Hate is definitely one of the main driving forces behind humanity's constant progress. When a person has hate as a motivation, they can endure decades of hardship, working hard to improve themselves, all for the sake of revenge.

Just like Napoli, in order to take revenge on Barcelona, they were able to emerge from the group of death without Chen Yingxiong, and then fought their way through, defeating Lyon, Inter Milan, and Manchester United, all because Barcelona was waiting for them in the final.

Now, Hernández García Pérez has the same idea.

With hate as his driving force, no matter how hard or tiring it is, he doesn't feel it, just to disgust Chen Yingxiong and create internal strife in Napoli. That way, when the final comes, they will definitely be overwhelmed. Want to defeat Barcelona? Hmph, dream on!

Reporter Pérez smugly congratulated himself on his plan.

What a great way to kill two birds with one stone!

With this idea, he was even more motivated to dig up this clue.

Soon, he really dug up some "inside information"...

Liverpool's new owner is a British Chinese man named Chen Xing, and Liverpool's new general manager, Niang. Lu, is an Italian Chinese. Chen Yingxiong is Chinese. Is there any connection between them?

Keep digging, dig deep. In order to dig up enough inside information, he even extended his reach beyond his professional field to the entertainment and economic circles.

He investigated Chen Xing's background and found that he was the next head of a very powerful Chinese family in the UK. The family was incredibly wealthy, holding important positions in the gambling and hotel industries in the UK, France, Italy, and Spain. However, they were relatively low-key, with not much visible on the surface, and very little news coverage. In fact, many people didn't even know that those famous gambling companies and hotels were owned by this family.

Since he couldn't find anything on the surface, he asked his journalist friends in the economic circle to investigate.

Continuing the investigation, they discovered that Chen Xing had gone to Toulouse, France in December 2009 to reorganize the family's business there.

Because he had been collecting all kinds of information about Chen Yingxiong, all of that had been memorized by this well-informed reporter.

So when he saw this time, another piece of news immediately popped into his mind—he remembered that Chen Yingxiong spent his Christmas holiday in Toulouse, France in 2009... This wasn't a secret; many newspapers reported it at the time. Where celebrities go on vacation is, of course, something fans care about, and if fans care, reporters certainly care too.

What's the connection between these two?

His mind raced, and he immediately thought of something.

Two Chinese people—he couldn't distinguish between British Chinese and Chinese people; he only knew that these two people were both yellow-skinned, black-haired, and black-eyed Orientals. Maybe he even considered Japanese, Korean, and Chinese people to be one group...

These two Chinese people were in the same city, at the same time... To say that there was no connection between them would be too much of a coincidence, wouldn't it?

Even if there really isn't, can't I just make up a connection?

What followed was simple.

Soon, Pérez wrote a news article of about three thousand words. It wasn't long, but it contained a lot of information. Everything that needed to be said was said, and what shouldn't be said... was also hinted at subtly.

Anyway, the gist was that the Liverpool coach personally admitted that they had reached an agreement with Napoli, and Chen Yingxiong was definitely going to join Liverpool after this season. As for why he chose Liverpool, the reason was simple: Chen Yingxiong and Liverpool's new chairman, Chen Xing, are friends! Out of friendship, agreeing to join Liverpool isn't a big deal. And who knows how many benefits Liverpool secretly promised Chen Yingxiong and his agent? The salary would definitely be high, certainly higher than his current salary at Napoli.

As for anything more, he didn't know! After all, it was an agreement reached privately between the two clubs. I've already been very capable to dig up this much. You can guess the rest, or go to the two clubs to confirm it yourself!

In order to show that he was definitely not trying to undermine Chen Yingxiong's form or disrupt Napoli's preparations for the Champions League final, he even fabricated a "well-informed anonymous source." Everything was seamless.

However, when the editor-in-chief of *Diario Sport* saw this draft, he knew exactly what Pérez was up to. Even if he didn't have such intentions, once this draft was published and promoted, it would create that kind of effect.

This really is a good opportunity to strike a blow against Napoli—don't think reporters can't do things like that. They are happy to strike at their opponents. For example, Barcelona's media often reports "Real Madrid dressing room conflicts," while Madrid's media likes to publicize rumors about Barcelona players' scandals. Anyway, using public opinion to interfere with and strike at opponents is definitely not something new for Barcelona's media, especially *Diario Sport*, the mouthpiece of Barcelona Football Club. They are very skilled at doing this, and they have no psychological burden.

With a stroke of the pen, he said, "Publish!"

※※※

Chen Xing slammed the newspaper in his hand onto his desk.

"These Catalan bastards! They're targeting me now, using me as a pawn?! Damn your entire family, ancestors for eighteen generations!"

He was really, really angry.

Because Liverpool's secret deal with Napoli had been exposed by the Catalan media and was being hyped up. What if this caused increased pressure on Napoli and they cancelled the deal?

In his opinion, Chen Yingxiong was the most important figure for Liverpool to regain its former glory. If Chen Yingxiong couldn't come, all the previous work would be in vain!

But the Catalan media actually exposed this matter in order to attack their Champions League final opponent, giving him the feeling of "Damn it, I'm getting shot even while lying down!"

The newspaper he slammed, of course, wasn't *Diario Sport*; it was *The Sun*. The most influential and widely read newspaper in England devoted an entire page to reporting this news, which shows how much this matter has been hyped up now. Maybe things are already in an uproar in Italy...

Logically speaking, when the local Liverpool media broke this news before, no one paid attention to it. Why is it that when foreign media reports it, the English media is so concerned?

This has to be attributed to the "foreign monks chant better sutras" mentality. The local Liverpool media has little influence, while *Diario Sport*, as the mouthpiece of Barcelona Football Club, has a great deal of influence... They said so, so it can't just be speculation, right? They must have some evidence to dare to promote it so grandly, right?

Moreover, Hernández García Pérez's article was written eloquently, with sufficient evidence and a clear argument, so that people couldn't help but nod in agreement and believe it after reading it.

Just then, Chen Xing's phone rang.

The caller was Niang. According to plan, he was supposed to fly to Naples tomorrow to reach an agreement with Napoli and then talk to Chen Yingxiong's agent about his personal contract.

But now that this has happened, he hesitated. People over there are already rumored to be saying that Liverpool and Chen Yingxiong are in cahoots. Wouldn't going there confirm the rumors? This is going to draw all the hatred and firepower to Liverpool...

"Am I still going to Naples tomorrow?"

"Go!" Chen Xing gritted his teeth. He was afraid that things would drag on. Not only did he have to go, but he had to go immediately. He didn't know what the situation was like in Italy. If things hadn't gotten out of hand yet, or if the pressure on Napoli wasn't too great, then they should quickly sign the preliminary agreement. As long as they signed, they wouldn't have to worry about Napoli going back on their word...

"Don't wait until tomorrow, Niang, go to Naples right away! You were the one who leaked this to Dalglish, so you have to handle this beautifully for me!"

What could Niang say when the boss had said so? As Chen Xing's longtime classmate and friend, he knew Chen Xing's temper very well. He usually seemed like a gentle person who joked around easily. But when he got serious, he could be very intimidating, which probably had something to do with his years of training in the family business...

Just as he hung up Niang's phone, the bell rang again. This time it was the office phone on the desk, an internal line, and it was the club's press officer, Crichton, calling: "Mr. Chairman, several media outlets have called the club to inquire about the matter between us and Chen Yingxiong..."

Chen Xing's head was spinning. These media outlets were simply sharks that had smelled blood!

"Tell them that Liverpool Football Club officially knows nothing about this matter and has no comment." Before he had really signed Chen Yingxiong, he didn't want to add fuel to the fire...

※※※

Chen Xing was worried that there would be too much pressure on Napoli and that the fans would have some extreme reactions. This worry was very justified.

Because the trouble between Chen Yingxiong and Napoli had already begun.

After being reprinted by the Italian media, the Barcelona media's report had made the entire Naples area aware that Chen Yingxiong was very close to joining Premier League giants Liverpool.

However, Chen Yingxiong first learned that this matter had been exposed not through the media, but through a phone call from Škrtel...

"Hey Hero, are you really coming to Liverpool?" Škrtel's tone revealed surprise and joy.

Chen Yingxiong was baffled, but he didn't deny it: "Who did you hear that from, Martin?"

"The English media has been hyping this up since yesterday! I heard it's true?"

Although he didn't know why this matter had been exposed, Chen Yingxiong didn't pretend to be ignorant in front of his good friend: "If nothing goes wrong, it should be like that, Martin. However, it seems that something unexpected has happened..."