The date is April 10, 1995.
The place is an international student apartment in Inglewood, Los Angeles. The school he attends is one of the top private high schools in California, Inglewood High School.
More than a month ago, he and Pierce led the team to win the California High School League Championship. Pierce was elected California Mr. Basketball, and he was selected for the All-State First Team.
Currently, NCAA March Madness has just ended a few days ago, with Eddie O'Bannon leading UCLA to win the NCAA Basketball Championship for the first time in 19 years.
Just a couple of days ago, UCLA, after winning the NCAA title, rejected Zhang Hao's basketball scholarship application and suggested he enroll based on his exam scores.
But Zhang Hao doesn't want to deal with this for now.
"One more year to live?"
Zhang Hao lay on the bed, looking at the "countdown" on the screen, with mixed emotions.
"Memories" of the "future" provide him with one year to live exuberantly, which is like a godsend happiness to him.
But the memory of his present self has a significant impact on him, and another thought in his mind is—it's so miserable, a young high school student, yet only has one year to live!
These two complex emotions entangled together, leading to the final thought—I really want to live!
Zhang Hao recalled bits and pieces of his studying abroad in the United States and couldn't help but smirk... In this time, the era of severe skin color discrimination in the United States, coming to study here, also thinking of breaking into the American sports industry bypassing the domestic system, isn't it a joke?
Thinking about his own dad, a savvy businessman, but when it comes to this matter of reflecting his own youthful dreams onto his son, he was still a bit naive.
This is the perspective of Zhang Hao using the "future" memory to view the current situation because the version of him with memories of the future surpassed the present memory version of him in terms of knowledge, vision, personality, social skills... Therefore, it naturally took over because the more informed memory became dominant.
Currently, it's 1995, the second semester of senior year in high school, the state high school league has long ended, and even the NCAA tournament has finished. Colleges are pursuing high school prodigies, and he is already applying to various universities.
Last year in junior year, he had already cleared various exams and achieved excellent results in academic subjects. He doesn't lack the chance to attend college, but the problem facing him isn't about getting into a college.
A basketball scholarship! That is what he wants.
Many years ago, before he even started elementary school, his retired army dad discovered his "potential" and wanted to cultivate him in basketball. His dad was also a great basketball player in the army and had tried out for the Bayi Team's second team but failed.
As for his "potential"… it was his height, speed, and jumping ability.
But the situation at home wasn't very good, and if he wanted to attend a prestigious private school in the United States, the tuition fees would be prohibitively high for Chinese people in the '90s.
So he needed a scholarship!
The NCAA Division I full basketball scholarship, which just concluded the 94-95 season, was 13,772 US Dollars. At an exchange rate of about 8.4 between US Dollars and RMB now, it could save his family a lot of money.
However, getting a full basketball scholarship from a Division I school is very difficult!
NCAA Division I universities are limited… not few, but considering the number of college students in the United States, it's a small proportion.
Although NCAA Division I basketball teams have 15 full basketball scholarship slots, college teams aren't professional league teams. A team wouldn't only have 15 people, as a team from freshman to senior along with substitute players would total at least 30 to 50 people, and in larger schools, even more. Not all games are played by starting players due to injuries or temporary leaves, so substitutes must step in. Therefore, scholarships can't just go to those few players; several to even dozens of full scholarship slots might be distributed among all the coaches' designated list. Thus, those getting an independent full scholarship aren't rare, but each university might have just about two or three such players.
All of these individuals were undoubtedly the most dazzling stars during their high school days.
Take chatty Pierce as an example; despite being chubby, he had outstanding talent, incredibly versatile skills, and seemed to know everything even before attending college.
However, for Zhang Hao, the biggest headache isn't how well he played in high school - he has a bit of a reputation, ranked top 30 in U.S. high school players… but the key is, he's Chinese!
Zhang Hao stood up, went to the bathroom, and washed his face with cold water. His current situation wasn't good; as Aprile Aprile Clark said, he could opt to go directly to college since his SAT scores were excellent, but money was the key!
After washing his face and drying it, Zhang Hao looked at himself in the mirror…
"With this build, working construction I'd easily make 500 bucks a day… wait, this is the 90s, so at least 50 bucks a day for someone strong and a bit handsome..."
Just as Zhang Hao's mind began to wander, Pierce's voice came from outside the room: "Aix, your dad called..."
…
…
"I know, Dad, I'll try my best to get the scholarship. I know you said not to worry about the money, that you'd figure something out, but why not get what I can..."
Zhang Hao hung up the phone, contemplating the experiences of the past two years, sighing. Although he had the fallback option of attending a Division I university with family funding, entering that way would likely mean a not-so-great status in the team! A scholarship represents not just money but also status on the team!