radicalducati Page 75
Page 75
He suddenly remembered something: "Didn't you say before that the pirated games and videos on the hard drive would be confiscated and you would be fined by the US customs?"
Gu Ran laughed and said, "I modified the optical drive of my laptop. I replaced the optical drive with a hard drive. I'll just hide the drive letter before landing. Customs won't check that carefully."
He thought to himself that even if they really did check, it wouldn't be a problem. With his current skills, smuggling a hard drive through would be a piece of cake.
"Why didn't you tell me about this great method sooner?" Lu Mingfei thought to himself. If he had known about this method, he would have bought another hard drive and downloaded more games in China.
"You already have enough game discs stored here," Gu Ran complained.
The two leaned against each other and watched anime for more than ten hours, dozing off in the middle and taking a nap.
When they heard the announcement on the flight, which began to broadcast arrival information, they had finally arrived in America, where the moon was big and round and the air was fresh and free.
After getting off the plane, Lu Mingfei tugged at Gu Ran's clothes even tighter.
When Lu Mingfei was clearing his luggage through customs, he indeed saw a black customs officer inspecting pirated CDs.
There was a little girl in front of me, and they found several pirated CDs of Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne.
This made Lu Mingfei's heart tighten.
"Gu Ran, have you hidden all my CDs well?" Lu Mingfei asked somewhat nervously, dragging two huge suitcases.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine," Gu Ran said with a smile.
Ten minutes later, it was Gu Ran's turn.
Gu Ran had very little luggage, just one suitcase, which was only half the size of Lu Mingfei's.
After the suitcase went through the X-ray machine, the black customs officer with a cross around his neck frowned and said to Gu Ran, "Open your suitcase."
Lu Mingfei's heart tightened immediately. Was his game disc going to be in trouble?
Gu Ran smiled and turned around, giving Lu Mingfei a reassuring look before opening her suitcase.
After opening it, Lu Mingfei was stunned when he saw what was inside.
Inside Gu Ran's suitcase, apart from a change of T-shirts, the rest were all paintings with scrolls attached.
Lu Mingfei's game disc was not in the suitcase at all.
Why did he bring so many scrolls?
"What is this?" the black man asked, picking up a scroll.
“Chinese calligraphy and painting,” Gu Ran said precisely in English, “These are all my practice pieces.”
"can I open this?"
“Okay.” With that, Gu Ran opened a scroll covered with talismans, which at first glance did indeed resemble Chinese calligraphy.
"What's drawn on that?" the Black man asked curiously.
“The spells of Eastern mystical religions.” Gu Ran thought for a moment and gave an example, “like the spells that witches recorded on parchment in the Middle Ages.”
"Oh my God!" The black man exclaimed as if he had seen a ghost, his hand slipped, and he dropped the scroll to the ground.
He asked superstitiously, "Could it be a curse?"
“As long as the scroll isn’t damaged, there won’t be any curse,” Gu Ran said, spreading his hands. “But you just fell on the ground, so I don’t know if it’s broken.”
The Black man quickly and carefully picked up the scroll and examined it thoroughly.
I was relieved when I found out it wasn't broken.
"God bless you!" The black man made the sign of the cross on his chest, kissed the cross on his chest, and said to Gu Ran, "That's enough, you can go now."
The scroll wasn't a contraband, so the black man quickly told Gu Ran to leave.
Lu Mingfei, on the other hand, was questioned for a while because he brought a pressure cooker.
Recently, terrorists have been using pressure cookers as bombs to carry out indiscriminate bombings in free countries.
So American border control officers get nervous whenever they see a pressure cooker, fearing it might suddenly explode in front of them.
Fortunately, Lu Mingfei's pressure cooker didn't contain charcoal, sulfur, sugar, or anything like that.
Otherwise, he might have been warned by the FBI and taken to a dark room.
Chapter 87 Racial Discrimination
After more than half an hour of going through all the hassle, the two successfully entered the country, and then waited for another two hours before finally boarding a low-cost carrier flight to Chicago.
"Where's my game disc?" Lu Mingfei held back until they were on the plane before daring to ask in a low voice.
"Don't worry, you'll get it when you get to school," Gu Ran said with a mysterious smile.
Why did you bring so many scrolls?
"secret."
Where is your carry-on luggage?
"secret"
"..."
Lu Mingfei was very curious about how Gu Ran had helped him get through the test. He tried to get the answer out of him, but Gu Ran just wouldn't tell him.
Lu Mingfei then refrained from asking any further questions.
The flight to Chicago appears to be delayed; the plane has not taken off after passengers boarded.
Several flight attendants chatted nearby, neither comforting the passengers nor explaining over the loudspeaker why the plane had not taken off.
Since US low-cost carriers are budget airlines, their services are also budget-friendly.
Their flight attendants were all men and women over forty years old, which was completely different from the handsome men and beautiful women on other flights.
Lu Mingfei and Gu Ran were sitting in the last seats of the plane, both covering their noses, feeling a bit of a headache.
"Who said the air abroad smells sweet?" Lu Mingfei covered his nose and held his breath, muttering to Gu Ran, "Damn, the smell in the cabin is too mixed."
Gu Ran didn't want to speak, because the unpleasant smell would hit her mouth as soon as she opened her mouth!
This is also because it's a budget flight, so they try to fit as many seats as possible in the cabin to carry more passengers and achieve greater value.
So the cabin was packed, like a classroom, with everyone crammed into one space. And the white people had a strong body odor, plus the plane's ventilation wasn't very good...
Gu Ran and Lu Mingfei were both a little dizzy from the smell. They vowed that after this, they would never fly on a budget airline again.
Ten more minutes passed, and the plane still hadn't taken off.
However, the cabin loudspeaker did come on.
Lu Mingfei's English is so-so; I didn't understand it even after listening to it twice.
"What do you mean? There are too many people going up, so you need to send some people down?"
"It's oversold." Gu Ran understood.
Airplane seats are assigned. If someone suddenly decides not to fly and wants a refund, the empty seat will be wasted, and the airline will not make any money.
Therefore, in order to maximize seat utilization, airlines will oversell some seats.
For example, an airplane may have a maximum of sixty seats, but to compensate for potential seat depletion, the airline may sell sixty-five seats.
The extra five are oversold.
After hearing the explanation, Lu Mingfei nodded, then asked with some doubt, "Then who should we kick out now? Everyone has paid for their tickets."
Just as he was wondering, two flight attendants came over to the two Asian men not far away and explained the situation to them.
"I'm sorry, this flight is overbooked. Please disembark now, and we will arrange the nearest flight for you as compensation."
The two Asian people, a man and a woman, appeared to be a couple. Gu Ran noticed the passport the girl was holding and realized she was from Japan.
The island nation couple exchanged a glance, said nothing, and obeyed the arrangement.
Immediately afterwards, the two flight attendants came to Gu Ran and Lu Mingfei's side and said the same thing.
Gu Ran looked at the two white men's arrogant expressions and listened to their commanding tone, but he remained seated and did not move.
Although Lu Mingfei is a bit oblivious, he's not stupid.
With so many people in the cabin, they only picked four Asians to get off; it's obvious they were just picking on the weak.
They won't pick on Black people, because picking on them would be considered a sign of incorrect thinking.
White people are one of our own, so of course we won't be picky.
The Native Americans are nominally the owners of this land, so they have to be given some respect.
That leaves only Asians.
Asians are at the bottom of the social hierarchy and are the easiest to bully!
Lu Mingfei wanted to say something, but looking at the two tall and muscular white flight attendants, he felt quite intimidated.
He asked Gu Ran in a low voice, "A wise man doesn't fight a losing battle. Shall we go down?"
Gu Ran shook her head and looked at the two flight attendants, saying, "I need you to give me a detailed explanation of what principles you used to select us."
“If it’s based on first-come, first-served, we certainly won’t be the last to arrive. And if it’s based on the price of the tickets, we didn’t buy discounted tickets.”
"So, why did you choose us? Why are all the people getting off the plane Asian?" Gu Ran asked the two flight attendants calmly.
He spoke slowly and deliberately, with standard English pronunciation and a confident tone.
The surrounding passengers all turned to look, paying attention to what was happening.
The two flight attendants exchanged an awkward glance.
In the past, if a few Asians were selected, there would be no problem.
This time, they actually encountered a troublemaker.
One of the white flight attendants said, "Our airline has its own set of evaluation standards, which you don't need to know. Please leave this plane immediately so as not to delay the takeoff and affect everyone's time."
He deliberately shifted the blame for the flight delay onto Gu Ran.
Gu Ran sneered: "Get this straight, the flight delay has nothing to do with me; it was caused by your overbooking."
"Yes, but we have already apologized. Please get off the plane immediately, or we will have airport security remove you from the plane," the white flight attendant replied coldly.
"You haven't answered my question yet," Gu Ran said with a smile. "What are your principles for selecting passengers?"