Sports Medicine Master System

"He just left? Like that?"

At the exit of China Modu International Airport, Chen Yu stared dumbfounded as Brian got into a car and quickly disappeared. He turned to the Suns’ international scout, Matt Lucas, who was standing beside him, completely stunned.

Matt Lucas had a bit of a potbelly and was wearing a crumpled, subtly patterned suit. He wasn’t wearing a tie, his collar was unbuttoned, and his hair was a mess. The lines on his forehead made him look like a middle-aged man.

In reality, he was only in his thirties.

But for an international scout like him who flew all over the world, constantly traveling with an irregular schedule, it was normal to look older than his age.

"What did you expect, Chen? You didn’t actually think Brian came all this way just to scout that big guy, did you?" Matt Lucas shrugged and retorted.

Brian was the team’s general manager, after all.

To scout a player, especially an international one, sending a scout was enough. If they wanted to show they were serious, sending the director of scouting would have been a huge deal.

Chen Yu scratched his head in frustration. "I thought it was strange when we left, but I didn’t expect him to bail the second we got off the plane. Where the hell did he go?"

Even back then, Chen Yu had found it odd. No matter how much Brian valued that Yao Ming fellow, it didn’t seem likely he’d personally fly all the way to China just to scout him.

Now he got it. The scouting was just a pretense; the guy had other business to attend to.

Matt Lucas shook his head. "Seems like it’s business-related. I don’t know the specifics."

That meant it was related to Old Kolangelo’s business.

With a long sigh, Chen Yu grumbled, "If I’d known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have come either."

Matt Lucas grinned. "Chen, you should have come. You can help us see if the big guy has any hidden injury risks. By the way, I heard people say you can tell if someone has an illness just by looking at them. Is that true or not?"

He spent most of the year traveling abroad and rarely returned to the United States, but he’d heard plenty of rumors about Chen Yu.

"How’s that possible? Do you think I’m Superman with X-ray vision?" Chen Yu immediately shook his head in denial. Then, he silently scanned Matt Lucas with his Eye of All-Seeing and asked, "How many years have you had that neck pain and high blood pressure?"

Matt Lucas was startled. "Shit, how did you know about my neck pain and high blood pressure?"

This was too uncanny. He’d just said it was impossible, so how did he figure that out?

"Want to know?"

Matt Lucas nodded eagerly.

Chen Yu pointed at his neck. "As soon as we boarded, you asked the flight attendant for a neck brace. Plus, you’re constantly flying and traveling, so it’s highly likely you have cervical spine issues. Then on the plane, I saw you take Norvasc. That’s a medication for high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. At your age, the chances of having coronary heart disease are very low, so it must be high blood pressure, probably related to your irregular lifestyle and weight."

Matt Lucas’s jaw dropped. He was a bit dumbfounded. ’So, that’s how he figured it out?’

"Alright, enough of this nonsense. That guy bailed on us, so what do we do now?" They were completely in the dark, totally lost.

Matt Lucas snapped out of it and patted his chest. "Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. I know this area well."

He had been to China many times before.

With that, he gestured for Chen Yu to follow and headed straight for the taxi stand.

The two of them lined up and got into a cab. Matt Lucas gave an address in Chinese that was even worse than Chen Yu’s.

It sounded like some kind of gymnasium.

"Aren’t we going to the hotel?" Chen Yu asked.

There were no direct flights from Phoenix to Shanghai; they’d had to go to Los Angeles first for a connecting flight. The flight alone was 12 hours. After such a long and tiring journey, Chen Yu just wanted to get to the hotel and lie down for a while.

Matt Lucas said, "We are. We’ll find a hotel near the Luwan Gymnasium. That arena is the home court of the Shanghai Eastern Team. As it happens, they have a game tonight, so we can go watch it live."

Chen Yu broke into a sweat. Rushing to a game right after getting off the plane? The schedule was way too tight. He had been hoping to travel around China a bit.

Matt Lucas seemed to guess what Chen Yu was thinking. He sighed and lamented, "It can’t be helped. This is what our job as scouts is like. One day you’re in Europe, the next you’re on the other side of the planet."

’You should be telling this to Brian,’ Chen Yu thought. ’There’s nothing I can do about you complaining to me about how tiring your job is.’

As they were talking, the driver in front spoke up, enthusiastically asking if the two of them were in China for tourism.

He was wearing a navy blue work uniform, had a round head with large ears, and was slightly bald. But when he spoke, his eyes crinkled into a smile, making him seem very friendly. He glanced at Chen Yu a few extra times in the rearview mirror and asked if he was a "returnee."

"A ’sea turtle’?"

Chen Yu paused for a moment, then shook his head and said he was a Chinese-American, born in the United States.

"Oh, you’ve got it made then! Making big money in the United States, huh? Got your green card yet? My maternal uncle’s youngest daughter is studying in Canada—you know, Canada? She’ll be a returnee when she comes back, can get any job she wants, it’ll be amazing." He spoke with a thick local dialect and a rapid-fire pace. Chen Yu could only pick out a few words here and there and couldn’t understand what he was saying at all.

But he was genuinely talkative, chattering away for the entire drive, which suddenly reminded Chen Yu of the taxi drivers back in New York.

After a while, Matt Lucas pointed to the elevated highway on their left and cut in, asking the driver why he wasn’t taking it.

"This way is faster! Oh, right, which hotel are you staying at? The Peace Restaurant? I know it, all the foreigners stay there. I have a friend who works inside. If you want to stay there, I can help you book a room. They’re always booked solid."

Matt Lucas glanced at Chen Yu and shook his head slightly.

After a long, rambling drive, they finally reached their destination.

Although Chen Yu couldn’t understand the driver’s constant chatter, seeing the Chinese characters everywhere along the way still gave him a strange sense of familiarity.

’This is my homeland, after all.’

"That’ll be 106. You’ve come all the way to China, and guests from afar should be treated well. I’ll take a little loss and give you a discount. We’ll round it down, just make it an even 100," the driver said, turning around with a broad smile.

Chen Yu looked at Lucas. Lucas’s eye twitched, and he silently pulled a bill from his wallet and handed it over.

The two of them got out of the car.

The driver even enthusiastically helped them get their luggage from the trunk before stomping on the gas and disappearing in a flash.

Standing on the side of the road, Chen Yu was silent for a moment before asking, "Can we call the police?"

Lucas thought for a moment and shook his head. "Forget it. He was actually one of the better ones, only ripped us off for about half the fare. The last time I was in China, I was buying something on the street, and the owner said right to my face that I was a foreigner who couldn’t understand Chinese and then tried to charge me in US dollars."

Chen Yu laughed too. "That’s happened to me a bunch of times in New York. They think I’m a foreign tourist. One time, the fare was 7.5 US dollars, and the guy insisted it was 75 US dollars, claiming that’s just how they price things in the United States. I was so pissed I almost started a fight with him."

"Let’s go." Lucas picked up his luggage and pointed nearby.

Over there was the Mingzhu Restaurant, a star-rated hotel, only about two hundred meters away. He’d stayed there before.

After booking their rooms, the two of them hurried to get some rest and adjust to the jet lag.

It wasn’t until evening that Chen Yu was woken up by Lucas, and he groggily made his way to the arena.

Perhaps noticing Chen Yu’s lack of enthusiasm, Lucas enthusiastically offered to take him to Yellow River Road to eat some Chinese food after the game.

"What time will it be when the game is over? Will the restaurants even still be open? Besides, is it safe to go out so late?" Chen Yu asked in return.

The crime rate in Phoenix was decent—way better than in Chicago or Detroit—but it still wasn’t safe to be out late at night.

Lucas smiled and said, "That’s in the United States. Here, it’s very safe to go out at night. I’ve been here several times and never had any safety issues. Plus, they have a lot of late-night food stalls over there, and the food is delicious."

Chen Yu believed him about the food being good, but as for the safety, he had his doubts. After all, they’d just been ripped off by a taxi driver right after arriving.

Still, it was really lively here.

There were people everywhere.

Even in downtown Phoenix, you’d never see a scene like this.

And as they walked, a lot of people were staring at the two of them, making Chen Yu wonder if he had something on his face.

When they arrived at the gymnasium and were in line to buy tickets, a young woman even struck up a conversation with Chen Yu.

"Hey handsome, where are you from?" she asked with a bright smile.

Lucas was unkempt and dressed casually, looking every bit the part of a greasy middle-aged man.

But Chen Yu was different. He was in his early thirties. A few years ago, he’d been busy with work and also poor, but now that he had money, he had started to pay attention to his appearance and grooming. As for his clothes, while not everything was a luxury item, they were all from high-end brands.

Coupled with his height and handsome features, he was very eye-catching.

"I..." The question caught Chen Yu off guard. He paused for a second before saying, "Hello, I’m American."

The girl was taken aback, surprised. "Were you born in the United States, or did you immigrate? Your Chinese is very good."

"I was born in the United States." Chen Yu thanked her.

’Is my Chinese good? I feel like it’s terrible.’

The girl’s name was Li Ling. She was a local who lived nearby and had come to watch the game with her best friend.

"We’re here to see Wang Sixiang! He’s young, handsome, and he can dunk." That was her answer when Chen Yu, walking with the crowd into the arena, asked why a girl like her was into basketball.

’So she really is just here for the handsome guys.’

But after saying that, Li Ling added with a grin, "But you’re more handsome and have more charisma. You look like a celebrity."

She even deliberately bought a seat next to Chen Yu and offered to go buy water and snacks.

How could Chen Yu let her pay? He bought snacks and drinks for her and her friend, then had Lucas pay for it.

Lucas was carrying all their exchanged currency.

Lucas caught up, muttering unhappily, "Chen, can you please take this seriously? We’re on a mission here."

"You have a mission. I was just tricked into coming here by that bastard Brian," Chen Yu retorted. ’Besides, checking his health is just a matter of a single glance.’

The arena wasn’t very big, with an estimated capacity of only two or three thousand people. The two of them bought seats near the scorer’s table, in the middle section.

Sitting a bit higher up gave them a clearer view.

Today was the 17th round of the Jia A league: the Eastern Team versus Ji Liang.

The attendance was decent, and the atmosphere was great. Even before the game started, plenty of fans were already cheering and shouting, rooting for the home team.

When the two teams took the court, the cheers reached a crescendo.

Many fans were chanting one name.

Yao Ming!

Even Li Ling, who was beside him, was shouting. She pointed at Yao Ming on the court and said, "Look! I told you, he’s incredibly tall."

Chen Yu saw him too.

He was wearing a number 15 jersey and had a crew cut. Even though Chen Yu was used to seeing giants in the forest of big men that was the NBA, he still found this guy’s height intimidating.