Chapter Eighty-Eight: It Feels Wonderful to Be Kept!

On February 28, the members of Tiancheng University of Technology's campus basketball team gradually returned to Chen Zhi Gymnasium and resumed preparations for the 2017 National Collegiate Basketball League.

As the team’s manager, Lin Ling and Yang Mimi also arrived at Chen Zhi Gymnasium early that morning.

Li Shishi, likewise a basketball department manager, descended on Chen Zhi Gymnasium at 3:21 in the afternoon aboard a pink helicopter.

At the time, the beautiful coach Yu Manman had joked, "Shishi, why not have your father sponsor our campus team? It would help promote his company among college students and raise its profile, and it would also let these poor guys earn some extra money to ease their lives. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?"

The next morning, a little after nine, three black helicopters landed in front of Chen Zhi Gymnasium.

Then six men in black suits took down one huge bag after another from the helicopters and carried them into the gymnasium.

When these six men in black found Li Shishi inside, they all bowed respectfully and addressed her as "Young Miss."

Looking at Li Shishi, Yu Manman pointed at the little mountains formed by the stacked bags. "What is all this for?"

"This is my dad's sponsorship," Li Shishi said, tilting her head with her signature sweet smile.

It had only been a joke, something said in passing; no one had expected her to take it seriously. Yu Manman looked at Li Shishi and could not help feeling a wave of admiration: truly a young lady of her station.

The players in training could not resist gathering around as well.

"So these are all from your dad?" Zhu Di said as he had already begun opening one of the large black bags.

"The Li Group." Inside the bag were sets of jerseys. Zhu Di took one out and held it against himself. "We'll be wearing these in games from now on, right?"

Since it was sponsorship, the players naturally had to help promote the sponsor's brand, and wearing jerseys printed with the sponsor's logo was the primary way to do so.

Each of these jerseys bore the Li Group logo on the back.

The players each received jerseys corresponding to their numbers and tried them on.

"They fit perfectly!"

The players were astonished that the jerseys bearing their numbers were such an exact fit.

"Of course they do. I am your basketball department manager," Li Shishi said proudly, lifting her chin.

It turned out that last night Li Shishi had called her father and asked him to sponsor Tiancheng University of Technology's campus basketball team. She also sent him, by email, the full set of the team members' heights, weights, chest measurements, and waist measurements.

Li Shishi's father, Li Tianming, as the CEO of the Li Group, one of the world's top five hundred companies, found no difficulty whatsoever in sponsoring a modest campus basketball team.

Indeed, early that morning, Li Tianming dispatched three helicopters to the school.

Geng Haoshi pointed at the pile of unopened bags on the floor. "Are these all jerseys?"

"Most of them are jerseys, and some are smart sports equipment," Li Shishi replied obediently.

The reason so many jerseys with the Li Group logo were needed was that June would mark the beginning of the National Collegiate Basketball League. At that time, the games would follow one after another, so many sets of jerseys were required for rotation.

The Li Group's main business was research and development, as well as sales, of high-tech products. College students, ever open to new things, happened to match the company's target customers perfectly.

Li Tianming had in fact once planned to promote his brand by sponsoring some college teams, but his original intention had been to choose teams that ranked highly in major competitions, or simply held first place, such as Beijing Tian University, the northern university that had taken first in last year's National Collegiate Basketball League.

Yesterday, when Li Shishi called and said she wanted to sponsor Tiancheng University of Technology's campus basketball team, Li Tianming had initially refused. He had sent his assistant to check Tiancheng University of Technology's ranking in last year's collegiate league and learned that it had finished dead last, and had done so three years in a row.

In the end, it was a line from Li Shishi that moved Li Tianming: "Dad, if you sponsor a team that is already champion, can that still really count as sponsorship? If you sponsor the number one university team, people will only think it's a purely commercial move. But if you sponsor a team at the very bottom, and then that team rises from obscurity to modest success and then to widespread fame, only then does the value of sponsorship truly show. Only then can the broader student body see that we have the courage to invest in hope and create miracles. Doesn't that perfectly align with the Li Group's corporate philosophy of daring to pioneer and create miracles?"

It had to be said that the Li Shishi people usually saw was a sweet, adorable, innocent airhead, yet no one had expected her to come out with such a speech, one that seemed to make so much sense that left others speechless.

And so Li Tianming finally made up his mind and decided that, starting today, he would sponsor Tiancheng University of Technology's campus basketball team.

"Oh, right. Here is this month's sponsorship money as well," Li Shishi said, taking a stack of pink envelopes from her pink Gucci bag. "I chose these envelopes myself. Aren't they cute?"

The players sweated, but seeing the thick stack in her hands, they could not help feeling a surge of anticipation.

Then Li Shishi distributed the pink envelopes one by one to each player.

As soon as they received them, the players eagerly opened the envelopes.

"Five thousand yuan?!"

Geng Haoshi finished counting the bills in his hand at top speed and could not help shouting in excitement, "It feels so good to be kept!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the surroundings fell silent.

Realizing that everyone was staring at him, Geng Haoshi hurriedly corrected himself. "I mean, it feels so good to be sponsored!"

Seeing how happy the players were, Li Shishi continued, "This is for this month. At the beginning of next month, I will bring next month's sponsorship money as well."

"Five thousand yuan every month?!"

The players stood there with their mouths agape, their hearts trembling: what an absolutely wonderful feeling it was to be kept!

...

In the central district of the northern capital of Huaxia, inside a luxurious office tower soaring into the sky, a stern middle-aged man leaned back in his sofa chair, chin lifted.

"That old Li... how did he manage to get there first?"