American Adventure: My Uncle is Don Quixote

"Then I always felt I was just one step away. That if I just tweaked the molecular formula, I could suppress the side effects. I stubbornly pushed forward, misappropriating lab funds to advance animal testing... After burning through tens of millions of USD, I got nothing. Because I’ve never been one to fit in, I’d offended a lot of supervisors. When I messed up this time, it was only natural that I got fired."

When he said "only natural," Elias let out a couple of defiant laughs.

There wasn’t much regret in them, but rather a sense of having cast off a burden.

"So I’ve been coming back here every night recently to clear my head," he said, looking around the dilapidated park where he grew up. "I hand out some anti-inflammatories to the homeless, treat some simple ailments, and try to calm down and figure out just where my model and formula went wrong."

Li Wei discreetly glanced at his Ancient Magic Potion quest:

[Phase 2 Quest: Ask him for his Magic Potion formula]

[Phase Quest Reward: +0.1 Free Attribute Points]

"This doesn’t sound like a dead end," Li Wei said, looking at Elias. "I’ve been looking for investment projects recently. If you’re just lacking funds and freedom, I have a company. I could sponsor you, if it’s a good fit."

To Li Wei’s surprise, Elias, just like Arthur, shook his head.

’Fuck,’ Li Wei thought, rubbing the [Ring of All Things Smooth] on his hand.

’What’s wrong with this ring? Help me out here! Aren’t I supposed to be irresistibly charming, with a Knight’s Aura to boot? How have I been rejected twice in one day?’

"I’ll have to politely decline, Mr. Li Wei." Elias stuffed the metal tin of mints back into his pocket. "Thank you for the kind offer, but I’ve seen through it all. This thing has extremely low commercial value; it’s just a dangerous failure. I don’t want to get dragged into the bottomless pit of commercial R&D again. I’ve already sent my resume to a few universities. I plan to become a regular chemistry professor and just teach peacefully."

’Then at least give me the formula first,’ Li Wei thought, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Teaching is your personal choice, but I believe that fate brings people together," Li Wei said. "But that formula is just a pile of waste paper in your hands. Name a price."

Elias looked at the tall figure of Li Wei before him, then turned to look around. In the cold wind, Saint Mary’s Park seemed even more dilapidated. The dry fountain was filled with plastic bottles, and the wooden slats of a distant bench were rotted and broken.

"You really want that useless formula?" Elias took a deep breath. "All right. Let’s make a deal."

He pointed a finger at the ground beneath his feet. "I don’t need your money. If you’re willing, in your own name, to donate a batch of brand-new sports and lab equipment to the public high schools in the South Bronx, and also fund a complete renovation of this Saint Mary’s Park—lay down a new lawn, fix that fountain, and build a decent basketball court for the kids."

Elias pushed up his glasses, his gaze fixed on Li Wei. "If you promise to do all that, not only will I give you the formula and all the experimental data for free, but I’ll even give you all the patent rights."

"You know that if you’d asked for a million USD for a formula like this, I might have agreed, right?" Li Wei asked. "The money for the equipment, renovating the park, building a basketball court—none of that will end up in your hands."

"I’m not short on money, Mr. Li Wei," Elias said, rubbing his forehead. "I might not have as much as you, not even close, but my Ph.D. in chemistry ensures I won’t have to worry about food or clothing. I just want to accomplish something."

"By the way, I heard Mr. Li Wei is from the Celestial Dynasty?" he asked suddenly. "A medical school from the Celestial Dynasty extended an olive branch to me. Do you recommend I check it out?"

"Which university did you graduate from again?" Li Wei asked suddenly.

"Johns Hopkins University."

"I’d recommend you go," Li Wei said immediately. "It would be good to take a look."

"So, do we have a deal?" Elias smiled and extended his hand. "Once you finish renovating the park, I’ll give you the patent rights and the formula. I hope you can make something great out of it. At least let me see that my research wasn’t on the wrong track."

"It’s a deal," Li Wei said, shaking his hand. "I’ll have someone get on it right away."

On Wednesday afternoon, after his last midterm exam, Li Wei told Jin Heon about the matter.

However, to his surprise, Jin Heon’s professional attitude was truly admirable.

「Thursday morning. The 47th floor of a Class A office building on Fifth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan.」

Li Wei arrived at the Manhattan office of Horizon Holding Company Limited.

This was an office space Don Quixote had picked out earlier. The annual rent was as high as 800,000 USD, but the space wasn’t excessively large, about 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. For now, it was enough to accommodate an elite team of about ten people.

Currently, only Chen Haisheng, Jin Heon, and Don Quixote worked here full-time, with Li Wei stopping by occasionally.

Seeing Li Wei walk in, Jin Heon, who was sitting in front of three side-by-side monitors, shot her head up and sprang to her feet like a coil, snatching up a thick stack of documents.

"Good morning, Boss!" she exclaimed, full of energy. "Regarding the Saint Mary’s Park renovation project in the South Bronx and the equipment donation plan for the public high schools that you mentioned yesterday, I’ve already completed the entire promotional and publicity proposal."

Li Wei couldn’t help but turn to look at her in surprise.

She seemed to have straightened her hair and gotten it re-dyed; even the roots were the same shade of pink as the tips. Combined with her snow-white skin, she and the suited-up Li Wei looked like they came from two completely different worlds.

"This fast?" Li Wei asked as he opened the documents. "I remember I only told you about this yesterday afternoon before I left work."

"From six in the evening to six in the morning, you can get a lot done in twelve whole hours."

Li Wei saw that she had even put on a full face of makeup and was wearing cosmetic contact lenses.

As she spoke, she presented a PowerPoint on her computer, speaking at a rapid-fire pace without stopping: "I compared five engineering teams in New York City with municipal construction licenses, eliminated three with a history of union strikes, and preliminarily selected the most efficient contractor who was also willing to sign an NDA. At the same time, I contacted three non-profit organizations in the Bronx Region to process the donation through them. That way, it won’t look like we’re deliberately putting on a show."

As Li Wei looked over the documents and the densely packed budget sheets, timeline control charts, and public opinion risk management plans on the computer (she had even prepared three different versions), he couldn’t help but glance at Jin Heon again.

"How many hours did you sleep last night?" Li Wei asked, looking at her.

"About three and a half," Jin Heon said after a moment’s thought. "I might have fallen asleep while getting my hair done, for about 45 minutes, so that’s around four hours a day. For me, that’s enough sleep."

As she said this, she picked up a one-liter glass and carefully took a large sip of iced Americano through a straw.

It wasn’t even ten in the morning yet, and Li Wei saw that her one-liter iced Americano was already half-gone.

’She really is one of those South Koreans with iced Americano flowing through their veins,’ Li Wei thought, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Regarding the promotional strategy for this," Jin Heon continued after taking a sip, "I’ll arrange for a few street-style influencers to ’happen to be passing by’ on the day construction starts at the park. We want to create a narrative that you’re quietly doing good deeds but don’t want anyone to know—"

BANG!

The office door was pushed open again, and Don Quixote strode in, his face flushed with excitement, waving a stack of data reports. Chen Haisheng followed behind him.

When he saw Li Wei sitting in front of Jin Heon’s computer, he couldn’t help but hurry over to them.

"Jin, you did a great job," he said, slapping a report onto the desk. "We totally killed it this time."

Seeing Don Quixote enter, Jin Heon immediately stood up straight. Hearing his praise, she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from turning up. "Did that candid video from the high school last week go viral?"

"Go viral? It exploded!" Don Quixote pulled out a chair and sat down, pointing to a line graph on the report. "The video you secretly filmed from a bystander’s perspective at Franklin High School last weekend, of Li Wei donating the medical pods, has already surpassed 20 million views on Twitter and TikTok. For the first time, the NFL section on Reddit has been completely taken over by our fans and organic passersby."

"The Giants’ data analysis team and PR department just had a 40-minute meeting with me," Don Quixote said, taking a sip of water and looking at Li Wei. "They were having a massive headache over you stepping on the other team’s logo in Dallas, but now you’ve pulled off a brilliant crisis management play. The tide of public opinion has turned."

"What did they say?" Jin Heon asked impatiently.

"The Giants’ data analyst said that the public doesn’t hate arrogance; they hate hypocrisy and inconsistency," Don Quixote said, getting more and more excited. "Now, the public’s perception has achieved a kind of logical self-consistency."

"The mainstream opinion online is that your coldness, violence, and arrogance on the field aren’t because you have bad character, but because of your professional attitude," he said. "Because you’re a minority, you’ve been bullied, you’ve faced injustice, and in a league full of discrimination, you have to act this way to protect yourself."

Listening to this, Li Wei felt a bit dazed.

’Who’s been bullied? Me?’

’But on second thought, it’s kind of true. Without the system, Li Wei’s life probably would have been much harder.’

With that thought, he calmly accepted this new narrative.

’That’s right. I was bullied in the league. My on-field behavior is just a protective shell.’

"So now, in the eyes of the public and the fans, I’m a great philanthropist and a good student," Li Wei said, pointing to himself. "And during games, I just keep playing my usual self?"

"Yes! That’s exactly it!" Don Quixote slammed the table. "This weekend, we have an away game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Go give ’em hell!"

"A win in this game would make it a 10-game winning streak," Jin Heon added happily. "We’ll have basically locked in a playoff spot. Combined with our park renovation plan, we should be able to rake in another huge wave of popularity!"