Chapter 3: She's Terrifying

Chapter 3: She's Terrifying

As the sun rose, people began to appear on the beach for their morning walks.

Chubby James rode his scooter down the beach road and almost fell off when he saw the two of them having breakfast together.

Link didn't explain much. He cleared the dishes and hung the cleaned diving equipment back in the cabinet. The torn wetsuit needed to be sent back to the manufacturer for repair, another expense.

After breakfast, Taylor sat under the beach umbrella, staring out at the sea, occasionally coming back to her senses and strumming a melody on her guitar, which she then wrote down on the music sheet.

"Link!" James nudged his shoulder and whispered, looking towards Taylor Swift at the door, "Did you know she's a singer, and quite famous? I saw her poster yesterday on Bar Street. It said she's going to be at the Beach Music Festival at the Hard Rock Stadium this month. The poster also had Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, all big stars."

"I saw it too." Link shrugged. The Miami Beach Music Festival was a big event with a lot of publicity. Recently, posters could be seen all over Palm Beach.

"Link, I looked her up online. She's released albums and almost won a Grammy for Best New Artist this year. The news says she's a very talented singer-songwriter with great potential and will become a big star like Faith Hill in the future."

"She probably will." Link nodded. Taylor would not only become a big star but also the brightest star in the world music scene, a billionaire, a model of a rich and beautiful woman, a very successful woman.

James looked at him with sympathy and patted his shoulder. "Link, she's a big star, and we're just ordinary people. Your encounter is destined to be a tragedy. You have to be mentally prepared. Don't be too sad when she dumps you in the future."

"No, I'm not an ordinary person." Link tossed the rag into James's arms and walked under the beach umbrella with two bottles of water.

"Here's some water!"

"Thank you!" Taylor put down her guitar and looked at him. "Can you play the guitar?"

"No, I haven't learned any instruments." Link looked at his palms. These hands, apart from mining and pushing carts, getting beaten and beating others, had no other skills. Looking at Taylor's fair and slender fingers, he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed.

"How about I teach you? The guitar is very simple." Taylor didn't wait for him to refuse. She excitedly sat next to him, put the guitar in his lap, and held his fingers, explaining the tone of each string, the high and low ranges, and how to coordinate the fingers.

But soon she was disappointed. Not only did Link have a poor sense of music and no understanding of music theory, but his fingers were like steel bars, unable to bend even with force.

After teaching for half an hour, Link couldn't even distinguish the simplest high and low notes, and Taylor was almost furious.

"How can your fingers be so stiff? Can't you relax them a bit?"

"Be serious, can you stop shaking your leg?"

"Wrong, press the second string, that's the bass range, you're so dumb."

Taylor covered her forehead and lay back in the beach chair, looking utterly hopeless.

James stood behind the counter, laughing heartily.

"Forget it, my fingers are too stiff, not suitable for playing the guitar," Link said, waving his hand and smiling.

He didn't have a high level of education or aesthetic appreciation. He used to listen to some upbeat songs when he was boxing, but he didn't understand music theory and had never touched a musical instrument. Asking him to play the guitar was more difficult than asking him to compete for the boxing championship.

Seeing his embarrassed expression, Taylor found it amusing and said with a suppressed laugh, "How can you give up when you encounter a little difficulty? If you can't learn it, you can learn it slowly. If you give up, you'll never learn. Come on, let's continue. Don't worry, I'll control my emotions this time and won't lose my temper at you."

Link had no choice but to continue practicing. Although Taylor had promised not to lose her temper, after only three or four minutes of teaching, she lost it again, waving her fist in front of him, almost hitting him in the face several times.

Link was sweating profusely from practicing, and James was laughing so hard he was doubled over.

Fortunately, a customer came in, needing a diver as a guide to tour the underwater coral reefs.

Link was relieved and took the opportunity to put down the hot guitar, letting Taylor continue composing. He would take the customer diving first and come back to practice later.

"Haha, Link, I told you, she's a difficult girl, very difficult. I learned my lesson yesterday," James gloated.

Link put on his diving gear, started the speedboat at the dock, and took the customers for a swim in the sea, visiting the nearby coral reefs and shipwreck sites.

The two customers had a great time and gave him an extra hundred dollars as a tip.

When Link returned, Taylor had already left. James said that Taylor's mother had come to pick her up, but Taylor said she would come back tomorrow because she felt it was great to create music by the sea.

In the afternoon, there weren't many customers in the shop. Link had a grilled meat meal at the Mexican restaurant next door, took a nap, and then started practicing boxing.

In his past life, he had poor innate physical conditions, suffered from malnutrition, was only 171 centimeters tall, and had a small frame, leading to insufficient strength and explosive power.

In boxing matches, he could only rely on his strong will, agile speed, and super resilience to wear down his opponents.

When fighting in the middleweight and welterweight categories, he could achieve good results. But in the light heavyweight category, when facing taller and stronger opponents, it would be very difficult.

After transmigrating, his physical fitness was comparable to that of top athletes.

He was 186 centimeters tall, with a 192-centimeter arm span, weighed 78.7 kilograms, could clean and jerk 132 kilograms, snatch 141 kilograms, swim 100 meters in under 20 seconds, and 1,000 meters in 6 minutes and 34 seconds.

Moreover, in the past month of training, his strength, speed, and reaction time were still slowly improving, and his body was becoming stronger and stronger.

Link decided to continue training and see how much potential he had.

"Link, it's time to pay the management fees," James said, munching on a hot dog, while he was working out. "This month's water and electricity bills, sanitation fees, public service fees, dock usage fees, venue fees, etc., total $8,700. And our income this month is $14,540."

"Sounds pretty good." Link did sit-ups while hanging upside down on the iron frame, exercising his abdominal and waist muscles.

"Good? How do you figure that's good? I haven't even calculated the equipment repair and depreciation costs. With those included, our net income this month is less than three thousand. If we also pay ourselves a salary, we'll lose over ten thousand this month, you know?"

"Don't worry, it's not bad if we're not losing money," Link said, panting.

"But we can't go on like this. After October, fewer people will come diving, and business will be even worse. Link, what do you think about us selling hot dogs too?"

"Can you make hot dogs? I remember diving shops aren't allowed to sell food."

"How about selling bikinis? Hehe, bikinis are also part of diving equipment." James held his chin, fantasizing about the shop being packed with bikini-clad girls, and couldn't help but let out a strange laugh.

"Stop dreaming. Let's focus on running the diving shop first. We can earn money slowly." Link continued doing sit-ups while hanging upside down on the iron frame, preparing to regain his eight-pack abs from his past life.

New book, please follow.

(End of Chapter)