Chapter 1 A Touch of Red at Wembley

On the morning of May 27th, a Monday, Qingyang City's main thoroughfares were once again plunged into gridlock, a common occurrence for those commuting to work or school.

The buses were filled with complaints.

"Roadwork, roadwork, always roadwork! This road has never been properly fixed!"

"Exactly! It hadn't been open for long before they dug it up again to bury pipes. Why didn't they do it earlier?"

"There are already so many cars, and they're taking up half the road for repairs. Of course it's going to be a traffic jam..."

"And there are more and more cars these days..."

"That's right, back in our day, the most common vehicles on the road were bicycles!"

"This intersection has been blocked for ten minutes, right? Driver, can you open the door? I'll get off here..."

"The door won't be opened until we reach the station!" the driver said firmly.

"I'm going to be late for work!"

"Those are the rules, there's nothing I can do..."

The bus was filled with various discussions.

But none of this affected Wang Lei, who was sitting in the last row.

He didn't care how much longer the bus would be stuck, nor did he care about the discussions and arguments of the people on the bus. At this moment, he was concentrating on reading the newspaper in his hand.

It was China's best-selling and most famous professional sports newspaper.

The most eye-catching thing on the front page was a photograph.

In the photo, Zhou Yi was wearing a Borussia Dortmund jersey and showing his Chinese flag to the camera.

The headline read "A Touch of Red at Wembley."

Below it was a sub-headline: "Creating History, Zhou Yi Becomes the First Chinese Player to Win the Champions League!"

Wang Lei opened the newspaper and was engrossed in the detailed content inside.

About half of the newspaper was related to the Champions League final and Zhou Yi.

"...In the 2012-2013 Champions League final, which ended in the early hours of yesterday Beijing time, Borussia Dortmund defeated their arch-rivals 3-2. This 'German National Derby' in the Champions League lasted one hundred and twenty minutes, with both sides doing their best until the very last moment... Our player Zhou Yi started the game and performed very well..."

"...After Bayern Munich took the lead, Borussia Dortmund's morale seemed to be affected, but under the leadership of Zhou Yi, Borussia Dortmund quickly stabilized their morale. Then Zhou Yi penetrated Bayern Munich's goal with a genius-like idea in the penalty area, leveling the score for Borussia Dortmund. And when the score was leveled, Bayern Munich's lead had only lasted for six minutes..."

"...In injury time, Bayern Munich took the lead again, Robben's skillful running and calm shot in front of the goal put Borussia Dortmund in a desperate situation. At this time, it was Zhou Yi again! He bravely stood up and assisted Mark Wagner to score with a way that no one had expected, leveling the score for Borussia Dortmund again! Zhou Yi's assist method was very imaginative, completely deceiving the Bayern Munich players..."

"...Zhou Yi's winning goal was simply a brilliant work of art, causing the commentators from various countries on the commentary booth to climax one after another! The whole stadium was conquered... Continuously dribbling the ball past people, feinting past Neuer's movements was as easy as lifting something light. The fact that it was a very tense matter, but he interpreted it as if he was taking a leisurely stroll in his own backyard... CCTV commentator He Ping believes that this goal is completely comparable to Zidane's 'celestial flying kick' in Glasgow!"

Wang Lei enjoyed reading these words very much. He always had a smile on his face, immersed in his own world, and the surrounding chaos had nothing to do with him and could not invade his world.

※※※

When the bus finally swayed to a stop at Qingyang High School Station, Wang Lei folded the newspaper, put it in his schoolbag, and then jumped off the bus through the crowded people.

He thought of the Qingyang High School gate not far ahead and walked towards it.

Along with him were many Qingyang High School students.

After walking only two steps, someone ran over from the side, calling his name and rushing to the front.

"Wang Lei, Wang Lei! Did you buy today's *Sports News*?"

Wang Lei looked at him: "What's wrong, Lao Ding? Didn't you buy it?"

The person Wang Lei called "Lao Ding" was his classmate, Ding Wenjun. Both of them were members of the Qingyang High School football team.

"I was one step late, and I watched as the last copy was bought..." Ding Wenjun said dejectedly.

"Look at a few more places."

"I did, I searched all the bookstores and newsstands around, and they're all sold out! Did you buy it?"

Wang Lei smiled and took out the folded newspaper from his schoolbag and handed it to Ding Wenjun.

"Hey! I knew you would definitely be able to buy it! Hehe!" Ding Wenjun took the newspaper and couldn't wait to read it.

He saw the photo of Zhou Yi showing the national flag at a glance and couldn't help but praise: "This pose is so cool! So awesome!"

Then he turned to the inside to read the main text.

"It's so cool, Champions League champion! Champions League final best player! Maybe he can win the Ballon d'Or this year... Just thinking about it, we are actually schoolmates with such a great person, I feel excited!" Ding Wenjun kept talking while reading. "It's just a pity that we didn't get to play with him on the school team..."

"Then you would have to be born five years earlier, right?" Wang Lei said with a smile.

"Alas..." Ding Wenjun sighed deeply. In this life, he probably had no chance to play football with Zhou Yi.

He was just an ordinary high school sophomore, and his football skills were far from the standards of a professional player. He had never thought that he could become a professional player.

"Hey, Wang Lei, do you think... Zhou Yi had the strength to become a professional player back then?"

"How would I know, I didn't play with him. But I heard people say that Zhou Yi was very good on the school team and was the team's main striker," Wang Lei replied.

"Playing as a striker, but now he has reached a world-class level in the midfield position. He's really amazing!" Ding Wenjun once again expressed his admiration for Zhou Yi.

The two walked into the campus side by side, and along the way, they could always hear the words "Zhou Yi" and "champion" floating into their ears from time to time.

Everyone was discussing their senior.

※※※

And this scene that happened in Qingyang High School was just a microcosm of what happened in China these two days.

Not only in reality, but also on the Internet, since the end of the Champions League final, the upsurge of discussion has never subsided.

This is the highest honor for Chinese players, the Champions League champion.

This gave everyone a huge shock.

In professional football forums, Weibo, and QQ groups, everyone was enthusiastically talking about this matter.

European media reports on the game were also translated back to China. Seeing the praise and touting of Zhou Yi by those foreign media made Chinese fans feel elated.

In fact, shortly after the Champions League final ended, Sun Pan, He Ying, Yang Muge, and Guo Nu successively posted on Weibo to congratulate Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi posted on Weibo later, thanking his friends for their congratulations, and also thanking the fans and media for their support. Then he wrote: "A perfect season!"

He also included a solo photo of him holding the Champions League trophy in the locker room.

In the photo, Zhou Yi was bare-chested, wearing shorts, holding the trophy, and the contours of his muscles were clearly visible.

Zhou Yi rarely exposed his body in front of the camera, so when everyone saw Zhou Yi's muscles, they were also surprised - everyone knew that Zhou Yi was not good at physical confrontation, and he was definitely not considered a strong player, but when they saw Zhou Yi's muscle lines, everyone realized that even if Zhou Yi did not rely on strength to stand on the court, his physical fitness had long been different from the past.

The high school amateur player who appeared in the reality show was thin and as fragile as a piece of paper.

These were the traces of hard work and sweat left on Zhou Yi.

It also shows from the side that Zhou Yi's success is reasonable.

It's definitely not just luck.

Even if it was luck, then the goddess of fortune would only favor such people.

As the saying goes, Heaven rewards hard work.