Seeing Injustice, He Raised a Lid to Help

"Talking so sentimentally," Li Wei blinked. "When are you going to find someone?"

Don Quixote drove with a cigarette clenched between his lips and flipped him the middle finger. "Fuck, there are nothing but bad women in this world. I'm not making the same mistake with women again."

"By all rights, a man like you shouldn't have trouble finding women." Li Wei looked Don Quixote up and down. "Did your ex-wife really hurt you that badly?"

Don Quixote casually flicked the cigarette butt out the window and said indignantly, "What do I need women for? Women only care about your money. Fuck."

"Kid, you've never suffered at the hands of these chicks." He poured out his grievances to Li Wei. "When you're young and riding high, you meet a pretty blonde, and then you start dating her."

Li Wei smiled and gave a noncommittal hum. "And then?"

"And then?" Don Quixote chuckled. "That's when the nightmare begins."

"They'll start by searching online and fishing for information," Don Quixote said, lighting another cigarette. "They'll do everything they can to find out exactly how much you make and how much you have in savings."

"Then comes the slow carve-up." He looked at Li Wei with a teasing expression. "They'll start with 30% of your monthly take-home pay. Holidays every month, gifts, maintaining the relationship—they'll hit that line with incredible precision. Not too much, not too little. At first, after you spend a lot on them, they'll even tell you not to spend money."

"But I'm guessing 30% is only the beginning?" Li Wei said. "You sound like you've got a lot of resentment."

"Of course! Do you think 30% can satisfy those greedy vampires? Ha! Don't be so naive!"

Don Quixote's pale face, made bloodless by mild anemia, had flushed red. "For the first two or three months, you spend 30% every month. That's fine. Once your relationship goes a step further, she'll push it up to 50% of your income—feeling a little uncomfortable now?

That's only the beginning. Later, it'll climb to 70% of your income. If 30% of your original income has to go toward taxes, you won't have a single cent left, until every bit of your potential has been squeezed dry! Then they'll lift their asses and kick you to the curb, before finding the next guy."

"Sounds like women hurt you pretty badly," Li Wei said with a smile. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have so many complaints."

"That's life, kid. I've been divorced for so long, and I still have to pay her two thousand dollars every month." Don Quixote shook his head and rolled down the car window for some air. "Those are bloody lessons. Don't spend money on women, and don't get emotionally attached to them."

When the window rolled down and Li Wei caught the smell of leaves and garbage drifting through the air again, he knew without even looking outside that they had returned to the vicinity of Eighth Avenue.

After casually grabbing a few bites for dinner, Don Quixote sat upright and demanded that Li Wei take out his textbook so he could tutor him.

Half an hour later.

"You really memorized this entire book?" Don Quixote said in disbelief. "Let me test you. Page 267 of macroeconomics: the crowding-out effect caused by government deficit financing and its impact on private investment?"

Without even pausing, Li Wei packed the bag he would need tomorrow and casually answered without turning around, "When the government adopts expansionary fiscal policy and borrows to cover deficits, market interest rates rise, which in turn reduces interest-sensitive private investment and consumption. In the chart on page 267, the IS curve shifts right, causing interest rates to increase and thereby suppressing the growth in aggregate demand that would otherwise have occurred..."

Not only had he recited it, he also verbally explained the chart analysis on the next page.

As his mental power rose to 1.5, not only had Li Wei's neural response speed and thinking speed far surpassed those of ordinary people, but they were gradually racing in a direction even he could not understand. His memory had benefited directly as well. As long as he wanted to, he could remember anything he wished to memorize in an extremely short time.

Li Wei had memorized every word of the several-hundred-page AP Macroeconomics textbook before him in three days.

Don Quixote's mouth fell open. Ash dropped onto his pants, and he did not even notice.

"Bloody hell..." he muttered. "With a brain like yours, I'm not worried about your AP exam scores anymore."

As he spoke, he scratched his forehead in confusion. "Could you really get into Yale? Something doesn't add up."

"Did you not think I could get in before?" Li Wei shrugged. "Then why did you go ask for recommendation letters for me?"

"All right, objectively speaking, I thought the chances were pretty low, but subjectively, I still had to do my best." Don Quixote snapped the book shut. "Since you've saved me quite a bit of time, let's go to sleep early today. I still have to haul bricks at the construction site tomorrow."

Not long after, Don Quixote flopped down and fell asleep, and his familiar snoring started up again.

Then, at two in the morning, the snoring abruptly stopped.

Li Wei skillfully opened his eyes, pulled aside the curtain, and silently watched Don Quixote sit up stiffly and put on his armor with his eyes closed.

"My knightly companion," he said, changing the way he addressed Li Wei. "I can sense it. Today is the day. We must drive out the witch!"

With that, he headed out of the basement, and Li Wei grabbed his coat and followed.

They then wandered around the alleys. With his eyes closed, Don Quixote seemed to be searching for anything he could label a "witch."

Li Wei walked down the street, keeping watch in every direction and listening closely, afraid that a prostitute might jump out from somewhere and get slapped across the forehead by Don Quixote before she could even finish speaking.

Dealing with the aftermath would be a real pain.

Just as he was thinking that, they turned past an alley entrance piled with abandoned old furniture. Li Wei's mental power of 1.5 picked up the sounds before Don Quixote did.

"...Don't hurt me... You can have however much money you want, take it..."

"Hey, Carl, this bitch has so much cash in her bag. She must be rich..."

"Fuck, she really is... Where do you live? Take us there..."

Under the dim streetlight, Li Wei saw the scene ahead—

Two thin Black criminals in hoodies and masks had cornered a white woman in her early forties wearing a trench coat. One of them held a switchblade, its tip only a few centimeters from the woman's throat.

Behind the knife-wielding thug stood another Black man rummaging through her handbag. His waist bulged suspiciously, as though he had a gun tucked there.

Li Wei heard a ding in his mind. Another mission had been triggered.

"Knight Don Quixote is here! Hounds of darkness, release the weak and helpless women and children!"

But before Li Wei could make the first move, Don Quixote had already shouted and snatched up a filthy metal trash can lid from the roadside as a shield, charging forward in his armor.