The timing of the two events didn’t overlap—McDonald’s All-American started on the 25th and ended on the 28th, so it was completely possible to participate in both competitions. This year, both were held in Los Angeles, and as a local high school basketball star, Henry Bolton received invitations to both.

After all, attending one or two makes no difference, so Henry Bolton took out both invitation cards, filled them out, put them in envelopes, affixed stamps, and dropped them together into the mailbox in front of his apartment.

In the evening, he went out with Pierce for a couple of burgers for dinner, then Henry Bolton returned to his room, took a shower, and got ready for bed.

Lying in bed, Henry Bolton didn’t wish to wake up and find this was all a dream. Although his current situation was difficult—if he returned to China, he might not survive a year, and staying in the US could become a burden on his family—it wasn’t a dead end. There was still a chance to survive, and that was enough. He’d rather treat his memories of the future as just a dream.

“I am who I am. I am Henry Bolton... I have always been Henry Bolton.”

Henry Bolton’s resolve solidified, and thinking about the afternoon’s training, he felt a surge of excitement.

Knowing how to get stronger, and with a clear boost to his training effectiveness, Henry Bolton felt a certain confidence in breaking out of his current predicament. Thinking about the upcoming Adidas training camp, if he could get his mid-range shot up to NBA-level before then... a camp like that would definitely attract a lot of attention from colleges.

Looking at the memories of this era through the lens of his future memories, Henry Bolton regretted his past self. He felt he’d missed out on so much, but fortunately, he was different now. Besides, regret was useless—what mattered was seizing every opportunity that came his way from now on!

Chapter 5: Gained More Life!

At the McDonald’s Pacific Region Los Angeles headquarters, they were currently inviting top high school players to participate in the end-of-month high school All-Star Game. In reality, only one event truly mattered: the dunk contest. The other games didn’t attract much attention, certainly not as much as the Adidas camp. The main selling point of the McDonald’s High School All-American Weekend was the dunk contest, which was the only event broadcast live nationwide.

Some invited players had replied, some had declined, but none of that mattered. What they cared about most was that the legendary “Best High School Dunker,” Vince Carter, had agreed to participate in the dunk contest. That was enough!

The dunk contest didn’t require much investment—besides covering food and lodging, there were just some basic venue and staff costs, and prize money for the finalists. Compared to other commercial events, the expenses were much lower.

The invitations had been sent out months ago. Those who wanted to participate should have already replied by phone, email, or letter. The McDonald’s side felt the player invitation work was basically done, and they could now start preparing for the event itself.

With just 10 days left until the McDonald’s High School All-American Weekend, today was the deadline for submitting participation materials. It had been two days since they’d received any new mail, and as the staff member preparing to finalize the player list made one last trip to the mailbox, to their surprise, there were two letters today.

Opening them, they found they were from Henry Bolton and Paul Pierce of Inglewood High School in southwest Los Angeles, which had performed very well in California over the past two years. Henry Bolton was the only Chinese high school student they had invited, and Pierce was California’s best high school player this season.

Pierce was invited to help sell tickets locally and make money from TV ads, and of course, selling tickets was even better. Information technology was still pretty backward in those days—outside of Florida, not many people even knew about Carter, who was still a high schooler.

Henry Bolton could serve a similar purpose, but McDonald’s hadn’t originally planned to invite a Chinese high schooler. This was a business decision. Their Asia-Pacific market development department had strongly recommended inviting Henry Bolton when they learned the Pacific Region headquarters was holding a high school dunk contest this year.

The Pacific Region headquarters agreed, but their enthusiasm for inviting Henry Bolton wasn’t nearly as high as the Asia-Pacific market development department had hoped—nothing like the effort they put into reaching out to Carter’s family.

Still, Henry Bolton responded, and the staff added him to the list submitted to the event’s organizing director.

With Henry Bolton agreeing to participate in the dunk contest, McDonald’s was naturally pleased. Even if they weren’t that proactive, with Henry Bolton agreeing, they could leverage his Chinese identity.

They didn’t need to sign Henry Bolton as a spokesperson, but they were eager to use the hype of Henry Bolton being one of the top 30 high school players in the US. It wouldn’t cost much—just a bit of prize money. If Henry Bolton could win it, great; if not, so be it. Either way, they could use Henry Bolton’s Chinese identity to promote themselves in China.

The competition with KFC was intense. China, with its population of over a billion, was a massive food and beverage market, and McDonald’s didn’t want to miss the chance to expand there.

...

The date was April 16th. Another five days had passed, and Henry Bolton’s remaining lifespan was down to 374 days. After tonight, it would be 373.

The pressure of watching his own lifespan decrease day by day was enough to drive him crazy. Fortunately, with those memories of the future, the feeling of “how lucky I am to be alive” allowed him to face it all calmly and work hard to find a way to survive.

What was the way to work hard?