The door was yanked open from the inside. Kate stood there in a silk nightgown, her wet hair wrapped in a towel.
Her face was written all over with impatience at such violent knocking.
When she saw that the person standing outside was Spencer, his face twisted with ferocity, that impatience instantly turned into undisguised disgust.
“Are you sick or something?” Her voice carried a lazy, hoarse edge.
“Knocking like that—are you trying to bring the police straight here?”
Spencer, however, seemed not to hear her at all. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the depths of the house, and he shoved Kate aside with one hand.
As if he knew the place by heart, he rushed toward the study, twisted the doorknob, and barged straight in.
Inside the study, Hank was reading documents. Seeing his nephew in a towering rage, he merely lifted his head wearily.
“What is it this time?”
“That bastard Bob! In front of everyone, he made that Chinese kid compete with me for the starting spot!” Spencer roared like a trapped beast.
Hank took off his glasses, his tone icy.
“If you can’t even control your own emotions, then you can forget about going pro.”
He looked at Spencer’s face, warped by anger, and continued, “Why do you think Bob did that?”
“Because in the last game, you put on a farce like some clown and made him lose all face.”
“Now he’s making you and that Chinese kid compete fairly. He’s killing the chicken to scare the monkeys—putting on a show for the whole team, and for the board.”
Hank suddenly stood up, braced both hands on the desk, and leaned forward, looking down at his nephew with an overwhelmingly oppressive posture.
“And what are you throwing a tantrum at me for?”
“You need to understand one thing.”
“Spencer.”
He slowly walked around the desk and came to stand in front of Spencer, staring directly into his eyes.
“If you weren’t my nephew, you would have been kicked off the team long ago.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?” Spencer finally calmed down.
Then, with a trace of pleading in his voice, he said, “Uncle, can you… can you call Coach Bob?”
Hank looked at him, the disappointment in his eyes almost spilling over.
He sat back down in his chair and said in an utterly exhausted tone:
“Call him?”
“Spencer, are you planning to have me be your nanny forever?”
“When you get to college and can’t get playing time, am I supposed to call your college coach too?”
“When the NFL draft comes and no one picks you, do I have to call the general managers of all thirty-two teams one by one?”
Spencer stared blankly at his uncle, as though seeing him for the first time.
“Remember,” Hank said, picking up the documents again, his tone returning to calm.
“On the field, only winners get everything.”
“Go to the guest room and get a good night’s sleep.”
“Tomorrow, let me see a smart player—not an idiot who only knows how to throw tantrums.”
Watching Spencer leave the study in a daze, his back slumped and dispirited,
Hank picked up the document he had just set down.
On the cover was a striking title.
“Feasibility Study Report on the Asian Youth Sports Training Market in the Greater New York Area”
Hank’s gaze lingered on the title for a moment, but what he was thinking about was something else.
“Lin,” he murmured under his breath, “let me see just how far you can go.”
…
…
…
The next day, before the sky had fully brightened, Lin Wansheng woke up.
After thinking it over, he simply went straight to school, intending to take advantage of the morning quiet.
He would run a few laps by himself and get in a proper workout.
However, when he rounded the bleachers and walked into the empty football field, he discovered that someone had arrived even earlier than he had.
Mark was already at the edge of the field, alone in front of a practice net, doing passing drills.
He was not wearing pads, only a simple T-shirt and shorts.
From the position of a simulated line of scrimmage, he took three rapid steps back with an extremely rhythmic footwork. At the final instant, his body twisted sharply like a spring wound to its limit; his arm whipped out, power snapping through his wrist.
The football in his hand shot with perfect accuracy into the tiny pocket at the very center of the practice net.
Without the slightest pause, he picked up another ball and repeated the same motion.
Drop back.
Turn.
Release.
The moment Lin Wansheng’s gaze fell on him, Mark, who was in the middle of repeating his dropback, seemed to sense the stare as if he had eyes on the back of his head. He immediately stopped and turned to look at Lin Wansheng.
“Jimmy, not bad.” A faint approving smile appeared on Mark’s face.
“This is the first time I’ve seen anyone besides me come this early.”
Lin Wansheng had originally wanted to say that he simply couldn’t sleep and had come over to run a little.
But before the words could leave his mouth, a prompt suddenly rang out in his mind.
【A new task has arrived. Executor, please review it when the time is right.】
While waving at Mark, he unfolded the translucent panel in his mind.
【The Way of Survival, Part Two, has been unlocked.】
【Observation: the Executor has been diligent and unceasing in effort, his ambition commendable, and has already gained the favor of this place’s gang leader.】
【The chief is highly skilled and deeply understands the essence of this path.】
【If you can receive his full instruction and learn his secret teachings, then his skill—being the foundation by which he has established himself—will greatly benefit your survival and standing should you master it.】
【This task shall reward merit in stages.】
【Be willing to learn from another; upon first grasping the method, even the smallest progress shall be rewarded. Gain 0.5 Physique as a foundation.】
【Learn fifty percent of his skill, and your merit shall advance halfway. Gain 3 Physique to strengthen the sinews and bones.】
【Learn eighty percent of his skill, gradually entering the state of mastery, and your merit shall advance greatly. Gain 5 Physique to increase explosiveness.】
【Receive the entirety of his teachings and surpass the master, and your merit shall be complete. Gain an additional 5 Physique, 1 Intelligence, and 1 Insight, reaching the realm of transformation.】
Lin Wansheng stared at the line on the system panel that read 【has already gained the favor of this place’s gang leader】, completely dumbfounded.
Wait, what did that mean?
Gang leader?
What gang was Mark in?
The KKK??
Could it be that the captain of East River High School’s football team was secretly involved in some unspeakable underground society?
In an instant, countless melodramatic B-movie plots flashed through his mind.
But his mouth did not stop. Almost subconsciously, he continued the conversation.
“Do you come this early to practice every day?”
Mark had no idea that this new teammate beside him was staging an entire gangster drama in his head. He simply nodded as if it were only natural.
“Yeah. There are a lot of things a quarterback has to practice alone. They’re all slow, grinding work.”
He pointed at the cones on the ground and the agility ladder not far away. “Look, like pocket footwork. You have to train until, even with your eyes closed, you can feel which direction the defender is coming from.”
“And passing drills too. From raising your hand to releasing the ball, that fraction of a second—being even slightly off can turn it into an interception.”
“For this stuff, relying only on the team practices a few times a week is nowhere near enough.”
Lin Wansheng looked at Mark, who was speaking on and on, listening to him explain those technical quarterback details that he only barely understood.
An utterly absurd thought suddenly struck his mind like lightning.
The system’s “full instruction.”
Could it be…
“Don’t tell me this system wants me to learn to be a quarterback?!”
Wait. If Mark was the “gang leader,”
then what was our team?
The East River Gang?