No one knew what Chen Hero's celebration meant, not even the Chinese commentators could understand it. Just bending his little finger like that, it wasn't easy to connect it to a pinky swear.

After the game, some teammates asked him what that celebration meant.

Chen Hero told them it was a promise between him and old Hatterson, but he lied about what exactly was promised. He said it was a promise to dedicate the goal to him, and didn't mention that it was actually a promise of the championship...

He didn't want to say because some things were too troublesome to explain, and he didn't want to scare his teammates or burden them with his words, which might end up harming the whole team instead.

Actually, Chen Hero thought Gerrard's "white lie" was quite good, saving him the trouble of explaining, and it was fine if others wanted to understand it that way.

Liverpool finally took a victory from the away game with a score of 3:2, and managed to dedicate the victory to old Hatterson in the hospital bed.

At least they didn't lose face.

But Chen Hero wasn't very satisfied in the end.

He felt that if old Hatterson saw the process of such a game, he might have another heart attack... Leading twice but allowing the opponent to equalize twice, and finally winning narrowly 3:2. After his goal, Liverpool didn't have the ability to score another goal. Even ordinary people would be so nervous that their heart rate would accelerate too much, right?

Such a performance was definitely not good.

The victory to be dedicated to old Hatterson should never have been like this. It should have been a hearty and overwhelming victory!

But this game was over, and whether he wanted to or not, he had to accept the result.

He could only wait for the next league game, where Liverpool would host the newly promoted Hull City at home. The opponent was not strong, and Liverpool was playing at home, so there was a chance to dedicate a hearty and overwhelming victory to old Hatterson in this game.

But before that, there was a League Cup game.

※※※

The League Cup game was not important. Martin O'Neill planned to give it up—this was his traditional approach. Liverpool had already won eight of these League Cup titles, which were of little significance.

If participating in the League Cup affected the results in the league and the Champions League group stage, it would be a case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish.

But Chen Hero had a different opinion.

Chen Hero knew that Martin O'Neill would let a large group of reserve team and youth team players participate in the League Cup, which he couldn't interfere with even if he wanted to. After all, he wasn't the head coach and couldn't decide the team's starting lineup, but he could decide for himself. He went to O'Neill and told him his thoughts.

O'Neill was surprised to hear that Chen Hero wanted to participate in the League Cup.

Last season he requested to participate in the FA Cup, which was somewhat understandable. After all, the FA Cup still held an important place in the hearts of many players, as it was the oldest official football competition in the world.

But what was the League Cup? The League Cup didn't have a long history, and its appeal wasn't as great as the FA Cup.

Why did Chen Hero insist on participating in the League Cup?

He suddenly thought of the meeting before the season when they talked about the goals for the new season, and the sentence that Chen Hero blurted out.

"Why can't we be quadruple champions this season?"

At the time, everyone thought Chen Hero's idea was too shocking. No one took such big steps.

No one adopted Chen Hero's suggestion, but now it seemed that he was determined to do so... Otherwise, why would he be joining in the League Cup? He must want to lead the team into the final and ultimately lift the League Cup trophy.

O'Neill told Chen Hero what he was thinking. Chen Hero smiled when he saw that his plan had been seen through. "I just want to try it, anyway, it doesn't take much effort. The second team plus me is enough, just like when we played the FA Cup last season... Last season didn't affect me at all, so you don't have to worry even more this season."

O'Neill thought even more: "I say, will you be thinking the same way about the FA Cup in the future?"

Chen Hero nodded: "Yes!"

"You want to participate in all the games this season?"

"That's right."

"Your body... is really okay?"

Chen Hero shrugged: "Didn't Lampard once not miss a single game? And he wasn't substituted early once, playing all ninety minutes. Why can't I do it? In terms of physical fitness, I think I should be better than him, right?"

The Lampard that Chen Hero was talking about once set a record of sixty-two appearances in a single season for Chelsea, which was in the 2006-2007 season. Before that, he had also set a record of starting in one hundred and sixty-four consecutive Premier League games. He was a famous "iron man" in the Premier League.

Chen Hero felt that he could do what Lampard could do. There were no problems with his own conditions, it just depended on whether the head coach was willing to let him play.

O'Neill thought about it. This person's desire for goals and games was innate. If he forcibly stopped him, it would be bad. He might as well follow his wishes and let him play... Anyway, as long as he wasn't injured or didn't feel tired, then whatever!

Thinking of this, he nodded: "Okay, Hero. As you wish. You will start in the League Cup game in the middle of the week."

※※※

In the Liverpool reserve team and youth team, the players all knew that they would have the opportunity to fight for the Liverpool first team in the League Cup game in the middle of the week.

This was a rare opportunity for them to play as first-team players.

Usually, they could only play in youth leagues, youth FA Cups, reserve team leagues... these kinds of games. Few people came to watch, and the attention was very low.

The League Cup was a dispensable championship for the stars of the first team, but for them, it was a big stage, almost like the Champions League was in the hearts of the first team players.

They had been looking forward to the League Cup since the beginning of the season.

The Premier League teams didn't get a chance to play in the previous League Cup games. It wasn't until the third round that the Premier League teams made their collective debut.

While they were looking forward to the League Cup, they were also curious about another thing—would Hero fight alongside them again this time?

The day before the League Cup, they were called to the first team's training ground. They would use a match as training. They would play against the first team in a scrimmage. This was their last training session before the League Cup.

When distributing the players, the reserve team and youth team players found that Chen Hero was wearing a yellow vest just like them!

Chen Hero also saw some old faces from last year in this team, and also saw many new faces. In addition, some other old faces had disappeared from the team. Some of them had been loaned out, and some had simply been sold off. They had worked hard in the reserve team but had not been able to get the opportunity to be promoted to the first team, and could only leave in disappointment to continue their professional football dreams at other teams.

Wearing a yellow vest, he greeted his new teammates: "Hi, guys, we're going to fight together again in tomorrow's game!"

Everyone let out a burst of laughter mixed with cheers.

Seeing this scene, Suarez and others on the opposite side curled their lips and rolled their eyes—this kid, he's defecting very quickly!

After Chen Hero joined the reserve team lineup, the first team's assistant center backs suffered a lot.

Especially Pepe, it was like reliving the Champions League quarter-final last season.

In the end, with Chen Hero's two goals, the reserve team defeated the first team 3:2. Chen Hero showed a good competitive state, and all the reserve team players also seemed to be in high spirits.

Martin O'Neill was very satisfied watching from the sidelines. There should be no problem with such a reserve team playing in the League Cup.

※※※

Of course there was no problem. For the reserve team, Chen Hero was not just a powerful center forward, he was simply the spiritual leader of these second-team players. As long as he was there, everyone had a backbone in their hearts.

The League Cup third round match was held on the evening of September 22nd.

Liverpool made their debut against Leeds United.

The former youth army could only sink and float in the Championship and League One leagues, and could not rise.

Unlike Liverpool, Leeds United sent out their main players and attached great importance to this competition. For them, if they could reach the League Cup final, they could allow the team to reappear in the European arena. This was good news for the team's finances. They would receive more bonuses, and with this money, they could use it to repay the club's debts and purchase some excellent players to strengthen the team's strength, in preparation for the team to attack the Premier League.

But unfortunately, Leeds United, with so many plans, encountered Liverpool with Chen Hero...

When the Leeds United coach saw Chen Hero's name on Liverpool's starting list, he knew that all his plans had fallen through...

That was the reality. In the game, because of Chen Hero's addition, the Liverpool second team played with great skill.

The final result was without suspense. Chen Hero scored two goals and had one assist, helping the Liverpool second team defeat Leeds United 4:1.

Advancing to the League Cup fourth round.

Leeds United died too miserably in this game. Many bystanders couldn't bear to watch and felt that Liverpool sending Chen Hero to play in such a game was too much of a bully...

But with the precedent of Preston coach Phil Brown from last season, no one publicly criticized Liverpool's approach.

They were doing their best to win the game, and you really couldn't say anything about them...

※※※

After playing the League Cup, the happy days of the Liverpool second team came to an end. Chen Hero would return to the first team to prepare for the league and the Champions League.

But they could start looking forward to the next League Cup game.

Back in the first team, Chen Hero was teased by his teammates: "How was the one-day tour of the reserve team, Hero?"

"You're really bullying people, Hero! I don't even bother to talk about you!"

"Look at how badly you bullied Leeds United?"

Chen Hero rolled his eyes: "Don't talk about this, let's talk about the next league game."

"Hey, don't change the subject, Hero! What's so great about the next league game? Newly promoted team, and playing at home!"

"That's exactly what I want to talk about. Guys, we played really badly in the last league game! We were almost tied by West Ham United away from home. We said we would dedicate a victory to old Hatterson, but is that what a victory is? Luckily he didn't watch this game, otherwise can you guarantee he wouldn't have another heart attack?"

A group of people fell silent after hearing Chen Hero's words.

They did perform badly in the last game. In the locker room after that game, Martin O'Neill had criticized them.

They actually knew it too.

Giving this kind of victory to old Hatterson was indeed a bit... perfunctory.

"So in the next league game, against Hull City, we have to give old Hatterson another victory, not only to win, but also to win beautifully, to win without suspense, we need a big victory! Anything less than four goals doesn't count as a big victory!"