American Adventure: My Uncle is Don Quixote

"I’m sorry. I’m a piece of shit."

A highly upvoted comment under a Kansas Chiefs logo read, "When he charged Mahomes, I was sure he was going to slam right into him. I thought Patrick’s career was over, but he dodged. I’m sorry, Li Wei."

"+1 to the guy above. I’ve always been one of his haters, but I take back all my trash talk. From this day forward, I’m a fan of the Giants and the Kansas Chiefs."

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Jin Heon displayed an executive prowess far beyond her years. She precisely capitalized on the current turbulence in public opinion, launching the first PR campaign for the joint Mellon-Johnson-Li Wei Youth Sports Rehabilitation Fund.

Julian had used his authority as an MD to freeze Elizabeth’s foundation, which meant the affiliated Youth Sports Rehabilitation Fund couldn’t be promoted on a large scale. However, to seize this window of opportunity, Li Wei decided to pay out of his own pocket, initiating a business-to-business purchase from the Johnson Group.

On Monday afternoon, after finishing his classes at Yale University, Li Wei drove back to the eastern part of the Brooklyn District, to Franklin K. Lane High School.

Li Wei had spent a year here before. Now, five months later, he was revisiting his old stomping grounds.

The school was situated on the border between a working-class neighborhood and the slums. Its gym was permanently filled with the pungent reek of sweat and the grating sound of rusting metal. For most of the teenagers here, just like for Travis and Craig, football and basketball were seen as the only springboard out of their social class.

But unlike the few lucky or talented ones like Craig, Travis, and Manu, the vast majority of high school students had this meager hope shattered by an extremely high rate of injury long before they could make that leap.

That very afternoon, three heavy-duty trucks bearing the Johnson Group logo drove onto campus, attracting the attention of the entire student body and faculty.

"Principal Herman must be ecstatic," Coach Miller said quietly. "A full 200,000 USD worth of muscle relaxation devices and liquid nitrogen cryotherapy chambers."

He stood beside Li Wei, watching as the well-trained crew moved a dozen or so machines into the gym.

"What are you talking about?" Li Wei slung an arm around Coach Miller’s shoulders. "This is for you to use, isn’t it?"

"At least the kids can lay off the drugs a bit," Coach Miller said after a pause. "Thanks."

"This probably saves you a good chunk of change, huh?" Li Wei said with a grin. "After all, providing Travis and the others with steroids out of your own pocket couldn’t have been cheap."

"Out of my own pocket..." Miller retorted instinctively. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Oh, come on, you old coot," Li Wei said. "Travis told me you had a source, that you could get stuff from the factory, all without labels."

"Yeah, that’s right," Coach Miller said. "I just get the stuff without labels."

"I asked around later. You buy them yourself and then peel off the labels," Li Wei said, shaking his head. "Why would you do that?"

"Because this stuff is dangerous enough on its own. I’m not going to use some substandard product on top of that," Miller fumbled in his pocket, feeling for a cigarette. "I’m not some kind of devil. I genuinely want to help them."

"Some coaches are really on the payroll for pharma companies," he said, shaking his head. "They get regular shipments of drugs and give the students regular physicals. Then they report the data back to the companies for a kickback. A bunch of these kids from the slums die every year anyway. Some are even undocumented immigrants. Nobody gives a damn."

He let out a dry, "Heh heh heh," chuckle. "I just can’t stand by and watch. I don’t do drugs, I don’t gamble, and I’m not married. Getting some meds for these half-grown kids doesn’t put too much of a strain on me financially."

"I was wrong about you," Li Wei said, patting Coach Miller’s shoulder. "I’ve got to go deliver supplies to the other schools. Let’s all get a meal together when Travis and Craig are back from college."

"What?" Miller said, surprised. "There are others?"

"Can you maybe not give any to our rival high schools?" he yelled after Li Wei’s retreating figure. "Or at least give them the ones that break easily—"

And he was right. It wasn’t just Franklin K. Lane High School. Over the past Saturday and Sunday, ten other public high schools in the New York Metropolitan Area had also received donations, second in size only to Franklin K. Lane’s. A total of about 1 million USD in cold, hard cash was poured into these underfunded schools that desperately lacked medical and sports support.

This was the first major move Jin Heon made after coming on board, and it was Li Wei’s first substantial procurement finalized through the Johnson Group. With 1 million USD in cash, they had acquired equipment with a market value approaching 3 million USD.

While Li Wei and Coach Miller were talking, Jin Heon was hiding nearby. From a corner, she raised her phone and, with a slightly shaky hand, recorded the entire scene.

A short while after Li Wei got into the Cadillac Escalade, Jin Heon hopped in with a grin, jumping out from her corner to show him the video she’d taken.

"What do you think?" she asked. "Does it look like a candid shot from a random passerby?"

"Hmm..." Li Wei said. "Yeah, it actually does."

While humoring Jin Heon, his eyes were fixed on another quest log that had just popped up in his field of vision:

[You have triggered the hidden monthly recurring quest: A Knight’s Mercy (Sacrifice)]

[Amidst his conquests, the victorious Knight has not forgotten the struggling commoners in his domain. True virtue lies not only in battlefield valor, but also in the protection of the weak. You have used your own tangible wealth to improve the lives of the common people, thus practicing the virtue: Sacrifice.]