Chapter 255 - 158: Preseason, Game On
"Thank you, Director Harrison." Li Wei smiled and nodded.
Then, as if remembering something, Li Wei snapped his fingers at the caddie standing a short distance away.
The caddie ran over excitedly, looking at Li Wei with great anticipation.
As expected, Li Wei took his wallet from his pocket, pulled out a black bank card, and handed it over.
"According to the rules here, if I get a hole-in-one, I’m supposed to treat everyone, right?" Li Wei asked.
As for the rules of golf, the default custom for a hole-in-one at clubs in Asia is to treat everyone. Some clubs even offer "hole-in-one insurance" to cover the huge expense of souvenirs, big meals, and red envelopes that come with it.
But in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, the situation seemed to be different. American clubs generally followed the tradition of buying a round of drinks for everyone in the clubhouse bar.
The caddie took the card and stammered, "Y-Yes, sir. Usually, it’s buying a drink for all the guests in the clubhouse bar..."
"Go tell the bartender in the clubhouse," Li Wei nodded, "to send a glass of Dom Pérignon vintage champagne to every guest currently there. Say it’s to celebrate a bit of good luck on the 18th hole."
Li Wei paused and glanced at the expectant caddie. "Also, when you settle the bill, add a $1,000 USD tip for yourself."
"Un-Understood! Thank you, sir!" The caddie’s face flushed with excitement as he took the card and hurried toward the clubhouse.
Watching him scurry off with his credit card, Li Wei couldn’t help but click his tongue with a sense of regret.
’Now I get why these Americans can’t save any money.’
That round alone cost him at least another 10,000 USD, and that was just a small glimpse of the bigger picture.
The equipment, time, membership fees, and so on for playing golf here—the annual cost could easily wipe out the pre-tax salaries of two junior Wall Street traders.
...
The champagne wasn’t the point. The point was to share the good fortune of a hole-in-one.
Over the next while, although Li Wei’s grip and stance clearly marked him as a novice, his accuracy made Royce, Harrison, and the others exclaim in amazement again and again (though there were no more holes-in-one). They all eagerly exchanged private numbers with Li Wei, planning to invite him to play again when the time was right to go and thoroughly humiliate their rivals on the course.
After the game, since Li Wei had been drinking, he got into Elizabeth’s black Range Rover. Elizabeth’s bodyguard-slash-driver drove the two of them back.
"I’m sorry about what happened today," Elizabeth apologized again. "If it weren’t for your incredible skill at golf, things might have been difficult. I might have even had to ask you for a favor."
"You could tell?" Li Wei said with a light laugh. "Don’t worry about it. If we’re really keeping score, I’m the one who owes you a favor."
"By the way," he said, "today was a bit strange, though. Didn’t you say you’d already spoken with Harrison? How could he change his mind at the last minute?"
Elizabeth thought for a moment, glanced at the silent driver in the front seat, and took a small remote from the rear center armrest. With a soft press of a button, a privacy screen slowly rose between the front and back seats.
Elizabeth leaned closer to Li Wei, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"Because there are just too many descendants in the Mellon Family," she said in a low voice. "Do you know how many members the Mellon Family has?"
Li Wei shook his head.
"You don’t, do you?" Elizabeth pointed to herself. "I don’t know either. But I do know there are at least 500 people with the surname Mellon. In my grandfather’s branch alone, there are over 40 people."
"Hmm..." Li Wei said cautiously. "That’s certainly a thriving clan."
"And within my grandfather’s branch," Elizabeth sighed as she spoke, "because of what happened with my father, my immediate family is... well, we’re pretty marginalized. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to start working right after high school."
"I thought this was the life you wanted to pursue," Li Wei said. "You know, like a rich kid trying to prove themselves or something."
"Don’t be silly," Elizabeth giggled. "Proving yourself is predicated on having room to climb, or at least believing you have room to climb."
From Elizabeth’s explanation, Li Wei finally began to grasp the tip of the iceberg regarding the Mellons—a renowned American financial dynasty and a cornerstone family in the founding of the United States of America.
Basically, by the time it got to Elizabeth Mellon’s generation, the Mellon Family had been around for seven or eight generations. From when Andrew William Mellon founded the Mellon Family in 1816 to the present day, it had grown into a super-family of several hundred people spanning five living generations.
Under the management and leadership of an investment committee, a small group of people controlled the main family trust and the family’s overall capital.
Below that were the various business sectors managed within the Mellon Family. It’s so rigidly structured and has such a clear division of labor that it’s less like a family and more like a small empire or corporation.
"Nowadays, most family members, especially those of us in the fourth and fifth generations, can’t even fully list all the family’s businesses," Elizabeth said with a self-deprecating shrug. "Especially my branch, which has been ’put on ice’ to the point where I’m the one stuck in Brooklyn handling marginal projects like minority and low-income community aid funds and art centers."
"You know," Li Wei said, half-joking, "the first time I met you, I thought you were the heiress to the Mellon Family."
"Heiress... I guess you could say that, in a way," Elizabeth smiled. "My branch of the family used to be in a good position. My grandfather and his generation were in charge of philanthropy, arts, and social movements for the Mellon Family, which was considered a core part of the family structure. It’s just that—"
She suddenly fell silent, as if carefully weighing her next words.
"It’s just that he raised an artist son with a rebellious and defiant spirit—my father," she said. "When my dad was young, he filmed a documentary exposing a capitalist factory, only to find out afterward that it was a factory owned by the Mellon Family. Because of that, he was considered a black sheep of the family. And that’s why I, as his daughter, ended up doing these things that are less ’old money,’ less ’Mellon’."
’So that’s why she opened her art gallery in Brooklyn and got so close with the new money from Russia.’
"If my eldest uncle had been the one making requests today, Harrison would have signed off without a second thought, even if he wanted to build an illegal bio-lab in New York City Center," Elizabeth snorted. "Why would someone like him, who’s served the family for decades, ever take me seriously?"
"But you’re doing very well now," Li Wei said. "Isn’t your art gallery about to get an upgrade? If you produce results, wouldn’t the family start to recognize your value? When does the new exhibition open?"
"In two weeks, provided my cousins don’t try to sabotage me," Elizabeth closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. "My dozen or so cousins certainly won’t sit by and watch my family regain our grandfather’s favor."
...
Even though Harrison said he wouldn’t take any money, Li Wei, swallowing his heartache, sent his share over anyway. The 600,000 USD he had prepared was spent completely.
After all, this was his own connection and relationship to cultivate. And the connections of the chief director of the number one orthopedic hospital in the entire United States of America weren’t something just anyone could latch onto.
With the help and influence of these three individuals, it took less than a week to get all the permits approved—the very same ones that had been giving Don Quixote a massive headache and would have required him to run himself ragged.
Now they could wait for the construction team to come in and begin renovations. Moreover, Li Wei was now legally able to purchase all sorts of firearms and medical equipment.
From standard 9mm pistols to 7.62 and 5.56 caliber assault rifles, and even submachine guns, sniper rifles, and anti-materiel sniper rifles, Li Wei purchased two of each type.
In addition to the weapons, there were also custom-made force plates, cryotherapy chambers, and all kinds of other high-tech equipment. They just had to wait for about a month of renovations and construction to be completed before they could be inspected and moved in.
Li Wei sat on his apartment sofa, looking at the final financial summary report sent by Don Quixote, and quickly reviewed his cash flow.
He originally had over 3.6 million USD. He spent 1.3 million on the land, 600,000 on networking and favors, and nearly another 1 million on equipment. Now, his cash on hand was down to just over 700,000!
Just like that, Li Wei had fallen from the realm of multi-millionaires. His millionaire trial subscription had temporarily expired.
’Guess I’d better focus on playing well and making money,’ Li Wei thought, turning off his phone screen and rolling his neck. ’The construction and inspection will probably cost a lot more, too.’
He wasn’t worried about his financial situation, though. The upcoming season was projected to bring him earnings in the tens of millions of USD.
「Time flew by, and soon it was mid-August.」
The summer heatwave in the Northeastern United States had reached its peak.
The tourists and hot girls on the streets had all switched to short shorts and fishnet stockings. The two "grapefruits," artificially sculpted, were straining against the tight fabric of their short-sleeved shirts.
But was there anything hotter than the summer weather on the East Coast of the United States or the hot girls in the New York Region?
Yes, my brothers. Yes, there is.
Welcome to the United States of America’s summer NFL season! The first game of the preseason: the New York Giants versus the Seattle Seahawks.
Although it was only a preseason game, where starters usually only play a quarter or two to get back into game shape, tonight’s television ratings were showing an abnormally explosive growth.
An hour and a half before kickoff, the traffic system around MetLife Stadium had already collapsed. Outside the Super Bowl-caliber venue, which could hold 82,500 people, hundreds upon hundreds of pickup trucks and RVs packed nearly every parking spot. The thick smoke of cumin and charcoal rising from countless barbecue grills nearly obscured the New Jersey skyline.
As far as the eye could see, the stadium was a sea of rabid fans in blue Giants jerseys. On the backs of the vast majority of them was the number of the rookie at the center of all the buzz.
Broadcast vans from every major sports network in the country had long since crammed the stadium’s perimeter. Fox Sports had even sent out their top-tier commentary team.
The reason was simple. Tonight was the NFL professional debut of Li Wei, the "$200 Million Man" himself, a figure shrouded in countless halos of glory and justice.
"Good evening, America! Welcome to the broadcast of the NFL preseason. I’m your old friend, Joe Buck, and sitting beside me is Hall of Fame Quarterback Troy Aikman."