Chapter 1 The Restaurant

Zhou Yi had chosen a restaurant with private rooms, and he was currently sitting in one, waiting for Zheng Lulu.

He had just arrived himself, fortunately not later than Zheng Lulu. Even if he didn't care about his clothes or hairstyle, Zhou Yi still knew it was best not to be late for a date, regardless of whether the date was with a man or a woman.

Zhou Yi pulled out his phone, intending to play a little game, when he heard a knock on the door from outside.

"Come in," he said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the door was opened from the outside. A waiter gestured for someone to enter and a beautiful woman walked out from behind the door.

The beautiful woman nodded her thanks to the waiter and then walked gracefully into the private room.

"Um... who are you looking for, beautiful lady?" Zhou Yi asked blankly.

Seeing Zhou Yi's stunned expression, the beautiful woman giggled. "Hey, old classmate, long time no see. Don't you recognize me?"

Zhou Yi was shocked. "Zheng Lulu?!" He was so surprised that he stood up from his seat.

Zheng Lulu lowered her head and covered her mouth, laughing. Her smooth, shoulder-length hair slid from her forehead, covering half of her face. She raised her head, flicking her hair back, a movement that made her particularly feminine.

Zhou Yi was stunned—was this the "Braces Girl" from his memory, the one who wore glasses, dressed plainly, didn't smile much, and revealed a mouthful of braces when she did smile?

"It's me."

"I can only say... uh... a woman changes eighteen times as she grows." Zhou Yi didn't know what to say. Zheng Lulu's transformation was probably the biggest he could imagine among his classmates. "Please, sit down, sit down."

"You haven't changed much, Zhou Yi," Zheng Lulu said, examining Zhou Yi's face as she sat opposite him. In fact, she was very familiar with this face, seeing it every week, because she watched the live broadcast of every Borussia Dortmund match.

"Don't you think I've become more handsome?" Zhou Yi asked.

Zheng Lulu stared at Zhou Yi for a long time, then shook her head. "No."

Zhou Yi made a disappointed expression of beating his chest and stamping his feet.

Seeing him like this, Zheng Lulu covered her mouth and giggled again.

After joking around, the two of them sat down. Zhou Yi then asked why Zheng Lulu was in Germany.

Zheng Lulu then explained that she had come to Germany to study abroad.

"You chose to study in Germany?" Zhou Yi was a little surprised. "Why?"

"There's no why, I just like it," Zheng Lulu said.

"You like Germany?"

Faced with Zhou Yi's question, Zheng Lulu smiled without saying a word. Zhou Yi took it as a tacit agreement, and he nodded. "Germany does have things worth liking."

After understanding why Zheng Lulu was in Germany, Zhou Yi thought of another question. "Since you've been here for four years, how come you haven't made a peep before..."

Zheng Lulu shook her head and said, "At first, I was unfamiliar with the place and busy adapting to the new environment. After adapting, I was busy studying. Later, my QQ account was hacked, and I lost contact with everyone. I only recently got my QQ back."

Zheng Lulu had prepared everything in advance for any questions Zhou Yi might have. Whatever question Zhou Yi asked, she would have a corresponding answer ready.

Of course, she couldn't say that the reason she hadn't contacted Zhou Yi for so many years was because she lacked confidence. If she said that, Zhou Yi would definitely ask why she wasn't confident.

That topic would lead too far astray.

But he didn't expect Zhou Yi to take the initiative to bring up this change. He looked Zheng Lulu up and down, sighing. "If you weren't right in front of me, I really wouldn't believe you were that... that..."

He had originally wanted to say "Braces Girl," but he remembered that was a nickname the boys had given her in private, and it was impolite. It wouldn't be appropriate to say it now.

To his surprise, Zheng Lulu took the initiative to add, "Braces Girl?"

Zhou Yi didn't expect that the nickname they called her in private would actually be known by the person herself. He was a little embarrassed. "Um... ha, we were young and didn't know any better..."

Zheng Lulu smiled and shook her head, asking, "Was I very ugly back then?"

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand. "Not at all, not at all..."

Zheng Lulu thought he was going to say some compliments, even if they were insincere, but it would still be comforting to hear.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi continued, "Just not what you'd call a beauty."

Zheng Lulu barely managed to suppress the urge to roll her eyes at Zhou Yi—he was still the Zhou Yi she knew, with a mouth that could be quite toxic at times, and he wasn't even trying to be annoying, it was completely unintentional, which made it even more infuriating.

"Hey, Zhou Yi, do you know why you didn't have much luck with girls in high school?" Zheng Lulu retorted.

"I know, I know..." Zhou Yi nodded repeatedly. Actually, he knew he had said the wrong thing as soon as the words left his mouth. "It's this mouth of mine."

Seeing Zhou Yi, a glamorous celebrity who usually appeared in the media, repeatedly bowing his head and admitting his mistake, Zheng Lulu laughed. Even though he was a big star, he didn't seem to have any airs at all. He was really meeting her as an old classmate.

This feeling was actually quite good, but a layer of sadness lay in Zheng Lulu's heart—can we only be "old classmates"?

Thinking of what her roommate, Katherine, had said to her before she came to Dortmund, the fire in Zheng Lulu's heart burned.

Haven't all the changes I've made in the past four years been for today?

Why can't I take it a step further?

So she asked Zhou Yi, "Then what do you think of me now?"

"A beauty, absolutely a beauty," Zhou Yi nodded repeatedly.

"Too perfunctory, isn't it?" Zheng Lulu pursed her lips. The answer was too quick, giving an insincere feeling. "Can you be more specific?"

Zhou Yi showed a troubled expression. "Um... I've never been good at describing people's appearances since I was a kid, so your request is too high..."

"Then what specific changes do you think I've made?" Zheng Lulu asked instead.

"It's hard to say specifically, I just feel like you're a completely different person, but how are you different..." Zhou Yi pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said, "You're more confident! Yes! It's that you're more confident as a person."

Zheng Lulu didn't expect Zhou Yi to be so insightful, hitting on her most core change.

"You seemed quite insecure back in school, you didn't like to take the lead in any activities, you were quiet in class, and even when you did say something, your voice was so soft, it was like you couldn't open your mouth..." Zhou Yi continued.

"That's because a mouthful of braces would show when I opened my mouth," Zheng Lulu said, now seeming less embarrassed to talk about her past black history.

"I remember a teacher asked you to answer a question once, and he couldn't hear you clearly even after you answered three times..."

"Don't mention it, I still feel embarrassed when I think about it now!" Zheng Lulu covered her face with her hands.

Zhou Yi burst out laughing.

"Don't laugh at me!" Zheng Lulu retorted, seeing Zhou Yi laughing so heartlessly. "You were the king of embarrassing moments in our class! You have plenty of black history too..."

"Those are glorious past events!" Zhou Yi snorted.

"That's just you being thick-skinned..."

Old classmates meeting each other, reminiscing about the past, even embarrassing moments became topics of conversation. Those soft spots deep inside could be joked about casually, a feeling that was very relaxing, without worrying about saying the wrong thing.

The atmosphere in the private room rippled out little by little in the reminiscence, like a decanted red wine, smelling fragrant and leaving a lingering taste in the mouth.

Zhou Yi talked about those things from high school. Even things that were ordinary or already blurred in Zheng Lulu's original memory were described by him in such vivid detail, as if they were happening right in front of her.

Zheng Lulu was often doubled over with laughter at the funny stories he told.

Zhou Yi had just finished telling a joke, and Zheng Lulu was laughing so hard that she was almost趴 (pā - lying prone) on the table. Zhou Yi just watched her laughing, her shoulders shaking.

When Zheng Lulu had laughed enough, she raised her head, flicked her hair, and sighed. "Zhou Yi, you're actually quite good at making girls happy. Why didn't the girls have a good impression of you when they talked about you in middle school?"

Zhou Yi chuckled. Of course, he knew what kind of image he had among girls back then. It certainly wasn't any kind of dream lover.

Looking at Zhou Yi's smile, Zheng Lulu suddenly had an impulse.

She pursed her lips and then asked, "Hey, Big Star, you must have a girlfriend by now, right?"

Zheng Lulu actually knew whether Zhou Yi had a girlfriend or not, because she had been following Zhou Yi for the past four years, collecting and understanding all reports and news about him. In these four years, Zhou Yi had not revealed a single scandal. In his life, it seemed that football was all there was besides football. On days without training and matches, apart from necessary commercial activities, he would shrink into his home, not going shopping, nor going to nightclubs or bars.

His private life could be said to be very boring, completely lacking the value for the media to hype and report.

The media would not focus on Zhou Yi's private life as a key point of reporting.

Sure enough, faced with Zheng Lulu's question, Zhou Yi shook his head. "A man should first establish his career before starting a family!"

"Tch, an excuse. You say it so grandly, but you're just a single dog!" Zheng Lulu teased.

And Zhou Yi very cooperatively barked twice, "Woof woof."

This action made Zheng Lulu laugh again.

"Aren't you considering finding one? As a star player, it seems strange to be alone," Zheng Lulu probed indirectly.

"No, Mark is a single dog too!" Zhou Yi laughed. In the previous conversation, he had solemnly introduced Mark to Zheng Lulu. Of course, he didn't say that Mark had a beautiful but difficult sister.

"You guys are really good friends, even being single together," Zheng Lulu said half-jokingly, then stared at Zhou Yi and asked, "Are you really not planning to find one?"

Faced with Zheng Lulu's gaze, Zhou Yi replied with a serious expression, "I won't deliberately look for one. I'll let fate decide. If we meet, we meet. If we don't, it's no use chasing."

Zheng Lulu fell silent upon hearing this.

Seeing Zheng Lulu actually silent, Zhou Yi laughed. "Don't talk about me, you're a single dog too, right?"

Zheng Lulu looked up at him in surprise. "How do you know?"

"If you had a boyfriend, how could you come to me for dinner on Christmas Eve?" Zhou Yi was smug about his reasoning.

But Zheng Lulu smiled and nodded. "That's right, I'm a single dog too."

Then she raised her glass. "Cheers to two single dogs on Christmas Eve."

Zhou Yi raised his wine glass. "Then shouldn't we say 'Woof woof' instead of 'Cheers'?"

Zheng Lulu didn't expect Zhou Yi to say that, and she almost dropped her glass from laughing.

"Why do you make something so unhappy sound so cheerful?" she complained.

"People only live once, so we should be happy. Being happy is the right thing to do. Come on." Zhou Yi raised his glass and took the lead in saying, "Woof woof!"

Seeing Zhou Yi so serious, Zheng Lulu suppressed her laughter and cooperated with him in completing this single dog's toasting ceremony. "Woof woof!"

"I think Wangwang Foods should ask me to be their spokesperson," Zhou Yi said thoughtfully after drinking the wine.

Zheng Lulu waved her hands repeatedly. "No, no, that won't do."

"Why not?"

"Wouldn't that link Wangwang Foods with single dogs? Who would dare to eat their stuff then? 'Exclusively for single dogs, Wangwang Milk,' something like that?"

Zhou Yi was amused by Zheng Lulu as well. "Wow, Zheng Lulu, you've really changed a lot now!"

Hearing Zhou Yi's praise, Zheng Lulu just smiled slightly.