He hadn’t expected that before school even started, he would already have saved up the 3,500 dollars for the “In-Depth Study Tour of Chicago’s Top Elite Schools.”
But Lin Wansheng couldn’t feel happy about it at all.
The tuition for four years of college—that was the real mountain.
Go to an in-state public school?
A little over seven thousand a year. It certainly sounded cheap.
But to put it bluntly, cheap things were rarely good.
When the time came, if he took a diploma from Stony Brook University of the State University of New York and knocked on the doors of top law schools, they probably wouldn’t even bother to glance at him.
That left only the path of private universities.
But tuition alone was sixty-five thousand a year. Add in all the miscellaneous expenses, and ninety thousand a year would vanish without even trying.
Hopefully, this trip to Chicago would let him sound out the odds of getting a full merit scholarship.
If that didn’t work…
Need-based financial aid—given his family’s little supermarket’s income, they should be able to apply for that too, right?
Only, applying for that meant laying the family’s finances completely bare.
That was something he absolutely had to get his parents’ consent for.
He didn’t even know if they’d been paying their taxes properly.
Thinking of this, Lin Wansheng sighed, feeling that this matter was truly troublesome.
Forget it. No more thinking!
When the cart reaches the mountain, there’ll be a road—hell, even if someone’s selling wheels at the foot of it.
Thinking any more was useless.
He might as well hope that one day the system would open its eyes and directly reward him with a million dollars!
Lin Wansheng suddenly sprang up from the bed and finished washing up in a few swift motions.
Strive! Make money! He couldn’t afford to miss out on that three-hundred-dollar tutoring fee!
…
…
…
Before Lin Wansheng even entered the gates of Mobili Preparatory Elementary School, he caught sight of a familiar flash of cherry red.
Kate’s Ford Mustang was parked by the roadside, and she herself was leaning lazily against the car door.
She was wearing a tight cropped athletic top that revealed her firm, flat stomach, a slender ladies’ cigarette held between her fingers.
Lin Wansheng’s steps slowed involuntarily, but in the end, he still walked toward her.
Looking at her, he asked, “Why are you here?”
Kate did not answer right away. She brought the cigarette to her lips, took a deep drag, then slowly, with a trace of provocation, exhaled the smoke in his direction.
Only amid the curling smoke did she lazily cast him a glance, her gaze sliding from his face all the way down to his toes before slowly drifting back up.
“If I didn’t come, how would I know whether you brought your little girlfriend today?”
Lin Wansheng’s face was filled with question marks. “Don’t talk nonsense. She’s my neighbor.”
He instinctively lowered his voice. “If Teacher Li hears that, she’ll kill me.”
“Oh?” Kate straightened up and stubbed out the cigarette butt on the roadside trash can.
She took a step forward, instantly closing the distance between them.
So close that Lin Wansheng could even smell the faint perfume on her body.
Lin Wansheng couldn’t help sniffing again, and a thought flashed through his mind. “Hm? Chance…?”
She reached out a finger and lightly poked his chest, the corner of her mouth curving into a playful smile.
“First time I’ve seen our fearless Jimmy Lin afraid of someone.”
The warmth from her fingertip made Lin Wansheng a little uncomfortable. He took half a step back, putting some distance between them.
“Friend,” he said with a solemn expression, “you do not understand how terrifying a Chinese female teacher can be.”
“Especially the kind who wears round-framed glasses.”
Kate looked at his serious expression and was amused, waving a hand.
“Fine, I won’t talk about your little girlfriend anymore.” She changed the subject, leaning back against the car door with her arms crossed.
“You were pretty amazing in yesterday’s game. I watched the whole thing.”
“Huh?” Lin Wansheng was even more confused.
Kate looked at his out-of-the-loop expression.
She blinked slyly. “Is your brain only clear at certain times?”
She looked at him in amusement. “If I hadn’t gone to watch the game, how would I know about your little girlfriend?”
“All right, I came to find you because I have something serious to tell you.” She changed the subject again.
“Hank watched the broadcast of the game. Last night, I heard him mention you while he was yelling at Spencer.”
She paused, imitating Hank’s disdainful tone.
“He said there were still a lot of problems with your route running, and that your ability to shake off coverage was still poor, so Spencer didn’t need to worry too much about you.”
Lin Wansheng raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of Spencer, what exactly happened with him? Didn’t Hank say before that he’d have him find an excuse to sit out the game? How did he end up going off the field like that?”
“I’m dying, don’t even mention it.” Kate wore an expression that said, You’d never guess.
“That idiot drank for an entire day and ended up forgetting to call your coach to ask for leave. He didn’t dare tell Hank, so he took matters into his own hands and even smugly thought that going off with a minor injury would look more realistic.”
“Huh?” Lin Wansheng widened his eyes in disbelief.
“Just because of that, we almost lost the game?”
“Yeah,” Kate said, spreading her hands. “That’s why I said he’s an idiot.”
After hearing this, Lin Wansheng only smiled, without the slightest trace of worry on his face.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said with a shrug. “As long as I’ve been on the field once, the coach won’t take me off again.”
He looked at Kate, his eyes filled with unquestionable confidence.
“Just wait and see. That starting spot will always be mine.”
After saying that, he lifted his chin at Kate.
“Shall we go? My center. Time for class.”
When Lin Wansheng had been taking stock of his missions that morning, he had thought about how most of the missions he had encountered so far were actually triggered missions.
Especially that “Way to Survive” series.
But he still hadn’t figured out why yesterday’s real, full-contact confrontation on the football field hadn’t triggered a follow-up mission.
Could it be that the condition judged by this idiotic system still had to be the same as before—one against many?
It seemed he would have to test it out later with that group of “athletes” again.
…
…
…
Lin Wansheng looked at the energetic little brats in front of him and began his plan.
“Hey, boys,” he said, clapping his hands to draw everyone’s attention.
“Today, let’s play something different and test the results of your training these past two days. How about that?”
He pointed at himself, then at Kate beside him, the corner of his mouth curling into a wicked smile.
“Today, the two of us will challenge all eleven of you. What do you say?”
The children instantly burst into earth-shaking cheers.
Kate rolled her eyes at him, but still resigned herself to picking up the football and walking to the center of the field.
She bent down and assumed the center’s snapping position.
This time, Kate’s snap was perfectly placed, without the slightest deviation.
But the instant Lin Wansheng bent down to receive the ball, he seemed to deliberately lose his footing before his fingers could grasp the leather.
His fingertips lightly hooked in a way that was almost imperceptible.
Kate’s body clearly stiffened, and even her snapping motion slowed by half a beat.
She turned back, a trace of embarrassment and annoyance in her eyes.
In the end, this two-on-eleven match concluded amid the children’s laughter and cheers.
But not a single system notification sounded from beginning to end.
He thought to himself that it seemed this opportunistic method wouldn’t quite work.
He could only look for another way.
After the match ended.
A distinct blush rose on Kate’s cheeks, even tinting her neck a faint pink.
Lin Wansheng thought to himself that it turned out even on this light brown skin, a blush could still be seen so clearly.
Kate walked to his side, her breathing a little unsteady. She leaned close to his ear and said softly, in a voice only the two of them could hear:
“I have the key to Hank’s office. Shall we…?”