Chapter 182: Chapter 117: You Just Keep Winning

"Alright then," Li Wei said, starting the Porsche. "Is Auntie Kaja really okay with you going to Sunset Park with me? Isn’t she worried about your safety?"

"Auntie Kaja said she’d have a car follow us to protect us," Anya said, leaning over to turn up the heat. "My God, aren’t you cold?"

Li Wei then remembered he had forgotten to turn up the heat when he got in. His improved constitution had increased his resistance to the cold. While he’d still feel it if he stripped down for a winter swim, he was much better off than before.

The car headed southwest. Gazing at Anya’s profile, Li Wei couldn’t help but ask:

"So, tell me about this project of yours," he said as he merged the 911 into traffic. "What’s your plan? What’s your angle?"

"My college counselor, Ms. Wood, pointed me in a certain direction," Anya said, taking a notebook from her small bag. She flipped it open to her densely packed notes. "She suggested I could focus on the angle of respiratory issues."

"Respiratory issues?"

"Yes," Anya said, looking through her notes. "You used to live around there. Did you ever notice that there’s an expressway running right over the residents’ heads in Sunset Park?"

"The Gowanus Expressway?" Li Wei rested his hand on the steering wheel and nodded. "Of course I know it. There’s a constant rumbling over there, with all sorts of trucks passing through day and night."

"That’s the one," Anya said, sinking into her seat and finding a more comfortable position. "Ms. Wood said it’s one of New York’s busiest freight expressways. And with e-commerce booming these past few years, there are more and more trucks."

"The starting, stopping, and idling of freight and diesel trucks produces large amounts of PM2.5 and black carbon," she read earnestly. "The elevated structure forms a semi-enclosed space, and in the winter, this forces these particles and exhaust fumes directly into the breathing zones of residents below and on either side of the expressway."

"That’s a really good angle," Li Wei said, slowing down a bit to make the ride smoother. "Is there anything else?"

"Meanwhile, the nearby Brooklyn Heights area is completely unaffected," Anya said. "The distance from the expressway, the topography, and the buffers in between all prevent the pollution from spreading to the wealthy neighborhood. There should be a significant difference in the rates of respiratory illness and asthma between the residents of the two areas."

"If all this comes to light," Li Wei asked, "won’t the residents of Sunset Park protest?"

"Sweetheart, you really haven’t been in the United States of America for very long," Anya said, shaking her head. "The people I’ll be presenting this material to—do you think they’re more likely to live in the rich area or the poor one?"

Li Wei fell silent.

The Porsche 911 eventually stopped at the intersection of Third Avenue and 39th Street. Directly overhead was the Gowanus Expressway, like the spine of some great beast.

Even sitting inside the well-soundproofed car, Li Wei could still hear the low-frequency vibrations from above.

The two of them got out of the car. It was the middle of the afternoon, but the sunlight was completely blocked by the roadway overhead. The world beneath the bridge was cast in a gloomy, gray tone, as lifeless as a black-and-white film. There was almost no greenery to be seen.

"No wonder people like Jessica would never want to come to a place like this," Anya said, pulling on a mask as she smelled the pervasive odors of diesel and something burning in the air. "Let’s get started."

She took a camera and a decibel meter out of her bag, then froze.

"Oh no," she mumbled. "I don’t know how to use this camera."

"Let me see," Li Wei said, taking the camera from her. "Oh... it’s in M mode, that’s manual... If you’re the one taking pictures, I’ll switch it to A mode for you, that’s automatic..."

Anya moved closer to Li Wei, reveling in the wonderful feeling of being so near him. She couldn’t help but feel secretly proud of her little scheme.

She was just following the advice she’d gotten from some of the older girls—that you shouldn’t act too smart in front of a guy. It was better to act a little helpless and let him get involved in solving the problem. It would give him a sense of accomplishment and make him feel protective.

’As if I don’t know how to use this camera,’ she thought. ’I bought it myself.’

After Li Wei finished adjusting it for her, Anya pointed the lens at a red brick apartment building next to the elevated expressway.

A second-floor window there faced the expressway’s roadbed, no more than fifty meters away. Through the lens, she could clearly see that the window was shut tight, its sill covered in a thick, greasy layer of black dust.

Li Wei accompanied Anya as they walked for two blocks under the expressway. The process of gathering evidence was tedious and depressing, but Li Wei was in high spirits, telling Anya all about his experiences when he first arrived in New York and lived just two streets away.

"I used to come out this way sometimes," Li Wei said. "A little further on, there was a gym, and not far from there, a convenience store. I sold a lot of... things over there."

"Were they important things?" Anya asked, blinking. "Should I help you buy them back?"

"No need," Li Wei said with a smile, shaking his head. "They were just part of the journey. Nothing important."

After taking enough pictures, recording some video and photos, and logging the decibel readings, Anya also interviewed a few hurried passersby, asking for their thoughts on living here.

When their fieldwork was done, they drove to the nearby New York University Langone Medical Center. Through an introduction from Ms. Wood and her connections from Horace Mann, Anya had contacted a female doctor who worked there, hoping to obtain some macro-level data to support her findings on respiratory diseases in the area.