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Chapter 185 I don't care about this or that!
He Zhenyong finally received a call from Shen Dongsheng.

"I reported everything to my superiors in detail, and they have approved the team's goals and plans in principle! The leaders also think that keeping it quiet is the right thing to do, as it will reduce the pressure on everyone... Congratulations, Lao He! Now you can go all out and get things done!"

In fact, just hearing Shen Dongsheng's excited voice, He Zhenyong already guessed the outcome.

However, after receiving confirmation from Shen Dongsheng, he first breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled and thanked Shen Dongsheng: "Thank you for your hard work, Lao Shen."

"Hey, what's there for me to suffer? If you ask me, it's your turn to suffer now! I've already bragged about it for you, now it's up to you."

"They're looking at us, not me," He Zhenyong corrected. "If we're really looking at one person, it should be Wang Lie! If he hadn't set this goal, how could I, He Zhenyong, dare to say I'd lead the team to victory?"

Shen Dongsheng laughed on the other end of the phone: "Don't be too modest. History and the organization have entrusted this important task to you. Everyone believes you can do it."

"Don't flatter me... I know my own level, don't I? If it weren't for Wang Lie, I would have lost the match against North Korea. If I had really lost to North Korea, how could the leadership have agreed to this goal?"

“Evaluating a head coach involves many dimensions, Lao He. In my opinion, you have a significant advantage: you can win the support of the players, and your authority within the team is almost unshakeable. Moreover, you offended Wang Lie before, but Wang Lie is still willing to support you and cooperate with you. Isn't that your advantage?” Shen Dongsheng said earnestly.

"What is the most important ability of a national team head coach? I think locker room management is definitely one of them. As long as you can unite a group of people from all over the country, from clubs to even rivals, and get them to listen to you, that is a very impressive ability."

He Zhenyong got goosebumps from Shen Dongsheng's words and quickly stopped him: "No, no, no, Lao Shen, stop talking, or I'll throw up. I know my own limitations. If you're asking me to lead the team into the knockout stage of the World Cup, then I'm truly confident. But if it's about winning the World Cup... I'm not confident. Why am I still willing to do it? Because of Wang Lie. It's less about believing in myself and more about believing in Wang Lie..."

This time, Shen Dongsheng did not refute He Zhenyong's words, but echoed, "That's true, Wang Lie is our biggest trump card. When I reported to the organization this time, what the leaders were most concerned about was how long Wang Lie could maintain his good condition at this age... Obviously, everyone knows who the key is."

He Zhenyong was very curious about Shen Dongsheng's answer to the leader's question: "How did you answer? Did you vouch for Wang Lie's condition?"

"No, I'm not stupid. Let's just be honest. I don't know how long Wang Lie, who is thirty-eight or thirty-nine years old, can maintain his current form, but at least judging from his performance after transferring to Tyne, his performance is getting better and better, completely inversely proportional to his age. Since that's the case, we can only trust Wang Lie. Take our match against North Korea as an example, Wang Lie really didn't disappoint us. So they have no more worries."

He Zhenyong sighed, "Back when I went to Newcastle to find Wang Lie, he told me to trust him and that he would be the problem for my opponents during next year's World Cup. At the time, I thought he was just pretending out of habit... Hey, sure enough, Wang Lie's specialty is proving people wrong. Anyway, I'm completely convinced."

After ending the call with Shen Dongsheng, He Zhenyong let out a long sigh of relief.

The Football Association leadership also expressed their support, and now all obstacles have been removed, allowing him to focus on his work without distractions.

Winning the World Cup...

Even now, he still can't imagine such a thing.

The reason he chose to support Wang Lie was because he seemed to have no other choice but to support Wang Lie.

Did he intend to embarrass Wang Lie in front of so many people and make him lose face?

Forget about winning the World Cup; he might even be fired before the World Cup even starts.

Old Shen got one thing wrong: he was able to secure Wang Lie's core position not because of his authority or the players' cooperation, but because Wang Lie's performance had declined significantly.

Wang Lie's performance lost its persuasiveness, and naturally, he lost his halo in everyone's hearts.

However, if I stick to my original stance after Wang Lie delivers another convincing performance, then all those who once supported me will betray and abandon me overnight.

To put it bluntly, they are not followers of themselves, but followers of victory. Whoever can bring them victory, they will follow.

It's clear that Wang Lie is now in a position to win.

That's why he chose to support Wang Lie without hesitation in this incident.

As for the final outcome... he didn't think about it that much.

Anyway, no one thinks the Chinese team can win the championship, so even if they fail, it's not a big deal.

Except for Wang Lie.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this should be the last World Cup of his professional career.

He certainly craves success more than anyone else, and is less accepting of failure than anyone else.

He Zhenyong could not make any promises of certain success. He only hoped that, whatever the final result, he, as the head coach, could give his all and have a clear conscience and a clear conscience.

After his reflections, He Zhenyong picked up his phone again, ready to relax. A weight had been lifted from his shoulders; the World Cup was still a year away, what was wrong with scrolling through some short videos now?
He had just opened the short video app when he saw a familiar figure.

Wang Lie was his greatest trump card and reliance, the person he had just lamented about with Shen Dongsheng.

However, unlike the image they had of Wang Lie, the Wang Lie appearing on He Zhenyong's phone screen was dressed casually and simply, in a classroom, busy taking photos with various men and women.

Meanwhile, a highly human-like AI voiceover is providing narration:
"...Recently, Wang Lie suddenly appeared at a primary school, causing quite a stir. It's said he was attending his child's parent-teacher conference... Prior to this, Wang Lie had never revealed any detailed information about his family, and almost no one knew where his child went to school. From the video, it's clear that the parents and teachers present were extremely excited... What should have been a parent-teacher conference was turned into a fan meeting by Wang Lie..."

He Zhenyong stared blankly at the video.

The video also included live audio, and he could hear the excited shouts from both inside and outside the camera.

He Zhenyong mechanically swiped the screen, and the new videos that appeared were still related to Wang Lie causing a sensation at school, except that this time it was not an AI-generated script reading video made by a middleman.

Judging from the poster's name, it seems the video was taken directly by the person involved at the scene—the video's author is listed as "XX's Mom"...

Swipe the screen again, and another video appears, but it's still a "live broadcast".

"Holy crap, it really is Wang Lie! Wang Lie! Wang Lie! Wang Lie is here for my son's parent-teacher conference! My son and Wang Lie's kid are classmates! Holy crap, that's awesome!! Wang Lie, I'm a fan! Wang Lie, let's take a picture together! Wang Lie..."

The video started shaking violently, clearly indicating that the person filming was struggling to push forward, and his exclamations kept coming from behind the screen.

Upon seeing this, He Zhenyong suddenly grinned.

It's really rare; I never expected Wang Lie to appear in his news feed in this way.

The videos and news he could usually find about Wang Lie were mostly about his performance on the field and various club news, either about him doing extra training, his performance in matches, or various retrospectives of his long career...

In short, everything was related to football. This was the first time he had ever seen anything like this that had nothing to do with football and was purely private life!

No wonder the short video app keeps pushing it to him; just look at the number of views on these videos—any one of them has millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes.

Everyone found it strange!

Previously, Wang Lie was very strict about protecting his privacy, even forbidding his wife and children from attending matches. The national team head coach only knew that Wang Lie had two children, a son and a daughter, but had never seen what they looked like… Of course, he wasn't the kind of gossip who needed to pry into other people's private lives, so he didn't actively search for them online.

The comment sections under each video are filled with enthusiastic discussions from gossip enthusiasts.

He Zhenyong had already turned off the video.

He didn't really care that Wang Lie was going to the parent-teacher meeting, but the video he saw today made him realize some unusual changes.

He recalled his interactions with Wang Lie after he became the national team's head coach.

Before coaching the Chinese national team, He Zhenyong was just a coach who coached various clubs in China. Although he could be called a "famous local coach", he was still an unknown figure in the world of football.

His achievements of leading two Chinese Super League teams to league championships are completely insignificant compared to those of world-class coaches.

But Wang Lie is different. He is already a pinnacle representative of Asian players, having won the Ballon d'Or twice and the FIFA World Player of the Year award once. He has achieved a complete sweep of club honors and has set a series of records. Looking at the entire world football scene, those who can compare with him in terms of level, fame, and status can be counted on one hand.

So even though he later became the national team head coach, he was still at a disadvantage in front of Wang Lie.

Wang Lie was clearly aware of this as well. Although he outwardly showed respect to his national team coach, Wang Lie could sense the subconscious arrogance and conceit he displayed.

Despite the recent defeat of the national team in the Asian Cup, Wang Lie seems to remain confident in himself, believing he is still the leader capable of guiding the team to victory and ensuring continued success. He Zhenyong, the head coach, is merely there to assist him. After all, a team without a head coach is not allowed to participate in a match…

Wang Lie certainly didn't directly show this attitude and emotion, but He Zhenyong has been in the football world for over thirty years, how could he not notice it?
Moreover, it is quite normal for Wang Lie to have such a subconscious thought - after all, after Yao Ye, the veteran coach who led the Chinese team to a historic quarter-final result in the 2022 World Cup held on home soil, left the national team, no coach has been able to keep him in check.

It's not because those coaches aren't famous enough or their achievements aren't outstanding, but because Wang Lie is more famous and his achievements are more outstanding.

Two Ballon d'Or awards, one FIFA World Player of the Year award, a UEFA Champions League title, a seven-time champion, and the current top scorer... If Wang Lie were not Chinese, but European or South American, he would easily rank in the top ten of world football history without any controversy.

Such players are legendary in Chinese football; who would dare to boss them around?
Therefore, from Yao Ye's dismissal after losing the Asian Cup in 2023 to the team's elimination from the Asian Cup in 2035, the four national team coaches in the twelve years before He Zhenyong took over were basically all in a similar "nanny" role.

Back then, the first person that came to mind when people mentioned the Chinese national team was Wang Lie. If you asked who the national team's head coach was, many people would have to think for a moment before answering, and some wouldn't even know who it was after thinking about it, and would have to search online.

It doesn't really matter who the national team head coach is. They're all Wang Lie's nannies anyway. As long as they can serve Wang Lie well, they're qualified to be the head coach of the Chinese team.

He Zhenyong had also heard rumors that Wang Lie had veto power over who would become the head coach of the Chinese team—isn't that an exaggeration? National team players could decide who becomes the head coach?!

However, the fact that such an outrageous rumor appeared about Wang Lie makes it seem natural and not surprising. Otherwise, why would it have spread?
Obviously, it's because nobody thinks there's anything wrong with it:

China only has one world-class star. Not to mention the head coach, the national team leader, and all the other players except Wang Lie have only one task: to serve Wang Lie by any means necessary.

In other words, there is no data panel in the real world like in the game. Otherwise, the national team's selection criteria might have involved opening the attribute panel first to see which players were most compatible with Wang Lie.

Therefore, when He Zhenyong first decided to remove Wang Lie from the starting lineup for the national team match, out of respect for Wang Lie, he invited Wang Lie to his room in advance to inform him.

As a result, Wang Lie was furious and could not accept his decision at all.

No matter how he explained, he couldn't convince Wang Lie.

In the end, the two parted on bad terms.

But in the end, He Zhenyong still read out the starting lineup without Wang Lie's name in front of the whole team in the locker room before the game.

He Zhenyong still remembers that scene vividly:

The locker room at that time was like a powder keg that could explode at any moment.

No one dared to look up at Wang Lie and him, as if afraid that a spark from their gaze would ignite a fire that would blow up the locker room.

He Zhenyong now thinks he was a bit lucky. His first match as coach was the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup, but it was the 40-team round. China's opponents were also weak, and the national team still won the match.

If he had lost that match, he doesn't know if he would have been able to hold on until now under the barrage of public criticism.

He might eventually become just another babysitter for Wang Lie, and then, as Wang Lie's form declines and the national team's performance falls short, he'll be dismissed in disgrace...

Because he had once confronted Wang Lie directly, he knew Wang Lie's personality and temperament very well. When he saw Wang Lie again in Newcastle a few months later, he even had a feeling of "it was like a different world".

Because he was almost a completely different person from the Wang Lie he had met before.

Some changes may not even have been realized by Wang Lie himself, such as the phrase "I understand you, Coach He".

If, during their first encounter, after explaining his thoughts, mission, and the turning point and predicament facing the Chinese team, Wang Lie had said the same thing: "I understand you, Coach He."

Perhaps the national team won't experience as much turmoil...

And he wouldn't face as much criticism and abuse.

At first, he thought it was just a coincidence, that Wang Lie was in a good mood after winning the game, so he was easier to talk to.

However, after further observation, he found that although "toughness" remained Wang Lie's core characteristic during this half-season, his outer shell had indeed become more tactful than before.

Even if it's not much, the changes are real.

So Wang Lie is really different from before...

Combined with his outstanding performance on the court, He Zhenyong sometimes had some rather "crazy" speculations in his mind.

However, he never voiced these speculations.

What's the point of telling anyone?

He didn't even want to verify those guesses.

Anyway, as the head coach of the Chinese team, he now has a top Chinese superstar who is easier to get along with and in better form. Together, they will make history at the World Cup.

Even if Wang Lie's appearance truly concealed an ancient god from another realm, he would never expose him.

I don't care about this or that!
(End of this chapter)