America: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 59 Begging Artist

Leaving Old Pick’s mechanics shop, Allen Zhang walked toward his old home on the impoverished streets of Fifth Street.

Glancing at the time, it was still early, but he had nothing else to do.

He sent messages to both Simone and Rena, but neither of them replied.

Allen then bought a Mexican taco, a chicken roll, and a cup of lemonade on the side of the road, eating as he walked and enjoying the scenery—it felt pretty good.

Approaching a street corner, he heard music in the distance, surrounded by five or six people, and discovered it was a street performer.

The girl was wearing a lip ring, eyeshadow, and her hair dyed sky blue, sitting on a suitcase with an acoustic guitar, with a hat placed in front of her containing scattered coins and paper currency. A golden retriever was tied to her suitcase as well.

Allen watched from the sidewalk and appreciated the street performer’s talent. She was singing a cheerful song called "Lemon Tree."

Great, I can recall that distant afternoon when the English teacher played this classic song in class.

Allen nodded and softly hummed to himself, "I wonder how, I wonder why, yesterday you told me about the blue, blue sky."

The girl had a decent singing voice, at least it sounded pleasant and easily drew people into the mood. Allen decisively took out a 5 US Dollar bill and placed it in the wide-brimmed hat, receiving a nod and smile from the girl as she continued to sing.

He bent down to pet the golden retriever’s head, then turned and walked to a nearby store to buy two bottles of water.

As the song ended and the crowd started to disperse, Allen approached the girl, who was tuning her guitar, and handed her the water, complimenting, "Miss, you sing quite well."

"Thank you for your compliments." The girl said with a slight smile, accepting the water. "And thank you for the water as well."

"Are you British?" Allen asked with some surprise, recognizing her accent.

Water, the way she pronounced it.

The girl nodded somewhat embarrassedly, "Yes, why, do you also want to tease my accent?"

"I didn’t mean that, isn’t English your country’s language?" Allen shook his head, Americans ridiculing their own father’s accent would be completely upside down.

"I’m Hanberger, what’s your name?"

"Sandy."

"Nice to meet you, Sandy." Allen shook her hand and pointed to her luggage, "Have you encountered some troubles? Are you homeless?"

Sandy spread her hands, "Just some minor issues, I’ll overcome them. Because I have a great team, I’m not alone. You know, it would be very dangerous if I were begging on the streets by myself."

"I understand, so this is also your performing turf, right? Because I also have a good team, on Fifth Street," Allen nodded.

Sandy seemed surprised, "Are you also homeless?"

"Indeed, due to some problems, I can’t find work, can’t rent or buy a house, so I have to stay on the streets for now. But everything is getting better so far. What about you? What brings you to the streets?"

Allen leaned against a nearby lamppost, chatting and laughing with the girl.

From their conversation, he learned that the girl actually had a family, and although it was a single-parent household, it was very well-off, with a mother and siblings who were very good to her.

When she turned 18, her family sold their home to move back to England, and she stayed behind alone for her music dream, not wanting to abandon the other band members.

Before the family left, they gave her a trust fund, paid for an apartment for her, and a car, all of which she’d managed to mess up herself.

She had always loved music since she was a child and started a campus band with friends, but the road to fame was much harder than they had imagined. After graduation, due to the lack of income of the other band members, they had to work while street singing, living in that apartment.

But due to frequently making noise in the dead of night, she had been complained about by the surrounding neighbors countless times, which led to police officers knocking on her door several times to mediate the situation. In the end, Sandy had no choice but to sell her apartment and rent a place in a relatively quiet area, persisting for several years while the band remained lukewarm.

The best of times was when their TikTok went viral overseas, gaining a band following of two hundred thousand fans on short videos.

Eventually, because the band’s bass player was arrested for assault, Sandy sold her car to pay his bail. But no sooner had he got out than he was back in for causing trouble while on drugs.

The other two members, the drummer and the keyboardist, were also at each other’s throats, breaking up because the drummer’s private drug dealing got exposed, and the keyboardist was dragged out and beaten after meeting with the top boss of the charts.

When the band couldn’t stick it out any longer, they disbanded, and their account was even banned due to violations.

Now, Sandy is left with no house, no car, no account, no money, and no one...

All she has is the dog that the bass player left behind, this Golden Retriever here.

Such a pitiful woman.

Yet now, she has found some like-minded companions on the streets, all dreamers of music, who barely make ends meet each day by street performing.

As she speaks, she turns her head and sees a few young people carrying drum racks and instruments walking towards them from across the street.

"My friends are here to see me, it’s been nice chatting with you, see you some other time, Hanberger." Sandy picks up her luggage with a smile, leads her Golden Retriever, waves goodbye, and turns to leave.

"Good luck, Sandy, may God bless you." Allen Zhang waves back, watching as the group walks away, truly a girl with a tough fate. Hopefully, she’ll become famous in the future.

He takes out his phone and follows her TikTok account, contributing his own heart to the videos.

He’s done what he can—he’s not exactly rolling in dough himself—let’s leave the rest to her godfather.

Allen Zhang turns and leaves the street.

Unintentionally, he arrives at Sunkist Bar at number 66 on Meiji Street.

Seeing the report showing 2 dead and 16 injured, he feels it necessary to give a heads-up to Mary the kind-hearted Bunny Girl, at least to get her to be more careful at night.

Even if he wouldn’t feel guilty should anything happen to her or she ends up in the hospital, he’d still regret it a bit. Good people deserve good karma!

But upon arriving, he realizes he might have been overly concerned.

Because Mary isn’t working today.

"Sir, is there anything else you need?"

"No, since Mary’s off today and I’ve got other things to do, I’ll be leaving now. No need to tell her I came by, thank you."

In the face of the seduction from other Bunny Girls, Allen Zhang just glances indifferently, not spending even a cent on them, and turns to walk out the door.

The Bunny Girl doesn’t pay him too much attention, figuring he’s probably just one of Mary’s regular customers.

Once outside, after not even two blocks, Allen Zhang sees several Black homeless men smoking Yezi brand cigarettes at the corners, chatting and picking cans out of the trash cans.

Until some other homeless men, not from this street, come to rummage through the trash, causing conflict between the groups.

"Man, don’t you know this is our turf?" Black pulls open his waist bag to reveal a dark, ill-shaped gun, threatening the homeless man.

"Get lost, will you? We’re not just any homeless—we’re from the Sindred gang!"

"Hold on, now that you’re here! Don’t even think about leaving!!"

The Blacks look at each other and decide not to waste an opportunity served on a silver platter, dragging the homeless man into the alley, with carts and garbage bags spilling everywhere.