Welcome to America

America, New York, Kennedy Airport.

When Li Wei arrived in America with all his belongings to seek out his distant uncle, Don Quixote, his gloomy mood was tinged with excitement.

Before Li Wei's parents passed away, they had mentioned this brother of his father's many times. Apparently, his behavior hadn't always been very respectable. He'd once squandered quite a bit of money, but later claimed he'd made some more and even tried to invite Li Wei's family to visit him in America. Li Wei's father had turned him down every time.

Li Wei had never met his uncle and had only heard stories about him from his father. Now, his family had been torn apart. At seventeen, Li Wei was an orphan with a huge debt hanging over his head. If he stayed in China, he'd become a delinquent debtor when he couldn't pay it off, and he didn't want that.

Fortunately, under the laws of the two countries, officials from the foreign affairs department had managed to contact his distant uncle in America.

Don Quixote. Li Wei rolled the name around in his mind as he lugged two suitcases along. What a strange name.

Suddenly, his phone rang. The SIM card had been arranged for him by a young woman at the foreign affairs department back home.

"This is Don Quixote Cervantes," a hoarse, hurried middle-aged man said. In the background, a car's turn signal ticked away. "Listen, I'm not going into the parking garage. It's run by vampires—they charge four dollars an hour. Where are you now?"

Luckily, Li Wei had grown up surrounded by English and spoke it almost like a native. Otherwise, he might not have understood his uncle, Don Quixote Cervantes.

Had he really made some money? Li Wei couldn't help wondering. Otherwise, why would he be so worked up over a four-dollar-an-hour parking fee?

"This is Li Wei," he said. "I just cleared customs."

"Then go to Terminal 4, Concourse B, outside Gate 2. Call me when you're five minutes away," Don Quixote said hurriedly. "Don't call too early. Got it? I can't stop for long. Those damn traffic cops are watching me."

After the call ended, Li Wei stood there in a daze, wondering if he should use Huabei to buy a ticket home.

Ten minutes later, a battered little car, its side skirts spattered with mud, pulled over to the curb. It nearly hit a yellow taxi.

It took Li Wei a while to recognize the car beneath all the thick grime and rust as a Toyota that had once been white. The window rolled down, revealing a gaunt face with prominent cheekbones and stubble. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, the result of chronic sleep deprivation.

"Get in!" His eyes darted around as if searching for traffic cops who weren't there. "Hurry up. Don't dawdle."

Li Wei struggled to heave his two heavy suitcases into the back, which was full of dust and empty paint cans. Then he pried open the passenger-side door and climbed in.

A paint-spattered reflective vest and a half-empty Gatorade bottle had been tossed onto the passenger seat. Li Wei grimaced and threw them into the back before sitting down.

"Rrrgh!"

Don Quixote stomped on the gas. The Toyota let out a dying groan. Instead of charging forward like a knight's steed, it shuddered sluggishly into traffic.

"Buckle up," he said, turning to look at Li Wei. "The passenger door lock is busted. It might fly open when we turn."

Li Wei instinctively reached up and grabbed the handle above the door.

"Li Wei, right?" Don Quixote said. "Listen, I'm sorry about your father... my half-brother, and your mother... I'm sorry they died. He was a truly smart guy, and then he died in some ridiculous car accident... I heard you had to pay a huge amount in damages. Did you run off to America because you couldn't pay?"

"I'll earn the money and pay off what I owe. And it's none of your business," Li Wei said with a frown. "This is my problem. I'll get a job when I'm old enough."

So this was the uncle his father had said had "made a little money"?

"But when he dumped you on me, he didn't include a check for a million dollars," Don Quixote scoffed. "New York isn't like China. Here, money can buy you anything, but it also means you have to pay for everything. So, how much money do you have on you?"

"About six hundred dollars on my card," Li Wei said. "The rest is just clothes and some daily necessities."

In truth, he had two cards. The other one had a full six thousand dollars in it, but he didn't mention that.

It was a drop in the bucket compared to his debt, but to him, it was a fortune that could save his life in a pinch.

Even six hundred dollars seemed to surprise his uncle.

"Six hundred? Ha!" He slapped the steering wheel. "Well, at least that'll cover gas and my lost wages this week. Welcome to America, kid."

As Don Quixote rattled on during the drive, Li Wei barely had to say a word. His uncle poured out his life story like beans from a pod.

He started with the small fortune he'd made in business, then told Li Wei about meeting his ex-wife ("She was a real fucking bitch, wasn't she? Women are like that. They want to suck the marrow right out of your bones"). Then came the divorce, his cash flow problems, and the loan shark debt he'd taken on from the mob. On top of that, he had to pay his ex-wife two thousand dollars in alimony every month ("Damn American laws. A pig can lie around the house and still make two thousand a month. If this had happened ten years ago, I'd have sold my ass for money.").

"So now I have to work two jobs just to stay alive." He lit a cigarette and summed it up matter-of-factly. "I haul bricks at a construction site during the day and wash dishes in the back of a Spanish restaurant at night. That's America. You have to bust your ass just to survive... Here we are."

"Where are we?" Li Wei asked, peering through the greasy window at a gray concrete building that looked like a moldy loaf of bread.

This clearly wasn't Don Quixote's home.

"This is the New York City Administration for Children's Services office," Don Quixote said. "For us—well, for me, mostly—this is the land of hope."

He swung the beat-up Toyota into a parking space marked "Government Vehicles Only," then quickly pulled out a disabled parking placard and tossed it onto the dashboard.

"Are you disabled?" Li Wei asked.

"What?" Don Quixote caught on and grinned smugly. "Of course not."

"Listen, Li Wei." He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face him. "I'm taking you in and becoming your guardian because of America's damn laws. As your sole guardian, by taking in an orphan under eighteen, I qualify for a thousand-dollar check from the state every month—for me, I mean. It's called a kinship foster care stipend."

"So I'm basically a human check that gets cashed automatically every month?" Li Wei laughed. "I thought it was about family."

"If family or love meant anything, I wouldn't have had to sell one of my balls to make rent, kid. I'd like to believe in family more than anyone. It'd be even better if it were worth something," Don Quixote said, patting Li Wei on the shoulder. "Now get out."

Then he spat into his grimy palms and slicked his filthy hair back, trying to turn it into a respectable style. Next, he somehow produced a pair of gold-rimmed, nonprescription glasses and perched them on his nose.

Everything was legal and aboveboard, and Li Wei's handsome face had played a crucial role in winning over the heavyset Mrs. Debbie. The thousand-dollar check soon landed in Don Quixote's pocket.

This put him in a very good mood. Even after they returned to the car, he was still buzzing with excitement.

"Listen, kid," he said, putting away the fake disabled parking placard and starting the car. "We're in this together now, right? Those ACS workers have nothing better to do than hassle poor folks like us. They come by every month to check that you're still alive and see how you're doing."

"We'll split the money fifty-fifty," he said. "Five hundred for me, and the rest for you. If you're paying for room and board, then that five hundred can be your living expenses. All you have to do is deal with those ACS idiots once a month. How does that sound?"

"Eight hundred and fifty dollars," Li Wei said. "Otherwise, no deal."

He'd looked up the cost of living in America before coming. In New York, even if he spent every day chasing discounted vegetables and bought nothing else, five hundred dollars would barely be enough to survive.

Prices in America were astonishingly high. Transportation and phone bills alone could cost him two hundred dollars a month. And judging by the smell coming off Don Quixote's filthy shirt, there was probably not even a washing machine at home. Li Wei would have to pay to use a laundromat every month.

"Are you trying to rob me, you little punk?" Don Quixote shouted. "I haven't even counted the utilities!"

"But without me, you wouldn't get that fifteen hundred dollars at all," Li Wei said calmly. "I'll even give you another fifty. You get twenty percent, I get eighty. Otherwise, next month I'll report you to ACS for abusing me."

Don Quixote turned to glare at Li Wei. "Aren't we family? I'm your guardian, and I'm your elder!"

"That's what you said," Li Wei replied with a shrug. "This is America, and I don't want to sell one of my balls just to eat."

"Good. You learn fast." Don Quixote flashed his yellow teeth as he grinned. "That's the spirit. Welcome to America!"

For the next while, Li Wei watched the beat-up Toyota crawl like a snail along the highway between Brooklyn and Queens. The sky turned a dirty purple-gray before Don Quixote suddenly yanked the wheel, took an exit, and plunged into the crowded streets of Sunset Park.

Chinese signs became more common here—Fuzhou Fish Balls, Wenzhou Hair Salon, Jihui China, immigration services, and other shops wedged between weathered red-brick buildings. If not for the occasional Mexican laborer and the silhouette of Manhattan's skyscrapers in the distance, shimmering like a mirage, Li Wei might have thought he'd returned to the old downtown of some third-tier county town thirty years ago.

"Here we are." Don Quixote deftly parked beside a fire hydrant where parking was prohibited. "An alley off 8th Avenue."

Li Wei got out and followed, dragging his two suitcases behind him. They went around the side of a three-story red-brick building that looked ready to crumble. There, a rusty iron gate, barely waist-high, opened onto a stairway leading underground.

"Watch your head," Don Quixote muttered. "And keep your steps light. If the dog upstairs hears us, it'll bark all night."

When the gate swung open, a wall of musty air hit Li Wei. He wrinkled his nose and followed Don Quixote down into a basement apartment converted from a storage cellar full of junk.

Only a narrow, flat window at ground level let in any light. Through it, Li Wei could see the ankles of passersby and the occasional rat scurrying past.

The room was long and narrow, like a tube. Aside from the bathroom, which had its own room, the living room, bedroom, and dining area all occupied the same space. A few of the cheapest blackout curtains served as dividers.

"I even carved out a little room for you," Don Quixote said proudly, pointing to a dirty mattress that looked like he'd picked it up off the street. "What do you think? I even got you a mattress."

Even the most optimistic person would have sighed at finding himself in such a situation.

Li Wei said nothing and wheeled his suitcase into his "room."

"If you need to jerk off, do it in the bathroom. Otherwise, I'll smell it," Don Quixote said, glancing at his phone with its shattered screen. "I have to go wash dishes in half an hour. Come out first. We need to talk about what you're going to do next."

Li Wei pushed aside the curtain and came out, then carefully sat down on the peeling, busted sofa.

Feeling something poking him beneath the seat, he reached into a gap in the cushions and pulled out a... knightly romance?

"Oh, that's mine." Don Quixote took the book from his hands. "It's one of the few things I brought from home. I've dreamed of being a knight since I was a kid... I've even got a suit of armor in my corner."

"I know you want to start making money as soon as possible," Don Quixote said, setting the book aside and coughing a couple of times before turning serious. "But you can't. Not until you're eighteen, at least. Before then, you can only work part-time, for a minimum wage of fifteen dollars and fifty cents an hour."

"I won't be an adult for another year," Li Wei said with a frown. "What am I supposed to do until then?"

"You have to go to school." Don Quixote took out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and carefully pulled one out. "Even the worst high school—you have to stay until you graduate. If you'd snuck across the border, that'd be one thing. But you came in legally on a B-2 visa. You can't just work under the table. New York State law says you need to change to an F-1 student visa and wait two years. Only then can I, as your guardian, help you get a green card."

"There are too many people like you, trying to get student visas so they can work under the table. The people who came before you have blocked that path," he added with a smug grin. "No matter how desperate you are, you'll have to wait two years for a green card."

Li Wei hadn't known there were so many hoops to jump through. He'd assumed that, like in TV shows and online stories, anyone who stayed in America illegally could make several thousand dollars a month just by waiting tables.

"Now that you've left the country, you don't need to worry too much about your debt back home for the time being," Don Quixote said, lighting a cigarette in front of a minor without the slightest concern for propriety. "As your uncle, I'll give you some advice. If I were you, I'd worry about your school life and what kind of life you want to have."

"School life?" Li Wei asked. "Do New York high schools have school shootings every day?"

"Shooting? Oh, that's one thing, sure, but the death rate's relatively low," Don Quixote said vaguely. "I mean that pretty face of yours."

"If I were you, I'd work out for the next month," he said, then went back to his corner and changed into different clothes. "Or carry a little knife or something. You've got a pretty mixed-race face, you're an outsider, and you're not exactly strong. I'm sure you know what I mean... I'm heading out. Get your own dinner. If I'm not back by three, I'm dead somewhere. Remember to call the cops for me."

After Don Quixote grabbed his keys and left, Li Wei let out a long breath and looked toward the dim window.

It was already nearly night. Someone upstairs was shouting in a language he couldn't understand, accompanied by the thud of footsteps moving back and forth.

But none of it could keep Li Wei awake. The jet lag, the journey, and the emotional whiplash swept over him, and he fell asleep fully clothed without a care.

Luckily, it was August in New York. The basement was chilly, but not so cold that he couldn't sleep.

Half-asleep, he heard a voice flash through his mind:

[Welcome to the Middle Ages, Adventurer Li Wei.]

[The Medieval Adventurer System has loaded successfully.]

[This is a world where danger and opportunity coexist. Good luck.]

But Li Wei paid no attention to any of it and sank into a deep sleep.

In that hazy state between sleep and wakefulness, he heard something rustling.

At first, he thought it was a rat, but the noise grew louder, joined by clattering sounds. It was so noisy that he couldn't sleep anymore.

He opened his eyes and pushed aside the curtain.

Streetlight slanted through the narrow window, illuminating the silhouette of someone putting on armor.

"Uncle Don Quixote?" Li Wei said groggily. "What are you doing? It's only... oh, half past three in the morning?"

"Who's there?" Don Quixote's tightly closed eyes turned toward him. "Who said that?"

"It's me." In the light, Li Wei could see that Don Quixote seemed to be sleepwalking. "I'm your nephew, Li Wei."

"What nephew?" Don Quixote suddenly understood. "I know!"

Though his eyes were still shut, he landed a precise slap on Li Wei's shoulder. "You must be my squire, Li Wei."

He pointed at his boots. "Squire Li Wei, help me put on my boots!"

Li Wei didn't move. He stood there watching Don Quixote for a while, and the man put on his boots himself.

Then Don Quixote shoved open the basement door.

"Where are you going?" Li Wei asked, pulling on a jacket and following him. "What are we going to do?"

The knight Don Quixote snorted and declared in a booming voice, "Have you forgotten? The village chief commissioned me today to clear out the goblins harassing the village!"

Just then, another voice flashed through Li Wei's mind:

[Hero Li Wei, you have encountered the knight Don Quixote Cervantes.]

[You have accepted the quest: Assist the knight in clearing out the goblins.]

[Reward: System panel unlocked, attribute points +0.1, random skill *1]

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