Manhattan Reborn 1978

Southeast Texas, Houston.

West of downtown, Piney Point Village Community Church in the Memorial District.

It was near noon and the sun was shining brightly.

In the community church, a choir composed of children is singing with tender childish voices~

Old David, his wife Sierra, and son David sat side by side, looking at the children from the neighborhood, smiling and nodding at a familiar child from time to time, showing their kindness.

Behind the three of them, Susan, her mother Sarah, her brother Johnny, Polly, Zina, Elena, Cui Yingying, and the Malik sisters adopted by David and his wife, all watched the scene quietly with smiles on their faces, and no one knew what they were thinking.

After a while~

According to the custom here, all the people who came to attend the weekly Saturday service dispersed, and the last group of people to walk out of the church were nearby residents who had just led their children to participate in the choir activity.

David's mother, Sera, saw these childish children following their parents out of the church. She couldn't help but pull her son's hand tightly, looked back at Susan, and whispered.

"Whatever you do next, Susan can't leave my side, understand!"

"what?"

"Oh... okay." David grinned, feeling a little amused. He turned around, winked at Susan, and joked to his mother.

"What if I go back to New York to work and Susan misses me again?"

"Hmph!" Sera's mother rolled her eyes at her son and said meaningfully.

"Your father and I are both old. If you want us to help take care of the children in a few years, we won't be able to do so either."

"This is Susan's first pregnancy. If anything happens to her while she's with you... I will never allow it!"

"OK~OK!" David raised his hands to show surrender, turned around and looked at Susan, whose face was flushed and a happy smile was on her lips. He rolled his eyes and teased the other women.

"You all heard it, too, right?"

"My mother has given me a task that must be completed. Each of you must actively cooperate!"

"What? What are you talking about?"

Among the girls, Polly had the biggest reaction after hearing David's shameless remarks. She glared at him fiercely, walked forward, took Sera's mother's arm, and whispered a few words softly.

"Hahaha~" David didn't care about Polly's attitude. He walked up to Susan with a smile and scratched her nose with his hand.

Then, he looked at Elena, Cui Yingying and Zina, and found that they were all looking at him with smiles, and he felt happy.

"Let's go home!"

. . .

on the way.

Mother Sierra walked in front, holding Susan with one hand and Polly with the other, chatting as they walked.

Because of his disability, David took the initiative to lead the Malik sisters to walk at the end of the group, and occasionally chatted with Sarah and her son who were walking beside them.

David walked in the middle of the "team", trying his best to suppress the fatigue in his body, and smiled at Zina, Elena and Cui Yingying beside him.

"I've been to this city twice, but I never had the chance to visit all the famous sights."

"If you want to talk about Houston's most famous tourist attraction in the world, it must be the Lyndon Johnson Space Center, which was renamed by Congress in 73!"

"By the way, has anyone watched the moon landing live on TV?"

"I've seen it." Zina walked slowly in the spring noon breeze and answered with a mature woman's charming smile.

"I've seen it too, in Paris." Elena was like a gorgeous iris exuding fatal charm, with an alluring smile on her lips.

"I... I haven't watched the live broadcast." Cui Yingying, whose figure and face have become fuller recently, smiled a little unnaturally.

David glanced at the three people, took Cui Yingying's hand, shrugged and shook his head, and said: "The first human in history to enter space was Yuri Gagarin from the Bear Country."

"In April 61, he boarded the Vostok 4 spacecraft and entered the airless space, becoming the first astronaut in history."

"At that time, almost all radio and television stations in the United States were broadcasting the news of Gagarin's entry into space all day long."

"In order to grab the spotlight, these radio and television stations also invited many aerospace experts to be interviewed, and asked them to make many remarks in public media that made people feel very uneasy."

"For example, China is already leading the world in aerospace technology, completely surpassing the United States."

"And the U.S. government is still scheming for power and profit."

"It was in this historical context that the Houston Space Center received a large amount of funding from Congress and developed the Apollo moon landing program."

David held Cui Yingying's hand with a little force, looked into the distance, and couldn't help but slow down his pace: "Those people in front seem to be looking for me..."

Several people around David heard the sound and looked over, and saw several strangers standing on the street outside No. 19 Songlin Avenue.

Old David, who was walking behind, saw his son slow down, walked up to him curiously and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's okay, you guys go back first." David waved to his father, turned around and threw a look at Zina and others, then walked away slowly with one hand in his pocket.

. . .

In front of No. 19 Songlin Avenue.

A middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties showed joy on his face when he saw David coming.

He took the initiative to take a few steps forward, extended his right hand to David and introduced himself: "Hello, Mr. Coleman."

"I'm Dwight Ryan."

"I came here from New York mainly to find Carnes before Easter and bring him back to spend Easter with my family."

"Hello, Mr. Ryan."

"You should call me Ryan. Bill Gutheran and I are colleagues, and we both serve Carnes."

"Oh, I understand." David glanced at the people standing behind Mr. Ryan, then looked at the closed door of No. 19 and shrugged.

"I can try, but I can't promise you anything..."

"Okay, thank you!" Mr. Ryan nodded with a smile, took out a very exquisite business card holder from his pocket, and handed a business card to David.

"The two numbers above are my office numbers in New York and San Francisco. They are answered 24 hours a day. You can contact me at any time through them."

"Also below this, I have specially added the phone number of Bill Gutheran's temporary office in Tokyo so that you can contact him in case of emergency."

"Okay." David took a closer look at the beautifully crafted golden business card in his hand, put it away, took out his door key and said with a smile.

"It's not my way of entertaining guests to make you all wait outside."

"Come on, I'll invite you in for some coffee."

"Ok."

"But you may have misunderstood." Mr. Leon saw David about to go forward to open the door and hurriedly explained.

"I'm the only one coming to Houston this time. The gentlemen over there are not..."

"Oh?" David stopped in front of the gate and turned back to ask in surprise.

"Then who are they? Do you know?"

"They should have come here with Miss Cheroff..." Ryan turned sideways to David, blinking and smiling.

"Ms. Cherov? Livlin?"

"She's in there?"

"Yes."

"Okay... why is she here?" David muttered to himself, inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it twice. Finding that the door was not locked, he opened it and walked in.

. . .

in the living room.

Carnes was still the same as before, "slumped" on the sofa without any image, holding the TV remote control in his hand, watching the TV program with half-closed eyes, as if he exuded the aura of a "dead otaku".

Livlin G. Cherov, who was sitting diagonally opposite him, saw David and a stranger walk in, so she deliberately crossed her legs, lifted her hair, put on a sly smile, and asked.

"I heard that you brought all your girlfriends to Polly's family dinner?"

"Such an interesting thing, why didn't you inform me..."

"Notify my ass!" David rolled his eyes in annoyance, walked to Carnes, picked up one of his legs and threw it aside, staring at the two of them with a squint and asked.

"Tell me, how did you two get together?"

"Ah..." Carnes groaned in a half-dead tone and continued watching TV.

Livlin's eyes penetrated the window and saw David's family passing by outside. She smiled even more and explained, "Last time, I accompanied Leslie to their family's Thanksgiving party."

"This Easter, Leslie used this as an excuse to stay in Houston and spend the holiday with my family."

"Your family? Your father?"

"correct."

“He didn’t go back to Los Angeles?”

"Is his wife, Diane Yullington, about to give birth?"

"You're going to be a sister again, right?"

"Is it a boy or a girl this time?"

David's series of questions were like "knife-like" questions, and Livlin's expression, which was still smiling just now, suddenly turned cloudy.

She glared, gritted her teeth, stared at David and said coldly: "You are such a bastard!"

"Hahaha ~ I agree!" Kanes, who was "attached and watching melons" nearby, suddenly threw away the remote control and laughed out loud.

"Haha~ Same with you." David sneered at the two of them and turned to Mr. Ryan.

"Please come and sit down. I'll get you some coffee."

"Thank you!" Mr. Ryan thanked David politely and watched him walk into the kitchen, but he did not move and still stood there waiting.

Livlin raised her eyebrows and looked Mr. Ryan up and down, then looked back at David who turned on the stove to boil water, and raised her voice.

"My father asked me to come here and ask you if you'd be interested in bringing your family to the cocktail party he's hosting tomorrow night."

"Ah... do you want me to bring my family with me?"

"What kind of cocktail party is this?"

"If it's a social drinking party, I won't go."

"If it's your and Leslie's engagement party, then I'll definitely be there."

"..." When Livlin heard David say this, the cloudy expression on her face immediately turned sunny.

She stood up and walked quickly into the kitchen, put her left hand on David's shoulder, and blew into his ear deliberately.

"Leslie and I have already discussed that we will put you in the bridesmaid group when we get engaged!"

"What? Don't tease me!"

David put the kettle away, tilted his head and glared at Livlin: "I'm a man, straight, I only like women, I already have a fiancée and five girlfriends... Understand?"

"Hahaha~ So what?" Livlin licked her fiery red lips and laughed seductively.

"We are planning to hold an engagement ceremony early next month. At least several hundred unmarried ladies will attend."

"Those are big-breasted, brainless, and voluptuous XX. If I hadn't had your help, I would have probably torn them apart with my own hands!!"