Chapter 6

On the streets of Chicago at dusk, Joshi stood in the wind, disheveled.

It had been only a few hours since he returned home, and his newly bought car had already been stolen.

This was something he had never experienced before.

In his previous life, in the safest country of Xia, he had never encountered car theft, nor had he heard much about it.

But America was different. In New York City alone, from January to March 2022, there were over two thousand car thefts...

If 2022 was like this, one could imagine how rampant car theft was in the 1940s in America.

So, it was only natural that Joshi, who had bought a car without any precautions, fell victim to it.

What should he do now that he found his car stolen?

Call the police?

Joshi shook his head as he looked at the patrol officer on the side of the road in the distance.

Don't be silly. In America, the car theft clearance rate, even sixty years later, was not high, let alone in this era.

Moreover, the police in this era were highly corrupt. Without money or influence, there was no point in expecting them to do anything.

There was also a very important issue: the car Joshi bought at noon had not even been registered...

So, even though Joshi was upset, he could only accept his bad luck.

Without a car, he would have to walk!

Originally, Joshi had planned to drive around to see what "interesting" places there were in Chicago at night, but now he could only eat something nearby and go back to sleep.

Without a car, Joshi would absolutely not wander around in the night in this era of America, even with a gun.

Soon, it was the next day.

After tidying up, he went out again, not walking but having pre-arranged a taxi, and then returned to the same杂货店 from yesterday.

Upon entering, he found that it was not Old Hawk standing behind the counter, but a young girl in her twenties.

"Good morning, what can I get for you?" the young girl asked enthusiastically when she saw Joshi come in.

"Is Old Hawk not here?" Joshi asked, not revealing his purpose.

After all, Old Hawk was the owner, and a matter like buying gold was not something the girl could decide.

"Are you looking for my grandfather? Wait a moment, he's working in the back, I'll call him." The girl didn't mind Joshi's attitude and turned to go to the back. She was Old Hawk's granddaughter and often helped out. She had seen many mysterious customers like Joshi and was no longer surprised.

Soon, Old Hawk came out and was quite surprised to see Joshi again.

"Meeting you again, young man. More gold?"

"Yes, your prices are fair, so I decided to exchange more. I just wonder if you can handle it." Joshi nodded.

"Hehe, young man, I know what you're worried about, but don't underestimate Old Hawk. This store has been here for several decades. It may not look big, but there are many valuable items here. See that? Even though they are second-hand, the gold you exchanged yesterday wouldn't be enough to buy any of the watches in that cabinet." Old Hawk smiled and pointed to a watch cabinet.

Joshi hadn't noticed it before, but upon closer inspection, he realized Old Hawk was telling the truth.

There were only about seven or eight watches in the cabinet, but each was in excellent condition.

Although he didn't know much about watches—after all, he couldn't afford high-end watches in his previous life—he recognized the brands.

Patek Philippe, Rolex, Breguet... Even in the 1940s, these watches were worth at least a thousand dollars each, assuming they were genuine.

But even if only half of them were genuine, their value would exceed the gold Joshi had.

Joshi could only admit to himself that he lacked knowledge.

"120 ounces, the purity should be about right!" Since Old Hawk was so confident, Joshi didn't hesitate. He took out a small bag and placed it on the counter, just like yesterday.

Twelve gold bars, weighing over 3.4 kilograms, sounded like a lot.

But in terms of volume, it wasn't much, given the density of gold.

A 10-ounce gold bar was smaller than a Snickers bar.

So, even though Joshi took them out of the system, it didn't raise any suspicion.

"These are good, I'll take them all. The same price as yesterday, how about it?" Old Hawk picked up a gold bar and weighed it, then smiled.

"Sure!" The price offered was indeed fair, so Joshi had no objections.

Soon, the 120 ounces of gold were exchanged for $4,800.

Holding the money, Joshi felt a surge of excitement.

He put the thick stack of bills in his pocket—actually, he stored them directly in the system's warehouse—and said goodbye to Old Hawk, then left the store.

After turning two corners and making sure no one was following him, he tried to hail a taxi, planning to go to a car dealership to buy another car.

After all, Chicago, as the third-largest city in America, was quite large.

The public transportation in America was terrible, and not having a car was very inconvenient.

As for the car theft, Joshi had a plan: park in an empty area and store the car in the system's warehouse. How could it be stolen then?

However, taxis weren't easy to find. Yesterday, he had been lucky and found one immediately, but today, after waiting for over ten minutes, he still hadn't seen an empty taxi.

Just as he was getting impatient, a Ford car sped past him.

Although the cars in this era looked similar, Joshi immediately recognized the one that just passed by—it was the car he had bought yesterday and had been stolen.

The car had a very noticeable scratch on the rear, exactly the same as the one he had bought.

Without thinking, he started to chase after it.

Although the speed of cars in this era had long exceeded 70 miles per hour, due to the city limits and Roosevelt's order to prohibit high-speed driving during the war, even on highways, the maximum speed was 35 miles per hour.

So, the speed of the car in front was not fast, only about 20 miles per hour.

Relying on his youth and determination, Joshi managed to keep up for a while.

However, as the car turned a corner, Joshi stopped.

The area ahead was not a good place; it was already the Little Italy immigrant district, and just two more streets away was Chinatown.

Unfortunately, unlike the famous tourist destinations and bustling markets of Little Italy and Chinatown in modern America, these areas in this era were synonymous with slums, not much better than the segregated black neighborhoods.

In his original memories, his parents had often warned him not to go near Little Italy and Chinatown.

So, Joshi was now quite hesitant.