New York’s Manhattan is a favorite residential area for the wealthy. Lu Manman has two gay adoptive fathers: Louis, an investment banking manager, and Alex, a luxury clothing designer. Undoubtedly, they are quite wealthy.

Lu Manman lives with them at 432 Park Ave on the south side of Central Park.

Early morning.

“Ahhh!”

“Come out! Lu Manman!”

Early in the morning, Alex’s hysterical knocking could be heard at the door.

Lu Manman, nestled in her soft flannel blanket, muttered groggily and reached for her phone on the bedside table.

8:45.

Oh no!

It’s so late!

Lu Manman leapt out of bed, hurriedly put on her coat, and rushed out of the room, grabbing a baguette from the table as she headed for the door.

“Late for training, I’m doomed!”

Louis, sitting on a high stool with a Wall Street Journal in hand, leisurely sipping a latte, remarked, “At nineteen, you’re obviously retired.”

Lu Manman paused at the door.

Oh, right, retired.

No more waking up at six every day to train at the club camp, no more forcing down those horrendous nutritional meals to maintain her figure, no more being pinned down by Qiao Xingye and forced to swallow three eggs daily, crying but still having to eat them.

She had already entered a leisurely early retirement.

Nice.

Lu Manman relaxed, walked over to the dining table, and sat next to Louis. Imitating him, she picked up a cup of coffee and casually turned on the TV.

She decided to have a relaxed morning.Training, professional competitions—forget about them all!

…

ABC TV’s news headlines were broadcasting the news of the captain of the Queens professional team, W, retiring. The interview was with Queen’s manager, Danny.

He said, “We all regret W’s retirement because she was the smiling female warrior who created the immortal legend of the ‘Battle Royale’ professional competitions… But now, W is a thing of the past. Let me introduce Queen’s new member: Judy!”

The camera showed a tall American girl in jeans with blonde hair and blue eyes—Judy.

Lu Manman knew this player. She was originally a key player for the Lions and Tigers team, specializing in sprints. Like Lu Manman, she played a support role in her team. No wonder Danny poached her to replace Lu Manman.

Facing the camera, Judy smiled and said, “Although Smiling W was a legendary figure of an era, she is not unbeatable. I will certainly do my best, and I hope Queen’s supporters will like me.”

Then, she changed her tone: “In the last match, Queen almost stumbled and was nearly defeated by the Chinese team. I think that’s a disgrace. No one can succeed forever, not even W. If you only look at past achievements without striving to improve, you will be eliminated. After all, this industry is full of talent.”

Her words directly negated all of Lu Manman’s past achievements and blamed her mistakes on a lack of effort and stagnation.

Lu Manman pursed her lips.

Judy continued to smile and said, “If it were me, I would have settled the X team within twenty minutes. It’s a joke to think the Chinese could win the championship.”

A bunch of Americans started to cheer, “That’s right!”

“Screw them!”

“X, go back to Asia! This is New York, not a place for you to act out!”

With a snap, Alex turned off the TV.

“A bunch of brats,” he said disdainfully.

Unlike Judy, Lu Manman was of Chinese descent. Her mother had come to the United States alone and secretly gave birth to her, passing away shortly afterward. Lu Manman grew up in an orphanage and was adopted by Alex and Louis when she was five.

Although Lu Manman was an American citizen, she learned to speak Chinese. Besides Facebook and Twitter, her phone also had Weibo and WeChat.

Lu Manman asked, “Dad Alex, what were you hysterically shouting about just now?”

At this, Alex got worked up again. With a “snap,” he slapped Lu Manman’s retirement contract onto the table.

“Did you read the contract before you signed it?”

Holding her steaming cup of coffee, Lu Manman nodded. “Yes, I did.”

“You read it and still signed!” Alex opened the contract and pointed to a line of fine print in the corner, reading aloud, “Cannot join any American ‘Battle Royale’ professional club for three years.”

Alex said excitedly, “By signing this contract, you have essentially ended your professional career.”

Looking across the American league, every club has some draconian clauses, and this stipulation existed before joining Queen.

Lu Manman put down her coffee cup and asked Louis, “Are the coffee beans spoiled?”

Louis sniffed Lu Manman’s coffee cup. “When was the last time you washed this cup?”

Alex went mad. “At a time like this, can you stop calmly discussing coffee beans and the fact that Lu Manman never washes her cup?”

Lu Manman covered her face. “Oh, I do wash my cup.”

Louis added, “Once a week.”

It seemed that only Alex was worried, and he shouted in frustration, “Stop! No more talking about the cup!”

Finally, Louis picked up the contract and said, “The stipulation is that Manman cannot join any American ‘Battle Royale’ professional club for three years. Notice, the qualifiers are ‘three years’ and ‘American’.”

Using his rational data analysis, Louis said, “There are two solutions: one, wait patiently for three years and make a comeback; two, join a professional club in another country.”

“That’s like saying nothing. Waiting three years means missing the prime age for a professional career.”

Louis replied, “Then the only option is solution two, joining a team in another country.”

Alex said, “Currently, the top ‘Battle Royale’ professional teams are in the US and Korea. Are you suggesting Manman should go to Korea to compete?”

Lu Manman said, “No way, I absolutely hate eating Korean kimchi hotpot. Tteokbokki is disgusting.”

Louis and Alex both looked at her.

Lu Manman calmly corrected herself, “I mean… it’s extremely gross, sour and salty, it’s a disgrace to hotpot.”

Louis said, “You don’t necessarily have to go to Korea. China is good too. It’s your homeland team.”

Alex shook his head. “China’s professional competitions aren’t great. They haven’t achieved much over the years. For someone of Manman’s caliber, going to China would be like burying her career.”

“Then Africa is the only option,” Louis said. “There’s a wealthy chieftain in Congo who is obsessed with ‘Battle Royale’ games. He’s bought large swathes of the Congolese rainforest as a training ground and invested heavily to form an impressive professional team. It’s said their uniforms are inlaid with gold and diamonds. They travel by helicopter for every match, and the players’ monthly salaries are equivalent to what Manman would earn from a year of competition prizes.”

Alex exclaimed, “Oh my! Kneel and call him daddy!”

Lu Manman was shocked. “Oh my gosh!”

***

Lu Manman lay in bed trying to take a nap, but she tossed and turned without falling asleep.

Sunlight streamed into the room, and in the quiet tranquility of the afternoon, losing sleep felt like such a waste!

She stared at the ceiling and started counting sheep.

Actually, there was something she hadn’t told her two dads.

Behind the clause preventing her from joining any American professional club, there was a supplementary agreement with a ‘but’.

If she paid Queen two million dollars, this clause could be voided.

For their family, two million was manageable.

But Lu Manman didn’t want that… Alex and Louis had adopted her from the orphanage and had given her the best care all these years, loving her like parents.

Hmm, who was dad and who was mom? She was still a bit clueless.

Anyway, regardless of blood relation, their care for her stemmed from kindness and love.

It’s not so much the two million being a large sum that she couldn’t bring herself to ask for, but…

The dream was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

Just then, her phone rang. It was a call from her former teammate, Akko, a young African-American boy and her best friend.

“Manman, W’s farewell party is happening this afternoon at La Colombe café. Come join us for some fun.”

“Oh, there’s still a farewell party?”

“Of course! You’re the famous Smiling Goddess W. All the W fans in Manhattan will be there.”

“Wow, sounds lively. Then I definitely won’t come.”

“…”

After a moment’s thought, Akko said, “They have Black Forest cake at the café, the kind that’s out of this world! It’s free, all you can eat until you burst!”

“Free!”

Lu Manman jumped out of bed, quickly tidied herself up, changed into a dark-colored hoodie with a big-mouthed monkey design, and put on sunglasses before heading out.

At the entrance of La Colombe café, she spotted Akko, dressed in a hip-hop style t-shirt with wide jeans. He jogged over to her side, saying, “Yo man, why are you still wearing sunglasses?”

Akko spoke with a natural rhythm as if he had background music playing.

“I’m just here to eat Black Forest cake until I burst. I don’t want to sign autographs until my hand cramps,” Lu Manman replied.

“You’re overthinking it. Every game, you wear a mask and cover yourself up completely. Who would recognize you?” Akko retorted.

Lu Manman pondered for a moment. “True.”

She took off her sunglasses, revealing her dark eyes, and smiled mischievously at Akko.

The two walked towards the café together.

“By the way, since it’s W’s farewell party, how come I, the real deal, didn’t receive an invitation?” Lu Manman asked.

“Because the fan club didn’t bother sending you one in the first place,” Akko replied bluntly.

Lu Manman immediately protested, “Why didn’t they invite me?! I’m the main character!”

Akko raised an eyebrow, “In the fans’ eyes, W is just a symbol, representing victory, representing winning. It doesn’t necessarily represent Lu Manman. Maybe they don’t really care who W is in real life.”

Squinting her eyes, Lu Manman sighed and placed a hand over her heart dejectedly, “That sounds pretty damn harsh.”

Akko continued, “When you were busy with competitions before, you rarely paid attention to the fan club, so the connection grew more distant.”

“You Americans have no sense of sentimentality in your fan circles,” Lu Manman muttered, rolling her eyes. “Maybe I should go back to China to develop a fan club where I can truly connect with them. I’m actually very supportive of my fans.”

As they entered La Colombe café, they found the place bustling with people. The café had large glass windows flooding the space with sunlight, and its interior decor was modern and three-dimensional.In the center of the café, a small table displayed a huge framed letter ‘W’ in grayscale, surrounded by lily bouquets.

Fans gathered around the frame, observing a moment of silence.

Lu Manman wiped her forehead, “This feels… kind of eerie.”

Akko nodded, “Yeah…”

The fans couldn’t comprehend Lu Manman’s retirement, and the atmosphere in the café was somber. Everyone’s hearts were weighed down by a lingering sadness, their expressions deeply mournful.

“President, why did W retire?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Was it because her performance hasn’t been good recently?”

“Professional players can’t always maintain their peak performance. She probably needs some time to overcome this slump.”

“Now that it’s happened, there’s no use dwelling on it.”

“W’s retirement must have been for a reason.”

…

However, at that moment, a group of stylishly dressed men and women, who seemed out of place in the café, walked in.

Leading them was a girl who had recently transferred from the Lion Tiger team to the Queen team, taking over Lu Manman’s former position as the forward, Judy.

She spoke in a lively tone, “W’s retirement surely has its reasons.”