Chapter 451 290: Countdown: 0 Days
Li Wei picked it up and saw it was a call from Anya.
"Have you checked in?" Anya's voice came through. "The security there must be tight, right? When I landed in Los Angeles today, I noticed security was much stricter than before. There are even police cars downstairs from my hotel now."
"I just got in," Li Wei said. "Hold on, I'll video call you."
After starting the video call, he gave Anya a tour of the presidential suite.
"Hmm... not bad," Anya said from the video, lying on her bed and critiquing the presidential suite. "I thought you guys would be staying in some miserable place, like you were going to war. I was going to ask if you wanted to come stay with me."
If anyone else heard Anya describe Li Wei's accommodations as merely "not bad," they would have probably died of anger.
"I'm afraid that would be against the rules," Li Wei chuckled. "We're about to enter the quiet period. Everyone has to stay in their own rooms at night."
"Fine," Anya said after a moment's thought. "Then are you coming over to my place after the game tomorrow? I'm at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills. I booked the entire floor."
"Let's see after the game... Isn't booking a whole floor really expensive right now?" Li Wei asked. "It feels like a total festival atmosphere here. Hotels must be a lot more expensive than usual."
"Hmm... I guess so," Anya said vaguely. "I wasn't really paying attention. I just had Auntie Kaja book it for me. She didn't mention anything about money. Anyway, if it goes over budget, I can just ask my dad for more."
'Right,' Li Wei thought to himself. 'My mistake. I shouldn't have asked Anya if something was expensive.'
"Alright, you should get some rest. I won't bother you anymore," Anya said softly. "Also, there's something I wanted to tell you. My dad watched the live stream, and he even praised you."
'What live stream?' Li Wei wondered for a moment before it hit him. It had to be about the Fabergé Egg.
'Still, it's incredible that Mr. Sergey would actually praise me. Anya definitely didn't tell him about Elizabeth. Otherwise, the KGB would be kicking down my door tomorrow to kill me.'
After being a little more lovey-dovey, Li Wei hung up the phone.
Elizabeth had also sent a message. The content of their chat was surprisingly similar—she was also asking where Li Wei was, if he had settled in, and how his accommodations were.
"Don't tell me you also booked the top floor of a hotel," Li Wei typed jokingly. "Anya already told me she did."
"Book a hotel?" Elizabeth replied. "No, the Mellon Family has an old, not-so-large house in Pasadena from the 1920s. It used to be the family's summer retreat. No one usually lives here, so I'm just staying for a couple of days."
As she said this, she sent a photo—it showed a white, Spanish Colonial-style villa nestled among oak and palm trees, on a property that looked to be at least an acre.
"It only has 9 rooms, and the garden was just tidied up in the last couple of days," she typed. "But I'm only staying for two days. Do you want to come over? There's no one else here, so it's pretty quiet."
'Your friend Elizabeth has invited you to a late-night mansion adventure with just the two of you. Accept?'
But Li Wei really couldn't be bothered to go out. Who knew how tight security in Los Angeles would be during the Super Bowl, and his [Vision Obscuration] wasn't yet advanced enough to hide him from infrared cameras.
"I can't. It's the quiet period, and they'll check room cards and phone locations," Li Wei replied. "Let's talk after the game. I'll have a six-month offseason with nothing much to do."
"Alright," Elizabeth replied with a smiling emoji. "Good luck tomorrow. And thank you."
"Thank me for what?" Li Wei replied.
"Before Christmas, I probably didn't even have the right to apply to use a family asset like this, let alone stay here all by myself."
Reading Elizabeth's message, Li Wei suddenly remembered that stormy, snowy night at the Long Island Manor during Christmas. In the end, Elizabeth had secured 20% of the shares and an independent seat on the board. (Chapters 249-253)
"That's great," Li Wei replied. "You deserve it."
"You helped me so much," Elizabeth typed, her speed a little faster than before. "My dad told me you talked to him, and about you hitting 10 out of 10 in skeet shooting, and the encouragement you gave me... Without all that, I'd still be in that little art gallery in Brooklyn, scraping by on the money I could squeeze out of my trust fund each month."
"Well then, if I ever fall on hard times," Li Wei said jokingly, "remember to invest in me, Miss Elizabeth."
"Call me Liz, you idiot," Elizabeth replied instantly. "By the way, as a player, will you be able to watch the Super Bowl halftime show?"
The Super Bowl halftime show is the premier musical performance during the NFL Super Bowl's halftime break. It only lasts about 15 minutes, but it has one of the highest viewerships in the world, earning it the nickname of the "American Spring Festival Gala."
"Yeah, I can," Li Wei replied. "Why?"
"No reason. Just make sure you watch it," Elizabeth replied. "Good luck with the game. Anya and I will both be in a suite cheering you on."
"Also, I'm keeping an eye out for you regarding the Fabergé Egg."
After leaving that last message, she said she was going to take a shower and then stopped replying. Who knew if she was just shy or what.
Now, finally, no one was bothering him.
Li Wei took a relaxing hot shower and was about to get some rest.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
Li Wei walked over and opened the door. When he saw who was standing outside, he raised an eyebrow.
Dexter Lawrence.
His massive, 340-pound frame was clad in a Giants hoodie. Standing in the hallway, he looked like a colossal dark-blue giant who might burst the doorframe at any moment.
"How did you know where I was staying?" Li Wei asked, leaning leisurely against the doorframe. "Need something?"
"We're all staying nearby, but you haven't shown your face," Lawrence said. "So I figured you must be in this area."
Li Wei smiled. "So, you came to tour the presidential suite?"
"No..." Lawrence shifted his body, his gaze drifting up toward the hallway ceiling. "I was just... passing by."
"What floor are you on?"
"The 18th."
"This is the top floor," Li Wei said, looking at him. "You were 'passing by' the top floor from the 18th?"
The corner of Lawrence's mouth twitched, but he kept his words to himself.
They looked at each other for a few seconds before Li Wei stepped aside. "Come on in. But the quiet period starts in 15 minutes, so I probably can't offer you a drink."
Lawrence walked in, glanced around the living room, and took in the grand piano, the bar, and the night view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, letting out a muffled sound of awe.
"What can I get you to drink?" Li Wei asked, walking ahead of him.
"Water is fine."
Li Wei poured him a glass of water, and the two sat down across from each other at the coffee table.
A silence stretched for about ten seconds.
"Is this piano just for decoration, or can it be played?"
"You play the piano?" Li Wei asked, looking with some surprise at the giant bear of a man before him.
"No," Lawrence said, clutching the water glass that looked like a toy in his hand. "Just asking."
Li Wei watched Lawrence, who was fidgeting uncomfortably, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out. He finally couldn't take it anymore.
"Lawrence," he asked directly, "what is it you really want to say?"
Lawrence's Adam's apple bobbed.
"I... uh," he said, staring at the glass in his hands, "back during training camp, and the rookie dinner thing (Chapters 154, 155)..."
He mumbled on for a while, repeating over and over that it was all just tradition and nothing personal against Li Wei.
"What you're trying to say is..." Li Wei paused deliberately.
"Fack," Lawrence said, grabbing a handful of his dreadlocks. "You know what I'm trying to say."
"I don't know," Li Wei said, shaking his head. "How would I know if you don't say it?"
Lawrence took a deep breath and then let it all out in a rush.
"Fine! I'll say it plain and clear. I'm sorry!" he said. "I was the one who led the charge in the locker room back then. I was pissed that you got a 200 million USD contract. I messed with you on purpose at the rookie dinner. Then your fans dug up everything on me, and I had to spend over a million USD to make it all go away—I know I brought all of that on myself."
"And?"
"And I just wanted to apologize, and also to say thank you," Lawrence said, staring at his water glass, avoiding Li Wei's eyes. "I've played in the NFL for 8 years and never even made it to the Super Bowl. I thought I'd never get this chance in my life."
He finally looked up at Li Wei.
"Are you finished?" Li Wei asked.
"I'm finished."
"Okay," Li Wei nodded. "I understand."
"So... that's it?" Lawrence scratched his head. "We're... we're good?"
"What else do you want?" Li Wei retorted. "If this were a movie scene, is this the part where we're supposed to start kissing?"
"Fack," Lawrence shot up to his feet. "I'm leaving."
"Goodbye," Li Wei said. "Don't piss your pants tomorrow."
Lawrence flipped him the middle finger, pushed the door open, and disappeared down the hall.
Li Wei shook his head and walked back to the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the city.
The nightscape of Los Angeles spread out beneath him, its lights stretching to the edge of the horizon like a river of spilled stars.
In the distance, in the direction of SoFi Stadium, a massive LED screen flashed alternately with the logos of the Giants and the 49ers. Even from more than ten miles away, the light was still visible.
The bonus from his [Silver Body] meant Li Wei didn't need much sleep, so with nothing better to do, he turned on the TV and started scrolling through his phone with the television sound in the background.
After night had completely fallen and the coaches and NFL officials had done their checks, a female anchor on CNN's Super Bowl Eve special said excitedly into the camera, "We are now less than 60 seconds from midnight, Eastern Time, ladies and gentlemen—"
The screen cut to countdowns from all across the nation.
On a giant billboard in New York's Times Square, the display read:
Super Bowl Countdown: 1 Day.
Michigan Avenue in Chicago, South Beach in Miami, the outer wall of the Toyota Center in Houston, Independence Hall Plaza in Philadelphia... From the East Coast to the West Coast, thousands of countdown billboards, large and small, all displayed the same set of numbers ticking down.
12:00 AM. A new day had arrived.
On the TV screen, the numbers on thousands of countdown billboards across America refreshed simultaneously.
Super Bowl Countdown: 0 Days.
On TV, on live streams, outside the hotel, near any of the countdown billboards—everyone cheered in unison!
The Super Bowl is here!