The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 181 - 74 Back View

Early in the morning, the plane once again landed at Los Angeles International Airport, the second stop on the road trip in the Western Conference.

After disembarking, Gan Guoyang stretched and greeted Ramsay, then headed to the airport’s public phone booth to make a call.

He flipped through the phone book, which had a number left by Wang Fuxi when he departed from Portland, with a note that said: Zhengmin Electronics.

Gan Guoyang felt a bit nervous, took a deep breath after dialing the number, and listened to the dial tone.

The call connected, and a middle-aged man’s voice came through the other end, greeting him in serious English. But when Gan Guoyang introduced himself, the man immediately burst into laughter and a Minnan dialect accented Mandarin came out:

"Ah Gan, Hu Xi is still catching up on sleep, you’ve arrived so early, huh? I’ll start preparing the food and drinks right away, just come over for lunch! You know where our house is, right? In the Inglewood District..."

Gan Guoyang repeatedly agreed, called him uncle a few times, and then hung up the phone, letting out a long sigh.

Wang Fuxi returned to Los Angeles a day before Gan Guoyang. As Gan Guoyang was scheduled to play an away game in Los Angeles, Wang Fuxi invited him to meet his parents.

The two had known each other for many years, and had been officially dating for over half a year. Meeting the parents seemed a bit early, as Gan Guoyang had no plans for marriage yet.

But the Chinese community in the ’80s was still quite conservative. After all, Wang Fuxi had given everything to Gan Guoyang, and recently an incident had occurred.

While studying at the University of Portland, Wang Fuxi was attacked by several female students and got doused with cold water in winter.

According to investigations by the school and police, those girls were fans of Gan Guoyang. They deduced that Wang Fuxi was his girlfriend based on a cover of ’Sports Illustrated’ and attacked her out of jealousy.

Although she wasn’t hurt, Wang Fuxi was still shaken by the event and took leave to return to Los Angeles.

After learning about the incident, Wang Fuxi’s father found out that his daughter was dating the top Chinese star and was shocked. After the surprise, he expressed the desire to meet this "prospective son-in-law," hence arranging a meeting during this away trip.

By all accounts, Gan Guoyang found it difficult to refuse; it was just a meeting, not an immediate wedding, so it didn’t seem like a big deal.

However, hearing Father Wang’s rough voice, Gan Guoyang found it hard to associate him with the beautiful, delicate-looking Wang Fuxi.

After settling in at the hotel, Gan Guoyang asked for leave from the coaching staff and took a taxi to his destination, Zhengmin Electronics—a moderately sized shop selling TVs, radios, and the like.

Wang Fuxi had been waiting at the store entrance early, and when she saw Gan Guoyang getting out of the car, she quickly dragged him inside.

"Hey hey hey, why the rush? I... I didn’t even get a look at the surroundings."

"It’s nothing special~ Just a little run-down shop, the whole street is filled with ordinary stores like this one. Let’s not get noticed; otherwise, people will start talking."

Gan Guoyang was now a celebrity, and his height meant he couldn’t hide no matter where he went. The taxi driver had recognized him just now, and talked his ear off about basketball the whole way—although none of it was particularly relevant.

The store was filled with various TVs, radios, and Walkmans, and even had a computer on display. It seemed that this shop specialized in audiovisual equipment, no wonder Wang Fuxi loved listening to music.

Although the shop wasn’t big, it was very clean and tidy, unlike some electronics shops that are cluttered with wires and old items everywhere. Gan Guoyang could tell where Wang Fuxi’s good habit of keeping things organized came from.

Soon, Gan Guoyang met Wang Fuxi’s father, Wang Zhengmin, and to his surprise, he looked quite different from how his voice on the phone had sounded. This was a gentle-looking, even handsome middle-aged man.

When silent, he appeared to be a gentle high school teacher, but once he spoke, he exuded a strongworldly air, especially with his Minnan accent, making one wonder if he had a past in the underworld.

Wang Zhengmin was extremely happy to see Gan Guoyang. There was no one among the Chinese people across America who didn’t know who Gan Guoyang was. In the ’80s he was a rapidly rising megastar, dazzling everyone who laid eyes on him.

So their initial meeting was less of a father-in-law meeting his daughter’s boyfriend and more like a fan meeting his idol.

Wang Zhengmin brought out yesterday’s newspaper, which had sports coverage of Gan Guoyang’s incredible performance on the Denver Plateau.

"44 points, 33 rebounds, Mother Gan Lin, you made those black and white guys look like fools!"

Wang Fuxi kicked her father in the side and said, "Dad, can you stop it and just get lunch ready!"

Wang Zhengmin was busy saying, "Oh right, right, right, preparing lunch, preparing lunch... Your mom went to work and she’s not at home, so I’ve already called for delivery. It’s from Anle Residence, my good friend’s restaurant, the quality of the dishes is absolutely guaranteed, absolutely authentic! Ah Gan, you don’t mind eating delivery, do you?"

Gan Guoyang laughed and said, "Of course I don’t mind, my family owns a restaurant, and when I first came to America, I did deliveries for the restaurant. At that time, we relied on deliveries to support our business."

Hearing what Gan Guoyang said, Wang Zhengmin laughed happily again. It was apparent how fond he was of Gan Guoyang, not only because he was a basketball star but also because Gan Guoyang didn’t have the slightest bit of star airs about him, very down-to-earth.

Gan Guoyang had bought two bottles of XO liquor from the airport duty-free shop for Wang Zhengmin. Wang Fuxi said Wang Zhengmin loved his liquor, and he was over the moon with the XO liquor gifted by Gan Guoyang.

"Dad, I think you should keep these two bottles of liquor and not drink them, just collect them."

"Not drink them! Of course I won’t drink them! How can I casually drink the liquor given by Ah Gan! I will wait to open them when you two get married!"

Wang Zhengmin said this, and Wang Fuxi’s face reddened to the tips of her ears. She stole a glance at Gan Guoyang, who looked back at her with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. Wang Fuxi felt even more embarrassed.

An hour later, the restaurant delivery guy arrived at the door on a motorcycle, carrying an oversized food box into the shop.

Wang Zhengmin went to greet him, but upon seeing the delivery guy wearing a helmet, his face changed color, and he said, "Why did you come to deliver the meal yourself? Did all the little brothers in the shop die off?"

The delivery guy was not a young man but a middle-aged man wearing glasses. He smiled at Wang Zhengmin and said, "Big Brother Wang ordered so many dishes all at once, there must be a distinguished guest at home, so of course I had to deliver it personally."

Wang Zhengmin pulled the man aside and said, "With such a big incident happening recently, you’re still not hiding out, still doing deliveries?"

"Hide? With something like this happening, how can I hide? I’m already preparing to surrender to the American authorities."

"Surrender? You... This matter has nothing to do with you; why surrender? Could it be that you’re involved?"

"I’m not involved, but my older brother is. That’s why I’m trying to save him."

While saying this, the delivery man peeked inside and asked, "Hey, who’s the distinguished guest today? Is it convenient for me to meet them?"

"Oh no, it’s not convenient, it’s not convenient. The guest is from Xiao Ling’s family over there."

"Really? But I heard that it was Fuxi’s simpleton son-in-law visiting. He’s a big star too."

Wang Zhengmin’s expression grew stern, and his previously refined face suddenly revealed a menacing look as he said, "White Wolf, we used to be brothers and we’ve owed each other favors. Now I’ve retired and just want to live a stable life with my wife and kids. It wasn’t easy for my daughter to find a good family, if you even think about any schemes that might harm my daughter and future son-in-law, I won’t hold onto the past feelings!"

The middle-aged man laughed and said, "Don’t worry, Big Brother Wang. There’s no need to hide it, I know your future son-in-law is the famous basketball star Ah Gan, the pride of us Chinese people. Who would touch him, who would dare?"

Wang Zhengmin’s expression eased a bit, and he asked, "What exactly do you want to do?"

The middle-aged man said, "Like I said, I’m going to surrender tomorrow. Before my older brother went back to Taiwan, he left me a tape recording as evidence to save my life. I took the opportunity of delivering food to change clothes and slip out. I would like to keep the original tape with you, Big Brother Wang, while I keep a copy. Once I surrender, I will release the recording publicly. If needed by then, I’d like to ask Big Brother to take the original to court to testify."

"I’ve told you, White Wolf, I’ve left that world, and I just want to live a peaceful life with my wife and children. Why find me again?"

"Brother, the underworld isn’t a company; it’s not something you can enter or leave as you please. Now that Fuxi has found a good home, she will be a celebrity missus in the future. I assure you, all the Chinese gangs across America will be Ah Gan’s backup from now on! Oh, and I heard that Fuxi was bullied at school, I will have someone take those bullies down!"

Wang Zhengmin sighed deeply and said, "Oh well, never mind, don’t do such things! My daughter and son-in-law are innocent; don’t let them get involved in these matters; we old timers are enough. I want to thank you for what happened with Wang Yu back in the day. Now, I’ll repay this favor and keep the tape here!"

The middle-aged man nicknamed White Wolf nodded and mentioned that the tape was hidden in a compartment of the food box.

"Dad, how come it’s taking you so long to get the food?"

"Oh, there was a slight problem with some of the dishes, just wait, wait a bit longer!"

Four months later, in March 1985, Chen Qili, a gang leader’s ally known as White Wolf, along with an anonymous person known as "Shadow," bearing the tape recording, attended a lecture and discussion on the "Jiangnan Murder Case" held by the Taiwanese Community Association in Los Angeles.

During the meeting, the tape revealed the true culprit behind the case, causing shock at home and abroad.