Chapter 1 Special Training

After the special "special training" with Mark, Zhou Yi's life now looked like this: training at the Brackel training base every day, studying German for an hour at home in the evening, and then doing special training with Mark in Mark's room.

He would constantly tell Mark how to run and how to receive his passes while playing the game.

Thankfully, the game has a replay function. If necessary, he could pause, then enter the replay and recreate the positions of both sides from various angles.

Just like watching a technically processed match video.

This also meant they couldn't play many games in one evening.

In the process, Mark gradually adapted to Zhou Yi's style of play, and his outstanding tactical awareness and running talent were also reflected.

He was no longer as flustered as he was at the beginning, and the two gradually developed a tacit understanding in the game.

Under their control, Dortmund won the league title in their first season, qualifying for the Champions League next season.

And at this time, the most important Western festival, the annual Christmas, had also arrived.

In fact, Zhou Yi could already feel the festive atmosphere on his way to the training base every day.

There were obviously more Christmas decorations on the road, and Christmas lights and baubles were hung in the shop windows.

Old Wagner's car radio also started playing Christmas carols.

In short, everything made people feel like the holidays were here.

The Chinese pay attention to missing their loved ones more during festivals.

For Zhou Yi, this was his first real holiday spent abroad. He came to Dortmund at the end of November, spent a month here, and 2008 was coming to an end.

In a foreign country, he was mostly happy and had something to strive for.

But under the festive atmosphere, he would inevitably miss his father and mother, his small room filled with things and memories, his school and classmates in China, and his student days.

If he were in China, what should he be doing at this time?

Discussing with classmates where to go on Christmas Eve?

Busy receiving and sending Christmas cards, showing off the gifts received.

…

Usually, being with his teammates, training, chatting, and joking were all fine, and he couldn't feel it.

Only when he lay in bed at night, alone, would Zhou Yi feel this way from the bottom of his heart.

Although he would call his parents for less than ten minutes at a fixed time every week, his longing for his family could not be suppressed in this atmosphere filled with a strong festive spirit.

Especially when he finished a day of training and returned to Mark's home, Zhou Yi saw the Christmas tree standing in his living room.

Mrs. Wagner was hanging Christmas lights on the tree while on a ladder.

Seeing her son return, she waved to him: "Come and help, Mark!"

Mark threw down his bag and replaced his mother. Zhou Yi also went up to help.

The two of them worked for a while and hung up all the lights that were going to be hung.

Then everyone stood under the tree, looking up at the Christmas tree.

"Perfect!" Mrs. Wagner clapped her hands with a smile. "We're having a big meal tonight!"

"Isn't it Christmas Eve yet?" Mark asked strangely.

"Silly boy, this is to thank the two gentlemen who helped!" Mrs. Wagner said with a smile.

"Mom, you're so nice!" Mark hugged Mrs. Wagner happily and kissed her hard on the face.

Watching Mark and his mother's sincere affection, Zhou Yi naturally thought of himself and his mother.

Although his mother was very strict with him, making him feel stressed, when he left his hometown and came to Dortmund, and no longer heard his mother's strict demands, he began to miss his strict mother.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Zhou Yi did not smile.

Until dinner, although it was a lavish meal as Mrs. Wagner said, Zhou Yi ate it without any taste and had no interest in it. He was also relatively silent at the dinner table.

And he finished eating early, said goodbye, and went upstairs.

The remaining three people at the table looked at each other.

"Mark, don't you think Zhou Yi is a little off?" Mrs. Wagner asked her son, because Mark was the one who had the most contact with Zhou Yi.

"It seems a little... but I can't guess why." Mark scratched his head.

"Idiot!" the mother scolded, "Zhou Yi is homesick! It's so lively here during the holidays, he must be homesick."

Older people are more experienced.

Old Wagner also nodded beside him and said, "Yes."

"I thought that if we had a lively holiday, it might make Zhou Yi less homesick, but now it seems that Chinese people are more attached to their homes than we thought." Mrs. Wagner sighed. "Mark, don't stay at home playing games tonight, take Zhou Yi out for a walk, let him relax."

Mrs. Wagner was a very warmhearted person. She not only cared about Zhou Yi's food and daily life, but also cared about Zhou Yi's psychological state.

Mark was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Okay!"

※※※

Even if Zhou Yi wanted to call his family to relieve his homesickness, he couldn't, because it was eight o'clock in the evening in Germany, and three o'clock in the morning in China. His parents had long since fallen asleep. It would be too selfish to wake them all up with a phone call just because he was homesick, and then keep them awake all night.

So Zhou Yi just sat in his room in a daze.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Zhou Yi quickly adjusted his mood and said.

Mark pushed the door open and walked in.

"Hi, Zhou Yi. Let's go out tonight, I'll take you to a good place!"

"Ah?" Zhou Yi didn't react.

"A bar! A bar full of beautiful women! Are you going?!" Mark looked excited.

"Go!" As soon as Zhou Yi heard that there were many beautiful women, he immediately threw his homesickness to the back of his mind. After all, he was a young man...

※※※

Zhou Yi and Mark stood in a long line with their necks shrunk, occasionally poking their heads out to look ahead, seeing how many more people had gone in, and how long it would take for them to go in.

Dortmund is located in northwestern Germany, and the nights at the end of December are still very cold. Zhou Yi didn't even want to take his hands out, and just put them in his coat pockets.

"This is not fun at all, Mark." After waiting in the long line for ten minutes, Zhou Yi complained. He began to miss the warm room and the PS3.

"What's wrong?" Mark didn't feel the same way as Zhou Yi at all. He looked around excitedly, his eyes following those beautiful women with outstanding figures. The beauties were either in groups or with male companions, walking past them, and then... walking straight into the bar entrance ahead.

"I really didn't know that you had to queue for so long to go to a bar in Germany."

"Isn't this normal? Unless you have a VIP card, or you're a woman, or you have a female companion. Do you have any of these?"

"If I had a female companion, I wouldn't be staying at your house!" Zhou Yi snorted.

"Putting sex before friendship!"

The two were chatting when Mark suddenly stopped talking, his eyes staring straight in a certain direction. Zhou Yi thought he had seen another beautiful woman, so he followed his gaze, but saw someone he was familiar with.

Among the three people walking towards them, one tall person was Zhou Yi's "old acquaintance". To be precise, he was an "old acquaintance" in the virtual system.

Before challenging the Dortmund youth team, Zhou Yi had played against him dozens of times in the world of FIFA Online 3.

Schneider, the main striker of the Dortmund U17 youth team at the time, but now he was already a member of the U19 team.

Schneider seemed to have seen an acquaintance as well, and suddenly turned to walk towards Zhou Yi.

However, his eyes did not linger on Zhou Yi's face, not even a glance. He walked straight to Mark.

"Yo, isn't this Mark?" Schneider smiled, and looked back at his two companions, so the companions also laughed.

But Mark didn't have any joy of meeting an acquaintance. He frowned and looked away, not even looking at Schneider.

"Still standing here queuing like an idiot? Do you want me to take you in? I have a VIP card!" Schneider shook a card in his hand.

Mark was about to open his mouth, but Schneider laughed again: "Oh, I'm just saying it casually, how could I take you in? If I did, even I might be blocked by the security guard! Hahaha!"

After saying that, he laughed and turned to leave, and his two companions also laughed and followed him away.

Zhou Yi noticed that Mark clenched his fists, staring at their backs, watching them walk to the front of the line, and then Schneider shook the card in his hand, and was let in by the security guard.

"That's... Schneider, right?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Yes." Mark took a deep breath, then exhaled it, and then loosened his fists, his voice full of helplessness.

"Your relationship isn't very good? But weren't you teammates on the same team since U9?"

"Teammates can have good and bad relationships." Mark said. "We are both forwards, so we are naturally in competition. At the beginning, when Schneider hadn't started developing, our physical qualities were similar. I was the main player, and he was my substitute. Later, when he started to grow rapidly, he surpassed me in all aspects of physical quality, and I became his substitute, and so on until now... His development is getting better and better. He is not only the main player in U17, but also jumped from U17 to U19, and I..."

Mark didn't continue, because there was no need to say what his situation was now.

In any case, he was completely suppressed by Schneider and couldn't raise his head at all. Facing Schneider, he was not only shorter in height.

"I see..." Zhou Yi stared at the entrance of the bar, thoughtfully, and then he patted Mark on the shoulder: "It's okay, Mark, we will make him your substitute again sooner or later!"

Hearing Zhou Yi say this, Mark was a little surprised: "How is that possible?"

"Don't forget our 'special training', 'special training'!" Zhou Yi reminded him.

Thinking of the special training, Mark's eyes also showed some fire, and he didn't feel cold in this cold winter night.