Volume 5: Growing Up Chapter 314 Give them respect
Interstate 40 is an important part of the United States' vast interstate highway system, starting from Barstow, California in the west and ending in Wilmington, North Carolina in the east, with a total length of 4,112 kilometers.
The road construction plan was officially announced in 1947 , approved and started in 1957, and the last section of the highway was completed and put into use in 1990.
The total time taken was forty-three years, or rather forty years, because during the period from 1963 to 1966, the federal government stopped construction and considered using continuous atomic bomb detonations to blast through the mountains to replace the traditional method of manually blasting mountains and building roads with ordinary explosives. Experts spent three years evaluating and calculating, and finally concluded that the cost of using atomic bombs to build roads was higher than traditional methods, and there was no way to guarantee problems such as radiation diffusion.
The California section of Interstate 40 is almost entirely located in the Mojave Desert. Looking on both sides of the road, there is only Gobi and yellow sand, bare giant rock mountains, scaly saline-alkali land, and trees with twisted branches that are still trying to survive. From a distance, they look like natives casting witchcraft. The clumps of wild grass around them are like balls of evil flames.
The last supply stop before exiting the California section is the small town of Barstow. More than a hundred years ago, this place was very prosperous. Mining companies from all over America flocked to Barstow with countless miners to make final preparations before heading to the rich mines in the Mojave Desert. At its peak, there were as many as hundreds of thousands of outsiders here.
Today, this place has long since declined, with only a huge train station left, like a spider in the center of a spider web, with countless railways spreading around it and spreading into the distance. There are now less than 20,000 people left in the entire town. Even though the state government allowed the city to open casinos to boost the economy, it is still one of the poorest cities in California, with less than 20,000 residents, 80% of whom survive on federal subsidies or relief.
The seemingly desolate American West scenes in "Kill Bill" were shot in Barstow.
Tommy first filled up his gas tank at the gas station, then walked to a nearby fast food restaurant for a simple lunch. According to the plan, his dinner would be enjoyed in Flagstaff, Arizona, 600 kilometers away. Eric Bell, who was once a member of Big, a fraternity in college and was devoted to studying geological changes and earthquakes, is now the chief scientist at the Geological Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona. He would have dinner with Tommy.
Outside the fast food restaurant, locals occasionally looked at Tommy's Ford Hyundai Accent 4 parked on the side of the road with curious eyes, trying to figure out which rich guy was willing to drive such a luxury car into the desert to have its paint polished by gravel.
Tommy walked out of the fast food restaurant while sipping Coke, put on his sunglasses and continued on his way. A sharp and long whistle sounded along with the roar of a motorcycle. Soon, a Harley motorcycle caught up with them from behind. It was a young white man and woman, dressed in fancy and shabby clothes. The young man driving the motorcycle exaggeratedly lifted his clothes, revealing the pistol on his waist, and greeted Tommy with a sly grin:
"Look at this charming SUV, sir. I don't mean to offend you, but I feel I must teach you a lesson. It's not wise to drive a car like this out for a ride in a sparsely populated area. Pull over."
Tommy glanced at the red dots that quietly appeared on the chests of the two men and laughed, "I'm very happy to do that."
Then he slowed down and stopped the car on the side of the road, got out of the car with his hands and Coke raised, looking relaxed, stood by, biting the straw, watching the two people jump off the motorcycle and approach his car.
"What are you going to do, I..." The girl obviously didn't expect her companion to be so agile. He suddenly snatched a luxury car and asked him in shock.
"Shut up!" The young man stroked the body of the Xiantu 4 with his hand, as if stroking a treasure, and then turned his head to look at the female companion who was wearing smoky makeup and a bra and hot pants on the back seat of the motorcycle: "I need this car, you should do business with this gentleman, sir, I am a director, yes, you are honored to have my audition, next, listen to my arrangements, first, throw away your damn Coke, and then baby, get off and stand still, with some panic on his face, you said you studied professional acting, hurry up, give him some hot pictures."
The young man moved his butt to the driver's seat, and with an eager look in his eyes he slid his fingers across the solid wood dashboard. Then he held the gun in his right hand, took out his mobile phone with his left hand, started filming, and aimed at Tommy who was slowly placing the Coke on the side of the road and the girl on the motorcycle.
“I don’t want to…” The girl wanted to express her dissatisfaction, but the man raised his gun and emphasized: “Do as I say, bitch!”
The young woman had a coerced expression on her face as she slowly lifted up her bra, revealing her breasts.
"Touch her, sir." The young man patted her and said, "If you don't want to consider personal accident insurance in addition to theft insurance."
"You're a great actor, girl." Tommy obediently put his hands on the young woman's chest. The girl turned her head away with an unpleasant expression, muttering no constantly. It looked like she was being forced by Tommy.
Tommy was very devoted in his performance. He focused on cooperating with the director's instructions, working seriously on the girl's breasts with an expression of enjoyment on his face.
"Transaction completed. You old man are suspected of molesting a girl. In order to avoid the victim calling the police and getting in trouble with them, I gave her this car as compensation. I have uploaded the video to a short video app, but I have set it so that only I can see it. But if you don't want to give her this little gift, I will make the video public and send it to the police station's account." After the young man filmed a video, he looked at Tommy triumphantly:
"Now, go back to the side of the road and continue drinking your Coke."
The young couple, one driving a car and the other riding a motorcycle, left Tommy on the side of the road and drove away. However, just after driving a few dozen meters, the Xiantu 4 stalled and could never be restarted. The two Chevrolet Cyberliner SUVs that had been accompanying Tommy's car suddenly accelerated and overtook them, forming a roadblock in front of them, blocking the couple's way.
"Don't scratch my car. Also, try to recycle as much waste as possible. The gas and food expenses for this trip will cost a lot of money. Make it back from them." Tommy picked up the Coke that he had just put on the ground, took a big sip, and then said to the watch on his wrist:
"For example, let them voluntarily borrow all the credit limit on KeyBank on their mobile phones over a three-year period, and then choose to default and repay immediately. This way, they can immediately pay me back the three years of interest, just as if they were experiencing the cost of my car. If they don't have enough money to pay my interest, I recommend that they voluntarily go to Pam's chain of used car dealerships and sell his broken Harley at a scrap price."
"What if it's still not enough to cover the expenses, sir? Should we let him go to the hospital for a physical examination first? I mean, they may be willing to voluntarily donate some body parts to the great cause of medical research." The voice of Tommy's bodyguard John Page sounded in the watch.
John is the second grandson of old Page. Tony, the head of the Hawke family, is John's godfather and has personally planned his life for him. He went to military school, served in the army, joined the Naval Intelligence Agency as a field agent, and was later assigned to work for the Secret Service in Washington, which is responsible for the security of the president. He learned how to protect important people, and only returned to Tommy as the head of the bodyguards. He is definitely the most loyal squire knight of the Hawke family.
Tommy blew out a puff of smoke and corrected Paige with dissatisfaction: "Paige, they are white people, not black people. Don't treat them with the same methods as you treat black people without legal status. Give them some respect. If it's still not enough to pay the money you owe me, let your brother's security company sign a contract with the man and send him to Eastern Europe to be cannon fodder."
