2 A Novel About Eating Sweet Potatoes That Make You Stronger

Wang Jian flipped through the book called "I Am a Grand Master" in his mind, reading it slowly.

This book was about an ordinary high school student named Wu Lai, who was struck by otherworldly lightning and was whisked away into a different world.

But this new foreign world no longer had steam or electricity; it had magic and swords.

Fortunately, Wu Lai was born with a special talent. By eating sweet potatoes, he was able to cultivate and control his immensely powerful and magical abilities. He was able to vanquish powerful beasts and conquer alluring beauties, and become the King of both Heaven and Hell.

In the end, he became the legendary Demon King and lived happily ever after with his wife and concubines.

This book was very interesting because of a few points: it was easy for the characters to gain abilities and improve their strengths, there were a plethora of powerful demons that created interesting fighting scenes, and the princesses of two different tribes—the gods and the demons—were in a heated rivalry.

It was also very interesting to note that in the end, the main character was incredibly captivating, with wings that were half black-and-white, and forbidden magic referred to as Absolute Zero, Earth Bear and so on.

Wang Jian found it to be thrilling but slightly cringeworthy at the same time.

It was truly exciting.

Compared to Aquaman, the comic he had just read, it was like eating a mouthful of garlic and chili peppers, the more you ate, the more addictive it became.

However, it was slightly awkward because the writing was childish; with too many explicit scenes and a few contextual errors.

However, these were all unimportant. The important thing was that Wang Jian thought this book seemed inexplicably familiar.

He quietly looked at the rows of bookshelves in his mind and watched as the second book began to slowly take shape.

Wang Jian's heart throbbed in his chest.

These books were ones he had read in his past life, were they not?

Perhaps he could find predictions on future American developments? Then, he could use the foresight to seize opportunities and rise up to the top of the ranks.

He would be able to make decisions without hesitating.

Wang Jian said to himself once more, "I am a Grand Master."

It felt as though he had special abilities that enabled him to quickly read books in his mind.

After a few minutes, Wang Jian finished reading it once more.

But...

The book had absolutely nothing to do with reality.

Let alone the future of America.

The main character did nothing but fight and fall in love...

This was awkward.

Wang Jian felt that the story would be better off if it had some elements of advanced weaponry or something along those lines, just like in "Aquaman."

The veins on his forehead pulsated slightly as a thought popped into his mind, "Should I publish these novels and make money?"

Though, translating the novel from Chinese to English would be a gruelling task.

Would the Americans even be able to digest such explicit and perverted content in a novel?

Suddenly, the phone in his apartment rang.

Wang Jian rushed to answer it. A familiar female voice was heard from the other end of the line.

It was supervising officer, Lily Rush, who was calling to make sure he hadn't committed another criminal offense and that he was regularly attending his community service.

Wang Jian needed to report to her at two in the afternoon and perform four hours of community service.

Looking up at the clock, it was 1:30 pm.

He was so preoccupied with reading the comics and novels in his head that he had forgotten to eat lunch.

Wang Jian flew downstairs, bought a random sandwich on the way, and caught the bus. He ran towards the assembly point as fast as his legs could take him.

The assembly point was in the Bronx, in one of the more upscale White neighborhoods, and the prisoners who were ordered to perform community service there were mainly petty criminals, they were mostly Yellow and White.

As for the Blacks and Latinos, most of them were ordered to pick up the trash along railroads and highways.

When Wang Jian arrived at the assembly point, it was exactly two o' clock.

Lily Rush was a blonde-haired beauty who was about 170 tall and wore a blue uniform. She looked at him with a slight frown, asking of him to, "Be a little more punctual next time."

"Yes, yes." Wang Jian said breathlessly.

"Grab your tools, partner up with him, and go clean up the neighborhood." She pointed to an old White man who stood some distance away.

Then, she strode off on her high heels and walked back to her car.　　

Wang Jian turned his head and saw the old White man across the street. He was a small, bald man with a wrinkled face and a pair of tiny, light eyes.

"Hello, you can call me Wang," Wang Jian said, "Looks like we'll be partners from now on. What's your name?"

"John Kramer," the old White man replied gruffly before falling silent.

Wang Jian shrugged. It was fine if the old man didn't want to be friendly. He needed time alone to think about how to make more money anyways.

After he was done with the community service tasks for the day, he could go to the bookstore to check out the types of books that were popular nowadays.

Would it be possible for "I Am a Grand Master" to be published so he could rake in some money?

It would be great if he could make money from it. If not, he would have no choice but to continue looking for a job.

Suddenly, the old man, who supposedly went by John, asked Wang Jian, "Why're you here doing community service?"

Caught off guard, Wang Jian was startled at first. Then, he replied in a sheepish tone, "Theft, but it was a first offense. My sentence was suspended and now I'm doing community service. How about you?"

The old man's eyes narrowed, then he said in a gruff voice, "Reckless driving and damaging public property. Why did you steal?"

"Uh—" Wang Jian hesitated before speaking, "I wanted to go to community college, graduate with a diploma, and get a good job. My student loan wasn't approved because of my family's background."

"Oh." Old Man John simply nodded and said nothing more.

Wang Jian noticed that the other man's tone of voice wasn't as bitter. However, he wasn't sure if his ears were simply playing tricks on him.

The gentle breeze that swept the East Coast of the United States couldn't quell the gradually rising temperatures, but at least the sunny weather felt comforting.

Before he knew it, Wang Jian's first day of community service came to an end.

After signing off and saying goodbye to Old Man John, he stopped by a news stand and bought a copy of "America's Best-selling Books—'94–⁠⁠'95 Special Edition."

Then, he made a beeline for his apartment.

He couldn't stop running; the area around the apartment was so chaotic.

The area was full of gang members from the Crips and from the Bloods, who were at constant war with each other. There were countless other small gangs in the area.

The 18th Street Gang, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Jamaican Posse, the infamous MS-13, the Salvadores— any gang that came to mind, you would find them here.

The gangs ran everything from drug trafficking, hiring assassins and killing people, to going door to door selling vegetables and managing garbage disposal.

They were involved in everything you could imagine.

As a result, the Bronx was also known as one of the three most crime-ridden neighborhoods in America, as well as Compton in Los Angeles and the South Side of Chicago.

"Free America, Shoot Every Day" was a perfect depiction of that.

After a stressful run back to his apartment, Wang Jian was determined to work hard and earn some cash so he could move out of the Bronx as soon as he was done with community service.

He looked at the New York Times bestselling rankings.

On the list of bestsellers that weren't categorised according to genre, but instead based on total sales, "Carnegie's Secrets of Success" was ranked Number One.

"The Science of Success" was ranked at Number Two.

The highest-ranking, upcoming bestseller published in 1994–1995 was ranked Number 37 in the overall rankings— the "Conversations with God" series.

The second highest ranking went to "The Federal Reserve," published in 1994, which was ranked Number 40 in the overall rankings.

The third highest ranked book was "The Blood Plague: the Story of Ebola" at Number 44. The book was also ranked Number One in the hard science fiction category.