Chapter 12 Aftermath

After the match against Borussia Dortmund, the Chinese teenagers and the film crew left Germany together.

Next, they would go to England to challenge four teams there.

Meanwhile, the episode they filmed in Dortmund was finally broadcast to domestic television audiences on Thursday after two days of intense post-production.

In fact, before this, the domestic expectations for this football reality show had dropped to a minimum, and the ratings had been declining with each episode.

Originally, the program had agreed with the local TV station to broadcast it during prime time on Thursday evening.

But when it came time to broadcast this episode, it had been changed to ten o'clock on Thursday night. This time slot was not a good one for reality shows and other variety programs.

This adjustment also showed that the TV station was not optimistic about the program, believing that giving them the prime time slot was a waste of resources. It was better to leave the slot open for more promising and popular programs.

Although the program production team tried their best to fight for it, they couldn't win against the higher-ups.

Since they had lost the right to speak on the broadcast time of the program, the production team had to do their best to produce a good program.

They firmly believed that anyone who watched the game would be moved by the spirit and ability shown by the Chinese teenagers.

And their job was to amplify and highlight these shining points, and to stir up the passion and enthusiasm of more people.

As they said in the program.

Although the game was lost, it was a "glorious defeat."

Glorious in defeat?

It sounded contradictory, but it was true. The defeat was because they were not as skilled as their opponents, which was not unexpected. But fighting to the last moment, falling down only after exhausting all their energy, and still managing to stab the arrogant opponent three times, such a defeat was enough to earn respect.

When the program first started broadcasting, the real-time ratings were not high, even lower than the previous episode, which also showed the current situation of the program – although only four episodes had been broadcast, it was already declining and heading for a dead end.

No matter how many clever tricks the program production team used in the program, the audience just wouldn't buy it.

However, there were still some viewers who insisted on watching the program. Some of them might be He Ying's loyal fans, and some might be loyal football fans.

But in any case, they didn't have much hope or expectation for the game.

When this episode was being produced, the focus was adjusted. In the past, when the Chinese team lost embarrassingly in the game, and there was nothing to say, the off-field part before the game was the focus of the program. The interactions between the young players and the game segments took up a lot of time.

But this time... when the program had just passed one-third of the way, it suddenly turned to the game, which surprised the audience watching the program in front of the TV.

But soon they understood - the TV station must have felt that the program was too embarrassing, so they compressed the program time. Therefore, the program that used to take one hour and twenty minutes would definitely end in forty minutes now.

The followers who liked this program naturally scolded the TV station for only considering commercial interests and not caring about the future of Chinese football.

Those who hated the program applauded online, saying that the TV station had finally done something right...

As the game was broadcasted, this kind of online confrontation never stopped.

It was particularly fierce today.

At this time, the match between the Chinese team and the Borussia Dortmund youth team began.

Before the game, the program focused on introducing Götze, the number one star of the Borussia Dortmund youth team. They also used the resources of the club and the German TV station to get videos of Götze participating in the youth team games to show how powerful Götze was.

Next, the representative figure in the Chinese team was introduced. Naturally, it was He Ying, only he could match up with Götze.

This was the characteristic of this program, they could make a football game like *Saint Seiya*.

As for Zhou Yi, he didn't appear in a single shot at all.

But he soon appeared frequently on the TV screen, because he initiated a wonderful attack for the Chinese team, which almost allowed He Ying to score!

At this time, the audience in front of the TV felt that today's program, or rather today's game, was different from the previous ones they had watched.

Such a sharp counterattack had never been seen in previous games!

At this time, the TV screen showed a close-up of Zhou Yi, as well as a brief introduction.

"Zhou Yi, 1991.2.22, height 171cm, weight 58kg, position midfielder, good foot: both feet. Current team: None. Remarks: Student player."

Next, when the first goal of the Chinese team appeared, many viewers in front of the TV even jumped up.

They never expected that the Chinese team would score! And they scored first!

The scorer was He Ying, and He Ying's fans were very excited.

But many people also noticed Zhou Yi, who assisted He Ying.

This student player, who had never played a minute of the game before and was thought to be there to make up the numbers, actually initiated the first goal of the Chinese team in Europe!

Then Götze equalized the score for the Borussia Dortmund youth team. The later program focused on showing Götze's extraordinary strength and the Chinese players' frustration, bringing the audience's mood into underestimation, as if this was the correct way for the game to develop... making the audience think that the Chinese team was definitely waiting for another惨败 (cǎnbài - crushing defeat).

However, some optimistic viewers said online that even if they were惨败 (cǎnbài - crushing defeat) next, they would be happy for a while with that goal.

For them, they were satisfied as long as Chinese football had a small glimmer of hope.

But then, they found that this was not a small glimmer of hope?

This was a spotlight! And more than one!

Not long after Götze equalized the score for Dortmund, Zhou Yi assisted He Ying to score again. This time the cooperation was even more beautiful, and many viewers in front of the TV applauded.

The Chinese team took the lead for the second time!

The audience in front of the TV were stunned – was this the "punching bag team" they were familiar with? Weren't they supposed to go to Europe to be beaten? Why was the script wrong?

What was even more wrong with the script was still to come...

As the Chinese team scored two goals, the program's ratings also began to stop falling and rise. The viewers who had given up before learned about the difference of today's program through various channels, and then chose to come back again, or rather, new viewers joined in.

Before the end of the first half, the Borussia Dortmund youth team equalized the score. In the second half, they used their superior strength to score three goals in a row, securing the victory.

But Zhou Yi stood up again, taking advantage of an opportunity that wasn't an opportunity, he sent the football into the goal of the Borussia Dortmund youth team!

Liang Qiqi, who was sitting on the bench, looked shocked: "This [beep—] is possible?!"

He spoke the mind of many viewers in front of the TV.

5:3!

Although this score was still a defeat, the scene was much better, and the program team deliberately skipped the German team's scoring part, but gave special attention to the Chinese team's three goals, also guiding the audience's emotions towards a positive direction.

The final climax of this episode was after the end of the game, Götze came up and took the initiative to exchange jerseys with Zhou Yi!

This had never happened in previous programs!

Mario Götze, the biggest star of the Borussia Dortmund youth team, who was heavily introduced by the program team before the game, the rising star of German football! He just came to exchange jerseys with Zhou Yi!

His gesture of giving Zhou Yi a thumbs up was also seen by the audience across the country.

After watching the program, the excited viewers ran to the Internet to continue to vent their emotions.

The number of visits to the *Green Field Inheritors* Tieba surged after the end of the program, and the number of new members also increased.

The *Green Field Inheritors* Tieba, which had been half-dead in the variety show Tieba, suddenly became popular.

Many people went to post and ask, "Who is Zhou Yi?!"

Zhou Yi had never been a main character in previous programs, so he was not very well-known among the audience, not to mention that many people were watching the program for the first time today.

As a result, Zhou Yi assisted two goals and personally scored one goal in the game today.

Immediately attracted a lot of attention and curiosity.

So some old members began to popularize Zhou Yi's origin to the newcomers.

"This Zhou Yi is a student player who has never had the experience of training in a professional football club. He stood out from the national audition..."

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"Look, our son still has some football talent." Sitting in front of the TV, Zhou Jianliang said proudly to his wife.

The reality show *Green Field Inheritors* on TV had ended and commercials were being played.

"Show off!" His wife, Li Cuiyun, curled her lips.

Although she seemed to disapprove of her son's performance, what appeared in Li Cuiyun's mind was the moment when her son scored the last goal.

He was obviously unable to run, and he looked like he could fall down at any time, but he gritted his teeth and rushed forward, finally grabbing this opportunity.

As his mother, she had mercilessly criticized her son for not going all out in anything.

But in this goal, at least she saw her son's all-out side.

She suddenly didn't know whether she should be gratified or frustrated for having such a son.

She hoped that her son could go all out in his studies, but now it seemed that only football could make him go all out.

Did her son really make up his mind to take the path of professional football this time?

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ps, because the name of the reality show in reality has been changed, so the name in the novel also has to be changed, from the previous "Giant Star Inheritors" to "Green Field Inheritors", hereby explain, everyone see the name is wrong, don't be surprised, I have already modified the previous names.