American Adventure: My Uncle is Don Quixote

"We know your girlfriend is Anna Volkov, the only daughter of Sergey Volkov," the reporter continued. "In Russia, he’s a household name, like Buffett or Bill Gates. I’d like to ask a lighter question—dating a girl like that, what kind of gift did you prepare for Valentine’s Day?"

Some of the surrounding reporters wore amused smiles, while others perked up their ears.

Li Wei didn’t avoid the question. He answered straightforwardly, "To be honest, since my birthday is just a few days from Valentine’s Day," he said with a smile, "strictly speaking, she’s the one who gave me a gift. She got me a Patek Philippe."

"Whoa!" The surrounding reporters let out jealous sighs.

"But more recently," Li Wei said, changing the subject, "I’ve been looking for a Fabergé Egg."

When he said that, most of the reporters from the United States of America and the Middle East looked blank, but the expressions of the Eastern European reporters on the periphery instantly changed.

"A real Fabergé Egg?"

"The real deal," Li Wei said.

"Only 43 Fabergé Eggs are known to exist, and most are in museums. The last one to appear at a public auction was almost 15 years ago, and it sold for 18.5 million USD," the reporter explained. "They are the ultimate symbol of love, gifts from the Tsar to the Empress. Does this mean your relationship has become very serious?"

"That’s a personal matter," Li Wei said. "But when I make a promise, I see it through."

A reporter from Fox stood up.

"Li Wei, on your journey from high school to the Super Bowl, is there anyone you’d like to thank in particular?"

"Of course. There are many people I’m grateful to," Li Wei said earnestly. "My uncle, Don Quixote, who’s also my agent now. He’s right there in the player tunnel."

He waved at Don Quixote, and the camera panned over, giving the proud but slightly bashful Don Quixote a close-up that lasted for several seconds.

"Next, I’m very grateful to my owner, John Mara," Li Wei said. "And Scout Wen Si, my high school coach, Miller..."

Li Wei’s interview was being broadcast live.

Meanwhile, in a bar in Brooklyn, when Li Wei mentioned Miller’s name, a heavyset Black man sitting at the bar nearly did a spit-take with his beer.

"Hey! Hehehe! Hey, y’all! Did you hear that?!" Coach Miller shot up from his barstool, sloshing his Budweiser everywhere. "He said my name! He said my name!"

The bar’s TV was playing the live Media Day broadcast from the NFL Network. Onscreen, Li Wei, dressed in a navy blue Giants sweatshirt, spoke confidently before a hundred reporters.

Coach Miller was absolutely beaming.

Ever since Li Wei signed with the Giants last April, Coach Miller’s standing in New York’s coaching circles had changed dramatically. On the one hand, he was now "Li Wei’s formative mentor," a title that let him show off in a major way in front of coaches from other schools. For more than half a year, he’d felt like a big shot. Schools from other states had even flown him out to consult on how to develop players.

On the other hand, he had his own anxieties. After Li Wei left, the football team couldn’t find another athlete like him—they couldn’t even find a player worthy of shining Li Wei’s shoes.

The little rascals on his team had taken a nosedive, and his yelling for an entire season hadn’t led to any improvement.

Today was Super Bowl Media Day. Since it was a Saturday and he didn’t have to work, he’d rushed to the bar first thing in the morning to watch the live broadcast.

"You know who he’s talking about?" Coach Miller spun around to face the few scattered patrons in the bar, jabbing a finger at his own chest. "He’s talking about me! ME! That’s right! Coach Miller from Brooklyn!"

"We know, Miller," the middle-aged man of Mexican descent behind the bar said with a sigh. "You’ve already said it three times."

"He was talking about me." Miller took another huge gulp of beer and, ignoring whether anyone in the bar wanted to listen, launched into his old story again.

"Give it a rest, Miller. Every time you come in here, you tell your Li Wei story. I’m gonna puke if I hear it again," the bar owner said, sliding a plate of fresh fries in front of Miller. "You think he can beat the 49ers?"

"Can he win?" Coach Miller boomed. "Man! Don’t you jinx it! Of course that kid Li Wei is gonna win!"

The owner laughed. "Alright then, I’ll put some serious money on the Giants to win," he said. "If you’re right, your first beer of the day is on the house for a year."

"And if they don’t?" Coach Miller retorted.

"If they don’t win..." The owner placed a clean glass upside down on the bar. "You have to stop telling every customer the story about how you developed Li Wei."

Miller snorted like a bull. "Just you wait. I’ll make sure to mention it every day while I’m drinking my free beer."

...

After answering a few more questions, the interview concluded, and Li Wei finally got some rare free time.

He didn’t head straight for the media area, however. Instead, he went in another direction.

He saw a familiar face.

Arthur Wens!

"Mr. Wen Si!" he called out, waving from a distance.

Seeing Li Wei approach, Scout Wen Si’s eyes lit up.

"Li Wei!" He hurried forward to greet him. The two shook hands, and then Li Wei immediately slung an arm around his shoulders.

"What are you doing here?" Li Wei asked, letting him go. "I thought only players and media were allowed in today."

"The Giants’ PR department gave me a Media Day pass," Scout Wen Si said with a smile, flashing the credential hanging around his neck. "Arranged by Mr. Don Quixote, I assume?"

"It’s been a while. Come on, I’ll take you inside to hang out." Li Wei began to lead Scout Wen Si farther in.

As the two of them walked down the player tunnel, they happened to run into a Fox crew on their way out, shouldering camera equipment.

The blonde reporter leading the group recognized Li Wei at first glance. Her eyes lit up, and she was about to step forward for an interview when she noticed the bespectacled, middle-aged man beside him.

"Good morning, Li Wei. A belated happy birthday to you, and good luck in the Super Bowl," she said with practiced ease, extending her microphone. Her eyes shifted to Scout Wen Si. "And this is?"

"This is Arthur Wens!" Li Wei introduced with a smile. "He’s a scout for 247Sports, and he was the first person to discover me!"

"The year before last, I had only played one game for Franklin High School, and there was just a single, blurry video of me on Twitter," Li Wei said. "Mr. Wen Si came all the way from Manhattan to Brooklyn to find me. He gave me a 4-star player rating on the spot. Later, he helped push for my 5-star certification at a training camp and my spot in the All-American Bowl."

"It’s safe to say I wouldn’t be here without Scout Wen Si."

As soon as those words left his mouth, Arthur Wens was on the verge of tears.

Tears of joy.

He’d been a scout for over a decade and had helped hundreds of players get college scholarships and professional contracts.

But Li Wei was different. He was the kind of person who would go down in the history books, and he had just publicly acknowledged Wens’s help in front of tens of millions of people.

’This feels so damn good.’

He silently swore he would find a clip of this segment, save it, savor it, and pass it down as a family heirloom for generations to come.

At 4:30 in the afternoon, the Media Day events were winding down.

Li Wei changed into his street clothes and walked out to find that Jin Heon had already arrived. He was standing off to the side, chatting with Don Quixote.

"Let’s go," Li Wei said, getting into the Cullinan. "It’s about the right time to head to the airport."

"What time was it again?" Heon asked, getting into the passenger seat. "Seven?"

"Yep. Plenty of time, no need to rush."

Chen Haisheng drove out of the underground garage and headed for Newark Liberty International Airport.

In the private terminal at Newark Airport, a Gulfstream G650 was already waiting on the tarmac.

This was part of the 1.55 million USD annual travel package that John Mara had arranged for Li Wei at the start of the season. After the four of them cleared security, they walked straight up the airstairs.

"Something just occurred to me," Li Wei said, looking out at the sky. "After we get back from this game, this travel package expires, doesn’t it?"

"Well, the season will be over," Don Quixote said with a shrug after a moment’s thought. "Why? You thinking of buying one?"

Li Wei actually gave it some serious thought. A pre-owned Gulfstream G650 cost around 40 million USD, and a new one was closer to 70 million USD.

The "Knight’s Collector’s Obsession" quest required him to collect three steeds: one "chosen from a hundred," one "chosen from a thousand," and one "chosen from ten thousand."

He had already completed the first two requirements with a Cadillac Escalade and a Koenigsegg, respectively. But for the last one, a "chosen from ten thousand" vehicle in the tens-of-millions-of-USD range would be hard to find as a car. It seemed only a plane would satisfy the requirement.

Completing the quest would award a riding-type skill, one he had been coveting for a long time.

But his current cash on hand, plus his upcoming paychecks, only amounted to a little over 10 million USD. What’s more, buying a plane would entail at least three to four million USD in fixed annual expenses.

"I was just making an offhand comment," Don Quixote said hurriedly, seeing that Li Wei was actually entertaining the idea. "Your career is just getting started. Don’t spend your money on such a major asset."

Seeing his uncle’s anxious expression, Li Wei chuckled. "Don’t worry, Uncle," he said. "I know what I’m doing."

...

「As the plane slowly took off, back in New York City.」

In Arthur Wens’s apartment, the living room TV was playing a replay of the Media Day broadcast on the NFL Network.

Wens sat in the very center of the sofa, flanked by his wife on the left and his 12-year-old son, Arthur Jr., on the right.

All three of them were staring at the TV.

"So you promise you’re not going to explain all the football rules to me again, right?" his wife asked with a wary expression. "The only reason I’m watching is because you said Li Wei would be on."

Wens had nothing to say to his wife, who was purely in it for the eye candy. "Don’t worry. You are about to witness a historic moment: your husband and father, Arthur Wens, being seen by 20 million viewers across the country."

"I’m going to record this," Wens announced proudly, taking out his phone with great ceremony and aiming it at the TV screen. "I’ll show it to my grandson someday, so he’ll know what an indelible contribution his grandpa made to the history of the NFL!"

"Your son is only twelve," his wife reminded him.

"Hush, don’t interrupt me," Wens said, pressing the record button. "Here it is, here it is! This is the part!"

Onscreen, Li Wei emerged from the interview area, stopped, and waved to his right.

"See that?" Wens pointed at the screen. "He’s calling out to me! He saw me!"

Then, Li Wei stopped, put a hand on the shoulder of the middle-aged man, and said to the camera:

"This is Arthur Wens, a scout for 247Sports. He was the first person to discover me."

"It’s safe to say I wouldn’t be here without Scout Wen Si."

Wens slapped the armrest of the sofa in excitement. "Did you hear that! He said he wouldn’t be here without me! On a national broadcast! Twenty million people watching!"

"Nice," his wife said with a peculiar expression. "He definitely mentioned you."

"What do you mean, ’he definitely mentioned you’?" Wens was dissatisfied with her lukewarm reaction. "This is a historic moment—wait a second!"

He saw the close-up of himself on the screen.

As Li Wei said the words, "It’s safe to say I wouldn’t be here without Scout Wen Si," an incredibly complex expression appeared on Scout Wen Si’s face.

It was an expression of pure ecstasy that he was trying, and failing, to suppress. The result was something between a smile and a facial twitch. If an enthusiast of Japanese culture were to watch the replay, they would marvel at how perfectly Wens had captured the "Ohohoho" expression so common in anime and manga.

’Someone could actually make that face in real life!’

The living room fell silent for three seconds.

"Honey," his wife said, "are you still going to record this?"

Wens lowered his phone, lost in thought.

"Let me think about it," he said.