People in America: My Uncle Don Quixote

As soon as Li Wei walked in, a shirtless coach with a roaring black bear tattooed on his chest was leaning against the counter.

He glanced at Li Wei and nodded to him very politely:

"Is there anything I can help with?"

"I'm a quarterback," Levi introduced himself. "My coach had me learn boxing, saying it would help me find my pitching rhythm."

"From a nearby school? Miller is your coach?" The coach thought for a moment and called out Miller's name immediately. "He used to be a football player, and after retiring, he even played boxing for a while... No wonder he asked you to come."

"$70 a month, equipment for your own use, open from 10 am to 6 pm," he said. "Personal training sessions are $100 a session, is that acceptable?"

"If I buy your personal training sessions, you won't make me use drugs too, will you?" Li Wei asked. "I was at the gym before, and the receptionist immediately tried to get me to buy the steroid package he recommended."

"You've already done enough in high school," the coach chuckled, taking the $70 from Li Wei. "I'm afraid if I recommend you, you'll just kill yourself again."

After paying the money, Li Wei changed his clothes and brought over a pair of communal boxing gloves.

"If I were you, I would buy my own pair of boxing gloves," the coach said quietly. "Otherwise, in just 10 minutes, your hands will look like they've been soaking in a stinky ditch for a week."

Li Wei stopped his movements; what the coach said made sense.

Although buying boxing gloves was another investment, he still spent an extra $60 on the cheapest 14oz full set and wrist straps for Knight Fighting, and also spent $100 on a private training session.

"Then go run around the stadium for 15 minutes first," the coach said. "You need to warm up your body."

"I don't want to," Li Wei wasn't going to fall for that. "Let's start practicing right away. I was already warmed up when I arrived."

Just kidding, a 60-minute personal training session costs $100, while a 15-minute run costs the equivalent of $25.

He's crazy, spending $25 just to run?

After being rejected by Li Wei, the coach had no choice but to step forward and tightly wrap Li Wei's wrists, palms, and the base of his thumb with layer after layer of bandages.

He pointed to a leather sandbag in front of him and said:

"Try hitting it first so I can see."

Li Wei stepped forward, mentally recalling the hip rotation and push-off movement Miller had once taught him, and tried to rotate once, then punched the sandbag.

boom! !

A muffled thunderclap exploded in the boxing gym.

The 14oz oversized boxing gloves did not conceal Levi's terrifying power. To the astonishment of several boxers around him who were hitting the sandbag, the heavy sandbag was suddenly thrown backward, and the iron chain made a teeth-grinding grinding sound.

"A generous crab..." The coach's eyelids twitched. "So strong?"

"But there's still a problem. Your power transmission isn't quite right; it's more like it's just floating on the surface. When you do it like this, your toes are turned inward, and when you exert force, your toes touch the ground, so the power is transmitted from your toes to your calves..."

For the next hour, boxing coach Lao Mo seemed like a different person. He took out a stick and placed it behind Li Wei's waist, correcting his hip rotation angle over and over again.

"Push off the ground! Rotate your waist! Imagine you're striking a position further back than your line of sight, and deliver the power deep inside!"

After practicing for a full hour, Li Wei's eyes showed:

[Training progress 1/3 complete, defeated a powerful opponent 0/1]

[Phase-based mission reward: Constitution +0.1]

"I need to focus on real combat!" Li Wei suddenly raised his head. "I think I'm ready!"

"No," the coach shook his head, "We can't arrange practical training for students with less than a year of experience."

"I think I'm ready," Li Wei shook his head, insisting on his own opinion. "Give me an opponent..."

The coach was getting a little annoyed by the constant pulling and tugging.

"Boxing isn't just about being strong," he said, calling over a Black student. "He's been training for two years. If you can last three rounds, I'll give you three private lessons."

Li Wei's eyes lit up: "You said it yourself!"

...

Half an hour later, Li Wei looked at the [Defeat a powerful opponent 1/1] on the panel and walked out of the boxing gym humming a little tune.

Although the coach's words made a lot of sense, having more strength does not necessarily mean you can defeat your opponent.

But sorry to say, in the third round, Li Wei didn't even bother to act anymore. His high agility and physique gave him the mobility to easily beat the black trainee, who was a size bigger than him and had two years of experience, so that he ran away with his head in his hands.

"Coach, if you look down on Black people and are racist, just say so! There's no need to send a boxing expert to tell me he only trained for an hour, then deliberately find an excuse to beat me up! You're telling me this footwork was trained for only an hour?!"

"Alex, I'm not...."

"No, you're being racist! I'm going to give you a bad review on Yelp! I'll let everyone know that the coach at this boxing gym is deliberately targeting Black people! Black lives matter!"

When Li Wei walked out of the boxing gym, the black man he had beaten was still arguing with the coach about racial discrimination.

You have defeated a powerful and experienced opponent. Your Constitution has increased by 0.1.

...

the next day.

"Something's not right," Li Wei wondered, looking at his locker. "Did someone set me up again?"

On Li Wei's personal locker, a huge, ugly slogan was spray-painted in red:

"Go back to your place, you yellow-skinned monkey! Quarterbacks are for real men, not little Dick's worms!"

He took out a wet wipe and tried to wipe it off, but when he found that he couldn't get it off, he could only sigh and prepare to think of other ways.

However, as soon as he turned around, he heard heavy footsteps behind him.

Five substitute defenders—all over 1.9 meters tall—fanned out Li Wei.

"Listen, man, this isn't a personal grudge," the leader said. "You're a hero on the team, and we don't want to make things difficult for you."

"Dude, quit the school team," another person said. "You can either agree to quit, or you can go to Coach Miller and tell him you feel too much pressure starting and want to go back to the bench."

Li Wei looked around and sighed inwardly.

"It's going to be the same old locker room bullying drama again," he thought. "Even a fool would know it was that black quarterback Craig, the one he pushed out of the locker room, who hired him."

Seeing that none of these men were carrying weapons, Li Wei was pondering how to teach them a lesson when the locker room door was suddenly pushed open again, and a panicked voice rushed in:

"Stop! Don't hurt him!"

Craig limped in, his knee swollen to twice the size of the other, enduring excruciating pain as he walked.

"Craig, what are you doing here?" the leader asked in surprise. "Jasmine—"

"Don't mention her to me!" Craig's voice was even louder than his own as he slowly walked between the two sides. "You two leave first."

Several defenders left with strange looks on their faces, closing the door behind them before they left.

"Sorry, man, this wasn't my intention," Craig said apologetically. "It was my girlfriend Jasmine who did it on her own. She sneaked in this morning when no one was around and did it."

Li Wei believed this explanation. Craig had a good reputation within the team and had never caused any trouble.

Even as a Black man, he had good grades, and according to Daphne and others, he and his girlfriend were both Catholics and planned to wait until they got married before sleeping together.

A Black man, a football quarterback, and a chaste Catholic—these three elements combined seemed strange, which is why Levi was so impressed with him.

"To stand up for you?" Li Wei raised an eyebrow. "She's upset that I took your place?"