Chapter 261 Trouble Squad Reports (Part 2)

Yang Pan sat on Li Yongle’s apartment sofa, watching the kid pack. He had run in and out several times, and was still pacing back and forth in front of Yang Pan, chin in hand: "Hmm, what am I missing..."

Yang Pan yawned, "We're just going to play a couple of warm-up matches, and the training time is only a week. It's not like we're going on vacation. Why are you bringing so many game discs? Qiu-zhi said that playing games is okay, but other than the *Winning Eleven* (Pro Evolution Soccer) series on the PS2, you're not allowed to play anything else. Are you trying to go against the wind?"

Li Yongle blushed and had to dump all the game and movie discs out of his backpack. Yang Pan reached out and stopped him, then rummaged through the movie discs, "Bring more movie discs, there are still some good things... like this one." He held it up, and Li Yongle saw it was *Any Given Sunday*, directed by Oliver Stone and starring Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, and Dennis Quaid. A sports-themed movie about the National Football League, very intense.

"Oh, I've seen it, very exciting," Li Yongle pulled out a disc from the pile, "But I prefer this one." It was *Basic Instinct*, starring Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.

"Damn, you pervert!" Yang Pan cursed, "But you better not let Xiang Tao see it."

"Why? Isn't he not interested in this kind of movie?"

"Precisely because he's not interested, he'll scold you for not being classy enough. He's the kind of guy who doesn't even watch Category III films, he only watches porn. If you don't want to be looked down upon by that impure guy, don't let him see it."

Hearing Yang Pan say that, Li Yongle laughed too. He remembered the days when they were all in the National Olympic team, when they joked about someone together, and shed tears and sweat together for victory and defeat, such a wonderful past!

Yang Pan yawned again and casually threw the *Any Given Sunday* disc into Li Yongle's backpack: "Aren't you ready yet? Zhang Jun is almost in Milan!"

Li Yongle looked at the pile of game and movie discs—he had originally planned to bring them to Wang Yu—and shook his head: "There's nothing else to pack. When he arrives, we'll leave."

※※※

On the plane to Madrid, Spain, Zhang Jun and Li Yongle were sound asleep, but Yang Pan showed no signs of fatigue.

He knew that Qiu-zhi's blood transfusion this time was very large, greatly weakening the power of the old players, so how would they feel about the sudden influx of newcomers? Would they feel like they had lost power, feel marginalized?

And as the National Olympic team faction that had always been influenced by Qiu-zhi's thinking, they had always looked down on those "old guys."

The infighting between the two factions would definitely affect the unity within the national team, and in turn affect the team's performance.

It was okay for him, he could endure it. But someone like Xiang Tao, who dared to fight with Li Suisheng even when he had just entered the National Olympic team, what was he afraid of doing? He was afraid that as long as an old player provoked him, he would go berserk. Ah, and there was also the scatterbrained An Ke, and the "bad boy" Ke Lu, who came from the streets... none of them were easy to deal with. He and An Ke could still use their identities as former National Olympic team captains to suppress them, but Ke Lu was someone who didn't even give a damn about Qiu-zhi.

Qiu-zhi, how are you going to integrate this team? Yang Pan rubbed his temples, his head aching.

※※※

Qiu Suhui looked at the cup of coffee in front of him that had already gone cold, and then he realized that he had been sitting there blankly for more than half an hour.

Hu Li happened to push the door open and saw Qiu Suhui who had just woken up. "Still having a headache about the team's internal unity problem?" He looked at the coffee that was no longer steaming.

Qiu Suhui nodded, "What else could it be for? The most troublesome people are about to report in."

Hu Li knew who he was talking about. In the past two days, the team's training camp in Spain had already shown some bad signs. Because Qiu Suhui had been promoted from the National Olympic team coach, although he had been a national team assistant coach, the time was short, and there was always a sense of isolation from those old players, making them feel that Qiu Suhui would only favor the National Olympic team people, unable to make them believe him.

But fortunately, the young players who had been recruited from abroad were behaving relatively restrained because of their living environment. Hu Li had been on tenterhooks these past two days, passing them without any mishaps.

However, the group of people who were coming soon would be different. Because they were abroad, each of them had an outgoing personality, and their presence would inevitably intensify the conflict between the two factions in the team.

Plus a Ke Lu Li who was unfamiliar with both sides, couldn't even speak Chinese well, and didn't have much affection for China, that was a time bomb.

Tsk tsk, it looked like this training camp would be very lively. Hu Li shook his head secretly in his heart, no wonder Xiao Qiu was having such a headache.

"I know, I know. Actually, I expected this situation. Lao Hu, don't you think it's better for the two factions to be clearly divided than for several factions to be entangled together and unable to distinguish between friends and foes?" Qiu Suhui leaned back in the sofa and said to Hu Li, "What I'm having a headache about now is how to unite the two factions, even if it's just a temporary unity during the World Cup, even if it's just putting on a show."

"Hold meetings for them every day and talk about ideologies..."

"Just kill me, Lao Hu..." Qiu Suhui's posture on the sofa had changed from sitting to lying down. "I don't care anymore, there's a saying: when the car reaches the mountain, there will be a way; when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten. I think there should be a way when the time comes."

Hu Li looked at his watch, "It's almost time, do you want to go down and wait for them?"

Qiu Suhui also looked at his watch, "It should be almost at Torrejón Airport in Madrid, right? Well, let's wait a little longer before going down, there's nothing to do now anyway. Let me nap for a while, call me when you think it's about time, Lao Hu." He stretched comfortably in the sofa.

※※※

Yang Pan was surprised that the three of them would see An Ke, who was obviously waiting for them, at the exit of Torrejón Airport.

"Shouldn't you and Shao Jiayi have arrived earlier than us?" Yang Pan asked, handing a suitcase to An Ke.

"It's a coincidence, I just said that to Wang Hui half an hour ago." An Ke led the way, "The first to arrive were the five who played in England and Belgium, and Shao Jiayi and I arrived only ten minutes later than them. Then everyone met in the hall and decided to stay and wait for you, and then go to the hotel together."

"That's very thoughtful, let's go then, I guess Qiu-zhi can't wait any longer." Zhang Jun interjected from the side.

Yang Pan grinned, wait anxiously? He was probably having a headache!

※※※

For this match between the Chinese team and Spain, Real Madrid Club showed great enthusiasm, not only providing the hotel where the Chinese team was staying, but also giving the best training field in Real Madrid Sports City to the Chinese team for training.

This sports city was not the new sports city covering 1.1 million square meters in the northern suburbs of Madrid, but the old sports city covering only 100,000 square meters in the center of Madrid. The new sports city was still in its primary stage - with construction going on everywhere, it could not be used to host team training.

For Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez, he was based on further developing the Asian market. Then, if his team's training ground could become the Chinese team's training base, the Chinese media would inevitably mention Real Madrid's name in various reports, and would also introduce the facilities of Real Madrid Sports City in detail, not even letting the toilets off. This was undoubtedly a free promotion, further consolidating Real Madrid Club's position and reputation in the hearts of Chinese fans.

Three taxis stopped one after another at the entrance of the Hotel Meliá Fénix where they were staying. Zhang Jun and other players studying abroad got out of the car, then took out their luggage and walked towards the hotel gate.

As soon as they entered the door, they saw Liu Peng and Zhao Pengyu waiting for them in the lobby.

Zhang Jun went straight up and gave Liu Peng a hug: "How long has it been since we last met, Niupeng?" He called Liu Peng by his nickname from middle school.

Liu Peng also hugged Zhang Jun tightly: "I haven't seen you since that time in Maojiawan, Chengdu."

Zhang Jun let go of Liu Peng: "It's been two and a half years, a lot has happened in between, but I feel like it was just yesterday. How's it going in China?"

Liu Peng smiled, "It's just so-so, Zhongyuan is not a super team, so I can only play in the Jia League."

"Didn't other teams buy you?" Zhang Jun was a little surprised.

Liu Peng shook his head, obviously unwilling to continue this topic. It wasn't that he didn't want to leave, nor that other teams weren't interested in him, but that the Zhongyuan Club couldn't agree on a price with the other party and was unwilling to let him go.

Zhang Jun also knew better than to ask any further.

On the other side, Zhao Pengyu had already called the former National Olympic brothers upstairs, and the meeting was a lively one. A group of guys hugged and hugged each other in the hotel lobby, shouting and making noise, among whom Xiang Tao was the most active, hugging everyone he saw.

"Aiya! Xiaoyu, why have you lost so much weight? Is the club abusing you?"

"Sima Yanggao, don't frown and smile, it's really ugly!"

"This kid Li Jie is actually in the national team too? The world is in chaos!"

Everyone was laughing happily. It was really not easy to be able to reunite with former National Olympic teammates in the national team today. It should be known that in this national team roster dominated by young players, there were still many former National Olympic players who were not selected for this or that reason.

Ke Lu stood alone on the side, looking at the completely unfamiliar faces, listening to the Mandarin that he could still understand and the dialects that he couldn't understand at all, his face was expressionless.

Zhang Jun didn't know when he stood beside him and asked him in English: "Maybe you're not used to it yet? But it'll get better slowly. Everyone is very nice, you don't have to worry about anything at all. Hehe!"

Ke Lu turned to look at Zhang Jun. At the airport, it was the second time they had met. He had recognized Zhang Jun and Yang Pan at a glance. Zhang Jun didn't recognize him at first, and pointed at himself and asked Yang Pan who he was, but when he took off his cap, he remembered when he saw the blond hair.

This was really an interesting person. Although he was six years older than him, why did he feel that he was sometimes not as mature as himself?

Like now, he was very enthusiastic. But he simply didn't think about whether he could get along well with the other players. So what was he thinking? In fact, he was just spacing out, not thinking about anything at all.

"Mm." After all, Zhang Jun was the most familiar person in this unfamiliar team, and Ke Lu didn't want to embarrass Zhang Jun, so he nodded.

After messing around with Xiang Tao and Wang Yu, the others realized that there was a blond teenager standing next to Zhang Jun. Seeing that everyone's attention had been focused on Ke Lu, Zhang Jun knew that it was time to formally introduce Ke Lu to everyone.

"This is Ke Lu Li, everyone should know him, right?"

Everyone ohhed: so he was the Ke Lu Li who had frequently appeared in various news reports recently! He was quite handsome, but his expression was cold and aloof, keeping people away.

Seeing that Zhang Jun had already introduced himself, Ke Lu thought that it would be a bit too much if he didn't even say hello when he met them for the first time, so he raised his head and said to everyone in Chinese: "Hello everyone!" But his face was still expressionless.

Zhang Jun was a little surprised: "Can't you speak Chinese?"

"You believed me when I lied to you? That was just an excuse to reject you." Ke Lu smiled slightly, with a sense of smugness that he had successfully deceived Zhang Jun.

Yang Pan was stunned. On the way from the airport to the hotel, he had only seen Ke Lu smile twice, and both were related to Zhang Jun. Once was when Zhang Jun didn't recognize Ke Lu at the airport, and the second time was this time. Just because Zhang Jun had called him, their relationship shouldn't be close to this point, right?

Could it be because Zhang Jun had something that others didn't have?

Just when Yang Pan was racking his brains over this question, two old national team players walked towards them.

"Wang Hui, Jiaying, Liyi, you just arrived? Go up and see everyone, everyone has been waiting for a long time." The speaker was Kong Liang, the national team defender. When he said this, he completely ignored the other players around Wang Hui and the other two, and could be said to have treated them as air.

The laughter suddenly disappeared, and everyone who had been talking and laughing had a straight face and didn't look at the two people.

The atmosphere suddenly became extremely awkward.

Ke Lu was very strange about this change in everyone, he didn't understand why, and wanted to ask Zhang Jun beside him, but saw Zhang Jun frowning with a helpless expression.

It seemed that this national team was not united! Ke Lu suddenly understood, although he still didn't know why it was not united.

Interesting, this situation was really interesting. This time, Ke Lu smiled in his heart.

Wang Hui didn't want this scene to continue to be awkward, so he and the other two pulled up their suitcases, said hello to Yang Pan and the others, and followed Kong Liang away.

And as soon as they entered the elevator, the players who had been silent again became noisy again, this time they put their interest on another "newcomer" An Ke.

Zhang Jun thought that some problems still had to be explained to Ke Lu, after all, even a newcomer who didn't understand anything could see how abnormal the atmosphere was just now.

"Uh, I'm sorry, you saw these things on the first day."

"You guys don't have a good relationship?"

Zhang Jun nodded.

"Why?"

"This is a long story. Simply put, the current national team is roughly divided into two factions, one is dominated by the old national team players, like the two people you just saw. The other is dominated by the former National Olympic players who are now in the national team, that's all of us." Zhang Jun pointed to the crowd who were joking with the "familiar" An Ke.

Ke Lu nodded, indicating that he understood. "It's just a battle between new and old factions."

"You can also say that."

"So which faction do I belong to?" Ke Lu asked. After understanding the current situation of the Chinese team, he didn't want to be isolated. The cold expression on his face was just a kind of self-protection when facing strangers, it was just an instinct. Only when he became familiar with them would he find that he was actually an interesting person.

"You are naturally on our side." Zhang Jun would not let Ke Lu go to the opposing side, and the other party would not accept him.

"Then, I know what to do."

In an unnoticed corner.

"Xiao Qiu, why are we staying here secretly? Aren't we coaches?" Hu Li looked at Qiu Suhui in front of him with incomprehension.

Qiu Suhui excitedly grabbed Hu Li's hand: "The enemy is in the open, we are in the dark. We can hear everything they say clearly, know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated!"

"But we are in training, not fighting..."

"No! We must treat this as a war!" Qiu Suhui turned around and gave Hu Li a serious expression.

Hu Li wiped his sweat. This Chinese team, from the head coach to the players, were a bunch of troublesome characters. What would be waiting for us in the World Cup?