After Li Mingyu and the others left.
Only then did the atmosphere in the dressing room liven up again.
At this moment, Wang Tiancheng could no longer contain himself.
He dove headfirst into the pile of money, beginning the dumb white-guy method of counting cash.
He spread the bills out on the table one by one.
"Ten, twenty, thirty..."
...
"Six hundred eighty-seven fifty, six hundred eighty-eight dollars!"
Wang Tiancheng looked at the cash covering the tabletop and shouted excitedly.
"Damn, Jimmy, what a great number!"
From the mirror, Lin Wansheng saw the figure of someone in a white dress.
Quietly slipping in through the crack in the door.
It was Li Shuyao.
He smiled, casually counted out one hundred dollars from the pile, and slapped it into Wang Tiancheng's hand.
"Here, your talent scout fee~"
He counted out nearly two hundred dollars more, turned, and walked toward Li Shuyao.
When the girl saw him walking straight toward her, her cheeks instantly flushed red.
Somewhat at a loss, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said softly, "You spoke so well today."
Lin Wansheng was briefly stunned, then smiled. "Thanks. Even more thanks for supporting me just now."
He held the money out to her, his tone sincere: "Without you taking the lead, there wouldn't have been that rain of money afterward.
So, this is yours."
"But I didn't throw that much..." Li Shuyao looked at the thick stack of bills and repeatedly backed away.
"This is yours. I don't know exactly how much you threw up just now, but either way, take it."
Lin Wansheng insisted, pushing the money forward again.
Li Shuyao still shook her head. "I can't take it, I just..."
"This isn't paying you back," Lin Wansheng laughed.
"This is a dividend for my angel investor.
You were the first to invest in me.
Without you, I would've been left hanging on stage tonight."
Saying this, Lin Wansheng simply stepped forward and unceremoniously stuffed the money into her hands.
"Alright, it's settled." He looked at the girl and smiled.
"It's late. Let's head back together."
—
Ten o'clock at night. Most of the hustle and bustle had already faded.
The daytime street vendors had long since dispersed. Only the scattered garbage remained, swirling in the night wind.
"Had you watched stand-up comedy before?" Li Shuyao asked curiously as they walked home.
"No. Brother Cheng just gave me an emergency crash course on the essentials before I went on stage."
"Then you're amazing."
"No," Lin Wansheng said half-jokingly.
"If I'd known making fun of others could earn money, I would've devoted myself to this great cause at fourteen."
"Too bad there wasn't a priest in the audience today, or I could've gone another hour."
The two chatted, the atmosphere light and pleasant. When they passed a street corner, Li Shuyao suddenly stopped.
She turned to look at Lin Wansheng.
Quietly switching to Chinese, she said, "The moon is beautiful tonight."
Lin Wansheng instinctively looked up. The sky was covered in dark clouds; not even the moon's shadow could be seen.
But looking at the girl's sparkling eyes under the streetlight, he didn't want to dampen her spirits.
He could only agree. "Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful."
...
...
...
Before long, the two arrived in front of the shop. After watching Li Shuyao enter Jingxin Zhai,
Lin Wansheng pulled open the rolling shutter with a clatter.
However, just as he was about to slip inside, from the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse deep within the shop—
a strange dark figure was rummaging through something.
His heart tightened. Carefully, he felt beneath the cashier counter and gripped the "AK Truth" his father kept for self-defense.
He took a deep breath, swiftly raised the gun, and roared at the shadow.
"Hands up, motherf**ker!"
The man didn't raise his hands. Instead, he turned around upon hearing the voice.
Originally, there had even been a hint of a smile on his face.
But the moment he saw the pitch-black muzzle, his face instantly turned deathly pale.
Terrified, he stumbled repeatedly backward until he knocked over several cardboard boxes stacked in the corner, creating a loud crash.
"What happened, what happened!" Ms. Lin heard the noise and ran down from the second floor in her pajamas.
When she saw the tense standoff before her, she let out a scream.
"Ahhhh! Put the gun down!!!"
"You foolish child, put the gun down! This is your Second Uncle!!"
After a chaotic flurry of apologies and explanations, Lin Wansheng finally understood.
It turned out that in recent days, ICE had raided several Chinese residences in Flushing, arresting dozens of people who had overstayed their visas.
And this so-called "Second Uncle"—
was actually the second son of the aunt of the mother of Ms. Lin's elementary school deskmate.
He had managed to slip away when ICE wasn't paying attention, and after a narrow escape, had run here to seek refuge with them.
Father Lin also came downstairs, patting "Second Uncle" on the back to comfort him while saying to Lin Wansheng,
"Look at this mess—like the flood washing away the Dragon King's temple! Jimmy didn't mean it either. This kid, he sees something happening and wants to help his parents handle it."
Then he turned and spoke in an admonishing tone.
"Next time you see a situation like this, don't grab the gun yourself. Quietly go outside and call the police, okay?"
Lin Wansheng couldn't help laughing. "Dad, it's a good thing I didn't call the police, or Second Uncle would already be on his way to the immigration office."
Father Lin was stunned, then coughed awkwardly twice and said to Lin Wansheng,
"Ahem, anyway... your Second Uncle will be helping out at the shop for now. Take good care of him."
Father Lin's awkward cough was still echoing in the air when Mother Lin quickly stepped forward.
Warmly taking "Second Uncle" by the hand, she comforted him while making the final arrangements.
"Right," she seemed to just remember, turning to Lin Wansheng and saying,
"There's nowhere else in the house. Your Second Uncle will sleep in your room for the time being."
The smile on Lin Wansheng's face instantly froze.
"Help out," Mother Lin completely ignored her son's expression and continued instructing.
"Go to the basement and bring out that folding bed and set it up."
—
After Second Uncle took his change of clothes and walked into the cramped bathroom,
Lin Wansheng immediately slipped silently into his parents' room.
He closed the door behind him and lowered his voice.
"This timing is way too sensitive. We don't even know this person. Why are we taking him in?"
Mother Lin was sitting on the edge of the bed. Hearing this, she rolled her eyes at him irritably. "You think I want to? Your grandmother called over a dozen times from back home just for this."
"She said he's a relative of an old neighbor who came begging at our door. I really couldn't refuse."
She sighed. "Besides, he said himself that he'll leave once things blow over, and we don't even have to pay him wages."
Father Lin, standing nearby, cleared his throat and spoke in an unquestionable patriarchal tone.
"Wansheng, you have to remember that even though we've left the country, we can't just cut off those family ties back home."
Lin Wansheng watched his parents playing good cop and bad cop, knowing that nothing he said would help.
He sighed helplessly and turned to go back to his tiny room.
While the so-called Second Uncle was still showering,
Lin Wansheng took out all of tonight's earnings from his pocket, dumped them onto the bed, and quickly dragged out his small metal box from beneath it.
He carefully counted the money. He had previously saved $1,089.
Tonight's appearance fee was $300.
The tips on stage totaled $688.
Minus the $100 given to Wang Tiancheng and the $172 returned to Li Shuyao.
In just this short while tonight, he had earned $716!
He put all the money into the metal box.
His total assets were now $1,805.
He was less than halfway from his goal of $3,500.
Lin Wansheng's mood instantly improved.
If he could do stand-up once a week, plus his wages from Jingxin Zhai over the next few days,
he would basically just need to save on lunch money to put together the sum.
Just then, the bathroom door creaked open.
Lin Wansheng instantly shoved the metal box back under the bed, swift as lightning.
Amid the stranger's heavy snoring, Lin Wansheng lay on the folding bed, tossing and turning.
In that final second of half-sleep, half-wakefulness,
he was still thinking that having a stranger in the room was too unsafe.
Tomorrow he needed to find an ATM and deposit the money first.