Walking into the field, Lily's family members were already working in the field. Link knew them all and greeted him from afar.

"Hi Link. Are you alright?" Lily's older brother, Drake, was also a handsome little guy, with blond hair peeking out from the brim of his visor, and he stood up straight with his basket and waited for Link to approach before whispering. "I've heard you've done great things in Las Vegas. ”

Link also knew that what he was doing couldn't be hidden, so he nodded and said, "I did teach them some lessons." ”

"Well done! man. Derek whispered. "But are you going to gamble?"

The Spal family hated casinos because Drake's uncle and a cousin had both died because they couldn't pay off their debts due to gambling owed to loan sharks.

Drake is actually still a high school student, about to go to college, and is about five years younger than Link. But maybe it's because the family has been through a lot of things, and he is much more mature than his peers.

"I have enough money. And if I gamble again, the casino might send me a bullet in the head. Link said with a smile and shaking his head.

"You're sober, man. Derek patted him on the shoulder with a teachable look and said. "Casinos are always profitable, and I heard that the owner of the Sands Group once ranked third in the world by virtue of casino assets. Casinos, I think, always make money. Isn't it?"

Link laughed and said, "You're right. So I didn't indulge in it. He didn't want to continue the topic, glanced at the other party's basket and said. "The strawberries are very beautiful. ”

"Yes. This year's strawberry harvest will be very good. Derrick laughed and said loudly.

"Link, Link! Look, this is my strawberry, it's red and big. A little girl in a yellow washed-cloth jumpsuit ran to him with a small basket and held a strawberry and screamed loudly.

Link blushed as she looked up, and a pair of half-sized sapphire eyes blinked, as if waiting for his compliment.

This girl is Angel, the youngest child of the Spal family, who is less than four years old this year.

"Let me see. Link crouched down to make eye contact with her, then looked at the less than ten strawberries in her basket and said. "It's really red and big. The little angel is really capable. ”

Angel's name is the same word as angel, so Link always calls her little angel. Angel grinned, proudly took out a strawberry from the basket, spread out his palm and sent it to him, saying, "This one is for you." It must be delicious. ”

Link took the strawberry from her palm, put it under her nose and sniffed it, nodded and said, "It's really fragrant and sweet." Thank you little angel. ”

Seeing him so embarrassed, Angel giggled and ran over to Lily and Alice, "Lily, Alice. The strawberries I picked were red and big. ”

Agriculture in the United States is largely mechanized. Strawberries can also be harvested mechanically, but for the farmer, that affects the overall profit.

Strawberries have a long fruiting period, and if they are harvested directly by mechanization, they can only be harvested once, and mechanical harvesting will inevitably cause strawberry damage. Family farms like Spahr Farm usually harvest strawberries by hand, and a few temporary workers are hired during the picking season on weekdays. If it's a weekend, the whole family goes out, and if the children in the family ask their classmates to help, they are paid according to the amount of picking. The pocket money of the children on the farm is mainly earned by helping the family do farm work.

In addition, some citizens from nearby cities bring their children to pick and eat at home on weekends.

It's harder, but the strawberries grown on Spal Farm aren't too big, only five acres, so they prefer to harvest them that way.

Angel and Alice showed off their achievements, and ran back to Link and shouted, "Link, Alice and Lily have teamed up." We also worked together, and the money was divided evenly, okay? The strawberries I picked were big and red. ”

The partnership that the little guy said was to pick together, and then divide it evenly when the final reward was calculated. This little guy may have been disgusted by his sister, so he ran to him again to ask for a partnership.

Link smiled and said, "Okay! ”

"Great!" Angel smiled, her eyes narrowed. "Then you must pick it up quickly. We can't earn less than Lily. ”

Drake laughed and said, "Cunning little one. ”

"I'm not cunning. I'm smart. Drake is a badass. We're ignoring him, Link, aren't we?" Angel glared at his brother.

Link saw that the little guy hugged his thighs so reasonably, and said with a smile: "Yes, Angel is a smart little angel." We ignore Drake. ”

"Oh, Angel, you have broken my heart! You can't ignore me, because I love you the most. Drake clutched his heart and looked sad.

Angel thought for a moment and said, "Okay, Derek. I won't ignore you, if you help me pick a basket of strawberries. ”

Derek was stunned for a moment, shook his head and said, "You better ignore me." ”

Link listened to her words, looked at the injured Drake and laughed, stretched out his hand to take the little guy and said, "Let's go, let's go over there and pick it." ”

"Well, we're going to pick more strawberries than Drake, and Lily. Angel stuck out her tongue at Drake and grimaced, then said to Link. "I'll treat you to ice cream after making money, not Derek and Lily. ”

Link led the milky little guy forward and smiled and said, "Okay, I'm waiting for the little angel's ice cream." ”

After two and a half hours of hard work in the low sun, Link and Angel each received their wages for this morning's labor: ten dollars and thirty-three cents. When you do the math, it's less than half of Nevaa's minimum standards.

Link calmly put the money in his wallet. Angel clamored to buy ice cream, but her parents couldn't, so they allowed her to follow Link to buy it. Also on the road were Alice and Lily.

The Carashander neighborhood is less populated than Overtown, with less than a dozen households, so there are no shops at all, and Link has to drive them to Overtown.

Ten dollars is already a lot of money for Angel. However, Link didn't let the little rich woman spend money. He bought four ice creams, and the four of them sat on chairs outside the store to eat them.

Angel sat on the plastic chair next to Link and dangled her two little short legs, licking the ice cream while talking to Link with a milky voice. The two girls opposite whispered, but they were warm.

After Angel had eaten his last bite of ice cream, Link stood up and said, "It's time for lunch, should I take you home, or should I give me an honor to treat you to lunch?"

"I'm going to eat fried chicken wings. Angel raised her chubby hand and shouted. The two girls had also stood up and walked towards Link's car.

Hearing Angel's request, Lily turned back to her and said, "Angel, I'll tell Mommy." ”

"Lily is the worst!" Angel dropped her hand and grimaced at her, then she watched Link "whisper" bad things about her sister. "Lily always complained to her mother. ”

Link smiled and reached out to lift her out of the chair. He suddenly felt a shiver, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a car slowly driving by the side of the road. The driver in the window was pointing at him with something. He wasn't sure what it was. But the brain's direct knee-jerk response. He slumped down and shielded Angel from below.

Lily was taken aback when she saw this, thinking that Link had fallen, and was about to run over for fear that she would crush her sister. Suddenly, she saw that the back of the chair Angel was sitting on had been hit by something and three holes had been broken, and several pieces of plastic had flown out.

She jerked back. A car was seen parked on the side of the road, and in the lowered window, a man with sunglasses and a mask was putting away his pistol. The car's engine was boosted, and the car suddenly accelerated and fled the scene. Her mind went blank except for the thought that Link had been shot.

"Link!" Alice exclaimed, as Link ran over. At this moment, a car drove at high speed on the side of the road again and chased after the gunman's car. That's exactly one of the cars that Link bought for Benjamin.

Then another car braked sharply in the open space in front of the store, and Warren got out of the car and walked two strides to Link's side.

Link had already stood up.

"Oh my God. You're hurt. Alice saw that Link was bleeding from his arms and back.

Seeing this, Warren immediately ran to the car, took a medicine box from the rear trunk and came back and said, "We have to go to the hospital, but we will bandage it first to stop the bleeding." ”

Link's face was a little pale. Not because of excessive bleeding, but because of the burning pain of the internal wound. His arm was punched through. He was also shot in the back.

Warren didn't think about helping Link heal either. All he could do was reduce Link's bleeding and get him to the hospital as soon as possible. So he didn't even look at the wound, just pressed a piece of gauze on the clothes outside the wound, and then wrapped it tightly with a bandage.

Lily came back to her senses at this time, and came over with trembling feet to squat beside her sister and touch it, and found that she was not hurt in her heart. She looked up and asked in a trembling voice, "Link, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But I'm going to the hospital. You, Alice and Angel go to the store right away and call your family to pick you up. ”

"I'll go with you. Lily shook her head with tears in her eyes. "I have to go. ”

Angel seemed frightened, staring only at the red-stained bandage on Link's arm. She hid herself in Lily's arms and stared blankly at Link, and she cried out, "Lily, is Link hurt? Why is there blood on him?"

Lily walked over and hugged her and said, "Link protected you. So he was injured. ”

"And is Link a hero?"

"Well, Link is Angel's hero. Lily's heart almost stopped beating at the thought that the silent bullet had hit the chair where her sister was sitting. She couldn't imagine how her sister would have hurt without Link.

In fact, she was very upset, and if she could think about it clearly, she would understand that no gunman would specifically hurt her sister. The killer can only come for Link.