The longest river

Chapter 3 A Kind Family
When Yang Shuai slammed the ball into the basket with a one-handed dunk after a breakthrough, bringing the score to 8-0 in his one-on-one match against Luther, he placed his right hand against his left hand, and then both hands together on the left side of his cheek, making a Curry-style goodnight celebration gesture.

Then, he didn't forget to remind the other person: "Hot dog sandwiches and salad dressing for tomorrow morning."

"Negative energy from Mike Luther +488".

At this moment, the onlookers cheered and rushed towards Yang Shuai.

These team members had suffered a lot of oppression from Luther on a regular basis, but they dared not resist because of Luther's status. Now that someone had stood up and challenged Luther, how could they miss such an opportunity to vent their anger?

Feeling the cheers around him, Yang Shuai experienced the intense pleasure that basketball brought him for the first time.

In his past life, he also watched and played sports, but it was mostly just a hobby. His foreseeable future was to get into a good university and then work as an ordinary employee in a company.

But in this life, he can use basketball to embark on a completely different path.

After the celebration ended, the players left the stadium one after another.

Just then, a short black man walked up to Yang Shuai.

Yang Shuai also learned about the other party's identity from the original owner's memories.

Chris Rondo, the starting point guard for Varsity, is also one of the few players on the school team who has a good attitude towards the original owner of this body.

“Yang, Mike has a lot of friends off campus. You should go through the north gate alone later,” Rondo reminded him.

"Thank you." Yang Shuai gave Rondo a grateful look.

"Do you have anything else planned for tonight? How about coming to my place for dinner?" Rondo then asked.

This wasn't the first time Rondo had extended an invitation, but the original owner hadn't gone before because of her inferiority complex.

"Okay," Yang Shuai said with a smile.

Although he didn't know what Rondo's purpose was, besides training, eating was the most important thing he needed to solve.

"That's great!" Rondo exclaimed with delight, excitedly putting his arm around Yang Shuai's shoulder.

As the sun sets, two boys, around sixteen or seventeen years old, walk home, laughing and chatting.

In contrast to the original owner who was insecure and introverted, Yang Shuai was a cheerful and outgoing person, which quickly brought the two of them closer.

It was only at this point that Yang Shuai had time to take a closer look at the city of Cleveland.

In the distance, one can see the vast Lake Erie and the bridge connecting the east and west parts of the city. On both sides of the road in front of you, there are rows of pear trees that stretch as far as the eye can see, and behind the trees stand a cluster of buildings of varying heights.

They were as if they were walking through a concrete jungle surrounded by nature.

This city was unfamiliar to Yang Shuai. He had never been abroad in his previous life, let alone come here.

But the city is also familiar to him because of LeBron James; the name Cleveland is not unfamiliar to Chinese people.

Of course, James was only eight or nine years old at this time, and was probably still living a nomadic life somewhere in Akron.

About half an hour later, they turned from the main road onto a side road, and after walking for a while, the scene in front of them suddenly opened up.

The first thing that catches the eye is a hill, with two highways running along its slopes, where vehicles are constantly flowing.

Below the road is an oak forest that stretches all the way to the foot of the mountain, where rows of clotheslines hang out to dry, with all sorts of clothes, pants, and milk caps fluttering in the wind.

There is a stream at the foot of the mountain, and next to the stream is a row of low wooden houses, of which Longjia is one.

"Mom, we are back!"

As Rondo shouted, a woman walked out of the house with a smile.

Yang Shuai stared intently, then froze on the spot.

In that instant, his previous doubts were answered.

No wonder Rondo was so good to him, or rather to the original owner of this body, because he saw a Chinese face.

“Yang, this is my mother, Michelle,” Rondo introduced.

"Hello, Aunt Michelle," Yang Shuai greeted her politely with a smile.

Hearing Yang Shuai address her, Michelle smiled and said, "You guys have fun first, dinner will be ready soon."

Before Michelle could finish speaking, a commotion erupted as two children, a boy and a girl, ran out of the house. The boy looked to be eight or nine years old, while the girl appeared to be only four or five.

Rondo quickly went over and hugged the girl, then reached out and patted the boy's head.

Rondo then turned to Yang Shuai and introduced them: the man was called Alex, and the woman was called Aria; they were his younger brother and sister.

As they talked, they entered the house, and Yang Shuai saw the layout of the house.

It has two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Although it doesn't look big, the furniture is neatly arranged and it's very clean.

When Yang Shuai followed Rondo into his room, he saw that there were two small beds inside. Because they were close together, the whole room looked a bit crowded.

Soon, his gaze was drawn to the posters on the wall.

Even if Yang Shuai is a Gen Z, he can recognize that iconic hard-boiled egg at a glance.

Michael Jordan, who had just created the Bulls dynasty, had an unparalleled influence in this era.

"Yang, you might not believe it, but I think you can make it to the NBA someday." Rondo said, putting his hand on Yang's shoulder again.

"If that day ever comes, I will definitely invite you to watch the game live," Yang Shuai said with a smile as he turned his head.

Even if he had traveled through time, he knew he was far from being in the NBA. Talent, opportunity, and even resilience were all indispensable; it was truly a battle of thousands crossing a single-plank bridge.

But the emergence of the Changhe system gave him a possibility. He believed that as long as he was willing to work hard, the NBA was not a pipe dream for him.

Under the curious gazes of Alex and Arya, the two chatted away.

Not long after, Michelle came in and called them to dinner.

At that moment, the man of the house returned, Robert Rondo, a strong black man.

Once the table was set, Yang Shuai saw tonight's dinner: potatoes as the main dish, one portion for each person; a stew in the center of the table with beef chunks, potato dumplings, carrots, and some steamed corn. Robert Rondo was rather quiet, but Michelle was very enthusiastic, and with the children chattering away, the meal was quite enjoyable.

Although Yang Shuai was very hungry, he didn't eat much.

From the moment he arrived at Longjia's house, he could tell from every detail that the family was not well-off.

After we finished eating, he also helped clean up the dishes.

However, when he was about to help wash the dishes, Michelle stopped him and told him to go back to playing with Rondo and the others.

After a while, Yang Shuai checked the time and got up to leave.

“I’ll have Robert take you back,” Michelle said warmly.

"No need, Aunt Michelle, I can walk back by myself."

"It's not safe outside this late," Michelle said, still worried.

"It's okay, I can take care of myself."

"How about I call your parents and have them come pick you up?" Michelle suggested when she saw Yang Shuai's insistence.

Yang Shuai was momentarily dazed upon hearing this.

In his past life, when he was little, he would often go to his classmates' houses to play, and his parents would always come to pick him up on time.

That was in China, where nighttime is relatively safe. In terms of safety, the United States in the original owner's memory was not safe at all at night, let alone now in the 90s.

"What's the phone number?"

"No need, they... they're gone." A bitter look appeared on Yang Shuai's face.

His parents are now in a different world, and his parents in this world have abandoned him one after another, so it's no different from them being gone.

Michelle froze, she hadn't expected Yang Shuai to be an orphan.

After regaining her senses, she didn't press the matter further. Instead, she asked Yang Shuai to stay overnight and gave him a reason he couldn't refuse.

"If anything happens to you when you get back tonight, we'll be responsible."

Since Michelle had put it that way, Yang Shuai had no choice but to stay.

He took a shower here and temporarily put on Robert Rondo's clothes.

At night, Michelle pushed the two small beds together to make one big bed. Aria slept with her parents, and the remaining three of them slept sideways without feeling cramped.

This experience was novel for all three children, and they chatted until late into the night.

After the Rondo brothers fell asleep, Yang Shuai tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

The environment here is much more comfortable than the park bench last night.

If he wants to avoid sleeping on the streets or even dying there, he must work hard to make it into the NBA.

That's the only way to change your fate.

With this in mind, Yang Shuai entered the system space again.

The system is currently displaying 2711 points.

His one-on-one duel with Luther was very rewarding.

However, he also discovered something during the duel: as the duel continued, even if he could keep provoking Luther, the points he gained would gradually decrease.

This shows that it's not feasible to accumulate points using a single object in a short period of time.

After scanning the system, Yang Shuai spent 2000 points to redeem a D-level bounce pack.

The original owner's static talents were already sufficient; what he needed to improve now was his dynamic talents, namely his running and jumping abilities.

After the exchange, his panel changed accordingly. His maximum dunking, blocking, and rebounding abilities all increased by 2 points, and the corresponding attributes in the secondary interface also increased by 1 to 2 points.

In addition, his shooting attributes have also been improved by 1 point, mainly because the various anti-interference shooting abilities in the second-level interface have also been improved by 2 points.

This result exceeded his expectations.

Keep in mind that this was only the lowest tier of the physical enhancement package, and he achieved this in a single one-on-one fight.

The next morning, while Rondo and the others were still asleep, Yang Shuai had already quietly gotten up.

He planned to have a training session before class.

However, just as he tiptoed out of the room, he bumped right into Michelle, who was preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

"I'm going to school first," Yang Shuai quickly explained to avoid any misunderstanding.

Unexpectedly, Michelle invited him to sit down first.

"Can you speak Chinese?" After he sat down with a question in his mind, Michelle sat down opposite him.

Yang Shuai nodded.

“My Chinese name is Lin Xiulan, you can call me Aunt Lin.” Lin Xiulan’s Chinese makes her seem even more approachable.

"Okay, Aunt Lin."

“It’s true, I was still worried about you yesterday, so I called the principal and learned about your situation from him. You don’t mind, do you?”

Lin Xiulan's eyes were full of love at this moment. Anyone who heard about the original owner's experience would feel sympathy.

Yang Shuai shook his head. Although Lin Xiulan's actions were somewhat unexpected, they were essentially the same as yesterday, all for his safety.

However, Lin Xiulan's next words were beyond his expectations.

"Here's the thing, your Uncle Robert and I have discussed it, and we'd like to adopt you. We're wondering if you'd be willing?"

(End of this chapter)