The Death Knell

New York is as peaceful as ever today.

The wells beside the streets were steaming, snow piled high beside the roads, and the turbid air made pedestrians sneeze.

High-rise buildings in Manhattan are still under construction, and cars are coming and going on the streets. But unlike during the war, there are a lot more smiles on people's faces.

Even pacifists and anti-war people are happy to enjoy the dividends of war and enjoy a better life.

In Queens, some distance from Manhattan, there is a very ordinary community high school, and today is the last day of school.

Christmas is coming, and the school is about to go on winter vacation. Not only are the students completely unmotivated to study, but the teachers are also the same.

The last half-day course is actually almost all self-study. The winter vacation in the United States generally lasts four weeks, starting a week or two before Christmas.

This year's situation is different from previous years. In many places in New York, there are new buildings called supermarkets. The yellow w signs on them indicate that they are assets of Wilson Enterprises.

These buildings have not yet opened their doors and are still covered with curtains. But outside these buildings, there are rows of billboards with all kinds of products painted on them, as well as shockingly low prices.

It is said that on the Friday before Christmas, these special stores will officially open for business, selling these items at extremely low prices.

Whether it’s daily necessities or luxury accessories that people would be reluctant to buy, all prices have been reduced.

In fact, in normal history, Black Friday is the fourth Friday in November, which is after Thanksgiving. But Earth 40k does not have this concept. The supermarket was proposed by Su Ming. In order to save trouble, he simply set the big sale on the last Friday before Christmas.

The reason why it is called Black Friday is that American accountants use red pens to record loss figures, called deficits, while black pens are used to record profit figures. Black Friday actually means "Big Money Friday".

Now, whether students or teachers, their minds are full of thinking about how to spend their salary or pocket money.

Some students were writing their shopping lists on slips of paper, but the young men who usually did not have a part-time job or whose family background was not well-off were inevitably a little downcast at this time.

"Okay, students, I wish you all a happy holiday in advance. get out of class is over."

coax......

As the teacher said with a smile that school was over, the classroom immediately became lively. The students picked up their books and schoolbags and walked out of the classroom with smiles in twos and threes.

In the corridor, a blond boy wearing a worn-out bomber jacket was putting his textbooks into the locker. The mess in the locker made him lose some strength.

In addition to beauties, there were also football stars, but the faces on these posters were all wrinkled and deformed when he pushed hard against the locker door.

"Hi, Leo, do you know what day it is today?" The fat man next to him is his friend, and the two of them have lockers together.

The blond young man rubbed his head and leaned against the cabinet: "What?"

"Black Friday." Although the fat man looked far less handsome than him, the locker was very tidy. He could close the door easily while talking to Leonid with a beaming face.

“What Black Friday?”

"Ahem, you don't know? God, don't you even look at the road when you walk?" The fat man looked at his friend with contempt and took out a leaflet from the back pocket of his jeans.

Because of their size, these jeans were like a big sack for storing food in a barn, so this pile of flyers could be stuffed inside with almost no folding.

Leonid took the flyer with some disgust and found that it was full of various discounted products.

60% off, 75% off, big red numbers like this are everywhere. Things that originally cost more than ten dollars can now be purchased for only a few dollars on the flyers.

"Wilson Enterprise's supermarket chain has a Black Friday sale. It only costs a few dollars. You can't lose money or be cheated..." Subconsciously, he read the slogan above and frowned. :"What's this....."

The fat man grabbed the brochure and flipped through several pages: "It's a big store. Everything in it is very cheap. It is said that Wilson Enterprises wants to give back to the society so that everyone can have a good Christmas."

"Oh." Leonid agreed without interest and planned to run away.

But the fat man was strong enough to grab him by the neck and almost put the brochure on his face.

"Look, if you buy the latest tape recorder, you'll get a Sachimo album cassette. Do you know about cassettes? This is the technology of the Germans during the war. And here, if you buy a football, you will get a random baseball star card, and they are all super cheap."

"Yeah." Leonid was still struggling.

"Brother, the supermarket will open in two hours. How about you go with me? It's time for you to buy a new pair of shoes." The fat man looked down at Leo's feet.

It’s not that his current pair of shoes is not good, but is it too cold to only wear a pair of canvas shoes in winter?

"You know, I have to work, otherwise I won't be able to afford the tuition after school starts." Leonid shook his head. He was an orphan and it was impossible to spend money on such things.

Even if these items are really cheap, they are unnecessary.

The fat man nodded in understanding, patted his chest and said proudly: "I bought it for you as a Christmas gift. My dad works at Wilson Enterprises and received a bonus of this amount a few days ago..."

The fat man saw that there was no one around, and mysteriously stretched out three fingers in his arms. His fingers looked as plump as hot dogs.

Leonid swallowed. He knew that Wilson's corporate welfare was good, but he didn't expect it to be that good. Especially thinking about hot dogs made him a little hungry.

"Did you increase your pocket money again?"

It would be a lie to say that he didn't envy his friend, but what he envied was not that the other person had money, but that the other person had a family.

"That's right, but we are good brothers. What's mine is yours. Let's go see this super mall today, and then you come to my house for Christmas!"

"Thank you, but forget it. I am the one who will cause misfortune. I understand your good intentions, but really..."

The fat man rolled his eyes angrily, put their heads together, and lowered his voice even more.

"I know you suspect that you are a mutant, but I understand you. You are not a monster. You are a good person. Stop saying anything to bring about misfortune."

Leonid was a little moved. He was about to answer something when another voice sounded from the other side of the two of them.

"Hey boys, what are you talking about?"

The fat man's locker was on Leonid's right, and the class beauty's locker was on the left. At this time, the beautiful girl was looking at them curiously with her big eyes.

"Hi Lily."

Leonid and Fatty both showed silly smiles. They felt that their little hearts would melt at this beautiful sound in this winter.

"Wow, are you planning to go to Wilson's Supermarket too? I'm planning to go there soon, but I need to have a meal first. I have a feeling there will be a lot of people there."

The girl's eyes fell on the brochure in front of them and she said with some surprise.

"Uh, yes, we all plan to go." Leonid replied with a silly smile, as if his mind had stopped.

He had completely forgotten that no matter how tempting the fat man was, he was determined to go to work. At this moment, he only felt that Lily smelled so good.

Lily glanced at the handsome Leonid and her face turned slightly red. She lowered her head to put something in the locker, then closed the door gently and reached out to brush the hair around her ears.

"Can I go with you?" She may have felt a little abrupt, so she added: "Can you help me pick up some things? I want to buy more spicy gluten sticks."

The fat man looked at the two people, a man and a woman, looking into each other's eyes and talking. His originally small eyes narrowed into slits.

Eating + shopping + picking up things = sending them home...

It was like a flash of lightning flashed through his mind, and his eyes widened suddenly, and he understood.

Although he is fat, he is not stupid at all. This is because the class beauty is interested in his good brother!

Although Ban Hua seemed to regard him as a transparent person, it didn't matter to him. As long as Leonid could have more confidence, his life was too miserable.

Just as he was thinking about it, Leonid and Lily had already made an appointment to meet, and the blond boy was scratching his head and watching Lily run away with a silly smile.

"hehe......"

The fat man rolled his eyes and said "ha" in Leonid's ear, and the guy who had fallen into fantasy came back to his senses.

"The class beauty has taken a liking to you, Leo. That's good. It seems I will be an uncle soon."

Leonid looked at him like a mental patient: "Are you kidding me?"

"It's really a joke. This is for you, please be careful." The fat man gave Leonid a few small packages with a very obscene expression, which were some latex products.

"Fake, where did you come from?" This thing seemed to be hot to the touch, and Leo immediately stuffed it back into the fat man's pocket.

"Stealing from my dad, I always thought I would need it someday, and sure enough." The fat man looked thoughtful.

"I can't use it. It's not as sick as you think. Lily is not that kind of girl."

The fat man smiled and took out ten dollars: "Then I'll lend you this first, you won't refuse, right? You won't even buy her a cup of coffee when you go out with Lily, right?"

Leonid struggled for a while, but still accepted the fat man's kindness: "I will pay you back as soon as possible."

"Let's put that aside, I think you should go chase her now and have lunch or something together instead of talking nonsense with me here."

The fat man looked like someone who had come before and pointed to the door at the other end of the corridor. Lily's back had not disappeared yet.

Leonid scratched his head, he was a little embarrassed: "Isn't it bad?"

"Fake, go quickly, you are already smelling of love hormones, disturbing my noble single fragrance!" The fat man pushed him hard, waving his fist with a smile.

"Thanks brother."

Taking advantage of this push, Leo gradually started running, turned his head and shouted at the fat man with a smile.

The fat man just nodded slowly, like a coach on the sidelines of a football field, raising his hands to his mouth like a trumpet: "Up! Up! Tiger!"