Chapter 1 Götze's Awakening

The first thing Götze did after opening his eyes was to turn his head and look at the bed next to him. When he saw Zhou Yi still lying in bed, he breathed a sigh of relief—it seemed he wasn't late.

When he went to sleep last night, he had been thinking about getting up early to train with Zhou Yi, so he hadn't slept well.

Now he woke up early, and although Zhou Yi hadn't gotten up yet, Götze didn't dare to go back to sleep.

He just lay there with his eyes open, quietly waiting for Zhou Yi next to him to get up.

In order not to lose to Zhou Yi, Götze was also quite determined.

Before, in the youth team, Götze didn't have such a strong sense of competition, because everyone was a youth team player. And Götze always believed that he would go to the first team earlier than Zhou Yi.

But unexpectedly, after the season ended, he was transferred to the first team together with Zhou Yi. Subsequently, whether in training or in warm-up matches, Zhou Yi's performance was just as good. Götze finally felt the crisis.

The competition came so rapidly that he had to face it head-on.

He absolutely couldn't lose to Zhou Yi!

When he was in the youth team, Götze had already seen Zhou Yi's strength and knew that he was a very formidable character. He had never underestimated Zhou Yi, otherwise he wouldn't have exchanged jerseys with him in the first place.

But after arriving in the first team, Götze found that Zhou Yi was even stronger than he had been in the youth team, and he had to go all out, otherwise he might be left behind by Zhou Yi.

He didn't want that to happen to him!

Götze, who was counting the ceiling tiles with his eyes open, suddenly heard the sound of the blanket rubbing from the bed next to him. He turned his head and saw Zhou Yi lifting the blanket and getting out of bed, so he quickly sat up from the bed as well. This startled Zhou Yi, who turned his head and looked at him with wide eyes in surprise: "If you need to pee, go ahead."

"Who needs to pee!" Götze rolled his eyes.

"Then why did you jump up? I thought you were going to fight me for the toilet..."

"Are you getting up to go to the toilet?" Götze asked.

"Yeah, and wash up while I'm at it."

"What a coincidence, I'm washing up too," Götze replied.

"You're serious?" Zhou Yi thought of what Götze had said to him yesterday.

"Of course. Don't underestimate my resolve!" Götze said with a serious face.

"Okay, whatever makes you happy..." Zhou Yi grinned, got out of bed, and went to the bathroom to wash up.

※※※

When physical coach Oliver Bartlett saw Götze following behind Zhou Yi in the gym, he was a little surprised.

"This is..." he looked at Götze and asked Zhou Yi.

"Don't mind him, coach, let's just do our thing," Zhou Yi said, starting to warm up.

Götze also warmed up beside him.

Bartlett couldn't figure out what Götze was doing, so he had to remind him: "Mario, you don't really need to come to training early..."

"It's okay, coach, I'm doing this voluntarily. I also want to work hard to improve my level," Götze smiled at Bartlett and continued his warm-up.

Seeing that Götze's attitude was very firm, Bartlett had no choice but to stop persuading him, but he reminded him: "Just do some simple physical training. Don't injure yourself, Mario."

"I know, thank you for your concern, coach," Götze said while stretching his body.

And so, when Zhou Yi was training his physical fitness on the treadmill, Götze was also doing his strength training on the corresponding equipment.

And at seven o'clock, when the main force came to the gym to prepare for the morning practice, they were surprised to find that not only was Zhou Yi sweating profusely, but Götze next to him also looked like he had been training for a long time!

"Hey, Zhou Yi! Mario, what are you guys doing?" Großkreutz opened his mouth wide and shouted in surprise.

But neither Zhou Yi nor Mario answered him, they just gritted their teeth and persevered.

Seeing this scene, Captain Kehl clapped his hands and shouted to the teammates who were watching: "Guys, are you willing to let two young kids beat you? Start training! We can't be looked down upon by the rookies!"

"Alright!!" Everyone responded in unison.

Großkreutz turned his head to look at his teammates, who had already started warming up.

"Why has everyone's aura changed..." He didn't react.

In this way, every morning, the first-team players could always see Zhou Yi and Götze, two young kids, sweating profusely when they came to the gym. And under their stimulation, none of the other first-team players were willing to slack off during training, because that would be considered inferior to two young rookies from the youth team, which would be too embarrassing!

※※※

In early August, the entire Dortmund team ended their training camp in Switzerland and set off to Dortmund.

The first round of the new season's Bundesliga was earlier than in previous years, kicking off on August 7. The team had to return to Dortmund to prepare for the new season, and also to give the players a rest. After a month of continuous high-intensity training, if the players weren't allowed to relax, the string that everyone was holding tight would probably snap at the very beginning of the season.

After returning to Dortmund, Zhou Yi was called to Klopp's office alone.

"I heard from Lars that you have a favorite number, number twenty-three?"

Zhou Yi nodded, not understanding what Klopp was saying.

"I'm just curious, why such a big number? So I wanted to ask you. Of course, if you feel that this involves personal privacy and don't want to answer, that's fine too."

"Ah, it's nothing..." Zhou Yi told Klopp why he chose number twenty-three.

"So you're saying that you were the worst performer in that reality show's audition finals, so you wanted to use this number to remind you of your origins?" Klopp listened to Zhou Yi's story with great interest.

"Yes, that's right," Zhou Yi nodded.

"Interesting." Klopp rubbed his chin. "Then, your number in the first team will be twenty-three. What do you think?"

Hearing what the coach said, Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment, he hadn't reacted yet.

Klopp looked at him and smiled: "What's with that expression? Shouldn't most people cheer when they hear something like that? Isn't getting into the first team something to be happy about?"

Zhou Yi pointed at himself in disbelief and said, "I'm staying... in the first team?"

During this period, he had trained with the team and played in some warm-up matches. Except for the first warm-up match, where he played for sixty minutes for special reasons, he only played half a game or less in the other matches.

In these warm-up matches, Zhou Yi also felt that his stamina was still difficult to cope with a full match.

Although he had experience playing for ninety minutes in the youth team, after these few warm-up matches in the first team, he found that the intensity of the first team's matches was completely incomparable to that of the youth team's matches. Being able to barely play for ninety minutes in the youth team didn't mean that he could barely play for ninety minutes in the first team.

He finally understood why coach Klopp said that his stamina was not up to par yet.

He didn't have as much confidence in staying in the first team as before, and he just focused on training seriously to improve himself as much as possible first.

But unexpectedly, when he wasn't thinking about it, luck favored him.

After returning to Dortmund, he heard the good news!

"What? Looking at your expression, you don't want to stay in the first team?" Klopp asked rhetorically.

"Ah, no, no, no!" Zhou Yi waved his hands repeatedly. "I'm very happy to stay in the first team! I'm too happy! Thank you, coach! To fully express the joy in my heart, can I go up and hug you, coach?"

Klopp was amused by Zhou Yi's change of face, he opened his arms: "Come on, kid."

So Zhou Yi rushed up and hugged Klopp: "Thank you, coach!"

Klopp patted Zhou Yi hard on the back: "Don't get too excited, kid. Staying in the first team doesn't mean you'll be able to play in the first team's matches. You still have a long way to go before you can play in a match."

"I know, coach!" Zhou Yi let go of Klopp and looked at him. "I know, I will continue to work hard!"

Zhou Yi almost skipped out of Klopp's office with joy. Klopp saw him like this from behind and couldn't help but shake his head—this kid…

※※※

As soon as Zhou Yi came out of Klopp's office, he took out his mobile phone. He couldn't wait to tell his parents the news.

He directly called his father.

After a few rings, the call was connected.

"Son, what's the matter? Your dad is at work..." Zhou Jianliang answered the phone, obviously suppressing his voice, making it easy to imagine what he looked like now.

"Dad! I have good news for you—I'm staying in the first team! I'll be in the first team for the new season!" Zhou Yi shouted excitedly.

There was about a second of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Zhou Jianliang's exclamation: "Really, son?!"

"Of course! I just came out of the coach's office, and he asked me what number I wanted!"

"That's great, son!"

The colleagues in the office looked at Zhou Jianliang in surprise as he suddenly stood up from his seat, holding his phone and shouting "That's great". At this moment, Zhou Jianliang completely forgot that he was at work…

"I'm just telling you about this, Dad. I'm going to call Mom now..."

Zhou Yi was about to hang up when his father stopped him: "Don't call her, it's an international long-distance call. I'll tell her. You have to keep working hard over there, you hear me?"

"I hear you, Dad."

"That's good, that's my son!"

Zhou Jianliang hung up the phone and waved his fist excitedly: "Yeah!!"

Only then did he realize that everyone around him was looking at him with the eyes of someone looking at a lunatic.

"Uh, sorry, sorry..." Zhou Jianliang quickly apologized to everyone and sat down.

But he soon got up again, walked quickly out of the work area, out of the office area, and took out his mobile phone to call his wife.

The colleagues looked at his back and couldn't help but discuss: "What's wrong with Lao Zhou?"

"Did he win the lottery?"

"Isn't the lottery draw not until later?"

"Oh, right..."

※※※

Li Cuiyun was at work when she received a call from her husband. Unlike her husband, she didn't answer the phone directly at her desk, but got up and walked out of the office before answering the call: "What's up?"

"Hehe," Zhou Jianliang said with a smile on the other end of the phone.

"Speak."

"Hehehe," Zhou Jianliang was still laughing.

"Hey, if you're not going to talk, I'm going to hang up. I'm busy here!" Li Cuiyun said impatiently.

"Don't, don't, don't..." Zhou Jianliang said, "I have good news for you, wife!"

"Did you win a third prize in the lottery you bought yesterday?"

"The draw hasn't happened yet! It's not about that! Hehehe..." Zhou Jianliang couldn't help but laugh again.

"Are you on drugs? Why are you laughing so much!" Li Cuiyun frowned.

"Ha, I'm not on drugs. It's about our son! He's staying in the first team!"

Hearing what her husband said, Li Cuiyun was stunned for a moment.

"Do you know what this means? It means that our son is a first-team player! He's going to play in the professional league! He's a real professional player! Not the kind of player who signs a professional contract but can only play in the reserve team or the youth team!" Zhou Jianliang excitedly explained the significance of this matter to his wife on the phone.

"Look at how happy you are..." Li Cuiyun didn't know what to say.

"Of course I'm happy! Our son succeeded! He succeeded! Shouldn't a father be happy when his son succeeds?" Zhou Jianliang retorted his wife, which he rarely did, so he must have been really excited this time.

"Yes, yes, yes, I'll cook you some good dishes tonight to go with your wine. Are you satisfied now?"

"Wife, you really understand me! Having a wife who understands me and a promising son, what more could a man ask for in life?"

"Oh, so cheesy..."

"Hehehe," Zhou Jianliang only knew how to laugh.

"Alright, I know, I still have work to do, so I'll leave it at that."

"Okay, keep it up, wife!"

Li Cuiyun shivered and hung up the phone.

She didn't return to the office immediately, but stood in the hallway outside, looking down at the phone in her hand, and smiled.