May 11th, 3:30 a.m.
Chen Xi returned to his home in New York, carrying light luggage.
After a day of rushing around and fighting hard, after the end of a busy season, Chen had finally been able to shed the pressure and relax properly for a while.
In no mood to admire the still-gorgeous night scenery outside the window, Chen Xi casually tossed his backpack and other odds and ends into a corner. As usual, he went to the guest bathroom, quickly washed himself again, changed into pajamas, then fell headfirst onto the bed and drifted off to sleep.
The night passed in the blink of an eye.
When he opened his eyes again, it was already exactly eleven in the morning.
Reaching over to grab his phone from the bedside table, the first things that caught his eye were several trending news notifications.
"New York Knicks suffer a heartbreaking loss to the Milwaukee Bucks! Eliminated 3-4! Chris misses the Conference Finals for the first time in his career!"
"Giannis makes a bold declaration: He waited a full four years for this chance at revenge! Now, Milwaukee can finally focus entirely on the road to the championship!"
"2022-23 Most Improved Player Award—Shai Gilgeous-Alexander! A truly deserving superstar in the making!"
"The greatest of all time! Chris drops a staggering 67 points in a Game 7 War of the second round, surpassing Michael Jordan!!"
After all, this was the age of big data.
As a sports guy, the information pushed to Chen's phone first and foremost was basically all basketball news.
Expressionlessly, he went through the jumble of information before him, then closed his eyes again, emptied his mind, and started staring blankly into space.
It was only ten minutes later, after confirming that he was truly awake and genuinely