Wang Yi stood by the window of his room at the Holiday Inn, admiring the enormous pale blue pyramid across the street.
He planned to rest at the hotel for an hour and a half, then head to the Pyramid arena to practice and prepare for tonight's game.
Before going to sleep, he habitually turned on his phone, intending to browse the news for a while.
That was when he came across a video.
In the video was a pale-looking little boy, around ten years old.
He looked at the camera and said rather shyly:
"Hi, Brother Yi. I'm your fan, and I really, really like you... I heard you were coming to Memphis, and I was going to watch you play in person, but yesterday morning I found out I have a very serious illness."
"When you play this afternoon... I'll be going into surgery. I'm really scared... Brother Yi, if you see this video, could I ask you to encourage me? With your encouragement, I'll definitely be brave."
Since the video involved Wang Yi, it had racked up a lot of views.
Countless people had also left comments beneath it.
"Brother Yi, help him out."
"Brother Yi, you're his superhero. He needs your help now."
Of course, some haters had also shown up to stir things up:
"Ha. Given Wang Yi's character, he can hit a guest on a show and curse people out repeatedly after games. Do you really expect someone like that to have even an ounce of kindness?"
"I'll bet Wang Yi won't respond."
Wang Yi didn't have time to read those comments.
He was wondering what the boy meant by a very serious illness.
Leukemia?
AIDS?
Or kidney failure?
The environment was bad these days, and food wasn't safe. Children could develop all sorts