Reborn in America, I am a legendary short seller on Wall Street.

Chapter 38 Renting a Room (Seeking Monthly Tickets and Recommendations)
The morning trading session was predictably dull. After filling in a few opening quotes, Larry tucked the chalk behind his ear, sipped his coffee, and drifted off into his own thoughts.

The period between the late 19th and early 20th centuries often evokes a sense of temporal disorientation, especially for someone like Larry, who has been reborn twice.

On one hand, developed Western countries have begun to accelerate the pace of technological development. Electric lights, telephones, and multi-story buildings have become commonplace, and round-the-world travel is also commonplace. Under the inspiration of new technologies, people are constantly inventing new products and improving old machines, and the whole era is showing a thriving scene.

Especially now, under the global order established and maintained by the British Empire, globalization has been initially realized. Gentlemen in London, New York, Paris and other places enjoy tea and porcelain from Asia, cotton and minerals from Africa, and sugar and coffee from the Caribbean. The goods are plentiful and their lives are extremely rich.

On the other hand, in many corners of the world, time is still stuck 2000 years ago. Larry is most familiar with China, which is actually a bit better off. Although the Qing Dynasty was already rife with undercurrents, it was still the era described by Lao She, where ordinary people could still eat spicy pancakes and braised meat noodles and make ends meet without much trouble.

The most tragic example of the British colonial system is the United States. Here, there is a group of patriotic self-media who have a long-standing hatred for their former colonial overlord, Britain. They control their own newspapers and magazines, and occasionally publish systematic pamphlets that extensively expose the dark side of the British Empire.

For example, newspapers revealed that the plight of London's working class was dire. Wages were meager, inflation was rampant, and many capitalists moved their factories out of London and Liverpool to America, finding it more profitable to establish factories abroad. Meanwhile, British workers were forced into coal mines or the service industry, engaging in fierce competition for increasingly crowded jobs. Child labor had become commonplace, with 7- and 8-year-olds becoming the main workforce for chimney cleaning, and half of the children in slums not living past 18.

The British Empire's colonies fared even worse. The Indian famine of 1876-1878 was a favorite topic of criticism in American newspapers. This terrible natural disaster, combined with man-made calamities, conservatively estimated to have caused the unnatural deaths of 10 to 15 million people in India within two years. The problem is that the entire British India region had a population of less than 100 million at the time, which is equivalent to directly wiping out 15% to 20% of the population of the greater Indian region.

The situation in France-ruled Africa was hardly better. Some smaller European countries, like Belgium and Luxembourg, were also taking advantage of the late colonial period to aggressively seize small swathes of territory and begin exploiting local resources. Although the slave trade had ended, the nightmare for Black people in Africa was far from over.

Relatively speaking, the United States was already a paradise. This was not because American capitalists and factory owners were incompetent, but because the United States at that time was indeed a vast and resource-rich country with thriving industries. Its vast lands contained wealth and food, and the westward expansion absorbed a large number of bankrupt farmers, making them passive new land settlers.

Therefore, even the poorest workers in the United States are not so poor that they cannot afford to eat. Although the lives of ordinary people are not considered wealthy, they are much more comfortable compared to ordinary people of the same level in Europe and even the world.

In addition, the United States at the time was not keen on war, but rather focused on expanding its commercial sphere and pursuing free and fair trade. This made the United States appear as a dynamic emerging nation that was out of place when dealing with the old European powers represented by Britain.

Of course, the United States is not without its other problems. For example, the disruptive reshuffling of industries brought about by the emergence of new technologies, the wave of bankruptcies and unemployment caused by new industries replacing old ones, and the economic crises and financial turmoil that break out every few years make stock prices on Wall Street fluctuate very frequently. Reputable companies often go bankrupt and liquidate overnight, leaving millions of investors with nothing in the blink of an eye.

The prosperity of the US economy and the rapid changes in industries, along with the frequent bull and bear market cycles on Wall Street, have created enormous risks, but also contain boundless opportunities.

Larry is not a pure moral conservative, but as a reborn person with memories of his past life, he cannot simply ignore the dark facts of society happening around him as normal, just like people in this life.

He was just an ordinary 14-year-old boy who had just started to accumulate a little wealth. So Larry decided to abandon his worries about reality and focus all his attention on how to capitalize on this unique era and create a wealth myth that belonged to this time. With money, everything is possible; without money, nothing can be accomplished.

This is Larry's most basic and universal life experience, derived from his past life.

This move of his parents to the farm is a great opportunity for Larry, allowing him to do whatever he wants independently and accumulate his wealth in a more discreet way.

Having sorted out his thoughts, Larry's eyes brightened. He finished the rest of his coffee and continued with his work.

At 3:30 p.m., Larry left Paine Weber Securities and rode his bike straight to the Back Bay area, intending to find a suitable rental apartment there.

Back Bay is located in the south of Boston. It was originally a mudflat, but in recent years, with the improvement of American engineering and construction capabilities, the municipal authorities and real estate developers have used land reclamation and other methods to build this area into a beautiful and trendy new residential and living area.

(Boston's Back Bay)
The moment the bicycle entered the Back Bay area, it felt like stepping from faded parchment into a gilded picture book. Larry rode his bike along the French-style boulevards. The stunted trees lining the streets couldn't provide enough shade yet, but it was easy to imagine that in the future, such main roads would be grand and comfortable.

The Victorian-style red-brick apartment buildings lining both sides of Federal Avenue extend into the distance with a precise geometric rhythm perfectly suited to sunlight. The wide balconies with black cast-iron railings on the second and third floors shield the storefronts of the ground floor shops, but also provide natural eaves for sun and rain protection.

All the stylish shops are newly opened, their windows displaying everything from custom-made Parisian hats to Swiss watches. The aroma of freshly ground coffee mingles with the delicious buttery croissants wafting from the open-air cafes, creating a wonderful ambiance.

On the street, women in slim-waisted dresses held up lace parasols and chatted quietly under the granite arcade, occasionally letting out soft laughter.

At the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Newbury Street, there is a huge bronze statue of Columbus holding a nautical compass and pointing towards the Charles River.

Larry had a sudden thought. Following the direction Columbus pointed out, he passed a police station and soon arrived at a quiet three-story red brick apartment building. He immediately saw a sign at the door that read, "Apartments available for rent. For details, please contact Mrs. Eleanor Winthrop on the first floor of this building."

(End of this chapter)