nightcrawler in los angeles

Chapter 2

The children who had already left the crowd were chattering in the sewer pipes about what they had just done.

"Little boy beat Leo" as if they just did something really great~
The dark sewer channel is very high, thanks to Los Angeles, a highly developed international metropolis. The developed Los Angeles urban agglomeration is a city with an estimated population of 1800 million. Its sewers are very developed. Los Angeles only has underground drainage. The pipeline is 6500 miles long, or 10460 kilometers.

Not to mention the sewers of Los Angeles County, which is the core of the Los Angeles urban agglomeration!
Every few hundred meters of the sewer here, there is a beam of sunlight that can shine in along the sewage outlet on the sewer. Although there are occasional light bulbs near the manhole covers to provide lighting, none of these children took the initiative to touch those. something~
Occasionally, there are a few places where the drainage continues to drain, and this group of children deftly bypassed it as if they knew it in advance~
"Taxi, thank you for helping me again!"

"It's Taoxi! It's Taoxi! Not Taxi! I've said it many times, even though I was picked up from the taxi by Grandpa Gnar, I have a name!"

"Okay, okay! Tao Xi, thank you for helping me get ahead again!" A thin-looking child with a flushed face explained while carrying Tao Xi's right arm~
But the little boy on the left side of Tao Xi said with a smile on his face: "Hill, this is the third time you have been robbed of money this year, and it is also the third time you have thanked Tao Xi. If you really thank him, You'd better give Tausi a battery!"

"It's not that you don't know that Tao Xi is worried that there is no battery in the radio he picked up from the trash can in the heavy rain that night, and you don't know what is so rare about the meteor shower that day. You should thank Nanny for not catching a cold. Grandpa Er gave you a good body when you were young!"

"Marco!"

"You all call me Big Brother!"

"It should be! What are you talking about!"

Tao Xi's angry reprimand immediately quieted down the children around, but Marco said indifferently, "Okay, okay, Tao Xi, I was just joking! It's just that you look like this tomorrow But there is no way to go with me to the coffee shop to distribute leaflets!"

"Just take it as a rest! You two won't make me hungry anyway, will you?" Tao Xi said indifferently, but then Tao Xi seemed to remember something and turned his head to Marko nervously. Said: "Oops! We agreed that we were going to pick up cigarette butts, but isn't it too late now!"

Hill, who was silent all the time, weakly took out a KFC bottle from his pocket and dangled it in front of Tao Xi~
Seeing that the bottle was full of smoked cigarette butts with 3/1 left, Taoxi immediately patted Hill on the neck with a happy face and said, "You're still smart! I knew you were better than Marko! "

Hill heard Tao Xi's praise and replied shyly again: "Ever since Grandpa left, you haven't left me hungry."

"I'm the most useless of the three of us. You are brave enough to fight, and Marco can do some tricks. If I don't pay more attention, I might be abandoned by you!"

A group of children standing behind the three echoed Hill's answer: "Yes, yes. Hill, you should thank your grandpa for finding you two good brothers to take care of you!"

"Besides the vegetarian hot dogs that our parents gave us, we can only have a full meal on the street with the three of you!"

"Tao Xi, the three of you should come on and lead us out of this wretched place like the sewer!"

A group of children happily surrounded their "Kid King" Tao Xi, who stopped and stopped along the way. Tao Xi didn't realize that he had just experienced a life-and-death battle. Instead, he led the group of children skillfully into the water. The drain of the pipe looks at the crowd on the street~
When people in suits pass by, this group of children will try to guess how much money they have in their pockets under the leadership of Tao Xi; when some girls in skirts pass by the sewer entrance~
This group of children will involuntarily follow their gaping fingers and look up quietly~
When Tao Xi yelled "black" loudly towards the street, the group of children would blushed and ran towards the dark place of the sewer like being chased by wild dogs.
Tao Xi hummed a weird tune and left with the support of their two good friends~
The traditional culture of living in the sewers of Los Angeles can be traced back to the 60s in the United States!

Early sewers were built to prevent the coastal city of Los Angeles from being flooded by the sea and rain. However, with the development of technology, the flood and waterlogging development of the Los Angeles coastline has become more and more perfect.

The sewers in Los Angeles, which are not disturbed by floods, have gradually been laid by the Los Angeles city government with hundreds of underground trunk lines for heating, water supply, power supply, and sewage~
These underground main lines extending in all directions are gradually taken over by this group of homeless people!

The "sewer" living culture at the beginning advocated that these "poor people" should help each other and make progress together.

However, as the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States became wider and wider, coupled with the prevalence of gangster culture and Beatles culture in the United States in the late 70s and early 80s, there were a lot of "weird" people in the sewer!
Some of these strange people offended a gang leader on the ground, some were forced to lose their jobs because the factory went bankrupt, and some were because of some ulterior secrets!

When Tao Xi returns to his own territory~
A group of children clustered around him during the day had already gone back to their respective homes and went to their respective mothers. As for why the other children still have parents, of course it was because these adults living in the sewer wanted to be less hungry. Only the "man-made movement" is left~
Tao Xi was not very disappointed when the other children left, on the contrary, Tao Xi was very satisfied that no one followed them "home"!
Tao Xi, who has lived in the sewer for so many years, has developed an advantage of being alert to people and things since he was a child, except for the two children who grew up with him, Hill and Marco~
Tao Xi didn't believe anyone!
And there is one more important reason~
Tao Xi, who was only 8 years old at the time, adopted him and Marco's grandfather, Old Gnar, after he passed away due to old age~
Tao Xi not only has to support the old Gnar's grandson Hill, but also to stand up for Marco who often gets into trouble outside!
In order for Tao Xi to gain a foothold in the sewer, Tao Xi often had conflicts with those adults who came from bad backgrounds~
The result of the confrontation between adults and children can be imagined. If Tao Xi didn't use some tricks, it would be really difficult to gain a foothold.

"Dog skin plaster" is what residents of the sewers in eastern Los Angeles call Tao Xi. Although this nickname is not very good, Tao Xi is very satisfied~
The price for getting this nickname is that Tao Xi has many enemies!
In order to avoid his enemies, Tao Xi came to seek revenge, and he didn't dare to let the group of unscrupulous little guys know where he lived. Who knew that the group of guys who couldn't even eat enough would think that they would not eat because of a 5 cents? What to do with meat-stuffed vegetarian hot dogs~
You must know that in recent years, one of the most popular assassination methods in the sewer is "cutting the throat", and from time to time some Beatles will start to "ignite spontaneously" inexplicably and madly!
It is because of this prudence that Tao Xi, who is a little ghost and has a lot of eyes, leads Marco and Hill to live until he is 15 years old.

At 12 o'clock in the morning, the sewer was already pitch black, but Tao Xi skillfully returned to his residence in this pitch black environment without even taking out the flashlight~
"Sigh~"

"It hurts me~"

"Marco and Hill don't know where they died!"

Tao Xi, who has always shown others as "shameless" and "courageous", can only see traces of childish and aggrieved expressions on Tao Xi's face when there is no one around.

But soon Tao Xi restrained his aggrieved expression!
"Click"~
A light bulb with a dim yellow light came on~
It's just that when the lights were turned on, the residence of Tao Xi and the others looked very dangerous.

A fist-sized hole was dug into a thick pipe by something. Looking along the fist-sized hole, there were several finger-thick wires bound with black rubber.

On the edge of the hole, there are several wires that are obviously tied manually. The rough technique looks a little shocking.

But Tao Xi casually pushed aside the bunch of wires connected to the lighting with a face of indifference.

Tao Xi lowered his head and limped towards the water pipe that was "ticking" not far away~
There was a bucket without a handle under the water pipe. Looking at the dim light, the water in the bucket was clean!
Tao Xi casually picked up a bottle on the ground, scooped up a bottle of water, and gulped it down~
Next to the bucket is a red cabinet covered with moss, not so much a cabinet as an old waste bin without drawers~
But Tao Xi enjoyed rubbing the radio that had been wiped clean~
This radio looks no different from other radios. It has what other radios should have, but there is a nameplate marked [2021] on the bottom of the radio~
"I don't know what this radio has to do with the meteor shower that day!"

"Hey! What should I eat tomorrow? It's my birthday tomorrow, and I don't know if Hill understood what Marco said to Hill today~"

"I don't know if this radio is good or bad~"

Tao Xi muttered a few words in a low voice, then sat down on the plank on the ground which was padded with four bricks~
This wooden board looks very big, and there is a thick stack of electrical wrapping paper on it~
There are three neatly stacked quilts on the board. Although the quilts look dirty, it can still be seen that this is where Tao Xi and the three live.

When Tao Xi turned off the light and lay on the wooden board again, Tao Xi took a deep breath because of the back pain~
But soon after a day of exhaustion, Tao Xi fell into a deep sleep, and Tao Xi didn't even notice when Marko and Hill came back in the middle of the night.

When Tao Xi woke up, he habitually touched the side, when Tao Xi felt that there was no one in the quilt that was still warm~
Tao Xi sat up like a conditioned reflex "thump"~
Tao Xi, who had bloodshot eyes in his eyes, took a deep breath~
"Sigh~"

"It hurts! When I get older, I'll have to hammer Leo once a day!"

Tao Xi said the most cruel words, but Tao Xi grinned and tried hard to let him adapt to the pain caused by the back muscles~
As for, Tao Xi is not surprised that he didn't see Marco and Hill all night~
The three brothers are different from the others in the sewer.
Except that Hill is a serious American citizen and a sewer native, both he and Marco are poor people who escaped from the orphanage and were taken in by Hill's grandfather, Old Gnar!

Without a green card, it means that the two of them have no way to receive the US$30 refugee subsidy from the United States every month!

They are not qualified to eat and wait to die like other sewer natives~
Since the death of Hill's grandfather, going out early and returning late, self-reliance has become the norm for these three young people~
Grinning his teeth and struggling to stand up, Tao Xi saw a bottle of traumatized water and a piece of paper on the closet of their "home" at some point~
A very cute smile appeared on Tao Xi's face.

"Hmph! Hill is showing me that he went to school again!"

After Tao Xi looked at Hill's neatly written message on this piece of paper, Tao Xi's face was full of smiles, and he muttered in a low voice~
【Brother Taoxi, happy birthday to you. Today is the seventh year that you and Marco have joined the family. Although grandpa is gone, the traditions of our family must be abided by!
I know brother you are very concerned about the radio you picked up under the meteor shower, so I discussed it with Marco and bought a battery from the store for you.

On the table is Marco's bone marrow medicine that you got from a pharmacy in Chinatown~
Brother Tao Xi, take a good rest today, and let me earn money to support you today! 】

Tao Xi glanced at a piece of paper wrapped in waste paper on the table~
Tao Xi picked it up and slowly opened the paper case. After seeing a brand new battery inside, Tao Xi also saw a grimacing head drawn by Marco~
"It's obvious at a glance that Marco also wants to write a few words to show off!"

"How about it! Let's not say that the books bought by Hill are useless now, right? The drawing is a fart~"

"Heh! Marko, that brat, is not afraid of being caught if he goes to drill the vent in the pharmacy so late!" Tao Xi whispered for a while, then picked up the "Breakage Medicine" on the table, skillfully opened the bottle cap and turned towards Falling up with a piece of cloth hanging on the wire~
(End of this chapter)