Chapter 1 The Beginning

Chen Yingxiong was eating breakfast, though it wasn't much of a breakfast—instant noodles. It didn't take much time, but it wasn't very nutritious either. Compared to the bacon, ham, fried eggs, bread, juice, and milk breakfasts he had when Christine Cabre was around, it was naturally far inferior, but it was simple and easy. These days, he had been grinding levels non-stop, and even twenty-four hours a day felt like too little time. Of course, he’d take the easy way out when it came to cooking. He had brought a lot of instant noodles with him from China to Italy specifically so he could stay home and grind levels, grinding experience to level up.

Of course, in the eyes of outsiders, this probably looked a little "tragic" ... a famous football star with a multi-million euro annual salary, eating instant noodles. He really didn't pay much attention to his life.

Just then, Cabre pushed the door open and saw Chen Yingxiong holding a bowl of instant noodles.

As Chen Yingxiong picked up the instant noodles with his chopsticks, intending to put them in his mouth, the door was pushed open. Cabre, with a backpack on her back and pulling a suitcase, appeared before him. The bright sunlight outside the door streamed in behind her, casting her long shadow on the ground.

Chen Yingxiong turned his head in surprise, his posture unchanged. One hand holding the bowl, the other picking up the noodles, mouth open, about to put them in his mouth.

He had been grinding levels so much that he had forgotten the time, and also forgotten that today was the "return date" he had agreed upon with Cabre. Also, starting tomorrow, the team's training camp would officially begin, and he had to report to the team.

He looked at Cabre, still with her clean, crisp, and heroic short hair. She wore a dark green short-sleeved T-shirt and denim shorts, revealing her long, slender, and fair legs, and a pair of leather boots on her feet.

Her face was still free of makeup, a pair of sunglasses pushed up onto her hair, and her spirited eyes looked at him quietly.

"I'm back, Mr. Chen."

Chen Yingxiong's first reaction was: "Ah? Ah ... oh, uh ... have you eaten? Want something to eat ..." He then realized he was still holding instant noodles.

Offering someone instant noodles? That didn't make sense ... It was like those advertisements where a family of three is happily eating instant noodles around the dining table in a luxurious open kitchen. Stupid!

"I've already had breakfast, thank you." Cabre picked up the suitcase and walked in, then put the suitcase down to the side.

If she were more quick-witted, she might have teased the Napoli superstar about eating instant noodles. But being with her meant there was no such fun.

After his initial surprise, Chen Yingxiong ignored her and let her pack her things. He spread his arms and slurped up the Lao Tan Suan Cai (old坛酸菜) beef noodles with a strong hometown flavor.

He had been eating this flavor of instant noodles every meal for the past few days, and he still hadn't gotten tired of it.

But it wasn't uncommon for players to eat instant noodles. It was said that the Chinese national team used to bring several large boxes of instant noodles and Lao Gan Ma (老干妈) when they went abroad for matches because they were worried about not being used to the food, and those players who couldn't get used to the food and couldn't get enough to eat relied on it to fill their stomachs.

Cabre's return meant to Chen Yingxiong that his new season had also begun.

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For many people, the traditional new season should be counted from the first game of the new season in September. But for Chen Yingxiong, now was the new season, because training had already begun.

The next day, Cabre sped Chen Yingxiong to the Castel Volturno training base, sixty kilometers from the city of Naples, where he also saw many of his teammates. After not seeing each other for a holiday, everyone was still very warm when they met. The fierce battle with Barcelona last season had tightly united the team, and the team was more united than ever before.

They naturally knew that Chen Yingxiong had signed a sponsorship deal with Nike for three million euros a year. So when they saw Chen Yingxiong, they first gave him a round of pats, showing their envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Chen Yingxiong could only cover his head and scurry away from their pats and couldn't fight back. He also had to promise to treat the whole team to a meal before the season started before they would let him go.

Cabre watched Chen Yingxiong play with his teammates, and the corners of her mouth slightly curved into an arc, which quickly disappeared.

When Chen Yingxiong followed his teammates inside, she drove back, and would pick him up again in the afternoon when the team's training was over. In between, she had to clean the house. This was her other identity—a nanny.

She now did this job with a calm mind.

She was even gradually accepting this identity deep down.

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The first thing the team did when they started training was to weigh themselves.

Outside the medical room, there was a high-precision electronic scale. Every player stepped on it under the watchful eyes of the coaches to see how much weight they had gained during the holiday. The more weight they gained, the more indulgent they were during the holiday, and the more sweat they would have to pay in training to lose the weight. Otherwise, sorry, there was no place for you in the starting lineup.

This wasn't a new rule, it was a common practice in many teams. Changes in weight were the most direct way to see how a person spent their holiday—how could those who ate and drank without restraint not gain weight? People with regular lifestyles would gain weight, but it would be limited.

However, most players were confident in their strength or their ability to lose weight, so they simply indulged themselves during the holiday. Then they would use the pre-season training phase to lose the fat.

As a result, the weight of most players had increased compared to before the holiday, and the increase was not small. You didn't even need to rely on the scales, you could see it clearly by looking at their slightly bulging bellies.

Of course, there were always exceptions.

Chen Yingxiong stood on the scale: ninety-three kilograms!

Two kilograms lighter than before the holiday!

"Monster!"

"Freak!" A group of onlookers exclaimed.

Chen Yingxiong knew what was going on. It was all because he was eating instant noodles every day and grinding levels with high intensity that he had lost weight...

But this wasn't necessarily a good thing for him. Height and weight were powerful weapons for a strong center forward, and being too light wasn't necessarily good. Once his diet returned to normal, the weight would quickly return. Basically, it would stabilize at around ninety-five kilograms, with an error of no more than one kilogram.

The fitness coach in charge of recording the weight was very satisfied with Chen Yingxiong's data. This was the case every season. Chen Yingxiong was the player who maintained his fitness the best in the team. From this point of view, the fitness coach liked Chen Yingxiong very much. If all the players could be as self-conscious as Chen Yingxiong, his job would be much easier.

Fitness was really the foundation of modern professional football. No matter how good your technique was, it was useless without fitness. Unfortunately, many people still couldn't understand this. They always thought that they were talented and that it didn't matter if their fitness was a little worse. Wouldn't it be fine if I ran less on the field?

It wasn't that simple.

Modern football paid more attention to off-ball movement than ever before. You run less? Then just wait to be mediocre and then be substituted off the field.

So players like Chen Yingxiong who consciously exercised their fitness during the holidays were good players in the eyes of the fitness coach. The fitness coach's private evaluation of Chen Yingxiong was also very good. He thought that there was a reason why he had won the Serie A Golden Boot for two consecutive seasons—many of Chen Yingxiong's goals were scored in the last fifteen minutes of the match. If he didn't have strong fitness support, would he be able to capture the goalscoring opportunity at that time, or would he still be on the field? By then, he wouldn't even be able to run. Want to score? No way!

※※※

After weighing themselves, they also had to do other physical examinations. Especially a heart examination.

This wasn't because Cassano had heart disease that this rule was in place. This was a routine examination that had been carried out for a long time. In fact, the Italian Football Association was the only football association in the country to enforce heart examinations in the domestic league in order to ensure the heart health of these players. Of course, this examination was only effective for those more obvious heart problems. Cassano's very subtle heart defect, which usually had almost no impact on normal life, was beyond their reach. Even this time, the Sant'Orsola Clinic used various advanced instruments and underwent a very complex and detailed examination to find the cause.

This examination could already screen out many obvious heart problems and was enough to play a preventive role. The Spanish Football Association didn't pay much attention to this aspect and didn't have routine heart examinations, which led to the tragedies of Puerta and Dani Jarque. Real Madrid's rising star De la Red was also forced to retire early due to heart problems, almost following in the footsteps of Puerta and Dani Jarque.

After the physical examination, Mazzarri appeared in front of everyone with a bad expression, of course, because the data on the form was too ugly...

"Those who are overweight will have their training volume doubled during this period." The coach of Napoli said with a straight face. Immediately, many people's faces turned ugly.

Chen Yingxiong deliberately laughed out loud, avenging the previous revenge of being patted on the head.

Of course, many people were already thinking about how to get back at him at the dinner table.

After Mazzarri announced the rules, the players went back to the locker room to change their clothes, and then, under the leadership of the fitness coach, began their physical training.

Outside the Castel Volturno training base, thousands of fans gathered. These people were true die-hards who had come specifically to watch the team's first day of training in the new season.

Seeing the players running out, they cheered excitedly.

The entire Napoli team, from this day on, began their journey in the new season.

In the new season, what exactly awaits them ahead?

Will this season ultimately leave them with laughter or tears?