Chapter 2 The Next Day

The next day, Zhou Yi felt refreshed and in a very good mood.

He patiently satisfied the fans' requests for autographs and photos at the entrance of the training base, smiling at everyone.

Even in the locker room, he greeted everyone warmly.

Everyone naturally assumed that Zhou Yi was in a good mood because he had won a crucial battle.

Although he was in a good mood, Zhou Yi's physical condition was not so good.

He didn't perform well in the recovery training program arranged for him by the team, appearing particularly tired.

Although fatigue is normal after a key match, this level of exhaustion surprised the Dortmund coaches. After all, it wasn't Zhou Yi's first time participating in such an intense game, and previous post-match recovery training sessions had never gone so poorly…

The coaches gathered together, watching Zhou Yi jog slowly to recover, and began to discuss.

"Zhou Yi seems particularly tired today…"

"You noticed it too? Yes, I found it strange. If yesterday's game was very intense, it wasn't *that* intense…"

"Yeah, Zhou Yi today looks like his body has been completely drained…"

"It's really baffling…"

※※※

After finishing a day of training, Zhou Yi picked up Kotana to go home.

In the car, Zhou Yi said to Kotana, "I think maybe we should do it after every game from now on?"

Kotana turned to look at him, "I heard Dr. Braun say today that you seemed weak and drained, and he asked me if I knew what was going on."

Zhou Yi became nervous when he heard what Kotana said, "What did you say?"

"Don't worry, I didn't tell him how many times we went from the bathroom to the bed yesterday." Kotana laughed. "I told him that maybe it was because I didn't give you a recovery massage after the game yesterday."

Hearing Kotana's answer, Zhou Yi breathed a sigh of relief. He actually felt that yesterday was a little too intense.

But the thought of that ecstasy made him reluctant to stop.

After being a virgin for so many years, Kotana was his first real girlfriend, and he fully experienced the wonderful taste of love with her. He was now at the stage of wanting more after the first taste.

So he said to Kotana, "See, that's the result of you wanting me to abstain before the game—not eating meat for so long, and then finally getting to eat it, I have to stuff myself. It's actually harmful to the body… If I eat meat every day, it would be fine. How about we eat meat every day from now on?"

Kotana smiled, "Oh, your muscles aren't sore anymore?"

Zhou Yi shook his head seriously and replied, "I feel like my physical condition couldn't be better!"

Kotana teased, "I thought you were different from those players who are full of lust, but I didn't expect it. Zhou Yi, I didn't expect you to be no different from them!"

"It's different. They're like that with all women, but I'm only like that with you." Zhou Yi said seriously.

Kotana was stunned for a moment, then laughed, "That's a terrible love confession."

"It's good enough that I can say it." Zhou Yi put his hand in the space between the driver's seat and the passenger seat, and beckoned to Kotana.

"What?" Kotana didn't understand.

"Put your hand over here."

Kotana put her hand there, and Zhou Yi grabbed it. He rubbed her palm with his fingers, and said with some heartache, "You have calluses…"

"I'm a physical therapist." Kotana said casually. How could someone who gives massages not have calluses on their hands? Not only calluses, but her finger joints were also larger than those of ordinary girls. Strictly speaking, they weren't a pair of beautiful hands.

But although she didn't seem to care, Kotana felt warm inside—it was nice to have someone care about her feelings.

Being held and caressed so gently, Kotana couldn't help but smile.

But soon the atmosphere was broken by Zhou Yi, who asked with a bit of smugness, "Do you know why I chose a Mercedes?"

Kotana didn't react.

"The gear lever is on the steering column, so there's no obstruction in the middle, and it's easy to hold your hand!" Zhou Yi announced the answer triumphantly.

"Really? Isn't it just to make it easier to touch my thigh?" Kotana snorted.

"Ahem… that's an unsafe way to drive…" Zhou Yi used a cough to cover up his true thoughts—he did want to touch Kotana's thigh. The round thighs wrapped in tight jeans were firm, strong, and elastic, and felt wonderful.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi wanted to eat meat every day even more…

Kotana saw that Zhou Yi was trying to hide it, so while waiting for the red light, she simply took Zhou Yi's hand and placed it on her thigh.

Zhou Yi's hand trembled, but he still pressed down hard and didn't take it away.

Then he turned to look at Kotana, a flame burning in his eyes: "Tonight, I want to eat meat again."

His momentum was as if he was saying, "I want to win this game," and even Kotana was shocked and couldn't refuse.

※※※

Zhou Yi woke up from his sleep when the sky was still dim.

He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Kotana's hair scattered on the pillow. She was facing away from him, curled up in Zhou Yi's arms.

Perhaps only at times like this could this capable woman show her softer side.

Now, when Zhou Yi thought about how he and Kotana had reached this point, he found it quite magical—why would two people who initially disliked each other end up lying naked in the same bed?

Zhou Yi couldn't really say how he and Kotana got together. It seemed like they just got used to having each other around after living together for a long time, and then they felt like they couldn't separate. Since they couldn't separate, they might as well officially be together. So they got together.

There was no earth-shattering love story, no dramatic and unforgettable moments, just a natural, even ordinary, coming together.

But Zhou Yi didn't care about the process, he enjoyed the result.

The result was that he was now holding a naked beauty in his arms, lying in bed, and he could smell the faint fragrance of her perfume.

So Zhou Yi used his strength to hold Kotana even tighter in his arms. His hand naturally landed on her chest, and the soft feeling in his hand was different from her thighs, but equally wonderful.

He lowered his head and gently rubbed and sucked his lips on Kotana's bare back.

Then… Zhou Yi felt something change down below.

Speaking of which, Zhou Yi found that as long as he did it with Kotana, his sleep quality was higher, and the training effect in the virtual space was more pronounced.

After being exhausted, Zhou Yi could fall asleep as soon as he hugged Kotana. Then, after entering the training space, the training effect was significantly improved. Maybe emptying his body allowed his brain to enter a deeper level of sleep?

In any case, this seemed to give Zhou Yi a reason to eat meat every day…

Just as he was thinking about it, Kotana suddenly grabbed his thing down there with her backhand, which startled Zhou Yi.

"You're quite energetic early in the morning…" Kotana teased, holding the energetic Little Zhou Yi. "I was worried that you would be more tired today than yesterday, but it looks like I was overthinking it."

Zhou Yi chuckled dryly, "How about we take advantage of the situation…"

Kotana pinched the energetic Little Zhou Yi with a little force, and Zhou Yi grimaced in pain.

"Enough, do you want to lose your starting spot in the next game?"

Zhou Yi had to store all his energy to deal with the next opponent…

※※※

Dortmund's next opponent was Mainz, which was a game in the fourteenth round of the league.

After two consecutive rounds without a win in the league, Dortmund's ranking in the league had dropped to third place.

But despite this, after just experiencing the game against Napoli, Klopp still used rotation in the weekend league game.

The rotation this time was very large. Except for the defense, everyone else was rotated. The reason why the defense was not rotated was that Klopp didn't have any players to rotate at all. In terms of midfield and frontcourt, Klopp actually had many choices.

But even so, everyone was still surprised when they saw that Zhou Yi was not in the starting lineup.

You know, no matter how he rotated before, Zhou Yi would basically not be rotated. After he broke through the bottleneck of physical strength, he has rarely been rotated off.

But this time, Zhou Yi was actually sitting on the bench.

This made people very puzzled.

For outsiders, they did not understand Klopp's decision. The Dortmund coaching staff could understand.

Zhou Yi's performance in the recovery training after the game against Napoli was not very good. It must be because of this reason that Klopp believed that Zhou Yi's body had not recovered to its best condition, so he did not let him start in the game against Mainz.

Sitting on the bench, Zhou Yi watched his teammates play against Mainz. If he didn't know that there were cameras pointing at him, and every action and expression of his would be interpreted in many ways by the media, he really wanted to roll his eyes.

Of course, this eye roll was not for Klopp, but for Kotana—if she could see it.

What do you mean by saving your energy to deal with the next opponent?

Where's the opponent!

If he had known this would be the result, he might as well have eaten the meat first!