923 Center of the World
Luo Qun was really an overbearing creature. Seeing that the little kangaroo did not
reply, she directly said, "Since you don't reject my suggestion, I'll take it as a yes. Very
well then."
Li Du was stunned and said, "It did not reject your suggestion, but it didn't agree with it
either."
Luo Qun looked at him, and said, "You're right. I'll try another way of asking."
"Ali, do you want to come home with me? If you don't want to, you have to give me a
reply. If you don't reply, I'll have to conclude that you want to come with me."
The little kangaroo was busy clearing up the plate with every bit of its energy, so how
could it make any sort of effort to reply Luo Qun?
Luo Qun looked at Li Du and said, "See, it wants to come home with me."
Li Du's mouth gaped open, but he did not know what to say. He really did not have the
energy to debate.
Fortunately, the little kangaroo had legs and feet, and could still jump. After dinner, Luo
Qun wanted to push it into the car, but it resolutely refused and struggled with all its
might. She was being really too pushy, so the kangaroo had no choice but to give Luo
Qun a straight punch, using the skill it has learned. It was beautifully done, and Li Du
clapped his hands as he stood aside.
Luo Qun squinted. The other three little ones, including Ah Meow, prepared to watch the
show and were unbothered. They had lived with the police officer under the same roof
in the past, and knew that this was the prelude to her going berserk.
In the end, Luo Qun suppressed her anger. She did not take action, but instead went
back to pick up a bowl of blueberries and put it inside her car to tempt Ali to get in.
Hans sighed, "Rose had shown her real affection to this little one."
Li Du glanced at him and said, "Do you mean that my love for it is not real?"
Ali was a real foodie, and once it saw the blueberries its eyes went bright and it hopped
over and jumped straight into the car.
Luo Qun quickly sat down behind the wheel and got ready to close the door, but Ali's
reaction was too quick. It grabbed the plastic bowl and used its strong hind legs to kick
off the car seat, and zoom it went out of the car with a mighty jump.
It ran far off with the blueberries in its arms before it stopped, then turned around and
looked at Sophie. It evidently felt that the distance was still not safe enough, so it ran a
few steps further and hid behind a tree before it settled down and started eating the
blueberries.
Luo Qun had no more ideas, and said with resentment, "Next time, I will bring an
anesthesia gun. I'll see how you outrun me then."
The biggest contribution of this visit was finding out Ali's interest in boxing.
Next morning, as Brother Wolf got up, he brought the group of kids to start on their
morning training session.
He felt that as the girls would enter society, they would be in a vulnerable position and
would need to be able to defend themselves. Therefore, he began training Ivana and
Victoria early.
Big Quinn's three kids watched and decided that it was pretty interesting, so they began
training as well lately. Thus, Brother Wolf's group had increased in numbers.
Today, his group had grown further, with Ali being the new addition.
Li Du was prepared to join the semiannual meeting of Winston Inc. This was his first
time he would attend, so he prepared thoughtfully, and brought Sophie along as his
partner.
They did not take the helicopter, as the distance between Arizona and New York was
too great for a helicopter flight. Instead, Winston Inc. had booked first class tickets for
them. Initially, Cole was ready to use the spare private plane to fetch him, but Li Du
thought that since they were like family they need not be so courteous. The expenses of
using the private plane would be higher, and the costs would be calculated in the
group's expenses, which were his as well.
Jokingly, he said that he wished to take the private plane the next time they were going
out of the country. Every time he had traveled overseas with the four little ones, it was
very inconvenient to take chartered planes.
Cole promised that wherever Li wanted to go, even if it was the South Pole, the group's
private plane would take him there.
New York was a real international big city, the most important city in the United States
and the largest financial center of the world.
It was the most populated city in America, and probably also the most multi-ethnic and
diverse one. It had immigrants from over 97 countries and areas, and as many as 800
languages and dialects were spoken within the borders of the metropolitan area.
This city was extremely advanced, with huge influence in the fields of business and
finance. The financial area of New York, with Lower Manhattan and Wall Street as
leaders, was regarded as the world's center of finance. Of the top 500 enterprises in the
world, 56 had headquarters located in this area.
New York City also had the largest Chinese population in the Western Hemisphere. It
had the biggest Chinatown in all of America, and the topmost Chinese elites as well.
Some people said that you had not been to America unless you had been to New York.
New York City had given birth to countless achievements in the fields of finance, arts,
education, politics and much more. It attracted the attention of young people from all
over the world.
There was no household registration system in America, but everyone wanted to come
to New York. This was because everyone knew that over there, they could enjoy the
most advanced medical facilities, the top education, and the trendiest culture over here.
The airplane landed in the international airport. Once Li Du got off the airplane, his first
impression was how crowded everything around him seemed.
The airport was full of people, white, black, yellow, Europeans, Russians, Native
Americans, Asians, and Africans. The crowd was very diverse.
Noisy, hurried, and lively, this was the first impression Li Du had of New York.
As an analogy, this city was like a symphony. It made people tired if they listened too
long, but it was always changing.
Walking out of the airport, they saw that Winston Inc. had arranged a special car to
fetch them. It was a luxurious Rolls Royce.
Before getting into the car, Li Du went to the front to take a look at the hood ornament.
Since no one seemed to be looking at him, he used his hand to touch the Flying Lady.
The Flying Lady was pulled into the car with lightning speed.
Upon entering the car, he began looking for the Phantom Umbrella to take a look.
A year ago, the Flying Lady and the Phantom Umbrella had helped him earn a lot of
money. The Rolls Royce limousine was just a legend to him back then.
A year later, he was treated as a VIP and driven in this limousine.
While they were in the car, Li Du told Sophie about the treasure hunting experience
when Hans and he found the Rolls Royce hood ornament. It made Sophie sigh with
wonder.
Cole knew this was their first time in New York, so he purposely asked the chauffeur to
drive them around the city.
As the city was vast, and Li Du and the gang were rather tired after their flight, they had
a brief discussion with the chauffeur and decided that he would simply drive them
around so they could take a quick look. After getting the general impression of the city,
they could choose the places that they wanted to visit later on.
Without a doubt, there were countless stories happening in a city like New York. The car
went to Brooklyn area, and they saw the gathering spot of violent Russians; they also
went to Queens and saw the infamous gathering spot of little South America.
There were also Chinatown, the area of African immigrants, places belonging to
Japanese and South Koreans, the gathering place of South East Asians. They only had
time for a quick look at each of those. It was like going through the World Expo.
During their drive, they passed by Liberty Island and saw the symbol of America, the
Statue of Liberty.
This statue was undoubtedly one of the most famous national symbols in the world. Its
reputation was probably greater than the Great Wall of China or the Eiffel Tower in
Paris.
Sophie got out of the car to take a picture, but unfortunately, they could not go onto the
island for a closer shot, as New York had just suffered a hurricane attack. Hurricane
Sandy had landed on Liberty Island and caused huge damage. Now the island was still
under repair works and closed to the public.
Li Du once thought that the Statue of Liberty was a stone sculpture, but Sophie told him
it was not. The statue was supported by an iron interior structure, and its exterior was
made of copper.
"Did you know that the statue was white when it was first erected? The copper had
turned green due to oxidation," Sophie laughed. "And of course, some people also said
that because it was too close to Wall Street, the stock market had turned it green."