McDonald's Pacific Region Los Angeles headquarters, they've recently been inviting top high school students to participate in the end-of-month high school all-star game weekend. Actually, there's only one event that really matters, which is the dunk contest. The other games don't get much attention, not as much as the Adidas Training Camp games. The selling point of McDonald's high school all-star weekend is the dunk contest, the only event broadcasted nationwide.
Some invited players have responded, some have declined, but it's no big deal. What matters is the legendary "Strongest High School Dunker" Vince Carter has agreed to participate in the dunk contest, and that's enough!
This dunk contest doesn't require much expense. Apart from covering accommodation, it's just some basic venue costs, staff expenses, and bonus for players making it to the finals, way less than other commercial event expenses.
The invitations have been sent out for months; those who want to participate should have replied through phone, email, or letter. McDonald's feels the player invitations are almost done, and now they can start preparing for the event.
With only 10 days left until McDonald's high school all-star weekend starts, today is the deadline for submitting participant information. No new letters have been received in two days, and the staff preparing to compile the participant list for submission checks the mailbox one last time and finds surprisingly two letters today.
Upon opening, it turns out to be Zhang Hao and Paul Pierce from Inglewood High School in Southwest Los Angeles, who have performed well in California the past two years. They are the only Chinese high school students invited, and Pierce is California's best high school player this season.
Pierce was invited to sell tickets locally, make money from TV broadcast advertisements, and ticket sales are even better. With communication technology still backward, not many people outside of Florida know about Vince Carter who's still in high school.
Zhang Hao can also serve this purpose, but McDonald's initially didn't plan to invite a Chinese high school student, due to commercial concerns. Their Asia-Pacific market development department strongly suggested inviting Zhang Hao after learning the Pacific Region headquarters would host a high school dunk contest this year.
Although the Pacific Region headquarters agreed, they weren't as enthusiastic about the invitation as the Asia-Pacific market development department expected, quite unlike the effort put into communicating with Carter's family.
Nevertheless, Zhang Hao responded, and the staff added him to the list submitted to the event preparation director.
With Zhang Hao agreeing to participate in the dunk contest, McDonald's is naturally pleased. Even if they're not too enthusiastic, Zhang Hao's participation allows them to leverage his identity as a Chinese.
There's no need to sign Zhang Hao as an ambassador, but using the hype of Zhang Hao being one of the top 30 high school students in the country, McDonald's is eager to capitalize on this without spending much money. Offering a bit of bonus—if Zhang Hao wins it, great; if not, that's fine—they can use Zhang Hao's Chinese identity to promote themselves in China.
The competitive pressure from KFC is immense. In China, a country with over a billion people and a huge food market, McDonald's doesn't want to miss the opportunity to expand there.
...
It's April 16th, another 5 days have passed, and Zhang Hao's lifespan is now down to 374 days. After tonight, it will be 373 days.
The pressure of visibly watching his lifespan decrease day by day is indeed driving him a bit crazy. Fortunately, the memories of the future provide a sense of "it's great to still be alive," allowing him to calmly face all this and make efforts to find ways to survive.
What is the method of working hard?
It's training!
Being able to feel his mid-range shot steadily improving and perceiving progress clearly allows him to better carry out the "plan to survive."
After sending out the letter, Zhang Hao spent the past few days training. Compared to before, when it took a long time to feel progress, the recent improvements have made Zhang Hao excited every day.
In just 5 days, his mid-range shooting ability value has increased from 75 to 79! Zhang Hao considers 70 to 79 as good. If 90-94 is top-notch, then 85-89 should be first-rate, and 80-84 is excellent! An NBA-caliber, excellent mid-range shot is within reach!
Not only are the evaluations improving, but he can also feel the precision of his shooting increasing. Compared to previous progress speeds, it's now completely appropriate to describe it as changing with each passing day.
Zhang Hao gets out of bed and heads to the small living room outside his bedroom. The apartment, though old, is quite large, over 40 square meters, with a small living room and a bathroom. Newly awake, Zhang Hao sees a chubby kid playing computer games in his living room.
This outdated computer, with a bulky monitor, frustratingly slow internet, and poor configuration… this is from Zhang Hao's future perspective.
For Pierce, this is a treasure!
After Pierce's mother was visited by the dean of nursing and the manager and head coach of the basketball team from the University of Kansas, confirming that Pierce would attend the University of Kansas, she stopped worrying much about Pierce's studies.
Because Pierce got into college with a major in nursing that's easy to find a job with, his mother is very satisfied. All three of her sons got into college and received full scholarships. As for whether Pierce can become a professional athlete like his second brother, his mother isn't too concerned… mainly because of Pierce's chubby appearance, she doesn't really think he could become a professional player like his second brother eventually did. He might end up like his older brother, who despite having talent, ultimately lost the chance to become a professional player due to lack of self-discipline with diet. Hence, Pierce now plays video games every day, and his mother says he can play as much as he wants after getting into college…