If being selected in the starting lineup for the first team in two consecutive matches meant anything, it would mean your position in the head coach's mind was quite stable. So if Chen Hero could start two consecutive matches, at least before Tai Ke recovered from his injury, Chen Hero wouldn't have to worry about his position.

The match was on Saturday, but after training on Wednesday afternoon, head coach Advocaat announced the roster for the game two days later.

This surprised Chen Hero somewhat, because normally the roster wasn't announced until the day before the match...

That he was on the list wasn't surprising. He had been training hard this week.

But what surprised him were his teammates' expressions… These teammates, about to embark on an away game, didn't seem particularly happy, but rather wore bitter expressions.

Chen Hero didn't know why, but he was too embarrassed to ask in front of the head coach. Once back in the locker room, he told Denisov what he had observed.

Of course, Denisov was one of those with a bitter expression.

"Do you know who our opponents are this weekend?" Denisov asked Chen Hero.

Chen Hero nodded. "Luch-Energiya."

"Do you know what city it's in?"

Chen Hero shook his head.

"Vladivostok!" Denisov lamented.

Chen Hero didn't know much about the name "Vladivostok." He used to play soccer and wasn't much for serious schooling, so his knowledge of geography was poor. Of course, he wouldn't know that this city was the famous "Haishenwai."

Haishenwai was once Chinese territory, but after the Second Opium War, the Qing Dynasty and Russia signed the "Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing," in which the Qing government ceded about 400,000 square kilometers of territory east of the Ussuri River, including Sakhalin Island, which included Haishenwai.

Haishenwai was subsequently renamed Vladivostok and is the second largest city in the Russian Far East.

This city is located in the east of Russia, very, very close to China's Heilongjiang Province.

Denisov continued to lament: "Do you have any game consoles?"

Chen Hero shook his head. He didn't even have a laptop, let alone a game console. Otherwise, before he met Yesenin, he wouldn't have felt so lonely every night.

"Well… I advise you to just sleep on the plane!"

"Why?" Chen Hero was still puzzled.

"Because we have to fly for more than ten hours!"

Chen Hero finally understood what Denisov's lament was all about.

From the time they took off from Pulkovo Airport, a full five hours had passed. The plane just kept flying and flying and flying. Constantly in the air.

At first, he was interested in looking at the magazines on the plane, but after he had finished all the magazines, he had nothing to do but stare blankly for an hour. Then he could only choose to sleep—in fact, it was almost time to sleep anyway.

They took off from St. Petersburg local time at 8:00 PM, and now it had been five hours, which meant it was already past 1:00 AM.

He turned slightly, waking up from a groggy sleep. In fact, he had never really fallen asleep. The roar of the plane and the turbulence they encountered made his sleep quality poor.

The sky outside the window was as black as ink, with stars twinkling, very beautiful and spectacular. But Chen Hero wasn't in the mood to appreciate the scenery outside the window—he just felt like his butt was numb.

Denisov was sprawled out on the seat next to him, sleeping soundly, even snoring.

Chen Hero got up with some difficulty, then carefully stepped over Denisov and Anyukov.

After reaching the aisle in the middle, he stretched.

A tall flight attendant saw Chen Hero and walked over, asking very warmly: "Is there anything I can help you with, sir?"

"Ah, no, I'm just stretching… my butt's gone numb." Chen Hero rubbed his butt.

Seeing Chen Hero like this, the tall, beautiful flight attendant couldn't help but laugh.

Chen Hero figured since there was nothing to do, and most of the people on the plane were sleeping, he might as well chat with the flight attendant to relieve the boredom.

"How long does it take to fly from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok?" he asked.

"The flight time is thirteen hours," the flight attendant patiently answered him.

"Oh… flying like this for thirteen hours, don't you get bored?"

"It's our job, sir."

"Do people ever ask you for your phone number while you're working?"

The flight attendant smiled. "Yes." She wasn't ashamed to admit it at all, and even looked quite proud. It seemed like a flight attendant who hadn't been hit on wasn't a pretty flight attendant…

"Then can I ask you for your phone number?" Chen Hero went straight to the point, as simple and direct as his playing style.

But whether it would work or not, who knew…

The flight attendant smiled even more happily.

Then she took out a pen and paper, wrote her name and cell phone number on it, and handed it to Chen Hero.

He looked down at the paper, then said to the flight attendant, "You see… I'm still learning Russian… so my level isn't very high. So I can't read your name clearly, can you tell me what it is?"

The flight attendant thought this tall guy with black hair and yellow skin was really interesting. She smiled and replied, "You can call me Petrovna."

"What a lovely name." Chen Hero deliberately complimented her in broken Russian.

"Are you a player for Zenit St. Petersburg too?" Petrovna asked.

Chen Hero nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Why haven't I seen you before?"

"Uh… I only joined the team a month ago…"

"So you're a newbie? You don't look very old."

Chen Hero thought to himself that if he said he was only eighteen, he wondered if this flight attendant would still be interested in him, so he decided to say he was older: "I just have a baby face, but I'm actually twenty-four years old!"

Just as Chen Hero was planning to continue flirting with the flight attendant, the cabin suddenly shook.

Petrovna signaled Chen Hero to return to his seat and fasten his seat belt, while she quickly walked back to her area. Chen Hero didn't immediately obediently return to his seat, but instead admired a beautiful sight—Petrovna's full buttocks, tightly stretched by her pencil skirt, were swaying as she walked quickly.

I wonder what they feel like… Chen Hero thought unsteadily.

When he sat back in his chair and fastened his seat belt, Petrovna's sweet voice sounded on the radio: "Dear passengers, due to turbulence, please remain seated and fasten your seat belts, and stow your tray tables…"

Denisov woke up from the turbulence, groggily wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, and saw Chen Hero next to him sitting up straight, looking ahead.

"How long have we been flying, Hero?" he asked.

"More than five hours, I guess…" Chen Hero replied.

"Oh, damn… only five hours!"

He yawned, sat up, stretched, and seemed a little more energetic: "Do you know why we all hate playing Luch-Energiya away?"

Chen Hero thought of his butt, which had gone numb just now, and nodded.

"It's fucking painful…" Denisov complained, "I'm telling you, all the teams hope Luch-Energiya gets relegated as soon as possible! If they get relegated, we won't have to go through this. It takes twenty-six hours on a plane to get there and back for one away game! Sometimes I think if Luch-Energiya doesn't get relegated, then let them win the Russian Cup or something! Then let them play in European competitions, that'll be fun! Haha! Can you imagine an English team flying for twenty hours, changing planes in the middle, to play an away game, how painful would that be? I bet, then Luch-Energiya's home stadium would be a hellish home stadium! No team would come to their stadium with full stamina and in good condition!"

Denisov complained incessantly.

Chen Hero listened from the side, thinking that this guy's resentment was really deep…

But he was more focused on the flight attendant with the sweet voice.

He waved the piece of paper in his hand at Denisov.

"What?" Denisov was interrupted.

"Just got her number." Chen Hero showed off.

Only then did Denisov see a line of beautiful handwriting and a string of numbers on the paper.

"Petrovna?"

"How about it? Not bad, right!" Chen Hero expected to receive the commander's praise.

But what he got was the commander's eye roll.

"She's married. If you like that type, then it doesn't matter…" Denisov shrugged and returned the paper to Chen Hero. He wasn't interested in the flight attendant who made Chen Hero's heart flutter.

"Huh?" Chen Hero was surprised. "How do you know she's married?"

"The whole team knows, only you, the rookie, doesn't know. Besides, how old do you think she is?"

"Twenty-seven or twenty-eight…"

"Well, thirty-six without makeup."

Chen Hero was so scared that he almost jumped out of his chair—if he hadn't been tied down by a seat belt…

"Fuck! No way?"

"You have to trust the commander, Hero." Ever since Chen Hero gave Denisov the nickname "Commander," Denisov especially liked to refer to himself as "Commander."

Chen Hero looked at Denisov's disdainful expression and grinned.

He finally managed to hook up with someone, but in the end, he realized that he was the one who had been hooked… Damn it!

Chen Hero wasn't interested in a thirty-six-year-old married woman. Maybe her children were almost as old as him… He looked at the note in his hand, and finally reluctantly crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it into the trash bag.

However, for the rest of the way, Chen Hero was "harassed" by Petrovna. Every time she passed his seat, Petrovna would unabashedly give Chen Hero an ambiguous smile. Her expression seemed to say, "Tell me the place after the plane lands!"

This made the whole team know that Petrovna had caught another one. When Petrovna wasn't around, they all gave Chen Hero teasing smiles.

Anyukov and Denisov, who were sitting next to Chen Hero, laughed heartily at the rookie Chen Hero.

"Okay, Hero. Now the whole team knows that you're like a wolf or tiger, desperately hungry for an old married woman of thirty-six! Hahahaha!"

A burst of laughter rang out in the plane.

In the midst of this laughter, Chen Hero buried his head deeply…

This was the longest and most difficult flight he had ever taken.

When the plane landed at Vladivostok International Airport, Chen Hero breathed a sigh of relief—he could finally get rid of Petrovna's deadly ambiguous gaze.

Petrovna stood at the door of the cabin, leading all the flight attendants, to see off the passengers.

"Thank you for flying with Vladivostok Airlines, we wish you a pleasant journey. Welcome to fly with us next time!"

When Chen Hero walked past the flight attendant, he could still feel those two fiery gazes, as well as the meaningful smiles of his teammates in front of and behind him. He lowered his head again, pretending not to see, and hurriedly left the cabin door.

Denisov was waiting for him in front, and when he saw him coming out, he put his arm around his shoulders: "Don't worry, Hero. You'll have a chance to see her again—don't forget, we have to fly back to St. Petersburg after the away game!"

Chen Hero's face turned green: "Can't I take the train?!"

The surrounding teammates laughed happily.

For the other players of Zenit St. Petersburg, this was the most terrifying away trip in history. For Chen Hero, it was probably the same.

However, they obviously had different views on the reasons for the "terror"...