Chicago 1990 Chapter 07:- Inspiration

 TL:- madghost

When the voices kept coming closer and closer towards the door, Song Ya quietly stepped back and walked back the way he came.

After his crossing, Song Ya visited several audiovisual stores. Unless it’s a superstar or a hardcover version of the cassette, the price of a single cassette is generally within five dollars. 

The income received from selling 7000 copies will be around 35,000$ at most, which is also before calculating the cost. It’s no wonder the people in the office were saying ‘we are finished’.

‘So, it’s like that…’

While concealing myself in the shadows behind the DJ station, I looked at the dance floor. It was still messy. The silhouettes of the men and women were covered with white light coming from the filming lights. They just dance when the director tells them to dance, letting their sweats fly around. Too focused to even wipe the sweat.

There was a pure smile from nothing but happiness in Emily’s face. When the director told her to stop, she quickly bent down, panting heavily with her hands on her knees. She was too young and could barely support herself with her weak physical strength.

Connie had already taken off her jacket long ago, which she rented in the morning from a  Second-hand store. When the photographer deliberately positioned the camera towards her hips, she understood his intention and proudly made her fat buttocks shake like an electric motor.

AI kept pumping his cheeks, his face was already red. His explosive beatboxing is a huge test for a person’s lung capacity. In addition to RAP, in order to maintain his life, he was also serving as a waiter in his remaining time in a certain restaurant.

The protagonist Lori tugged and waved the microphone, posing in various poses that he considered the coolest and most handsome. He chose to drop out of school after he was chosen by a music company to sign a contract two years ago. After that, he spent most of his time in boring songwriting and singing practice. Playing basketball is the only pastime he had. The lyrics of the dozen songs on the album were all written by him independently.

The eyes of Tony who is beside him is looking at the dance floor with happiness and longing. "Prosperity", "Flying to the top", "Leaving this damn ghetto" are the words he often talked about these days. Song Ya wanted to complain about Tony’s little dream of becoming a "follower" of others, but...

Song Ya remembered the tragedy of last week.

On Monday, 'ET' died on the side of the road two blocks away from his home, with five shots in his body. Song Ya accompanied Tony to the place where 'ET' was killed and put a bunch of flowers. It is said that the gang where 'ET' belonged vowed revenge. But what can it do? In addition to making the surrounding residents more fearful. It is nothing more than putting a few more pairs of shoes on the wires at the intersection in the future.

In the joint training of the orchestra, Song Ya's pressed the wrong tone with his trumpet and barely pretended to be pitiful in front of the angry music teacher to save the credit. Then in mathematics he also encountered setbacks. The teaching content of advanced classes even had calculus, while the competitiveness of classmates also rose sharply. He could no longer pass the class as easily as standard courses.

Since the nickname APLUS became known, Song Ya accepted it calmly. The teasing and bullying are indeed a bit less than before, however, the biggest problem of this public school is that there is no quiet and relaxing learning environment.

When I wanted to find a quiet place and read a book for a while at a small place, I was either driven by the gangster who was in a hurry to smoke or accidentally ruined the good deeds of a certain pair of wild lovebirds(couples).

Yesterday, under the leadership of Aunt Susie, the whole family made a division of labor and set off in the early morning to line up in front of the gates of the various charities to receive donations.

Song Ya held a food stamp and lined up for five hours before passing a metal anti-theft nets, and saw only one cash register. The food stamp was exchanged in the store for flour and other foods that will be enough for the whole family for a week.

After that, the whole family gathered at the entrance of the church and once again lined up for a free simple lunch with bread and soup. In the afternoon, they also lined up on various charities. 

Finally, they waited at Wal-Mart to buy eggs and meat that was about to expire that will be discounted before closing. When night fell, the family without a car carried large bags and waited for the bus for another half an hour to go home.

After the crossing, and adapting to the current lifestyle, Song Ya still doesn’t feel that eager to fly(get rich and live a better life) like Tony or everyone. But, if he were to get assimilated by this life that has no hope of seeing a little bit of hope, after another half or a year of this life, as long as there is someone or a Star giving him a chance, he absolutely wouldn't resist the temptation. It would be better to become a follower than to stay here and pick up a gun on to do drug trafficking.

*********

"That's it, call it a day!"

After four o'clock, when the director announced that the filming of the MV was officially over, everyone on the dance floor cheered.

"Thank you Tony, you're so sweet."

Tony's ex-girlfriend jumped over and hung on Tony and kept kissing his face.

"Piece of cake." Tony was almost floating to the sky, "It's not time yet, let's find a place..." He got into the mood, took off his headphones, and took the other party to 'find a place'.

Connie stared at the backs of the two and rolled her eyes again. She handed Emily, who is in her arms and was too tired, to Song Ya. "Leave them alone, you accompany me to return the clothes." She said while putting on her Jacket.

Just like the end of a movie, the crowd began to leave after a brief social interaction.

Song Ya turned his head and saw that Little Lori and Al were talking to two elderly black men, one fat and one thin. According to their voices, it was these two people who were talking in the office and were the ones he overheard.

The fatter one was the boss. According to the conversation, he should be the owner of the record company. His speech and manners have the aura of a big man. He wore a pink suit that didn’t look girly on him, a big gold chain and a gold ring, gold watches, and a lot of black three-piece sets.

That thin man should be Little Lori's agent, dressed in a very well-cut dark suit, elegant in conversation, and meticulous with a big back, looking like a very old-school person.

Little Lori and Al definitely don't have time to take care of them right now. And they naturally don’t have to wait any longer for Tony. Song Ya hugged Emily and went to leave with Connie.

"Hey, APLUS!"

When they went out of the door, the 'Silencer' was helping the Filming crew to carry the equipment. A few people said hello when AK came out chasing and stopped them.

"Are you Connie? Come here! Come here."

AK called Song Ya and Connie to his side, blocking the eyes of others with his body, and drew three-piece from the pile of twenty dollar bundle he held in his hand. He gave one to Connie, and one to Song Ya, "Little Emily also gets it." He smiled and stuffed the last one into Emily's hand.

"Does everyone receive it?" Connie stuffed the money into her chest.

"Only our people, it's already good for those guys to show their faces in the MV." AK replied.

"Uh..." Song Ya felt that he was a little bit useless today, "But I didn't dance. This money..." He handed the money back to AK.

"Hahaha, Tony is right. You really have a problem here." AK smiled and poked at Song Ya's forehead,

"Don't be stupid, the money is not mine. And you are Tony's brother, we are a family, and everyone takes care of each other, OK?"

"Don't pay attention to him." Connie glared at Song Ya, "Thank you." she taught the little Emily to thank

AK. "Let's go, today my old lady wants to go shopping!" And Shouted.

"I want to buy a pettiskirt!" Emily also shouted after her.

Song Ya could only say goodbye to AK and take the money. Then he went to the platform with Connie to wait for the bus.

Twenty dollars is the biggest 'big sum of money' he has gotten after crossing. Of course, it isn’t wrong to say it's a huge sum of money. Nowadays, a dollar can be exchanged for ten yuan in the black market in China. Twenty dollars is more than a month's salary for ordinary people in China.

***********

The second-hand shops that provide rental services for evening wear are generally large in scale. 
"Pettiskirt!" Emily slipped off Song Ya and quickly ran towards her target.

"You watch her, I'll go change my clothes." Connie walked to the changing room inside.
Song Ya followed Emily through the rows of hangers and suddenly felt that this environment was familiar.

‘But I haven’t come to this shop before?"

He was puzzled. Suddenly the corner of his eyes swept over a pink suit hanging on the wall, which was slightly similar to the one on Little Lori’s Boss just now.

"Huh?" He recalled desperately, and suddenly touched the twenty-dollar note in his pocket, "Twenty dollars, Shopping, pink suit, bass, rap...all together, it's..."

My body was in shock as if I was receiving inspiration from God’s. Countless MV pictures accompanied by rhythmic rap and music instantly burst into my mind.

“I'm gonna pop some tags

Only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I'm, I'm, I'm hunting, looking for a come up

This is f***** awesome!"

“This is Thrift Shop! This is! Second-hand shop!"

TL:- madghost

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