Great time travel

Chapter 142, Hollywood's Flash
West Coast, Los Angeles, Hollywood

In the howling wind of winter, Louisa, a French girl with long flaxen hair, wrapped in a slightly faded and shedding brown coat, walked out of the studio exhausted and stumbled, her eyes were almost open Without it, the walking posture is like sleepwalking or walking on stilts-in order to shoot the night scene, she and a bunch of small characters and extras have been tossing and sleeping for a whole night, and it is really too much for her now.

But there is no way around it. In the United States during the war mobilization era, for ordinary people without any special education or skills, it is really difficult to find a job that is easy and can fill their stomachs. My God - Luisa knows very well that many girls who are more delicate than her are now forced by life to go to factories to build machines like men, and even go to mines to dig coal, and they still work fourteen hours a day all year round The horrible workload is even worse than sweatshops... In comparison, the hard work of actors is really nothing.

This is the urban life in the era of war. The whole country revolves around the war. Men go to the front line to bleed and fight, while women work as cows and horses in the rear.Every factory is producing munitions, every steamer is carrying military supplies, everything is going to war.From food, toilet paper, soap, daily necessities, and electricity, there is nothing that is not in short supply. Everyone lacks a smile on their faces, and the social atmosphere is so cold that it is almost suffocating.

In fact, the reason why the Hollywood film industry has not stopped until now, and the reason why third-rate actors like Luisa can still get that meager salary instead of working as coolies in factories, mines and farms is also because Hollywood is still working. Receive orders from the Pentagon and the White House, continue to shoot various "main theme" films that promote war and patriotism, and cheer up this increasingly declining war.For example, Louisa at this moment has just left from the shooting scene of a heroic propaganda film called "Captain America vs. Dr. Manchuria", which advocates the heroism of a white muscular hero single-handedly defeating a short, yellow, evil scientist. A small character with only three or four lines of lines, so he has already filmed all his scenes, and tomorrow he has to go to the scene of a "Air Combat Heroes" movie to play the role of a female nurse in a field hospital...

Despite being so busy, Luisa's salary is only enough to make ends meet and pay rent, and she can't even afford a bicycle for transportation.

Although Los Angeles has always been known throughout the United States for its warm climate and year-round spring, it is far from comparable to the traditional big cities on the East Coast that turn into ice and snow purgatory in winter.But in today's sad year with abnormal global climate, Los Angeles is still snowing one after another.In Luisa's field of vision, dirty old snow was still accumulated on street corners and street trees not far away, and the sky was shaking from the gloomy cumulus clouds like worn-out cotton wool. New snow is coming.The cold wind with snowflakes on her body made Luisa shiver more and more, but she also woke up a lot from the cold.

So, the third-rate actress Luisa, who was temporarily suppressed by the cold wind, rubbed her forehead and thick dark circles with her blue fingers, then put on her bag and hurried to her residence Go, seems to want to add some heat to the body with fast exercise.

At this time, although the sun was already high, due to the increasingly tightened fuel rationing and the suspension of production of civilian vehicles for many years, there were few cars and bicycles on the streets of Los Angeles, and there were not many people walking around. Many men have entered the army, women and elderly men are still busy in factories at this hour, few people can hang out on the street at this hour... Suddenly there is the sound of a military band in the distance, and hundreds of them have just been drafted into the army young recruits walk by the street.Many of them were children of middle school age.Although some people were singing military songs, with a cursory glance, it was obvious that they were forcing a smile on their faces. Even passers-by were a little sad and sad about this, and couldn't help turning their faces away.

—After the brutal and long war that lasted so long, the whole United States of America has cooled down from the frenzy of the early days of the war.As millions or even tens of millions of soldiers died on the battlefield one after another, the patriotic enthusiasm that once boiled throughout the country has already cooled to freezing point.People finally understand that war is not a game of honor at all, but a gamble where everything is on the line.What's more, the United States is clearly not betting well.Especially as the battlefield retreated step by step from Europe and East Asia to South America, even a layman who knew nothing about the military could see that the prospects of the United States in this war were extremely bleak.But after things had developed to this point, they had no choice but to resign themselves to their fate.

As an ordinary woman who loved balls, music, and beautiful clothes more, Louisa was bored by the war from the start.Because the war did not bring her any benefit, but it made life more difficult day by day... At first glance, Hollywood and even downtown Los Angeles are still as prosperous and prosperous as they were in peacetime. Filled with a wide variety of merchandise.But in fact, these things can only be seen but not bought, and many products are simply empty jars or boxes - because according to the government's order, they are only placed there for exhibition, which is similar to those in newspapers and radio stations. Like the official articles advocating war, they all belong to one of the propaganda methods of whitewashing peace.

And if you really want to buy things with ration cards and banknotes... When passing by a certain store, Luisa carefully looked at it with eager eyes for a long time, but the tightly closed storefront and the " "Closed" wooden sign still made her feel sincerely disappointed.

Because, this is the only ration food store in the neighborhood that has been licensed by the government...

——I don’t know why, Hollywood’s ration food stores have basically been out of supply for more than a week: last month, they were only short of sugar, eggs and meat, and this month they simply closed the store, and there is no bread and flour Yes... A few days ago, Luisa was still relying on the little inventory accumulated in the front area, but now... She counted the coins and banknotes in her wallet, and finally gritted her teeth and went to the black market.

No way, since the legal ration stores on the street are closed and there is no food to buy anymore, the only place to buy food is naturally the black market.Although their prices on the black market are simply astronomical...

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——In times of war and chaos, various black markets for reselling scarce supplies will emerge as the times require, no matter ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, this is the case.

Human beings may be able to tolerate the lack of anything, but not the lack of food.This is something that any living thing needs to survive.However, in many big cities in the United States at the moment, they are hoarded by profiteers at this time, artificially creating a food shortage situation-in fact, relying on the production of the Mississippi River Basin and various materials plundered from South America, There is no shortage of various basic consumer goods in the United States at present.

However, profiteers from all walks of life, who are suffering from a large number of overseas investments in vain following the defeat of the US military, and whose financial statements are appalling and unable to explain to shareholders, refuse to give up this opportunity to make huge profits.Instead, relying on the collusion between the government and businessmen, all goods, including food, are tightly sealed, deliberately creating the illusion of a shortage of consumer goods in the market, and then throwing the embezzled goods into the black market, thereby earning huge profits.

This kind of thing is of course poaching the corner of the federal government.If it was in normal times, it must have been liquidated by the White House.However, the United States is now in a special period of wartime, and there is a President Truman who lacks authority, which has led to a sharp decline in the control of the federal government over various places. Many interest groups that were once suppressed by President Roosevelt took the opportunity to revive. Gather forces to fight against the government again... Due to the infiltration of the consortium, the White House is completely unable to eliminate the black market and rectify prices, so it can barely keep the situation under control.

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