You're my wife, don't doubt it!

"Li Ming pushed with his left foot,"

"When Li Ming shot that ball, his body was almost off balance,"

"Yes, but he concentrated all that feeling in his left foot..."

"So his ball control is excellent, and his ball speed is extremely fast!"

Seeing that the Chinese team had finally equalized the score, the atmosphere in the bar naturally changed dramatically in an instant.

A deafening roar of excitement and joy erupted as the righteous heroes waved the national flag, the crowd embraced one another, and some even broke into street dance.

Seeing everyone celebrating, Xiao Yao worried that some clueless man might run over and hug Shen Jie (he did see strange men and women embracing), so he had no choice but to grab her first, pulling her close and jumping up and down.

"Jump!" Xiao Yao whispered in Shen Jie's ear.

"Ooh ooh ooh~~~" Shen Jie also jumped up and down.

Beer glasses were raised high, clinking together with a resounding thud, as if celebrating the Chinese team's goal. Some fans shed tears, their faces beaming with pride and joy—the entire bar instantly transformed into a celebratory fortress, filled with unity and camaraderie.

"Is it really necessary for you guys?" Xiao Yao thought. "Why do this after we've already won?"

Some relatively rational fans simply breathed a sigh of relief, as the previous tension had finally been relieved.

Xiao Yao ordered a non-iced beer for himself and Shen Jie.

In the next match, the Hebei team created another opportunity for themselves.

"Return the message to Jia Diliang."

"Kachi Akira, it's time to pass the message."

"Zheng Zhi of the Chinese team, that was a very good spot..."

"That pass was dangerous!"

"To relieve the siege."

"The one with the ball is Zheng Zhi."

"The player and the ball have passed each other, and the ball is moving very fast! They're still racing against time!"

"Good shot! Great shot!"

"Zheng Zhi is watching! Pass it on again!"

"There's more! Attack!"

As the kick flew away, a chorus of boos erupted in the bar.

"...corner kick that hits the opponent's body."

"Zheng Zhi's long-distance run was truly..."

"Oh dear! Zheng Zhi must have run nearly... several hundred meters?"

"It's 80 meters, at least 80 meters, at least 80 meters."

The live broadcast camera cut to the face of Hebei China Fortune's head coach, Arie Haan, who was grimacing, his hands outstretched, looking as if he were in excruciating pain.

Xiao Yao then began to feel extremely bored.

Watching a football match where the outcome, score, and even the detailed plot of each segment are already known can be quite boring.

Bored because of his high vantage point, Xiao Yao began to turn his head and observe the expressions on the faces of everyone in the bar.

A face was pressed against the glass back door of the bar, the nose almost deformed. This reminded Xiao Yao of Teacher Yao in heaven and Teacher Song in hell. In short, all homeroom teachers liked to stick their faces on the back door glass of the classroom...

and many more? !

There's a face stuck to the glass back door of the bar?

This startled Xiao Yao so much that his heart seemed to stop for half a second. The slight intoxication from drinking beer vanished instantly, and even his slightly blocked nostrils became completely clear.

He closed his eyes tightly for a couple of moments, then opened them again and rubbed them. But there was no face on the glass of the bar's back door.

"It must be a hallucination," Xiao Yao thought.

impossible.

He stood up with a livid face, not bothering to greet Shen Jie or anyone else, and chased after her.

It started raining lightly outside, and visibility was very poor at night.

However, there were very few pedestrians on the road.

Xiao Yao immediately spotted the short, dark figure, wearing a raincoat, with his back to him, hurrying along... or rather, walking quickly, about to disappear around the corner at the end of the road.

Xiao Yao started running in the rain, shouting as he ran, "Zhang Zhengkai!!"

The short man didn't turn around, but ran off completely, disappearing around the corner in just a few seconds.

Xiao Yao used Yu Luying's speed boost to catch up.

As mentioned before, the rain wasn't too heavy, but if you actually ran through it without rain gear, you'd find that it wasn't actually that light.

The rain slowly soaked through Xiao Yao's clothes, but he didn't care, quickening his pace to catch up with the small, dark figure. The boy's heart raced, a sense of tension and excitement enveloping him.

Through the rain, Xiao Yao's eyes widened as he focused on the chase.

His steps were steady and resolute, each step swiftly cutting through the rain, pulling him closer to his goal.

"Zhang Zhengkai! Stop!" Xiao Yao roared again, his voice echoing in the night rain.

However, the short man didn't seem to have any intention of stopping; he just quickened his pace even more.

If it were just a straight line on flat ground, there would be no way he couldn't catch up with his target. But the kid darted into the alley, making all sorts of turns and even climbing over the walls of dead ends, leaving Xiao Yao quite exhausted.

Xiao Yao felt himself getting closer and closer. He could see Zhang Zhengkai's back and hear his rapid breathing.

He knew that if he grabbed the other man's collar again, he could...

Just as Xiao Yao thought he was about to succeed, "Zhang Zhengkai" suddenly changed direction and rushed into another alley. Xiao Yao didn't have time to brake, and with all his might, he reached out at the last moment and almost grabbed the other man's collar.

However, "Zhang Zhengkai" abruptly slipped out of Xiao Yao's grasp, slipped into the night, and disappeared.

Xiao Yao grabbed at the air, and all that remained before him was darkness and rain.

He was panting heavily, realizing he was just a little short, just a little short of...

The rain continued to fall. Xiao Yao stood at the entrance of the alley, stunned for about ten seconds, then turned and slowly walked towards the bar.

By the time Xiao Yao returned to the bar, the first half had ended, the halftime break was over, and the second half of the game was already underway.

"Where did you run off to, my little cutie?" The cat mom greeted him with heartache, opened her arms and hugged Xiao Yao, then took out a wet wipe to wipe Xiao Yao's hair and cheeks.

"It's nothing," Xiao Yao said casually. "Just taking a walk and going to the restroom."

"Isn't there a restroom in the bar? We're taking a walk, in this heavy rain..." Shen Jie said.

Xiao Yao remained silent.

Seeing that he didn't seem too keen to talk about it, Mama Cat didn't press further: "Um... is it coming soon?"

"Which one?" Xiao Yao was still thinking about being spied on by Zhang Zhengkai (suspected) and didn't react for a moment.

"That... what... hand," Shen Jie whispered in Xiao Yao's ear.

“The Hand of God,” Xiao Yao nodded, “Ah, no, the Hand of God—damn, I’m used to saying it.”

The boy took out his phone and checked the time.

About 78 minutes have passed since the start of the match. Subtracting the 15-minute halftime break, that leaves about 63 minutes.

According to the intelligence Xiao Yao had gathered, around the 65th minute, after our goalkeeper saved a dangerous shot, the ball went out of bounds. The opposing team's Shunsuke Nakamura would take the corner kick, and Koji Nakata, lurking in front of the goal, would knock the ball into the Chinese net. However, slow-motion replays showed that Nakata used his right hand to score – an undeniable handball!

However, the referee, Sayed Kamil, ruled in favor of the referee!

This unfair goal broke the balance on the field, disrupted the national team's mentality, and crushed their morale.

In stoppage time, the Japanese team successfully broke the offside trap. Keiji Tamada received a pass from Shunsuke Nakamura, broke into the penalty area, dribbled past Liu Yunfei, and scored into an empty net.

Ultimately, the Chinese national football team will lose the match 1-3.

And this result was exactly the score that Shen Jie and Xiao Yao had just bet on with a large sum of money.

According to Shen Tianyun, this match can be considered the last glorious moment for the Chinese national football team, and it is the closest the team has come to winning the championship trophy until 2034.

none of them.

After being defeated by this "Hand of God" and finishing as runners-up in the 2004 Asian Cup, the Chinese national football team never recovered and has never achieved any decent results since.

The name of Kuwaiti referee Saeed Kamil has become something that millions of Chinese football fans remember fondly.

His treatment was comparable to that of Roman governor Pilate, and every week in every Mass around the world, all the believers would commemorate his glorious deeds of crucifying the old man Iesu.

As Xiao Yao was lost in thought, he suddenly felt his palm being gripped tightly by the cat's mother.

"They're here," the girl whispered to him.

Xiao Yao perked up.

Commentator A on TV: "Takayuki Suzuki is being interviewed."

Narrator B: "Danger!"

"Great shot! Liu Yunfei made a brilliant save, tipping the ball over the crossbar with one hand."

"Keiji Tamada did manage to get that ball."