Chen Hero's feeling was right. Although he had denied the rumors at the press conference, many people felt that it was a clumsy attempt to cover up the truth. Chen Hero must know the seriousness of this matter, and he would not openly admit it, especially in China. If he admitted it, wouldn't he be afraid of being pelted with bricks during the match?

So he must be lying. Maybe he has already had contact with the English Football Association.

Maybe he has already made a decision? The rice is already cooked...

What's the use of us protesting here?

Therefore, Chen Hero's answer not only did not calm the matter down, but instead made the fire burn even brighter.

Next, he also followed the club to participate in two commercial activities. In the first commercial activity, Chen Hero encountered a fanatical fan who rushed into the venue draped in the national flag, with a cloth strip with the words "Cheer Up, Victory is Certain" tied on his forehead, hoping that Chen Hero would reconsider the matter of changing his nationality.

This made the organizers look bad and very passive, while Chen Hero was very helpless.

He originally wanted to go up and explain to that fan, but four or five burly security guards had already rushed up and dragged the weeping fan away. Only his hoarse voice was still echoing in the huge venue.

The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became awkward. Even if the host tried his best to liven up the atmosphere, Chen Hero's expression did not improve.

He was absent-minded. He was constantly thinking about this problem.

This fan's actions explained a lot of things.

He wanted to explain, but he didn't know how to explain. It seemed that no matter what he said, some people would not believe him. Maybe they liked him too much, and they would take some extreme actions because they couldn't accept the "reality" in the rumors.

As for who started the rumors, he would let Dekura investigate. But now the most important thing is to appease the fans' emotions.

At this time, it seemed that time could not prove his innocence. Even if after a period of time, there was no news of him joining the England team, it could prove that he was innocent. But who knows if he will change his nationality after a while? As long as this problem is not solved, it will be like a sword of Damocles, hanging over the heads of many people. They will always have this sense of insecurity, worrying that Chen Hero will defect to another country because of the Football Association's idiocy.

After the commercial activity ended, Chen Hero updated his microblog with a sentence: "Of course I am Chinese, I was, I am, and I will be in the future."

Tens of thousands of messages poured in instantly. Some cheered and encouraged, while others were skeptical.

In the online world, conspiracy theories seem to have become a trend. Everyone is used to first suspecting from the perspective of conspiracy theories and dare not easily believe.

Chen Hero saw that the effect was not great and knew that just talking was not enough...

He had to take some practical actions.

※※※

In addition to these two commercial activities, he also participated in a charity dinner initiated by Liverpool's sponsor, Standard Chartered Bank, which aimed to raise money to help developing countries. The event has now raised more than 40 million US dollars, helping 2.8 million blind people regain their sight. The entire Liverpool team will attend the charity dinner, where Liverpool club jerseys and souvenirs will be auctioned to raise money.

Among them, Chen Hero's jersey from the Europa League final, with his autograph, was auctioned for a sky-high price of one million RMB.

At that time, Chen Hero cupped his hands to the people below the stage and said, "As expected of compatriots, you really give me face! Thank you, everyone!"

He was expressing his attitude in this way.

Unfortunately, not many people understood...

Afterwards, the media did not mention this detail of Chen Hero's, and even if they did, they did not interpret his true intentions.

On the contrary, when the team went to the Bird's Nest for acclimatization training, Chen Hero saw some fans in the stands watching the team's training who were holding banners to keep him, and of course, there were also people scolding him...

His brows were almost knitted together.

※※※

Liverpool and Newcastle are old rivals. They meet twice in the league every season, and sometimes they meet in cup games, so although it is called the Holy Temple Cup, everyone feels that it is similar to the league. If the opponent is a team from another league, it may be a bit novel.

For O'Neill, winning the championship is certainly important in this game, but the most important thing is to take this opportunity to examine the team's new player, Bale.

After Bale was injured last season, he did not return until the end of the season. His condition needs to be observed and tested through the game.

This Holy Temple Cup is Liverpool's first warm-up match this summer, and its gold content is relatively high. It's a great opportunity.

Because of the FM game, Bale also has considerable popularity among Chinese fans.

However, because of the nationality incident, Chinese fans currently have no intention of chasing stars.

Wherever the team goes, fans hold up portraits of Chen Hero to keep him, making it seem like the club's fans are persuading Chen Hero not to transfer.

Liverpool players who don't understand Chinese and don't understand the situation are envious of Chen Hero's popularity in China.

"Fifteen hundred million people like you, Hero!"

They don't understand that the Chinese population and fans are different.

Chen Hero could only respond with a wry smile—didn't they know that sometimes huge popularity also means a huge burden?

However, Chen Hero doesn't intend to complain that this popularity has now been transformed into a burden. Since he has enjoyed the benefits of this popularity, he must naturally face the negative effects of this popularity.

But how to face it?

※※※

The Holy Temple Cup is held in the Bird's Nest in Beijing, which was the main stadium of the Beijing Olympics.

Chen Hero once had the opportunity to appear here, but at the last moment, he was kicked out of the national Olympic team for well-known reasons, and he also lost the opportunity to fight for the country.

For Chen Hero, this is really a special place. He was also faced with the same criticism when he was expelled from the national Olympic team. Many people scolded him for not being patriotic at all, for being undisciplined, for not having a sense of the overall situation, and for fighting with his teammates and destroying unity before such an important event as the Olympics...

In the end, he was scolded as a traitor. If he hadn't responded quickly and appropriately at the beginning, I'm afraid his reputation in China would have been ruined long ago...

Now he is caught in the same crisis again.

Today, he is deeply trapped in the crisis of trust caused by the "nationality gate." Dekura has already called him to tell him that many of his sponsors are very concerned about this matter. Although Dekura has told them the truth, they still hope that Chen Hero can handle it properly and not damage his image in the hearts of domestic fans, because that will also damage the image of those brands. After all, a large part of the reason why these sponsors spend a lot of money to sign with Chen Hero is because Chen Hero is a Chinese, a Chinese sports star, and behind him is the huge Chinese market. If he suffers damage to his image because of this incident, then the brands he endorses will also suffer innocent disasters...

Some sponsors euphemistically stated that if this matter is not handled well, they may reduce the annual sponsorship fee, and in severe cases, they may even cancel his sponsorship contract.

Chen Hero doesn't care about the annual sponsorship fee of several million anymore. What he cares about is his image. He must not be defeated by rumors, which will only please the enemy and sadden his loved ones. And it also means that he has lost, and what he hates most is failure.

Last time, he used the system to create evidence to prove that he was innocent. But now the system can't play a role either. He hasn't done anything, so how can the system make evidence? Could it be that he will stage a scene of himself rejecting the invitation of the English Football Association? Not to mention whether this system can simulate scenes outside the field, just saying that this fabricated drama is very unsuccessful. He didn't do anything, but he tried his best to do it to prove his innocence. If he is exposed, he will really jump into sulfuric acid and not be able to wash himself clean...

This time, the system really can't help him. He can only rely on himself.

During the pre-match warm-up, Chen Hero could already hear the boos and scolding aimed at him. The shouts of "traitor" were very loud and penetrating.

Although there were not too many such shouts, think about what the situation was like before? The last time Chen Hero came to China to play as a Liverpool player, there were no boos in the entire stadium, all were uniform cheers!

Now he actually heard the scolding aimed at him, which in itself can explain the problem.

If the matter is allowed to develop, I am afraid that the consequences will become more and more serious.

Losing popularity is a minor matter. He also thought of the fan who was dragged away...

Stars are always happy to see their fans go crazy for them, even lose their minds. For example, raising funds crazily so that they can get rid of the control of the brokerage company, such as starving themselves in order to raise money to buy tickets for star concerts, such as arguing or even fighting with others for stars...

These can explain their influence.

As for whether such madness will cause problems, they can't think so much. If there is a problem, it would be responsible if they come out to say a word. Most people directly become shrinking turtles.

Chen Hero is unwilling to let his fans do some very dangerous things for him. He is also responsible for the behavior of the fans. The fans are willing to do anything for him, and he is naturally willing to go through fire and water for the fans.

※※※

After the warm-up, Chen Hero returned to the locker room.

The jersey for this game has been hung on the coat hook. It is Liverpool's new jersey for this season, but what is slightly different from their new season's jersey is that below the golden team emblem, there are the Chinese national flag and the English St. George's Cross flag.

Below is a line of small English letters, which is the name of the Holy Temple Cup, as well as the date and location of the game.

Chen Hero noticed the national flag below the team emblem. Because Liverpool's autumn meaning is red, a circle of golden edges was drawn around the edge of the national flag, which was still very eye-catching.

He had an idea.