Originally, at the end of the family gathering, Mike had thought about directly telling George the secret recipe for the brisket.
However, he realized that the conflict between Connie and George was not as simple as a recipe.
So, Mike decided to come back first and ask for Connie's opinion.
"George is indeed a bit angry with you," Mike stated the fact, then persuaded, "You and George are family. I don't think you need to be so targeted towards him."
Judging from her previous actions, Connie's behavior this time was indeed a bit excessive.
As a family member, George has been diligent and uncomplaining all these years, shouldering the burden of the entire family alone.
And he also took good care of the three children. From this perspective, he deserves credit even if not praise.
And it's really unnecessary to cause family discord over a brisket recipe.
"I knew that fool would be angry," Connie laughed, not yet realizing the seriousness of the situation.
Then, she continued, "More than ten years ago, I found out he was very interested in my brisket recipe. But I want him to understand one thing: he can only get my things if I agree..."
Apparently, Connie still held a grudge about George's behavior of getting on the train before buying a ticket, as a hooligan back then.
When George got Mary pregnant and they got married, they also didn't receive Connie's blessing.
"Regarding the recipe, hasn't George already consulted you? I think he's very sincere this time," Mike didn't dwell too much on the Cooper family's affairs; he continued his persuasion.
"No, this isn't about a recipe. You don't understand, George is a thief," Connie shook her head, then suggested, "How about we make a bet?"
"How do we bet?" Mike asked.
"We bet on whether George will try to steal the recipe this week without my permission," Connie said with a profound expression, "If George behaves normally this week, I will personally give him the brisket recipe and apologize to him. How about it, do you want to bet?"
It could be seen that the playful Connie was very enthusiastic about betting.
Mike thought for a moment, considering that if it was a week's time, his chances of winning should be very high. So he said, "Okay, I'll bet with you..."
"It's a deal!" Connie laughed and quickly said, "If you lose, tell Grandma how many girlfriends you've had."
With that, Connie returned to her usual mischievous self.
It was clear that she had probably heard some rumors about Mike at school from Georgie. Coupled with Mike rarely discussing his personal private matters at home, this had piqued Connie's curiosity.
"This..." Mike hesitated, wanting to change the bet.
Deep down, Mike was a "conservative" person, and he didn't want to share his personal privacy with others.
"It's settled then." However, Connie didn't give Mike a chance to refuse. After she finalized the bet, she got up and walked towards her room.
At the door, she suddenly stopped and said, "For fairness, you can't tell George about the bet, otherwise you lose."
...
In the following days, school resumed normal classes. Only the football team received the privilege of training all day.
And after Monday's game, Mike, with his impressive performance, indeed became the school's "star."
During every break, many girls from various grades would come to the sidelines to watch him train.
Even bolder girls would openly "confess their love" to Mike in front of everyone.
As the frequency of these "confessions" increased, this became a unique feature of Medford High.
However, compared to his increased fame, Mike was not very happy right now.
After several days of training, he found it difficult to directly gain physical attributes from his teammates anymore.
It seemed everyone had a threshold: like Sheldon, at first, Mike could easily gain intelligence attributes from him.
However, gradually, the difficulty of gaining attributes became greater and greater.
"Ding-a-ling—"
The class bell rang, and the girls reluctantly left the field.
Mike, resting on the sidelines, re-engaged in training as the girls left.
At this moment, a middle-aged man carrying a camera was walking towards the sports field from the school gate.
This person was Jack from the local TV station. Today, he had shaved off the stubble around his lips, and his receding hairline had been specially styled. His overall demeanor looked much better.
"Hi, Jack, you're here again," George greeted Jack warmly when he saw him arrive.
Aside from Monday's game, this was Jack's second visit to the school this week to watch everyone train.
"I'm going to shoot some more footage of Mike. When he becomes star in the future, this will be his personal special," Jack said with a smile, stating his purpose.
Clearly, Jack was very optimistic about Mike; he had bet his entire quarter's performance on him.
George was not against Jack's actions; in his opinion, promoting Mike was equivalent to promoting the school's football team.
After Jack set up his camera, George cleverly called over Mike, who was doing resistance training on the equipment.
Then, he scanned the field, bypassed Sam, and also called over Aaron.
"Aaron, put on your protective gear and have a resistance drill with Mike," George said.
Training stiffly on equipment was not as intense and exciting as real person-to-person resistance.
Aaron was clearly being used as a tool by the coach.
"Um... Coach, I'm a little unwell today..." Aaron felt some resistance in his heart after knowing his upcoming fate.
Ever since his physique exceeded one hundred and fifty, Mike had been developing in an inhuman direction. For ordinary people like Aaron, resistance training was simply torture.
"So many words, hurry up and prepare," George saw through Aaron's little thoughts and gave him no chance to refuse.
In fact, George also had his own calculations. He knew Aaron had a dream of playing professionally.
Now that there was an opportunity to be on TV, even as a background, it would definitely be beneficial for Aaron's future professional path.
"Later, remember to go easy..." Aaron whispered as he passed Mike.
"I'll try—" Mike showed a friendly smile and put on his helmet.
After both were ready, George acted as the referee and gave the offensive command:
"Start—"
With a command, Aaron sprinted and lowered his center of gravity, extending his arms forward, trying to hug Mike's waist.
He knew his strength was no match for Mike. In this confrontation, he didn't seek victory; he only hoped to entangle the opponent so that his loss wouldn't be too embarrassing.
However, in the eyes of Mike, who had three years of football experience, Aaron's confrontation was full of flaws.
The moment they made contact, Mike pushed away his opponent's hands, twisted his body sideways, and used inertia to throw Aaron flying.
In this confrontation, Mike used only skill and didn't exert much effort.
"Aaron, don't think so much. Your goal is to take down the opponent," George lectured Aaron, who had just gotten up.
In his opinion, Aaron was good in every aspect as a captain, except that his personality was too gentle; to put it bluntly, he lacked aggressiveness.
This was not a good thing for Aaron, who aimed for a professional career.
"Again! Let me see your determination—" George encouraged.
"Okay!" Aaron also knew his weakness in personality. This time, he seemed to draw strength from the coach's encouragement, and his eyes slowly became firm.
"Wait a moment, I'll go all out," Aaron said again as he passed Mike, "Please also use your full strength. I want to see how big the gap between us really is."
Seeing the opponent's determined eyes, Mike nodded, indicating that he understood.
"Start—"
With another command, Aaron cast aside distractions. Speeding up, he slightly turned his body, wanting to have a real man's head-on collision with his opponent.
However, in Mike's eyes, Aaron, who sought to attack proactively this time, showed more flaws.
The moment they collided at high speed, Mike contracted his body and quickly lowered his center of gravity.
When his shoulder touched the opponent's abdomen, Mike's core strength instantly activated, and he suddenly pushed upwards.
"OMG—"
With the exclamations of the teammates, Aaron drew a graceful arc and fell heavily to the ground.
As for Mike, he had completed a kind of alternative over-the-shoulder throw.
This was a perfect display of strength and skill.
"Are you okay? How do you feel?" Mike knew how strong he was, so he quickly went over and helped Aaron, who had fallen to the ground, up.
"I'm fine—" Aaron smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Sometimes, the gap between people cannot be bridged simply through effort. Especially since Mike had grown little by little under Aaron's watchful eye.
This also made Aaron feel very powerless.
George was also startled by the intensity of this confrontation. He quickly came over to check on Aaron and found that he was not injured.
Then, he patted Aaron's shoulder with satisfaction and encouraged, "Well done, go take a rest."
Although Aaron's performance in this round of confrontation was not satisfactory, George saw a surge of momentum in him.
This was a very good start for Aaron.