“My man, you’re sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? I saw you flying man.” the owner of the food truck at a street corner asked Jianmen in a concerned tone: “I mean, people die from that. I don’t know what you’re on, but I’ve seen people walking away from shit like that because they’re on meth, and they just die half an hour later.”
“Yeah. I am sure. And I am not on anything.” Jianmen had ten hot dogs, one can of each kind of soda and five sandwiches in front of him and he already had five hot dogs and one sandwich in his stomach: “I just do a lot of Taichi.”
“Is Taichi some kind of new superman drug? ‘Cause if it is, I need to get me some of that.” the owner looked at how fast Jianmen was consuming the food he bought with the hush money from those rich kids and was somewhat relieved.
“No, just Taichi. The kind of stuff that you can see on the internet.” Jianmen smiled, then drank up one full can of fruit flavored soda in one gulp: “And a balanced diet with lots of good meat.”
“Sure. Sir. Looks like you have a good appetite as well.” the owner of the food truck joked.
The hush money the rich kids gave him looked like a lot, but it was actually not that much - it added up to $2350 dollars in total, and Jianmen just spent around $300 on the food from the food truck, and he finally stopped feeling the almost debilitating hunger. He was still feeling hungry, but it was not as serious anymore.
“Thanks for the food.” Jianmen gathered all the wrappers and empty soda cans and threw them in the garbage bin inside: “Now I just need a place to stay.”
“Good luck my man.” the owner of the food truck nodded at Jianmen with a wide smile: “And be careful when you cross the road! Or don’t, I don’t know how bad you need the money.”
Jianmen laughed and waved the food truck owner goodbye.
Now with around two thousand dollars in hand and a barely a third full stomach that just stopped feeling hungry, Jianmen started thinking about what the next steps were for him. From the information he gathered, he knew that he could not just simply work for anyone because he did not have the necessary papers and even the basic identification - he needed to find a place that hires people for the short term with relatively loose background checks.
After thinking for a while, he decided that maybe the local Chinatown will be a good place to start. For this is the edge of the famous city Los Angeles, and there was a pretty big local Chinese community and a Chinatown with quite a lot of history. And with his being able to communicate in Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Spanish, it shouldn’t be that hard for him to find somewhere temporary to lay low and maybe not be the first ever layer nine cultivation master to starve to death. Two thousand dollars was not even that much, and with Jianmen’s current appetite, his cash on hand would probably only last him at most a week - which means unless he was about to commit crimes, he would face money problems real soon.
But when he went to the streets of Chinatown, he found out that he was sorely mistaken - he visited a chain supermarket, a few restaurants, and a bakery shop, all of which responded to him that they were not hiring.
“Nonono, go away.” the owner of a big restaurant yelled at Jianmen in Cantonese: “We can’t just hire any random guy off the streets. You don’t even have actual clothes!”
“I am just a bit down on my luck, and I have several years of experience working in the hospitality industry. I cook a mean radish beef belly stew!”
“Haiyah, radish beef belly stew is our signature dish, don’t even think about impressing us with it. Go away!” the owner became more pissed.
“Okay, okay, don’t get mad. How about I buy some clothes first?” Jianmen backed off and asked, trying his hardest to be friendly.
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“Nonono, go away!”
“Motherfu - ” walking away from yet another failed attempt, Jianmen was finally made aware that his broken and torn clothes were the issue, he had been in the world of cultivation for too long and forgot almost completely about some of the basics when it comes to functioning in a modern civilian world, like having to change into something more appropriate before applying for a job. Even information gathering through his connection to karma had its limits and blind spots.
Jianmen had no choice but frustratedly spent another fifty dollars at a cheap attire store in a mall to buy a whole set of clothes. And the quality of the clothes was quite horrible - he was worried that even the most minor of moves from him would break the fabric.
And when he came out of the attire store, he found a small grocery store nearby with simplified Chinese “Hiring” posters on its door.
“Hello, I saw that you’re hiring for help?” Jianmen went into the store and asked in Mandarin: “I am here to apply for the job.”
“Welcome.” behind the counter was a young Chinese man that looked like he was in his early 20s: “And yes we’re hiring for someone who can just help around the store and watch the store when I am not at the store. How much work experience do you have?”
“I’ve worked in hotels and inns for many years.” Jianmen tried his best to act natural: “I can cook, I can clean, I am strong and I am very good with hard labor.”
“That’s… good!” the young man looked surprised: “Good that you can cook. I can pay extra if you can cook some meals for me and my grandmother. How many languages can you speak? Do you speak English?”
“Besides Mandarin, English, Spanish, Cantonese.” Jianmen nodded: “Even a little bit of Hakka, but I can learn if you require.”
“Nice! Final question: are you okay with 18 dollars an hour in cash? Save us both the trouble.”
“That’d be nice. Thank you!” Jianmen shook hands with the young man: “My name’s Jianmen.”
“May name’s Shanyi, or you can call me by my English name Shawn.” the young man smiled: “When can you start?”
“I am hoping tomorrow? Unless you know a place I can stay.” Jianmen acted slightly embarrassed: “I am still new here, so I need to find a place.”
“Oh, that’s not a problem. We have an unused back room. If you want you can stay in it. It’s quite small though. If you don’t mind you can stay in it. No rent needed, but can you make dinner on Fridays and weekends?”
“Not a problem. Deal.”