At the other end of the restaurant, Kevin watched the lively scene around Lin Wansheng, where everyone was clustered around him like stars around the moon.
He curled his lip in disdain.
Mark, sitting beside him, noticed his expression and immediately frowned.
He grabbed Kevin’s head and pulled it over, lowering his voice as he warned him in a tone that brooked no argument:
“Don’t let anything like what happened at the subway station happen again.”
Seeing that Kevin still looked unconvinced, Mark’s tone softened, carrying a trace of apology.
“Listen, I was wrong before. I misunderstood some things, and that made you feel like you needed to stand up for me.”
He glanced at Lin Wansheng, surrounded by the crowd, and continued.
“Jimmy plays great football. He proved himself. From now on, he’s family.”
“Family?” Kevin looked as if he’d heard the biggest joke in the world, and he flung Mark’s hand away.
His voice was filled with anger and panic he could no longer suppress.
“He plays wide receiver, then what the hell am I supposed to play?! Go back to the bench and watch you and Avery perform?!”
Mark looked at the hand with which he was lifting his glass, then reached out and pressed the glass back onto the table.
“Stop drinking.” Mark’s tone turned serious. “Do you still want to get a scholarship or not? What is drinking more going to solve?”
Kevin raised his head. In his eyes was a dejection Mark had never seen before.
“You can go to the NFL. I don’t think I can.” He laughed self-mockingly.
“I think I might just be done after this season.”
He pointed toward the other end of the bar, where several people in work clothes stained with bits of paint were playing pool.
“Then I’ll become them.”
“Mark,” Kevin’s voice dropped, “I’m someone with no future.”
He raised his head again, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Mark.
“So I’m asking you. Now, Lin is your family. He plays wide receiver.”
“What about me? What am I supposed to play?”
“You won’t even give me this last season?”
Mark looked at him, then suddenly smiled.
“You’re going to get a scholarship with me,” he said, enunciating each word, “and then you’re going to college with me.”
“And besides, Spencer was faking his injury today. You think Coach couldn’t tell?”
“He’s already done with Coach Bob.”
“So no one is going to take your spot. You’re still our starting wide receiver.”
……
……
……
The party was still in full swing, but Lin Wansheng was thinking about his part-time job tomorrow, so he left early with Li Shuyao.
The two of them walked side by side down the quiet nighttime street, as if the clamor inside the restaurant belonged to another world entirely.
Moonlight flowed like water, spilling gently over Li Shuyao’s face.
Lin Wansheng’s question broke the silence.
“What made you think to come watch the game?” he asked. “To be honest, even I didn’t know I’d get to play today.”
Li Shuyao turned her head, her clear eyes sparkling under the moonlight.
Looking at him, she answered as if it were only natural:
“I come to watch every game your team plays.”
“I didn’t even know you liked football.” Lin Wansheng was a little surprised.
“I don’t,” Li Shuyao said, shaking her head, her voice soft.
“I just thought, since you won’t let your parents come, if you really did get on the field and no one took any photos for you to keep, wouldn’t that be such a shame?”
Lin Wansheng smiled. “It’s not that I won’t let them come. I just didn’t tell them. I’ll tell them once I can start consistently.”
“Old Lin has wanted to come watch me play for ages.”
Li Shuyao looked at him, as if she had suddenly remembered something.
Her eyes lit up, and she excitedly took out her phone.
“Let me show you the pictures I took! They’re super handsome!”
She held the screen in front of Lin Wansheng and opened a photo.
“Look, this is when you scored the touchdown! This one is really good!”
Lin Wansheng looked at the phone screen and froze as well.
The background of the photo was a blur of lights and grass.
The focus landed clearly on him.
He was wearing his bright red number 79 jersey, standing on one foot on the white line of the end zone.
His body was tilted slightly, while his other foot still hung in the air with the momentum of his sprint.
With one hand, he was casually holding the football against the top of his helmet.
A sense of effortless flair leaped out from the image.
“See? Doesn’t this one look especially dashing?” Li Shuyao’s tone carried a tiny bit of pride.
“At the time, I even thought you’d seen me taking pictures and were deliberately posing for me.”
Lin Wansheng thought back to his state at the time and smiled.
“Sorry, I really didn’t see you then,” he explained.
“It had just been too long since I’d been on the field. The moment I scored, my adrenaline shot through the roof, and the whole world seemed to slow down. That floating feeling—I don’t even know how to describe it to you.”
“But thank you for the photo! I’m going to post it on Insta~”
The two of them chatted and laughed the whole way.
Before long, they arrived at the entrance of Jingxin Zhai.
Lin Wansheng watched Li Shuyao go inside and wave to him before he turned and pulled up the rolling shutter of his family’s small convenience store.
As soon as he walked in, he sensed that the atmosphere was a little off.
The store was quiet, but behind the counter there seemed to be dark shadows moving.
Instinctively, he lightened his footsteps. Just as he was about to ask who was there, he saw three heads sneakily pop out from behind the counter—his father, his mother, and Qian Dawei.
“What are you guys doing?” Lin Wansheng asked, torn between laughter and exasperation.
Mother Lin straightened up and smacked Qian Dawei’s arm irritably.
She complained, “Who else but your second uncle! He saw you come back with Shuyao through the window and was afraid we’d ruin your good moment if we were here, so he insisted on dragging us into hiding.”
She glared at Second Uncle and went on, “I told him already, you’re that kind of kid—you definitely just walked her home, that’s all. But he wouldn’t believe me!”
With that, the three of them immediately surrounded him, all wearing the same gossip-hungry expression.
Ms. Lin was the first to ask, “Did you go on a date with Shuyao after training? Why are you only back so late?”
“Your son went to play in a game,” Lin Wansheng answered helplessly.
“Huh? A game?!” Ms. Lin’s voice instantly rose by eight degrees. “How could you not tell Mom about something this big!”
As if she had suddenly remembered something, she turned and dragged a huge scroll out from under the counter.
With a rustle, she unfurled it, and a red banner appeared in front of Lin Wansheng, with two lines of big words written on it.
The Chinese read: “Lin Wansheng Is Number One Under Heaven.”
The English read: “Jimmy Lin is the Football King!”
“Look!” Ms. Lin pointed at the banner, her face full of heartbroken reproach.
“I finished making this ages ago! I was just waiting for you to get on the field! How could you not let Mom use it?!”
Lin Wansheng looked at the banner in front of him and felt his temples throbbing, his head swelling.
A terrifying image flashed through his mind.
In front of all the teachers and students in the school, and the cameras of NY1, his esteemed mother would gleefully unfurl this banner.
Thank goodness.
Thank goodness he hadn’t let her come…
Otherwise, tomorrow he would be experiencing on TikTok what true public humiliation meant.
How terrifying.