Volume 6: The Great Change Chapter 0784 There is hope
After having Spanish food at 85 Second Avenue, Nan Youqiong asked Nan Yi to take him for a stroll on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village. Nan Yi did not refuse and took his son there directly.
Greenwich Village is also jokingly called the West Village. It is a gathering place for writers and artists. Before the 1960s, the Beat Generation hung out here. More than 20 years ago, the last Bohemian flower bloomed here. Since then, Bohemia has disappeared in the West Village, and the seeds of new Bohemia have been sown in the East Village.
In the 1980s, rents in the West Village skyrocketed, and the village's young people and avant-garde culture moved to the East Village. The vacated space was filled by Chinese artists and black people with thick chains around their necks.
Nan Yi and Nan Youqiong turned from Sixth Avenue into West Fourth Street. The first thing they saw was an adult products store. There was also a row of Chinese painters sitting on benches in front of the store painting portraits of passers-by, with a few onlookers gathered nearby.
The lights were dim, the night was getting darker, and the noise had quieted down. Next to the adult products store, there was a semi-underground shop with its door closed. Painters unscrupulously set up their easels at the door, like hawkers soliciting business from passers-by.
"Dad, Bob Dylan lives here." Nan Youqiong suddenly said after walking along the narrow street for a while.
"Like him?"
"like."
"Why do you like him? Can you understand what he means in his songs?"
“I don’t understand, but I just like listening to it.”
"Your mommy likes him too. Do you listen to your mommy's records?"
"Yeah."
"Uh-huh, Mark Twain also lived here. Do you know which house he lived in?"
Nan Yi didn't hear Nan Youqiong's answer before the shrill sound of sirens reached his ears. He turned around and saw five or six police cars driving over. After they stopped, more than a dozen armed policemen got out of the cars with murderous looks on their faces. They paused beside the cars for a while and then walked towards the painters, surrounding them but without drawing their guns.
There was a commotion and the painters were surrounded by the police.
When they saw the police, Nan Yi protected Nan Youqiong and walked away. When they were surrounded, Nan Yi and his group were already fifty meters away, thus perfectly missing the opportunity to find out the reason why the police came.
"Nan Sheng, it looks more like protection than capture." The tiger cub looked out for a while and said to Nan Yi.
"Um."
Nan Yi responded unconsciously and continued to protect Nan Youqiong until they reached a blind spot in a house and stopped.
After staying for a few seconds, the convoy came closer and Nan Yi and his son were pushed into the car.
The car drove out and left this dangerous place.
"go home?"
When the car drove onto Sixth Avenue, Nan Yi turned around and asked Nan Youqiong.
"Dad, I still want to go to Times Square." Nan Youqiong looked at Nan Yi with a hopeful look on his face.
"All right."
Although Nan Yi didn't really want to go to Times Square, he still met his son's request.
Six or seven years ago, Nan Yi was still interested in going to Times Square. In recent years, he would not go there unless it was necessary. Times Square has changed.
The square is still as brightly lit and noisy as before, but the skin colors on the streets have become richer and less pure than before. International tourists are dressed in fancy clothes and walk in fashionably, gentlemen and ladies frequent Broadway theaters and hotels, and countless neon lights flash the exposed skin of handsome men and beautiful women. If you look up slightly, you will see an advertisement for Kevin Klein's underpants in the prime position.
Nan Yi wanted to lead Nan Youqiong into the skyscraper. Behind the revolving door, the doorman had already flashed an expectant look, he was looking forward to Nan Yi and his son going in.
Unfortunately, Nan Youqiong's eyes followed the roadblocks on the road. There are always some roads in this world that cannot be repaired. Some take from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, while the frequency and degree of damage of some others depend on the amount of funding. Sudden spending also has a market in the United States, where there is also a municipal budget.
Going around the roadblocks and passing through an underground heating pipe lit by a thick chimney, homeless people, artists, urine flowing on the street corners, and horse manure left by sightseeing carriages made the air sweet and smelly. Two painters held their paintbrushes like long swords and fought for territory.
Excluding the fake Bohemians, the remaining men are almost all the same, carrying a thin leather suitcase under their armpits, which, when opened, is filled with electronic watches and fake name watches. Their business is very good, with many people patronizing them. The blacks wandering on the streets will stop passers-by at any time and take out fake gold necklaces to sell.
The shops on the street sell all kinds of electrical appliances and photographic equipment. The shop owners are almost all from the Middle East. These shops are very deep, not only in terms of business, but also in terms of politics.
Through the black man's gold chain, you can see a yellow-skinned painter holding a folding beach chair under his armpit and a leather bag of painting supplies in the other hand. There are also white painters with obvious Eastern European ancestry. They try their best to maintain their "noble" bloodline. Their stalls are well-equipped, with painting boxes on elevated racks and parasols above their heads.
After the painter, a group of Hispanics from Puerto Rico took collective action. They were gambling gods. They piled up gambling tables with cardboard boxes on the street and used Coke bottle caps and dice as gambling tools. I don't know if it was Gao Jin or Gao Yi, but he moved the Coke bottle caps like magic, muttering to bewitch the onlookers. There were three or five assistants standing around, and he kept winning money.
I couldn't help but take a few more glances and found that the dealer was Gao Yi, but his skills were not very good. Although the Coke bottle caps changed quickly, they were still easy to see through. The clumsy dealer and the assistant who kept winning money tempted the few banknotes in the pockets of passers-by.
Those who go there usually lose all the money in their pockets. When Nan Yi and his companions passed by, a tourist was squatting on the side of the road crying bitterly. He had lost all the taxi fare back to the hotel.
“You deserve it!”
The pedestrians who were not tempted complained.
Suddenly, the lookout gave a secret signal, and the cardboard box serving as the gambling table was instantly pushed over. The dealer and the agents immediately scattered, blending among the passers-by and disappearing without a trace.
Passing by a stall of a Chinese painter, Nan Yi heard from the conversation between Nan Pu and Bei Pu that not long ago, a painter from Shanghai was shot to death by black people. It was not robbery, but group hatred , hatred against the "painter" group.
No wonder the two patrolmen across the street were always hovering around the painters, and no wonder there was that incident in West Village just now.
The people here are eager to make money, anxiously waiting, and enthusiastically soliciting customers. The artist's noble disguise is torn off, and the cunning of the hawkers is vividly displayed. The inspiration gained from shortchanging is reborn on the drawing paper. Paints are expensive, and the business model of running a large volume makes the hands sore, so they try to save as much as possible.
Behind the painters, there were graceful figures swaying, some were sturdy, some were petite, some were gaudy, some were vulgar, with the air filled with the scent of cigarettes held between their slender fingers. They were more reserved than the painters and did not actively solicit customers, but just waited for the customers to strike up a conversation and quote a price.
Nan Yihu stood behind Nan Youqiong, protecting his eyes as he explored the world.
After visiting the shadow of the bustling Times Square, Nan Yi refused Nan Youqiong's request to go to Queens and took people home to watch the news. There was huge competition among TV networks, and if something worthy of being on the news happened, it would be seen on TV very quickly.
From the TV news, Nan Yi learned that the Chinese painter who was shot was from Shanghai and his surname was Lin.
Within two days, the Anti-Asian Discrimination Coalition and the Anti-Asian Violence Coalition jointly organized a march and demonstration. Two teams of police on motorcycles led the way and guarded the march. Starting from the front of the Melford Hotel on Eighth Avenue at East 46th Street, the marching team held banners all the way and arrived at the door of the New York Police Department on the easternmost side of Midtown Manhattan.
Nan Yi went over to take a look. In the parade, there were not only Asians and Europeans, but also slightly funny black people. It was not that they looked funny, but their behavior itself was funny. Passersby knew exactly who the parade was opposing. After all, the blacks had the final say on whether New York was in chaos or not. Godfather, one, two, three, all of you stand aside.
After the shooting incident, one day, Nan Youqiong again asked Nan Yi to take him to West Fourth Street, this time not for art, but for street basketball.
Street basketball originated primarily in New York, specifically in Rucker Park and West 4th Street.
Nan Yi and Scarlett never interfered with Nan Youqiong's hobbies, allowing him to choose and develop them freely. Nan Youqiong liked listening to country music, football and street basketball, so he was also aware that the "Goat Basketball Championship" was being held at the basketball court on West Fourth Street.
Arriving at the noisy basketball court, Nan Youqiong said to Nan Yi, "Dad, that's the GOAT, Earl McNicolt. He's only 6 feet 2 [188 cm] tall, but he can beat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is 7 feet 2."
"Skyhook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?"
"Yeah, the GOAT is the greatest player who never played in the NBA, and he plays cool."
"uh-huh."
Nan Yi responded, looked down at the large No. 32 Lakers basketball vest on Nan Youqiong, then glanced at his own No. 12 Bulls shirt, and cursed "heretic" in his heart.
Soon, the 1vs1 bullfight began. One of the players was good at shooting three-pointers. He didn't even try to break through, but shot directly from the outside. The basketball fell into the basket. With the boos, Nan Yi also raised his middle finger, "Fuck, if you are so good at shooting, go play in the NBA, why are you playing street basketball?"
The excitement of bullfighting lies in the confrontation. What's the point of watching it if there's no confrontation at all?
Nan Yi withdrew his gaze from the basket and looked at the wall beside the basketball court. West Fourth Street was full of painters, so it was naturally impossible for the walls here to maintain their original colors. Patterns of various styles collided on the wall. Under the wall, several black men in brightly colored suits were swaying to the rhythm of the Caribbean, teasing the onlookers to interact with them from time to time.
Looking at the dancing movements, Nan Yi guessed that the black man's tape recorder was playing Bob Marley's music. Well, actually there was no need to guess. For black people in New York, Caribbean music was equivalent to Marley's songs. They would not listen to anything else and would not get excited if they listened to anything else.
"Wow, unbelievable!"
Suddenly, Nan Youqiong's exclamation drew Nan Yi's gaze back to the basket, where he saw a small black man with one hand hanging on the basket, with a bouncing basketball below.
"Alan!"
Under the basket, someone started shouting.
The sound spread to both sides like a tide, and soon the shouts of "Allen" spread throughout the venue, mixed with shouts of "Iverson".
"Allen Iverson? He's from New York?"
The little guy came down from the basket and waved to the onlookers.
Short hair, thin body, without the symbolic dreadlocks and tattoos. Nan Yi took a long time to identify him but couldn't equate him with the 76ers' No. 3 in his memory. Only the face shape was slightly similar.
But after a while, when the little guy on the court used graceful steps, exaggerated swaying and light movements, Nan Yi immediately saw the shadow of Iverson in him.
On the court, Iverson easily passed his opponent, put his hands behind his back and gently tossed the basketball, which spun through the gap in the basket and into the frame.
"Dad, Allen's dribbling moves are so cool." Nan Youqiong said excitedly.
"You can learn too."
"Dad, can you come with me?"
"good."
In the days that followed, whenever Nan Youqiong had free time, he would pull Nan Yi to practice dribbling and shooting with him. Unfortunately, Nan Youqiong did not inherit any basketball talent, nor did he undergo any genetic mutation. His talent was only average among people with motor nerves, and his dribbling speed was only one point faster than Nan Yi's when he was young, and that was due to his physical fitness.
During his childhood in two lifetimes, Nan Yi could only be said to have never been hungry. Balanced nutrition had nothing to do with him. Nan Youqiong was different. While he was still in the embryonic stage, his nutritional intake was planned, and the potential of his body parts was fully utilized.
One day, Nan Yi and Nan Youqiong went to the Peace Dove New York training base. The Wanderer Weapons Company had developed a new type of bulletproof vest, and the two wanted to go and try it on.
After putting on the bulletproof vest, Nan Yi put on the clothes he usually wore in all four seasons, walked in front of a huge fitting mirror, performed the movements he would normally perform, and carefully observed whether there was anything awkward in his movements in the mirror.
After trying on clothes for all four seasons, Johnny came to Nan Yi.
"Boss, how do you feel?"
"Not bad, but my body feels a little heavy. It will take some time to get used to it. How is the bulletproof effect?"
"It's improved a lot. Tiger Cub just finished a physical test. A 7.62 full-power bullet was fired at a distance of 30 meters, but it didn't cause any fractures, only bruises." Johnny shrugged, "However, he lost his ability to fight for a few seconds."
The bulletproof vest worn on oneself can only protect against ordinary pistol bullets, and is of little use in protecting against assault rifles and sniper rifles. Even if the bullet cannot penetrate, the huge kinetic energy can still destroy the internal organs. The surface may be intact, but when the chest cavity is cut open, the inside will become a pot of porridge.
To defend against rifles, you can only rely on the meat shields around you, which is why the tiger cub has to do physical testing.
“Well done.”
"Boss, the Wanderer is still unable to break even. I plan to build a bulletproof vest production line and participate in the tenders for protective gear from various countries."
Nan Yi thought for a while and said, "I support your idea. You can consider building the factory in China. Both the labor cost and the material procurement cost are lower there, so the cost can be reduced a lot."
Although bulletproof vests are closely related to firearms, they are only regarded as ordinary industrial products in most countries. There is no need to apply for a special license to produce bulletproof vests. However, firearms are needed in the testing process, so it is naturally necessary to apply for a special gun license.
"OK, I'll send someone to investigate."
"Well, go to your office."
Nan Yi and Johnny came to Johnny's office and talked about the Arctic fox.
"Boss, Arctic Fox has confirmed that there are large amounts of US dollars hidden in these villas. According to the data obtained after analyzing the observed volume, the amount of US dollars hidden by Pablo in 837 villas will not be less than 20 billion."
Johnny drew a few circles on the map of Colombia. "These points are the cash hiding spots discovered by Arctic Fox. The cash hidden in each spot will not be less than 20 million."
“How many points like this are there?”
"I don't know. Pablo's spies are everywhere in Medellin. It's very difficult for Arctic Foxes to move around there."
"I understand." Nan Yi nodded, "We don't want the cash in the villa, and we don't need to know every hiding place. We will dig as many as we can while ensuring our own safety.
It is relatively easy to handle hundreds of millions or billions, but it is impossible to handle tens of billions or hundreds of billions cleanly. The main purpose of the Arctic Fox going to Medellin is revenge, and the cash is just an unexpected surprise. It doesn't matter if it's a little more or a little less.
Greed is the driving force that motivates people to strive, but being too greedy will cost you your life.
Johnny, tell the Arctic Fox members to stay rational and not to take chances. Once a plan is made, it must be as many as it is, not one more. "
"GOT."
In Medellin, Colombia, DA walked into a room and said to AB, the captain of the Arctic Foxes: "AB, the boss just sent a message, asking us to stay sane."
The code names of Arctic Fox members have no special meaning. They are just a combination of two short and easy-to-pronounce letters from the 26 letters, just for mutual recognition and quick communication.
"This reminder comes at a very timely moment. There is too much money and we simply cannot take it all away. DA, tell everyone not to be greedy. Otherwise, even if you can escape Medellin's encirclement, you cannot escape your own people's pursuit."
…
After trying on the bulletproof vest, Nan Yi quickly left New York and flew to London, where he stayed with his daughter for more than half a month, and then flew to Shanghai.
On the plane, Nan Yi originally planned to let Nan Wuwei go to Beijing to be a volunteer for a few days and do the work sincerely. However, he was accidentally photographed by a reporter. After thinking about it carefully, he gave up the idea. The intention of targeted promotion was too obvious, which violated the original intention of letting Nan Wuwei freely choose his future.
In the golden autumn, the main thing is to have fun.
Having accumulated knowledge and skills in advance, Nan Yi spent a day modifying the bicycle. When the sun was not shining, he would take Nan Wuwei out for a good ride.
After a relaxing week of fun, Yan Du found Nan Yi and suggested that Nan Wuwei go explore the roots of martial arts. Nan Yi agreed, but there were too many places to go, so he suggested doing it separately.
So Yan Du took Nan Wuwei and started from nearby, into the countryside, observing how roosters fought centipedes, how geese defeated local dogs , and in the field of hope, they observed how mantises punched.
Then, Nan Yi accompanied them southward into Yunnan Province to observe how the white-browed gibbons nimbly roamed among the trees.
At this point, Nan Yi suggested ending the journey first. The Siberian tigers and blind bears in Daxinganling and the hanging sheep in the Western Regions could be left for next time. As for the kites, they could go to Coconut City, as it was soon the season for the kites to fly south for the winter.
After returning from Yunnan Province, the group came to Shencun.
After going to Huashan and taking Nan Wuwei to observe the poisonous snakes, Yan Du took him back to Shanghai, while Nan Yi went to Xiaoya Bay.
October 3rd was the day when the construction of Sanmianshan started. Guan Jianshe, the infrastructure manager of the Reclamation Group in charge of the construction site, watched Pei Shuyi hold a pile-driving ceremony.
Pei Shuyi is a Feng Shui master who has made a great name for himself in the Lingnan area. It cost a lot to invite him over.
When Nan Yi arrived at the top of Sanmian Mountain, Pei Shouyi was directing the construction workers to bury a pair of "boys and girls" into the foundation. The boy and girl naturally could not be real people. According to Pei Shouyi, these were puppets made by his secret method. They were very smart and expensive, costing 88,000 yuan a pair.
Nan Yi and Ge Cuizhu don't believe in the mysterious things about architecture, but it doesn't matter whether they believe it or not. The key lies in whether the customers who consume here believe it or not. They don't need to believe it completely, as long as they are half-believing and half-doubting, they have to do some perhaps foolish things.
Feng Shui is very popular in Guangdong Province, and there are even more people who believe in it in Hong Kong. If Sanmianshan has a good reputation in terms of Feng Shui, it will naturally attract more customers to patronize.
After watching the entire ceremony on the mountain, Nan Yi quietly went down the mountain from the other side. He did not want to meet Pei Shuyi at this moment.
If the Feng Shui book that Nan Yi had read was not fabricated, the three-sided mountain met the five major requirements of good Feng Shui: a true dragon, embraced water, beautiful sand, a cave, and a correct direction. With a good foundation here, and Nan Yi able to give an explanation within over a million, if Pei Shuyi still couldn't come up with a Feng Shui layout that customers would talk about with relish, then he would have no business keeping his reputation.
He had called Wenren Lanyue before coming. When Nan Yi arrived at the iron shed, the three were already waiting.
No more nonsense, let’s get straight to the point.
"Director Nan, over the past two months, more than a thousand people have come from Baoqing. They all have a lot of money, some with hundreds of thousands, some with millions. Others are from Chaozhou, Gan Province, Zhejiang Province and other places. They have different amounts of money and are buying land everywhere. The land price in Echeng has increased by 20%, and the land price in Xiaoyawan has increased by more than 300 yuan per mu on average."
As Qiao Weiping spoke, he could hardly hide the joy on his face.
“Do these people have land transactions with each other?”
"Yes, but it wasn't very noisy."
Nan Yi nodded, and then asked Ma Yuyu, "Old Ma, have you heard that there is a real estate project to be built in Xiaoya Bay?"
Ma Mingyu shook his head. "There's only land for sale. I haven't heard of anyone wanting to build a building."
Nan Yi thought about it for a while, then ordered: "Old Ma, I'll give you a week to hand over the work to Wei Ping, and then go back after the handover."
"good."
"Sister-in-law, the window here is still open, but you can go back to the capital now. Things here will have nothing to do with you in the future. Just wait for the land to be sold and share the money."
Wenren Lanyue nodded.
"Weiping, you will be the only one left here from now on. You have two tasks. Keep an eye on the changes in the number of people speculating in land and the land price. If the number of people increases rapidly and the land price increases by 100 per mu, you must notify Lao Ma. If there are other special things happening, you must also notify him in time."
"Director Nan, you can rest assured that I will do my best." Qiao Weiping promised solemnly.
