Chapter 70 Unpleasant Welcome

What should have been a pleasant welcome dinner turned somewhat bland because of the little episode before the meal.

Despite Wagner and his wife, Mark’s parents, trying desperately to create a relaxed atmosphere at the dinner table, the Germans weren’t great joke tellers, and Zhou Yi didn’t understand the language very well.

So the atmosphere didn’t improve, and even got a little worse.

After dinner, Zhou Yi returned to his room as soon as possible. He also felt a little awkward, and felt better being alone.

But soon Mark knocked on his door. He came to invite Zhou Yi to play Pro Evolution Soccer, and also wanted to explain what happened tonight.

"Don't take my sister's words to heart," Mark said with gestures.

"Actually, I didn't understand..." Zhou Yi gestured similarly.

"Then don't take her attitude to heart."

"Your sister doesn't welcome me?" Zhou Yi asked.

"No, it's not that she doesn't welcome you, she's prejudiced against all athletes."

"Why?"

"No reason, she just doesn't like them. She thinks athletes are all muscle-bound and simple-minded fools. Yes, I admit there's some truth to what she said. There have been quite a few scandals and jokes about athletes, but there are also disciplined role models among athletes." Mark said indignantly, "She's just prejudiced for no reason!"

"But you are also an athlete, a soccer player." Zhou Yi found it strange.

"So she has always been against me playing soccer. She wants me to study hard and get into college... but I know I'm not college material... Well, she always uses me as an example to show that athletes are simple-minded." Mark covered his forehead, obviously he had never won an argument with his sister.

"The relationship between you two siblings is really... tense."

"No, actually, we're usually fine, as long as we don't talk about sports or soccer." Mark defended.

"So your sister isn't a soccer fan either?"

"No, she doesn't watch games."

"There can't be many people like that in Dortmund, right?"

"Not many, but there are always some..." Mark was also helpless. "Okay, let's not talk about this, let's go to my room and play Pro Evolution Soccer!"

Speaking of games, he finally cheered up.

After Zhou Yi figured out that the sister wasn't just targeting him, he didn't feel as bad as before, and soccer games really stimulated his interest.

※※※

The next day when they went to training, Mark's father, old Wagner, drove them to the training base.

At the training base, Zhou Yi saw Kiester again, who asked him with a smile, "How do you feel about the new environment? Did you sleep well last night?"

"Uh, not... bad." Zhou Yi hesitated and didn't tell the other party the truth.

He thought about it all night and decided not to change places to live.

The Mark family, except for his sister, were all pretty easy to get along with. And Mark told him that Cortana wouldn't be home every day. She was a college student and usually lived on campus.

Although he was a little dissatisfied with his sister, Zhou Yi still had a good relationship with Mark, and it wasn't worth losing a friend because of a woman—if he asked to move, Mark would definitely be the saddest.

"That's good. It's always a little uncomfortable at first, especially when you don't speak the language, but it will get better slowly. The club has already found a German teacher for you, who will tutor you starting tonight at Mark's house. Is that okay?"

"No problem."

Zhou Yi also couldn't wait to learn German. It felt really bad not knowing what others were talking about because he didn't understand the language.

※※※

This day's training, in addition to the normal team training, Zhou Yi still had to undergo physical training under Bartlet.

After studying it for a night, Bartlet came up with a targeted physical training plan for Zhou Yi.

The main focus was on improving his physical recovery ability during the game.

Considering Zhou Yi's playing style and the way he played in the game, and considering that Zhou Yi had to move constantly in the game, and sometimes had to sprint quickly to get to the receiving point, recovery ability was crucial. If Zhou Yi couldn't recover his strength quickly during the game, then he would soon be unable to run. A Zhou Yi who couldn't run was useless on the field.

In the last game against La Masia youth team, he was forced to use his voice to command his teammates, but that was a special case. He couldn't turn this forced method into a normal one in future games, right?

To improve his recovery ability, Bartlet's approach was to have Zhou Yi do several sets of high-intensity training in a row, fully squeezing his body, squeezing him to exhaustion, and then letting him rest, but the rest time was very short, and then he continued to do high-intensity training, repeating this cycle, so that Zhou Yi's body gradually adapted to this rhythm.

At first, Zhou Yi found it very difficult to practice. After a few sets of training, he couldn't exert any strength at all when he started training again after only half a minute of rest.

At this time, Bartlet would keep shouting next to him: "Keep going, keep going! Hang in there!"

So much so that Zhou Yi learned these two German words completely without Kiester's translation...

Physical training was the last item of the day's training content, and the intensity of the previous training was actually not low. Zhou Yi had spent a lot of energy at that time, and now there was really no extra strength in his body for him to carry out physical training, but Bartlet didn't consider this situation at all and squeezed Zhou Yi's body mercilessly.

Zhou Yi had to grit his teeth and persevere. He knew that there was no way out for him here. When he was in China, he could complain, but no one would respond to his complaints here, and he would only be laughed at.

In one year, he had to make himself a qualified player who could sign a professional contract with the club, otherwise it would mean failure.

He was already seventeen years old, and he knew very well what this meant for a soccer player.

It meant that many basic things he was not as good as others, and it meant that there was no time for him to squander. If he didn't seize the time to train, what was the point of this opportunity he had worked so hard to get?

At the end of the day's training, Zhou Yi was helped to the parking lot by Kiester. Mark and his father were waiting for him there. Seeing Zhou Yi's exhausted appearance, Mark was very surprised: "It's just physical training..."

"His physical training is not what you think." Kiester said, then called Zhou Yi to Mark's hand, and at the same time told him. "If he falls asleep on the way back, wake him up for dinner, don't let him go hungry, he still has German class tonight."

"I understand, sir." Mark took Zhou Yi, and his hands were cold—that was the feeling after the sweat had cooled down.

As Kiester said, Zhou Yi did fall asleep in the car on the way home.

Looking at Zhou Yi snoring next to him, Mark couldn't help but shake his head—this kid is really working hard!

"Dad, drive slower." He said to his father who was driving in front.

"Okay." Old Wagner nodded, released the accelerator, and the speed of the car gradually slowed down, slowly moving forward on the way home.

Zhou Yi had more time to sleep...

※※※

When Zhou Yi was woken up, the car had arrived at Mark's house. Although his body was still a little tired after waking up, his spirit was much better. He took a hot shower first, then went downstairs to have dinner with the Mark family. He didn't see that poisonous-tongued sister today. It seemed that Mark was right, Cortana didn't often come home to live.

After dinner, Zhou Yi waited for the language teacher that the club had found for him. In his room, he studied German for an hour and a half under the guidance of the teacher.

After sending off the German teacher, Zhou Yi went to Mark's room to play a few rounds of Pro Evolution Soccer. They talked in German while playing games. For Zhou Yi, this was also a good oral and listening practice. Mark also took Zhou Yi's language situation into consideration and slowed down his speech so that he could understand.

After playing a few games, Zhou Yi said goodbye to Mark and went to wash up and sleep, yawning.

The day ended like this. He got into bed, entered the world of FIFAoL3, saw Chu Ling, and continued his training.

"How was the first day of physical training?" Chu Ling asked.

"Professional." Zhou Yi only had two words to describe his feelings.

It was indeed professional, more professional than the physical training he had received in that temporary Chinese team, and the requirements were naturally stricter.

"Professional is right, this kind of training is very beneficial to you." Chu Ling said.

"By the way, has my physical attribute improved?" Zhou Yi asked.

"It's just one training session, no matter how professional it is, it won't have such a magical effect. Physical fitness is an attribute that is accumulated by quantity. Don't think about how much you have improved now, just practice."

※※※

In this way, Zhou Yi was trained like a dead dog every day at the Brackel training base, then handed over to Mark by Kiester, and then had a good sleep in old Wagner's car. After waking up, he took a shower and ate dinner, studied German in the evening, and used the time he played games with Mark to practice his speaking and listening skills.

In the first week of coming to Germany, Zhou Yi spent it in a very regular way, as regular as a German.

In this week, he only saw Mark's sister on the first day, and then he really didn't see her again. If the first day hadn't left such a deep impression on him, he would have even suspected that Mark really had such a sister...

In addition, Zhou Yi had not seen Mario Götze once in this week of training.

According to Mark's introduction, Götze had been promoted to the first team to train with the team.

Another person who was only one step away from professional soccer!

Zhou Yi thought of Thiago from La Masia.

He had to work harder.

It was gratifying that the results of this week's hard training and study had gradually become apparent.

In terms of physical training, Zhou Yi no longer felt that the training was difficult to endure like in the first few days, and Bartlet shouted "Keep going" much less often.

In terms of language learning, Zhou Yi also improved quickly, and he and Mark used gestures less and less.

As his high school teacher Zhai Liying said, Zhou Yi was essentially a very smart student, but he was unwilling to use his intelligence for study and exams. If he was willing, getting into a key university was not an unattainable dream.

And now, Zhou Yi used his intelligence for German learning, and it was normal for him to make significant progress.