Chapter 1 A Day of Rest Amidst Media Hype

After a day of rest amidst the media hype, Zhou Yi returned to the team the next day and began training with the main squad, officially starting preparations for the Ruhr Derby.

Although the preparation time was a bit short, they were familiar with their old derby rivals, so they didn't need to spend too much time understanding their opponents.

Moreover, there wasn't a need for major adjustments. Klopp's tactical philosophy has always been "focus on ourselves." Dortmund insists on playing their own tactics and doesn't need to make various adjustments because of different opponents, as that would disrupt their own pace and rhythm.

Training was arranged as usual, and you couldn't tell that the derby was approaching from the training content alone, but looking at the media, you could immediately smell the gunpowder of the upcoming Ruhr Derby.

Supporters from both sides were engaged in heated verbal battles in the media, supporting their respective teams.

Even the players from both teams were no exception.

Grosskreutz was a player who came from the South Stand. If he wasn't a player, he would definitely be a fervent Dortmund supporter, so whenever there was a Ruhr Derby, he was always at the forefront, leading the charge.

This time, he mocked their derby rivals in an interview.

"Neuer says he's ready? Of course, they're ready. To prepare for the game against us, they even lost their Champions League group stage match in midweek!" At this point, Grosskreutz shrugged and grinned mischievously.

In the Champions League group stage a few days prior, both Dortmund and Schalke 04 were playing away games. Dortmund defeated Valencia 2-0 away, while Schalke 04 lost 0-1 to Lyon away.

As bitter city rivals, they were naturally happy to see the other team suffer.

Moreover, Grosskreutz was rubbing salt in Schalke 04's wounds. Having already lost the game, Schalke 04 fans were very unhappy, and being ridiculed by their city rivals only made things worse. Who could tolerate that?

Schalke 04 striker Farfán stepped up to retort to Grosskreutz: "Grosskreutz better pray his team doesn't lose in the Champions League."

The implied meaning was that if you lose, I will laugh at you.

The two sides engaged in a verbal war, trading barbs back and forth.

As the core of Dortmund and the focus of attention, Zhou Yi naturally couldn't avoid the derby topic either.

Although Zhou Yi had only participated in one Ruhr Derby, he was not a popular person among Schalke 04 fans.

It wasn't just because he helped Dortmund beat Schalke 04 away last season, but also because of the penalty he earned for Dortmund in the last encounter.

Schalke 04 supporters insisted that Zhou Yi used a despicable dive to deceive the referee into awarding a penalty. And that penalty was crucial.

So, the reason Dortmund was able to win that game was because of Zhou Yi's dishonorable means.

Before this game, some media brought up the old story.

"Dive?" Zhou Yi widened his eyes, then put on a thoughtful expression before shaking his head. "Was there? I don't remember."

"That penalty..." the reporter reminded him.

"Of course, it wasn't a dive." Zhou Yi replied decisively. "Bordon knocked me down, I fell. What's the problem with that?"

"That's true, but don't you think your movements after you fell were a bit exaggerated?" the reporter, clearly from Schalke, pressed.

"Are you saying I flipped a few times? Oh, sorry, I wasn't trying to get sympathy. I did it to protect myself. It's called dissipating force," Zhou Yi said. "It's a physical phenomenon. It's a law of nature. If I didn't roll a few times after falling on the ground, I wouldn't be able to transmit the impact force to the ground, which would cause great harm to myself."

The reporter obviously thought Zhou Yi was making excuses, and since he was convinced that Zhou Yi had dived, he wouldn't accept his explanation. So, he continued to ask: "Even if it was for the purpose of protecting yourself, you didn't have to flip so many times, did you?"

A Chinese reporter next to him was dissatisfied with the Schalke reporter's question and protested: "You're asking questions with preset premises and positions..."

The German reporter turned his head and looked at the protesting Chinese reporter arrogantly, then turned back, ignoring him completely.

This made the Chinese reporters very unhappy, and they started shouting.

Seeing the atmosphere suddenly become tense, Zhou Yi quickly raised his hand and said to the reporters from his home country in Chinese: "It's okay, let him ask. A straight foot is not afraid of a crooked shoe."

Seeing Zhou Yi say this, the Chinese reporters didn't say anything more, but they felt that Zhou Yi didn't need to be so polite to a Schalke reporter who was deliberately trying to find fault. You have etiquette, but they don't. You can do this with gentlemen, but you should just use a shotgun on enemies.

But Zhou Yi didn't care, so they couldn't do anything about it.

They could only glare at the German reporter's back. If looks could kill, the German reporter would probably have died countless times.

Zhou Yi looked at the reporter who was trying to find fault and said seriously, "It was inertia."

"Huh?" The German reporter didn't understand.

Zhou Yi explained patiently: "Didn't you just ask me why I flipped so many times? I'm telling you, it's because of inertia. First of all, you need to know what inertia is. Inertia is the property of an object to remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line. Inertia is an inherent property of an object, manifested as the degree to which the object resists changes in its state of motion. When the external force acting on an object is zero, inertia is manifested as the object maintaining its state of motion, that is, remaining at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line. When the external force acting on an object is not zero, inertia is manifested as the degree of difficulty in changing the object's state of motion..."

Hearing Zhou Yi say this, the German reporter's face was a picture of bewilderment.

But Zhou Yi didn't stop and continued to ramble: "...Returning to the question of why I rolled more times. According to the definition of inertia I just said – the qualitative definition of inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in momentum, and extending this definition quantitatively to the measure of an object's resistance to changes in momentum can be used for mathematical calculations. This momentum becomes inertial mass, or simply mass. Therefore, mass represents the mass of an object, and mass is also a measure of an object's inertia..."

At this point, Zhou Yi conveniently took the reporter's notebook and pen.

The reporter was completely stunned and didn't react to Zhou Yi's actions.

Taking the notebook and pen, Zhou Yi began to write and draw in the reporter's interview notebook, saying as he wrote: "The momentum equation expresses the relationship between an object's momentum, mass, and velocity. If we express momentum as p, mass as m, and velocity as v, then the relationship between the three is p=mv. However, Newton's second law equation can also express the relationship between the force acting on an object f and mass – inertial mass – m, and acceleration A: f=mA."

Zhou Yi actually wrote these two equations in the notebook.

"According to these equations, we can see that if a given force f is applied, then the larger the mass m, the smaller the acceleration A, and conversely, the smaller the mass m, the larger the acceleration A. My mass is relatively small, and given the sufficiently large force applied by Bordon, the acceleration A is large. The larger the acceleration, the more times I rolled on the ground. If it were me a year and a half ago when I first came to the Dortmund youth training camp, I might have rolled more than four times, maybe even six times. Because I was lighter at that time, had less mass, and the acceleration would have been greater."

Zhou Yi looked at the reporter, who was already petrified, and finally said, "You asked me why I rolled so many times? That's the reason. Do you have any other questions?"

During Zhou Yi's explanation, suppressed laughter had already erupted behind the reporter. And now, everyone could no longer suppress their emotions, and there was a burst of laughter.

Amidst everyone's happy laughter, the Schalke reporter also realized that he had been played by Zhou Yi!

Enraged, he didn't even bother with any pretense of composure, snatched the notebook from Zhou Yi's hand, and roared, "You're just quibbling..."

"How is this quibbling? This is science." Zhou Yi looked at him with a smile, saying calmly, "Mr. Reporter, are you questioning science? Questioning Newton's second law?"

The Chinese reporters and Dortmund reporters laughed so hard that they could barely breathe.

The reporter who was trying to find fault turned red in the face, but couldn't say a word. He could only look down at the notebook in his hand, which contained two formulas, with the meaning of each letter written behind them.

Although he didn't quite understand it, every word on it seemed to be flashing with golden light, mocking his low intelligence...

※※※

That night, Zhou Yi's exchange with the Schalke reporter appeared on television and online. This time, it wasn't just a picture with the truth, but a video with the truth.

On YouTube, the video of Zhou Yi using Newton's second law equation to explain to the Schalke reporter why he rolled four times after landing quickly gained popularity after being uploaded.

Because Zhou Yi used German to argue with the reporter, the video's creator thoughtfully added English subtitles, so that most people could understand what they were saying.

Netizens enthusiastically left comments, praising Zhou Yi's performance.

"...This is so hilarious! This is the first time in my life that I've seen a professional player use Newton's second law equation to explain his performance on the field!"

"Pfft! Zhou Yi did a great job! You have to treat reporters who come specifically to find fault like this!"

"Did you guys see that reporter's expression? I'm sure he didn't understand every word Zhou Yi said!"

"Hey, guys, don't talk about that reporter. Honestly, I recognize every letter in the subtitles, but I still can't understand what it means..."

"Zhou Yi is a Chinese player, and as far as I know, Chinese people are very smart. They often win the International Mathematical Olympiad! Chinese people are all geniuses!"

"Are the requirements for professional players so high now? Do you have to understand Newton's law?"

……

At the same time, almost the same video also appeared on the Chinese Internet, but the English subtitles in the video were replaced with Chinese subtitles.

It also aroused everyone's enthusiasm.

"Winning glory for the country! Hahahaha!"

"Zhou Yi is awesome!"

"Players understand science, are you afraid, haha!"

"What made Zhou Yi suddenly fall to the ground? What made Schalke 04 players frantically surround the referee? What made Magath roar angrily? Is there an unspeakable inside story behind Dortmund's victory? Is Bordon the culprit for Schalke 04's loss or was he wronged? Why did the referee insist that it was a penalty? Is Zhou Yi's four rolls an exaggerated performance or a natural law? Behind all this, is it the decline of players' sportsmanship or the distortion of human nature? Please pay attention to the annual blockbuster 'Approaching Science: The Secret of the Penalty' on the Science and Education Channel at 8:00 tonight, and let us follow the camera into the football world of the academic master Zhou Yi..."

"Ahahaha, please tell me the area of this reporter's psychological shadow!"

"As expected of someone who would have taken the college entrance examination if he didn't play football, his physics knowledge comes right out of his mouth... If Zhou Yi was willing to study seriously, it is estimated that getting into a key university would not be a problem, right?"

"What is called being reasonable, well-founded, and restrained? This is called being reasonable, well-founded, and restrained! Whoever dares to question it is going against Newton's second law!"

"Wait, does that mean that the dives of La Masia Film Academy are also credible?"

"Upstairs, you have to pay attention to the preconditions. Under the condition that the acting force is constant, the acceleration is inversely proportional to the player's mass. The more the mass the player has, the less the player will roll on the floor. If a tall person like Professor Bu rolled six times on the floor, it would be too exaggerated, so it's fake. You have to know that Zhou Yi's weight is much lighter than his, and he was hit so hard by Bordon that he only rolled four times..."

"Damn it, you have to understand physics to watch a game, I'm so tired..."

The internet was a carnival for netizens. In the official media, the Schalke reporter was also ridiculed, and was assessed to have been ruthlessly crushed by Zhou Yi in terms of intelligence...

Some media also interviewed physics professors at universities, and the professors said that Zhou Yi was not talking nonsense and that he was right.

"...In fact, all human activities on earth are inseparable from physics. Some phenomena are more complicated to explain with theory, but they are actually very common... For example, the knuckleball is the embodiment of fluid mechanics in football..."

The director cut the scene before the professor could explain the Magnus effect...

When the scene was cut back, it was the professor's evaluation of the matter: "This is the first time I have seen a player explain phenomena on the field using physics knowledge. Zhou Yi's intelligence amazes me. I believe that even if he doesn't play football, he may be able to achieve something in the field of physics..."

At this point, the professor shook his head, seemingly regretting that Zhou Yi had not chosen to pursue physics research...