Hangover (Please Vote!)

Hangover (Please Vote!)

Gretchen's Home.

Castle villa.

The grand party was in full swing.

"Whew."

Adam, his face flushed red from drinking, stepped outside for some fresh air.

In the United States, a party worth talking about could go without anything else, but it absolutely had to have alcohol.

Americans loved hanging out in bars, holding a drink without touching any food, just gulping it down over and over until they could drink all night.

When men drank like that in bars, they were thinking: get themselves drunk, and get everyone else drunk too!

When women drank like that in bars, they were thinking: give others a chance, and give themselves a chance too!

They were all adults. Everyone understood the unspoken implications.

The same went for parties.

Those who drank like mad, casually hoisting beer kegs and pouring them down their throats, aside from showing off, weren't they mainly hoping to go crazy under the influence?

Tonight was the graduation party, so things were even crazier than usual. Even some students who were normally mild-mannered were getting restless, let alone those who were already wild to begin with.

After tonight, those headed to college would go to college, while those heading out into society would do so. From then on, their paths would be clearly divided.

Most of the truly wild ones were football players. Other than the quarterback captain, few of them could get specially recruited by colleges. In other words, graduation meant unemployment.

Perhaps they would be trapped in this small town for the rest of their lives. Some would remain mediocre, while others would become alcoholics, casually abusing their families and mass-producing the villains and perverts in American TV dramas for Happy America, providing the theoretical basis for it all.

Don't ask. If you ask, it was childhood trauma!

Wails and howls rose and fell from inside the castle.

Adam shook his head. He had gone over to Gretchen earlier to thank her again for the recommendation letter. Amid the drinking and revelry, an hour had passed. When he came out and looked into the main hall, Juno and Karen were nowhere to be seen.

Just as he was considering whether to leave now and go home to write, the corner of his eye caught sight of someone sitting alone on the stone steps, pouring alcohol down his throat. Looking closer, he saw that it was Little Sheldon's brother, Georgie Jr.

"Why are you alone? Where's Veronica?"

Although Georgie Jr. had flipped him off that afternoon, Adam did not hold much of a grudge against him. On the contrary, he rather admired Little Sheldon's brother.

If the future had not changed, after Little Sheldon's father died, Georgie Jr. would quietly shoulder the burden of Cooper's Home. In the end, he would build a life for himself through hard work.

Georgie Jr. had disliked Little Sheldon ever since they were children, yet he had quietly paid for Little Sheldon's living expenses during college, even though Little Sheldon had never stopped rudely looking down on his older brother.

He was a responsible man.

"Leave me alone!"

Georgie Jr. waved him off impatiently.

"Okay."

Adam shrugged and prepared to leave.

Admiration was one thing, but that did not mean he was willing to have his kindness treated like dirt.

Nobody owed anyone anything.

"She's going to college."

The moment Adam turned around, Georgie Jr.'s despondent voice came from behind him.

Adam's mouth twitched. He might as well stop calling himself Georgie Jr. Cooper and call himself Jingze Cooper instead. That "it smells so good" turnaround had happened in the span of one turn.

"So?"

"Watching her talk and laugh with her classmates about their future college lives, I suddenly felt like I was going to lose her."

Georgie Jr. took a huge gulp of beer and said painfully.

Adam understood.

Georgie Jr. might have been Little Sheldon's brother, but he neither had Little Sheldon's high IQ nor Missy's high emotional intelligence. His grades were so bad that if he failed another class, he would not even be allowed to play the football he loved most.

His family was not well-off either, and his football skills were nowhere near good enough to earn him a special college recruitment.

Thus, the self-aware Georgie Jr. had never considered college.

He planned to find a job after graduation, or start his own business and make money. In fact, he had already begun doing so, and had discovered that he was interested in business and fairly talented at it.

But when he saw Veronica gathered with her classmates, enthusiastically discussing their college futures, while he could only stand awkwardly to the side, completely out of place and unable to join the conversation, as if he had been isolated and forgotten, he finally felt some regret.

Veronica might be his girlfriend now, but she would soon be leaving for college in another city.

In the United States, even three-year-olds knew that long-distance relationships were relationship killers.

Love in a small town was far too fragile compared to the restless temptations of college cities.

After a few parties, someone would be cheating.

"Look on the bright side. What's yours will be yours. There's no use dwelling on what isn't."

Adam comforted him.

"How did you do it?"

"What?"

Georgie Jr. suddenly asked without context.

"Not caring."

Georgie Jr. took another gulp and murmured, "I used to think I was a playboy too, but when I met Veronica, she felt completely different. I thought that if love really existed in this world, then this must be love.

"But you're even more of a playboy than I am, and every girl who's been with you has been outstanding. How did you manage not to care at all from beginning to end?"

"Heh."

Adam laughed. "It's simple. Just really don't care!"

When it came to relationships, whoever cared got hurt. Especially in American TV Show World, Adam would absolutely not consider something like love until he was thoroughly tired of it all, even if the other person was a true goddess.

Because once you threw yourself into it, who knew what kind of bizarre, heart-stopping nonsense you might encounter.

Take the bickering lovers from Friends, Ross and Rachel. How many times had they broken up and gotten back together? During that time, each of them had dated plenty of other people.

Ross had nearly hooked up with Rachel's sister, Rachel had hooked up with the father of Ross's girlfriend, and then Rachel had nearly hooked up with Joey.

Even more unacceptable to Adam's values was how Monica and Richard, her parents' friend, had claimed to be true love, only for Monica to nearly hook up with Little Richard. Even Ross and the others could not stand Monica's bizarre view of relationships.

If it were you, would you dare imagine it?

Even among ordinary friends, taking advantage of one another physically and being taken advantage of was treated very casually.

For example, Phoebe's way of complimenting Joey was to viciously ram her body into him. When Rachel and the others played Twister, Joey stood behind them, making gestures and waggling his eyebrows. If they had not originally been characters from an American TV show, no one could possibly endure it.

"You don't understand."

Georgie Jr. finally concluded that Adam had truly reached the realm of a genuine playboy. He shook his head with a bitter smile.

"No, you're the one who doesn't understand."

Adam smiled. "Do you think Veronica is your true love? Believe me, at most, she'll be an important passerby in your life."

In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon had said that his brother married young, got divorced, and remarried.

The so-called true love Veronica whom he had met during this period was, at most, the person Georgie Jr. married young. They would still break up in the future.

Georgie Jr. had even made a bet with his father, saying that he definitely would not get married before thirty.

Talking was one thing, listening was another. Just don't take it seriously!

"Ha, there you are. Drive us home."

Juno and Karen stumbled out, draping themselves over Adam's shoulders and grinning foolishly.

"Sure."

Adam staggered to his feet, patted Georgie Jr. on the shoulder, helped Juno into the pickup truck, and drove toward Karen's Home at Juno's request.

Without a doubt, he was driving drunk. Fortunately, this was a small town and the distance was not far. Adam got them there safely, helped Juno inside, and then blacked out.