Chapter 1 "Hey, Hero."

"Hey, Hero," Skrtel said from the hotel room, idly flipping through channels with the remote. He couldn't understand many of the programs, and when he finally found a channel with familiar content, it was in Chinese. CCTV's sports channel was broadcasting the evening's sports news, with the upcoming friendly between Liverpool and the Chinese national team as the main event.

"What's up?"

"Translate for me," Skrtel said, pointing at the TV screen. "What are they saying?"

Chen Hero put down his phone, equally bored as he was playing a mobile game.

He glanced at the TV screen. "Oh, they're talking about our game against China."

"Really?" Skrtel perked up at this. "What specifically are they saying?"

"Hmm... they're saying that the Chinese team is ready, and that this is head coach Gao Hongbo's last friendly with the team... China has a nickname, you know, Martin?"

Skrtel shook his head.

"'King of Friendlies,' ha! They've tied Germany and beaten France in friendlies before."

"Impressive!" Skrtel whistled. "So the Chinese team is pretty strong. The game might be tough..."

Chen Hero snorted. "Do you think we'd be losing face for them if we won big?"

Skrtel was taken aback. "Why are you asking me? I'm not Chinese. You'd know better than me, right?"

Chen Hero fell silent.

Actually, he wasn't quite sure what Chinese fans really thought of the national team. He often saw people online cursing, saying things like, "I'm a dog if I ever watch the national team's games again!" "Only idiots watch China's games these days!" "It's more honorable to watch porn at home than to watch the national team play!"

But when the Chinese team played, the stands were still full of fans. He wondered if the people cursing online were among them…

He tried to put himself in their shoes, imagining himself as a fan. When he was a kid playing soccer, his biggest dream was to represent his country. He watched every game the Chinese team played, so he was a fan, right?

When he was old enough to understand soccer, China made it to the World Cup. Back then, everyone across the country was so happy… TV, newspapers, cash registers, the internet were filled with reports about it, like it was New Year's. He remembered it very clearly.

Then China didn't score a single goal or earn a single point at the World Cup, returning home defeated and dejected. The previously fervent passion for soccer suddenly disappeared by half.

Many people started cursing Chinese soccer, but many still watched it. People would say, "I'm never watching the Chinese team play again," but when the time came, they'd all be glued to the TV…

They were happy when the Chinese team won and cursed loudly when they lost.

If they were happy to see them lose, why would so many people curse? Shouldn't they be setting off firecrackers to celebrate, like when China made it to the World Cup? That would be a sign of "enjoying the loss," right?

He figured that if they were really Chinese soccer fans, they'd probably still want the Chinese team to win, right?

If the Chinese team lost by a large margin to Liverpool, many people would probably still feel sad and hurt.

Was what he was planning to do right or wrong?

As he hesitated, he suddenly remembered what he had heard that day, and an inexplicable fire surged in his heart.

Damn it!

No pain, no gain! Dragging it out like this is hard on everyone. I might as well go for it and tear down the FA's fig leaf! I'll take the blame, even if they curse me!

※※※

Chen Hero was considering whether winning by too much would make the home fans and the Chinese team lose face.

Others were also considering the same question.

"Should we quit while we're ahead?" Niang was discussing the question he'd just thought of with Chen Xing and the team's coach, Dalglish.

Beating the Chinese team wasn't a problem for either of them. The problem was by how many goals, and how to win. If the score was too lopsided, would the Chinese team and the Chinese FA feel too embarrassed? Would the Chinese fans feel like they were losing face? Both of them were Chinese, and although they couldn't speak Chinese, they knew that Chinese people valued face.

This might affect Liverpool's image in the Chinese market, thereby affecting their interests here…

So how to play this game was not just a soccer problem.

That's why Chen Xing had called the club's general manager and the team's coach together to discuss the issue.

Dalglish disagreed with holding back. He didn't think the Chinese team was really that easy to deal with. After all, they were the national team of a country. Since China had players like Chen Hero, he believed their national team couldn't be too weak.

Moreover, the game against Evergrande had shown him the strength of Chinese clubs, so he didn't dare to underestimate them too much.

Actually, there was an even more important reason why he didn't agree with holding back. The news of Liverpool's narrow 4-3 victory over Evergrande in the first game had already reached the UK. There was significantly more criticism of the team back in Liverpool. Many people sarcastically said that Liverpool had conceded three goals against a newly promoted Chinese team—Evergrande was still in League One last season and had just been promoted to the Super League this season. For British reporters who didn't understand Chinese soccer or only researched it, Evergrande was just a newly promoted team, no different from Queens Park Rangers or Norwich, who were promoted this season—such a defense was too terrible. If they didn't improve the quality of their defense, Liverpool's new season results would be worrying…

The criticism put a lot of pressure on Dalglish. If they lost to or tied the Chinese team in the second game, he'd probably face even more pressure.

This was something he didn't want to see.

But he couldn't directly tell the owner that he was worried about the team's performance, so he had to say something polite.

"Well… but this is a commercial game, after all. If we're too lackadaisical, wouldn't that make them think we're not putting in enough effort? Wouldn't that be even worse?"

When he said this, Niang had nothing to say.

Not putting in enough effort would also damage Liverpool's image in China…

Chen Xing tilted his head. "How about this? Full strength in the first half. That way they can't say we're not putting in enough effort, right? They just want to see the stars, so it'll be fine as long as the stars are on the field…"

Dalglish had no objections to this. He was planning to start with a full-strength lineup anyway, to establish a sufficient advantage in the first half, and then make adjustments in the second half, which would give him more room to maneuver.

This game not only had to be won, but it had to be won with little suspense. He didn't want his team's defense to concede two goals in the last ten minutes…

※※※

Before the game against the national team, topics related to the national team were naturally very popular. The most popular topic was naturally whether Chen Hero could join the national team.

There was a heated debate about this online.

Many people thought that this sudden friendly might be paving the way for Chen Hero to join the national team.

Because there were no friendlies scheduled for this time, and this game wasn't an international A-level match recognized by FIFA. Win or lose, no points would be counted in the rankings. The Chinese team also had to bear the risk of players getting injured in a friendly when the game against Laos was imminent.

So why arrange this game?

Naturally, it was hoped that this game would be used to connect Chen Hero and the national team. The more optimistic view was that Chen Hero could be seen wearing the national team jersey in the game against Laos. The more cautious view was that Chen Hero should be able to represent the Chinese national team in the top twenty matches starting in early September.

Chen Hero remained silent when faced with such inquiries from reporters.

However, his silence was interpreted as "caution before things are about to succeed." Some media outlets made a big deal out of saying that Chen Hero had reached an agreement with the FA, and he would definitely join Camacho's national team. His joining was because Camacho had personally requested it—which made sense, since everyone knew that this friendly was arranged by Camacho—Camacho was hired with money from Dalian Wanda, and Dalian Wanda was now the Chinese FA's financial backer. Camacho's intention was also Dalian Wanda's intention, and the FA didn't dare offend the financial backer. No matter how many grudges they had with Chen Hero, they had to agree to the demands made by the financial backer.

It sounded pretty plausible, so many fans began to look forward to the games after Chen Hero joined the national team.

Even Chen Hero's father was fooled. He called Chen Hero specifically to ask, "Are you really going to join the national team?"

Chen Hero could remain silent or even lie to others, but he could only tell the truth to his father. So he told his father everything about his contact with Wan Zongquan.

"Heh!" Chen Tao was amused by the FA's demands on the other end of the phone. "So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to slap their faces," Chen Hero replied simply, but as the person who knew his son best, Chen Tao could still hear some murderous intent.

"Don't tell me you're going to do it in this game…"

Chen Hero snapped his fingers. "Yes, just like you think, Dad!"

"This… won't it be too much?"

"Afraid of them!" Chen Hero said with disdain. "Anyway, Dad, just wait and see the show!"

※※※

After hanging up the phone, his mother asked Chen Tao with concern, "How is it?"

"My son said he's not joining the national team."

"Why? Isn't it good to serve the country?"

Chen Tao was stunned for a moment, then didn't know how to explain it to his wife. The problem was too complicated, and his wife wasn't interested in soccer at all, so many deeper topics couldn't be discussed at all, couldn't be explained clearly. In the end, he simply stomped his foot and put on the authority of the head of the household. "Oh, you're a woman, what do you know! Anyway… it's nothing! If anyone asks you about Hero joining the national team, just say you don't know!"

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