Chapter 1 A Very Important Matter

For Zhou Yi, there was one particularly important and urgent matter that had to be settled before he reported to the first team.

That was moving.

He had to find a place to live and move in before the team gathered on July 2nd.

Although there were many houses for rent and sale on the market, not all of them met Zhou Yi's requirements.

For example, he couldn't live anywhere in the city center of Dortmund because he didn't have a car. It would be too inconvenient to take the bus to training every day. Right now, he relied on Mark's father to drive him, but if he lived on his own, he couldn't very well ask them to drive him around, could he?

When considering the housing problem, Zhou Yi realized that transportation was very important, so he also began to consider whether to learn to drive in Germany—which professional player couldn't drive? When he had more money in the future, he would definitely buy a car.

But this problem didn't need to be rushed; it could be put off until later.

The priority now was to find a house.

Because of the training transportation issue, Zhou Yi's housing options were limited to the town of Brackel. Dortmund's training base was located here, and he could simply run to training. Brackel was a very, very small town. Zhou Yi had observed it when he was in the car. The whole town had only three streets, which wouldn't even be considered a "town" in China.

In addition, since Zhou Yi was living alone, he didn't consider those three-bedroom apartments, four-bedroom apartments, or even two-story villas—what would he do with such a big house by himself?

But in a small town like Brackel, there were no studio apartments for rent. Zhou Yi didn't consider houses for sale; he didn't have enough money to buy anything decent right now.

So, after browsing the housing situation in Dortmund online, Zhou Yi discovered that he only had one option left—roomsharing.

Zhou Yi wasn't opposed to or disgusted by the idea of roomsharing; it mainly depended on the house.

The closer the house was to the training base, the better. It would be best if the training base was right next door… Of course, there were no such houses.

Zhou Yi carefully browsed the information about the shared houses online and selected a few candidate properties.

Then he sent rental inquiries to the landlords of these houses.

The next thing to do was wait.

At noon, he received a reply.

In the email, the landlord first introduced herself, saying that they were two female university students living together. Originally, there were three of them, but one of them had left due to academic reasons. Now they needed to share the rent to reduce housing costs, so they needed to find someone to share the room with them.

They had no gender requirements for the roommate, nor any requirements for sexual orientation. They did have requirements for age, stipulating that it must be between eighteen and twenty-six years old. There were also no requirements for occupation; this was specifically noted. Both students and graduates of society could apply.

If these requirements were met, they could reply to the email and schedule an interview time.

Zhou Yi had never heard of having to interview to rent a house before, but since it was roomsharing, and everyone would be living under the same roof in the future, it wasn't a bad idea to interview a new roommate. If problems were discovered during the interview, it could prevent major problems in the future.

So Zhou Yi immediately replied to the email, stating that he was available anytime before July 2nd.

Five minutes after he replied to the email, he received an email from the landlord telling him that she happened to be at the house this afternoon, and if Zhou Yi was free, he could come for an interview.

Zhou Yi replied: I'm leaving now.

Then he packed his bag and prepared to go out.

Mark saw Zhou Yi was leaving and asked him, "Do you need my dad to drive you?"

Zhou Yi shook his head: "From now on, I want to be completely independent, Mark. Taking the bus is also a form of independence."

"Okay, I wish you good luck, Zhou Yi. But don't force yourself. If you really can't find a suitable house, you can continue to live here. I don't think the club will really do anything to you if you stay a little longer," Mark said.

"Thank you, Mark."

※※※

When Zhou Yi arrived at the Brackel town bus station, he was carrying a bag, wearing a baseball cap, and holding a map in his hand, looking like a tourist who had come here for an adventure.

According to the map and the address provided by the landlord, Zhou Yi quickly found his destination.

Unlike the studio apartment he had imagined, this was not a small high-rise building, but a single-story detached building.

It was next to the road, with gardens in the front and back, but not large. The surrounding area was full of similar houses, occasionally with two-story buildings, but not many.

Zhou Yi noticed that there was a bus stop more than fifty meters away, with good transportation and environment.

Zhou Yi was already starting to like this place.

There were many cars parked on the side of the road, probably the private cars of the people living here. But it wasn't noisy. It was very quiet here during the day, with only the sound of car wheels rolling over the asphalt road when cars passed by, but because the traffic flow was very small, the sound wasn't loud.

Although the house was next to the road, it wasn't noisy.

Zhou Yi was quite satisfied with this place. He decided that if the interview went well, he would take it. He would give up on the other properties. He didn't want to spend all his time and energy on finding a house.

He stood outside the garden and pressed the doorbell at the gate. Soon, a young girl's voice rang out from inside: "Who is it?"

"It's me, here for the roomsharing interview," Zhou Yi said.

"Oh, come in." Then the electric gate opened, and Zhou Yi walked in. When he walked to the door of the house, the door opened from the inside, and a blonde girl appeared in front of Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment. He felt that the girl in front of him looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her…

While he was frowning and thinking, the blonde girl opposite him laughed: "Ha, what a coincidence, Chinese boy!"

"You know me?" Zhou Yi was even more surprised.

"Don't you know me?" the blonde girl said somewhat aggrievedly.

Seeing her like this, Zhou Yi's eyes lit up: "Hanna?"

He called out tentatively.

"I'm so glad you still remember my name, Chinese boy!" Hanna seemed very happy.

"My memory is okay. Nice to see you, Hanna. Goodbye then."

After saying that, Zhou Yi turned around and left. He wasn't stupid. Since Hanna was the landlord, anyone could guess that the two female university students sharing the room were Hanna and… Köttana!

Damn it, what are the odds that I would find this woman in the vast sea of people. My luck is really terrible…

"Eh?" Hanna's face had been smiling a second ago, intending to return the greeting, but the next second she was surprised to see Zhou Yi turn around and leave. She was stunned for a moment, then quickly ran out and grabbed Zhou Yi: "Why are you leaving? Aren't you here for an interview?"

"I don't think there's any need for an interview…" Zhou Yi was embarrassed to shake off Hanna, who was holding his hand, so he had to freeze there.

"Why isn't there a need? Don't worry, Köttana isn't here today, she's entrusted me with the full authority to interview the roommate!" Hanna puffed out her chest, which made her chest even more noticeable.

"No, it's not because of that…" Zhou Yi still wanted to leave. Living with Köttana day and night was really an awkward thing. Yesterday, they had another war of words in the hallway of Mark's house. If they lived together, wouldn't they be arguing every day?

"What, are you afraid of Köttana? Well, I can understand, Köttana does make a lot of boys feel intimidated by her…" Hanna said.

"What a joke?" Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi reacted strongly when he heard her say this. He widened his eyes and said, "Afraid of her? Tsk!"

"You're not afraid of her, so why are you running away? You turned around to leave as soon as you saw it was us." Hanna's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.

There was some contemptuous teasing in the beauty's smile, and Zhou Yi did feel that his turning around to leave did imply a retreat.

How could he be looked down upon by a beauty?

Most importantly… I'm clearly not afraid of her, so why should I leave? When Hanna tells Köttana about this, I won't be able to hold my head up in front of that woman.

So he coughed and said, "Okay, let go of my hand, I won't leave."

Only then did Hanna notice that she had been holding Zhou Yi's hand, so she smiled and let go, still savoring the temperature of Zhou Yi's little hand just now. I didn't expect it to be just holding hands… What a pure Chinese boy!

"You're right, Chinese boy. I don't think we need to interview." Hanna said with a smile, "I've decided—it's you!"

Zhou Yi didn't expect Hanna to decide like this: "You trust my character so much?"

"Why not? A Chinese boy who blushes even when holding hands is very safe." Hanna teased.

Zhou Yi's face flushed slightly. Now that he thought about it, his performance just now was indeed a bit cowardly… He argued, "It's not because of that…"

"I know, I know." Hanna nodded, "The Chinese boy who left his first kiss in Dortmund."

"Hey, I won't live here if you say that again."

"Okay, okay." Hanna quickly raised her hands in surrender. "I won't say it, I won't say it, I'll take you to see your room. I just cleaned it. Are you going to live here tonight? I can stay and keep you company, Chinese boy."

After saying that, Hanna leaned in.

Zhou Yi quickly took a step back: "No, I haven't moved my things over yet, I'll come to live here tomorrow."

Hanna smiled slightly when she saw Zhou Yi avoid her, and led the way, taking Zhou Yi to visit his room.

"How is it, not bad?"

Zhou Yi stood in the room, looking around, and then nodded: "It's okay."

He didn't have any special requirements for the room. Anyway, it was just a place to sleep, as long as there was a bed to sleep on, a wardrobe to hang clothes, a table to put a computer, and a chair to sit on. This room had all the above furniture, and the lighting and ventilation were not bad, Zhou Yi couldn't find any fault.

Standing by the window, you could also see the garden in the back, which was slightly larger than the garden in front of the house. In addition to a circle of flower beds next to the wall, the middle was all lawn, with a small round table and three chairs placed on the lawn.

"When the weather is good, Köttana and I will sunbathe in the garden." Hanna said when she saw Zhou Yi's gaze stay in the back garden. "Sometimes, we also have barbecues there."

"Barbecue party?"

"No, just the two of us. Because… Köttana doesn't have many friends."

Zhou Yi nodded: "Not surprisingly."

With that woman's bad temper and personality, it would be strange if she had friends all over the world.

Hanna covered her mouth and chuckled: "You have a deep understanding, Chinese boy."

"It's basic knowledge. Also, Hanna, can you stop calling me Chinese boy, I have a name, my name is Zhou Yi."

"Okay. But don't you think calling 'Chinese boy' has two more words than calling 'Zhou Yi'?" Hanna winked at Zhou Yi.

"Huh?"

※※※

After visiting Zhou Yi's room, Hanna took Zhou Yi to see the bathroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen, and told Zhou Yi the basic requirements: "Zhou Yi, have you had experience roomsharing with others before?"

Zhou Yi asked: "Living at Mark's house doesn't count as roomsharing, does it?"

"Then you have no experience. Okay, first of all, we are cold renting. That is to say, the rent does not include gas, heating, and water and electricity bills. These costs are billed monthly according to the meter. We and the previous tenants have shared this part of the cost equally. Do you have any problems with that?"

Zhou Yi shook his head: "No problem."

"Um." Hanna nodded and continued. "Secondly, clean your own room yourself. The cleaning of the bathroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen are all done in turns, one person per week. But considering the particularity of your profession, there will be times when you are playing games in other places and you will definitely not be able to clean, so you don't have to participate in the rotating duty, but correspondingly, you will have to bear more rent. What do you think?"

"Very reasonable." Zhou Yi had no objection.

Hanna snapped her fingers: "Very good. Regarding the keys, keep them safe. It will be more troublesome if they are lost. Although there is a key matching service, it will not provide keys to ordinary tenants, so try not to lose the keys. Finding a locksmith to open the door is also very expensive. Of course, I know you are definitely not short of money."

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand and said seriously: "No, I am very poor. Otherwise, I would not have come to roomshare."

"Speaking of which, it's the first time I've heard of a professional player roomsharing with someone…" Hanna said. "I thought those professional players should live in mansions, with several sexy beauties around them at any time."

"You're talking about superstars."

"Okay. One last question, can you cook?"

"Maybe… I guess I can."

"Ah, I know Chinese food is delicious, but the oily smoke of Chinese food…" Hanna was a little worried.

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand: "I won't cook Chinese food here, and players can't eat anything outside the regulations. The cooking method is no different from you Germans."

Hanna breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Zhou Yi say this: "That's good, after all, our kitchen doesn't have a range hood."

Zhou Yi remembered that he felt that something was missing in the restaurant kitchen just now. Now that Hanna mentioned it, he realized it was the range hood… A kitchen without a range hood is simply unimaginable in China, but in Germany… it's quite normal.

"There's nothing else. Anyway, we live together. To put it bluntly, it's about mutual respect and tolerance. But frankness is also very important."

Zhou Yi nodded repeatedly.

"So I'm being very frank with you." At this point, Hanna's voice was noticeably quieter.

Zhou Yi looked at her strangely, not understanding why she was being so mysterious.

"If you hear any strange noises at night, don't be too surprised, it's normal." Hanna winked at Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi's mouth opened slightly, staring blankly at the sexy beauty in front of him.