Chapter 22 Homecoming Surprise

The next day at noon, Zhou Yi followed the team back to the Brackel training base from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Everyone else drove home, but Zhou Yi ran back to his residence alone.

As soon as he entered, he was greeted by Hannah, but Zhou Yi's first reaction was… to be startled.

Because he saw Hannah dressed in a cheerleader's outfit, holding two plastic pom-poms. As soon as he opened the door, Hannah jumped up, waving the pom-poms and shouting, "Welcome back, triumphant hero!"

"Wow!" Zhou Yi was so frightened that he leaned back against the door frame, looking terrified.

"What's with that expression?" Hannah asked, pouting, seeing that Zhou Yi wasn't happy.

"See, I told you there was no point in doing this," said Kotana, spreading her hands.

"Uh, no, no... Hannah, I'm just too surprised. You can welcome me without dressing up like that, right?" Zhou Yi quickly explained.

"Don't I look good?" Hannah spun around, her short skirt flying up. The sharp-eyed Zhou Yi noticed that the pants under Hannah's skirt were... white.

"Hey, where are your eyes looking?" Even Zhou Yi's small movement was caught by Kotana.

Zhou Yi coughed a little awkwardly.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm wearing safety shorts." Hannah winked at Zhou Yi. "But if you want, Zhou Yi, I don't have to wear safety shorts!"

"Hey!" Zhou Yi was embarrassed and waved his hands repeatedly.

Seeing Zhou Yi's face turn red, Hannah laughed happily, then said to Kotana, "He's getting cuter and cuter, Kotana!"

Then she laughed and went back to her room to change, not forgetting to tease Zhou Yi again before closing the door, "I'm taking off my safety shorts!"

Zhou Yi, faced with such an open and uninhibited German girl, couldn't even speak...

After Hannah closed the door, Kotana looked at Zhou Yi and smiled, "Want to see?"

Zhou Yi waved his hands repeatedly. "No!"

"Liar!" Kotana snorted. "Then what were you peeking at just now?"

"That was instinct," Zhou Yi explained.

"Tch." Kotana curled her lips, disdainful of Zhou Yi's explanation.

"Hey, don't look down on it," Zhou Yi protested. "It is precisely because of this instinct that humans can continue to reproduce and thrive. I know you hate those men with their brains full of lust, but if it weren't for those men, how could humans have become the dominant species on Earth today! If humans were as uninterested in reproduction as pandas, we would have been locked in cages as rare animals by mice!"

"Sophistry." Even the eloquent Kotana could only respond with these four words to Zhou Yi's remarks.

After saying that, she turned and went back to her room, closing the door.

Zhou Yi grimaced and made faces at the closed door, but at that moment, the door suddenly opened again. Kotana poked her head out from the crack in the door. Zhou Yi straightened his face again, looking serious, as if he hadn't done anything before.

"Hannah said she wants to go out for dinner later to celebrate for you. See how good she is to you," Kotana said.

"I didn't say she wasn't good to me..." Zhou Yi said. "It's you who..."

"What about me?" Kotana tilted her head slightly, looking at Zhou Yi.

"Are even better to me," Zhou Yi said with a serious face.

"Tch." Kotana rolled her eyes. "Who cares." After saying that, she closed her own room door again.

Zhou Yi made another face at the closed door. This time Kotana didn't open the door again.

Looking at the closed door, Zhou Yi licked his lips, because he suddenly thought of the dinner Kotana had made for him, the steak was as good as the pan-fried pork chops he had eaten in Borussia Mönchengladbach last night...

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After the match between Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach, their victory and Barrios' goal became the focus of German media reports.

"...Dortmund actually won? This is really big news! Dortmund has won their second league victory of the new season, and Dortmund fans can breathe a sigh of relief..."

"Borussia Mönchengladbach's coach Frontzeck was very dissatisfied with the defeat after the match. He believes that his team performed well, but their luck was really bad. 'Barrios only had two chances in this match, and he seized one of them. This doesn't mean our defense is bad, it only means they were too lucky!' These are Frontzeck's original words..."

"After the eighth round of the league, Dortmund rose to twelfth place with nine points. They have temporarily escaped the relegation zone, although they are only four points ahead of the relegation zone..."

"Barrios can also breathe a sigh of relief. The long-standing controversy can temporarily disappear for a while. His goal brought Dortmund valuable three points and bought him more time..."

The next day, when Zhou Yi went to training, Barrios took the initiative to give him a hug when he saw him at the training base. It was obvious that his excitement hadn't worn off yet.

The ninth round of the league started a week later. Dortmund played Bochum at home. In this match, Zhou Yi was removed from the eighteen-man roster.

Of course, he wasn't alone, because Götze was with him...

After the roster was announced, Barrios took the initiative to find Zhou Yi to comfort him: "It's a pity, but it's okay, Zhou Yi. As long as you train hard, you'll always be able to get back on the roster!"

"Thank you, Lucas." Zhou Yi smiled at Barrios, then he thought of what happened in the last game, so he also encouraged Barrios, as a return gift for comforting him. "You will definitely score in tomorrow's game too!"

Barrios also thought of what happened in the last game when he heard this, so he smiled and said, "Did you dream about it again?"

Zhou Yi nodded. "Of course."

He wasn't exactly lying, he had played against Bochum many times in the system this week. In these simulated games, Barrios did score.

"Thank you for your kind words." Barrios patted Zhou Yi on the shoulder.

※※※

After leaving the training base, Zhou Yi called his parents as soon as possible. Since the last game where he made the roster, Zhou Jianliang told Zhou Yi to notify them in time before each game whether he was on the roster for the next game. If he was, then no matter what time the game was, and no matter how likely Zhou Yi was to play, he and his wife would wait.

But if he wasn't on the roster, then there was no need to waste time, they should go to sleep or do their work.

"Oh, so you're not on the roster?" Zhou Jianliang asked on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, that's right." After Zhou Yi said that, he heard his father sigh on the other end. So he comforted him: "It's good that I'm not on the roster, so you don't have to wait for another game in vain. The day after tomorrow will be Monday in China, right? What will you and Mom do at work if you don't get enough rest?"

"A game that starts at 11:30 p.m. isn't too late, it's earlier than the last game, right?" Zhou Jianliang was still unwilling.

"Okay, Dad, just rest assured. Don't worry so much, I feel like you're more worried than Klopp."

"What kind of talk is that? I'm just worried about you, kid!"

"Okay, okay, Dad, you're breaking your heart for your son. Then can you worry about your son's long-distance phone bill first?"

"You're making so much money now, are you still worried about phone bills? Okay, I'm hanging up, but you have to work hard, son!"

"I know, I'm working hard every day!"

The nagging father finally hung up the phone.

Zhou Yi could naturally feel how disappointed his father was from his attitude, but he really couldn't do anything about it himself. He couldn't just run to Klopp and threaten him: "If you don't let me play in the first team, then loan me out!"

He knew very well what his problem was now: not enough stamina, which would reduce his performance on the field.

Especially under Klopp, Klopp has very high demands on defense, so he must actively participate in defense during the game, otherwise even if his stamina barely meets the standards, he can forget about getting on the roster. And if he wants to actively defend, then his stamina can't meet the standards.

This is a contradiction.

But the solution is very simple - improve his stamina.

But improving stamina takes time. Since he came to Dortmund, he has been improving his stamina, and he has only just met the requirements for joining the first team. He still has a long way to go to participate in official games in the first team.

He also wants to play as soon as possible. Occasionally, he would fantasize that he would become a god overnight, and after sleeping, he would find that his stamina was so abundant that he could run for one hundred and twenty minutes without fatigue...

But he knew that fantasy was just fantasy. There was no shortcut to stamina, he could only train steadily.

Putting away his phone, Zhou Yi tightened his backpack and strode towards his residence.

Zhou Yi didn't let go of any opportunity to improve his stamina, so he still runs to training and runs home, just to be able to train his stamina to the standard as soon as possible.

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PS, today is Lunar New Year's Eve, I wish you all a happy reunion, a happy family, a happy Spring Festival, good health, and lots of red envelopes!