Almighty Coach

Dai Li had met only one S-level athlete in his long career life as a coach. That was Feixiang Lin. In addition to Feixiang Lin, the most talented athlete he had seen was Feifei Yu, who was level S-minus.

In the National Track and Field Team, level B talent was among the best, and the only A-level athlete from the sprinters was Sijie Yang, who was discovered and trained by Dai Li himself. And the entire National Track and Field Team had less than five A-level athletes, while the S-level group there contained only Feixiang Lin.

So Dai Li had already learned that even pandas outnumbered the level S athletes. These athletes were "endangered species"—there were just a few nationwide.

What Dai Li learned in the Adidas Basketball Training Camp during the day, also confirmed the analysis of Dai Li. The United States of America, as the top basketball power in the world, attracted not only the basketball elites from within the country, but also the basketball elites of the same age from all over the world, to the Adidas Basketball Training Camp. But among them there were only one A-plus level, one A-level and one A-minus level, which perfectly proved the scarcity of level S talents.

Yet now, this Allen Hampton standing in front of Dai Li, was an athlete with two kinds of level S talents.

If the two S-level talents are of the same category, that might not make Dai Li surprised. For example, it is usual for a sprinter to have S-level talents on both 100-meter and 200-meter programs and a swimmer to have S-level talents on both the freestyle and the butterfly. Because they are of the same category of sports. They have lots of technical characteristics in common and have same physical requirements.

However, the two S-level talents of Allen Hampton belonged to two completely different sports: basketball and football. That was what shocked Dai Li.

One with one level S talent in one sport could be one of the world’s top athletes, and there is no doubt that two S-level talents on two different sports made a man a real sports genius.

At the moment, Allen Hampton was looking at Dai Li, and then he asked, "What are you doing, mom? Who is this guy?"

"This gentleman is a member from a foreign delegation, and I would like to ask him to help us record the training in the Adidas Basketball Training Camp," Anne replied.

"Mom, I don’t need it. I can do the training myself," Allen Hampton said stubbornly.

"I think you’ll change your mind when you finish watching the video of the Basketball Training Camp," Dai Li Suddenly said in English, not so fluently though. But the Hamptons understood what he said.

He took out his mobile phone and said, "I recorded some training videos today. You can take a look first."

And then he found the video on the phone and handed his phone to Allen Hampton. The latter soon got attracted by the video.

Allen Hampton was obviously a proud man. Although he said he didn’t need it, he still wanted to see the training video of the basketball camp.

Dai Li, looking at Allen Hampton, could feel the longing in Allen’s face. The man was wishing that he was the one being trained in that video.

A moment later, Allen Hampton finished watching the video and gave the phone back to Li.

"Now, do you want me to record the video for you?" Dai Li asked.

Allen whispered with a little hesitation, "But we don’t have any money. We can’t pay you too much."

"Hahaha..." Dai Li laughed. "I don’t want your money."

"For free? No way! You worked, and you should be paid," said Anne.

"And I don’t need your charity!" said Allen with a stubborn face.

Dai Li realized that it perhaps was due to the cultural difference. In the eyes of Americans there was no working for free. If someone did something for you, it was natural for you to pay him a price.

For instance, if people eat in the restaurant in the U.S., they give tips to the waiter. Living in a hotel, people are supposed to give tips to those who park their cars, carry their luggage, book the taxi, and clean up their rooms. People usually give tips to the driver when they take a taxi. Service industries such as haircuts, beauty, and car washing almost inevitably require people to give tips.

Lowering his head, Dai Li thought for a few seconds, and then he said to Allen Hampton, "I have just arrived in Los Angeles, and I will stay here for about two weeks. Let’s make a deal. You can be my guide here and in return, I will record the training video for you."

"A guide?" Alan Hampton looked bewildered and asked.

"Yes. A guide to show me around. As a foreigner I am totally a stranger to Los Angeles. I need a guide. But I cannot afford to hire a professional one," said Dai Li.

"Deal!" Allen Hampton said without hesitation. "But during the day, I have to work. So only afternoons and evenings are available!"

...

That night, Allen Hampton brought Dai Li to several fast food restaurants and Dai Li didn’t have to go to the supermarket to buy instant noodles and doughnuts anymore.

American fast food was more than just McDonald’s and KFC. There were many other brands that Dai Li had never heard of, but they were very well-known in America.

In general, all other fast food restaurants offered hamburgers, French fries, pizza, sandwiches, fried chicken, apple pie, and doughnuts, but they offered them with different tastes and features. Such as medium beef burgers, big burgers that could only be held by two hands, and the double hamburger with overflowing cheese. Those were difficult to be found in KFC and McDonald’s.

What’s more, some fast food brands were really honest and willing to use enough ingredients. The hamburgers and sandwiches they made were exactly the same with what they showed in their advertisements. Make great publicity, but produce something with just two pieces of dry bread? They never did that.

Of course, those fast food brands might be slightly more expensive, and American consumers have always been very rational. Average Americans care about cost-effectiveness very much, and they do not want to spend money buying expensive products.

...

Zhongyi Xu held the remote control of the TV set, with a bored face.

"Let me check my instant noodles." Zhongyi Xu paced to the table and was staring at the instant noodles when Dai Li opened the door and came in.

"Li, where have you been? My instant noodles are ready. And there is half kettle of hot water. If you want to use it, boil another kettle. I want to have some tea after a while." Zhongyi Xu continued saying without looking back, "So difficult to get hot water. I gave the waiter a tip of two dollars to get me this kettle. A painful death of me!"

Westerners obviously didn’t have the habit of drinking hot water. They drink the tap water directly as tap water is drinkable in America. There is hot water in the bathroom, but that was not drinkable.

Usually hotels do not prepare a kettle for every room. But of course, they could provide it if the guest so requires. And it was inevitable to give tips to the waiter for asking him to offer a kettle.

Zhongyi Xu smelled barbecue when he was going to eat the instant noodles.

"What’s that? It smells so good!" he looked back at Dai Li and asked.

"I bought you many hamburgers and sandwiches of various kinds. Enough for the full day tomorrow." Dai Li took the food out.

"Hamburgers? No! Hamburgers for lunch, and hamburgers for supper. Aren’t you fed up with them?!" said Zhongyi Xu with his expression full of grievance.

Picking out one of the hamburgers, Dai Li replied, "This is not McDonald’s."

"So big? Oh, it smells quite good!" Xu came over curiously, leaving his noodles aside.

...

"Li, come here. Let’s play cards," Guangming Song said loudly.

"We have four people here. One more to start a ’Fight the Landlord’ poker game," someone next to him said.

"Let’s play ’The Upgrade’ poker game." Guangming Song stood up and added, "We still need a deck of cards. I’ll go to Zhongyi Xu’s room and borrow one from him."

And then he left the room. The other three stayed.

The three waited for five or six minutes but they didn’t see the return of Song.

"Zhongyi Xu’ s room is just two rooms next to ours. Why hasn’t Song come back! It should not take more than five minutes to borrow a deck of cards. He should have been back even if he crawled to Xu’s room." The elder Li felt worried and got up. "I’ll go and have a look."

He did not come back either five or six minutes later.

"Old Li is famous for his quick temper. What is taking him so long?"

"Is there anything wrong? Maybe we should go and take a look?"

The two who stayed in the room thought they’d better go and take a look after they discussed.

They then approached the door of Zhongyi Xu’s room and saw that the door was not completely closed. They heard the voice of Guangming Song inside.

He was saying, "Li, keep that one with beef for me! There is cheese inside. I love cheese!"

"Shut up. First come, first served. He who finished the one in hand will get that one with cheese!" cried elder Li.

The two outside looked at each other.

"Sounds like they are eating something!"

"They are eating delicious food, and they don’t tell us!"

"We should stop them from eating while ignoring us! Let’s go inside!"

They pushed the door together and went in.

"We caught you! Hand over immediately what you are eating!" One of the two persons shouted.

But the next second, he saw four men around a table and several hamburgers were on the table.

"You are eating hamburgers! Haven’t you had that enough after a full day’s McDonald’s?" he ridiculed, just like Zhongyi Xu moments ago.

"Okay. I feel disgusted as soon as I smell burgers now." The man pretended to vomit, but the next moment he said, "But the food you’re eating smells wonderful."

"Of course, this is not what we ate at McDonald’s during the day!" Zhongyi Xu said. "Li bought them from the fast food restaurants around here. Come and have a try. Fast food, this is the authentic American food culture!"

Invited by Xu, the two came close, and each chose one hamburger to gulp.

...

"I once thought there were only KFC and McDonald’s in the United States. It is a surprise for me to know that there are so many fast food brands here." Guangming Song held in hand a piece of wrapper, paused with a burp, and then added, "I’ve gotten used to burgers of this brand. Its meat is thick, and the cheese is abundant! I’ve never had such a delicious hamburger in my life. Li, where did you buy this hamburger?"

"We will pass by the spot when we go to the AP training center tomorrow. I’ll show you," answered Dai Li.

"Oh, and that sandwich, the one with really thick meat, where did you buy it? " the elder Coach Li asked, gesturing the thickness of the hamburger with his hands.

"That shop is a little farther away. It’s around two kilometers from here. I’ll locate it on the map on your mobile phone later," Dai Li replied.

And the Coach Li laughed. "A two-kilometer trip to get such thick meat is totally acceptable."

...

The next day, the group of visitors went to the AP training center again.

There were indeed many new faces in the stands. They were there with laptops, watching the training and taking notes. And some of them simply set up a video camera against the training field and recorded the training process directly.

Dai Li knew that there must be professional scouts, chief coaches, or assistant coaches of university basketball teams among those people.

Many of them were old acquaintances. They observed the players and discussed with each other. Who they talked about the most were the three players with A-level talents: "The Son of New York", the three-point shooter, and the tall, skinny guy.

Allen Hampton would be the focus of the basketball court if he were here, Dai Li thought.

Just then, the deputy bureau director who led the visiting group came over to sit beside Dai Li.

"Li! I heard that you wandered around the place where we’re staying yesterday?" he asked.

"I got hungry. So, I went out to find food and took the opportunity to look around," Dai Li answered immediately.

"Well, take care when you go out. We are in America. The public security here is not as great. It is not our country." He stopped for a moment and then continued, "You can leave early this afternoon. Go and check the restaurants nearby. Find some economical ones. It would be better if you could find some offering a buffet. We still have more than 10 days to stay here. We cannot eat at McDonald’s every day. You can visit a few more restaurants and make a list of their locations, prices, and menus. And tell me about that when you come back."

"OK. No problem!" said Dai Li without hesitation.

It would be easy to find a buffet restaurant with the help of Allen, an American.

...

"Restaurant? Inexpensive? And it would be better to offer a buffet? Okay, you are asking the right person for help!" Allen added, "I cannot afford high-end restaurants, so I know a lot of low-priced and fast food restaurants."

He talked and, meanwhile, opened the mobile phone to watch the videos recorded by Dai Li.

"Those videos are fragmented. Each of them is divided into dozens of sections." Allen opened the first video.

"I just picked those useful scenes to record and left the useless ones aside. I was saving the power of your phone for you," Dai Li said. He then added, "Don’t forget that I am a professional coach."

"Never mind, I am not doubting your ability," Allen explained at once. "I thank you sincerely. I know you’re helping me. You have the map application on your phone, and you can walk around without me."

Dai Li smiled and then asked, "You already have the training video, so what are you going to do next? There are some training programs that you can’t do by yourself."

"I have some good friends, and they will help me!" Allen patted his chest and added in a mystical tone, "In fact, I have a training ground of my own!"

"A training ground of your own? Stop joking around," replied Dai Li.

"It is true. I can show you if you don’t believe me," Allen said proudly. "And I am afraid that you dare not go there with me."

"Me, dare not? It’s not that there is any bomb on your training ground, and they will explode when I get there! Bang!" Dai Li laughed with a gesture of "Boom."

"It’s in a black community. It’s not very safe. White people don’t want to go there," Allen said. He continued confidently, "But please be at ease. No one will hurt you as long as you tell them you are my friend."