After two days of rain, it finally stopped at dusk, but the sky had not yet cleared, and thick clouds were still piling up overhead, like a rag that had not been washed for decades.

Across from St. Mary's Church Hospital on West 50th Street, Adair and Clifford were laughing and talking from a place called the "Bitham Agency," where they had just made $300. This is also the most they have earned in a day today, and they have made and lost a few times before, but overall, they still make more money and lose less, in total, Adel relied on the gambling index this day and gained nearly 800 US dollars. Therefore, in this crazy era, stock speculation is indeed the best way to usher in a sudden rich, otherwise, relying on a daily salary of more than a dozen dollars, or even a few dollars, 800 US dollars is enough for ordinary people to earn a year.

Adair is very smart, he didn't choose to gamble in a company all day, that would be too ostentatious and high-profile, even if he wasn't hacked to death, it was estimated that he would be blacklisted, so he and Clifford changed a total of 6 companies on this day.

However, even so, they were still targeted by people with intentions, and not far from the two of them walking out of the Bitham agency, someone chased after them.

"Two gentlemen, two gentlemen, please wait," said the man who was chasing him was not tall, thin and small, with a somewhat dark face, like an immigrant from South America or Mexico. And this guy has very small eyes, and when he smiles, he squints, and he almost can't find it. Coupled with that eye-catching big nose, it makes his whole person look a little obscene, oh, it should be quite obscene.

Hearing someone shouting, Adel and Clifford stopped and looked back.

Hey, this guy Adel looks familiar, yes, isn't this the one who pimped in Brillings last night?

"Two gentlemen......" The lewd man caught up and stood in front of Adel and the two, and said with a smile on his face.

"How are you?" Clifford, apparently recognizing the other as well, asked first.

"It's my pleasure that Mr. Clifford still recognizes me," said the lewd man, with a look of surprise on his face, "Ah, let me introduce myself first, despicable Ruben Jesús Martínez, gentlemen may call me Ruben or call me my nickname, Charlie, well, little Charlie." ”

"Ha, what's that name," Clifford disliked the slewd fellow, at least he was not pleasant-looking, and therefore spoke impolitely.

"Hehe, I'm a Cuban immigrant, Jesús is my father's surname, and Martinez is my mother's," Ruben didn't mind at all, and he explained further.

"Well, Reuben," said Adair, "is there anything wrong with you?"

Ruben didn't answer directly, he raised his hands, gave two thumbs up, compared to Adele, and said with a look of adoration: "Mr. Adel, you are such a great person, on this day, you have participated in a total of ten bets, but only lost three, and won almost a thousand dollars, I think it is not luck, but you have found a way to win the bet." ”

"You're following us?" Adair said, frowning.

"What, stalking us?" Clifford was most taboo about this kind of thing, his eyes widened when he heard it, and he looked at Reuben's eyes full of unkindness, "What do you want to do?!"

"Don't get me wrong, gentlemen, I have absolutely no ill will," said Reuben as he hurriedly raised his hand, shaking it.

"You're going to be with us all day without malice?" Clifford didn't listen, he stepped forward and grabbed Ruben by the collar, and without looking too hard, he lifted the little man up.

"Hey, let go, I really have no ill will, Mr. Clifford, listen to me," said Reuben, with his feet off the ground, struggling in mid-air, and said slurredly, he couldn't even breathe, and naturally he couldn't speak clearly.

"Let go, Clifford," Adair said, patting Clifford on the shoulder, "hear what he has to say." ”

"Hmph!" Clifford threw down, and because the strength was too great, Ruben almost sat on the ground.

"Tell me, what the hell are you trying to do?" asked Reuben when he was on his feet, and Adel stared at him.

"Mr. Adelle, actually, I just admire you very much, so if I want to do things with you, of course, you can also see it as cooperation. Reuben rubbed his neck, swallowed his saliva, and said.

"Cooperation?" said Adair with a frown.

"Yes," said Reuben, nodding his head and looking around again, seeing that they had attracted the attention of many passers-by, "Mr. Adair, it is not convenient to talk here, my residence is on the dock not far from here, can we go there and talk?"

Adair hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and agreed, he could see that this Reuben should really have no ill will towards him, but he didn't know what the cooperation he said was about.

It is true that it is not very far from West 50th Street to the docks, and it is only three blocks to the west, but even if it is not far, it always takes time to walk there, so along the way, Ruben revealed his details to Adel and them.

Reuben said that he himself was a Cuban immigrant, but in fact, he was not an immigrant, but an illegal immigrant, and that he had only been smuggled from Cuba almost 30 years ago, during the Cuban War of Independence, and his parents had taken him to the United States to escape the war. Initially, the Ruben family lived in Florida until his parents died, and he left Florida to make a living in New York.

For a long time, Reuben was in Hell's Kitchen, he did everything, but he didn't get anything right, until four years ago, when he started working on the docks, and he came into contact with some Cuban folks who helped smuggle people, and he has been doing this job ever since. The main part of his job is to help some Cuban smugglers who have just arrived in New York find work, and then take a cut of their salaries. Of course, he also pimps people, like the work he did at Brookins.

The docks in Hell's Kitchen are notoriously filthy New York, but it's also a difficult place for gangs to get involved, because it's mostly South American immigrants who control it, and they are all together, despite their poor clanging and manual work. Here, not to mention the gangs can't get in, even the union is difficult to intervene, and the people on the docks don't even speak English, but mainly Spanish, which is why it's so ...... Dirty mess.

"In the past two years, the situation in Cuba has not been very good, and the Grado guy can only use his power for personal gain, but he does not know how to develop the economy, so there are more people smuggling into the United States," said Ruben on the 12th Ring Road, which is full of sewage and fishy smell, pointing to the dilapidated houses made of wooden planks and even thick paper clips on the beach of the pier.

Hearing him say this, Adel thought he had some sympathetic feelings, but as a result, this guy said next: "So, I have made some money in the past two years, but compared with Mr.'s means of making money, I am not worth mentioning here." ”

Grado was referring to Grado Machado, a hero of the Cuban War of Independence, but now a lackey of Wall Street, who sold Cuba's pillar industry, the sugar industry, to the Morgan consortium.

Led the two down the road around the sea, through the gravel path that entered the dock, and finally, in front of a low tin house, Ruben stopped, took out a bunch of keys, and said while unlocking the lock: "I'm very sorry, my conditions here are a little shabby, and I have wronged the two gentlemen." ”

The tin house was supposed to be converted from the cabin of a ship, and the walls were so rusted that you could smell the pungent smell of sea salt when you stood in the doorway.

Ruben opened the broken tin door of the room, stepped aside, and gestured to Adair and the others to enter.

Adair hesitated for a moment, then stepped inside.

Unexpectedly, there were people in the originally locked room, and there was more than one person.

The room was dimly lit, but it was still visible that there were more than a dozen men and women crowded into the room, and on the floor, there were some musty futons, which seemed to be the ones who were sleeping.

Ruben was the last to walk in, and he shouted two words to the people who were sleeping on the floor, and he shouted something that Adel didn't understand, probably in Spanish. The people on the ground seemed to be frightened of him, and one by one they quickly got up and curled up into the corner of the room, emptying most of the room.

"Let's go, sir, let's go to the back, it smells a little bad here," Ruben led the way in front, and led Adel and the two through the room to Houjin.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the cabin converted into a house turned out to be very large, in addition to the front hall, there were three same rooms in the back, but they were also full of people.

And through the last room, it turned out to be a small courtyard in the open air, and through the small courtyard, it was a tin house. However, compared to the previous rooms, the layout in this house is much cleaner, and there are not so many people in it, only six or seven slim and young girls gathered in it.

"These guys who live here with me are all new to New York," Ruben took Adel into the side room of the house, which was also the cleanest, except for a bed, there were tables, chairs, sofas and other furnishings, presumably his own room, "There is no job, and there is no place to stay, so he can only live with me for the time being." ”

"Please sit, please sit," Ruben walked back to the door of the side room and said something to the outside, then walked back and sat down opposite the two of them.