"What agency are you with? How come I've never seen you before?"
Li Wei turned to the side and saw that a black Mercedes G-Wagen had pulled up beside them at some point.
The driver's side window rolled down, and a middle-aged, well-dressed woman in sunglasses sized Li Wei up.
"Come a little closer," she said, beckoning to Li Wei. "Let me get a better look at you."
Li Wei glanced at Don Quixote in the distance, who was struggling to figure out how to open the jammed trunk. After a moment's thought, he took two steps forward but kept an arm's length away from the woman.
"How tall are you?" she asked suddenly. "185? 187?"
"188," Li Wei replied. "And I'm not a model. I'm here in New York for school."
"A nine-head body proportion, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and that handsome, mixed-race face of yours," the middle-aged woman continued. "Have you ever thought about modeling?"
"Can you make a lot of money?" Li Wei asked. "If so, then yes."
"Modeling itself doesn't pay that much," the woman said, chuckling at Li Wei's words. "But it's very glamorous, isn't it?"
"Then I'm not interested," Li Wei said, shaking his head. He pointed at Don Quixote, who was walking over. "I have to go help my uncle."
The woman was clearly surprised by his response, and a hint of regret appeared in her eyes. After a pause, she pulled a bill from the Hermès bag on the passenger seat and handed it to Li Wei through the open window.
"It's a hot day. Buy a coffee for yourself and your uncle. Consider it a thank you for helping me clear out my furniture." She thought for a moment, then added, "Also, if you're looking to make some money on the side, you could try the Dolores boutique on the Upper East Side. They're probably looking for a handsome sales associate like you."
He didn't refuse, taking the money. "Thank you."
The woman gave him another once-over, then slowly drove away in her Mercedes G-Wagen.
Don Quixote, who had been hiding nearby, excitedly rushed over after the car left. "What did she say to you?"
"Nothing much," Li Wei said casually, looking at the bill in his hand. "She gave me a 100 USD tip for us to get coffee and also suggested a job for me."
"100 USD?!"
Don Quixote let out a squawk, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He snatched the Franklin from Li Wei's hand, held it up to the sunlight to inspect it, and rubbed it between his rough fingers. After confirming it wasn't a counterfeit, he immediately began cursing the damned rich and this world that judges by looks, his heart aching with indignation.
"Fack! Fack! Fack! I haul bricks on a construction site all day, or wash dishes all day, and I barely make this much," he cursed, shoving the money back into Li Wei's hand. His eyes, however, couldn't help but linger on the 100 USD bill for a couple of seconds. "Just because you're handsome? This damned world! I'm charming too, you know! How come no rich lady is willing to tip me 100 USD?"
Li Wei looked with some surprise at the money Don Quixote had just shoved back into his hand.
He glanced at Don Quixote's filthy clothes and mud-splattered pant legs, then stuffed the bill into his own pocket and shrugged. "I'm not just handsome. I'm also tall."
"Fack!"
Don Quixote flipped Li Wei the middle finger and grumbled indignantly, beckoning him over. "Getting a vacuum cleaner is good enough for today... Get in the car! I have to go wash dishes this afternoon. Later, you can go sell this thing—actually, never mind, I'll do it. You'd definitely get ripped off."
On the way back to Brooklyn, Li Wei sat in the passenger seat, watching the scenery outside the window change from the clean, elegant Madison Avenue to the graffiti, trash, and construction barriers of Sunset Park.
When his parents were alive, his family wasn't fabulously wealthy, but they were quite well-off.
But ever since his parents' business went bankrupt and they died in a car accident, his life had taken a nosedive.
It's easy to go from a simple life to a lavish one, but hard to go from lavish back to simple, especially after experiencing such a stark contrast.
"In the United States of America, how do you make big money?" He turned his head to look at Don Quixote, who was driving. "How do you afford a house here?"
"Here? Dream on," Don Quixote said, waving his hand lazily. "Unless you get into some place like Harvard or Yale, become a big-shot doctor or lawyer, then you can charge a fucking 5,000 USD for a fucking hour of consultation. Then you can afford a house here."
"Then I'll get into Yale," Li Wei said with a decisive nod. "I don't want to live with you in Brooklyn for the rest of my life."
Don Quixote burst out laughing. "Ha! You think just anyone can get into Yale? Do you have letters of recommendation? Do you have money? Can you get into AP classes? And even with all that, you're still not guaranteed a spot in a school like Yale or Harvard."
'I'll figure out the money situation myself,' Li Wei thought, not about to tell him about the system. "But what are letters of recommendation and AP classes?"
"AP classes are like the honors classes back in your Celestial Dynasty, where you study college-level courses in advance. Nowadays, if you want to apply to a good university, you have to take AP classes," Don Quixote sneered. "The top Ivy League universities are all private and require applications. What makes you think someone with your background can get into the Ivy League?"
"Then how do I get in?" Li Wei asked, not getting angry. "Take Yale University, for example. How do I get in there?"
"Well, unless you become a national champion in some sport, get seven or eight A's in your AP classes, and then score a letter of recommendation from some big shot," Don Quixote said offhandedly. "Then you might have a chance."
Li Wei mulled over Don Quixote's words, then suddenly asked, "What about basketball? If I become a national champion, can I make big money?"
He still had 0.1 attribute points from the system left to allocate.
His parents' sudden death had taught him one thing: nothing would be with him forever.
Although he wasn't sure if this system would stay with him for the long haul, judging by the frequency of its triggers and the speed of his improvements, he should be able to rapidly enhance his physical fitness in a short time. Plus, he was more familiar with basketball from his time back home, so his mind instinctively turned to taking the basketball route.
"Basketball? Basketball is definitely not as good as football," Don Quixote said, stopping the car. He continued mockingly, "If you, with your Asian face, could win a national high school football championship, you'd be the absolute shit. It'd be explosive. You'd be slapping all those blacks and whites in the face, you know? Get into some AP classes on top of that, and you'd definitely get into Yale."
"Not only would you get a full-ride scholarship, but the cheerleading captain would be begging you to sign her little ass every day, and the fraternities would be begging you to join... Stop dreaming. American football has been developing for so many years, and the number of yellow people who've made it to the NCAA is pathetically small... I'm going to wash dishes tonight. You can find something to eat yourself."
...
When Li Wei returned from the glamorous Upper East Side to his basement apartment, Don Quixote's words were still echoing in his mind.
He admitted to himself that he had no business sense, no ability to see the future like a Prophet, and no way to predict the stock market. If he wanted to turn his life around and make big money in the United States, the path of football seemed like a viable option for now.
As long as he could get a full-ride scholarship and get into a good university, the debt and fear of the future looming over him would all be easily resolved.
He had triggered another quest.
Except this quest seemed to be a little special.
It was a [Class-Change Quest] with multiple reward tiers.
"Knight's Path?" Li Wei muttered to himself while chewing on a piece of free bread he'd gotten from a charity that morning. "This actually seems pretty good."