The next morning, the sun rose over Brooklyn, New York, without hesitation, undeterred by the conflict late last night.
Before leaving for school, Li Wei quietly stuffed the slightly bent iron rod deep into a garbage can.
He glanced back, but ultimately decided against driving, opting for the bus instead.
He hurried to Coach Miller’s office before his first class to pick up his invitation and find out what he needed to do next.
"Whoa," Li Wei said as he opened the envelope, pulling out the invitation stamped with a gold logo. "So this is the invitation to the All-Arican Bowl?"
"Yep," Coach Miller coughed. "And, uh... Yale already contacted the school. Congratulations, you’ve received an early offer from Yale University."
"Thanks," Li Wei said, looking over the invitation and the location details. "Now that I have this, what else do I need to do?"
"Fuck, you haven’t been following this at all, have you?" Coach Miller rolled his eyes and leaned back hard in his chair, pointing a thick finger at Li Wei. "You’ve got a lot more to do."
He pointed to a stack of docunts under the envelope—which Li Wei had at first mistaken for a thick textbook—and said, "First, sign this pile of insurance waivers and image rights authorization forms. Then—"
"Image rights authorization?" Li Wei asked warily. "This isn’t like that business with the White Agent, is it?"
"What? Oh, no," Coach Miller said, pausing for a mont before shaking his head. "This is just a temporary authorization. All it does is grant the ga organizers and broadcast dia permission to use your headshot in their promotional materials. It doesn’t include any comrcial rights."
"Good." Li Wei sat down and began to read through the docunts, one by one. "My image rights are pretty valuable. I don’t plan on selling them anyti soon."
"You’re right to do so. Principal Herman had to hold back last ti," Coach Miller said, sounding furious at the mory. "Otherwise, I would’ve shoved my leather shoe right up White’s ass right then and there."
Li Wei said nothing, instead focusing on ticulously reading every term and contract. Only after ensuring there were no potential risks did he sign his na on each docunt.
"Good." Miller gathered the docunts. "Now, go and enjoy what little ti you have left in your high school classes, because you have an interview this afternoon."
Li Wei frowned. "Can I say no?"
"Afraid not. Not this ti," Miller shrugged. "The All-Arican Bowl’s terms state that participating players are obligated to accept interview requests from their dia partners."
Li Wei rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was already at the center of a dia storm. While most people didn’t care what was happening, the question of whether the Giants could push through a special rule targeting him was a hot topic in the football world.
An image of John Mara flashed through his mind. ’That old bastard definitely knew that participating in the All-Arican Bowl required cooperating with their publicity.’
"Fine," Li Wei said. "I’ll do it. Anything else?"
Miller opened his planner. It was clear he’d done his howork, and his tone even held a trace of gloating.
"I’ve never had a student get this far before, so I wasn’t too familiar with the process," he said, flipping through the pages. "But for your sake, I made a special call to the organizing committee in San Antonio last night."
"For the next two weeks, you’re going to be so busy your feet won’t touch the ground," he said. "Interviews, promotional photos, physical exams, data collection, custom equipnt fittings, and on and on—"
"Enjoy the fun of being famous," he said, a flicker of pride and envy in his otherwise weary eyes. "This might be the last quiet ti you get for a while."
...
In the end, Li Wei went to class for a while. The interview was that afternoon in the school gym, and with only a few hours to kill, it didn’t make sense to go anywhere else.
After the first class, Michael, who hadn’t spoken to Li Wei in a long ti, actually approached him.
"Hey, man," he said, giving Li Wei a high-five. "Congrats on winning the PSAL championship."
"Thanks," Li Wei nodded politely. "How’ve you been?"
"Oh, man," Michael said with a bitter smile, rubbing his cheeks. "I haven’t been doing too great lately."
"By the way," he said, "thanks to you and your uncle for not raising our rent. My mom and I are both really grateful."
"What about your brother?" Li Wei asked, half-joking. "Isn’t he grateful?"
Michael kept rubbing his face. "Oh, shit. He feels like his pride was insulted... but I wanted to thank you and your uncle on his behalf anyway."
Li Wei gave a slightly helpless shrug. He hadn’t expected that kind of reaction.
"You look exhausted," he said, noticing the bags under Michael’s eyes. "Are you working multiple jobs now?"
"Yeah, I’m working two jobs every day now," Michael said, changing the subject and sounding much more optimistic. "But as long as I can pass my AP exams this year and get the credits, I’ll save a ton on college tuition. Then I can get my brother out of that gang."
Li Wei thought about telling him about Don Quixote’s warning from the night before, but after a mont’s thought, he decided against it and simply patted him on the shoulder.
"Good luck," he said. "If you need any AP study materials, let know. I don’t need mine anymore."
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