Chapter 25 A Free Meal

The next morning, Zhou Yi got up and found breakfast already laid out on the table. He thought it was for Cortana, but after he finished washing up, he saw Cortana bring out another plate of the exact same breakfast and sit down opposite him, ready to eat.

He was stunned.

An improbable thought surfaced in his mind.

Seeing him standing still, Cortana said to him, "Come and eat breakfast when you're ready."

The impossible thought in Zhou Yi's mind became reality…

He asked Cortana in surprise, "This… when did you become so nice?"

Cortana rolled her eyes and reached for Zhou Yi's plate, "Fine, don't eat it then."

Zhou Yi rushed forward nimbly, trying to hold down the plate, but accidentally pressed down on Cortana's hand.

He was taken aback for a moment, then quickly let go of her hand and said, "No, no, I'll eat, I'll eat… I'm just curious, you made me dinner last night, and now you've made me breakfast this morning…"

He trailed off.

Cortana reached out her hand and said to Zhou Yi, "Did you think this was all free? I'm going to charge you."

Hearing Cortana say this, Zhou Yi was relieved—this was normal Cortana, and he finally dared to eat this meal with peace of mind.

Otherwise, he was really afraid that after eating, Cortana would make some request that would be very difficult for him to fulfill.

Money wasn't a big deal for Zhou Yi. Although his salary at Dortmund was the lowest, Zhou Yi could still afford Cortana's labor costs.

After breakfast, Zhou Yi slung his bag over his shoulder, left his residence, and went to the training base to receive another day of training.

Unlike his previous mood of going to the execution ground, after eating the delicious breakfast prepared by Cortana, Zhou Yi felt that his whole body was full of power, especially when he thought that he might be able to eat fragrant pork chops again when he came back at night, he felt that this day was not so hard to get through.

During training, physical coach Bartlett was very curious about Zhou Yi's performance today: "Hey, Zhou Yi, I think you're more motivated today, what's going on?"

Zhou Yi smiled without saying a word.

He really couldn't explain the reason to his coach.

But anyway, he was in a good mood, so the training effect was naturally good.

In this way, the training continued day by day, and Zhou Yi could eat breakfast and dinner made by Cortana every day. With energy replenishment, Zhou Yi's training effect became better and better. Not only his physical fitness, but also his strength had increased a lot compared to before, which may also be due to the delicious pork chops he ate every night.

However, such a wonderful life did not last long. After a week, Cortana moved back again.

But Zhou Yi didn't think there was anything wrong with this. It's normal for a daughter and her mother to quarrel, but if they quarrel and run away from home and never go back, it's not normal. So now it just shows that Cortana is normal. Being able to go home means that she has vented all her anger with her mother, and they can be as good as before. Isn't that great?

As for his own meal problem, it's not that important…

※※※

While Zhou Yi was training, a major event in world football in 2010, the South Africa World Cup, also began at the southernmost tip of the distant African continent.

This World Cup still had nothing to do with Chinese football, because the Chinese team had already been eliminated. When the World Cup started, some Chinese fans couldn't help but fantasize, if Zhou Yi had been there, would the Chinese team have been able to break into the World Cup?

This topic caused a small-scale debate on the Internet.

Especially in the summer of 2010, Weibo appeared on the Chinese Internet and became an important place for everyone's online social interaction. This debate took place on this emerging social network.

Everyone expressed their opinions and their views on Chinese football.

The official Weibo also knew how to cater to this hot topic, and launched an official vote, which further ignited everyone's enthusiasm for participation.

In the end, the voting results showed that there were still more pessimists.

They didn't think that adding one more Zhou Yi to the Chinese team would have allowed them to break into the South Africa World Cup.

Putting aside the various chaotic phenomena in the national team's management at the time, just from the perspective of football competition, Zhou Yi is a player who is good at setting up goals for others, but no matter how good his passes are, someone needs to be able to turn his passes into goals, right?

Many fans believed that no one in the national team could cooperate with Zhou Yi. They would only waste the opportunities created by Zhou Yi again and again.

To put it bluntly, Chinese football suddenly had a genius like Zhou Yi, but it lacked more geniuses to match him. No matter how well Zhou Yi performed, it would be useless.

So even with Zhou Yi, we would still be spectators this summer.

This was a sad result, as if Chinese football would never see the light of day.

※※※

Although Zhou Yi was in Germany and focused on training every day, the atmosphere of the World Cup was still influencing him all the time.

On the streets of Dortmund, German national team posters could be seen everywhere, and people wearing German national team jerseys passed by him.

At this moment, there was no Dortmund here, only the German national team.

After finishing a day of training, Zhou Yi returned home. Although he was very tired, he still had to turn on the TV to watch the World Cup games.

As a professional player, watching high-level games is also a way to accumulate experience.

The next day in training, the coach would discuss the previous day's game with him, of course, mainly talking about physical fitness. For example, how many kilometers a certain player ran in yesterday's game, and how did this running help him and his team perform.

Use real-life examples to tell Zhou Yi what the standard of running is in modern football.

In the past, it was thought that a player who could run ten kilometers in a game was already a super runner.

But now it seems that a player, especially a midfielder, running ten kilometers in a game is only generally good, and cannot be regarded as outstanding at all. And those midfielders who are particularly good at running, which one doesn't run eleven or twelve kilometers or more?

And in the virtual world, Zhou Yi found that as his physical fitness improved, long passes became more important.

In the past, because his physical fitness was not very good, his running range was extremely limited. Although he was always running, his range of activity was basically in the middle of the field, at most moving up and down. He rarely went to the wing, because his crosses were not good. If he went to the wing, he would not be able to send out high-quality crosses. At the same time, he still had to go to the middle, so Zhou Yi rarely pulled to the wing in the game.

However, as his physical fitness increased, his range of activity in the game also increased.

Increased running ability means he can go to more places on the field.

But no matter how strong his running ability is, he cannot surpass football, so there are always some places where football can go, but he cannot, such as when he is in front of his own defense line, but there is an opportunity in the opponent's penalty area. What should he do?

Like before, use short passes and running to get the football up there? Then the opportunity will be gone. The situation in a football match changes rapidly, and some opportunities are fleeting. If you can't seize them, they're gone.

At this time, if Zhou Yi has an accurate long pass, he can directly send the football from the backcourt to the target area, allowing his teammates to seize this opportunity.

So the demand for long passes is directly proportional to the increase in running ability.

After realizing this, Zhou Yi worked harder and more diligently on long pass training in the virtual world.

In the real world, he constantly honed his body, while in the virtual world he could wholeheartedly carry out technical training.

This is a good way to combine the virtual and the real.

In the past, people would say "he works hard while others are sleeping" to describe how hard someone is working. Zhou Yi now really deserves such praise.

※※※

On June 30th, when Zhou Yi finished his strength training in the gym, Bartlett and Wang Le appeared in front of him together.

"Congratulations, Zhou Yi. You have completed the special training we prepared for you, and you have broken out of the eighteenth level of hell."

When Bartlett said these words to Zhou Yi with a smile, Zhou Yi was stunned.

"So you don't have to come tomorrow. You can have a good rest before reporting to the team." Wang Le also grinned.

Zhou Yi realized what was happening, and a look of joy appeared on his face. He wanted to cheer.

But his knees softened, and he sat down on the gym mat.

He had enough energy to stand after training just now, but now he felt exhausted and unable to move.

Seeing his appearance, the two coaches were shocked: "Are you okay, Zhou Yi?"

"No, no." Zhou Yi waved his hand quickly, "I'm just too excited, I didn't react for a moment… ha!"

Seeing that Zhou Yi could talk and laugh normally, the two coaches were relieved. Then Bartlett reached out to Wang Le: "Give it to me."

"Tsk, do you have to bring this up at this time?" Wang Le curled his lips.

"Of course, I'm afraid you won't admit it later. In front of the player, you wouldn't dare to do this." Bartlett beckoned.

Wang Le reluctantly took out a stack of banknotes from his pants pocket, and then took out a hundred-euro bill from it and patted it in Bartlett's palm.

Zhou Yi was confused: "What are you doing, coaches?"

"Hehe, it's like this, Zhou Yi. We made a bet when we made this training plan. Florian thought you couldn't stick to such a training plan." Bartlett said, pointing to Wang Le.

"Who believed you could stick to it at that time? We were all prepared for you to give up halfway. After all, this training plan is too difficult, otherwise why would we call this 'hell'?" Wang Le was also quite aggrieved, "But who knew that this kid, such a thin body contains such terrible energy! You actually finished the training! Without giving up halfway! It's incredible…"

Wang Le shook his head and praised him.

"That's right, that's right. Your performance has impressed us. I am now full of longing for your future, Zhou Yi, I think you can reach a height that none of us thought of before…" Bartlett also did his best to praise Zhou Yi, who won him a hundred euros.

But Zhou Yi seized the point, he asked the two coaches: "Wait, coaches. Are you saying… this training could have been stopped halfway from the beginning?"

Wang Le had a "are you stupid" expression: "Of course, any training plan has risks, we will assess the risks based on your physical condition. If we think your body can't hold on, or you yourself feel that your body can't hold on, then the training will stop. Otherwise, what if we break you?"

Zhou Yi was dumbfounded: "So if I think I can't do it, I can apply to stop the training?"

"Yes." Bartlett nodded, then turned to Wang Le and said, "But now that I think about it, I think we were lucky enough. Zhou Yi's small body didn't have any problems after we tossed him around like that, it's simply a miracle…"

"Yes, yes. Now that I think about it, I'm still afraid. I won't play like this again in the future… But don't you think this fully shows that people's potential is unlimited, Oliver?"

"Well, there's some truth to what you said, Florian. Fully developing a person's potential and seeing what he can do in the end is indeed very fulfilling…"

Listening to their conversation as if no one else was there, Zhou Yi wanted to cry without tears—what about professionalism! Professionalism! How does this sound unprofessional at all!

Also… "Why didn't anyone tell me that I could give up halfway!" he asked loudly.

The two people who were talking turned their heads together and looked at him and said, "If we told you, you might have given up the next day."

"Am I such a person without perseverance?" Zhou Yi refused to accept.

"Yes." Wang Le answered decisively.

"If we don't force you into some kind of predicament, we're really afraid we'll never see how much potential you really have, Zhou Yi." Bartlett said with a smile.

In Zhou Yi's view, his smile was already equated with "cunning and treacherous"…