"Alright, alright, as long as I can get into the NBA, am I really going to worry about money? What an unlovable little girl. Also, can you stop calling me a coward? I have a name, my name is Henry Lincoln, just call me Henry Lincoln!"

Henry Lincoln said to the girl, a bit angrily.

"Oh, Henry Lincoln!"

"By the way, I still don't know your name!"

"Me? I'm Alice. So, what do you think? My name sounds better than yours, right?"

"......"

Chapter 4: The Banners and Warships Turned to Ashes

In 1993, Salt Lake City was still rather cold in March. As a typical highland area, Salt Lake City was still in winter, and you could even see piles of snow around the city. At night, the roads would be covered with a layer of ice, so when Henry Lincoln walked out of school, he immediately felt a chill that was completely different from the warmth inside.

Utah, as the core area of U.S. national security, is quite different from other parts of America. For example, here, the rules of life are unique: in most of the U.S., it's rare to see a family with multiple female heads, but here, polygamy is not uncommon. Likewise, as the national security center, Salt Lake City is almost entirely a white-dominated place. Take Salt Lake City as an example: out of a population of over 200,000, 80% are white. Even Asian people number less than 5,000, let alone Chinese.

In fact, for most Chinese people in America, the wealthy ones naturally choose to go to New York, Los Angeles, or Boston. Even the not-so-wealthy middle-class Chinese mostly gather in these big cities. After all, Utah is not a particularly affluent place; its per capita income has always been about the national average, making it a very middle-of-the-road place. There really isn't much "money to be made" here, and politically it's dominated by whites. The political climate here, influenced by the Mormon Church, is out of place even within the U.S., and it doesn't have the great vacation environment of Hawaii or Miami.

So, the Asians or Chinese who stay here are basically those who can't leave, and Henry Lincoln is one of those people—someone who can't get out, and doesn't have the means to get out. Like the others, his dream is to leave Salt Lake City and become rich, to have a place of his own in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, or Miami.

Maybe this sounds a bit like Chinese farmers longing to become city dwellers, and in fact, it's pretty much the same. This is Henry Lincoln's American dream.

Of course, in the past, without connections, ability, or education—and with Chinese people in America being second-class citizens, not to mention being below Jews in status, even below Black people—under these circumstances, Henry Lincoln's dream of making it here was almost pure fantasy.

But fortunately, what once seemed like a fantasy now seems to have a chance of coming true.

So, thinking of that troublesome system inside him, Henry Lincoln felt that the biting wind outside wasn't so cold anymore.

Henry Lincoln's home wasn't very close to Utah Valley Community College, but it wasn't far either. It wasn't a luxury villa area, but it wasn't a slum, either.

In fact, five years ago, Henry Lincoln's family could still be considered middle class. When his parents were alive, both had jobs, so even with four children, the family wasn't struggling.

But that was just five years ago. Now, Henry Lincoln's family had basically fallen straight from middle class into poverty. After all, when his parents died in a car accident, the number of breadwinners in the family went from two to one.

Three years ago, after graduating from high school, Henry Lincoln's eldest sister chose to drop out, just like Henry Lincoln did last year, leaving the ivory tower for McDonald's. But unlike Henry Lincoln, his eldest sister was the top student in her school—a typical high-achieving Chinese student in America, someone who could have easily gotten into an Ivy League school.

However, after their parents' savings and insurance money ran out, even if Henry Lincoln's eldest sister Hannah Lincoln didn't want to drop out, she had no choice. At that time, she still had two 16-year-old siblings in high school and a 12-year-old sister. Even if she could apply for welfare and loans to go to college, she couldn't just leave the three troublemakers to someone else or send them to an orphanage.