Buying a Car

Saying they would go, Tony, who claimed to have a way to get cheap goods, directed Silencer to drive out of the city. After winding through the maze-like interior of a scrap vehicle processing plant, they finally stopped in a very secluded spot.

A 1988 Jeep Cherokee in decent condition caught their eyes. Several black guys who clearly weren't up to any good surrounded them. Don't get the wrong idea; they were just talking business. The leader, nicknamed Rat, quoted Tony four thousand, and it looked like there was still room to haggle.

"WTF!" Song Ya felt something was off. A new Cherokee seemed to cost around twenty thousand dollars now, and even used ones shouldn't be this cheap...

Silencer, beside him, sensed Song Ya's confusion and quietly made a "pocket-picking" gesture.

"So, that's a stolen car?"

Song Ya felt a bit of regret. He had gotten carried away after getting a large sum of money, letting Tony do whatever he wanted. He had walked into a place like this with forty-five hundred in his pocket, ready to happily buy a stolen car...

He was getting carried away, and Tony was even worse. Not only was he chatting happily with Rat, but he also took the "hand-rolled leaf" offered by the other party and started smoking. Once high, he went to take the gun hidden in Silencer's car and sat inside the new Cherokee.

"The interior space of this car is really nice. Ya Li, where do you think is a good place to hide the gun? Here? Or here?"

He excitedly shoved the gun under the driver's seat to test it, felt it wasn't right, and then climbed into the back seat to look for a place to hide things.

"Hey! Hey! We're not buying it, let's go!"

Song Ya felt a surge of anger and dragged him toward Silencer's car. "Are you an idiot? A car this new, if we park it in front of our house, it'll be gone in less than three days!" He shouted the excuse he had made up on the spot, intentionally letting Rat and the others hear it.

"It's not that exaggerated..."

Tony still didn't want to leave. Song Ya kept winking at him, and after much effort, finally persuaded him to get in the car. "Forget it, my brother has something wrong with his head." He even pointed at his own head toward Rat and the others. "Sorry to bother you."

"No worries, brother."

Rat didn't say anything and waved them away.

As soon as they left the scrap vehicle processing plant, the most intense argument since Song Ya had transmigrated erupted between the two.

"Do you know you made me lose a lot of face just now?!"

Perhaps because the effects of the leaf hadn't worn off, Tony expressed his dissatisfaction almost by yelling. "Since I brought you here, there's absolutely no problem. There are plenty of people driving stolen cars in the South Side; the police can't keep up with it. Except for that time ET got taken out, have those police cars ever entered our neighborhood? They don't dare come in..."

"Look at yourself now! You are gambling on a probability event!"

Song Ya was also full of anger. "Have you thought about what would happen if we were stopped by the police while driving that car?" He counted on his fingers. "The car is stolen, the person inside is full of the smell of leaves, and there's a gun hidden in the back seat! Have you thought about how many years we could spend in the slammer just for these things!? I'm telling you, I have a bright future ahead, and I don't want to end up in these messes for no reason!"

"Wow, wow, wow!"

Tony kept clapping. "So it really is APLUS who has made big money! What's the matter? Starting to look down on me, your brother, for holding you back? Let me tell you! Without me, would your song have had the chance to be sung by Little Lowry? I am your brother, and I always have the final say here! And because of your business, Little Lowry has become distant from us, haven't you noticed? Both Silencer and I are making sacrifices for you!"

"Fine, fine, fine. You're bitter about sacrificing a chance to be a lackey, but you turn a blind eye to the danger that could drag both you and your brother into the slammer?"

"I've told you how many times, that's not being a lackey, that's being brothers! Little Lowry and I are brothers!"

"It's a lackey. No matter how nicely you put it, it's still a lackey."

"It's brothers! It's partners! Little Lowry is a star! We are his star partners!"

"Lackey..."

Just as they were arguing intensely, Silencer suddenly stopped the car. Turning his head, he saw they had already driven to a massive used car lot.

"FXXXYOU!"

"FXXX!"

The two slammed the doors and got out, no longer arguing. A salesman had already approached them.

"Pickup truck."

Silencer headed straight for the pickup truck section.

"Hmm?" Song Ya was attracted by the Volkswagen logo on a pickup truck. "Whoa! How much could this logo be worth? Hmm, not bad, really not bad. I wonder if it burns oil? Huh? Why would I have such a thought..."

"Young man, you have a good eye. This is a Volkswagen Rabbit Caddy. We have a great discount on this car..." The salesman immediately started his pitch.

"Don't look at that. A two-seater pickup isn't enough for us." Tony stood by a Ford pickup and called Song Ya over.

After much picking and choosing, they finally settled on a four-seater Ford pickup. It was eight years old, and the condition could only be described as average, but it had the advantage of being cheap—just over two thousand, all-inclusive.

Tony's anger came and went quickly. By the time he drove the "new" car, he was acting like nothing had happened, humming a little tune and constantly testing the car's various performance features. "Where are we going next?" he asked.

With quite a bit of money left, Song Ya thought for a moment. "Let's go to the used appliance market. We have a refrigerator at home, let's add a washing machine. That way, Aunt Susie won't have to carry a pile of clothes to the public laundromat and squeeze in with everyone else."

"Yeah!" Tony said while steering. "Ya Li, you're a good brother. Honestly, I used to have the same thoughts as you. Probably... back in seventh grade? Silencer and I were tall and strong among our peers and were the mainstays of the football team. We only wanted to get a college scholarship through football or even play professionally. It was with that belief that we were able to resist all kinds of temptations in the slums—gangs, drugs, petty theft... But then everything changed. Our peers' heights slowly caught up, and I couldn't control my body fat. There was no hope for a scholarship, and our path was cut off... Day after day, and eventually, it became what it is now."

"I understand." Song Ya extended his fist and bumped it with Tony's, and the two smiled at each other.

At the used appliance market, they first picked out a front-loading washing machine and an oven. Song Ya bought Silencer a VCR, bought Tony a NES and a small TV, and chose an electronic metronome, a guitar, a trumpet, and some miscellaneous items for himself.

Since transmigrating, he had really gotten involved with second-hand goods. Even his first transmigration perk was a song about a thrift shop. On one hand, it was because the second-hand trade in the US was very rich and convenient; on the other, they really couldn't put new things in the house, especially new appliances. Welfare office staff would conduct regular inspections and random checks. If they discovered a significant improvement in living standards or that there was a male head of the household and it was no longer a single-parent family, the welfare supply would drop significantly. With Song Ya's current income, it was far from enough to let the whole family get off welfare and live a prosperous life, so new appliances were out of the question.

After finishing his personal business, Song Ya's main energy was still focused on recording the song. This was his top priority right now. For this, he hadn't been to school for many days, but it didn't matter. The school had contacted Aunt Susie once, and since the guardian had no objections, they let it go.

A few days later, the version brought back from the professional mixing studio received unanimous approval from everyone. In other words, the new album for Little Lowry, which they had been working on day and night, was finally ready for production.

"Yeah!"

Old Joe and Pablo had gone to the factory, and the recording studio returned to peace. Song Ya and Eric, exhausted, collapsed on the sofa, not wanting to move a muscle.

Actually, this version was still far from the original in Song Ya's mind. Perhaps due to technology, the sound quality of Old Joe's chorus and Old Morgan's saxophone was far less penetrating than the original. In layman's terms, it wasn't "earwormy" enough. There were many other shortcomings, and Little Lowry's rap part was naturally not as good as the original. Song Ya couldn't give too much guidance during the recording; after all, he was a complete newcomer and had to consider the relationship between both parties.

Anyway, he felt it was unlikely that this song would reach the heights of the original, but it was the best they could do. Just doing his best was enough.

"Hey, Eric." He suddenly remembered Old Joe's words about Eric picking up girls.

"What?" Eric was about to fall asleep.

"Those girls downstairs, can you really pick any one of them and hook up right on the spot?"

"Pretty much, you want to learn?"

"Umm..."

Eric laughed, "Still playing coy with me? You little pervert, come here, I'll teach you, it's not hard at all."