Chapter 41 In Paris

"As early as two thousand years ago, before the country 'France' existed on Earth, and before there were what are known today as 'Frenchmen', there was ancient Paris. However, at that time, Paris was still just a small fishing village on the island of Sidai in the middle of the Seine River."

Sami, the cab driver sitting in the front row, was not only gifted in the language, but also knew the history of the city of Paris. He droned on about the history of Paris in fluent English to the young brunette boy in the back seat, not realizing if he was listening to what he was saying or writing because he had to juggle driving.

"In 508 A.D., the Frankish Kingdom set its capital in Paris ..." Just as Sammy was getting to the best part of his speech, the boy sitting in the back suddenly reached out and gently tapped him on the shoulder.

"Sir?"

"What's wrong?" The enthusiastic Sami realized at this time that the boy's ears were actually plugged with earphones all the time, but the boy's face had been wearing a very polite smile, causing Sami to be at a loss for a moment as to how to complain.

"I take it you must have a very specialized knowledge of the history of Paris?" The boy didn't remove his earpiece, but asked softly.

"You see?" Sami's voice was a little hard to hide her surprise, "I studied history in college, and I was involved in a research project on the history of Paris at that time."

"That's not what I said!" Seeing that Sami was preparing to launch another long-winded speech on his own history research topic, the boy hurriedly interrupted with his voice, pointing to his earphone, "It was my girlfriend who said that, she had just been listening to your wonderful narration!"

"I'm so sorry!" Sammy looked embarrassed and smiled, then wisely chose to shut up. He swore to God in his heart that he really didn't know the boy was on the phone just now.

This dark-haired boy with a bright smile on the back seat of the cab was none other than Lin Mingyang, who had just arrived in Paris. This time he came to Europe not as a tourist, accompanying him was the publicity team for the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. The filming effect of the movie made Disney's executives very satisfied, and the publicity of the movie also went up. As one of the main stars of the movie, he has been following the crew to participate in various promotional activities around the world since the end of the filming of the movie.

This was also the most tormented period of time for Lin Ming Yang, who found that keeping a smile on his face all the time in front of the media's flashing lights took more energy than filming. He didn't complain to director Verbinski for this, and finally got a rare vacation in Paris, the last stop of this European promotion.

Last night's TV interview lasted until late at night, by which time the rest of the cast and crew were still asleep. Lin Mingyang asked the waiter in the hotel lobby to find a cab for himself, the driver had better speak English.

It wasn't difficult to find someone who could speak English in France, in fact France was and still is inextricably linked to England across the sea, most people in this country understood some English, and it didn't take long for that waiter to go out and find a suitable person for him.

Lin Mingyang didn't get up this early to see the sights of Paris, and because he was in a hurry, he didn't pay attention to the strange expression on the waiter's face, but as soon as he got on the road, the driver of the "lovely" cab began to talk endlessly about every aspect of Paris. Lin Mingyang finally realized why the waiter had that expression on his face, he had already known that this guy was a master who never stopped talking.

"Felix, you should tell the truth to that idiot driver, he should choose to shut the fuck up when someone else is on the phone!" Megan on the other end of the phone still complained indignantly.

"Isn't the result the same?" Lin Mingyang didn't think it was a wise choice to relay Megan's original message, unless he wanted to get a new cab.

"Well, mom's rushing me downstairs, gotta get to training or I'll be late. Don't forget to call me tonight!" Megan said reluctantly on the other end of the line, the two could have cared less about the high cost of transatlantic phone calls, but after all, being halfway across the world from each other, neither of them could talk endlessly like this.

"That damn driver!" Before hanging up the phone, Megan also did not forget to "greet" the guy who disturbed her and her boyfriend's phone porridge.

"At least he taught you a lot about the history of Paris!" Lin Mingyang tried to comfort him.

"To hell with those damn histories!" Megan hung up the phone angrily, and Lin Ming Yang then remembered that the thing Megan hated the most in school was history, because that teacher failed her every test.

After the beeping busy tone came from the other end of the phone, Lin Ming Yang glanced at his mouth with some pity, then took off his earphone. During this period of time, he and Megan basically didn't see each other much because they were busy filming. When he thought of that passion in the hotel room, the latent desire within Lin Ming Yang was a little stirred up. It was not easy for Megan to call at this time, but she was again stirred up by this Sammy guy. Even if Lin Ming Yang's temper was good, at this time, he could not help but feel resentment towards Sammy.

"Girlfriend angry?" Glancing at Lin Ming Yang's expression in the rearview mirror, Sami asked cautiously.

"There are a lot of trees in Paris!" Lin Mingyang texted back, not coincidentally this topic again just scratched this driver's itch.

"Paris is the first city in the history of Europe to effectively protect its trees, every tree we have here has an archive and identification card." Sammy proudly introduced the Paris tree protection program to Lin Mingyang, not caring in the slightest if the other party was interested in what he had to say.

"Have you heard of David Bell?" The somewhat impatient Lin Ming Yang finally interrupted Sammy's narration, he now really regretted not relaying Megan's original words on the phone to such a chattering driver, at least that would have made him shut his damn "beak".

"You mean the guy who jumps around from house to house all day?" Sammy shook his head with some disdain, it was rare that a topic about Paris made him so "uncomfortable", but coincidentally, this was exactly what Lin Ming Yang was most concerned about right now.

"Weird guy?" Lin Ming Yang asked with some doubt, if his memory wasn't wrong, that guy called David Bell should be very famous now, at least in Paris, so he added, "Do all Parisians have the same opinion of him as you do?"

A somewhat difficult expression finally appeared on Sami's face, and he hesitated for a long time before he stammered, "Not really, in fact a lot of young people in Paris are fascinated by that guy nowadays. But you know that young people are always interested in those adventurous and exciting things, and it just so happens that that guy is very good at this, so many people are now imitating him. He started a training camp called Yamakasi in the suburbs of Paris a long time ago and claims to be the founder of the Parkour movement, which is hilarious!"

As if to find a support for his claim, Sammy gave a couple of forced laughs before noticing the boy sitting in the backseat had a frowning look on his face, and he realized that his joke wasn't funny.

"I think those ridiculous fools you're referring to should include me as well!" Lin Mingyang finally shrugged helplessly as he finally determined that Sammy was a guy who knew nothing about Parkour, and he didn't even notice that on the slip of paper with the destination that Lin Mingyang handed him, the words Yamakasi Training Camp in the outskirts of Paris were clearly written.

Sammy also only suddenly thought of that address on the note after Lin Ming Yang's seemingly self-mocking remark, and with an embarrassed look on his face, he was about to explain that he didn't mean to target it, but Lin Ming Yang had already put his headset back on, and there was a real lack of common language between the two of them.

It took about half an hour or so of driving before the cab finally pulled into a dilapidated suburb. The houses here were old and the layout was cluttered, and if he hadn't been there himself, Lin Ming Yang really couldn't believe that this was actually Paris.

The Paris that Lin Mingyang knew, you could see museums, theaters, gardens, fountains and sculptures everywhere, such a city could simply be called a work of art, but this dilapidated and narrow neighborhood in front of him was so real. In Lin Mingyang's opinion, this place was more like the slums in those big cities in the United States. And when it came to ghettos, people always habitually associated chaos and crime with them.

"Is this the 13th district?" Before getting off the bus, Lin Ming Yang casually asked.

"How could it be, District 13 is an area where Chinese gather, it's been developing rapidly over the past few years, with tall buildings, wide streets, and bustling businesses, how could it be as shabby as this place?" Sammy shook his head and finally gave Lin Ming Yang a piece of advice, "This is District 17, Arab and African immigrants like to live over here, the law and order has never been very good, you have to be careful on your own!"

"Surely not!" Lin Ming Yang sighed softly, the plot of that movie in his memory was indeed a fabrication, and the use of "13" was probably due to the Europeans' taboo on this number. However, the 17th district in front of him was indeed similar to the scene in the movie plot, and the movie was probably set here.

Because he was more at ease with his own skill, Lin Mingyang didn't feel too much real danger as he walked through this urban area that Sami described as having poor law and order. Although this was a neighborhood of blacks and Arabs, the residents were quite friendly towards Lin Mingyang, especially when they heard that he was going to the Yamakasi training camp, and many of them enthusiastically gave him directions.

"You're Felix Lin, I've seen you in that movie 'Song and Dance', I love that song you sang with that girl at the New Year's Eve dance!" In a mix of French and other language responses, Lin Mingyang finally met a black boy who was fluent in English. To his great surprise, this black boy named Jem was actually a fan of his songs.

Lin Ming Yang watched as the other party excitedly ran into a store and bought a signature pen, then tugged on his hip-hop style fat t-shirt for him to sign on it. "I actually like that girl you're partnered with better, I have her posters hanging in my bedroom, and her little wildcat-like sex-ness just overwhelms me. I think I'm in love with her, do you have her contact info?"

Jem's passion for Megan made Lin Ming Yang feel quite helpless, he could have all of Megan, but he couldn't stop someone else from hanging pictures of his girlfriend all over his bedroom. Of course he wouldn't tell Jem about his relationship with Megan, so he had to smile sardonically, "Actually, what makes people unable to help themselves is not only love, but also teeth!"

"You're so funny!" Jem whistled loudly in excitement before remembering Lin Ming Yang's question from earlier. "You're going to Yamakasi training camp, so you know Parkour (parkour)?"

"It seems like Mr. Luc Besson made a movie called Yamakasi not too long ago, I know about this sport from that, and I think Yamakasi's group of seven is really cool, it's a real extreme sport!" Even though it wasn't Yamakasi's movie of the same name that introduced Lin Ming Yang to the sport of parkour, the movie he was familiar with hadn't been filmed at this time. Even the sport of parkour had only just begun to become popular in the UK, not to mention the United States across the ocean.

"I know the movie, in fact I even had a small role in it!" Jem proudly straightened his back and pointed both hands towards himself, "Because I am a master of the sport of parkour!"

"So you know David Bell?" Lin Mingyang asked in surprise.

"Of course he knows David Bell, in fact there's no one who lives in this neighborhood who doesn't know that guy!" The grocery store owner who had been leaning against the shelves suddenly popped up at this time, "Unfortunately David Bell doesn't know him!"

"Matthews, you actually eavesdropped on our conversation, you despicable villain!" With his lie being exposed in public, the furious Jem rolled up his sleeves, revealing the bulging muscles and exaggerated tattoos on his arms, made a very powerful fist-clenching gesture, and demonstratively gestured towards the grocery store owner, "Just wait, I'll surely persuade David Belle to allow me to join Yamakasi, and when that happens, I will rip your mouth off!"

"Anytime!" The grocery store owner grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth broken by smoke, he had long been accustomed to such threats.

"Let's go!" Jem had expected the other party to react like this, and he pulled Lin Mingyang and prepared to leave.

"You and David Bell don't know each other, you've been lying just now?" Lin Ming Yang looked a little hesitant, he was now completely unsure of how many of the words that came out of Jem's mouth were true.

"Well, I'm sorry that I just told a little lie, but I didn't mean to. David Bell is my idol and I've always wanted to join Yamakasi, in fact their head has promised to consider accepting me as a member!" Jem said with a slight apology.

"So can you show me your hand?" Lin Ming Yang found a very simple way to ask for permission.

Jem pointed to a high wall of about 3 meters in front of him, then took a few steps backward, and after a burst of easy assisted running, when he was about to approach his target, one of his feet violently pushed against the wall, and his right hand grabbed the wall as easily and quickly as an ape. Almost at the same time, his other called to push the wall, will be the first foot on the wall on top, hands and then help a little, the whole person disappeared behind the wall. The whole process took less than a minute, but Lin Ming Yang watched in disbelief.