"I'm working hard to make money and get myself a Green Card. Then I won't have to worry about getting caught by the police. I'm still risking my life saving up money," Lili said.
"What ways are there to make money here?" Jiang Hao asked.
Lili said, "We're all undocumented. To make money, we either do hard labor or dirty work. If we want decent, legitimate jobs, we have to wait until we have Green Cards."
"A lot of people can only work under the table or take shady side jobs, but the gangs run rampant in Japan. People like us can't make a go of it. Whatever you do, you have to pay tribute to the gangs, or if they catch you, you'll die horribly."
"You speak Japanese?" Jiang Hao asked.
"Yeah. If you can't even speak Japanese, you can't survive at all. I worked at a restaurant for three months, and the biggest thing I got out of it was learning Japanese. It was only simple conversation at first, but it was enough for daily life. After a while, I had no problems with the language at all," Lili said.
Learning everyday Japanese in three months showed that this woman was quite smart. Just as Jiang Hao was about to ask something else, a clicking sound came from next door.
It was the sound of a door opening. Someone must have returned to the neighboring room. The soundproofing in this old apartment building was terrible; they could hear everything next door clearly.
Then came voices. A man and a woman were talking in Japanese. The woman's tone was flirtatious, while the man kept letting out lewd chuckles. Soon, rustling sounds came from the room, and Lili sneaked a glance at Jiang Hao.
Before long, those sounds came from