City of big shoulders

At the entrance of the airport, there was an orderly queue of yellow taxis, which reminded Hugo of the scenes in the streets and alleys of New York. Hugo and Joseph easily boarded a taxi and headed towards the Four Seasons Hotel on Michigan Avenue.

After entering the city, Hugo looked at the electronic billboards on the roadside, displaying the time and temperature. The temperature on the billboards changed almost every few miles, while the time interval was only a few minutes. This surprised Hugo. He asked, "Are we still in Chicago? It was only 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) at the airport, but I saw on the billboard that it was 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). Is this... a different area?"

Before Hugo finished speaking, the temperature on the roadside billboard changed again to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving Hugo astonished. It felt like he had entered a different world, where the temperature fluctuated between winter, spring, and autumn. It was highly unusual.

"You didn't see it wrong. Welcome to Chicago," said the taxi driver with a smile. "Is this your first time in the Windy City? The weather here is unpredictable. It can be spring in the morning and winter in the afternoon. Even within an hour, the temperature can vary greatly. When I was driving from the city to the airport earlier, the temperature in the city was 65 degrees Fahrenheit."

Hugo found it incredibly fascinating. "Are you serious? Is it because of the strong winds on Lake Michigan?"

"I'm not a meteorologist," the taxi driver continued to smile. "But it's possible. Look, another gust of wind is coming now. The temperature will definitely drop."

Hugo immediately looked out of the window. There was a building nearby with the flag of the state of Illinois fluttering in the wind. Even though it was behind a layer of glass, he could still feel the strong wind outside. Pedestrians on the street skillfully lowered their heads and covered them with their coats, braving the wind and walking quickly. The wind was so strong that even the coats fluttered magnificently.

The temperature displayed on the roadside billboard seemed to rapidly decrease with the raging wind. In an instant, it dropped to 48 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving Hugo amazed.

Suddenly, a series of urgent ringing came from the car. All three of them were a little puzzled, curious about the source of the sound. The taxi driver even worried if there was a problem with the car. Finally, Hugo was the first to react, saying, "It's the phone!" He then patted Joseph and said, "Mobile phone!" Hugo hadn't used a phone for a year and was still not accustomed to carrying one with him.

Joseph was even more of a novice. He just realized that he could make a phone call anytime now and hurriedly searched for his phone. Hugo quickly reassured the taxi driver, saying, "It's okay, it's a mobile phone. We just forgot." The taxi driver couldn't help but laugh.

Joseph finally found his mobile phone. The urgent ringing continued to urge him, and he furrowed his brow as he opened the flip phone, hesitating about what to do. He could only look helplessly at Hugo, who pointed to the keypad and said, "Press the green button." Joseph suddenly understood, pressed the green button, and put the phone next to his ear.

"Good morning, this is Joseph Gibbs," Joseph said anxiously, but there was no sound from the other end, which made Joseph furrow his brows. "Hello? Hello! Is anyone there?"

Hugo immediately understood that it must be a signal problem. The technology for mobile phones was not yet fully mature, and there were not enough signal towers, so call quality was indeed a big issue. However, Hugo had never used a phone before and didn't know how the quality would be. Judging from Joseph's frustrated expression, it seemed unsatisfactory.

"Phew, finally... Who is this?" Joseph's face immediately relaxed as he finally heard a voice from the other end.

Hugo, sitting next to him, could faintly hear some crackling sounds mixed with a man's voice, but he couldn't make out anything clearly. Apparently, Joseph was in the same situation. His brows furrowed again as he tried hard to catch the other person's words, and the conversation was intermittent.

"Oh, I see... What? Yes, I didn't know about that. Maybe I didn't confirm the message, that's a pity... Sorry, can you repeat it? No problem, no problem, we're already in a taxi, uh... a taxi! Yes, we're fine. What? Okay, okay, thank you, thank you. See you later. Huh? I said, see you later!"

After the phone call, Hugo felt like he was sweating profusely, and Joseph was no exception. Joseph leaned back against the seat, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and carefully examined the mobile phone. He sighed, saying, "I couldn't hear clearly." After a pause, he continued, "But it is convenient, albeit a bit challenging." A smile appeared on Joseph's face.

"What's the matter?" Hugo didn't share the same sentiment about the phone's quality; his attention was still focused on the content of the conversation.

"Oh, it was the assistant from the show," Joseph recalled. "They sent someone to the airport to pick us up, but I didn't confirm the message before I left. I had put my mobile phone in my luggage, and I missed their call. So I didn't know about it, and we just left. They waited at the airport for a long time before calling me to confirm."

Hugo nodded repeatedly. "Ah, I didn't think about that." It was the first time Hugo experienced such treatment, with the show's crew sending someone to pick them up. The benefits brought by the success of two movies in the past two months seemed to be one after another.

"Yes, I didn't expect it either," Joseph said, somewhat surprised. He could sense the significance Oprah Winfrey's talk show crew attached to Hugo, which made him slightly excited because it was recognition for Hugo.

"Maybe we'll get used to it next time," Hugo said with a smile, his mouth curling upwards. After expressing his admiration, he casually said, "It's still not convenient enough now. Maybe in the future, we can confirm messages directly on our mobile phones or communicate through emails. That would be much more convenient."

"What? What are you talking about?" Joseph had no idea about Hugo's forward-thinking ideas and looked at him puzzled.

"No, nothing at all," Hugo shook his head and glanced out of the window, quickly changing the subject. "Wow, look, the temperature has changed again. It feels like being in a sauna, watching the thermometer go up and down."

The taxi driver, who had been silent for a while, picked up Hugo's topic. "During the worst times, it's not impossible for the temperature to change every minute." The taxi driver was obviously accustomed to Chicago's climate. "You know, the highest recorded temperature here reached one hundred degrees Fahrenheit (forty degrees Celsius), but the lowest temperature also dropped to minus ninety degrees Fahrenheit (minus thirty-two degrees Celsius)."

"Wow, it's a fascinating city," Hugo couldn't help but exclaim. He thought of Xinjiang, where the temperature was also like this. "Wear a winter coat in the morning and a thin cloth in the afternoon, holding a stove while eating watermelon."

Joseph, sitting beside him, also shifted his attention and expressed his amazement. But upon hearing Hugo's exaggerated words, he couldn't help but smile. "You should worry about your own health. Chicago's ever-changing weather is not easy for us "outsiders" to adapt to. So it's important to choose appropriate clothing."

Coming from Los Angeles, the temperature there had been around sixty degrees Fahrenheit for the past couple of days. Although there were temperature differences between morning and evening, it wasn't too extreme. The hottest part of the day was around seventy degrees Fahrenheit. But now, in Chicago, the unpredictable weather was indeed causing headaches.

Although they had come specifically for the TV show recording, the shorter the time, the more severe the changes, posing a greater challenge to their physical adaptation. However, this trip had been quite sudden. Hugo and Joseph received the invitation yesterday and rushed over today, which was not a common occurrence.

According to the regular procedure, invitations for The Oprah Winfrey Show would be sent out at least a month in advance because it was a recorded program, and planning for the following month's broadcast schedule would require arranging guests, setting topics, and determining recording times in an orderly manner. However, there were occasional special circumstances, such as the special episode produced immediately after the Rodney King trial in April this year. As a representative of African American women, Oprah naturally made a special program, which was an unplanned recording.

This time, Hugo's situation was also special. In fact, The Oprah Winfrey Show had considered inviting him to the program since early December, but the timing wasn't right, and Hugo's schedule was already fully booked, so it kept getting postponed. After the Golden Globe nominations were announced, The Oprah Winfrey Show realized that the time had come, so they promptly sent the invitation to Joseph, hoping to record the show as soon as possible and broadcast it before the Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 24th, to align with the hot topic and boost ratings.

That's why Hugo and Joseph rushed to Chicago before the New Year to participate in the show's recording.

After arriving at the hotel, Hugo stayed in the room while Joseph had work to do. He didn't even have time to unpack and headed directly to the TV show production meeting.

For in-depth talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, the recording time was relatively long, and the scope and depth of the conversations were different from other talk shows. So Joseph needed to have a basic understanding of the program's process and the topics it would cover to avoid discussing sensitive issues and causing unpleasant situations.

This behavior may not necessarily be helpful, but it was a necessary step before the show's recording.