Chapter 1687: Chapter 1666: Irony
Gao Yang held a paper bag in each hand, with two hotdogs in each bag, so he couldn’t eat them while holding them. He walked over to the holess man he had noticed earlier and whispered, “Hey, brother, if you’re hungry, I can treat you to two hotdogs.”
The holess man, head down, knees hugged to his chest with a piece of cardboard thrown at his feet, lifted his head and looked at Gao Yang in surprise. When he saw Gao Yang holding a hotdog right in front of him, he took the hotdog and nodded, “Thank you.”
“You’re welco.”
Gao Yang opened the paper bag and took out a hotdog, standing there gulping it down, and then realized the holess man was eating much more voraciously than him.
“Oh, man, you look like you’ve been hungry for a long ti.”
The holess man finished two hotdogs in a few bites while Gao Yang hadn’t even finished his first one. So, holding a hotdog in one hand, he rummaged through his pockets, pulled out a bill, and said loudly, “How many more do you think you could eat?”
Seeing that Gao Yang was serious, the holess man solemnly replied, “I think I could eat ten more, I suppose there’s no problem with that.”
Gao Yang shrugged, handed the bill to the holess man, and whispered, “I have twenty bucks; hotdogs are a dollar fifty each, so that’s enough to fill you, but you’ll need to get them yourself. I’m still eating here.”
The holess man looked at Gao Yang, got up from the ground, took the money, and stood by the hotdog stand. Each ti he got a hotdog, he’d co back to stand next to Gao Yang and eat, then go back to the stand for another.
As Gao Yang was working on his second hotdog and realized it wouldn’t be enough, he shouted to the holess man standing by the hotdog stand, “Hey, buddy, give another. I think I need one more.”
The holess man walked over with a hotdog to Gao Yang. After Gao Yang grabbed the hotdog and started eating, the holess man handed him the change and said in a deep voice, “There’s ten bucks left. He charged fifty cents less.”
Gao Yang took the money and casually put it in his pocket, laughing, “You said you could eat ten.”
“Uh, after being hungry for a day and night, I overestimated my stomach’s capacity.”
Gao Yang shrugged, said nothing, and continued standing there, eating hotdogs. He began to choke, and as he hiccuped, the holess man quickly reached into his backpack on the ground and pulled out a bottled Coke, twisted it open, and handed it to Gao Yang.
“Drink it; here’s my treat to you. You see it’s unopened; I just opened it now.”
Gao Yang gulped down half the bottle of Coke, hiccuped, looked at the holess man, and smiled, “Thanks, you actually saved a lot.”
The holess man spread his hands, “Happy to do sothing for you.”
Gao Yang raised the Coke bottle and shook it a little, then took another sip, bit into the hotdog, and mumbled, “I was curious, you said you were hungry, but you have a Coke. It’s not good for your teeth and health, but it has high calories, why didn’t you drink it?”
“A kind lady bought a hamburger and gave a Coke the day before yesterday, but my stomach’s not good; too much acid. If I drink it without eating or eat too little, it’ll make uncomfortable all night, so I saved it.”
Gao Yang nodded. After finishing his hotdog and the Coke, the holess man reached out his hand, looking serious, and said, “Thank you, sir, you’re a good man.”
Gao Yang shook the holess man’s hand and smiled, “No need to be polite, I just saw your sign, and I’m in a good mood today. Hmm, hope this doesn’t hurt your pride, take it. I just want to help you.”
Gao Yang took out three hundred US dollars; he had a total of four hundred US dollars in cash in his wallet and needed the remaining hundred US dollars to get a taxi ho.
Usually, Gao Yang doesn’t give money to beggars, but next to this holess man was a sign that said, “I’m just a holess retired soldier, not a beggar.”
Gao Yang found it quite interesting that the holess man would write such a sign, so on a good day when he had just made one million US dollars, he was willing to help an interesting holess guy.
The holess man looked at the money in Gao Yang’s hand, then unhesitatingly reached out to take it, nodded towards Gao Yang, and smiled, “Thank you, buddy, I really appreciate it.”
Gao Yang shrugged, “Don’t ntion it, buddy, it’s nothing to , hope you have a good mood and good luck, goodbye.”
The holess man shook his head, “No, not thanking you for the money. I haven’t had a al with anyone in a long ti. You were willing to eat hotdogs here with , and that made feel great because I really haven’t had a al and a conversation with anyone in a long ti.”
The first thing that struck Gao Yang about the holess man’s peculiarity was how clean he was, lacking any sour sll, which is rare for a holess person. Plus, he wore a T-shirt with a Purple Heart dal pinned to it.
The Purple Heart dal is a low-ranking award in the Arican military decoration system, given to anyone injured in combat, so there are many recipients. However, in the eyes of soldiers, this low-level Purple Heart dal still carries so weight since one must be on the battlefield and bear injury to earn it.
All these reasons made Gao Yang willing to help an unusual holess man, but simply put, he was just in a good mood.
“Oh, don’t ntion it, buddy. You have a Purple Heart dal, and I have a special fondness for soldiers, so I’m glad to have lunch with you.”
After Gao Yang finished speaking, the holess man looked at the dal pinned to his chest, smirked, and smiled at Gao Yang, “Oh, brother, I specifically displayed it, but it’s not about honoring anything; it’s satire! Satirizing so people, hope that doesn’t surprise you too much.”
Gao Yang smiled wryly, “Oh, that’s surprising.”
“Did you know?”
The holess man shrugged and spoke earnestly to Gao Yang, “Did you know? There are about 750,000 holess people in Arica, and 200,000 of them are veterans, more than a quarter of them. Unfortunately, I’m one of them.”
Gao Yang wasn’t interested in helping with the settlent work for Arican veterans, even though his company needed many veterans and would help many. However, hiring suitable employees and offering charitable donations are two different things.
Therefore, Gao Yang could only shake his head helplessly and sigh, while the holess man waved the money in his hand towards Gao Yang, then put it in his pocket and smiled, “Thank you for your support, I’ll repay you. My na is Jesse Lee, from the Marines, pleasure to et you, sir.”
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