Chapter Three Playing Ball with the Children

"Can you teach me how to play?" The girl blinked, looking at Lin Fei with bright and spirited eyes. "Actually, I've always wanted to play, but I never had the time, and there was no one to accompany me!"

"Hehe!" Lin Fei offered a simple, honest smile. This was such a familiar line; perhaps recalling something, Lin Fei just smiled faintly.

"I have a few kids who are your fans. Do you think you might have some free time to go teach them how to play?"

Lin Fei's mouth hung wide open. He looked at Avril's somewhat innocent eyes in utter bewilderment, finding it almost hard to believe.

Avril stuck out her tongue and made a playful face. "Hehe, they aren't the children I gave birth to; they're a few orphans cared for by my charity foundation. They all love watching you play. When I went to visit them last week, they said their biggest wish was for you to teach them how to play."

"Really?" Lin Fei smiled faintly.

"How does this coming Saturday sound?" Avril straightforwardly set a time for Lin Fei.

The two of them drove off, following the flow of their feelings into the distance.

Finally, Sunday arrived. Early in the morning, Avril appeared right downstairs from Lin Fei's apartment, completely unconcerned about avoiding suspicion or gossip.

"The kids called me last night, and knowing you were coming, they couldn't sleep all night. Hurry up!"

When Lin Fei arrived at the place where the children stayed, the scene that greeted his eyes was truly astonishing.

The kids had already set up their positions, intending to play a game. But the moment they saw Lin Fei arrive, they rushed forward en masse, surrounding him and immediately starting a barrage of chatter.

"Oh! My idol! I must be dreaming!" the kids exclaimed in wonder.

"Brother Lin Fei, do you think Sister Avril is the prettiest girl in the world?" A series of innocent questions from the children made Lin Fei burst into happy laughter.

"Sister Avril said you're going to be her boyfriend?" another child brought up. Lin Fei laughed even harder. To speak of a more realistic matter, traditional Chinese culture favored modest and virtuous partners, but this Canadian girl was truly captivating. Lin Fei wasn't even entirely sure if it was love yet, but from an outsider's perspective, the pace at which their relationship was developing was exceptionally fast.

Before they had exchanged many words, the children began clamoring for a match against Lin Fei.

Of course, Lin Fei gladly accepted. Sometimes, being with children was simply a pure joy.

The kids divided into teams of four. Naturally, Lin Fei was one of the four on his team.

At the start, Lin Fei passed the ball to a little kid and made a symbolic cut.

Then, something that left Lin Fei dumbstruck occurred. The child who received the ball did not hesitate for a second and shot directly from beyond the three-point line. To everyone's surprise, the ball swished straight through the net. Right after, when Lin Fei restarted play, another little kid received the ball and immediately shot without hesitation, scoring as well. The children's dribbling motions, ball-handling techniques, and shooting forms were all remarkably polished, bearing a striking resemblance to Lin Fei's own. Growing up in the United States, a nation with the greatest grassroots foundation for basketball where virtually every child plays a little, this sport was practically America's national pastime, much like soccer in Brazil or table tennis in China.

The kids were overjoyed, while Lin Fei stood there dumbfounded for a long time. Today's kids were truly formidable! At such a young age, they already possessed such astonishing shooting touch from the perimeter.

"Haha! Brother Lin Fei, you know what? We're all learning your shooting form now. Hehe! What do you think? Is our level pretty good? We all learned it from you." A child laughed as he spoke to Lin Fei.

"We're all learning your dribbling and your shooting now," another child echoed.

Playing a game with these kids, Lin Fei actually found himself completely blown out by a group of children. If reporters were to discover this, it would undoubtedly become the biggest headline.

A genuine sense of joy welled up in Lin Fei's heart. He never imagined his impact could be so profound, with children everywhere competing to imitate him. He couldn't help but feel a sudden surge of responsibility. He had to set a good example and make sure he didn't lead the kids astray. It truly verified that old saying: the power of an idol is boundless.

However, this also brought to light another realization. These children were all capable of cultivating a precise, long-range three-point shot. If an NBA player with astonishing natural talent and superhuman athletic ability were to train to shoot from deep just like Lin Fei, they would undoubtedly become another completely unguardable player in the league. Lin Fei wouldn't seem so unique anymore.

Of course, that was perhaps a conversation for the future; for now, Lin Fei had already become a phenomenon-level presence.

Still, there were many analytics experts dissecting Lin Fei, seemingly trying to count every single strand of his hair. Some experts even concluded that as the league implemented more targeted defenses against players like Lin Fei, he might no longer maintain such impressive statistics and court dominance.

Realizing this, Lin Fei naturally felt compelled to further refine his skills. He remained steadfast in his core strength: his physical attributes weren't stellar, and he lacked any "so-called natural talent," so all he could do was continuously make himself stronger. Although many people already considered Lin Fei one of the rare dominant players in the league, he still felt he wasn't strong enough—still not enough. Just as he often said himself, he didn't even know where the limit of his scoring capability lay.