Chapter 1 Xu Yang Divides the Groups

After Xu Yang finished dividing the groups, the attacking coach began to lead everyone in passing drills.

Those assigned to the same group had to get together, stand face to face, ten meters apart, and pass the ball back and forth.

Everyone quickly lined up, and Zhou Yi stood in front of Guo Nu.

Guo Nu's gaze towards Zhou Yi was still not very friendly, and not far from him, Sun Pan was also looking at Guo Nu with the same unfriendly eyes.

Zhou Yi suddenly felt like this was an ecosystem, big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp.

But he didn't think he was a shrimp…

He took the initiative to greet Guo Nu: "Hi!"

Guo Nu ignored him.

Zhou Yi didn't feel awkward. He continued, "Let's start, Lao Guo?" But as soon as he said that, he exclaimed and cautiously observed Guo Nu's expression.

"Sorry, sorry, I forgot, I forgot… Or, should I call you Xiao Guo? Xiao Guo, what do you think? Sounds young, huh…" As Zhou Yi spoke, he saw Guo Nu's face turn red, a dangerous sign, meaning he had said the wrong thing.

"Okay, I'll still call you Lao Guo. Sounds more affectionate…" Zhou Yi quickly changed his tune.

But the redness on Guo Nu's face didn't fade. Zhou Yi simply stopped talking and passed the ball directly, starting the training.

After receiving Zhou Yi's pass, Guo Nu didn't immediately pass the ball back. Instead, he stared at the person in front of him.

In his seventeen years of life, it was the first time he had seen someone still standing in front of him unscathed after being hit with two consecutive "critical strikes." Look at Liang Qiqi, his cheek was still swollen, and he reportedly could only chew on one side of his mouth.

If it weren't for that nosy Sun Pan…

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Sun Pan not far away, and found that Sun Pan was also looking at him.

Guo Nu had carefully compared the differences between him and Sun Pan. In terms of physical fitness, he was very confident in himself, but Sun Pan was also an outstandingly fit person. Most importantly, he was taller and had longer limbs. If their physical fitness was about the same, then height became the decisive factor.

He could leap up and strike Liang Qiqi, but that didn't mean he could leap up and strike Sun Pan.

So, facing Zhou Yi, who was "protected" by Sun Pan, he really couldn't do anything.

However, although he couldn't teach Zhou Yi a lesson with his fists, Guo Nu still had his own ways to give Zhou Yi a hard time.

That was with his feet… not flying kicks, but passing!

Guo Nu kicked the ball hard towards Zhou Yi.

Facing the ball kicked by Guo Nu, Zhou Yi's brain felt a slight electrical current. His body reacted quickly, lifting his hip and leg, turning his right ankle sideways, and then pulling back to create enough buffer space, stopping the ball Guo Nu had passed.

When the ball hit the inside of his foot, it even hurt a little. And Zhou Yi himself was a little embarrassed because his movement to stop the ball was too big.

But no matter what, the ball didn't bounce far away, and he managed to stop it.

"Whew! That was close!" He breathed a sigh of relief and even pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead.

Guo Nu was a little surprised. He didn't expect that this kid would successfully stop his forceful pass!

He had originally hoped to deliberately create trouble for Zhou Yi and embarrass him…

"Again, Lao Guo!" Zhou Yi passed the ball back.

Hearing him call himself "Lao" Guo, Guo Nu's temples throbbed. He really cared about being called old…

So he passed the ball to Zhou Yi again with force, even more force than last time—he thought that Zhou Yi had received the ball last time because he had passed it too lightly. If that was the case, then he would just use more force.

This time, Zhou Yi was even more embarrassed, but he still managed to stop the ball.

"Wow!" Zhou Yi even exclaimed after stopping the ball.

But this exclamation wasn't a complaint, but… joy!

Yes, Zhou Yi felt joy.

Although Guo Nu's pass made him flustered and embarrassed, he hoped that Guo Nu would continue to pass like that.

Because Chu Ling had already told him that the improvement of his ability stats was related to the difficulty of the training. Simple training content didn't improve his stats as much as high-difficulty training did.

For example, if they were both training to stop and receive the ball, if you had your teammate stand five or six meters away from you and gently push the ball to you with the inside of their foot, and then you caught the ball, this kind of practice would basically not improve Zhou Yi's ability stats, because it was too elementary, unless Zhou Yi was a complete novice who had never touched a soccer ball before.

With his current soccer foundation, doing such elementary training was completely useless.

On the contrary, if he had his teammate stand fifteen meters away and pass the ball to him with force, with the ball itself also having a strong spin, then his ability to stop and receive the ball would improve, and this would also be reflected in the stats.

So, Zhou Yi was very happy to see Guo Nu kicking the ball with such difficulty for two consecutive kicks.

Seeing that two consecutive forceful passes hadn't stumped Zhou Yi, Guo Nu was also a little surprised. He didn't expect that this kid's ball-stopping skills were actually quite good…

No, maybe he just got lucky?

So he kicked the ball one after another, racking his brains to pass balls that would be difficult for Zhou Yi to receive. At this distance of ten meters, he had managed to make the ordinary passing drill quite interesting…

Zhou Yi was thrown into disarray by his passes, barely holding on.

Lao Guo didn't actually know that Zhou Yi's ability to stop and receive the ball was very good. This might have something to do with his upbringing, where he always had to deal with all kinds of unpredictable and bizarre passes. As a center forward who operated in the narrow space of the penalty area, he had to be able to stop all kinds of balls well.

The virtual system's data didn't have a "stopping the ball" stat, so Zhou Yi couldn't simply and directly see his ball-stopping ability.

※※※

Because the two of them were making so much noise, they also attracted the attention of others.

Sun Pan could tell at a glance that Guo Nu was deliberately making things difficult for Zhou Yi, so he glared and was about to come to the rescue.

But before he could shout, assistant coach Xu Yang shouted first, "What are you doing?"

He was shouting at Guo Nu.

"Can't you train properly?" Xu Yang glared at Guo Nu and asked.

Under the intimidation of the assistant coach, Guo Nu finally behaved himself, feeding the ball to Zhou Yi as softly as the other players.

Zhou Yi was very disappointed—my data growth!

But there was no way he could explain it to the assistant coach. What could he say? That he wished Guo Nu would pass like that? Coach Xu would probably look at him like he was crazy.

Xu Yang reprimanded Guo Nu, but Hao Dong didn't step in. He stood on the sidelines, quietly watching Guo Nu and Zhou Yi.

He remembered something. He wondered if Coach Xu knew about it.

But from that incident and today's incident, he suddenly had an idea.

※※※

At dinner, Zhou Yi, Sun Pan, and Yang Muge went to get food together as usual.

Just after getting their food, holding their trays and preparing to leave the window, Zhou Yi suddenly saw Guo Nu.

He walked in alone from outside, without teammates around him. After coming in, no one spoke to him, and no one waved to signal that they had saved him a seat.

He walked straight to the food window, took a stainless steel tray, and began to order food.

Then he met Zhou Yi, who was standing at the window, having just ordered his food but not yet leaving.

"Eat together, Lao Guo?" Zhou Yi asked Guo Nu with a smile.

This not only surprised Guo Nu, causing him to look up at Zhou Yi in shock, forgetting to order his food.

It also surprised Sun Pan and Yang Muge, who were next to him.

Although Sun Pan wasn't afraid of Guo Nu, he also looked down on him and wasn't willing to get involved with him.

Yang Muge's attitude towards Guo Nu was unclear, but he had never taken the initiative to speak to Guo Nu, let alone invite Guo Nu to eat together.

The others in the restaurant also heard Zhou Yi's words, and the somewhat noisy restaurant suddenly quieted down. Everyone turned to look at Zhou Yi.

Including He Ying, who was eating alone at a table.

"Zhou Yi?" Sun Pan couldn't understand what Zhou Yi was trying to do. He nudged Zhou Yi with his elbow.

But Zhou Yi ignored him, only looking at Guo Nu and repeating, "Let's eat together, Lao Guo. Four people fit perfectly at one table…"

But before he could finish speaking, Guo Nu refused him in a stiff tone: "No need."

After speaking, he turned around to order his food.

Sun Pan then pulled on Zhou Yi: "Look, let's go, don't bother with him!"

Zhou Yi had no choice but to follow Sun Pan, turning back to look at Guo Nu one last time. He was craning his neck and pointing his hand down at the ordering window.

※※※

"Coach Xu." In Hao Dong's room in the evening, the coaches gathered for a meeting. Hao Dong turned to the oldest assistant coach, Xu Yang, and said, "From now on, arrange Zhou Yi and Guo Nu in the same group for every training session."

"This…" Assistant coach Xu Yang hesitated, "I noticed that the two of them weren't quite right today. I don't think it's a good idea."

The other coaches also looked at the two of them.

On his first day with the team, Guo Nu had a conflict with Liang Qiqi, and then Guo Nu gave Liang Qiqi a heavy punch, knocking him to the ground. That scene left a very deep impression on the coaches. Despite Guo Nu's small stature and seemingly lack of strength, his explosiveness was quite astonishing.

At that time, there were still two people between him and Liang Qiqi. Liang Qiqi seemed to be relying on the distance advantage, still yelling at Guo Nu across his teammates. He probably thought that Guo Nu couldn't do anything to him.

But at that moment, everyone saw Guo Nu dart out like he had springs on his feet, leaping over the two people and smashing a punch into Liang Qiqi's cheek!

For a moment, the coaches even thought that Guo Nu hadn't jumped or rushed over, but… flown over!

Of course, on the first day of the team's training camp, such incidents of insulting teammates and beating teammates occurred. If the production team hadn't wanted to avoid a scandal that would affect the show's ratings, it was estimated that both Liang Qiqi and Guo Nu would have been kicked out.

Although they stayed, and the matter seemed to be resolved on the surface, Guo Nu's actions made no one in the entire team dare to provoke him, and he was naturally alienated and ostracized.

The coaches also knew that Guo Nu was a very troublesome person for them.

Now, Hao Dong wanted to arrange these two together permanently. Everyone had seen Guo Nu's attitude towards Zhou Yi today. Although they didn't know why, it was true that Guo Nu had issues with Zhou Yi.

Did Coach Dong feel that the team had been too peaceful lately and wanted to find some excitement?

"It's more than just 'not quite right'!" Hao Dong laughed. "The two of them almost got into a fight the first time they met!"

Not only Xu Yang, but the other coaches were also shocked to hear this—there was such a thing?

Then, Hao Dong told the coaches about the incident in a mocking tone.

After listening, the coaches looked at each other, not knowing how to describe it.

They already knew Guo Nu very well. This incident gave the coaches some understanding of Zhou Yi's personality.

After all, although Zhou Yi had been with the team for two weeks, he spent most of his time training in the gym with Li Haorui. Their previous understanding of Zhou Yi was limited to the bits and pieces that Li Haorui reported to Hao Dong.

After hearing about this incident, the coaches were even more confused about why Hao Dong would do this. Since the two sides had conflicts, why did he insist on putting them together?

"Everyone can see that whenever someone is assigned to be with Guo Nu, that person is always reluctant," Hao Dong explained.

Everyone nodded. The coaches were well aware that Guo Nu was unpopular. As for why he was unpopular, they were even more clear.

"But today, when Zhou Yi was assigned to a group with Guo Nu, not only did he not show any aversion, but I also saw that he even seemed a little happy in the face of Guo Nu's obviously difficult passes. So I thought, instead of making someone feel uncomfortable every day, it's better to just put Guo Nu and Zhou Yi together, so that no one will be affected by their emotions because they were assigned to be with Guo Nu."

Hao Dong's explanation made everyone understand. This was indeed a win-win solution.

Only Xu Yang looked at Hao Dong with suspicion amidst the chorus of approval.

Hao Dong's explanation sounded reasonable at first, but he overlooked another problem. That was, Zhou Yi seemed to be willing to train with Guo Nu, but Guo Nu was not willing to train with Zhou Yi!

Was Guo Nu's mood not being considered?

Xu Yang felt that Hao Dong shouldn't have overlooked this point. He could only guess that there was another reason for Hao Dong's arrangement.

But he didn't ask.

Since Hao Dong didn't directly explain his real reason, there was no need to ask.