People in America: My Uncle Don Quixote

Chapter 285: Nationwide Preparations Underway, Record-Breaking Viewership (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

February 13th, 3 days before the Super Bowl officially kicks off.

However, the entire United States had already entered a state of near-madness ahead of time.

New York, Manhattan, Fifth Avenue.

A Mexican street vendor moved his hot dog cart to the side of the road.

The reason for freeing up some space was not to make it convenient for pedestrians and travelers, but to set up a folding table.

The table was covered with phone cases, mugs, baseball caps and fridge magnets with the Giants' number 1 jersey pattern printed on them, the most eye-catching of which was a dark blue number 1 T-shirt in the very center.

These goods, which cost less than 3 yuan to buy from Yiwu, China, are sold for $19.99 each once they arrive in Manhattan, New York. Even if you haggle wildly and see a price of $10, he will pretend to be in pain but then be overjoyed and close the deal.

Buyers came from all walks of life, from Wall Street white-collar workers in down vests to Black mothers pushing strollers to elderly Asian women carrying bags from Whole Foods. Levi won over everyone regardless of age.

Three blocks away on the same street, Macy's flagship store transformed its entire street-facing window into a Super Bowl-themed display.

The mannequin in the shop window is wearing a Giants jersey and holding a football, with the background being the Metropolitan Life Stadium made up of thousands of LED lights.

If visitors continue towards the upper town, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, stores such as Nike, Budweiser, NFL, and Apple have designed special Super Bowl celebration posters with exclusive slogans to promote the upcoming Super Bowl.

The largest screen is the nearly 4000-square-foot super screen on the exterior wall of the Nasdaq Tower in the very center of Times Square.

On this screen, the image of Li Wei wearing a dark blue jersey, looking back at the camera from the side, occupies the entire screen, with a line of white countdown numbers scrolling at the bottom of the image.

In a tour group from Texas, a middle-aged white man wearing a cowboy hat muttered as he took a commemorative photo of his wife while shaking his head and sighing.

"Anyway," he said, looking at his wife zooming in on the photo of Levi with displeasure, "I support the San Francisco 49ers."

"Then you're dead meat," his wife replied.

This is not a scene unique to New York.

On Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the Giants and 49ers flags were hung side by side on every lamppost, fluttering in the cold wind blowing from the Great Lakes.

On Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, a sports bar has set up a life-size Levi Affleck standee at its entrance with the words "Support the Giants, take a photo with the Kings, and get a free beer."

The bar owner originally only wanted to attract some football fans and drinkers, but he was surprised to find that most of the people who came to take photos were girls, and these girls didn't even watch the NFL or understand football.

What do they watch? They only watch Levi's clips and matches, and they enjoy it immensely.

They first took photos with the standee of Levi, some even placing one hand on the standee's crotch, while others squatted down and made a series of hot and flirtatious gestures in front of the standee. Among them, those interested in beer were not even the majority.

These female fans of Li Wei attracted many men to the bar, and the lively atmosphere drew in unsuspecting passersby. With these combined factors, the bar on Hollywood Boulevard sold out of its stock before 9 p.m.

In every city with an NFL team—Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle—the atmosphere of the Super Bowl is as pervasive as a February chill.

City parades, sales of large-screen projectors, Walmart's empty potato chip and beer shelves, and Pizza Hut and Domino's Super Bowl meals hitting new highs, with orders nearly half again as many as in the same period last year.

According to a joint forecast report released by the NFL and Nelson on the first day of Super Bowl week, this year's Super Bowl is expected to attract more than 1.5 million American viewers. With international broadcasts and streaming viewers worldwide, the total audience is expected to exceed 1.7 million.

If this number is accurate, this would be the largest Super Bowl in NFL history in terms of attendance.

One in two Americans will turn on the TV or their cell phone on that day.

The four major broadcasting networks, ESPN, FOX, NBC, and CBS, have been continuously broadcasting Super Bowl pre-game analysis, player interviews, and historical recaps for over 72 hours since the first day of Media Week.

FOX even invited Joe Buck and Troy Ekman to create a special program called "The King's Way," which aired one episode a day and used six documentary episodes to review Levi's journey from Franklin K. Lane High School to the Super Bowl stage. Each episode consistently garnered over 20 million viewers.

Social media was in complete chaos, with Li Wei being the subject of a deluge of promotion on TikTok and Twitter.

The price of a 30-second Super Bowl GG (Golden Goose) segment has soared to $850 million, and during prime time it has even exceeded $900 million. Even so, there are still more than a dozen GG brands waiting in line.

Data released by major sports betting companies in Las Vegas shows that the total betting volume for this year's Super Bowl is expected to exceed $12 billion. Even though the Giants are overwhelmingly considered the favorites to win the championship, a large amount of money is still flowing into the 49ers.

These gamblers are never betting on rationality, but rather on their disbelief that a young man who has just turned 19 (20 in the traditional Chinese age reckoning) can be invincible.

Beyond the magnificent scenery on the water, there are many more workers who silently prepare for this spectacle.

February 14, 4:17 AM, Los Angeles.

The city was still half asleep, with only a few trucks and a few early-departing commuter cars moving in the darkness on Interstate 405, their headlights leaving long trails of light.

The warehouse in the suburbs was brightly lit; it was one of several large transit hubs in the area.

Inside the warehouse, more than a dozen logistics trucks were neatly arranged at the loading positions, and forklifts shuttled back and forth.

Workers are sorting and stacking boxes of dark-packaged beverages, and amidst the bustling crowd, you can see the labels on them—LW.

Each box had a red label affixed to its seal, stating that sales were prohibited before the Super Bowl on February 16th, with violators facing a $500,000 fine and legal action.

This is the Los Angeles station, one of the 15 core nodes across the United States.

At this very moment, the same scene is playing out simultaneously in warehouses in 14 other cities, including New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit.

Most of the hardworking workers didn't know what LW beverage was; they only knew that there was more work to do today than usual, and the overtime pay was quite high.

One of the workers pushed the last pallet of goods onto the truck, straightened up, and glanced at the television on the wall. It was showing episode 4 of FOX's "Road to the King," with a replay of Levi's touchdown sprint in the league championship game.

He gestured towards Rachel, who was wearing a vest beside him, and said, "Do you think this kid is serious or is he on drugs?"

"Whatever," Rachel backed the forklift out. "Are you going to take your medication or not? Even if you take it, you can't go 75 km/h."

code."

"If I had that kind of physical ability, I could unload so many boxes!" the worker said, watching TV.

"If you had that kind of physical ability, you wouldn't need to be a factory worker." Rachel parked the forklift back in its designated position.

"Finished, gone."

The work was almost done, and the workers left one by one. The warehouse gradually became deserted, with no one else except the security guard.

In the parking area, Rachel got into her 10-year-old silver Honda Civic and slowly drove away from the factory area.

The car's right front wheel was slightly off-center, making a clunking sound every few seconds, but the woman driving had gotten used to the sound.

Instead of going home to change clothes and sleep, she drove straight onto the highway. Although her lumbar spine was protesting after working for more than 12 hours, today was her son's pre-operative check-up day, and she couldn't be late.

A morning talk show was playing on the radio, and the two hosts were discussing the Super Bowl.

"I saw a poll on Twitter asking, 'If Levi faced off against a grizzly bear, who would you bet on?' Guess what? Nearly half the people bet on Levi to win."

"This is insane, man, it's absolutely insane."

"I'm telling you, I've seriously considered this. I might bet on the Grizzlies, but I think Levi has a 30% chance of winning."

Rachel reached out and turned the volume down a bit.

It wasn't because she disliked the name; quite the opposite, she was very familiar with it.

To be precise, it was because her son was too familiar with the name.

Not long after, the silver Civic turned into the parking lot of the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. She found a parking space furthest from the entrance because the parking fees were higher for spaces closer to the entrance.

She vigorously rubbed her face in the car, washing away the fatigue from work and revealing a smile again. When she got out of the car, she picked up a box of discounted chocolate wafer biscuits from the passenger seat.

As Rachel entered the inpatient building, she stopped in front of the nurses' station.

Good morning, Kelly.

"Ms. Rachel Horton!" Nurse Kelly looked up from behind her computer, noticing Rachel's work vest. "You drove straight here after your night shift again?"

"Today's Ethan's pre-operative checkup, right?" Rachel smiled. "How's he doing today?"

"You're feeling good. You ate most of your breakfast," Kelly said, flipping through her notebook. "We have a lot of tests scheduled for this morning. Although ventricular septal defect isn't a major surgery, we still need to take it seriously."

"At 9 o'clock, there will be a follow-up echocardiogram. Dr. Weber needs to check the size and location of the defect again to confirm the surgical plan. At 10:30, there will be blood tests. At 1 pm, there will be a preoperative examination by the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist will talk to you privately."

"Has the surgery date been set?" Rachel asked nervously.

"It's settled, tomorrow afternoon." Kelly nodded.

"Um... the Super Bowl is the day after tomorrow, right?" Rachel suddenly asked.

“That’s right,” Kelly glanced at Rachel, “but Ethan can’t watch the Super Bowl. He needs to be observed for at least three days, Ms. Rachel Horton. His heart doesn’t support him having such intense emotional fluctuations.”

"Ah..." Rachel was a little surprised, "Ethan has been looking forward to this Super Bowl for three months."

"There's not much we can do about it," Kelly said, leaning closer. "The appointment time is limited to this point. Or would you like to get Ethan discharged and then start the appointment again?"

"Never mind then," Rachel quickly waved her hand. "We've been waiting for six months to get the surgery scheduled. If we cancel, we'll have to wait another six months."

Kelly nodded and continued with her work.

A few seconds later, she looked up at Rachel, who was still there, and asked in confusion, "Ms. Rachel Horton, is there anything else? Your son is in the previous ward."

Rachel paused.

"Kelly, I have a question," she whispered, "is it possible to postpone the surgery... for a day or two?"