15. Stay firm and keep working hard!

Zhang Yang hadn't expected his step-parents to be more open-minded than he imagined.

After giving it some thought, he considered that he might have been 'misled' by the memories of his original self.

His parents seemed very strict in those memories, this he couldn't do, that he couldn't do.

But when Zhang Yang carefully reconsidered those 'prohibited' actions, they were indeed things that shouldn't be done, the only issue was that his parents, because their son was young, rarely explained why those things shouldn't be done.

As for reasonable requests that the original self made, the parents agreed to almost all of them but took them for granted.

This leads to a discussion about traditional Chinese education—historical records would brush over the victorious battles quickly, while defeats were clearly remembered.

In the following days, Zhang Yang carried on as usual; training, helping out in the store; there was no difference from before.

The transfer to a new school was managed by Andy and Thomas, so there was no need for him to worry about it.

Soon, August 1 arrived, beginning a new month, and it was also the day that Zhang Yang would leave for Compton City.

Thomas had made a special trip from Compton City yesterday, first to check if the archives Andy had obtained from Hidden Mountain High School were complete, to be cautious and avoid another trip, and second because Zhang Yang would be boarding at his home.

Thomas had agreed to help Zhang Yang find a boarding household with good conditions, including living environment and landlord quality; he had gone through all registered families at the school and couldn't find one that satisfied him as he was using Zhang Yang's home as a benchmark for selection.

In the end, he took on the responsibility himself, helping to take care of Zhang Yang. Living alone in a home with a good environment and close to the school, it met all the conditions.

After meeting Thomas, Zhang Yang's parents learned he was a responsible coach, and he was a good friend of Andy, so they accepted his kind offer.

At 9 a.m., Thomas went to pick up DeRozan, who hitched a ride, and then arrived at Zhang Yang's house.

After Zhang Yang put his luggage in the trunk, he said goodbye to his parents.

"Mom, if you receive a call from me asking for money, first call the coach to confirm if it was really me who made the call."

"Mom, if you get a call saying I've been kidnapped and you can't reach me, don't rush to send money, first call the police; although calling them might not be very helpful, it's better than sending money."

"Mom, don't buy random health products; if you really feel you need some nutritional supplements, go to the hospital and register as early as possible. By the time your appointment day arrives, you will have calmed down."

"..."

"..."

"..."

After giving his mother a long list of instructions, Zhang Yang turned his head and said to his father, "Dad, take good care of Mom."

Zhang Chen: "..."

So many words to your mom and just this one sentence to me? And you didn't even say it directly to me!

If his son wasn't as handsome as he was when he was young, he would have doubted if the boy was really his.

Watching Zhang Yang go to say farewell to the teachers and classmates who had come to see him off, Zhang Chen complained to Yang Jing, "Wife, who is the one leaving for a far place – you or Yangyang? He's the one giving you all the instructions."

Yang Jing lifted her chin proudly, "He's smarter than me; of course, he worries about me more!"

Zhang Chen: "..."

What is there to be so proud of?

After a moment of pride, Yang Jing's mood suddenly became downcast.

Zhang Chen noticed his wife's change in mood and said, "Now Yangyang is off to fight for his dreams, we should also strive for what we want! You've always wanted to expand the store, right? Auntie Connecticut next door is getting on in years and is planning to close her shop. We could take it over, hire some pastry chefs and baristas; our menu variety is still too small. Our store's location is so good; people often ask if we do snacks, we should utilize the morning and afternoon downtime more effectively."

Yang Jing's eyes lit up, "That's right! Now that we don't have to take care of Yangyang, we have the time to focus on our careers! Build a business! Make money!"

Seeing his wife regain her momentum, Zhang Chen smiled.

In recent years, all their attention had been on their son, and supporting the family through their business, they had little time for themselves or their careers. Now was the time to shift the focus of their lives onto themselves!

...

...

Located within Los Angeles County, Hidden Mountain City and Compton City weren't far apart; in terms of distance within China, they were like neighboring counties.

During the trip, Thomas and DeRozan kept briefing Zhang Yang on various aspects of Compton City, mainly security issues.

Zhang Yang had proactively researched this online in the past few days.

Compton City, looking solely at economic output, was even higher than Hidden Mountain, with a larger population due to its mines—actual mines. However, the city was hardly liveable—40%+ of its population was African American.

This city was once established around mining areas as a slave-trading zone for blacks, and to this day, it remains one of the cities with the highest proportion of African Americans in the country, with whites making up just over 10% of the population, the rest being mostly Latinos. Chinese and Southeast Asians generally avoided this city, so their numbers were negligible.

However, that mere 10% of white people controlled over ninety percent of the city's wealth, a place where beautiful scenery was common, yet violent crime was not infrequent.

Thomas and DeRozan agreed to exaggerate their descriptions to inject a precautionary mindset in Zhang Yang, nearly painting the city as a living hell to make him more vigilant and discourage him from wandering around like he did in Hidden Mountain.

The journey was smooth, and an hour later, they entered the Compton City area. Thomas first dropped DeRozan off at his house and then took Zhang Yang home.

After helping Zhang Yang move his luggage into the living room, Thomas hurriedly left for school.

Zhang Yang roamed around the house for a bit – a typical bachelor pad, messy, but it was evident that it was cleaned regularly and wasn't dirty. It was just the habit of leaving things strewn everywhere.

Before entering the house, he examined the exterior; it was quite new, having been bought at most two or three years ago, a two-storey house with a small yard. The neighboring houses were similar, representing a standard middle-class residential area, indicating the area had relatively better security.

The first floor consisted of a living room, a kitchen that looked hardly used, a bathroom, a study, and a storage room. There were three rooms on the second floor. Zhang Yang chose the second bedroom facing east and moved his luggage in.

After going downstairs, Zhang Yang intended to have lunch, but looking at the untidy living room, he couldn't stand it any longer... he rolled up his sleeves and began to tidy up.

On the other side, Thomas handed over Zhang Yang's profile and the transfer application form to his colleague in charge of admissions. The transfer process was now sorted out; he had already done everything necessary a few days ago.

After submitting the transfer documents, Thomas immediately returned to his office to start working as the school team's head coach.

Originally, his vacation wasn't planned to be that long, but he spent an extra three days on recruiting Zhang Yang, which meant he was now three days behind on work and needed to catch up quickly.

The salary of a CIF Division I high school team coach isn't bad, but it's a tough job, ranging from communication with the NCAA to basic procurement, all of which he had to handle himself.

He didn't have a professional team like college coaches; he only had a couple of little fish and shrimps under him, and he had to do everything himself.

With three basketball teams – the freshman team, the JV team, and the varsity team – he needed to personally coach the varsity team while also keeping an eye on the other two teams to tap into their potential.

After busy work all afternoon, Thomas, dragging his exhausted body, returned home, only to find that something was off as soon as he opened the door.

The usually messy living room was now tidy and organized.

"Jack?"

Thomas called out but didn't receive an answer, guessing he was out.

Suddenly, his eyes brightened.

Before heading back to Richmond, he had just washed some laundry and bed sheets, leaving a pile of stuff on his bed unsorted – could it be that those were now tidied up, too?

He excitedly went upstairs to open the master bedroom… only to find that the bedroom was still as messy as it should be.

He checked the home office downstairs, and that was still a mess as well.

The young man valued his privacy, which made Thomas feel both happy and slightly frustrated.

As a middle-aged singleton, he didn't have much to hide! Seriously, couldn't they have cleaned up together?

Coming out of the home office, he smelled a fragrance that seemed familiar from when he entered the house, but his attention had been drawn away to the tidy living room.

He went to the kitchen and found a few dishes on the warming tray.

At that moment, the sound of the door opening rang out, and Thomas came out of the kitchen to see Zhang Yang returning with two empty plates.

Thomas asked, "Jack, what's this all about?"

Zhang Yang replied, "I made a couple of dishes to thank the neighbors across the street for taking me to the supermarket, and they invited me to have dinner with them at their place."

"Oh, George and Milena are really nice, and very hospitable; you should get to know them... I didn't expect you could cook!"

"My family runs a restaurant. In case I hit a rough patch in my future career, I can always go back and take over my dad's business. Always good to have a backup plan."

"Having such foresight is indeed never a bad thing."

"By the way, Tony, I saw a broken table in the storage room with a large enough surface. Can I make a basketball hoop in the yard with it? I could use it to practice shooting."

"Of course you can. Do you need my help?"

"That would be great. The neighbors around the corner being remodeled offered to give me some leftover wood…"

Watching Zhang Yang go to the kitchen to wash dishes, Thomas breathed a sigh of relief; the boy was far better than he had imagined.

Having brought Zhang Yang to this city, he felt it was his responsibility to take good care of him.

If he had recruited a black student from the slums to this city, he would not have been so concerned. For those students, it made little difference where they were; for some black students from very poor areas, being able to study in Compton City was even a windfall due to better welfare benefits.

But for a young man who grew up in a happy family, coming to such an inhospitable city alone because of his recruitment – if he didn't fare well, Thomas would feel a great deal of guilt.

…

After dinner, Thomas took Zhang Yang to the supermarket to buy a basketball rim and stickers and to pick out the woodworking materials they needed from the renovating neighbor's leftover wood.

Thomas felt somewhat conflicted; with his busy work schedule leaving little time for socializing, he had been here for two years and wasn't particularly close with most of the neighbors, yet Zhang Yang had already met several of them.

With shovels, electric saws, hammers, nails, screws, and nuts... all available in the storage room, they worked late into the night "clang clang clang" to get the basketball hoop fixed up.

With Thomas's expertise, the backboard and hoop height, and the backboard size... all were done to a pretty standard measure.

Having not done any physical labor for a few months, Thomas slept soundly that night.

The next morning, after 7 AM, Thomas woke up to the sound of "clang clang" downstairs.

Hadn't they already finished installing the hoop the night before? He got up, opened the window, and looked down into the yard, where he saw Zhang Yang... no, not blacksmithing, but practicing shooting, already drenched in sweat.

"Jack, you're really dedicated! Getting up so early to train."

Zhang Yang looked up and replied, "I woke up at six and, with nothing else to do, started practicing shooting. I cooked some vegetable and lean meat porridge in the rice cooker; it should be ready by now. Coach, can you help cool it down by taking it out of the pot? If you're busy, you can eat first – I'm going to do a few more sets."

A breakfast made by a beloved student! Thomas responded with a shout and hurried downstairs.

Having tasted Zhang Yang's cooking the night before, Thomas thought the flavor was pretty good, good enough to run a restaurant. Talking about having cooking as a backup, he felt it was a serious consideration.

Zhang Yang, on his part, was unfazed and continued his training.

Since he had chosen to walk the path of basketball by choice, he decided to proceed with determination and effort!

...

...

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