American homeless people, surviving in the city

At Raul's call, a fat, bald man in military uniform squeezed out of the crowd.

The moment he saw Raul, the old white man's serious expression melted away. He rushed to Raul and gave him a bear hug.

"Oh, isn't this my brother Raul!"

Raul returned a warm hug:

"Isn't this my begging master, Vietnam War prisoner, antidepressant guru, Jason Fatan?! You're still alive?!"

"I won't die until you, you little bastard, are dead! Hahaha..."

Can't these two say something auspicious...? And why do their titles sound so disreputable...?

Lin Qi mentally complained as he watched the two interact happily.

Fortunately, Raul quickly remembered that there was someone beside him and hurriedly introduced the two of them:

"Come on, Lynch, this is Jason, my good friend, a Vietnam War veteran. He plays the harmonica beautifully."

"As for this one, this is Lynch, a new friend I met yesterday. He just stands there with his hands on his hips, and he can scare away several thugs from the Razor Gang! So cool!"

Lin Qi figured it out: Raul was a social terrorist on the street; he could chat with anyone and was very popular.

Lynch naturally wouldn't be too distant from Raul's friends, so he took the initiative to step forward and extend his hand in greeting:

"I am Lynch."

Despite Lynch's show of goodwill, the white veteran Jason was not as generous and magnanimous as he had been with Raul.

He glanced at him suspiciously, then hesitantly and slowly extended his hand.

The moment their hands touched, Jason's large, hairy hand immediately withdrew from Lynch's skin.

Then, Jason, who had just seemed quite talkative, suddenly turned pale, took a few steps back, and cowered away, no longer speaking.

Raul slapped his forehead:

"Oh dear, I forgot about your illness... I'm sorry."

He quickly said goodbye to Jason, and then hurriedly left with Lynch.

The two walked quickly for a while before Raul, who was leading the way, gradually slowed down.

Lin Qi asked curiously, "What's wrong with him?"

Raul sighed, his expression no longer as cheerful as before:

"As I just introduced him to you, Uncle Jason is a Vietnam War veteran. Although he was lucky to come back alive from the battlefield, he developed severe PTSD after returning home. To make matters worse, he also became severely addicted to performance-enhancing drugs due to the military's abuse of them."

Even after he returned to China, good fortune did not smile upon him.

"Shortly after he retired and returned home, he was in a very poor mental state and accidentally got into a car accident. He was not at fault in the accident, but the party primarily at fault was an illegal immigrant from Iraq who had no insurance and no money to pay compensation. The man's own insurance company also refused to pay and found all sorts of clauses to prove that they did not need to pay..."

"I don't understand the cause and effect of this, but in the end, only Uncle Jason suffered. He spent his meager savings on car repairs and rentals, wasting time and worsening his mental state, soon having to take more antidepressants to fight his mental illness."

"Since that accident, he has completely lost his ability to work because his withdrawal symptoms make it difficult for him to maintain a clear thinking ability, and he can only rely on various subsidies to make a living."

"But often, the subsidies he receives are not even enough to buy his antidepressants."

"Therefore, he could only make a living by begging on the streets. He always wore the Vietnam War Service Medal, which he had earned by trading his life for something that should have been normal, to show people his past in order to gain some pity and get some money. That's how I met him."

"But since the new policy was introduced, the amount of food vouchers that can be received has been reduced significantly, and the eligibility requirements have been raised considerably."

"Given Jason's mental state, he simply cannot complete the 20 hours of training required by the Federation each week, and that's why, as far as I know, he hasn't received any food in a long time..."

"So when I saw Uncle Jason still alive in the crowd just now, I was really surprised."

"I don't know how he managed to keep going, but I'm really worried that one day he'll die alone and unnoticed on the street because of mental illness, hunger, or some other reason."

Raul looked at Lynch, as if remembering something, and then added:

"So don't be upset because he reacted so strangely to you just now."

"I only realized it belatedly, but Uncle Jason had a hard time getting along with Asians."

"Jason has had a psychological aversion to Asian faces ever since he returned from the Vietnam War... His willingness to shake your hand and his deliberate avoidance of conversation are already signs that he is trying to suppress the symptoms of PTSD."

"Won't the federal government provide these veterans with any services...like lifelong medical care or housing security?"

Lin Qi couldn't help but interject. Based on his past experience living at Dongda University, he couldn't imagine that a veteran who had retired from the battlefield would have such an experience.

Upon hearing this, Raul couldn't help but chuckle, but he didn't answer Lynch's question.

Then, he began to ramble on about Jason's past.

Listening to Raul's incessant chatter, Lynch simply followed behind him in silence, for the first time without feeling the urge to interrupt.

After all, these few short paragraphs contain the story of a person's life, which may be extraordinary or unknown to anyone.

The veteran Jason's ordeal also reminded Lynch of a famous quote from the five-star emperor MacArthur:

Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away.

However, don't ask how exactly it withered away.

......

The two talked as they completely crossed the area where the parade was taking place.

Soon, the relief food truck that Raul had mentioned, which had only recently started operating, appeared before the two of them.

However, contrary to Raul's prediction, there was an unusually long queue in front of the food truck.

Looking around, the queue stretched from the food truck all the way to the end of the street.

Not only were there many people in the queue, but upon closer inspection, there were also quite a few people in the queue who didn't look like homeless people at all.

Some people are dressed in suits and ties, looking like white-collar workers; some are wearing work clothes, clearly blue-collar workers; some are even wearing plaid shirts with thinning hair, looking like programmers.

There were even a few men dressed in clothing that seemed out of place in modern city life, like traditional costumes of some ethnic groups; they might have escaped from a film crew.

"How could this be!" Raul exclaimed dramatically. "With such a long line, I'm probably going to be late for work today!"

"If we're too late for work, how about we buy some food to tide us over today?" Lin Qi suggested.

Unexpectedly, his proposal was rejected without hesitation by Raul:

"That's impossible. If you have free food right in front of you and don't eat it, you might as well kill me!"

He crossed his arms, looking completely calm and collected.

"Anyway, I don't get much pay in a day, so even if that stingy boss deducts all my wages for the day, it won't be much!"

...How can you say something so tragic with such pride?

Lin Qi silently complained to himself, then couldn't help but look at the long queue with some doubt:

"So why are so many people coming to this food truck for relief meals? Didn't you say this food truck just opened and not many people should know about it?"

"I didn't expect that either, boss. Maybe it's because the food from this food truck isn't expired?"

Raul guessed as he naturally joined the end of the line.

At the same time, Lin Qi immediately noticed that the person at the end of the line was someone he knew.

It was that old black man who gave him a few pointers when he first transmigrated!