Chapter 20: Please help her

A few days ago, the Fenway District Council building was attacked by hundreds of rioters armed with sticks and props. They tried to achieve their political goals by attacking the council building. At 1 pm, the police deployed riot police to disperse the attacking crowd and arrested 32 key leaders.

It is understood that these rioters are members of the Green Dragon Gang, a Chinese gang in Brighton that has been engaged in illegal activities such as illegal immigration, prostitution, smuggling and drug trafficking. Brighton City Police, in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have carried out numerous arrests of this gang. Related sources said that this attack may be the Green Dragon Gang's retaliation for the Brighton City Police's arrest operations.

The mayor of Brighton expressed his anger at the incident and condemned all Chinese people involved in the incident. He said in a televised speech after the incident: 'Brighton is a peaceful and quiet city. He will never allow anyone or any group to destroy and trample on people's right to a normal life. He said that the city government and police will never compromise and will definitely wipe out all criminals and give all Brighton residents a peaceful life.

At the same time, the mayor of Brighton also called on people to stay away from all Chinese as much as possible, so as not to be taken advantage of or even unnecessarily hurt by some Chinese who are desperate.

...

This was the headline on the front page of the Massachusetts Daily News the day after the incident, and not only the Massachusetts Daily News, but also many other media outlets such as the Brighton Times and the Northeast Event News all reported on the incident that occurred in front of the Fenway District Council building the next day. Of course, the consensus among all the media outlets was that a certain Chinese gang was provoking and retaliating against the Brighton City Government, and they expressed their indignation and condemnation of the incident.

Pop!

Zhou Ming slammed the newspaper down on the table and angrily shouted, 'Does the American media have any shame? Do they have any sense of morality or conscience as journalists? And those people in the Vidda community, are they all idiots? I told them all that I could help them solve the problem through legal means, but they just wouldn't listen, they just had to go on marches and rallies, and now everyone is calling them criminals!'

Zhou Ming's words echoed through the room like a clarion call. Chen Yexu and Li Yang were both in the room, but at the moment they were both just keeping their heads down and not saying a word. Only Yexu silently helped Zhou Ming put away the newspaper that had been dropped on the table, her eyes moist as she read the news.

Of course Ye Ning didn't want to cry because of the Vidda Community, but because of Zhou Ming. Since Zhou Ming had decided to run for the Vidda Community election, he was very concerned about the Vidda Community. Because of this, as soon as the Chinese garage fees and other taxes in the Vidda Community were raised, Zhou Ming got the news first. It wasn't hard for Zhou Ming to figure out who did it, but it didn't really matter. The most important thing for Zhou Ming was how to solve the problem.

Zhou Ming could not care less about the two unpleasant experiences he had had with the Vinda community, and went to the Vinda community as soon as possible to offer to help them resolve the matter through legal means. However, those people simply ignored Zhou Ming and even mocked him. In the end, they chose to go to the district council building to stage a protest, which resulted in the current situation.

Ye Ning said to hell with those ungrateful people, even if they are also Chinese, but the key is that these people's stupid actions have also affected them.

After the news came out, Ye Ning and the others went to class this morning and noticed that the attitude of the other students in the school towards them had changed significantly, and they were all on their guard and hostile.

After helping Zhou Ming sort the newspapers, Ye Ning said to him, 'Teacher, I know you're angry right now, but this really has nothing to do with you. You've done everything you could. They're the ones who brought this on themselves. What we need to do now is to minimise and eliminate the impact of this incident.'

With Ye Ning having started, Li Yang quickly followed suit, saying, 'Yes, teacher, because of the impact of this news, the business of our dormitory convenience store has dropped a lot compared to before, and there are groups promoting a boycott of our convenience store in front of it.'

'There has also been a very direct impact on Wharton Insurance,' Chen Shu also said, "This morning the company received many calls from customers asking if there will be any problems with our insurance, if there will be any exclusions, or non-payment upon expiry. There are no new customers left, even if they had any intention of signing up before, but under the influence of these news reports, all customers have also chosen not to go with us.'

Zhou Ming listened quietly, and after they had all finished speaking, Zhou Ming let out a long sigh and said, "What a bunch of idiots!'

Then Zhou Ming sat down and said, 'Although the media is very unfriendly towards us right now, it may not be a bad opportunity. If we can establish a good image of the company during this incident, we can achieve better results than ever before.'

'First, for the dormitory convenience store,' Zhou Ming said to Li Yang, 'we can sponsor and hold an event celebrating the cultural diversity of American immigrants, and at the same time introduce our convenience store and products, to prove that we are one of the immigrants who helped build America, and that we are with everyone else.'

'Then there's the insurance company side.' Ming turned his head towards Shu Chen and Ning Ye. 'Currently, our insurance company's insured amount is approaching 100 million US dollars, which is already a very large number in itself. We are not a bank or other financial institution, and it is very difficult to continue to develop new customers without being a bank and increase this number. After all, our current market is already saturated.'

'And now I think what we need to do is mainly to do a good job of maintaining our existing customers,'

Zhou Ming emphasised, 'To do this well, we need to do a good job of investing, whether in bonds or stocks. We can even send our investment statements to each of our customers so that they know we are always helping them make money.'

Listening to Zhou Ming's words, Chen Yesen, Li Yang and the others nodded continuously. They were all very smart and knew that the current situation was very unfavourable for them, but they believed even more that as long as Zhou Ming was there, they could change everything.

'Alright, everyone go about your business. Tomorrow is the weekend, and we all have plenty of time to make adjustments.'

Zhou Ming was about to end the meeting when his phone suddenly rang. He answered it, and it was Huang Yi. He asked hesitantly, 'Teacher, someone from the International Students Mutual Aid Association has approached us, and they want our help. But this person is in a bit of a special situation. He says he's from the Vinda community. What do you think?'

Zhou Ming was very surprised. 'From the Vinda community? Where are you now?'

Huang Yi felt even more embarrassed at this question: 'I'm right outside our dormitory. If you have any other ideas, I'll take him away right away.'

Zhou Ming shook his head and said, 'No need. Since he's already here, just bring him in.'

After that, Zhou Ming hung up the phone, briefed Chen Shuyu and Li Yang on the situation, then got up and went downstairs. When he arrived in the lobby, he saw Huang Yi standing there with two Chinese people.

Huang Yi saw Zhou Ming coming down and immediately came forward to explain, 'Teacher, I'm very sorry, they got my dormitory address from the association and came directly here. I didn't expect this either.'

'It's fine, it's okay that they're here, this isn't a military base,'

Zhou Ming said with a smile, then walked up to the two Chinese and shook their hands and said hello, "Hello, my name is Zhou Ming, I'm also a member of the Chinese Students" Association, it's nice to meet you.'

The two Chinese people were one older and one younger. As soon as Zhou Ming finished speaking, the younger one immediately said, 'Dad, that's him. He's the one who came to the community to promote his candidacy last time. I remember him.'

This made everyone's hearts jump: Could it be that they've come to cause trouble?

The older sister from Binhai's behaviour that day, throwing a tantrum and being difficult, was still deeply etched in their minds, and they weren't at all surprised when they were told that the newspaper story was being blamed on them.

However, that was not the case. The older Chinese man said, 'Hello, Zhou Ming. I am a resident of the Vinda community. My name is Yan Shi, and this is my son, Yan Xu. I have come here this time in the hope that you can help!'

Yan Shi then bowed deeply to Zhou Ming, and his son followed suit.

This took Zhou Ming and the others by surprise. After all, they had prepared for the other party to throw a tantrum, but they did not expect him to come here and actively seek help.

Zhou Ming was the first to react, went up to help him up, and invited him to sit down in the lobby. Zhou Ming said to him, 'Hello, Mr. Yan. You don't need to bow so much. You might as well tell me what happened. If it's within my ability, I can definitely help you.'

Yan Shi nodded and said, 'I think you must have read this morning's newspaper, Zhou Ming.'

'I've read it. This American media has gone too far. It's obviously the Brighton government and parliament's fault, but how can they blame it on us Chinese? And they even called it a mob. How shameless!' Zhou Ming said angrily.

Yan Shi's emotions were also aroused by Zhou Ming's words: 'Who says it isn't? They are a bunch of animals that are worse than pigs and dogs!'

Then Yan Shi calmed down a little before continuing, 'Zhou Ming, although the Brighton City Council and the media reports on this matter are very wrong, the impact is very bad. My wife was arrested by the police during yesterday's chaos. I went to bail them out, but they said they were not allowed to be bailed out. I have come here especially to ask you, Zhou Ming, to help me bail them out.'

After Master Yan finished speaking, Zhou Ming had not yet made a decision, so Ye Ning asked him first, 'Is your wife a woman in her forties from Binhai?'

Master Yan nodded and said yes. He suddenly remembered something and, without waiting for Ye Ning to speak, he said, 'I know that my wife and you had a misunderstanding at the beginning, which caused some unpleasantness, but...'

Ye Ning interrupted Yan Shi loudly, 'Misunderstanding and unpleasant? Mr. Yan, your choice of words is really subtle! At the beginning, we only went to the Weida community to conduct campaign propaganda, but your wife, on the other hand, indiscriminately insulted us and even wanted to call the police to arrest us. If it weren't for a few understanding police officers, I'm afraid we would be in jail right now. Who would post bail for us at this time? Would it be you or your son?'

Teacher Yan shrunk his neck when he was scolded by Ye Ning. He said carefully, 'This student, I know that initially everything was my wife's fault. She shouldn't have treated you that way. She's an idiot, she doesn't understand anything. I also know that she almost caused you irreparable harm. I apologise to you on her behalf, but she's been arrested now, she's already been punished, so I beg you to be magnanimous and not hold it against her. I'm still begging you for help, I'm kneeling before you.'

  As he said this, the teacher really knelt down before Zhou Ming and cried out to him, 'Zhou Ming, I beg you. I saw my wife that day and she had already been beaten up by the police. You know that Americans discriminate against us Chinese. They definitely won't treat her in prison, and they might even abuse her. She has never suffered like this before, and if this goes on, she will die! I beg you, you must help her!'