Chapter 38. Cottonmouth

"Gulp..."

Swallowing a mouth full of saliva...

Shameek carefully made his way to the second floor of Harlem's Paradise through the dim lights of the nightclub.

"Shit, this is the real Harlem's Paradise, this is what I want!" Shameek couldn't help but burst out as he raised his nerve to look down at the scene on the first floor from the second floor's balcony.

Curbing his excitement, he continued to walk inside. Standing on the second floor, there were several men clearly dressed as bodyguards, causing Shameek to subconsciously raise his heart. Fortunately, he was lucky enough not to attract the attention of the men. Following the corridor on the second floor, Shameek arrived at a place that was obviously an office.

Martin, whom he had seen before, was inside.

"I don't like to beat around the bush, so tell me, what happened?"

Standing in front of a huge poster of 'Notorious B.I.G', Cornell looked at Martin and the others, who were wrapped in bandages in front of him, and asked with interest.

"We met a man who ..."

"Ah!" Reaching out to interrupt Martin's explanation, Cornell turned his head to look at the eye-catching crown on the 'Notorious B.I.G' poster behind him, "I don't need to hear excuses or explanations, I pay you to work for me, not to listen to you whine like a bitch in front of me."

"It was an Asian guy, wearing a red sweatshirt and a pair of shabby sneakers."

Cornell subconsciously raised an eyebrow and looked at the well-built Martin, "So, a single guy beat you and your men?"

"He was strong, he sent me flying with a single kick."

Cornell sat back in his chair and was silent for half a second before saying, "A kick?"

"We found a rat."

At this moment, the door of the office was opened. A bodyguard came in, dragging Shameek.

Martin: "Shameek?"

Cornell: "You know him?"

Martin: "No, we're not close."

Nodding and withdrawing his eyes, Cornell looked at Shameek and slightly leaned forward, "So, tell me, boy, what are you doing in front of my office? "

"I'm just looking around, really. I'm Dante's friend. I'm on your side."

Faced with Cornell's meaningful gaze, Shameek gulped.

"Boy, unfortunately, all I can say is, there are some places in this world that you can't just look around. Such as my place." Reaching out to the bodyguard standing behind Shameek, Cornell redirected his gaze back to Martin and the others.

"Wait, wait! I know who that Asian guy is! I saw him today!"

Anticipating what might happen to him next, Shameek quickly struggled and shouted from the hands of the bodyguard.

"Stop."

Raising his hand to stop the bodyguard, Cornell redirected his eyes to Shameek.

"Tell me, who is he?"

　　...

"There's a small room on the third floor of the restaurant. It's originally a storage room, but you can use it as your bedroom for now."

Late at night, as the Chinese restaurant was closing...

Mrs Connie talked to Ryan, who was finishing up in the dining room.

"Also, stay indoors as much as possible at night. Harlem isn't very safe, especially late at night. A lot of homeless and jobless people like to wander the streets and would mug people like you."

With a stern face, Mrs Connie advised Ryan with a few words.

"Living abroad on your own isn't easy. Although I don't know why you came to America since you're here, work hard, and at the very least, survive. Although the salary from the restaurant isn't much, it can at least guarantee your three meals a day, and you won't go hungry."

"Thank you."

Although Ryan wasn't going to work that long in the Chinese restaurant, the kindness Mrs Connie showed him made him feel a little warm.

Bang --

However, the warm moment didn't last long. Soon, there was a knock on the door, and several black thugs, armed with baseball bats, broke in.

"I'm sorry, we're ..."

Seeing a couple of guys barging in, Ryan was about to say something when he was pulled back by Mrs Connie, who was standing beside him.

"What's the matter?"

In the kitchen, the male owner of the Chinese restaurant, a middle-aged Chinese man with the same dark hair and yellow skin, came out.

Crash --

A bat shattered the ceramic jars placed inside the store. A black man, who was obviously the leader, looked at the three people inside the Chinese restaurant and asked in a disdainful tone, "How long have you been in this country? Can you even speak English?"

"There's nothing wrong with my English."

Facing the aggressive thugs, the man shielded his wife behind him and answered back.

"So, tell Cornell Stokes and Maria Dillard that you're going to donate money to build a new Harlem. Do that, and we'll leave."

To the side, Ryan had grasped the situation. It was obvious that these thugs who broke in were here to collect money.

It seems that the public security wasn't so good in Harlem, similar to Hell's Kitchen.

Faced with the threat from the thugs, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, though afraid, firmly refused, "This restaurant is mine. My father worked hard to buy this building. Tell Cornell Stokes and Maria Dillard that I won't donate to them. We didn't vote for Mariah Dillard to let her do this kind of thing."

"Looks like you haven't figured it out yet, old man."

Hearing the owner's refusal, the thugs changed expressions for a few moments. The leader raised his baseball bat and aimed it at the elder couple, saying words for words, "I'm not ageist, so why don't you just give me the money while I'm still talking nicely? "

"I think they've made that clear enough."

Having been watching from the sidelines, it was definitely Ryan's time to make an appearance.

"Ah Xing!"

Hearing Ryan open his mouth, Mrs Connie, who was standing aside, hastily shouted, trying to stop him.

But, apparently, a few of the thugs had noticed Ryan on the sidelines.

"What did you say?" Coming closer and closer, one of the black men rested his baseball bat on his shoulder and faced Ryan, "Try saying that again."

"I said, they think they ..." After silently looking at the baseball bat behind the black man's head, Ryan still replied with a straight face.

Before Ryan finished repeating his words, the black man standing in front of him suddenly changed his expression and waved the baseball bat behind him toward Ryan.