The 7th arrondissement of New York City was almost occupied by the Chinese, who built their kingdom there as early as the eighteenth century, with their own laws, religions, writings, languages, common sense and morals, and for a long time they neither had contact with the outside world nor allowed anything from the outside world to enter this almost semi-closed world. This continued into the twentieth century, when the sixth and even fifth generations of the Chinese understood that they could not continue like this, and they began to tentatively reach out beyond the 7th District and even New York City – which was not very difficult, their ancestors had amassed considerable wealth over the centuries before them, they themselves and their descendants were smart and hardworking, their mystical culture was curious and admirable – and soon New York City had its first Chinese councillor.

The councillor is said to be nearly half a hundred years old when he was elected, but that doesn't stop him from being active — he proposed and urged the city government to agree to renovate the 7th District — pedestrian-friendly streets, new, clean and bright market spaces, outdoor dining areas, and better pedestrian and single-lane connections, and in return, the 7th District will change its previous indifferent and conservative attitude and open up to New York City or beyond, with more Chinese coming out of the 7th Ward and the 7th District allowing more "outsiders" Entering the area to work and live here, the various proposals and ideas of the city government will also receive as much support and response as possible from the residents of the 7th arrondissement.

One of the most striking measures was the street fair in mid-to-late September, with a month of newspaper and television publicity, 300 outdoor shops, four temporary stages, and 200,000 people.

Countless varieties and quantities of food, silks, handicrafts, and even gold were generously placed under the sky and above the ground by their sellers, and the people who were attracted to them were immersed and unable to extricate themselves—many of them were so close to this unique and noisy market for the first time, and most of the goods were placed directly on the stalls, where they could be tasted, touched, tried on or tried on, and more and more people were stranded in front of the stalls of interest. As a result, the originally wide and smooth pedestrian streets have become crowded.

Sasha. Streiff stared at each other with a sun-dried ponyfish, which and other other species of its kind hung the entire roof of the stall, hundreds of pairs of grayish, earthy-yellow, inwardly sunken eyeballs staring at the humans coming in and out.

Claude. Stryff tasted a piece of fish that the stall owner called "plum" and found it very fluffy, salty and fragrant, though he didn't know what it had to do with the kind of flowers that bloom in winter and its fragrance...... He nodded, and bought about a fifth of a pound of the fish cut into chunks, which he handed to Sasha, who rode on his shoulder, and Sasha took it curiously and sniffed it, the strong smell of sea salt causing him to sneeze violently several times.

The people around laughed, and the owner of the salted fish stall somehow took out a bamboo skewer with a small twisted fish on it, and he handed it to Big Striff and pointed to the little Striff on his shoulder.

Streiff took it, sniffed it, and saw that it was a deep-fried, very crispy little yellow croaker. He gave it to Sasha.

"Thank you." Sasha said.

"Welcome back." The boss said that this was the guess of the Streves, because the old dark-skinned accent was too heavy.

The Striffs walked out of their stalls, the crowd as close as salted fish hanging and placed in the stalls—a rare situation in New York, where Striff held the sandy calf firmly to prevent him from being knocked over by people passing by—and they only occasionally stopped in front of a particular stall, and even then, before they had walked a third of the street, little Striff's hands and backpack were already stuffed with the loot.

"We should probably find a place to dinner." Big Stryff, who didn't get a treat, regretted that they split out of the crowd and into another, quieter street.

He realized after a few minutes that his judgment might have been wrong, and that the whole street was filled with aromas—but not the scents of oil, meat, or edible spices such as star anise and cinnamon, which tempted the human stomach, but the scents that penetrated deeper into the human body and heart...... Sweet sandalwood and precious oud, Straf was surrounded by Chinese, their faces looking pleasant but solemn - but every now and then someone glanced at him with a slight surprise.

They followed the flow of people to the end of the street, where they were greeted by a huge, golden temple, illuminated by thousands of lights, a canopy covered with translucent glazed tiles, and a plaque in gold letters on a black background below, goose-yellow walls, and a dark brown gate with brass-colored round-headed nails nailed to a threshold about a foot below, and bunches of incense sticks were bought from a small stall shrouded in an apricot-colored curtain before entering.

Mr. Stryff noticed that there were more than one warning sign on the perimeter of the temple that read "No Visits" in English.

A temple where only believers are allowed to enter. Mr. Stryff thought that he was not prepared to disturb these pious people, and that if it had not been for the sight of a familiar face that had aroused his interest, especially the one present here at this moment, perhaps he would have left at once.

He saw his new colleague Kemira.

She stood in the middle of a group of Chinese, to be exact, between a group of Chinese women, and the men were talking a little further away from them, but Stryff was sure that part of their attention was always on them.

Every woman, including Kemira, was dressed lavishly, wearing silk or velvet cheongsams, light shawls, and gold necklaces studded with pearls and jadeald around their necks, their hair meticulously coiled and fastened with hairpins or combs that matched the necklaces.

In a pile of jet-black buns, Kemira's light hair stood out, as well as her green eyes and snow-white skin, she was not cramped, but a little trance-like, she held incense in her hands, the incense burned violently, and white smoke swirled around her - if it weren't for a reminder from a Chinese woman, she might have let the incense stick burn all the way to her fingers - she held the stick of incense between the middle and forefinger of both hands, and the big finger against Xiang's head, raised until it exceeded her eyebrows...... Her movements were graceful and accurate, at least as Stryff seemed (although he didn't know how to worship Chinese gods, but he could compare her to the people next to him), and his sharp eyes caught something - an emerald statue, a Chinese god, hanging from under the dark red rope.

The Chinese way of worship is quiet, but cumbersome, everyone has to bow at least four times, once in each direction, Kemira saw Streiff during the last pilgrimage, she showed a surprised expression, the Chinese women around her noticed it, looked along her line of sight, and then the Chinese men, Kemira hurriedly inserted the incense in her hand into the burning four-legged copper stove, and after talking to them for a few words, these people came to Stryff.

"Hello, Mr. Stryff, and ...... Sprinkle the sand. Kemira smiled reluctantly, she didn't seem to want to see Striff here: "This is the teacher at St. Thomas Church Elementary School, my colleague, Claude. Striff ...... It's mine...... Father, Mr. Kai Shengguo. ”

***

Kai Shengguo, the first Chinese-American councillor in New York.

He is very tall, with gray temples and a clear and loud voice without an accent. He paid more attention to Stryff than a normal person could, and perhaps because of his concern for his daughter, he invited the Stryff father and son to dinner with them.

"Excellent." Stleiff thought, of course, that it wasn't just because their dinner had finally come to an end—one of his questions was answered, and from the first time they met, he had noticed that Kemira's greatest dissonance was that she had the epicanthal fold—a peculiar skin fold in the inner corner of the eye that more or less covered the tear mons, also known as the Mongolian fold. Many Chinese have this trait, but people from other countries are very rare, Striff once speculated that Kemira had a quarter or a third of North Asian ancestry, but did not expect that Kemira inherited so much, her external characteristics almost entirely belong to the Baltic race, and now it seems that at most, only one-half, because Mr. Kaishengguo is a pure Chinese.

And her surname, which Stlev used to think was Icelandic, so she didn't have a surname, but now he finally understands that Kemira has played a little trick and she cleverly hides her last name in her name.

The dinner was arranged in a small and quiet garden, a small two-story building with a dark appearance.

Upon entering, Mr. and Mrs. Stryff saw a glass enclosure illuminated by a projection lamp, and inside stood a large triangular wing—a little taller than Sasha, ivory-yellow, with wisps of wisps, almost translucent in the light, and a ribbon of red and gold tied in the middle of it.

In the other glass enclosure was something much smaller than that, milky white, which looked like a petal woven from silk thread, or a boat used by a goblin.

"Fins and nests." Sasha whispered in his father's ear.

His voice was soft, but there was no intention of concealing it, and a young Chinese walking beside them heard it. He turned his head and smiled heartily: "Yes," he said, "the fins and the birds' nests." ”

(To be continued)