Chapter 1 Not on the List

There was a youth team game on Sunday, but it had nothing to do with Zhou Yi and Mark. Because they weren't even on the final list of players.

Since it was an away game, they didn't need to follow the team to the away venue. They would just be watching from the stands anyway, and the trip would be tiring.

Mark seemed used to not being selected for the matchday squad. He slept in at home, not getting up until almost eleven o'clock.

Zhou Yi, on the other hand, had the club move his language teacher from the evening to the afternoon, so he could have an extra hour of lessons.

Since he didn't have to train or play, he might as well study German.

The German teacher was very satisfied with Zhou Yi's progress. Originally, the club had arranged for him to have two lessons a week, but at Zhou Yi's strong request, it became a daily class. The teacher was naturally happy to do so, because he was paid by the hour, and the more time he spent teaching, the more he earned.

Every teacher likes students who are motivated and eager to learn, whether in China or Germany.

After finishing today's lesson, the teacher praised Zhou Yi's attitude and speed of progress: "I think it won't be long before you won't need me to teach you anymore."

Zhou Yi said, "It's not that I have any complaints about you, teacher, but I hope I won't need to have any more lessons tomorrow!"

The teacher laughed. "If you just want to learn the most basic everyday conversation, then I really don't need to come tomorrow. But if you want to study in depth so that you can have fluent conversations with people from all walks of life in the future, then I'll have to come tomorrow."

Zhou Yi thought for a moment, "Then please come tomorrow!"

The teacher clapped his hands and laughed, "See you tomorrow, Zhou Yi!"

"See you tomorrow, teacher..." Zhou Yi replied somewhat dejectedly.

As soon as the teacher left, Mark came to his room for a visit: "Pro Evolution Soccer?"

"Come on!" Zhou Yi wouldn't easily refuse to play games anyway. "I'll teach you a lesson!"

"Tch! Who's going to teach who!" Mark retorted.

The two of them sat in front of the TV in Mark's bedroom and started playing. Mark, as usual, chose Borussia Dortmund, while Zhou Yi chose Barcelona.

He felt that when he played games, he would read the game and think about how to play each attack, just like when he was really playing a match.

And Barcelona's style was indeed more suitable for his style of play, so he usually chose Barcelona.

At first, Mark thought he was a Barcelona fan. But Zhou Yi told him that he was very broad-minded and could love both Barca and Real Madrid, and Dortmund and Bayern could also be paired up.

Mark couldn't understand Zhou Yi's broad-mindedness. He himself was a die-hard Dortmund fan, so he could never accept Bayern Munich.

He asked Zhou Yi if all Chinese fans were like this. Zhou Yi quickly shook his head and told him very seriously that in China, there were Dortmund fans who were even more fanatical than Mark, and there were also Barcelona fans who were even more like the Catalans than the Catalans themselves.

The two played games and chatted, and Zhou Yi treated it as spoken language training.

As they were chatting, when Zhou Yi was controlling the ball in front of his own penalty area, Mark suddenly said, "By the way, I heard that Götze is going back to the U19s again. It's useless to train with the first team if you can't play."

Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment, and that moment of distraction allowed Mark to steal the ball from his feet and break into the penalty area!

However, Zhou Yi's reaction speed was also very fast, and he immediately switched to a defensive player and made a ruthless flying tackle from behind!

The whistle blew, and Şahin, controlled by Mark, fell in the penalty area! Penalty!

"Penalty and a red card!" Mark waved his arm excitedly.

In the game, Marcos, the Barcelona defender controlling the tackle, was indeed sent off by the referee with a red card.

"Don't be happy too soon." Zhou Yi hummed, while pressing the controller close to his body so that Mark couldn't see it.

Mark also hid the controller on the other side of his body, twisting his body to take the penalty, while staring nervously at the TV screen.

He was so focused that he didn't notice Zhou Yi was glancing at him out of the corner of his eye.

Just as Mark was about to press the shoot button, Zhou Yi suddenly said, "Mark, do you want to be a starter?"

Mark's right thumb pressed on the shoot button and didn't let go...

Şahin, who he controlled, kicked the ball away!

And the goalkeeper controlled by Zhou Yi stood in the middle, without moving.

"You cheated!" Mark turned his head to glare at Zhou Yi.

But Zhou Yi stared at Mark with a serious expression, and asked in a very serious tone: "No, I just suddenly thought of this. You see, they've all gone to play today, but neither of us is even on the list. It's okay for me not to be on the list, after all, I've only been with the team for a week, but you, you've been training in Borussia Dortmund's youth team since you were seven years old, passing through each level and eliminating how many competitors to be in this team? Why aren't you on the list either?"

Zhou Yi's words stunned Mark, and then he fell silent.

After a moment of silence, he said in a low voice, "I think my strength hasn't reached the coach's requirements for the game..."

"You're right. Just like this penalty just now, I just asked you a question, and your hand trembled so much that you couldn't kick it well. You're a striker, how can you seize opportunities in front of the goal with this kind of mental fortitude?"

"You're right, Zhou Yi..." Mark said dejectedly, feeling that Zhou Yi's words were hitting the nail on the head.

"But a lack of strength can be improved through training." Zhou Yi said. "The key is not strength, but your own inner thoughts. That's what I asked before, do you really want to be a starter and play in the game?"

He looked directly at Mark.

"Nonsense! I dream about it!" Under Zhou Yi's gaze and questioning, Mark suddenly became excited. "I dream of wearing the Borussia Dortmund jersey and playing in the league and Champions League with the first team! I dream of holding up the league championship trophy and the Champions League trophy in the Borussia Dortmund jersey! My sister thinks I'm not suitable to be a player and doesn't want me to go down this path, but I want to prove to her that I can! I can do it!"

Zhou Yi didn't expect that the reason he casually gave to distract Mark from taking the penalty would cause such a big reaction from Mark. But although he was surprised in his heart, Zhou Yi was able to maintain his composure on the surface. He still said seriously:

"If you just say that you want it very much, it doesn't mean anything. My mother once told me that when it comes to dreams and ideals, talking is the easiest and least costly thing to do. But if you really want to realize your dreams, then you have to really go all out. In fact, you have the ability to play as a starter. Compared with Schneider, although your physical qualities are not as good as his, you have your advantages. But have you really gone all out for your dreams in the past few years? Think about it carefully. I won't bother you anymore."

After saying that, Zhou Yi patted Mark on the shoulder, put down the controller, got up, and left the room.

He walked away a little quickly, but Mark, who was looking down, didn't notice.

He was afraid that Mark would come back to his senses—usually, even when the lineup is complete, I can only fight Mark to a standstill. Now, although the penalty wasn't scored, my starting center-back was sent off, and there's one less person on the field. How can I play this game?!

※※※

Zhou Yi returned to his room and waited for a long time, but Mark didn't come back to his senses and angrily smash his door. When he ate dinner, he also found that Mark was a little absent-minded and often spaced out. Even Mark's parents felt that their son's performance was a little strange today. They asked Mark caringly what was wrong, but Mark used "tired" as an excuse.

But anyone could see that it was an excuse. He didn't go to the game and just played at home all day. How could he be tired?

Could it be that he was tired from playing too many games?

Zhou Yi didn't get involved, but he of course knew why Mark was acting strangely.

What surprised him was—they all said that Germans had a long reaction time, and it would take them until midnight to laugh at a joke they heard in the morning, but Mark's reaction time was too long, right? Hasn't he realized yet that I was just making an excuse to fool him at the time?

Faced with such a simple Mark, Zhou Yi rarely felt a little guilty. It was really deceiving people's feelings...

※※※

The next day, when Zhou Yi and Mark were sitting in his father's car to the Brackel training base, Zhou Yi could feel that Mark, who was sitting next to him, kept wanting to say something, but he probably wasn't comfortable talking because his father was in the car, so he held back.

After his father dropped them off at the entrance of the training base and drove away, Mark grabbed Zhou Yi's arm, as eagerly as a person about to drown grabs a lifebuoy.

"You said, what are my advantages?!"

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes: "You've been thinking about this question all night?"

"Of course! This is very important!" Mark glared, "I don't even know what my advantages are!"

Faced with such a simple Mark, Zhou Yi was speechless: "You don't know what your advantages are, so how did you get from the youth team to the youth team all the way?"

"Isn't that natural? When you reach a certain age, you move up a level, from U9 to U11, U11 to U13, U13 to U15... and so on all the way to U17." Mark was curious as to why Zhou Yi would ask this.

Zhou Yi made a helpless expression: "Then didn't you think carefully about how many of your teammates who were originally in the U9 team are still in the U17 now?"

Faced with Zhou Yi's question, Mark was stunned on the spot, unable to react for a long time.

Just when Zhou Yi thought his brain had stopped responding and crashed, Mark said with a lost and jealous expression: "It seems... that I'm the only one left. Originally, Schneider and I were together, but now he's in the U19..."

"So, why are you still in the U17? Haven't you thought about the reason?"

"I think it's because I'm not outstanding, but I'm not the worst, either..."

"Idiot! That's because you're better than those who were eliminated!"

"I... am I really that good?!" Mark said in surprise.

Zhou Yi helplessly supported Mark's shoulders and said, "I think you have a clear understanding of yourself, Mark. Your brain is really not made for studying..."

"I knew it... no, just tell me what my advantages are! I just want to know where I'm stronger than others!" Mark, who was aroused by Zhou Yi's interest, was obsessed with his own advantages.

In fact, when Zhou Yi said that Mark had advantages that others couldn't compare to, it was what he said when he had to find a reason to justify his words at the time. He didn't expect Mark to have any advantages at all at the time.

But now that Mark asked him so persistently, Zhou Yi remembered Mark's attributes that he saw in the system.

The two attributes that were obviously higher than those of his other teammates of the same age.

Tactical awareness and positioning.

Those are really his advantages...

So Zhou Yi said, "As a striker, your accurate positioning in the penalty area is your advantage. In addition, your tactical awareness and tactical discipline are also very good. This is where you are stronger than others, especially Schneider."

The last sentence seemed to shock Mark. After listening to what Zhou Yi said, he froze on the spot without moving.

Zhou Yi was afraid that Mark would pull him again to ask more detailed questions, such as "How do you know my positioning is accurate?" "How do you know my tactical awareness and tactical discipline are better?"... So he quickly took advantage of Mark's stunned moment to slip away, and ran directly to the U17 dressing room.

And behind him, Mark was still in a "not responding" state, completely unaware that Zhou Yi had already "abandoned him"...