America: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 13 - Camp Gathering

Next, the two of them, with nothing better to do, began to chat about the interesting things they had encountered during the day.

Allen Zhang casually mentioned the new friend he made, Simone, but didn't go into too much detail, only saying that he met her during his morning run.

"Didn't expect you to meet someone else so quickly," Dominic said, somewhat surprised.

He continued, "Simone and I also have a good relationship. She likes to help others and is very hardworking, but her boyfriend doesn't leave a very good impression. That guy is lazy, has a bad temper, and is a Poison Worm. You'd best stay away from him."

Dominic had no love for those addicted to drugs.

"Don't worry, Simone has already cut ties with her ex, and if that guy dares come back to cause trouble, I'll also help deal with it and give him a lesson he won't forget for life."

Allen Zhang replied offhandedly.

As the evening grew darker, Allen Zhang also prepared to go to Simone's place to return the money to her.

Just then, Black had also sent him a message.

Simone: I'm off work now, hanging out with friends. Where are you?

Allen Zhang: I'm on my way.

Simone: Ok, remember to bring Dominic.

Allen Zhang: No problem.

After replying to her, putting away his phone, Allen stood up and said to Dominic, "Simone is looking for you, and coincidentally, I need to see her too. She seems to be gathering with her friends."

"I knew they would definitely get together if they had the time, wanting to get me drunk and embarrass myself. I'm not going," said Dominic, his face suddenly reddening and looking a bit unnatural. Hesitantly he said, "Allen, you go ahead. I'll explain to Simone myself that I'm not feeling too well today."

"Alright."

It's just a meeting, why the hell are you blushing?

Allen Zhang felt that Dominic was hiding something, but he didn't ask further. After saying goodbye, he turned and left the bridge's comfort area.

Easily finding his way to Black's place, the lights were on, and a bonfire was lit.

There was a small crowd of six or seven people. Except for Simone, they were all new faces that he had not seen before.

"Hey! Allen! You made it!"

Simone didn't bring up the money. Instead, she warmly got up to greet him and asked him to sit down.

She then introduced him to the people around her, "This is Alun, the new friend at the camp. You can call him Alun. He was brought here by that white kid Dominic."

"Guys, hi there,"

Allen Zhang greeted everyone warmly and casually took a seat around the fire.

"Ni hao, Allen!"

Those attending the camp bonfire party also greeted him warmly in Chinese, and they had also heard about him from Simone.

After sitting down, Allen Zhang noticed that several people around him were all handsome men and beautiful women, and Simone had changed into a cool, short shirt.

Of course, there were also middle-aged white men, like a supermarket boss in his forties wearing glasses and bulky, as well as a white woman in her forties nearby with crow's feet.

There was also a silent figure in the shadow, somewhat out of place seated in the corner, chugging beer in silence, so dark that Allen almost missed seeing him!

Little Lori.

Two meters and one in height, truly living up to his reputation. His arms nearly as thick as Allen Zhang's thighs!

Noticing Allen looking at him, Black also nodded at him, grinned with his big white teeth, then returned to drinking with an expressionless face.

Why does Black seem so shy?

He seems a bit introverted.

The people next to him also took glass bottles out of a box and handed Allen Zhang a bottle of Budweiser, slinging an arm around him and saying, "Buddy, welcome to join our gathering. Welcome to the West Coast! We hope you have an even better tomorrow!"

Allen took it, glancing at the blond-haired, blue-eyed white man named Dave, "Thanks, buddy. You guys indeed make me feel very warm! Here, I certainly don't feel homesick at all!"

"Welcome the new friend to the join."

"Cheers!!"

Allen Zhang held up his beer, took a swig from the bottle, and settled down in front of the campfire, feeling the restless flames and a refreshing comfort throughout his body.

What was more surprising was the presence of pizza, fried chicken, Indian bread, and Mexican chicken rolls next to him.

Simone called out, "Don't be shy, Allen, you haven't had dinner, right? Don't worry, these are clean meals we brought back after work! No need for you to chip in this time, but if you want to join the meal next time, you should bring a dish too."

"That sounds fair!"

Allen Zhang nodded, indeed he had arrived in a hurry without any preparation this time.

"Well then, I won't be polite."

Having said that, Allen Zhang picked up a piece of fried chicken and took a bite.

It was tasty, definitely better than the zombie-like poultry from shelters and the Wailai Ray!

Through chatting, he found out that most of the people there had some part-time jobs.

It wasn't like they gathered together every single day. This was just a time when they happened to be free. There were more people living in the camp than just those here, others didn't make it this time.

The greasy fat guy with glasses was a middle-aged programmer named Blitz, 46 years old, who lost his job two years ago due to economic depression and then developed diabetes. He drained all his life savings while getting treatment at the hospital and ended up on the streets. Now he works at a 24-hour convenience store. The beer was also nearly-expired stock he brought back from the store.

The white woman named Sarah didn't exactly count as a homeless person. She married three times in her life, all of which ended in failure, and was kicked out by her last husband ending up homeless, thankfully she still had a car.

During one random chance, she drove to the camp under the bridge to spend the night, but was caught and almost evicted by Lori. The two-meter-tall Black nearly scared her to death by blocking the car door, but luckily the girls at the camp showed up just in time to clear up the misunderstanding, and she stayed here smoothly.

After getting to know some people at the camp, Sarah got used to the outdoor life. She simply sold her car and bought a food truck, selling fast food fried chicken on the nearby streets, and she typically lived in her food truck.

There was also Dave, the unemployed lawyer with golden hair and blue eyes from France.

The Redneck Jason who graduated from a reputed Texas school.

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Fitz, the street girl with dirty dreadlocks.

And the female donor, Simone.

After identifying themselves, the group returned to their previous discussion topic, mostly whimsical sky-high topics, and interesting events from their daily lives.

Jason pretended to be goofy, playing the role of the mood maker, which had everyone roaring with laughter.

Sitting here, feeling the lively atmosphere, Allen Zhang felt that things were indeed a bit different.

Just as Dominic had said, this place was filled with people who hadn't lost their passion for life.

Age, skin color, ethnicity, all varied, but everyone here only shared one common trait: they were all damn homeless and poor!!

But it was also because of this reason that there were no politicians' brainwashing, no hostile national rhetoric, no racial strife to affect their interactions and conversations. They could talk about anything, freely and unrestrained, with complete freedom of speech.

Allen Zhang felt a bit of the atmosphere of living in a youth hostel abroad. It was chaotic, certainly poor, but a spiritually rich life trumped everything else, and he was able to make lots of friends.

"Do you know about the funny thing that happened to me while I was in school, Allen?"

Jason brought up a topic about Asians and Allen listened attentively.

"The truth is, I'm quite surprised to see an Asian like you end up homeless because in my mind, the homeless are either white or Black people. Do you know, in school, the students we envied the most were the international students from Asia, those guys dealt us quite a blow."

"Tell me about it." Allen Zhang asked with interest.

"You all know I was admitted to Oxford University, a top student in school, even though I screwed it all up in the end, lost my job, my house, and became homeless...but that has nothing to do with the story I'm about to tell," Jason shared with eloquence.

"A couple of white students worked hard over the vacation for two months and barely scraped together 3200 US dollars to buy a second-hand car. Bursting with confidence, they were ready to start the next semester and hit on ten white girls each! Thinking to themselves, I'm the freaking best!!"

"But guess what happened when the semester began? A few new Chinese international students appeared in the class, their English was crap, they couldn't even speak properly, but right off the bat, they bought a bloody AMG! It was an AMG!! My god, they were too rich."

"You think that's the end of it? No!!"

"In the class next door, a few foreign students drove in their Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Aston Martins, roaring into the school parking lot pulling handbrake turns, and stepping out dressed head to toe in Balenciaga! Blindingly flashy!"

With very expressive body language and facial expressions, he clasped his head in disbelief.

"At that moment, I thought, forget it, how on earth are we supposed to compete with those rich Chinese international students and win over the pretty girls? With my eighteen centimeters? I'm just a loser!!"