On the other side, as soon as Georgie returned home and comfortably lay down, he saw Sheldon walk in with something hidden behind his back.
"This is my room. If there's nothing, please leave. I'm not in the mood to argue with you today..." Georgie said, sounding unenthusiastic.
"I've found the evidence," Sheldon stopped at the doorway and said out of the blue.
"What evidence?" Georgie glanced at the doorway, his tone a little impatient.
"Evidence that you cheated on your last test..." Sheldon said, pulling out a pair of flat skateboard shoes from behind his back.
On the sole of these white shoes, mathematical formulas written with an oil-based pen were faintly visible.
"What do you want? Are you going to report me?" Georgie recognized the shoes, but he remained calm.
Now that the game was over, Georgie didn't care about his last math grade at all.
"No, quite the opposite. I'll help you keep this secret," Sheldon threw the shoes on the ground and continued in a negotiating tone, "In exchange, I need you to help me once too."
Hearing that Sheldon actually needed his help, Georgie became a little interested: "Tell me about it—"
"I need you to teach me how to successfully trick people," Sheldon asked seriously.
"Trick people?" Georgie's face showed a puzzled expression: "Who do you want to trick?"
In Georgie's mind, his intelligent younger brother had always been a "good kid." Given his personality, it was indeed surprising that he suddenly wanted to learn how to trick people.
"That's none of your business. You just need to tell me the tricks to trick people. I know you're very talented in this regard," Sheldon analyzed, his eyes occasionally glancing at the skateboard shoes on the ground, carrying a hint of threat.
"Heh. Unless you tell me why, I won't help you. Even if you tell the teacher about me cheating on the test, I don't care," Georgie pouted, his attitude very firm.
As mentioned earlier, Georgie cheating on the math test was entirely to qualify for the football game. Now that Medford's Summer League was over, he didn't care about any damned math grades.
Instead, Georgie was very interested in why Sheldon wanted to learn to trick people.
Perhaps this could become leverage for him to counter Sheldon in the future.
Sheldon thought seriously for a while before finally relenting: "I can tell you the reason, but you have to swear not to tell anyone. Otherwise, I'll tell Mom that you still have adult magazines hidden in your room."
"Don't talk nonsense, the last magazine was already taken by Mom last time," Georgie said, feigning composure.
"Really?" Sheldon took a few steps forward: "I bet you still have stuff hidden under your bed."
"How do you know? You've been in my room. Damn it..." Georgie was startled at first, and then anger rose in his heart.
You know, privacy is very important to a boy in adolescence. If not handled well, it can escalate to social death, a serious social issue.
"It seems I didn't guess wrong..." Sheldon wasn't sure before, but now looking at Georgie's reaction, he could confirm that the other party still had adult magazines hidden.
Clearly, in this confrontation between the brothers, Sheldon once again used his intelligence to suppress Georgie.
"Alright, I swear not to tell anyone about you wanting to learn to trick people, but you also have to promise not to tell Mom about the magazines." For his precious study materials, Georgie had no choice but to compromise.
Seeing Sheldon nod, Georgie continued: "Now, can you tell me why you want to learn to trick people?"
"Of course." After reaching an agreement, Sheldon also explained his reason.
It turned out that ever since the last math test, Sheldon had realized his lack of knowledge.
To make up for this weakness, Sheldon had borrowed a complete set of twelfth grade textbooks.
However, a new problem arose.
He wanted to self-study the twelfth grade curriculum, but found that he simply didn't have enough time for self-study.
So, Sheldon set his sights on the afternoon physical activity time. He wanted to ask the chess teacher for leave so that he could have enough personal time every afternoon.
As for how to get the leave approved by the chess instructor. Sheldon thought for a long time and finally came up with the idea of feigning illness.
"You're lying just to get more time to study?" Georgie was even more surprised after hearing Sheldon's reason.
In his mind, studying was a very painful thing. And Sheldon, who could go to such lengths for studying, could only be described as a freak.
"Uh-huh, it's just a white lie," Sheldon admitted expressionlessly.
In Sheldon's mind, a lie that doesn't hurt others and benefits himself can be called a white lie.
"Is that how a white lie is explained?" Georgie found it a bit difficult to understand, but thinking of Sheldon's thought process, he decided to skip this topic for now.
Getting straight to the point, Georgie continued: "To learn to trick people, you need to consider the actual situation. Taking feigning illness as an example, if you want to pretend to be lame, you can hit your leg hard. Half-truth, half-false is more realistic..."
"It was indeed right to find you. You are truly talented in this area," Sheldon first affirmed the other party's idea, and then said: "Is there a simpler way that doesn't harm the body?"
"Of course there is. You can pretend to have a high fever. Before asking for leave, you just need to run a few laps vigorously until your body gets warm," Georgie said with great experience: "I've used this method, and it's very effective."
Just hearing about exercise, Sheldon shook his head in rejection, vetoing the suggestion.
"Then pretend to have a cold. Drink more cold water the night before and sleep with the cold wind blowing on you all night. If that's not enough, before asking for leave the next day, you can also apply an ice pack to your head..." Georgie continued to offer mischievous ideas, finally reminding him: "Of course, this method also carries a high risk. If you're not careful, you'll really catch a cold."
After hearing Georgie's methods again, Sheldon frowned. He asked discontentedly, "Are there any other ways?"
"Of course there are. You can use a bandage to sling your arm and pretend to have a dislocated shoulder. This is already the simplest method," Georgie offered randomly.
"Very good, I understand..." Sheldon's eyes lit up, and he turned to walk out, thoughtfully closing the door for Georgie before leaving.
For Sheldon, pretending to have a dislocated arm was a good method because it didn't harm his body and made him look pitiful, thereby gaining sympathy.
The only thing to pay attention to was that he needed to avoid everyone during the afternoon physical activity time to prevent his feigned illness from being exposed.
...
After an afternoon, when Mike had completely conquered Karen, he returned home to see the Cooper family and Connie waiting for him in the living room.
"What happened?" Mike asked.
"Something good happened..." Connie said with a smile, "Let George tell you."
"It's nothing big, it's just that I'm going to treat everyone to a big dinner out tonight," George immediately explained.
If it were in the past, George would definitely be reluctant to eat out at a fancy restaurant.
However, recently, the Cooper family has been having a string of good things happen. First, Mary found a job. Although her weekly salary was only two hundred dollars, it still eased the family's financial pressure.
Next, because of the team's performance this year, the school intended to increase George's salary.
As the saying goes: ninety-nine percent of the world's troubles can be solved with money.
Without financial pressure, the Cooper family's quality of life naturally had to improve accordingly.