are no homeless people, no one will want to commit crimes."

Arthur said, "Many people I know would rather freeze to death than accept so-called ’shelter’ from the government."

[Quest: Explore the Goblin Kingdom and converse with its inhabitants.]

[Free Attribute Points +0.1]

Li Wei could have gotten up and left, but after a moment’s thought, he asked, "What do you need? As payment for this interview."

"Money’s no use to me," Arthur said. "Down here, it can be stolen at any time."

"Next time you come, bring me a pair of winter socks. I’m afraid I’ll get trench foot and be forced to have an amputation," he said. "And if you could bring two AAA batteries, that would be even better."

...

Half an hour later, Li Wei and Don Quixote were back on the surface.

Li Wei wiped Don Quixote’s armor clean before letting him get in the car.

Sitting in the car, Li Wei didn’t start the engine. Instead, he stared at the scenery outside the window.

Outside the window, the lights of Manhattan were as brilliant as ever, like diamonds set against the night sky. The very skyscrapers that Arthur had once helped design, build, and maintain now looked down coldly on the ants scuttling below.

An unprecedented sense of crisis and ambition exploded quietly within him, a clap of thunder in the silence.

He suddenly felt that even if he won the Pro Bowl MVP and was about to become a superstar player with a multi-million dollar salary, he still didn’t have the slightest sense of security.

’It’s not nearly enough.’

In this dog-eat-dog system, if you weren’t strong enough, even if you were an elite like Don Quixote or Arthur, earning millions of USD a year, a single misstep would get you devoured by the giant meat grinder. Arthur had once been one of the rule-makers, but he wasn’t strong enough. He was just a high-level wage earner, so he was sacrificed.

He recalled something Don Quixote had once told him.

"That’s just how it is in the United States of America. If you want to eat, you have to snatch it from someone else’s hands. Only once you’ve snatched it can you climb higher. If you don’t exploit others, you will be exploited."

’There’s only one way to avoid becoming ’raw material,’ to avoid becoming an ’occupancy rate’ on a financial report, or even ’trash’ to be swept away by the mayor.’

’Climb to the very top of the pyramid.’

’I don’t just need money—I need to be the richest. And I need the power to protect that wealth—whether through brute force, or through political and legal power.’

By the time they got home, Don Quixote was long out of his sleepwalking state, sleeping like the dead. Li Wei had to carry him on his back to his own bed.

After daybreak, Don Quixote went to see Susan to handle his current business affairs. He liquidated his entire 10% stake, and after deducting various fees, he received a transfer notification for 346,800 USD.

"Congratulations," Susan said, genuinely happy for Don Quixote. "A person’s greatest asset is their perspective. I’ve known you for less than three months, but look at you now. You’re like a completely different person."

"I’m changing jobs," Don Quixote said with a smile. "Li Wei invited me to be his agent. I thought about it, and I’ve decided to focus on helping him."

"That’s wonderful news for you," Susan said, suddenly giving him a hug. "You’re about to have a second spring in your life."

The scent of Susan’s perfume and the feeling of her chest against his made Don Quixote’s old face flush. He stood there stiffly, at a loss for what to do.

Fortunately, Susan let go after a brief hug and changed the subject to his future plans.

"You have a large sum of money now," Susan asked. "What are you planning to do with it?"

"Li Wei is about to come of age," Don Quixote said after a moment’s thought. "I plan on getting him a coming-of-age present."