Chapter 44

Dwyane Wade simply greeted Yang Mo and then walked to another venue to participate in an event. This time, he had only come to get a brief introduction to the new teammate who, according to Pat Riley, perfectly complemented his playing style.

After Dwyane Wade left, Yang Mo quickly walked over to Jessica, pulling her to a corner and asked, "Hey, Jessica, why did you suddenly act like that just now? You almost blew our cover, you know."

"We should act like a couple, oppa." Jessica blinked her eyes cutely, making Yang Mo lose his temper. He really had no resistance against such cute girls.

After a while, he said helplessly, "But we're a fake couple, right?"

"We can become a real couple, oppa." Jessica gazed into Yang Mo's eyes, speaking very seriously.

Caught off guard by her sudden earnest gaze, Yang Mo asked softly, "Are you serious?"

"Uh-huh." Jessica nodded vigorously.

This put Yang Mo in a difficult position. As the saying goes, "Rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrows," and this was Kim Tae-hee's little sister. But... there's another saying, "If you have the opportunity and don't take it, you're a fool," and he was conflicted.

"It's okay, you don't have to answer me right now." Jessica said understandingly, "We are already a couple, and we will eventually 'make it real.'"

Yang Mo felt like Jessica was saying, "I will definitely come back," just like the wolf in the cartoon.

"Let's talk about this later. You should focus on preparing for your new album. I'll definitely buy a couple of copies to support you." Yang Mo smiled, thinking it was better to delay this matter. Although he was a bit of a playboy now, he wasn't the kind of person who would jump into bed with anyone. He needed to have feelings first, otherwise, he'd be no different from a dog.

"Two isn't enough, make it thirty-two." Jessica pouted cutely.

"Okay, no problem." Yang Mo agreed immediately. Thirty-two albums were nothing to him; with his current wealth, he could easily sponsor thirty-two concerts for them.

At this moment, Lee Jin-ju came over to call Jessica, saying the company had arranged an interview for them. Jessica waved goodbye to Yang Mo reluctantly and walked away, looking back every few steps.

Now, S.M. Entertainment was determined to capitalize on this wave of public interest to promote Girls' Generation, saving a lot of promotional costs and increasing their chances of becoming a sensation.

However, Yang Mo felt a bit sad because this meant that Girls' Generation would have little time to visit his place in the future. They would be busy with promotions and appearances around the world.

Thanks to the press conference, Girls' Generation's negative image was reversed. But Yang Mo still left a bad impression on the fans. They thought he should focus on basketball and not get involved with the entertainment industry.

Yang Mo didn't care about this prejudice. Since he was already being criticized by the entire country, one more accusation didn't matter.

What he was thinking about now was how to improve his skills to make these Americans who underestimated him eat their words, using data to slap their faces.

So, the more criticism he received, the harder he trained. His progress in various skills made the coaches very happy. The most rewarding thing for a coach is to see a player improve under their guidance. The coaches were happy, and Pat Riley was even happier. He was waiting for the preseason to see Yang Mo make a stunning debut and shatter all the doubts. Then, no one would dare to say he had senile dementia.

Days passed, and soon it was time for the teams to start their training camps, signaling the start of the new season.

After a long off-season, the veteran players were mostly out of shape. The Heat hadn't made the playoffs last season, so they had plenty of time to enjoy themselves.

On the media day, to protect Yang Mo, Pat Riley specifically instructed the staff not to allow any reporters to interview him. So, Yang Mo only took a few team photos, chose a number 48 jersey, and then went to the office with Pat Riley to enjoy the air conditioning. He only came out to practice with his teammates after all the reporters had left the training facility.

"Rookie, GEE/GEE/GEE!" As soon as Yang Mo came out of the office, Chris Quinn started dancing to Girls' Generation's song.

This was a single that Girls' Generation had released less than a week ago, quickly topping the charts worldwide and causing a huge sensation in the U.S. The song had over 100 million views on YouTube in just one week, and almost no young person was unaware of Girls' Generation. The news about their relationship with Yang Mo was also frequently discussed. Initially, Girls' Generation might have benefited from Yang Mo's fame, but now Yang Mo was completely benefiting from Girls' Generation's popularity.

Chris Quinn's singing made the players burst into laughter. Michael Beasley even lifted his shorts to dance the sexy dance from the song, which was a terrible sight and made Yang Mo feel very nauseous.

"Yang, Michael's dancing is terrible, you should do it!" Udonis Haslem joked loudly.

Yang Mo quickly shook his head, "Michael's dancing is great, I can't dance."

"Rookie, go get me a bottle of water." Just as Yang Mo was joking, a deep voice came from behind him. He turned around to see Shawn Marion giving him an order.

Yang Mo knew that rookies were often bullied in the NBA, but Marion's attitude was too bad. Even so, he held his temper and pointed to the water cooler on the side, saying, "There's water there."

Seeing that Yang Mo didn't follow his order and even talked back, Marion stepped forward, pointing at Yang Mo arrogantly, "I said go get me a bottle of water, didn't you hear me?"

Damn!

Yang Mo was never a pushover. Seeing Marion act so aggressively, he stood up, slapped away Marion's finger, and poked his forehead with his index finger, cursing in Chinese, "Damn you, you're asking for it."

Yang Mo wasn't someone who liked to cause trouble, but when he got angry, he had a real gangster vibe.

Marion's head was poked by Yang Mo's finger. Although he didn't understand what Yang Mo said, he knew it was a curse. He was stunned; he had never seen such a bold rookie.

Seeing that a rookie dared to challenge him, Marion stepped forward, towering over Yang Mo and roaring, "Put your hands down, this isn't a place for you to act wild, yellow pig."

"What did you say?" Yang Mo shouted angrily, pushing Marion with both hands, sending him stumbling backward for several steps before he finally fell on his butt, looking very embarrassed.

Before he could get up, Yang Mo grabbed a fire extinguisher and charged at him, "Damn it, I'll kill you today!"

Seeing Yang Mo charge at him with a fierce look, Marion was terrified. He had only wanted to put Yang Mo in his place to intimidate the other rookies, especially Beasley, as they were direct competitors.

He chose Yang Mo because he thought the Chinese player would be the easiest to bully, achieving the effect of "killing a chicken to scare the monkeys." But he didn't expect to kick a steel plate. This seemingly gentle Chinese kid turned out to be a tough guy, daring to hit a veteran player right away.

As Marion was stunned, Dwyane Wade and a few other veterans quickly rushed over to hold Yang Mo back.

But at this point, Yang Mo was in a rage, only thinking about beating the hell out of that bastard. He shook off the others with his brute strength, and they were instantly thrown aside, with Udonis Haslem falling to the floor.

Damn, superhuman strength!

The others were shocked. They had been disappointed that the team had used a lottery pick on this short Chinese player, but now, feeling Yang Mo's strength, they thought it was a great choice.

Yang Mo shook off the others, dragging the fire extinguisher and walking step by step toward Marion, who was crawling backward in fear. At that moment, he felt like he was being targeted by a pack of hungry wolves.

"Yang! Calm down!"

"Stop it, Yang Mo!"

At this moment, two voices shouted from behind him, one in English and one in Chinese.

...

[First update delivered, four more to come. Please recommend and collect. Thanks to "lele21," "China Encyclopedia," and "Emperor V5" for the support.]