Chapter 2 The Next Day

The next day, Zhou Yi went out with his backpack. Cottana and Hanna were also heading out to school, and the three of them met at the door.

Hanna, seeing him, asked Zhou Yi, "I'll be watching your game on TV, Zhou Yi!"

"Didn't I say the chances of me playing are very small, Hanna?" Zhou Yi shook his head.

"It's fun watching you on the bench too! I also know a big star now!" Hanna was very excited.

"Hey, I'm still far from being a star..." Zhou Yi said modestly, but he was quite happy inside. Everyone likes to be praised and flattered.

Cottana saw through Zhou Yi's little thoughts. "Secretly pleased, aren't you?"

Zhou Yi quickly put on a straight face. "No way, I'm very sober!"

"Hehe." Cottana smiled and didn't say anything more.

※※※

Arriving at the training ground, Zhou Yi completed the day's training with the team, after which the whole team took a bus to the airport, planning to fly to the away game.

On the bus, Grosskreutz asked Zhou Yi, "Zhou Yi, is that all you're taking, just this little bag?"

"Yeah. We're just going for one day, just playing a game." Zhou Yi said.

"Even so, you should have a small suitcase. To pack some skin care products, facial cleanser, and stuff, and a few books... Do you read? If not, then a computer... Clothes, clothes are the most important. You should bring several sets of clothes..." Grosskreutz began to lecture Zhou Yi. "You're a public figure now, you'll often appear in front of fans and in the media's cameras, you have to pay attention to your clothes, don't just wear anything, otherwise the media will make fun of you. Didn't you get stopped outside the training base by security before because you were dressed like a fan?"

"What if you get stopped outside the stadium by the away team's security because you're dressed like a fan, and they don't let you in at all? Then, Zhou Yi, you'll have the honor of being the first player to be stopped from entering the stadium by the opposing team's security! Instantly making headlines in major media outlets!"

"But don't think that's a good thing, your personal image will be damaged, and your sponsors might reconsider the endorsement contracts they signed with you. Then the loss won't just be media reviews, but real money!"

Zhou Yi listened in stunned silence—he really hadn't paid much attention to his clothing before. His concept of dressing still remained in his student days: wear whatever you have, wear whatever is comfortable, and don't care about the style or brand of the clothes, let alone the price. He felt that clothes were just a piece of cloth, as long as they could cover the body and keep you warm.

But now Grosskreutz seemed to have opened a door to a new world for him. Letting him know that players' clothing was so important. He used to think that those news reports were just about players being vain and liking to dress up, he didn't expect that a person's personal image could have so many "uses."

Just when Zhou Yi was seriously considering whether he should go back and buy some new clothes, and then ask Hanna for advice... he heard Grosskreutz say again: "Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself, you don't really need to consider so much now, what kind of image does a benchwarmer need? You don't need one at all!"

Grosskreutz spread his hands and sighed, shaking his head.

"Da ye!" Zhou Yi blurted out in his native language.

"What did you say?" Grosskreutz didn't understand.

"Ah, it's a term of respect, a dialect from northern China. 'Da ye' means elder, it's used to express respect for a person. I'm saying it to thank you for explaining so much to me, Kevin." Zhou Yi seriously and earnestly made up a story.

But how could Grosskreutz understand Zhou Yi's nonsense? He didn't understand Chinese, he could only guess whether Zhou Yi was joking or telling the truth from Zhou Yi's expression. From Zhou Yi's upright expression, he naturally believed what Zhou Yi said.

"How do you say that word, Zhou Yi?" After being told this by Zhou Yi, Grosskreutz became particularly interested in this respectful term.

"Da ye." Zhou Yi repeated it, emphasizing the "da" sound, almost as if he were gritting his teeth.

"Dai nie?" Grosskreutz repeated.

"No, no, it's da ye!"

"Da nie?"

"Da ye!"

"Da ya?"

"Very close, but pay attention to emphasizing the first word, 'da,' when pronouncing it, this sound should be emphasized. Like this, 'Da' ye!" Zhou Yi showed Grosskreutz his mouth shape.

"Da! Ye."

"Hey, that's about right this time!"

Just like that, Zhou Yi kept saying "Da ye" to Grosskreutz over and over again, enjoying himself.

Grosskreutz finally learned it, and then on the bus, he stood up from his seat and excitedly announced to his teammates, "Everyone, everyone! I have a new nickname!"

Everyone was attracted by him and turned to look at him.

"From now on, don't call me 'Grosskreuz' anymore, please call me... 'Da ye'! I! 'Da ye' Grosskreutz!"

Sitting next to him, Zhou Yi lowered his head, resting his forehead on the back of the seat in front, not letting others see his silent, wild laughter...

He could already imagine the scene when everyone saw Grosskreutz and "cursed" him with "Da ye" in the future, that scene would be so beautiful...

※※※

It was Zhou Yi's first time going on an away game trip with the first team, but after experiencing it firsthand, he felt that it was no different from the pre-season training camp in Austria and Switzerland.

Moreover, Chinese people have been accustomed to living in groups since they were young, so Zhou Yi found it easy to adapt to this kind of semi-collective life.

Before the game, he was assigned a room with the team's striker, Lucas Barrios.

Because they had been in contact for more than a month during the training camp, Zhou Yi and Barrios weren't complete strangers, but they weren't close friends either. This was certainly not Zhou Yi's problem, but Barrios's, because Barrios was Paraguayan, spoke Spanish, and had a language barrier with his new teammates, which made him less likely to interact with others.

Until now, Barrios only knew some simple German conversation, which made his interactions with his new teammates not very close. This might also be one of the reasons why he hadn't scored in seven consecutive games.

But this wasn't a problem for Zhou Yi.

After entering the room with Barrios, Zhou Yi started speaking in German: "It's said that I snore in my sleep, although I've never heard it myself, but everyone who's shared a room with me says so, so you wouldn't mind if I snore, right?"

Barrios saw that Zhou Yi had said a lot, but he didn't understand much, he looked confused.

Seeing this, Zhou Yi directly simulated the sound of snoring, and also made a sleeping gesture.

As soon as Barrios saw this, he understood, and nodded in realization, shaking his head and saying, "No, I don't mind."

Zhou Yi nodded happily: "That's good, that's good. It wouldn't be good if you didn't get enough rest and it affected your performance, you're our main striker!"

This sentence was relatively simple, Barrios understood it, and when he heard the word "main," his face didn't look too good.

Zhou Yi also realized that he had said the wrong thing—even if he didn't pay attention to the difficulties Barrios was facing, he would have heard about them from many channels. A "main" striker who hadn't scored in seven consecutive games sounded like sarcasm no matter how you heard it.

So he quickly apologized: "Uh, sorry."

Barrios waved his hand: "It's okay, Zhou Yi. You don't need to apologize."

Zhou Yi scratched his head, he still wanted to say something, not saying anything would make the atmosphere a little awkward, but he didn't know what to say, it was best not to discuss this kind of topic in depth...

So he made an excuse to go out and find his teammates, and slipped out.

After going out, he breathed a sigh of relief—he could feel the temperature in the room drop by two degrees the moment he said "main striker." Barrios was surrounded by a cloud of black negative energy. Being in that kind of environment was really too depressing...

But you can't blame Barrios for this, anyone in his position would probably be driven crazy by the enormous pressure.

He came to the team in the summer as the team's most famous forward signing, costing the club 4.2 million euros, which was a big deal for Borussia Dortmund, which wasn't in very good financial shape.

The transfer fee of 4.2 million euros was Borussia Dortmund's biggest transfer this summer, a "honor" shared by Barrios and the main center-back Hummels.

And the transfer fees of the other players were basically not worth mentioning. Also a striker, Rangelov only cost one million euros to come to Borussia Dortmund.

Borussia Dortmund only made these three transfer deals that cost money all summer. The others were either promoted from the reserve team and youth team, such as Zhou Yi and Götze. Or they were free transfers, such as Grosskreutz. Or they used their own players to exchange with the other side, such as Sven Bender, who was exchanged for Rukavina with Munich 1860, and didn't cost a penny.

Since almost going bankrupt, Borussia Dortmund has been following a frugal financial policy, investing as little as possible in buying people.

So Barrios's 4.2 million euros was nothing at Bayern Munich, but at Borussia Dortmund it was already the most expensive transfer expenditure this summer.

Bearing such an expensive transfer fee, but not scoring in seven consecutive rounds... even if the team's performance was good, Barrios would be under tremendous pressure, not to mention that the team's performance wasn't good now, and Barrios had to take the blame for the team's poor performance.

Although he sympathized with Barrios, Zhou Yi couldn't help with this kind of thing, staying in the room would still be awkward, so it was better to be out of sight, out of mind...

※※※

ps, thanks to the alliance leader [Mu En], I wish you find your other half soon!