Chapter 12
Revisiting the Fairy Leon's Shop
"It's okay," Li Wei said firmly. "Go ahead and join me. You can support me from behind."
He doesn't even weigh 80 kilograms now, and he's supposed to push himself up to double his weight on his second day at the gym? Michael thinks that's a bit overestimating himself.
"Alright, alright," Michael shrugged, not trying to dissuade him. "I'll protect you from being crushed."
Michael, who has been practicing for almost a year, thinks this is a typical beginner's overconfidence period, where they are eager to prove themselves.
He and Li Wei each took a 10-kilogram barbell plate and placed it on either side. Then Michael walked to the top of the bench press rack, his hands loosely gripping, ready to protect Li Wei at any moment.
For some reason, he suddenly felt that the classmate in front of him seemed to have grown a little bigger than before, and there were already some obvious muscle contours.
Is it an illusion caused by blood congestion? He muttered to himself as he watched Li Wei pull out the bar, touch his chest, and push up.
"Okay... next... Wardfa!"
He watched as Li Wei, who had only been able to push a 60-kilogram barbell with him just moments before, now slowly and firmly pushed an 80-kilogram barbell, and judging from his movement trajectory, he seemed to still have energy left.
"No, buddy," he said, watching Li Wei get up from the bench press, his eyes wide, "you've only been training for less than a week, haven't you?"
"Yeah," Li Wei grinned, rubbing his prominent deltoid muscles, "maybe I'm just naturally strong?"
He stood in front of the mirror, looking at his well-defined chest and arms, and happily spun around.
"It must be because the nerve recruitment ability of Asians is too strong," Michael said, standing aside, trying to reassure himself. "Asians are indeed very good at weightlifting, especially in the light and medium weight categories."
Li Wei felt that after pushing 80kg, he had exhausted his upper body strength. He did not stay on the bench press rack, but went to the leg strength area and tested his limit with free weight squats.
When his strength was 0.9, Li Wei could only bench press 50-60 kg. Now that his strength has increased to 1.0, he is able to bench press twice his own weight.
The squat, which involves the full use of leg strength, has increased by 30 kilograms from 65 kilograms to 95 kilograms.
Michael, standing to the side, couldn't understand why Levi was panting heavily after pushing 50 kilograms just now, and was still panting heavily after pushing 80 kilograms now.
Will he still be panting even when pushing 100 kilograms next time we see him? Is he deliberately playing dumb to fool others?
"I'm going to get some water and then take a shower," Li Wei said as he walked over. "I have to go back to study this afternoon."
"Alright," Michael had no choice but to bump fists with him. "I'll practice a little longer."
The seemingly unremarkable classmate shattered his Dao heart on the very first day, which made Michael, who had originally planned to leave, train a little longer.
Li Wei walked to a corner, picked up his fully charged phone, took out the 1.5-liter extra-large water bottle he had bought from a dollar store a couple of days ago, filled it with mineral water under the water dispenser, and then went into the shower room in the changing room with satisfaction.
He had figured it out: the gym had a good environment, you could charge your devices and shower, and you could get two large cups of mineral water for free each time.
He had already checked; a 1.5-liter bottle of the same mineral water sells for $0.99 in the supermarket. Every time he practices here, he fills up a cup, drinks it all, and then gets another cup to take away, saving $1.98 a day.
If he comes to practice every day, the money he saves each month, including electricity and water bills for showering, is almost the same as the monthly gym membership.
Having fallen on hard times and ended up in a basement, Li Wei should uphold the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation: diligence and thrift.
By the time I finished showering and washing my clothes in the nearby public laundry room, it was already getting late.
When Li Wei came back, he bought a box of 12 discounted eggs that were close to their expiration date, a bag of chicken drumsticks, and a bottle of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce. After returning to the basement, he took out the leftover rice that he had cooked the day before from the refrigerator.
Seeing that it was still early and there was still some time before Don Quixote returned, Li Wei continued studying the AP Macroeconomics textbook.
Compared to version 1.0, version 1.2 not only has a much stronger memory, but also a much stronger ability to understand complex concepts.
He memorized almost a quarter of a thick AP macroeconomics textbook in just over a day.
...
squeak-
The basement door was pushed open, and Don Quixote walked in, cursing the heartless foreman.
He slammed himself heavily onto the broken sofa, grimacing and rubbing his shoulder as he smoked a cigarette.
"How's today?" Li Wei closed his book, looking at Don Quixote, who was smoking and looking like a wild dog. "Wounded your shoulder?"
"It's the same old problem, it always happens like this for days after it rains..." Don Quixote looked at Li Wei's clean face and snorted, "You're having a good time, you brat, like some Upper East Side nobleman."
"It's alright," Li Wei shrugged, went to the stove and started working. "I worked for 3 hours, served a beautiful lady, and got $102 after tax."
"Fuck, stop it! I spend all day carrying bricks and washing dishes on the construction site and this is all I get, just because you're better looking than me? When I was 17, I was a handsome young man in my prime, so why didn't anyone give me $100 to do this kind of work back then?"
While cracking eggs, Li Wei glanced at Don Quixote.
"I have my doubts," he said. "If you were as handsome as me when you were 17, you would have died of an STD long ago."
Don Quixote, the lone knight, instinctively scratched his crotch after hearing Livy's words, then thought about it carefully and said, "What you said is quite true."
"Hurry up and eat something, you still have to wash the dishes later," Li Wei said, holding a large bowl of oily fried rice mixed with eggs, chicken thigh meat, and Lao Gan Ma chili sauce. "This only costs $5, which is much cheaper than ordering takeout."
Don Quixote grunted, forcibly moved his right shoulder, took the bowl Li Wei handed him, and buried his head in the food.
After finishing his meal, Li Wei was somewhat surprised that Don Quixote had actually chosen to wash the dishes. What surprised Li Wei even more was that he had taken the kitchen trash with him when he left the house. This was quite unusual – when Li Wei first arrived, the basement was piled with a lot of trash, and Li Wei was the one who took it out every morning.
Don Quixote did not sleepwalk that night, which made Livy both relieved and somewhat disappointed that he had slept well.
The next morning, Li Wei went to Lyon's shop again.
Unexpectedly, he found that besides himself, there was another person in front of him in the store, who was arguing fiercely with Leon about something.