Chapter 992: Chapter 992: Racing Against Time

Chapter 992: Racing Against Time

The morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, sparsely scattering down. In the golden rays, one could see the figures of elves dancing, announcing the arrival of a new day.

In a daze, Candice woke up. She turned over, but her arms fell on nothing. She couldn’t help but open her eyes and quickly searched the room, but still didn’t find Lu Ke. Finally, she saw a note on the pillow to her right.

"Didi,

I’ve already left for the shoot.

Today, the sponsor needs to shoot a commercial. Besides that, there are also a magazine photo shoot and an interview in the studio. I can already foresee the tragedy that’s about to happen this morning. Every time I go through the torture of a studio shoot, my admiration for your work grows. But... work is work, and besides, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

After the commercial shoot, there are still some other things to do in the afternoon. If I can finish by noon, no matter what, I’ll be taking a 3 p.m. flight directly from the studio to JFK airport. I have to return to San Francisco in the afternoon to prepare for next week’s game. Tonight’s second-team tactical meeting will probably have to be postponed until the evening.

As for the conversation we missed this time, let’s catch up when I return to San Francisco next time.

Last night... well, don’t worry. You can rest well today. I’ve already paid for tonight’s hotel room in advance, so you don’t have to rush to check out. Rest and relax. Even if you have to work later, at least you can temporarily shed the hardships of the past three months today.

Also, last night’s performance, you were the most beautiful one there, like the North Star.

Yours,

Lu Ke."

Candice read the note over and over again, and the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curl up. Then she realized how excited and happy she was, and she couldn’t help but bury her face in the pillow in embarrassment. Then she kicked the blanket. That wonderful and fluttering feeling just made her want to scream.

Last night.

Last night.

Last night.

The fragments of last night’s memories came back to her mind again, and her cheeks got even hotter. The moments were hot and passionate, the hurried breaths, the hot sweat, the tingling touches... Candice felt like she must have gone crazy. Even just thinking back on it, she couldn’t help but get excited and happy again. That sweet feeling of happiness made her start rolling around in the bed.

She lay quietly on the bed, and then she couldn’t help but think about Lu Ke’s work in the studio. She couldn’t help but chuckle. Then she thought of the tulip Lu Ke gave her last night and Lu Ke’s unfamiliar look in his suit and tie. Before she knew it, she was thinking about the moment Lu Ke made a last-minute comeback in yesterday’s game.

While she was lost in thought, Candice simply sat up straight, turned on the TV, and started to switch between the sports channels, trying to find a replay of yesterday’s game. To her surprise, she started watching it with great interest.

At the same time, as Candice thought and as Lu Ke expected, the number fourteen quarterback was suffering in the studio.

After waking up in the morning, Lu Ke, as usual, went for a run along the unfamiliar and spacious streets of Manhattan. Compared to San Francisco and Los Angeles, New York was more crowded and denser. The towering concrete jungle blocked the sky. When he looked up, he could only see a palm-sized checkerboard pattern, which gave him a sense of oppression.

However, at 5 a.m., there weren’t many people in New York. There was no heavy traffic and no crowds of people, which made Lu Ke’s morning workout much easier.

After his run, he went to the Hilton Hotel’s gym for some basic training. Then he had time to take a shower and wait for Vincent to pick him up. Without waking Candice, Lu Ke quietly left the hotel room and started his nonstop and busy day.

First, he met with the senior management of Mercedes-Benz. After a simple breakfast, the two sides officially signed the contract. With the contract signed, Lu Ke became the first spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz in the NFL.

Immediately after, Lu Ke arrived at a professional studio in Brooklyn. The main event was about to begin.

Shooting for magazines was very difficult, and shooting for video commercials was even harder!

In the past, when he was sitting in front of a TV or movie screen, he would criticize an actor’s bad acting or complain about a certain actor’s blank face, as if he were an expert.

But only after he actually stood in front of the camera and tried to perform could he feel how difficult it was—to be precise, it was tough, far more difficult than he had imagined!

When the red light on the camera lit up, he didn’t even know where to put his hands and feet, let alone the expression that was too stiff to change.

Sure enough, acting, like countless other jobs and professions, looked simple, but that was just what it looked like.

The only thing to be thankful for was that commercials were one of the simplest forms of acting. In fact, just being himself was enough. So, what Lu Ke had to overcome was how to stand naturally in front of the camera and show his true self.

Even so, the actual process was much more difficult than the description.

The short 90-second video was supposed to be completed in an hour, but it took Lu Ke a full three hours to barely finish the shoot. But there was no time for rest. Next was the photo shoot, followed by the magazine interview. By the time all the work was done, lunchtime was coming to an end.

It wasn’t Lu Ke’s lunchtime, but the normal lunchtime. Lu Ke, who had been busy with the shoot, missed his lunch and could only have a simple meal in the car on his way to the airport. This was definitely very painful for professional athletes, as three meals were extremely important to them.

Not only that, but the extra interview that was scheduled for noon didn’t go as planned.

After some communication, Leigh and the interviewer simply got into Lu Ke’s car and went to JFK International Airport together. The brief interview was completed while Lu Ke was having his lunch. Thanks to the traffic in New York, the interview was successfully completed. He wasn’t sure if he should be grateful for the terrible traffic.

After a six-hour flight, Lu Ke still couldn’t rest after returning to San Francisco.

Lu Ke rushed to the end of the second-team tactical meeting. They were analyzing the game footage from yesterday. They repeatedly watched the clips of Chad Hall completing catches by using fixed running routes, hoping to understand Lu Ke’s tactical layout more deeply.

Since he had missed the first half, Lu Ke didn’t join the discussion rashly and just listened.

But in the final stage, Mario Manningham threw the question to Lu Ke. Everyone thought that Lu Ke had been traveling for the past 36 hours and might need some time to get back on track. To their surprise, Lu Ke seamlessly transitioned into the discussion with ease.

This made the second-team players look at Lu Ke with new eyes again.

In fact, on his flight back to San Francisco from New York, Lu Ke had been reading the summary materials from his system. His progress was not only not behind, but he was even slightly ahead. Fortunately, Lu Ke realized that he had to quickly get back into game mode and made full use of the long flight time. Otherwise, he would have made a fool of himself at tonight’s tactical meeting.

...

Lu Ke left New York and returned to preparing for next week’s game, and Mercedes-Benz’s promotional campaign on social media officially began.

The first tweet announced that Mercedes-Benz was about to sign a new spokesperson, and it would be a significant breakthrough in its choice of a person.

The company stated on various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, that the true identity of the spokesperson would be revealed in a few weeks. But for now, they would be holding weekly quizzes with prizes to reveal the mysterious person step by step. They welcomed all netizens to actively participate.

The first quiz was just a warm-up. The theme was "occupation," and the keyword was "Victoria’s Secret." It also included a silhouette of the person, but it was impossible to tell the gender, so it wasn’t much help.

At first, everyone guessed that it was an actor or a model, because the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show had just ended. People would naturally think of that big event. But then people realized that the guests who attended the fashion show came from almost every industry, so the scope of guessing began to expand.

Mercedes-Benz’s social media platforms were not very active to begin with, and the number of participants was relatively limited. But later, as time went on, each quiz was released on time, slowly revealing the truth. They were also very smart about scheduling the quizzes to be released after the San Francisco 49ers’ games, which was a hint that they were waiting for someone to find out.

Apparently, Mercedes-Benz was also waiting for the playoffs, especially a victory in the playoffs, so that the effect of this series of promotional activities could be maximized. The most perfect result would naturally be to aim for the Super Bowl. As for the San Francisco 49ers, they still had two important games to complete before heading to the playoffs.

If they could win both of these games, the San Francisco 49ers would become the second team in history to complete a 16-game regular season undefeated!

But for the team, these two games had nothing to do with a perfect season, because both of them were divisional rivals. Regardless of external factors, these were games they had to win!

The Seattle Seahawks were the first to play.

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