LRAB Chapter 3 Runren's Kill Line
Chapter 3 Runren's Kill Line
San Francisco, America, in the 1980s.
At the height of America's national power, this nation on the hill of God has gathered elites from all over the world, with countless people chasing their dreams and creating incredible wealth myths every year.
Chinatown, with its vermilion archway, flashing neon lights, and signs side by side, is filled with the aroma of char siu and bubbling oil in the wind.
Chinese restaurants display roast ducks, and the owners greet customers in Cantonese mixed with English words. Street corner stalls offer vegetables, mushrooms, and seafood.
Crime breeds in bustling streets.
"Shit! Stop right there!"
Black gang members chased a young Chinese man into Chinatown, and as they rounded a street corner, a large crowd suddenly appeared.
The Black people were completely dumbfounded; the streets were filled with yellow faces, and they couldn't tell who was who at all.
They dispersed, but the young Chinese man could no longer be found.
Deep in the alley, there are miscellaneous cardboard boxes and garbage.
A handsome young man with long hair was hiding behind a pile of cardboard boxes; this man was Huang Bai.
"The Heavenly Decree is so unreliable. At least give me a decent identity. Every time it starts like this, it's a complete disaster." Huang Bai wiped the sweat from his forehead and cursed inwardly.
The Heavenly Decree will not make me an unregistered resident; I will always have the identity of a local person after transmigrating. This time, I am a young Chinese man from the lower class who is being blackmailed by black people in a black community.
"Brother Hu! Master Hu! Wait for me!"
Hurried footsteps could be heard in the distance. Two people, one fat and one thin, were running down the street. The one in the lead was a Chinese man with slightly long hair.
The fat man behind him was panting as he followed.
Further away was a group of pursuers in uniform.
"Hey Fatty, you're totally messing with me! You said there aren't any pursuers here? This place is a veritable hornet's nest!"
"Brother Hu, who knew those wicked capitalist thugs would ambush us like this? Old Hu, hey, wait for me!"
"Comrade Little Fatty, as your closest comrade-in-arms, I can confidently entrust my back to you. Hold on!!"
The two ran and bantered, but they couldn't shake off their pursuers.
At this moment, the yellow and white probe appeared.
"here!"
Upon seeing that they were Chinese, the two didn't hesitate and followed them.
The three-person team circled around and eventually shook off their pursuers.
"Phew..." Fatty Wang was covered in sweat, his hands supporting his knees. "Thank you, little sister."
"Open your pig eyes wide, is this a young lady?" Hu Bayi laughed.
Huang Bai had long hair, and Fatty Wang didn't look closely, mistaking her for a woman at a glance.
"Sorry, sorry, brother, where are you from?"
"You two from Guangdong province, what's going on here...?"
Huang Bai carefully examined the two men; these must be Hu Bayi and Fatty Wang.
"Those are immigration officers; we don't have local status," Hu Bayi said with a bitter smile.
After crossing the ocean, Hu Bayi realized that he was useless. What else could he do besides his tomb raiding skills?
With barely enough English for basic communication and no particular skills, he had no choice but to go door-to-door doing small business, while constantly having to be wary of immigration officials raiding his home.
His pride wouldn't allow him to ask Shirley Yang for help, so he's been avoiding her lately and will probably be deported soon.
"So it's Runren. Looks like your kill line is almost here." Huang Bai chuckled. No wonder these two brothers were running so hard.
"What does 'Runren' mean?" Fatty Wang asked, puzzled.
"They are undocumented individuals without legal status."
"Aren't you the same?" Hu Bayi said, both amused and exasperated.
"Of course not, I have legal status..."
As they were talking, Wang Pangzi and Hu Bayi's stomachs started growling.
"It's fate that we met. Come on, let's have dinner together."
The Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown had oily tables and Sichuan cuisine with a strong wok hei (wok aroma), making the two of them burp as they ate.
"That feels good, thanks to my dear comrade-in-arms, Brother Huang." Fatty Wang patted his belly, changing his address from "brother" to "comrade-in-arms."
"Ahem, do you two have any money? I don't think I brought any." Huang Bai looked embarrassed, forgetting that this wasn't the previous world. In this world, he was penniless and heavily in debt.
"What?" Fatty Wang suddenly stood up. "Brother Huang, that's not right. Weren't you treating?"
Hu Bayi couldn't sit still any longer. He patted his pockets and said:
"Let me tell you in advance, all I have left is this last pair of pants I'm wearing. You're not going to expect me to pay with these pants, are you?"
"I will pay you back. I will not only treat you to a meal, but also hire you and give you legal work visas."
When it came to work, Fatty Wang and Hu Bayi became interested; a legal work visa was extremely important.
"What did Staff Officer Huang hire us for? Let me make this clear first: Fatty sells his skills, not his sexuality!"
Hu Bayi didn't speak, but the way he looked at Huang Bai felt like he was looking at a liar.
"I haven't decided yet, let's pay the bill first."
The two brothers scraped together enough money for the meal, and after paying the bill, they only had fifty dollars left.
That's enough.
Huang Bai strode out of the Chinese restaurant with US dollars in his pocket.
……
The laundromat is located in the basement.
Don't let its appearance fool you; this underground casino in a laundry room is the largest casino in the area, handling an enormous amount of money every day.
The lights were bright, and the air was thick with the smells of cigarettes, cheap fragrances, and old carpets.
The ceiling was low, and there were many people around, surrounding green cloth tables with colorful chips on them. Every now and then, the crowd would erupt in cheers or be mixed with the frustrated curses of gamblers.
"This isn't right, gambling is something you should never touch."
Hu Bayi and his companion, who grew up under the red flag, were seeing such a scene for the first time and were momentarily stunned.
Huang Bai exchanged fifty dollars for a large sum of chips, and ignoring the two men's attempts to stop him, went straight to the gambling table.
"Brother, calm down! This is our last bit of money."
The two watched helplessly as the chip landed at the seven.
Hu Bayi panicked and quickly said, "You wouldn't happen to be a shill for this casino..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the dice cup was overturned.
"2, 3, 2, seven o'clock, small."
With odds of six times, fifty dollars instantly becomes three hundred dollars.
Huang Bai never does anything without a certainty. His divine sense can perceive the scene within a radius of five meters, so the situation inside the dice cup is naturally beyond his grasp.
Hu Bayi was stunned, and muttered to himself:
"Know when to quit while you're ahead. Gambling in the long run will inevitably lead to losses. There's no reason to make money through gambling."
Before he could finish speaking, the three hundred cuts instantly turned into eighteen hundred cuts.
Next, Huang and Bai started placing bets in batches, with some wins and some losses, but overall they still made a profit.
Soon, the chips piled up, and a crowd gathered around the three of them. The casino management noticed this and quickly came over to replace the dealer and dice cup, but they still couldn't stop Huang Bai from making money.
Ten thousand, twenty thousand, one hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand, ... one million five hundred thousand.
A crowd gathered around, and Huang Bai pushed all one million chips to eight points, with others following suit.
On the second-floor surveillance camera, the casino owner stared intently at the screen, even beginning to signal to the gunman to get ready.
Winning a few hundred thousand isn't a big deal; as a major casino in the city, this amount of money is substantial, but not something one can't afford to lose. However, the fact that so many people are winning money is a different story.
"Open! Open! Open!"
"OK! OK! OK!"
At the gambling table, Fatty Wang and Hu Bayi had bloodshot eyes and had completely forgotten what they had just said. At this moment, they were only thinking about getting rich and becoming millionaires.
The dice cup is opened.
"1, 5, 4, ten o'clock!"
The crowd erupted in uproar, with some people immediately launching into a tirade of profanities.
Hu Bayi and his companion were immediately struck by a jolt, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over their heads. The impact of losing a million in one go was still too strong.
Although they came from privileged backgrounds, their parents never saw this much money in their entire lives.
"Let's go, we should quit while we're ahead."
Huang Bai had already exchanged the remaining 500,000 chips for checks.
Stepping outside, the warm sun shines on your face, making you feel as if you've stepped into another world.
"Oh, I should have placed the bet at nine o'clock earlier." Fatty Wang pounded his chest and stamped his feet, full of regret.
"Gambling in the long run will inevitably lead to losses. It's best to quit while you're ahead. Let's just leave this windfall as it is and never gamble again."
Huang Bai did it on purpose. Firstly, small casinos are not very stable, and winning 500,000 is about enough. Any more would cause unnecessary trouble. Besides, he is not a greedy person.
Secondly, it serves as a warning to Hu Bayi and the other man, lest they become addicted to gambling in the future.
"That makes sense. By the way, how did you manage to do it?" Hu Bayi was relatively calm, after all, he was someone who had crawled out of a pile of corpses.
"Me?" Huang Bai smiled mysteriously, "I'm a Taoist priest, I can predict the future."
The two of them naturally didn't believe it.
After this battle, the Hu brothers were extremely impressed by Huang Bai.
"From now on, let's do some legitimate business. The three of us will start a business together. I'll provide the capital, and the other two will provide the labor. We'll each own 20% of the shares."
"Brother Huang, from now on we'll follow you." Fatty Wang was completely convinced.
"What kind of business do you do?" Hu Bayi asked.
Huang Bai looked around, then at the Chinese restaurant not far away, and said:
"Let's make Chinese food."
"Huh? Let me make this clear first, I can cook, but my skills... might not be as good as the chef's." The two of them were honest.
Huang Bai shook his head and said:
"Chinese people are too picky. They've eaten authentic Chinese food and look down on what we make. We can't make it authentic either. Instead of trying to please the Chinese, we should localize, target the local market, and standardize, localize, and make Chinese food more like fast food."
The two were clueless, but since Huang and Bai were the big spenders, they just followed along.
"What should we name the restaurant?" Hu Bayi asked.
"Let's call it... Panda Express."
In 1984, in San Francisco, Huang and Bai led their tomb-raiding duo to start their own business, officially beginning their journey to retire from tomb raiding.