Chapter Two: The Price of Ten Seconds

Someone else found a picture of him carrying trays in the cafeteria and captioned it: WAITER ACCIDENTALLY ENTERS STARTING LINEUP. Lin watched for five minutes, then turned off his phone. The comments did not stop him. The birthday photograph did. On the first page of a notebook, he wrote: August 8. Fifteenth birthday. Ji made a salty cake. Ying stole strawberries. Important. He pressed so hard on the last word that the pen nearly tore the paper. Su Wanxing appeared at his door with coffee. "Review room. Ten minutes." Her gaze touched the notebook, but she asked nothing. Crimson Tide's jungler, Tang Ce, led the league in early invasions. Coach Jiang proposed conceding the upper jungle to protect bottom lane.