Lu An worked at an auto repair shop during the day, and for three days a week, he also had to take night shifts at a 24-hour convenience store.
Yesterday, he was at the convenience store for his night shift and didn't return home, then this morning he had to hurry to the auto shop again.
Although he managed to sneak in a short nap last night, Lu An still felt a splitting headache.
As men age, whether their happiness declines is uncertain, but their ability to stay up all night really drops dramatically.
But even if life was tough, Lu An felt it was leading somewhere.
He firmly believed that as long as he could afford to get Roger through college, life would gradually improve.
Lu An had no children or wife, and had always treated Roger as his own son.
To Roger, his uncle was his only family in this world, and wasn't Roger his uncle's only family too?
In a foreign land, they relied on each other for survival.
On his way to work, Lu An passed by a narrow alley.
He hesitated at the entrance of the alley as if struggling with a big decision.
Eventually, he entered the alley. There was no choice, sometimes you just need something like this to relieve the pressure of a tough life.
Lu An knocked on a rusty iron door, and a black man opened it slightly, poking his shiny bald head out and looking around slyly before fixing his gaze on Lu An, "You here for the stuff?"
Lu An's expression was serious, "The stuff's got a problem."
"What problem?"
"The second-hand jeans I bought yesterday, I found a small hole in the backside as soon as I took them home! Refund me!"
"Big brother, it was a five-dollar item and you already knocked it down twice, now you want a refund? How about I just give it to you for free?"
"You said it, so give me the three dollars back, and keep the jeans."
"You..." The bald man was about to argue but ultimately returned the money to Lu An obediently because this kid was just too stingy and nagging!
Just yesterday, baldy had tearfully given Lu An a discount after he couldn't stand his non-stop nagging for half an hour; all he wanted was some peace and quiet.
Now, it's only six in the morning, and Old Black, who was completely exhausted, didn't want to listen to Lu An nag over three dollars.
Lu An took the money and handed the torn jeans back to Old Black, "Heh, honest trade, I'll come back to buy from you next time."
Old Black pushed the jeans back, "I'm refunding you, and giving you the jeans, just don't come back next time. I'm begging you, ancestor. All I do is sell second-hand clothes, why must I suffer like this!?"
With a "bang," Old Black closed the iron door.
Lu An looked at the jeans he'd gotten for free and the three dollars returned to him and smiled contentedly.
In a difficult life, sometimes you have to rely on saving money to relieve pressure.
At noon, Lu An finally got some time to rest. With his face covered in grease, he put down the wrench, took off his grimy white gloves that showed no trace of their original color, and picked up his takeaway to enjoy the rare leisure of ten-odd minutes in his day.
Just as he picked up the burger, a coworker named Eric from the repair shop came up and hit Lu An's arm with a newspaper, "Lu, isn't this kid on the paper your nephew?"
Lu An was startled and grabbed the newspaper quickly, thinking he might see news like "Asian high school student encounters shooting."
In 1990s America, good citizens were more numerous than stray cats on the street, so it wasn't surprising that Lu An had such a first reaction.
But when he took the paper, the news was a hundred times more outrageous than a shooting incident.
Lu An understood basketball, so he knew how preposterous it was for Roger to score eight points more than the entire team on his own.
If it weren't for the news being published in the paper, he would never have believed it.
As Lu An was stunned, his coworker Eric joked with him, "One day if your nephew makes it to the NBA, you won't have to work two jobs overnight anymore, hahaha."
Lu An laughed along foolishly, the NBA? He didn't even dare to dream it.
This past summer, the whole world saw the ridiculous skills of NBA players in Barcelona.
And there were only fewer than 500 players capable of playing in this absurd league.
The United States produces countless high school basketball talents each year, but only a handful of them end up making it in the NBA.
The greatest high school player in the history of Jonesville, Roger's senior, Ervin Johnson Jr., only made it into an NCAA Division I league.
So the NBA? Lu An had never even thought about it. But maybe, just maybe, Roger could really get a college offer through basketball!
The delighted Lu An then read and reread the article about Roger in the "Jonesville Observer" numerous times, but even Lu An didn't pay attention to Roger's last remark, "I want to set a small goal for myself—to become the strongest scorer in the entire United States."
It seemed that everyone thought it was just a joke.
Nobody could imagine that this was the beginning of a revolution in American high school basketball.
...
Andy Li was very sad today.
Because the art film world lost a star of tomorrow yesterday!
Actresses lost an excellent partner!
Ever since the "Jonesville Observer" reported what happened during yesterday's practice game, everyone in Jonesville was talking about Roger.
Scoring 38 points in just a 20-minute practice game, more than the entire team's score, was unthinkable, especially given that Roger was someone who had been the butt of the entire school's jokes.
Such a tale of an ugly duckling turning into a swan never goes out of style, no matter the era.
Even in 2024, a film themed around "ugly duckling to swan transformation" with a focus on weight loss could sweep up over three billion at the box office.