America 1881: Legend of the West

"Boss, where are we going now?" Li Sifu asked.

"You guys should find a hotel to stay in first. I'll go for a walk nearby." Chen Jianqiu pointed to the back, "When I came here just now, I saw a hotel."

Li Sifu took the order, turned the horses' heads with the dozen or so people behind him, and headed in the direction pointed by Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu rode a horse and wandered slowly and leisurely through the streets of Chinatown.

San Francisco's Chinatown is crowded and chaotic.

People are concentrated in small and crude spaces, struggling to survive.

The living environment of Chinese people in California has become increasingly bad since a few years ago.

Therefore, most people have to stay in Chinatown all day long and dare not leave this place.

Even so, the area has been hit by violence many times in the past ten years.

Along the way, you can occasionally see some houses that were destroyed by fire and have not had time to be rebuilt, as well as some low shacks, which are as broken as ruins.

Chen Jianqiu remained silent all the way.

But when he was riding a horse and passed an alley next to a laundry.

Chen Jianqiu glanced inside, then dismounted, tied the horse to the door of the laundry, and turned in on foot.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a blue silk shirt walked out from the corner opposite the alley entrance and followed him into the alley.

However, in the alley, the middle-aged man did not see Chen Jianqiu.

He was just about to turn around and exit.

Chen Jianqiu's voice came from behind him: "Sir, you have been following me since you left the Ningyang Guild Hall just now. May I ask, what do you want from me?"

The middle-aged man turned his head and saw Chen Jianqiu standing at the entrance of the alley at some point.

Chen Jianqiu's words were polite and his expression was as calm as water, but his movements were aggressive.

His coat was lifted up, revealing the holster at his waist and the revolver inside.

However, the middle-aged man kept staring at Chen Jianqiu's face, as if he couldn't get enough of it, his eyes were blurred.

Chen Jianqiu felt that something was wrong.

What is this expression? To be honest, I'm not that handsome either. At least he's not handsome enough to make a middle-aged man look at him like this.

"Your surname is Chen?" the middle-aged man asked.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Chen Jianqiu looked at him doubtfully.

"Did you just arrive in the United States?" The middle-aged man began to get excited.

"Well, that should be it." Chen Jianqiu's mind was running rapidly, and he began to figure out what was going on now.

"It can't be wrong, it can't be wrong." The middle-aged man's breathing began to quicken and he murmured in a low voice.

"Do you want to calm down first?" Chen Jianqiu tried to calm the middle-aged man's emotions.

Unexpectedly, two lines of hot tears suddenly flowed out of the corners of the middle-aged man's eyes, across his vicissitudes of life, and flowed down his cheeks.

He knelt down with a plop, completely ignoring his clean blue silk clothes, and knocked his head heavily on the ground.

Chen Jianqiu suddenly understood.

The last time he saw this scene was when he met Zhang Danian for the first time.

"Little Lord!"

The middle-aged man suppressed his voice and cried with excitement, which was extremely moving.

He knocked his head one after another, each one heavier than the other. Even though the ground was mud, his head made a "dong-dong" sound.

Chen Jianqiu stepped forward and helped the middle-aged man up from the ground without any explanation.

"Young Master~" The middle-aged man still couldn't stop crying, as if all the years of grievances and regrets burst out at this moment.

Chen Jianqiu had no intention of persuading him. He knew that these people were loyal and strong-willed.

The man did not shed tears, but he did not go to the sad place.

He just looked at the middle-aged man quietly, waiting for the middle-aged man's mood to calm down a little, then looked at his half-white hair and said, "You must have been wronged over the years."

This sentence is a universal sentence. Although he doesn't know the name of the person in front of him or his relationship with him, his intuition tells him that this person is useful.

The middle-aged man realized his gaffe. He hurriedly wiped his tears with his sleeves, lowered his body and said to Chen Jianqiu: "Young Master, this is not the place to talk. Please come with me."

Chen Jianqiu led the horse and followed the middle-aged man to the door of a house near the port.

Compared with the surrounding ones, this house is much larger and more presentable.

There is a sign hanging above: Chinese Mutual Aid Association.

Not labeled in English.

The middle-aged man opened the door and walked in with Chen Jianqiu.

There were a lot of people coming and going on the first floor, but most of them were dressed like dock workers. They were all looking for a guy at the door, who was holding something.

Seeing the middle-aged man approaching, they all got out of the way and saluted him:

"Hello, grandpa!"

"Hello, Uncle Huang!"

Without saying a word, the middle-aged man led Chen Jianqiu through the crowd, directly opened a door in the back room and walked in.

After Chen Jianqiu came in, the middle-aged man closed the door, turned to Chen Jianqiu, and wanted to bow again, but was gently supported by Chen Jianqiu, and he could no longer bow.

He could only clasp his fists and say:

"TPJ chief executive Huang Qingyun, pays homage to the young master!"

Chen Jianqiu nodded.

The two of them each found a stool and sat down.

"Why are you here?" Chen Jianqiu asked.

"It's a long story." The silver-haired Huang Qingyun sighed, "After the defeat, I headed south. I am originally from Xinning, Guangdong. I originally planned to return to my hometown and hide my name, but those wealthy gentry have already burned me. He has no choice but to live in exile overseas."

"The King of England died miserably." Huang Qingyun sighed, "It's all because of our incompetence."

Chen Jianqiu didn't have much feelings for the King of England, because he didn't even have memories of him.

Therefore, he could only respond with silence to Huang Qingyun's anger.

"After I came here, I started to hide my name and changed my name to Huang Aqi. I just changed my name, but I couldn't change my accent, so I lived on the dock with a group of fellow villagers," Huang Qingyun said.

"If the income is not higher in other places, why does it have to be at the dock?" Chen Jianqiu asked.

"To be honest, young master, I was at the dock just for the opportunity to see if I could gather some of TPJ's old members who came to flee. Most of them have changed their names and concealed their last names, but most of their incisions will not be changed." Huang Qingyun touched it. Touch the bare back of your head,

"Besides, they will probably have various reasons not to wear braids."

"By the way, how do you know that I just came to the United States recently?" Chen Jianqiu suddenly remembered and asked.

At the mention of this, Huang Qingyun, who had already calmed down, suddenly jumped up from his chair: "This matter is extremely strange!"

"How do you say it?" Chen Jianqiu became interested.

"A year ago, I received news that the situation there took a sudden turn and the whereabouts of you and your teacher were leaked, so I planned to send you, young master, here."

"But, I waited for a long time, but I didn't wait for you, only your senior brother." Huang Qingyun looked at Chen Jianqiu, "By the way, have you seen your senior brother today? He should be in the guild hall today. "

Chen Jianqiu shook his head.

He is completely confused now, because the memories are all fragmented and cannot be connected at all.

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore." Chen Jianqiu interrupted the topic. He knew that if the conversation continued, his hallucinations might appear again.

"Did you establish this 'Chinese Mutual Aid Association'?" He looked at the office.

Simple, but neat.

"Well, thanks to the respect of the brothers, they are all making a living on the dock. The core members are the veterans of TPJ and their descendants. There are others too, but they must abide by the rules of the association." Huang Qingyun He took out a thick stack of rosters from the drawer and handed them to Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu took the roster and did not rush to look through it, but put it aside first:

"Uncle Huang, I have something I need to discuss with you first."

It took me a long time to unblock it.