America: A Prodigy of Stereotypes

“Don’t you two care about the Olympics? The opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics is tonight,” John said to Li Qun and Peter.

"The Sydney Olympics?!"

"So it's the Olympics."

Li Qun mentally calculated the time difference. New York Daylight Saving Time is fourteen hours different from Sydney time. To watch the opening ceremony and subsequent live broadcasts of the Sydney Olympics, he would have to stay up all night.

Staying up late is not good.

Liqun is still more focused on the grand occasion of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Anyone want to play ping pong?

Since it was the Olympics, the all-night barbecue party naturally had to include Olympic events, so a few people put together a ping-pong table in the backyard.

"Hey kid, you look like you're really good at ping pong!"

A middle-aged black man shoved a ping-pong paddle into Li Qun's hand and pulled him to the ping-pong table.

"Come on, let's play a couple of rounds!"

"Give Sachi a piece of your mind!" Frank's friends shouted from the sidelines.

“I won’t show any mercy,” Li Qun said.

“Then I won’t hold back either!” The old black man, Sachi, laughed at Li Qun.

The ball was served by the older Black man, Satch, and the yellow ping-pong ball bounced into the Liqun table area, which Liqun then returned with a backhand.

"Wow!! What a fast ball!"

Peter stood beside the scorebook and wrote down a point for Liqun.

“I haven’t warmed up yet,” Uncle Sachi said to Li Qun.

"I'll try again."

It's Satch's serve again.

Since it was just a party activity, it wasn't strictly following the rules of a table tennis match; entertainment came first, competition second.

Li Qun let up a bit, allowing Uncle Sachi to catch his ball a few times before swatting it again and scoring the second point.

“I’m in a bit of a hurry,” Li Qun said to Sachi.

"I'm all warmed up!" Uncle Sachi confidently flashed his white teeth.

Peter smiled in front of the scorebook. Hearing two "ping-pong" sounds, Li Qun added a point, quickly reaching 11 points and ending his ping-pong match with the black uncle Sachi.

"OMG! You should go to the national team!!" Uncle Sachi shouted to Li Qun.

"Sachi, you can't do it, let me do it!!"

“Garret, you won’t be either, you’ll find out soon enough,” Sachi mocked.

"Go for it, kid! Don't give him any face, I know you went easy on me just now!" Sachi shouted to Li Qun as he turned around.

Liqun served, Uncle Garrett received the ball and returned it, and Liqun quickly scored a point with a quick footwork.

Peter stood by, laughing, as if he were the one dominating the ping-pong table.

"The kid won again!" Old Frank's friends exclaimed.

"Colin!"

Uncle Garrett tossed his racket to a blond white man, and judging from the expressions of the others, it was clear that this older man, Colin, was a better ping-pong player than both Satch and Garrett.

"Let me have a go at you, you little brat from Aurora!"

Colin, an older white man, served the ball. He was wearing a baseball cap with the American flag on it, and his curly hair underneath was blond.

"Ping, bang!"

"Ping, bang!!"

Uncle Colin was very emotional, his neck was even red, he couldn't beat Li Qun, this yellow-skinned kid.

"We won again!!" Peter clenched his fist, so happy he wanted to smash something.

Li Qun handed the racket to Peter, asking him to take over playing ping-pong with the group of old men. He still had a letter to send to his grandfather that he hadn't yet transmitted via radio.

“Peter, just like you helped train me on the rooftop,” Li Qun encouraged Peter.

"I'll give it a try." Peter gripped the racket and made a few swishing motions with it.

"Move your calves, lift your buttocks, and move them in small movements," Li Qun whispered to Peter.

"I understand."

"Keep it up!" Li Qun walked into the house and went to Frank's study, where the radio was still on the desk.

Li Qun sat down in front of the radio station and began operating it using the radio knowledge he had just learned.

"This is W-2-QYV, Uncle Frank, are you there? Please respond."

“This is W-2-QYV. I’m here. Is this Lyon? What do you need? Please speak.” Frank’s voice from thirty years ago came through the radio.

“Uncle Frank, I have a favor to ask you,” Li Qun said.

"Tell me, child, and let me see if I can do it."

“I wrote a letter to my grandfather, and I would like you to pass it on to him,” Li Qun said.

"How? Have you discovered a way to teleport items back in time?" Frank asked.

"Yes, Uncle Frank, please copy down the letter I wrote and pass it on to my grandfather."

“I will read you the letters I wrote so that you can know what I wrote in them and it won’t affect anyone’s past,” Li Qun said.

"You really trust me," Frank smiled.

"Wait for me a moment, I'll go get the letter paper."

"...Alright, you can read your letter now."

Li Qun read the letter aloud into the radio. Thirty years ago, Frank listened attentively to the contents of the letter and copied it onto a piece of paper.

"Wait, let me look it up in the dictionary. I need to check the spelling."

It took Frank and Li Qun more than half an hour to finish copying the letters.

"It's done!" Frank cheered.

Frank would not hesitate to rush into a fire to save people, but he would feel extremely uncomfortable doing copying work.

“No problem, I’ll deliver the message for you tonight,” Frank said to Li Qun.

Six kilometers away in Chinatown, inside the Yellow Crane Tower Chinese restaurant, my uncle suddenly had several scars on his fingers, including cuts from a kitchen knife and burns from splattered oil.

The uncle had many more memories of being trained in cooking by his maternal grandfather, Huang Yun. His middle-aged belly disappeared and was replaced by a firm six-pack, making him look much more lean and fit.

The uncle was completely unaware that the hardships he endured in his youth would come to his nephew thirty years later.

Li Qun's trial was successful, and his maternal grandfather, Huang Yun, also decided to give it a try.

Suddenly, a "ring of fire" opened up from the wall of the study, and a middle-aged man dressed like an ancient person with green pupils and a stubble beard emerged from the ring of fire. Behind the "ring of fire" you could see room furnishings and decor that were different from those in Old Frank's house.

"Found it, this is where the ripples in spacetime are being created."

Upon seeing the flashing "ring of fire," Li Qun knew that the sorcerers from Kamar-Taj had come to visit.

Li Qun felt he had seen this Kamar-Taj mage's face somewhere before; it was strangely familiar.

It's not Doctor Strange's face, it's another handsome guy's.

"Kid, do you know how many trajectories there are from one point to another?"

Chapter 43 The Mage with Fourteen Doctoral Degrees

The green-eyed mage raised his right hand, and the fire-ring-like portal closed.

"Let's go somewhere quiet to talk."

The mysterious sorcerer waved his right hand again, his gesture changing, and Li Qun heard the sound of glass shattering behind him.

He turned his head and felt something hit him. In his field of vision, space seemed to have become a transparent entity, and he could see distinct edges refracting the light.

“We are now in the mirror,” the mysterious mage said to Li Qun.

Li Qun turned around, realizing that he had been pulled into the mirror dimension by the mage.

"Child, you've been very calm?" The monk smiled at Liqun, and his expression, especially the smile in his green eyes, triggered Liqun's memories.

"You are, you are Dr. Bruce Banner?" Li Qun asked in surprise.

"You know me?"

"There is a portrait of you in the corridor of the school's teaching building."

“You looked much more handsome in the portrait in the school corridor than you do now. A clean chin, a neat hairstyle, and a sharp suit,” Li Qun explained.

"What does your school's profile of notable figures say about me?" Bruce Banner asked.

“List your scientific achievements and put yourself alongside the greatest scientists of the 20th century,” Li Qun replied.

"Can we take a picture together?" Li Qun took out his phone.

"No."

Bruce Banner reached out and took the phone into his own hand, not giving Li Qun a chance to take a picture.

"So, Dr. Banner, you've stopped doing scientific research and started studying magic instead?" Li Qun asked tentatively.

“There’s no difference,” Bruce Banner said.

Li Qun quietly observed Bruce Banner.

His pupils were green, a very distinctive feature; the green pupils seemed to glow.

His eyebrows droop downwards, and his eyes also droop downwards. If he doesn't make any expression, he is a "nerd" with a strong melancholy temperament.

And as soon as he smiles, his kind and gentle features immediately make people feel incredibly friendly. He is tall and slender with a nine-head body, and has no aggressive features whatsoever.

It's the "Edward Norton" version, not the "Mark Ruffalo" version.

“Tell me your name,” Bruce Banner asked Li Qun.