Zhang Lisheng stopped walking and looked towards the direction of the voice.
He saw a fat middle-aged man wearing a pale blue denim suit with two beautiful handlebar mustaches below his nose and above his lips. He was holding a bracelet made of bright red stones in his hand with an expression that said 'you don't know what this is' on his face. Looking at a black girl who was not tall but had a voluptuous upper body, he kept shaking his head.
Even though he looked slightly different from the last time they met, the man's black hair, sculptural facial features, sunken face, long chin that stuck out, dark skin, and the white canvas under his feet that had a short sentence written on it that read 'all wishes come true' and was filled with all sorts of strange groceries showed that he was the grocery store owner who sold Island Dragon to Zhang Lisheng in Queens, New York.
Zhang Lisheng's pupils shrunk as he recalled the mysterious and strange things that this grocery store owner who claimed to have dug up the emperor's tomb in the war-torn Kosovo and crossed the sea to the US by rowing a wooden boat. He first lived safely in the garbage community full of thugs in Detroit for a few months before moving to Queens, New York and confronting the thugs with a gun.
"Could this be another coincidence …" He muttered to himself as he walked through the crowd and arrived in front of the grocery stall.
"This bracelet matches your skin color very well. Think about it, miss, it's only 30 dollars. Just 30 dollars and you'll be able to own the first piece of jewelry in your life." He did not seem to notice that the young man approaching him was a regular customer who had done a large transaction with him before. The former grocery store owner who was now the grocery store owner was still trying to entice the black girl who was slowly planning to pay.
Unfortunately, just when he was about to succeed, a deep voice with a double meaning interrupted the good business. "This is obviously a bracelet made of silicone but you're selling it as a ruby.
Mr. Mahmud, I haven't seen you for a few years and you're still so good at 'acting'. "
The girl who had already taken out her wallet looked at the bracelet in her hand carefully when she heard this. All of a sudden, she threw the bracelet on the ground angrily and shook her chest at Zhang Lisheng. "Thank you, cool bro," Then, she raised her little finger at the middle-aged fat man whom she could not tell his race and turned to leave.
"What a rude girl. This is the failure of America's liberal education method. How pathetic." The grocery stall owner sighed and bent down to pick up the bracelet. He put it away carefully and lifted his head to look at Zhang Lisheng by the side. As though he had just noticed Zhang Lisheng standing in front of his stall, he greeted him enthusiastically, "Oh, it's you, my respected Red Son.
Meeting you in Boston is really an unbelievable coincidence … "
"Coincidence? Maybe," Zhang Lisheng interrupted the grocery stall owner's words and said with a smile, "Mr. Mahmud, it looks like you've just arrived in Boston, right?"
"Yes, that's why I set up a stall overnight to earn some money to rent a house and open a shop. Every time I move, I suffer heavy losses.
However, New York is likely to become more dangerous than Detroit in the future. For this reason, even if I have to pay a small price, it's still safer to go to Detroit, the university city. "Mahmud looked around and stuck his head out. Lowering his voice, he said," Aren't you here too? "
When Zhang Lisheng heard that the grocery store owner did not deny his speculation, he was stunned for a moment. After pondering for a while, he replied, "Yes, I'm here too. Where's your Arab robe? Did you throw it away as well? It's much less convincing when you're selling these strange groceries in jeans."
"Oh, due to the continuous explosions recently, it's a special period where Arabs would be questioned by the FBI even if they were to buy a pot, so it's less troublesome to wear denim.
More importantly, after settling in the US for so long, I feel that I've completely integrated into the culture here and I'm a real cowboy now. Wearing denim suits my temperament too, "Mahmud touched his handlebar mustache that clearly had a Middle Eastern style and said with sincerity.
"You do look like a cowboy now, but you might be riding a camel, so you might not be able to sell your goods. It's alright, Mahmud, I can help you take care of your business. Do you still have the Komodo Dragon that you sold to me last time? I want to buy another one to accompany the one I bought last time."
"Of course not, sir!" The grocery stall owner shook his head quickly. "How can a living creature like the Komodo dragon be available just because you say so?"
"Oh, then what do you have that's suitable for me in your stall? You've told me before that your business is dedicated to serving the current and future 'powerful people' so how can I not look for you if I want to buy something?
"So you've really bought goods from me based on what I've said before." Mahmud, whose expression had been changing, suddenly became as hard as pig iron. Sighing inexplicably, he said, "The traces of fate really can't be erased, but if I place my bet on you … Ah, forget it.
Since fate has arranged it this way, I can only accept it.
I do have a gadget that's very suitable for you here. "
"What is it?" When Zhang Lisheng saw the sudden change in the grocery store owner's expression, he asked curiously.
"A real 'rare treasure'. Such a treasure must be sold at a good price first before making a deal."
"A real 'rare treasure', just like the real ruby bracelet that you sold just now, Mr. Mahmud," The young man said with a smile. "But even if you're selling that ruby bracelet, you'd still let the customer see it first before selling it, right?
How can you directly talk about the price without even knowing what the product is? "
"So you don't accept such a deal?" Mahmud was stunned for a moment. Clenching his fists nervously, he licked his lips and said while pretending to be calm.
When Zhang Lisheng was about to nod, he suddenly felt an indescribable uneasiness in his heart. Following the command of his intuition, his nod turned into a shake of his head. "Of course, it's not that I absolutely don't accept it. Tell me the price you want to sell it for?"
"The money that's enough for me to spend my entire life and three promises from you after you become a powerful person."
"The money that's enough for you to spend your entire life and three promises from me?" Zhang Lisheng frowned and said, "Isn't this condition a little too general?
If you only want to live like a real grocery store owner for the rest of your life, 50,000 dollars a year is enough. However, if you want to live like those Middle Eastern kings, 100 million dollars a year might not even be enough even if you're alone … "
"Let's take a compromise figure, 50,500 dollars a year. I'll pay you once a year as long as I'm alive." Mahmud stared into Zhang Lisheng's eyes and interrupted him.
"Hah! What a creative idea! What about the promise? I can't just die just because you ask me to, right?"
"The promise I want you to make must not harm your life and ability. Not only that, it must be a one-time promise."
Upon hearing the grocery store owner's words, Zhang Lisheng became silent for a while before suddenly saying, "Mr. Mahmud, don't tell me you're pretending to fool me …"
Mahmud opened his mouth expressionlessly and said, "Whatever you think, I've already stated my price anyway. Now, you only need to answer 'yes' or 'no'?"
A treasure that he did not even know the name of would be sold for more than 50 million dollars a year, plus three one-time promises. Any rational person would reject such a deal. However, Zhang Lisheng looked at Mahmud's face and pondered for a while before saying, "Give me an account number and we'll make a deal."
Upon hearing this, the grocery store owner's face turned as gloomy as a piece of rotten wood. In a low voice, he said, "You're really lucky, young sir. However, even if you have this precious' tool ', you still have to … have to …"
Halfway through his sentence, Mahmud pressed his neck as though he was suffocating all of a sudden. His face flushed and his lips began to turn purple.
The few of them gathered in front of the grocery store, planning to see if there was anything worth selling in this flea stall.
Later on, they felt that the dialogue between the stall owner and Zhang Lisheng that was like a play was very bizarre. All of the young people who stayed to watch the show realized that Mahmud's difficulty in breathing did not look like he was faking it. Hastily, they surrounded him, wanting to help. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, stood still.
A few minutes later, the grocery store owner, who had slowly recovered after panting loudly for a while, pushed away the kind-hearted young man beside him and took out a bill from his pocket while trembling. Squatting down, he found a black pen shaped like a wine barrel in the pile of groceries and wrote down an account number.
Then, he took out a postage stamp-sized portrait of a clown from his pocket and handed it to the young man along with the bill. "Transfer the money into this account number. The treasure's name is' The Mask of the Comedy King '. That's all I can tell you. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Mr. Mahmud." Zhang Lisheng took the clown portrait that was the size of a fingernail and touched it. He felt that it was made of leather. Even though he was puzzled, he still put the portrait into his pocket cautiously and no longer continued to follow the crowd to the stage to watch the show. Instead, he turned around and walked to a burger shop across the road.
After walking into the bustling and brightly lit burger shop, the young man spent 20 dollars at the counter and ordered a bunch of fast food such as Coke, beef burger, fried chicken steak, and so on. Then, he carried them to a small single table by the window and sat down. Then, he took out the clown portrait and looked at it carefully under the bright light.
Even though the clown's face was covered by a white smiley mask on the front of the portrait could not be seen clearly, it looked vivid so it should not be a print.
This was because the entire portrait only had a head and did not even have a lapel, so he could not guess the age and background of the character at all.
On the other hand, the texture on the back of the portrait was clear and there were even subtle pore marks. It looked like a small piece of animal skin that had been processed into a canvas by a special method. Other than this clue, there was nothing special about it.
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