One Look Could Get You Accused of Sexual Harassment

"Morning," Li Wei mumbled as he walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator in search of food. "Is there any pizza left from yesterday?"

"I have a question," Don Quixote said, his voice full of confusion. "Was this statue already here when we moved in yesterday?"

"Yeah." Li Wei found the leftover pizza and put it in the microwave to heat up. "Didn't you notice? You even said the statue looked nice."

"Did I???"

Don Quixote turned around and carefully examined the statue, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere yet carried a faint sense of familiarity. His eyes were full of confusion and incomprehension.

After the microwave dinged for half a minute, Li Wei took out a slice of pizza.

"...Get a slice for your dear uncle too." Don Quixote caught the scent and temporarily gave up thinking. "Could I really have remembered wrong?"

"You definitely remembered wrong. I saw it the moment I came in yesterday." Li Wei handed him a slice of leftover pizza, standing by his opinion. "Are you going to work later?"

"...Yeah, I need to go over Ms. Susan's books again."

"Then drop me off at the gym on the way."

Ever since Li Wei had taught that rude Latino guy a small lesson last time, he had earned unprecedented respect at this gym.

"Hey, man, you're here."

"Yo, bro, how's it going today? What are you training?"

"Li Wei, want to work out together?"

When Li Wei stepped through the gym doors again, he could clearly feel that he was much more welcome. It was as if only after winning that match last time had he truly become part of the gym.

The previous times he had worked out with Michael, he had still been an unnoticed nobody.

When the white front-desk attendant who had previously tried to sell him testosterone and other drugs saw him again, a smile unconsciously appeared on his face, and he took the initiative to greet him.

"What are you training today?" he asked. "Want me to spot you?"

"No." Li Wei waved him off, politely declining. "I'll train by myself."

As usual, he first filled his water bottle, then headed to the strength area. The muscular men who had been occupying the bench press rack and chatting instinctively shifted aside the moment they saw Li Wei approach.

"Hey, man, this rack is free." A tattoo-covered Latino guy took away his water jug, then casually wiped down the bench beneath him with a towel. "You take it."

"Uh..." Li Wei had originally wanted to ask if they could take turns. "Thanks."

Apparently, forcing that rude Latino guy to go "naked bat-swinging" down 8th Avenue last time had left quite a few people wary of him.

Li Wei wiped down the bench again, loaded the barbell to a total of 100 kilograms, and warmed up for two sets. Then came 150 kilograms... 180 kilograms... 200 kilograms. Only when he reached 225 kilograms did he finally feel that his arms and chest had hit their limit.

"Fuck..."

A low murmur of amazement rose from some corner of the strength area.

Li Wei felt a little embarrassed, but he still walked toward the squat rack in keeping with his principle of recording his strength.

He loaded the squat straight to 200 kilograms and stood it up in an instant.

250 kilograms, easy.

By the time he reached 280 kilograms, the Olympic bar had begun to bend, swaying slightly with every squat.

The people around him even unconsciously fell silent, afraid that the sound of their voices might affect Li Wei.

Yet Li Wei was like a precision crane—steady and exact, moving straight up and down without the slightest pause as he forcibly dragged 280 kilograms back from the edge of gravity.

When he finally reracked the plates, he found Manu, the big fat Black kid from Franklin High School, staring at him with a completely dazed expression.

Li Wei smiled but did not greet his future classmate and teammate. After unloading the plates, he headed for the showers.

For now, I can barely explain it away as inborn strength, Li Wei thought as he showered. Once my strength improves a little more, I should probably set up a gym in the basement myself.

After showering and changing clothes, Li Wei left the gym, took the subway to his part-time job on the Upper East Side, bought something to eat from the roadside around noon, then transferred from the subway to a bus back home in Bay Ridge.

For the next two weeks, Li Wei's life was almost entirely a straight line between two points as he quietly waited for school to start.

During the day, he worked part-time on the Upper East Side. In the afternoon, he came home to study the rest of his AP Class courses and Russian, and occasionally had to receive packages he had ordered from Amazon.

Over those two weeks, Don Quixote gradually regained a little of his old high spirits.

He spent nearly a week carefully reviewing bank statements, tenant information, and the accountant's transfer records, finding more evidence—enough to help Susan recover even more of her losses.

One evening, while eating dinner with Li Wei, Don Quixote spoke about the matter with animated excitement.

"Ha! It was obvious that lousy accountant didn't graduate from any prestigious university. He only registered a plumbing company separately, and he was even its legal representative himself. I found him out with one investigation."

He said disdainfully, "When I used to do dirty work at the company, everything was layered within layers. Sometimes you knew perfectly well that a company was registered in the Cayman Islands, but there was still nothing you could do about it. Compared to that, this accountant is child's play."

"But if it weren't for him, we wouldn't be this lucky." Li Wei tossed Don Quixote a can of beer. "Here's to that lousy accountant."

"That's right." Don Quixote proudly took the beer and clinked it against his. "Here's to him being so lousy."

Looking at Don Quixote, whose face was clearly glowing with renewed energy, Li Wei lightly nudged him with his elbow. "Hey, Uncle, I heard Ms. Susan is still single. You've been divorced for so long too. Have you ever thought about asking her out?"

"How could that be possible?" Don Quixote jumped up. "Haven't I suffered enough because of women?"

Then he launched into another bitter rant at Li Wei, recounting the countless absurd women and their layers upon layers of tricks that he had encountered in the workplace and while starting his own company after leaving JPMorgan Chase. It was practically a collection of freaks.

"Don't get involved with women," he warned. "Be careful—just looking at them once in the gym could get you accused of sexual harassment."

Seeing how much he looked like someone whose tail had been stepped on, Li Wei could not help shrugging and chose not to continue the topic.

As for Don Quixote's dreams, the storyline had also undergone a few minor changes recently.

During one sleepwalking episode after the statue was moved back, Don Quixote solemnly announced that he was going to undertake an ascetic practice.

Then, over the next ten days or so, he actually did not sleepwalk again at all!

Because of that, his sleep improved considerably, making him think it was because he had changed beds.

The night before Li Wei was due to go to school for the entrance test, just as he was preparing to sleep early for the exam the next day, he suddenly heard rustling noises coming from downstairs again.