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Chapter 235: Quite a Show
Fu Xiaofeng and Song You met as planned in the arrival hall of Jincheng International Airport.

The moment they met, Song You immediately brought up the most sensitive topic: "Where's that limited-edition skin you got with Brother Wang? Show me how strong it really is!"

"No!" Fu Xiaofeng refused decisively.

Song You asked in surprise, "You didn't delete the limited edition skin, did you?"

“It’s not that bad…” Fu Xiaofeng shook his head.

Song You burst into laughter.

Fu Xiaofeng then realized that he had been tricked by Song You, and he cursed angrily, "Get the hell out of here!"

Song You, who was being scolded, laughed even more heartily.

After laughing, the two pushed their luggage and walked out.

On the way, Song You stopped joking and asked Fu Xiaofeng about the Champions League: "Have you seen Wang Ge's recent form? Eight goals in four games, that's incredible! What are you guys going to do then?"

"What can we do? We'll just have to deal with whatever comes our way."

"Now you've become the fourth-tier team in the group..."

Because of Tyne's outstanding performance in the Premier League recently, ranking first, some people on the internet made a joke, switching the order of Tyne and Atletico Lille in the group.

It seems that Tyne is a third-tier team, while Lille has become a fourth-tier team.

This joke quickly gained recognition from a large number of fans and online enthusiasts, and was widely shared.

Therefore, Lille is now jokingly referred to online as a "fourth-tier team".

"Fourth tier is fourth tier then." Fu Xiaofeng still seemed indifferent, neither angry nor anxious, with a relaxed "Yeah, so what?" attitude.

However, Song You knew his friend well and knew that this was just his nature.

It seems like they can't get excited about anything except their favorite anime.

That's why so many people felt that Fu Xiaofeng was just going through the motions in the national team after Wang Lie criticized him.

But he will still do what he is supposed to do, he just won't be as proactive as others.

Just like in a company, some people always work overtime until late at night, giving people the feeling that they are particularly busy and hardworking.

Some people, however, always pack up and go home as soon as it's time to leave work, making people think that this guy is definitely wasting his time.

However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the quality of work completed by both is actually the same, and those who work late into the night do not accomplish more work than those who leave on time.

Fu Xiaofeng is the kind of person who always leaves work on time, but also manages to complete the tasks assigned to him.

Song You attributed this to "talent".

He and Fu Xiaofeng were both midfielders, and he even played for Italian Serie A giants Alpi. Song You was certainly very talented as well.

However, compared to Fu Xiaofeng, Song You felt that his talent was far inferior to Fu Xiaofeng's.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have been relegated to a rotation player at Alpi, while Fu Xiaofeng would have been a starter at Lille.

Of course, Song You also felt that Fu Xiaofeng was a bit too "life-oriented".

There's nothing wrong with being an ordinary person and living a simple life.

But Fu Xiaofeng clearly has such great talent, yet he has no higher aspirations and is only satisfied with completing the most basic tasks, which is actually a waste of his talent.

If Fu Xiaofeng had been more ambitious and willing to work harder, his career wouldn't have been limited to just one of the top clubs in Ligue 1...

However, everyone has their own different pursuits, and not everyone thinks the same way, so even though he is Fu Xiaofeng's friend, Song You couldn't say anything.

Besides, do they need you to tell them?

Even so, Fu Xiaofeng's career achievements are second only to Wang Lie among active Chinese players.

Chi Zhen may surpass Fu Xiaofeng in the future, but at least for now, Fu Xiaofeng's career achievements are still higher.

If things continue like this, as long as Fu Xiaofeng himself doesn't feel there's anything wrong with it, then no one else can really tell him what to do.

Song You had always thought this way.

However, Song You's thinking changed after the last national team training camp.

He was not selected for the national team during that training camp because he was still recovering from an injury.

But he'd heard everything that happened during training camp from others—the national team players aren't robots; they won't just stay silent if the head coach says no. Besides, gossiping about this with his national team teammates doesn't count as "telling outsiders." They're all family; it's just something they keep to themselves…

So he knew how terrifying the KPI Wang Lie had set for everyone was.

When he first heard about that goal, he thought the narrator was joking, then he doubted whether he had misheard, and finally he began to wonder if something was wrong with how this world worked...

Is the Chinese team going to win the World Cup?!
I wouldn't even dare to think like this in my wildest dreams!

What actually gave him this idea wasn't the goal of winning the championship.

After all, this goal was proposed by Brother Wang, and given his personality and temperament, it's not unreasonable for him to set such a goal.

What made Song You question his life was that his teammates and coaches on the national team actually agreed!

This has become an official goal that has not been made public within the national team!
After the initial shock, Song You had no choice but to accept the goal. After all, as a member of the national team, since this was already the team's recognized goal, what else could he do but accept it?
There's another point, just like that gossipy teammate said:

"Among us football players, who doesn't love winning the World Cup?"

"Don't worry about whether you can get it or not, just tell me if you want it or not!"

Song You admitted that, regardless of whether he could win it or not, he really wanted the World Cup title.

After learning that the national team's goal for next year's World Cup was to win the championship, Song You noticed a detail—more than one national team teammate came to gossip about this to him, but his good friend Fu Xiaofeng on the national team remained silent and did not mention this to him at all, as if he and Song You had not participated in the training camp and did not know about this at all.

Why didn't my friend tell me about this?
Song You wasn't surprised.

Because he knows why.

It's simply because this goal was proposed by Brother Wang, and Fu Xiaofeng has always harbored resentment towards Brother Wang, so he's unwilling to support him.

Song You also knew the reason why Fu Xiaofeng was dissatisfied with Brother Wang.

Furthermore, Song You also felt that what Wang Ge did was unfair. No matter what problems you two had within the team, don't expose them to the media...

Although Brother Wang did not name names, rumors about his conflict with Fu Xiaofeng were already rampant at the time. When he came out to criticize someone for not putting in their best effort in the national team, who could not help but know that he was referring to Fu Xiaofeng?

Besides, Fu Xiaofeng has always been like this; he just doesn't train as hard as Brother Wang.

Therefore, to say that Fu Xiaofeng was only putting in the work without putting in any effort is too malicious.

At that time, Brother Wang was at the height of his power, and who dared to say a single word against him?
So even if he had some "dissatisfaction" with Brother Wang, he would never dare to express it publicly.

As Fu Xiaofeng's friend, Song You could only subtly suggest in an interview that the person Wang Ge was referring to was definitely not Fu Xiaofeng, because he knew Fu Xiaofeng well and his professionalism was beyond question...

Given the past between Fu Xiaofeng and Brother Wang, it's understandable that he harbors resentment towards Brother Wang.

So Song You never advised him to let go of his resentment—because Wang Ge caused him to be cyberbullied, shouldn't he be allowed to feel unhappy?
Anyway, Fu Xiaofeng's performance in the national team was not affected by this, so what right do others have to criticize him?

So when Fu Xiaofeng spoke ill of Brother Wang in front of him, Song You let him talk and didn't try to shut him up.

But now, he's starting to worry about his friend.

Regardless of whether the Chinese team can achieve its goal of winning the championship—he himself believes it's highly unlikely—as long as the team makes it to the quarterfinals, that would be a success in setting that goal. Perhaps the Football Association and head coach He also think this way—the national team is clearly aiming for the World Cup, and Coach He has stated that anyone unwilling to work towards this goal will not be called up to the national team.

If Fu Xiaofeng continues to outwardly comply with Brother Wang while inwardly resisting him, he might incur the wrath of Instructor He...

He's worried that before next year's World Cup, Fu Xiaofeng might be "optimized" out by Coach He because he can't see the situation clearly, which would be a huge problem!

This is why he keeps mentioning Brother Wang to Fu Xiaofeng lately—he rarely mentioned him before, because he knew Fu Xiaofeng didn't like it.

But now, even if Fu Xiaofeng doesn't like it, he has to bring it up.

For example, after learning that Fu Xiaofeng's limited edition skin and Tyne were assigned to the same group, why did Song You specifically say that Brother Wang was lucky for him?
The intention was to subtly remind Fu Xiaofeng not to be too stubborn and to fail to see the bigger picture.

Given Wang Ge's current form, he has returned to his peak performance in the national team, where he was once all-powerful and dominant.

If you insist on going against someone like Brother Wang, you're going against the current trend. Isn't that like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, just asking for trouble?
But Song You really didn't know how else to persuade Fu Xiaofeng besides this subtle approach.

He understood his friend's temperament. Don't be fooled by his seemingly indifferent attitude; he's actually quite stubborn. Otherwise, how could he have been at odds with Brother Wang for so many years?

Anyone else would have simply smiled and let it go.

Fu Xiaofeng, however, chose to express his attitude through humor.

Song You guessed that Brother Wang could also sense Fu Xiaofeng's attitude towards him, but Brother Wang always had that stiff demeanor towards everyone, so he couldn't see that he was deliberately targeting Fu Xiaofeng.

Just as Song You was trying to persuade Fu Xiaofeng but didn't know how, they had already pulled their suitcases out of the terminal.

Song You asked Fu Xiaofeng, who was looking down at his phone, "Did you call a car?"

Fu Xiaofeng shook his head: "No, I thought you called..." Song You: "...Damn it!"

He was so distracted that he completely forgot he needed to call a taxi.

Of course, he couldn't say that, so he said, "I fucking thought you screamed..."

Fu Xiaofeng said to Song You, "Why don't you call me? I'm playing a game right now and it's inconvenient for me to switch out."

Song You took out his phone to call a car.

Just then, a black domestically produced MPV with a green license plate drove up from the front and stopped right in front of the two of them.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, the passenger window rolled down, and Chi Zhen leaned out and waved to the two men: "See, I told you it was Brother Song and Brother Xiaofeng!"

Song You was stunned—he never expected to run into his national team teammates here!
Fu Xiaofeng was also a little confused—he didn't expect to see a familiar face when he looked up after hearing the voice.

Chi Zhen seemed quite excited to see the two of them: "Get in the car, let's go together!"

Before the words were even finished, the MPV's power rear door had already opened.

The two of them came to their senses and went to the back to put the boxes away.

They wouldn't mind hitching a ride.

The driver also got out of the driver's seat and went around to the back of the car to help the two put their luggage in.

After handing the box to the driver, the two of them turned back. The sliding door was already open, and a person got out of the car—it was Feng Qiyuan.

Fu Xiaofeng was a little surprised to see him, but still teased, "Wow, you two even got a 5.9-meter-long extended Jeep Glorious, quite the show-off..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Wang Lie sitting in the second row, towards the inside.

Song You was behind him, his view blocked. Because Fu Xiaofeng suddenly stopped, he almost bumped into him, so he complained, "Damn it, why did you stop?"

As he spoke, he also peeked inside, his gaze passing over Fu Xiaofeng's shoulder, and he saw Wang Lie sitting in the second row.

Unlike Fu Xiaofeng, who stood frozen in place, he burst out laughing: "Ha! Captain Wang!"

※※※

The all-electric MPV cruised quietly on the road, its soft yet resilient suspension supporting the cabin as if it were floating on the road, providing a smooth and comfortable ride. Even sitting in the third row, there was no discomfort.

Song You turned his head to look at Fu Xiaofeng sitting next to him; he seemed to still be in a daze.

But Song You was very happy, visibly happy – his smile was right on his face.

He asked Wang Lie with a smile, "Captain Wang, how did the three of you get together?"

Before Wang Lie could speak, Feng Qiyuan, who was also sitting in the second row, explained, "Captain Wang told us to go together."

Chi Zhen, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, also turned his head and raised his voice, saying, "Captain Wang got a private jet!"

Song You was startled: "A private jet?"

Wang Lie then explained, "I didn't do it; the club did it for me."

Chi Zhen added, "Tyne is incredibly extravagant! He said he wanted to reduce the travel fatigue for Captain Wang on his way to and from the national team matches and ensure he could get enough rest, so he arranged a private jet for him to fly directly from Newcastle to Jincheng, the venue for our match!"

Song You was dumbfounded.

Fu Xiaofeng, who was sitting next to him, also twitched the corners of his mouth.

Feng Qiyuan continued, "So Brother Wang told me and Ah Zhen to go to Newcastle to catch a plane."

Wang Lie said, "Anyway, it's fine if I sit alone, but it doesn't matter if two more people sit. I'll just ask them to sit together."

Feng Qiyuan nodded: "Taking a private jet is indeed much more comfortable than taking a commercial flight. At least I can lie completely flat on the plane."

Feng Qiyuan is 1.88 meters tall, so unless it's a very nice first-class cabin, it's not easy for him to lie completely flat...

Song You asked curiously, "Captain Wang, you let your competitors in the league enjoy the special treatment that the club gives you, and the club agreed to that?"

Before Wang Lie could speak, Feng Qiyuan gave a wry smile: "Brother Song, you can't be so rude..."

Song You hadn't reacted yet: "Huh? I didn't..."

Chi Zhen, who was at the front, shouted, "We just lost to Captain Wang!"

Song You suddenly realized—to Tyne, they were just two defeated opponents, nothing to fear!
Then he looked at the 5.95-meter-long luxury MPV he was in. The distance from the first row to the third row was so great that Chi Zhen, who was sitting in the front row, had to shout to talk to them...

A thought popped into his head, and he asked, "This car... could it have been found for Captain Wang by the club too?"

Chi Zhen and Feng Qiyuan remained silent this time, but both turned their gazes toward Wang Lie.

Wang Lie nodded: "Yes. The club has arranged everything for me, from picking me up to dropping me off at the airport."

Song You was stunned for a moment, then sighed deeply: "Truly outrageously extravagant..."

※※※

Team leader Shen Dongsheng waited at the hotel lobby entrance to welcome the national team players who had arrived to report for duty. Along with him were various media reporters and enthusiastic fans.

This match against Iran is the last home game for the Chinese team in this World Cup qualifier.

Therefore, there were a lot of reporters and fans waiting outside the hotel to watch the national team players.

Both the hotel and the police have increased security personnel to maintain order.

Every Chinese player who arrived previously received a warm welcome.

Although the crowd was so large that fans couldn't get close to the players for photos or autographs, their enthusiasm remained undiminished.

If the Chinese team can defeat Iran at home, they will secure their place in the World Cup finals with one round to spare.

So these fans aren't just cheering for the national team players; they're also looking forward to the World Cup.

Amidst the enthusiastic atmosphere, a black MPV slowly drove up.

This imposing top-of-the-line luxury van attracted the attention of everyone present.

Everyone was speculating about who the newcomer was.

Because the national team players who arrived before all took taxis, and the best cars they could get were luxury cars from ride-hailing services, which were in the "56E" class (BMW 5 Series, Audi A6L, Mercedes-Benz E-Class) of the BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi) brands.

But the car in front of us is a domestically produced luxury business van priced at over 1.5 million yuan, definitely not one you can get by taking a ride-hailing service...

Shen Dongsheng frowned slightly as he saw the car approaching the lobby entrance—which national team player is being so high-profile? Isn't that a bit too ostentatious?

While the national team players' income certainly isn't insufficient to afford such vehicles, their high-profile use during national team matches inevitably worries team leader Shen Dongsheng, as it could potentially generate negative public opinion.

He quickly glanced toward where the media reporters were gathered, and sure enough, some reporters had already pointed their cameras at the van, their faces showing an excited "the more the merrier" expression.

As an experienced national team leader, seeing the reporters' expressions, he immediately sensed something was wrong...

Then he glared fiercely at the car, wanting to see which fool dared to openly flaunt his wealth in a national team setting!
As the car drew closer, he was able to see the person sitting in the passenger seat through the windshield.

It is Chi Zhen.

This surprised Shen Dongsheng—Chi Zhen wasn't usually such a high-profile and flamboyant person!

The reporters also saw it and pressed the shutter of their cameras, causing a burst of flashes that made Chi Zhen's face inside the car appear even whiter...

The fans were also whispering and discussing among themselves.

Some of Chi Zhen's shills had already taken out their phones and excitedly captured the scene.

In about ten minutes, videos and pictures of Chi Zhen arriving at the national team in an ultra-luxury car will be all over the internet...

Under the barrage of flashing lights, the car remained steady. The driver, dressed in a suit, sunglasses, and white gloves, was the first to open the door and get out. Ignoring the situation, he professionally headed straight for the back door to retrieve the luggage.

Then the sliding door opened, and Feng Qiyuan bent down and crawled out of the car.

The flashes of light were still coming in one after another.

Shen Dongsheng felt like the sky had fallen—Feng Qiyuan had done it too?!

Following closely behind Feng Qiyuan were Song You and Fu Xiaofeng.

Shen Dongsheng was already filled with question marks:
What's going on? How did all four of them get here together? What is this? Are they thinking they can get away with it because there are so many of them?

Finally, the other car door slid open, and Wang Lie got out of the car.

Upon seeing Wang Lie, Shen Dongsheng's eyes immediately regained their clarity:

Oh, it's Wang Lie. It's alright then.

(End of this chapter)