The school bus drove forward slowly, and all the cars around it were careful to avoid it.

With the Summer Olympics coming up in Los Angeles this year, billboards about the Games can be seen everywhere, and even the school bus in which Su Mu rides has posters.

One of the most famous cities on the West Coast of the United States, known as Hollywood, is already home to Hollywood, and this year, locals also have the Olympics, and tickets for popular events are already sold out, so people keep those tickets at home and wait for July 28.

Since April, after the order was issued at the city hall, the original chaotic traffic order has improved, dumping vehicles are also frequent, you used to see plastic bags flying everywhere with the wind, now you rarely see it, the whole urban area has changed a lot, it is no longer gray, sprinkler trucks will haunt the same street two or three times a day, no one runs a red light, no one crosses the road, even if you throw a cigarette butt on the ground, you will be caught by the police will have a good education, it is hard to believe that this will be Los Angeles in 1984.

The locals are happy that they will be back to the same state when the Olympics are over, but they are still feeling much more comfortable when they go shopping.

Some people are happy, and naturally some people are unhappy, such as the special female professionals who can be seen everywhere at night, commonly known as "call girls", not only in remote alleys, but also in prosperous areas such as the Avenue of Fame and Rodeo Avenue, you can see this group of people, and now they are driven to other places, but they can still see some when driving carefully at night.

The pressure on the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Officer) has led to a surge in efficiency, and for a time the prisons were overcrowded, and judges were said to have been exhausted by this, and most of the sentences were set at four months later, just after the Olympics.

Recently, there have been a lot fewer homeless people on the streets, and they have been placed in other places, and the "other" here mainly refers to places that reporters can't see, after all, countless pairs of eyes across the country and even the world have been staring at Los Angeles recently, and the pressure on the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of California is quite high, and there is no room for sloppiness.

In this era when there are not many entertainment activities, and seeing who is holding the big brother conference gasps and eyes shine, the Olympics is one of the few grand events, and it is normal to attach so much importance to it.

The cold war clouds still loom over the United States, the economic crisis just occurred in the seventies, and it did not end until two years ago, starting with Britain and then affecting the United States, the length of the crisis set a new post-war record, the business failure rate and the unemployment rate both set a new post-war record, the unemployment rate in the United States was as high as more than 11 percent, prices continued to rise, and the annual increase in consumer prices exceeded double digits.

There have been a lot of big things this year, such as Apple's groundbreaking Macintosh computer in January, which people thought was the future, and Microsoft just starting to make a big splash with the launch of a desktop operating system that makes it easy to learn how to operate a computer.

In February, two American astronauts completed a "spacewalk" and had the upper hand over the Soviets, which made American citizens arrogant, so much so that news came on the 8th that the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics, and the major American newspapers unanimously said that they did not plan to take them to participate in it at all, and the so-called boycott was just looking for a sense of existence.

The space shuttle Challenger and President Reagan's Star Wars program announced last year have regained confidence for many Americans......

The downtown area of Los Angeles has changed a lot recently, but unfortunately the slums are still slums, and except for the wealthy area where Beverly Hills is located to the west, the other three sides are more and more chaotic the further they go to the suburbs.

In those days, many white people would put twenty dollars in their pockets and close their eyes to each other in case of robbery, which was no joke.

Chinatown is not so bad, this area where a large number of Chinese settlers are almost forgotten by the residents of other places in Los Angeles, and no one even comes to canvass for votes during the president, governor, and mayoral elections, and the local Chinese residents don't care about it, and they close their doors to make a living on this continent.

There are many Chinatowns in California, and Los Angeles Chinatown, where the Su family has lived for generations, is located in the eastern suburbs, connected to the Los Angeles GC district, and is one of the major Chinese settlements on the west coast of the United States.

The streets are full of red lanterns, most of the shop signs are written in Chinese characters, there are not many tourists willing to come in this era, the conversation is mainly Cantonese and local dialects, and the people who go out are in English, and many older generation of Chinese, who do not even speak English, are also very comfortable in Chinatown.

In mid-May, the weather in Los Angeles was already warm, and all you needed was a jacket over the long sleeves, and the wind in the city was blowing from the Pacific Ocean, and after experiencing car exhaust, factory smoke, etc., it had already become a smoky miasma.

The yellow school bus stops and goes, and when it arrives at Mexico Street, the carriage is half empty, and the rest of the passengers Su Mu almost all know each other, Chinatown is very big, but there are not many people who can ride in the same car with themselves, and after a few years, they have known each other for a long time.

The noise in the school bus was non-stop, the driver had already become numb, this car and a dozen other cars, mainly pulling Mexicans and Chinese, it stopped at the entrance of Chinatown with an antique archway and left, all the students in the car came out, and the driver continued to drive the school bus away, leaving more than 20 half-sized children, including Su Mu.

Almost all of these people are in the same grade, about to move from junior high school to high school, unless the grades are too poor, or there is no need to worry about not studying in high school, usually the study pressure is not great, laughing and talking about all kinds of interesting things in school, divided into three or four small groups while walking and chatting.

No one will tell their elders in the family, in fact, in such a middle school, there will not be much future, maybe the elders in their family also know, just fighting for a slim possibility, it is said that the Castellar public high school used to be very good, and then engaged in a "racial integration experimental class", which directly led to the withdrawal of all high-quality students, it is not the worst school in the neighborhood, the worst school near Chinatown, in the past few years, almost every month one or two students died, how bad the campus situation is This shows how bad it is.

Li Ping'an went to his grandmother's house to eat, the two were no longer on the same road, and walked forward alone for a few minutes, all along the way were dilapidated old houses, along the street was slightly better, the more they went into the alley, the more broken they became, the dirty water was splashed on the road, and the fishy smell could be smelled from afar.

After Su Mu arrived home, he found that there was no one at home, and the mobile phone was not something that the Su family could afford in this era, so he took out the key from his schoolbag and opened the door, and then remembered that when he went out to school in the morning, he seemed to hear his father say that he was going to a friend's house for dinner tonight, and walked to the dining table, and sure enough, he saw tomato egg soup and fried cauliflower, and there was a lot of meat in the cauliflower, and it smelled good......

The Su family is not rich, but they are not short of food and clothing, especially for the only boy of the third generation in the family, who almost wants to give anything from childhood to adulthood, as long as they are diligent Chinese, they can make do with their lives.

In Los Angeles in the early 80s, child labor cases were strictly enforced, but it still did not prevent many children who were three or four years older than Sumu from dropping out of school to work to support their families.

The old man of the Su family has seen many similar tragedies, some of the neighbor's children have learned badly at a young age, and some have gone directly to prison, and more Chinese teenagers have no skills and are mediocre all their lives.

Su Mu's grandmother will do some handiwork before her death, she is mixed-race, her father was a suit tailor from Italy, and she also makes leather shoes, so in Su Mu's generation, he also has a little mixed-race gene.

The appearance is generally invisible, but the bridge of the nose is slightly straighter, the eye sockets are slightly deeper, black hair, black eyes, yellow skin, if you don't say it, no one will believe that he is mixed-race.

Later, Old Man Su was her helper, more than 30 years have passed, and she has already learned, the year before last, Grandma Su Mu died of a heart attack, and only Old Man Su was left alone to rely on this craft to earn some money to subsidize the family.

The main service object is the group of people who can't afford to buy suits in the store, which is "pure handmade customization", in fact, it is not famous at all, and it may not be possible to receive an order a week, and it has long been planned to rent a store, but unfortunately it is too expensive to rent, so they all work at home, and there is a lot less business.

Most of the neighbors of poor families are also poor, and those Chinese who are lucky enough to make money can't wait to move out, who will come to Old Man Su to customize suits.

In the eyes of Old Man Su, who is counting on his children and grandchildren to become Jackie Chan, there is nothing more important than Su Mu's study, so even if the family is short of manpower, he has never mentioned that he will take over the tailor shop in the future.

In the old man's opinion, this is a lowly industry with no interest, and the money earned is barely enough for family expenses, which is not as good as the daily salary of the gold collars on Wall Street, he always hopes that Su Mu can become a master in the future, and dreams of letting his grandson Su Mu go to work in a large company as a supervisor.

Old man Su grew up in Chinatown all his life, and he has never been out of the eyes of California, which is already a high-level profession of honoring his ancestors, no matter how high he is...... He didn't even dare to think about it.

The son has no hope, although it is good to open a Chinese restaurant, at least he doesn't have to ask for money, but he still hasn't left Chinatown, so now the burden that should have belonged to Su Mu's father is on Su Mu again, poor Su Mu, who was eleven years old at the time, and his backpack has weighed seven kilograms.

It was the weight of new books at the beginning of the semester, usually there were not so many books to carry, and there were not many homework, but Su Mu still carried it every day, mainly to please Old Man Su.

Every time I thought of Su Mu, who was only one and a half years old at the time, and grabbed a green dollar bill from the many items placed in front of him, it would make Old Man Su's fantasy that his grandson would be rich in the future became more firm......

Su Mu's father, Su Dingcai, worked as a boatman when he was young.

I once dreamed of owning a fishing boat of my own, fishing is a good career, I can buy seafood at a low price, and I can make a profit by selling it, and it is also good to eat it at home.

Unfortunately, the reality is too cruel, the area where Chinatown is located is far from the sea, it is inconvenient to go back and forth, coupled with the unexpected death of the captain who owed him two months' salary, and before the fishing boat was taken away by the bank, he only got an old radio station, the kind that no one else wants to buy for fifty dollars in a second-hand store.

Su Ding Cai was angry, so he took it back to his home, and it was better than getting nothing, so he put it in Su Mu's room.

The Su family immigrated to the United States to work as laborers from Old Man Su's father's generation, and it took nearly half a century to buy this very old bungalow, covering an area of about 200 square meters, with a total of five rooms.

The one along the street, after Su Mu's sister-in-law married in San Francisco, was turned into a Chinese restaurant with only a dozen dishes on the menu.

Su Dingcai and his wife cook with average taste, business is naturally not much better, authentic Americans do not like to eat authentic Chinese food, many native Chinese are also not used to eating, the customer base is quite narrow, and every neighbor occasionally does not want to cook at home, will come to patronize.

After eating in a hurry after the hot meal, Su Mu returned to the small room and lay on the bed for a while, the walls were slightly yellow, and the color of the inferior ceiling was even more yellow, a total of only more than ten square meters, after placing a bed, the movable place was so big, there were books on the shelves and tables, and there were also awards from small to large.

I have read a lot of books, and his grades are also excellent, but he is by no means a nerd, and there is a traditional version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" on the bedside, Jin Yong is popular all over the Chinese circle, and there are many loyal readers in the United States, Su Mu has already finished reading this book, and he stands up lazily at the moment and puts it on the shelf.

His family was gone, so he boredly fiddled with the old radio station that was sitting next to his desk, not to mention that it was still usable, and the sound quality was clearer than that of a regular radio, and it could receive signals from farther away.

Plug in the plug wrapped in black tape, turn on the switch and there is a sizzling sound, just when Su Mu is about to adjust the channel, I heard the host say: "Sorry, there has been a solar storm recently, hahaha! The earth has been affected, and the signal doesn't seem to be very good just now!"

Next, we listen...... Today is February 12, 2018 at 6 o'clock in the evening, this is the first financial radio program, I am the host Dabin, I am very happy to meet you again, the Spring Festival is coming, congratulations to everyone in advance on a happy holiday, smooth sailing on the way home.

Well, as we all know, this week's U.S. stocks fell sharply, including A-shares, Shenzhen stocks, and the Growth Enterprise Market, which I said yesterday, and today I want to talk to you about SpaceX, the company that sent electric cars into space......"

Su Mu was stunned.

It was still English just now, and when I suddenly heard such a correct native language, my head was confused for a while, thinking what the hell, what 2018......