1984 year.

The 23rd Los Angeles Olympic Games, just a few months after the end, far away in San Francisco, Northern California, ushered in a rare heavy snowfall.

The sky was overcast and the wind was howling.

The Golden Gate Bridge, the symbol of the city, was built half a century ago and towers over the banks of the river.

Not far away, in Golden Gate Park, where fallen leaves are piled up, there are tall blonde girls in overcoats, carrying shopping bags of various sizes, full of them.

The other end of the city.

Located in the northeast corner of San Francisco, there is one of the largest Chinatowns in California and the United States, where nearly 100,000 overseas Chinese live and span more than 10 blocks.

And not far from Chinatown, there is a ...... fenced off by barbed wire Jail.

San Francisco County Jail.

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"Elder Wang, this ghost weather can simply freeze people to death, how comfortable you are lying in the bed. I'll go for you over there in the kitchen, just three camels, the kind with cigarette holders, deal?"

A ruffian young man in his early twenties with short hair was standing by the bars and talking.

His name is Chen Linzhi, he was only more than four catties when he was born, and Mr. Feng Shui helped to give such a name, saying that the five elements lack wood, and he is less angry, and he can just use the "Ganoderma lucidum" treasure medicine town to live in a town.

When it comes to the attachment to old traditions and old concepts, it can be said that it has a long history in Chinatown, and many local people believe in it.

Chen Linzhi is quite tall and handsome.

While talking to the old man Wang, who had been living together for a long time, he grabbed the iron fence with both hands, used it as fitness equipment, and easily did several pull-ups one after another to drive away the cold.

Temperatures rarely reach sub-freezing, there is no air conditioning or fireplace, the wind blows from the bay of San Francisco, it's wet and cold, and the big guys don't have too much clothing.

Looking out through the iron railing, some white snow can already be faintly seen on the dry grass used to let the wind out, and the windows have no glass, and the wind is constantly pouring in, and it is almost freezing to death.

The old man surnamed Wang has a goatee, don't look at the current thinness and weakness, I heard that he was a ruthless character when he was young, and he was sentenced to two life imprisonment, just from the sentence you can see how serious the crime is.

As for what he did, Chen Linzhi asked, but the old man never mentioned it, and he didn't want to confide in half a word.

Old man Wang was imprisoned in Alcatraz Prison in his early years, that is, the heavy prison isolated by the sea on a small offshore island, and was closed in Alcatraz Prison in the sixties.

Twenty years have passed now, and with years of operation, Old Man Wang has the ability to bring cigarettes, alcohol, snacks, etc. from outside, as well as the "Playboy" magazine, which is particularly popular in prison, so whether it is Asian, black, or white, they are all polite to him, which is quite face-saving.

No one wants to offend people like Old Man Wang, and cut off their access to materials from the outside world, and there are various ways to exchange for materials, which can be bought with money, or exchanged for news, and there are also things like Chen Linzhi who help do some chores and so on.

"No, there is meat to eat today, although they are all worthless beef scraps, but they are also meat, I can eat more when I go to the kitchen, you kid is really good at picking days." ”

Old man Wang was talking, but he still took out two cigarettes from under the pillow, handed one to Chen Linzhi, and held one in his own mouth.

Find a match and light it, the smell of smoke is quickly blown away by the wind, which is already a rare fairy moment.

The so-called picking the day means that Christmas is coming.

Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, and the day after tomorrow, Christmas Day, according to the rules, you will have to add food to calm the emotions of the big guys.

The light prison has the advantage of being a little more lenient in management, especially the old man Wang, who has a wide range of doors, and he earns some money on weekdays, so his life is quite good.

Chen Linzhi had just learned to smoke.

He's the same person, but he's not that person anymore. In other words, he is not Chen Linzhi at all, at least not in memory.

Originally living in 2020, a teenager who grew up under the red flag, just got a job in a bank after graduating from college, and returned to San Francisco in the 80s in a daze, and was unlucky to be in this iron fence.

It happened three months ago, taking over Chen Linzhi's body, and there were many more memories belonging to Chen Linzhi in his head, as if they had been fused.

For the first month or so, it was difficult to accept this reality, like schizophrenia.

Now, I finally accepted my fate, and the whole person calmed down. After all, so many days and nights have passed, the expected miracle has not happened, and I don't have the courage to break myself, it's better to die than to live, and there is no way to admit it.

The camel cigarette was burning, and the smell of it was wafting with the wind, and someone next door was flattering and whispering, whether it was Old Man Wang or Chen Linzhi, they ignored each other's meaning.

Old man Wang sat in the quilt, with a pair of reading glasses on the bridge of his nose, coughed dryly, and asked, "I remember that you came in because of a fight, and the sentence was only four months, right, are you going out soon?"

"Well, there's only two days left, and I don't want to stay in this place for a day, and I can't come in again. ”

"I came in just after the end of World War II, and now I don't even know what it's like outside, remember to send me a few pictures, you're so young, it's best not to come in. ”

After the old man Wang finished speaking, he sighed, and his mind to read idle books was gone.

Sitting on the bed, he handed the cigarette butt to Chen Linzhi and asked him to throw it out of the window, and after a while, he said again: "What do you want to do after you go out?"

Chen Linzhi didn't think about this question.

From the memory, "I" entered the church shelter at the age of eleven, my parents were gone, and I didn't have any reliable relatives to help.

No matter from which point of view, the life of the past few years was quite a failure, and I was called "Brother Lin" a few words, thinking that I was really getting ahead and becoming famous, and there was an eagle tattooed on my left chest to my arm, which was not small.

In fact, the so-called bigwigs are just guns, and their income can only be eaten, so it is not unjust to be reduced to such a field today.

However, Chen Linzhi still felt aggrieved, after all, it was the stunned young man who committed the crime, why did he suffer with him, and he couldn't take revenge, so he couldn't be angry with himself.

After thinking about it for a short time, I didn't have a clue.

Chen Linzhi told Old Man Wang: "I haven't thought about it for the time being, I dropped out of school very early, I don't have a diploma, my family is also poor, and now I have a criminal record, it is estimated that it will be difficult to find a stable job, so I want to find a way to save money and do some small business." ”

It's been a few months of contact, and Old Man Wang knows that his nature is not bad.

It's a pity that not everyone can have a happy childhood and a stable family, and there are many people like Chen Linzhi...... The previous Chen Linzhi, now the situation has changed.

Old man Wang didn't have so much sympathy, he was already numb at this age, and there was a mist on his reading glasses, so he took it off and wiped it, and told him:

"When you go out to help me do something, the pay is easy to say, I hid a sum of money before I came in, and I didn't mention it to anyone.

Now that I'm old, I don't have any hope of being released on parole, as long as you're willing to help me, I'll tell you where the money is hidden, and it's okay to save some money for three or five years. When you go out, you can still spend money to find a little mother-in-law, so as not to be stupid in front of magazine pictures all day long, everything is difficult without money, consider giving me an answer. ”

Idle all day long and having nothing to do, Chen Linzhi recalled the memory of "himself" in his mind, knowing that this Brother Chen in the mouth of others did not add up to hundreds of dollars on his body, and even cigarettes and alcohol had to be rubbed from others.

There is no way, there is a group of people under his hands, in order to win people's hearts, they always have to give food and money to spend, where do so many brothers get righteous anger, it is a common phenomenon to give money according to the head of the fight, many times it is like a group performance, comparing who can call more people.

And if there are too many people, most of them will not be able to solve it afterwards, at least in the Chinatown area, there are some white and black communities nearby, which is really ruthless, and it is not popular to make money with anger.

All in all, Chen Linzhi is quite poor, he doesn't even have a house of his own, and he owes the landlord two months' rent.

A few months after coming in, it is estimated that the tattered things in the room have long been thrown on the street.

Chen Linzhi didn't care.

But since he decided to continue his life, it would be good to have a chance to make quick money, he had actually been very wary of this thin old man who had been sentenced to two life imprisonment, and he was not in a hurry to give an answer, and after thinking about it with caution, he asked with a smile: "You came in in your twenties, right?"

"Hmm. ”

Old man Wang looked at him, not understanding why he was asking this.

After Chen Linzhi received an affirmative answer, he raised his eyebrows slightly, and his eyes were strange:

"In the 40s, during World War II, even if I hid a huge amount of money at that time, it would have depreciated until now. And after all this time, what you've hidden may have been discovered and taken away as a windfall.

If you want me to help you do something, you can give some real benefits first, and I don't do illegal and criminal things, the sky is high and the sea is wide outside, let the birds fly, don't be like I haven't seen the world, I can be used as a gun casually. ”

"Hey, if you don't want to be used as a gun, can you be locked up here with me for a few months?"

As he spoke, Old Man Wang also understood in his heart that it was not the same time now, how cheap the prices were when he first came in, and the purchasing power of one dollar was several times that of now.

He has channels to purchase supplies inside and is aware of these changes.

There are requests for people, and this time they are more generous.

Continuing to sit in the bed, Old Man Wang took out half a pack of cigarettes and threw it to Chen Linzhi, coughed lightly, and told in a casual tone:

"Don't worry, the ones I hid back then were not cash, they were all jewelry and gold, and the place was very remote, no one would find out.

I was going to use it for the elderly after I went out, but I didn't expect that at my age, they still think I am dangerous and will not be allowed to be released on parole, I guess I won't need it in the future, so it's just a small favor for you, it's very simple......"