Chapter 1 Chen Hero's Smooth Life

Chen Hero felt that his life had suddenly become much smoother. With Yesenin as his "translator," his communication with others was much better than before, and he could also understand the articles in the newspapers—he later learned, through Yesenin's translation, that the articles were about reporters speculating about Chen Hero's origins. Because there was no name on his jersey, they didn't even know what this person was called.

In front of outsiders, Yesenin was just a translator and Chen Hero's Russian teacher. Chen Hero found that the people in the club weren't surprised by his appearance, so he didn't seem like a fake. But how he, an incarnation of the Aurora, had become a translator and Russian teacher and then applied for a job here, Chen Hero had no idea.

Most of the time, his identity was that of a Russian teacher, not a translator. After all, there weren't many opportunities for him to work as a translator now—Chen Hero only needed to communicate with the club's coaches. Translators weren't allowed in the locker room when communicating with teammates, since there were many things in the locker room that they didn't want outsiders to know. Now he didn't need to contact the news media, so he didn't need to use a translator either.

Although after that youth team league match, there were obviously more reporters around the youth team training ground, Popovich strictly forbade Chen Hero from being interviewed. He didn't want the media to disturb this seemingly promising player. He was worried that chasing fame and fortune too early would make Chen Hero lose his way. His worries were justified. Many young and talented players had lost their way in various praises and quickly fallen because of their early fame. Popovich didn't want Chen Hero to become one of them.

Chen Hero's life now consisted of training during the day and learning Russian with Yesenin in the dormitory at night.

He didn't know why, but he felt that he was making rapid progress in learning Russian. Was it because Russian itself was easy to learn? Or did Yesenin, the Russian teacher, have real talent? But Yesenin's teaching method was indeed very interesting—he would combine newspapers and TV programs to teach Chen Hero Russian, especially Russian vocabulary related to soccer.

Of course, could it be because of his supernatural ability? Sometimes, Chen Hero would think like this.

As life began to go smoothly, Chen Hero seemed to be having good luck in soccer as well.

On the second weekend, he was once again selected for the roster to participate in the youth league. Being selected for the roster for two consecutive games, Chen Hero could feel that his status in the youth team was becoming more and more important…

Chen Hero knew why he was important, because of his excellent heading ability, physical fitness, and his excellent performance in the first game.

A good beginning is half the battle, he knew this very well, so in the first game, he was so impulsive that he argued with the referee over a disallowed goal and was almost sent off with a red card…

On August 26th, St. Petersburg Zenit's youth team continued to play at home, facing their opponent. This time, their opponents were the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Smena youth team.

Advocaat and assistant coach Potter once again came to the indoor soccer field of the Smena football school to watch the game.

Of course, this time they couldn't attract the media's attention anymore. Outside the stadium, the number of reporters gathered was obviously more than in the previous game.

They were all here to observe the legendary number 33.

Chen Hero was still wearing the number 33 jersey in this game, but he still didn't start.

In the sixty-fifth minute of the second half, he was substituted onto the field.

When he came on the field, the photographers quickly pressed the shutter of their cameras, capturing his strong and upright figure.

When Chen Hero came on the field, the score was already 4:0, with St. Petersburg Zenit leading by a large margin.

This result was quite normal, after all, their opponents were a semi-professional soccer club…

However, Chen Hero didn't show any mercy just because the other side had already been defeated miserably.

Seven minutes after he came on the field, he used his best header to blast open Komsomolsk's goal.

After scoring the goal, Chen Hero raised his arms and cheered.

The photographers on the sidelines pressed the shutter again, freezing his passionate figure.

Coming off the bench and scoring goals in two consecutive games. Those professional soccer reporters keenly sensed that—perhaps a rising star was emerging!

Seeing Chen Hero score another goal, Advocaat, who was next to him, became even more determined to transfer him to the first team.

And Potter? He had nothing to say. Chen Hero's performance blocked all his doubts. Faced with such absolute dominance in heading, he didn't know how to refute it.

Seeing Chen Hero score with a header, Yesenin, who was sitting in the stands as his translator, showed a satisfied smile. No one noticed the faint rainbow light flashing across his face.

Chen Hero was so excited that he was unwilling to end the game like this. In the last game, he had hoped to score twice, but it was blown away by the referee. This time, he had to do it no matter what!

When the soccer was passed to the wing again, he raised his arm high in the middle. His towering height, coupled with this arm, looked like a giant lighthouse on the coastline when raised, making it impossible to ignore.

Originally, his teammates felt pity, thinking that they were already leading by five goals, and the other team was just a semi-professional club, so there was no need to be so ruthless.

But if he didn't pass the ball, Chen Hero wouldn't put his arm down. And those fans on the sidelines who wanted to see more of Chen Hero's domineering goals also joined in the fun, constantly shouting, "Pass him the ball! Pass a high ball!"

His teammates had no choice but to pass the ball, so they kicked the soccer to the front of the goal…

Chen Hero suddenly leaped up from the ground, towering above everyone else, and then shook his head to attack the goal!

Without any suspense, the soccer flew into the goal again. And the defenders of the Komsomolsk team even gave up jumping… They just looked up from below and watched the number 33 head the soccer in.

Finally, he scored twice!

Chen Hero excitedly took off his jersey, revealing the strong muscles inside, with the outline of eight pack abs clearly visible!

This body of muscles was his greatest asset. He rushed to the group of photographers and struck a bodybuilder's pose, highlighting his pectoral muscles and abdominal muscles. Facing the camera, he unscrupulously flaunted his body.

Causing screams from the stands.

Popovich smiled—this show-offy stinky brat!

He knew that Chen Hero was protesting against him not allowing him to be interviewed by reporters…

After the game, Chen Hero once again became the focus of reporters—a height of more than 1.9 meters, as strong as a bear, scoring twice, with a wild personality… These were simply good gimmicks for reporters to hype up!

But they were once again stopped by Popovich.

"Please give my players some quiet space!"

"Then at least you should tell us his name!" a reporter shouted.

"No comment!"

"No comment on this either? Is this still some kind of secret?"

While Popovich was still fighting with the reporters, Chen Hero was not swept into the locker room by his teammates this time. Instead, he was called into another office by Advocaat and Potter alone. His translator, Yesenin, came with him.

Originally, Advocaat planned to communicate with Chen Hero in English, but he didn't know Chen Hero's language level, and with a translator next to him, he simply said to him in Dutch, "First of all, congratulations on scoring two wonderful goals in the game, young man."

Advocaat extended his hand to Chen Hero, looking very kind.

Chen Hero had a good impression of this coach.

"Thank you, Mr. Advocaat." Although there was a translator present, Chen Hero still expressed his gratitude in English.

Advocaat's eyes lit up when he heard him speak English, "You can speak English?"

Chen Hero nodded, "Not very well, but I can handle everyday communication."

As a player, English was indeed a very important skill—if you had the opportunity to play soccer abroad, knowing English would be much more convenient. So when he was in China, his father enrolled him in an English language class in addition to playing soccer, so he could learn English. It seemed that from that time on, his father had planned for his son to play soccer abroad…

"Let me introduce myself, I am the coach of the Zenit first team, Dick Advocaat." Since both sides could speak English, there was no need for a translator, and Yesenin became a pure guest.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Advocaat." Chen Hero shook Advocaat's hand vigorously.

It was indeed an honor to meet him… but he had never met him before. Otherwise, he would have recognized him earlier.

"I want to ask you… are you willing to come to the first team to play soccer?"

Advocaat's words were so direct that Chen Hero didn't react. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that the other side was planning to transfer him to the first team!

The first team!

What did that mean? It meant that he would have the opportunity to participate in the real professional league—the Russian Premier League!

It meant that he would appear in games watched by tens of thousands of spectators, it meant that there would be television broadcasts shooting him from various different angles during the game, it meant that the TV commentators would be praising his goals while spitting, it meant that he would be surrounded by many media outlets after the game, and the coach would no longer be able to stop him from being interviewed…

Was there any need to hesitate or consider!

He nodded vigorously, "Of course I am willing! Mr. Advocaat!"

Advocaat was very satisfied with Chen Hero's answer—it would be a very embarrassing thing to be rejected by a youth team player…

He nodded, "Very good. I will talk to your coach, Mr. Popovich. After everything is settled…" He pointed to the assistant coach Kurt Potter beside him. "Mr. Potter will notify you to report to the first team."

Potter extended his hand to Chen Hero, "Hello, young man. I am the team's assistant coach, Kurt Potter."

You couldn't tell from the smile on his face that he had once been prejudiced against Chen Hero…