Chapter 135: Chapter 96: Li Wei’s New Year’s Plan

The other one seemed to have no filter. Despite having a boyfriend, she was always talking about finding a rich man, though she never acted on it. She wore all her emotions on her face.

In response to Li Wei, Lady Delores said calmly, "I’ve been busy with a few things recently. Last week was my first chance to get a little rest."

"Let me tell you, Li Wei, we did some huge things!" Emma said excitedly. "We—"

She suddenly seemed to remember something. Glancing over at Lady Delores and seeing the woman watching her with a blank expression, Emma gave an embarrassed laugh and sat back down.

"I hear you’re about to leave for the All-American Bowl," Lady Delores said. "Since it’s right around Christmas and you’ve just moved, I brought you a little something. Consider it a housewarming gift."

"Ta-da~" Emma presented a large box as if it were a treasure. "Guess what it is?"

"It’s written right on the box, Emma," Li Wei said with a smile. "Isn’t this liquor?"

"Your eyesight is that good?" Emma squinted at the small print on the box. "This is Rémy Martin Louis XIII."

"May you have a triumphant start. When you return with the championship, you can open this bottle," Lady Delores said, a rare smile gracing her lips. "It will bear witness to your journey to superstardom."

Li Wei couldn’t find a good reason to refuse, so he nodded, thanked Lady Delores for her kindness, and accepted the bottle.

After chatting for a little while longer, Lady Delores got up to leave.

"Things get busy around Christmastime," she said. "Also, I don’t believe I’ve told you what it is I actually do."

"Don’t you run a boutique?" Li Wei asked, blinking.

"Running a boutique is part of it, I suppose," Lady Delores said with a small laugh. "If you ever run into... entanglements with certain people, or if you need to handle some funds, legally and properly, you can contact me. Of course, I’m talking about after you’ve made it into the NFL."

"Once you become famous, your net worth will skyrocket, and you’ll become a multimillionaire, perhaps even a billionaire," she paused. "When you run into problems you can’t solve... contact me. A lot of people will come at you like wolves from Siberia, except they’ll be wearing suits and ties."

With that, she called over to Emma, who was reluctantly pulled away from playing Barbies with Lily. The two of them got into a Bentley Bentayga SUV parked out front and departed from Dyker Heights.

"Alright," Li Wei said, watching the Bentley’s taillights disappear before turning to Lily. "Now we can finally go shopping. We’re going to buy 100 little stars to light up the Christmas tree."

Lily was now fully engrossed in playing with her Barbies and looked a little reluctant to move.

"How about this," Li Wei said, looking at Lily, who was pretending not to hear. He tried a different tactic. "If a certain pretty little girl comes to Costco with me, not only will I buy her her favorite Kirkland chocolate chip cookies, but I’ll also get her an ice cream cone."

Lily put down her toy, thought for a moment, and said, "The pretty little girl wants two ice cream cones."

"Deal," Li Wei said. "But you can’t tell your dad."

"No problem," Lily said, scampering back into the house to grab her coat. "I’m ready!"

...

With an extra person in the house, especially a little girl, the shopping list had suddenly grown much longer.

By the time they reached the entrance to Costco, the snowflakes had started to fall more heavily, and a faint white mist hung over the parking lot.

"Remember our mission," Li Wei said, closing the car door. "One: buy string lights. Two: a five-pointed star for the top of the tree. Three: 100 little Christmas stars. Four: paper towels, milk, a calendar..."

"And two ice cream cones and cookies!" Lily added loudly.

"That’s right!" Li Wei nodded. "Let’s move out!"

A blast of warm air hit them the moment they stepped inside. The profligate energy consumption of the United States of America was on full display here; the main doors weren’t sealed, allowing clouds of hot air to collide with the snowflakes at the entrance, melting them into puddles on the ground. The space was filled with the noisy chatter of the crowd and the metallic clang of shopping carts.

But Li Wei was dumbfounded the moment he walked in—

It was common for a one-stop, family-oriented warehouse store like Costco to offer free samples.

But free samples of painkillers? Was that even something you could give out as a sample? And to his surprise, the line for it wasn’t short.

Seeing Lily’s curiosity piqued, about to go join the crowd, Li Wei pulled her away to the right, heading along the first section of aisles near the entrance.

Lily’s eyes were immediately drawn to a display of New Year’s-themed calendars and notebooks.

"This one!" she said, reaching for a wall calendar with a picture of a puppy in a wreath on the cover. "This is so cute."

"If you like it, that’s all that matters." Li Wei glanced at the dazzling array of other covers. "I thought you would have picked a Barbie, Disney, or Hello Kitty one, though."

"I already have a Barbie," Lily said. "I like puppies."

"Alright, alright," Li Wei said, taking the calendar and tossing it into the cart. "With a calendar, you can write down your schedule and your plan for the year."

"What’s a schedule?" Lily asked. "And how do you make a plan for the year?"

"A schedule is what you need to do each day. You can write it on the calendar ahead of time," Li Wei explained, grabbing a pack of paper towels and tossing it in the cart. "A plan for the year is all the things you want to accomplish in that year."

"Then what’s your plan for the year, Li Wei?"

"Me...?" Li Wei thought for a moment, then began counting on his fingers. "I guess I have a few things."

"After Christmas, I have to go play in the All-American Bowl in early January," he said. "Then, if I’m lucky enough to win the championship, I’ll be busy with the NFL draft process in February and March."

"And then?" Lily asked, spotting the dessert aisle and pulling Li Wei toward it. "What about April?"

"The draft is in April, and then I’ll join the team for training," Li Wei said. "Then in May, I’ll have graduation. After the graduation ball, I’ll graduate in June, and then I’ll probably go traveling."

"Traveling!" Lily cheered. "I love traveling! Can I go with you, Li Wei?"

"You have school, sweetie," Li Wei gently refused. "You only have about 2,000 days until your SATs. You need to start studying hard now."

’Are you kidding me? I’m supposed to be spending my graduation trip with Anya. There’s no way I can bring Lily along.’

"’Daily plan, annual plan,’ Lily said, counting on her fingers. ’Are there any even longer-term plans?’"

"’Of course,’ Li Wei said, pretending not to see Lily toss a bag of potato chips into the cart. ’There’s a life plan.’"

"’I want to be a princess!’ Lily declared. ’Is that a life plan?’"

"’Hmm,’ Li Wei shrugged. ’I guess that counts.’" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"’Then what’s your life plan?’ Lily asked. ’My dad says you’re going to be a big star.’"

"’Becoming a big star is just a phase, I guess. People’s goals change, after all,’ Li Wei said, rubbing his smooth chin. ’My current life plan is to become super, super rich.’"

’Although he’d never told anyone, the nonchalant way Elizabeth had resolved the custody issue—a problem that had been a huge headache for both him and Don Quixote—had left him deeply shaken. It made him realize that in the United States of America, to a certain extent, money was power and freedom.’

’He didn’t have much money right now, but perhaps he could start with his NFL signing bonus and work his way up to becoming a billionaire on his own.’

’And I’ll keep leveling up my stats at the same time,’ he thought to himself.

’In just three short months, I’ve become resistant to small-caliber firearms and can scale walls and rooftops.’

’It’s hard to imagine what I’ll be like in a few years. Will I actually be able to defy gravity and fly into space?’

’At that point, I’ll probably have to trade my Spider-Man mask for a Superman suit.’

...

While Li Wei and Lily were at Costco picking out items for Christmas, a Gulfstream G800 private jet took off from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow and landed at Teterboro Airport in New York.

An expressionless, bald, middle-aged Russian man descended the airstairs, got into a waiting stretch Rolls-Royce Phantom, and headed for the Bronx.