Chapter 12: What kind of life can you lead with a few thousand bucks a month?
Cheng Daqi was casually recording the scene of the Red Street in Saint Luoduo.
At the same time, he was chatting with Sani on the White Eagle.
"Where did you go? Nothing happened, right?"
In Sani's impression, Cheng Daqi always slept until late morning, the kind who wouldn't wake up unless she called him for breakfast.
But today, he wasn't in Cheng Daqi's tent.
"I came out to charge my phone. The shelter hasn't opened yet. Is there any place to charge around the Red Street?"
Cheng Daqi asked his novice village NPC.
"You can go to the courthouse entrance and find the roadside bench opposite the courthouse. There are charging ports on the wall behind the bench."
Sani could be considered his first benefactor in America.
Many Chinese immigrants know nothing and just run to America on impulse.
Without someone to guide them, they fight alone on the streets.
The result can only be running into walls everywhere and enduring hardships every day.
But Cheng Daqi's predecessor was extremely lucky to meet Sani, this not-too-dark-skinned black girl.
As a companion NPC in the novice village.
Although this girl couldn't help Cheng Daqi shoulder-to-shoulder when encountering high-level red-name monsters, Sani's guidance function was already very useful.
"Okay, I'll go find the charging port first and meet at the shelter later."
After replying, Cheng Daqi noticed a box truck parked on one side of the Red Street.
The upper part of the truck body has been modified, with a huge slogan painted on it.
'Perfume equality!'
In front of the truck were several glamorous female volunteers, chatting and arranging distributed materials.
They also brought a photographer who was now holding a camera and vigorously taking pictures of the truck's slogan and the distributed materials.
Cheng Daqi paused, quietly surveying the surrounding environment.
He raised his Orange Six, aimed the lens at the slogan on the box truck, and lingered on the large letters of the slogan for a few seconds.
'Perfume equality!'
Then he turned the lens, focusing on the homeless men wandering the Red Street.
Homeless men with tattered clothes, blank and dull eyes, who no longer knew what hope was.
There were even those who had overdosed on happiness pills, collapsed with their heads down against the wall, still unconscious.
There were also physically disabled elderly people sitting in wheelchairs, simultaneously pushing supermarket trolleys filled with items.
Orange is an American company with a trillion-dollar market value.
It is hailed as a model of American business companies.
In order to achieve higher profits, it chose to control assembly costs as much as possible, replacing American suppliers in the assembly supply chain with Chinese companies.
Now, this brand of phone assembled in China is using its slightly outdated but still clear lens to record the absurd scene on the streets of America.
On one side was the slogan 'Perfume Equality', with glamorous female volunteers beneath it.
On the other side were homeless, wandering the streets, struggling to survive.
Even in cyberpunk, it's still like this.
In fact, Cheng Daqi was different from the homeless on the Red Street.
Although his hair was somewhat unkempt from lack of grooming, it was still relatively clean.
His clothes were also 'new' second-hand sportswear he had just changed into yesterday, unlike other homeless people who looked so unkempt.
Most importantly, it was his eyes, the flame of hope in his eyes never extinguished.
One of the volunteers in front of the box truck noticed him.
After all, Cheng Daqi had been taking pictures here with his phone for quite some time.
"Excuse me, sir, may I help you with something?"
This volunteer looked to be in her twenties, with a pretty face and platinum earrings on her ears, probably a managerial type.
"I mean, do you need our perfume?"
Lisa and her girls were distributing things in the Red Street of Los Angeles for the first time, and she didn't quite know how to deal with the homeless here.
So, surprisingly, there was a bit of anticipation in her tone—a habitual scene of selling products to customers was brought into the situation of distributing relief to the homeless.
Upon hearing the question from the volunteer supervisor, Cheng Daqi was slightly taken aback.
He quickly reacted.
These were people who had never been to the Red Street before.
A group of girls, dressed so beautifully, promoting their store, came to the Red Street to do brand charity promotion activities.
It was an opportunity.
The system's skill panel hadn't loaded the skills Cheng Daqi had left behind in his previous life, but that didn't mean he had forgotten his skills for making a living.
"Ma'am, hello, you can call me Chan, Chan from Jackie Chan."
Cheng Daqi introduced himself, but his expression seemed somewhat puzzled.
This kind of puzzlement was not exaggerated in the slightest, indicating from the bottom of his heart that he had doubts.
"I mean, how could a group of girls like you come to the Red Street without bringing a security guard?"
Living by the code of survival in the world, one always had to deal with people.
The first step in dealing with people, different schools, groups, and businesses have different specific methods for dealing with different people.
But most of the routines, summed up, are just one word: surprise!
Lisa was obviously puzzled by Cheng Daqi's words.
Her mouth opened slightly, wanting to say something but not saying it.
After less than a second's pause, Lisa realized that what Cheng Daqi said made sense.
The company's boss wanted to do charity promotion, so he had Lisa organize this "Perfume Equality" event.
But for a luxury company consisting entirely of female white-collar workers, it was inevitable that they lacked a deep understanding of the market environment of the Red Street itself.
They hadn't even brought a male security guard!
"Will there be a problem? I saw two police cars parked at the entrance to the street."
Lisa knew that if there were any problems, the boss wouldn't let her off the hook.
She explained while pushing Cheng Daqi's arm away from the box truck.
She couldn't let the employee doing volunteer work hear what this man was saying.
"Ma'am, if something really happens, do you think the police or the homeless are scarier?"
Cheng Daqi continued to coax persuasively.
The character of American police officers is something every American knows.
Lisa's hand was already trembling.
When she first entered the Red Street, she just felt it was dirty and messy, but now she was starting to feel scared.
"This, this..."
Seeing the volunteer supervisor in front of her swayed by his words, Cheng Daqi finally reached the end of his plan.
"I still don't know your name, but, ma'am, I do have a way to ensure your safety here."
Cheng Daqi pointed to the male photographer and said.
"Give me the promotional jacket worn by your photographer. I still have some reputation in this street area. If I wear your clothes and distribute items with you, the homeless here will see me and treat you as one of their own."
Lisa's expression looked extremely hesitant.
Cheng Daqi's suggestion was worth considering.
But what she was thinking now was whether she should just leave like this.
It was so dangerous, why distribute perfume?
A few thousand dollars a month, what kind of life are they playing with?