Exploring Fairy Leon's Shop Again

"It's fine," Li Wei said firmly. "Add them. Spot me from behind."

He weighed less than 80 kilograms now, yet on his second day at the gym, he wanted to bench press his own body weight. In Michael's eyes, that was indeed a bit overestimating himself.

"Fine, fine." Michael did not try to stop him. He shrugged. "I'll make sure you don't get crushed to death."

To Michael, who had been training for nearly a year, this was probably the classic beginner's ego phase—eager to prove himself.

They each took a 10-kilogram weight plate and loaded them onto both sides. Then Michael stood above the bench press rack, his hands hovering over the bar, ready to spot Li Wei at any moment.

For some reason, he suddenly felt that the classmate in front of him seemed a little bigger than before. His muscles had even begun to show some clear definition.

Was it an illusion caused by the pump? Muttering to himself, he watched Li Wei unrack the bar, lower it to his chest, and press it back up.

"Okay... down... what the fuck!"

He watched Li Wei, who had only been able to bench 60 kilograms alongside him moments ago, slowly but steadily press up an 80-kilogram barbell. Judging from his movement, he even seemed to have strength left.

"No way, man." He watched Li Wei sit up from the bench, his eyes wide. "Didn't you start training less than a week ago?"

"Yeah." Li Wei touched his bulging deltoids and grinned. "Maybe I was born strong?"

Standing before the mirror, he looked at his properly shaped chest and arm muscles, now showing a bit of definition, and happily turned from side to side.

It had to be because Asians had such strong neural recruitment, Michael consoled himself from the side. Asians really were good at lower-weight-class weightlifting.

Li Wei felt that benching 80 kilograms had completely drained his upper-body strength. He did not linger at the bench press rack and went to the leg training area instead, using free-barbell squats to test his limit.

Back when his Strength was at 0.9, Li Wei could only bench 50 to 60 kilograms. Now that his Strength had risen to 1.0, he could already press his own body weight.

His squat, which involved his leg strength throughout, had also jumped from 65 kilograms to 95 kilograms—an increase of 30 kilograms.

Meanwhile, Michael simply could not understand why Li Wei had been panting while pressing 50 kilograms earlier, yet was still panting while pressing 80 kilograms now.

The next time he saw him, would he still be panting while pressing 100 kilograms? Was he deliberately playing weak to hide his strength?

"I'm going to get some water, then take a shower," Li Wei said as he walked over and greeted him. "I still need to go back and study this afternoon."

"Sure." Michael could only bump fists with him. "I'll train a little longer."

A seemingly ordinary classmate had shattered his martial resolve on the first day, making Michael, who had originally planned to leave right away, train a little longer.

Li Wei walked to the corner, picked up his fully charged phone, and took out the oversized 1.5-liter water bottle he had bought at the dollar store two days ago. After filling it to the brim with mineral water from the dispenser, he entered the locker room showers in satisfaction.

He had figured it out. The gym had a great environment, and he could charge his phone, shower, and get two big cups of free mineral water every time.

He had checked already. The same 1.5-liter bottle of mineral water sold for $0.99 at the supermarket. Every time he worked out here, he filled a whole bottle and drank it, then filled another one to take with him when he left. That saved him $1.98 a day.

As long as he came to work out every day, then with the electricity and shower water he saved, the amount rounded up was basically the same as the cost of the gym's monthly membership.

His family had fallen on hard times, leaving him in a basement. Li Wei had to carry forward the traditional virtues of his people—diligence and thrift.

By the time he had showered and washed his clothes in the public laundry room next door, evening had already begun to fall.

On his way back, Li Wei bought a discounted carton of twelve eggs close to their expiration date, a bag of chicken thighs, and a bottle of Lao Gan Ma. After returning to the basement, he took the leftover rice he had cooked yesterday out of the refrigerator.

Seeing that it was still early and that Don Quixote would not be back for a while, Li Wei continued studying that AP Macroeconomics textbook.

Compared to when it was at 1.0, his 1.2 Mental Strength not only gave him a far better memory, but also greatly improved his ability to understand complex concepts.

He had spent just over a day on the thick, 200-plus-page AP Macroeconomics textbook, yet he had already nearly memorized a quarter of it.

Creak—

The basement door was pushed open, and Don Quixote walked in while cursing the black-hearted foreman.

He threw himself heavily onto the battered sofa, clenching a cigarette between his teeth as he grimaced and kneaded his shoulder.

"How was today?" Li Wei closed his book and looked at Don Quixote, who had a cigarette in his mouth like a stray dog. "Did you hurt your shoulder?"

"An old injury. It's always like this for a few days after it rains..." Don Quixote looked at Li Wei's clean face and snorted. "You've got it easy, brat. You're like some young nobleman from the Upper East Side."

"Not bad." Li Wei shrugged and went to the stove to start cooking. "I worked for three hours, served a beautiful rich lady, and got $102 after tax."

"Fuck, stop talking! I move bricks at the construction site all day, wash dishes all day, and I only get that much. Is it just because you're better-looking than me? When I was seventeen, I was a handsome young man in my prime too. Why didn't anyone give me a hundred bucks to do that kind of work back then?"

Li Wei cracked eggs while taking a moment to glance back at Don Quixote.

"I doubt that," he said. "If you were as handsome as me at seventeen, you'd have died of an STD long ago."

As a one-ball knight, Don Quixote subconsciously scratched his crotch after hearing Li Wei's words. Then he thought about it carefully. "You're actually right."

"Hurry up and eat something. Don't you still have to go wash dishes later?" Li Wei brought over a large bowl of greasy egg fried rice mixed with eggs, chicken thigh meat, and Lao Gan Ma. "This only costs five dollars to make. It's much more cost-effective than ordering takeout."

Don Quixote grunted, forcibly moved his right shoulder around, took the bowl Li Wei handed him, and buried his head in the food.

After eating, Li Wei was somewhat surprised that Don Quixote actually chose to wash the dishes on his own. What surprised him even more was that he even took out the kitchen trash when he left. That was rare—when Li Wei had first arrived, the basement had been piled with garbage, and Li Wei had been the one taking it out every morning.

Don Quixote did not sleepwalk that night. While Li Wei was grateful that he got a good night's sleep, he also felt a little disappointed.

Early the next morning, Li Wei returned to Leon's shop.

To his surprise, he found that there was someone else in the shop ahead of him, arguing fiercely with Leon about something.