Soccer: If they're using these kinds of cheats, what's the point of training?

The entire stadium was chanting this syllable.

Dujarric took off his headphones in the broadcast booth, clapped a few times, then put them back on and said, "Okay, I admit, this Chinese man is extraordinary. Not just 'extraordinary,' he's 'very special.'"

His jumping ability, strength, shooting technique, and positioning awareness—these are not qualities an 18-year-old player should possess; they are exactly the qualities of a top striker.

"And he's also very handsome," Bart added.

"Of course, that's important too," Dugarry smiled.

In the 72nd minute, the ball was out of play. Fernandez made a substitution – Zhang Kuang was replaced by Daniel Niculae.

Zhang Kuang jogged slowly towards the sidelines, and Fernandez reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

The audience erupted in applause.

It wasn't the kind of sporadic, polite applause; it was genuine, heartfelt, and heartfelt respect for a hero.

Twenty-four thousand people stood up and gave the 18-year-old Chinese boy the first applause of his professional career.

Zhang Kuang walked to the bench, took the towel handed to him by a staff member, wiped his face, and then sat down in a chair.

Twenty minutes later, the match ended with Auxerre defeating Boulogne 3-0. (Auxerre is also known as Boulogne; you can translate it however you like, just make sure you know it's this club.)

After exchanging jerseys, the Auxerre players circled the field to thank the fans.

After thanking the fans, just as everyone was about to leave in excitement, a staff member ran over to tell Zhang Kuang that he had won the MVP award and, because of his hat trick, he could take home one of the official match balls.

Zhang Kuang paused for a moment before breaking into a happy smile, but unfortunately, the Ligue 1 MVP did not receive a trophy or certificate, only a notification.

Of course, there was one official interview, in which a sexy girl held a microphone and a cameraman was pointing at him.

Reporter: "Zhang, how does it feel to score a hat trick in your debut?"

Zhang Kuang: "I'm very excited. Being able to help the team win proves that the club made the right decision in signing me."

Reporter: "How did you get signed by Auxerre?"

Zhang Yang said arrogantly, "I just went through the tryouts and used my abilities to show the coach and my teammates that I deserved to be signed by the team."

Reporter: "I heard you were a player for the Chinese U20 team, but you were expelled for fighting. What happened?"

Zhang Kuang held the ball and made a helpless expression: "That was a sad and painful past, as everyone knows. There are only so many positions on the team, but the competition is fierce."

So some people kept verbally attacking me, and even tried to break my leg and cripple me. You know, young people like us are like powder kegs, they'll explode at the slightest touch, so it's not surprising that fights broke out.

Reporter: "So what are your plans for the future?"

Zhang Kuang: "Plan? It's simple, just two things. First, help the club win the Ligue 1 title, and if possible, win the French Cup as well. Second, win the Golden Boot. As far as I know, Marseille's current top scorer, Mamadou Niane, has scored 15 goals. I'm 12 goals behind, but I'll work hard."

Reporter: "Wow, that's a great ambition. I wish you success, and thank you for your answer."

Arrogant: "You're welcome, goodbye."

After the interview, Zhang Kuang went into the locker room, while the head coach had already gone to the post-match press conference.

In the players' locker room, the teammates are celebrating.

Olic was spraying champagne all over the locker room, having somehow gotten his hands on it. Grihitin chased after him, Minho hid in the bathroom, and Pedretti sat in a corner, shaking his head and laughing.

Zhang Kuang pushed the door open and entered, and the entire locker room fell silent for a second.

Then Olic pointed the champagne at him.

"Celebrate our goal-scoring machine!"

Champagne sprayed all over Zhang Kuang's face.

"Hey!" Zhang laughed wildly and dodged, but everyone surrounded him, patting his shoulders, back, and head.

Humbert stepped out of the crowd and snatched something from Zhang Kuang—the match ball.

"Come on, have everyone sign it, and then you can keep it as a souvenir," Humbert said. "Your first hat trick should be in your hall of fame."

Zhang Kuang nodded, watching the players sign their names on the ball one by one.

The first hat trick.

There will be more in the future.

He looked up at the Auxerre team history photos hanging on the locker room wall—Guy Roux, Champions League qualification, French Cup champions.

"Alright," Pedretti stood up and clapped his hands, "this is just one victory. We still have 18 league games to play."

Next, everyone began to shower and change clothes.

Once inside the bathroom, Zhang Kuang opened the system.

The system interface appeared in my mind:

[3 goals: +3 points]

[Match MVP: +2 points]

[Current Qi and Blood Points: 142→147]

After the last stat boost, he had 43 points left. He also gained 99 points through dual cultivation over the past 12 days, and with the 5 points from this latest boost, his total Qi and Blood points reached 147.

Very good. He needs to accumulate Qi and Blood Points slowly. Not only does he need a lot of Qi and Blood Points for his ball skills, but he also needs to accumulate Qi and Blood Points for his cultivation realm. He closed his eyes and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

Although we are still far from the next goal, this is a good start.

---

At the post-match press conference, Fernandez smiled, a rare occurrence, when faced with reporters' questions.

"An arrogant performance?" He repeated the reporter's question, then shook his head. "To be honest, I didn't expect him to score three goals. I thought he might score, but I didn't expect it to be so fast, so many."

Do you think he's key to Auxerre's Champions League qualification this season?

Fernandez glanced at the reporter: "Champions League qualification? Sir, although we currently have 40 points and are ranked fifth, only 4 points behind Marseille at the top, we're not thinking about European qualification, we're thinking about the championship."

The reporters were astonished. Had this usually low-key coach suddenly become so aggressive? Was he aiming for the championship?

Then the reporters went crazy...

---

Zhang Kuang put the match ball into his bag, then took out his phone and sent a message to Aisha:

"A hat trick. I'll treat you to Chinese food tonight."

Three seconds later, Aisha replied:

"I saw it, the whole internet is talking about you. Tonight we won't eat dinner, we'll eat you."

Zhang laughed wildly as he put his phone away.

The flamboyant hat-trick has just begun to cause a stir in French football, but in China, the way the news spreads is somewhat unusual.

Saturday, January 16, 2010, late at night.

Beiping.

Li Xiang is an ordinary office worker and a long-time Beijing Guoan fan. This Saturday night, he didn't go out but instead stayed on the sofa in his rented apartment looking at his phone.

He usually likes to browse a forum called "Football Home," where many football enthusiasts like him gather. The forum is small, and the posts are not updated frequently, but it has a good atmosphere and doesn't have those messy arguments and flame wars.

Around 11 p.m., he came across a post on the forum with a title that consisted of only one line:

Holy crap! Anyone watching French football? The Chinese striker scored a hat-trick!

Li Xiang was stunned for a moment, subconsciously thinking that this was some kind of joke.

Ligue 1? Chinese striker?

He was about to close the thread when someone replied.

First floor: "Where did you watch that? Isn't CCTV5 broadcasting Serie A?"

Second floor: "OP, are you drunk? Where are there any Chinese players playing in Ligue 1 these days?"

Third floor: "Yeah, Auxerre signed someone a while ago, his name was something like Zhang... I forgot. But a hat-trick in his debut? That's just bragging!"

The poster quickly replied: "I'm not bragging! I watched it on a Taiwanese live streaming website. Auxerre beat Brendan 3-0, and that Chinese guy scored three goals! One header, one volley, and another header! Damn, that was awesome!"

Then there are links.

Li Xiang hesitated for a moment, then clicked on it.

It was a pirated live streaming website from overseas. The page was full of errors and pop-ups, but the video replays were still playable. The video quality was very blurry, probably no more than 480P, but you could still make out the jersey numbers.

33 number.

White jersey.

In the video, a tall Asian player is celebrating in the corner flag area, jumping up, turning around, and then swinging his arms back—"Siu!"

Li Xiang stared at the image for three seconds, then opened a search engine and typed in "Auxerre Chinese striker".

The result popped up.

Auxerre Football Club's official website, January 4th announcement:

[Auxerre Football Club is pleased to announce the official signing of Chinese striker Zhang Kuang, who will wear the number 33 jersey. The contract runs until June 2012...]

Li Xiang's fingers began to tremble.

He clicked on the comments under the news article, which were all in French, which he couldn't understand, but he saw one word—"hat-trick".

He didn't know French, but he knew the word.

hat trick.

"Damn it..." Li Xiang sat up straight on the sofa, his eyes fixed on the screen. "Damn it, damn it, damn it... Is this real?"

He reopened the video replay on the pirate website and dragged the progress bar to the 25th minute of the first half.

Olic crossed from the right, and number 33 jumped in the penalty area, towering over the defender by half a head, and headed the ball into the goal with a tomahawk-like header.

Then, in the 43rd minute of the first half, Pedretti chipped the ball over the goalkeeper, number 33, who volleyed it without stopping it at the edge of the box – the ball was so fast it was like a cannonball, and the goalkeeper didn’t even have time to react.

Then, in the 67th minute of the second half, a corner kick was taken, and number 33 rushed in from outside the penalty area, headed the ball into the top corner.

Three goals.

Three completely different ways.

After watching the video, Li Xiang remained silent for a full ten seconds, and then he did something that made him the center of a storm that night.

He clicked on the post box and started typing.

He wants to spread this news so that every Chinese football fan knows.

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