The changes in this world were chaotic and unpredictable, catching many off guard.
For instance, journalists who were preparing to cover the Grand Opening event for Dada Wai Mai last night, received the latest insider scoop this morning: Chen Hu, the founder and chairman of Dada Wai Mai, had been taken in for investigation while secretly planning to escape China.
As for what he was being investigated for, that no longer mattered. The crucial point was that Dada Wai Mai was completely finished.
There was little more to say about what followed. It was the typical scenario of a company’s instant collapse, leading to another company dominating the entire market.
When these news items were placed before Boss Huang, he couldn't even be bothered to glance at them. After all, the moment Dada Wai Mai started with subsidies, its fate was sealed.
Of course, this was assuming their competitor hadn't received funding from Jiangnan Group. If it came down to who had more money, the outcome was uncertain.
Compared to the matters of Dada Wai Mai, Boss Huang was actually busy with something else: playing soccer.
However, Boss Huang had never had much interest in soccer. Given the track record of the Chinese national team, the new generation of Chinese people rarely harbored strong feelings about soccer.
But his son was an oddball. Huang Fan, Boss Huang's sole legal heir, had become fascinated with soccer.
Huang Fan was already six years old and still in kindergarten. Likely due to the nutritional care he received from a young age, Huang Fan was noticeably taller than other children his age.
While this was the ideal physique for basketball, Huang Fan had inexplicably become obsessed with soccer. At this time, Guangzhou FC had won the Chinese Super League six consecutive times, achieved an unprecedented AFC Champions League title, and reached the top four in the World Cup, marking the peak for Chinese football clubs and successfully reigniting interest in Chinese soccer.
Consequently, a considerable soccer craze swept across the nation, with many primary schools and even kindergartens starting to hold soccer matches.
For example, Little Star Kindergarten, where Huang Fan attended, had also registered for the Zhejiang Province Kindergarten Soccer League.
As the tallest child in the kindergarten, Huang Fan was undoubtedly selected for the team and even appointed captain.
Now, Huang Fan was supposed to attend Jiangnan Group's own kindergarten. The group itself owned over three hundred kindergartens.
These kindergartens were all strictly non-public, serving only the group's employees. They provided top-tier teaching, childcare, and other services, all with the aim of allowing the parents to work without worry, dedicating their entire heart and soul to their jobs.
However, Huang He had not sent his child to their own kindergarten. Boss Huang knew very well that placing Huang Fan in such an environment would likely not result in a normal child.
It was better to hide his identity and attend an ordinary public kindergarten, interacting with more ordinary people, to avoid his upbringing being skewed from the start.
Huang He himself was strongly against the so-called elite education. The notion that the ultimate goal for the wealthy was to cultivate super-elites was, in Boss Huang's view, utter nonsense.
The education of imperial children was perhaps the most outstanding elite education in the world, but what kind of individuals did the resulting princes and grandchildren turn out to be?
Only by being rooted in the grassroots, interacting with ordinary people, understanding what ordinary people desire, and what they detest the most, could one comprehend the meaning of the wealth in their hands and how to use it.
Most importantly, cultivating a hardworking and upward-striving character was the most crucial thing.
As for business acumen, Huang He never expected his children to take over from him. After all, geniuses like himself were unique. Expecting his sons to be as outstanding as himself was unrealistic.
In the future, Jiangnan Group would undoubtedly be managed by professional executives. The children, as heirs, would need to grasp the overall direction of the company, not interfere with specific business operations. That was the most important thing.
How could one ensure that a company would not deviate from the correct overall direction?
The best way was to integrate these children into society, prevent them from becoming disconnected from it, and avoid becoming so-called aloof social elites. If this continued, his children might even lose their qualification to be human.
Therefore, Huang Fan was currently attending an ordinary public kindergarten and had been repeatedly warned never to reveal his father's identity, lest all his hard-collected Ultraman cards be given away.
Soon, the impromptu Zhejiang Province Kindergarten League began. Little Star Kindergarten achieved an extremely outstanding result right from the start, crushing their opponent with a score of 13:0. Huang Fan, as the captain and power forward, scored 8 goals himself.
To be fair, Huang Fan had not practiced soccer beforehand. After confirming his participation, he had begged his mother to hire a coach. He received a week of training before heading onto the field to play.
Although the soccer coach was Sun Hai, a former national team member and captain, and Boss Huang had specifically cleared a professional soccer field within Jiangnan Industrial Park for his son’s training, scoring 8 goals against peers within a week was mainly due to Huang Fan's excellent physical condition.
Subsequently, Sun Hai moved in as Huang Fan's private coach, with the task of practicing soccer with Huang Fan every day for three months.
During this period, Boss Huang was also roped into playing soccer with Huang Fan. While he didn't achieve much else, his physical condition improved considerably, and his running ability became much better.
On the other hand, after receiving long-term professional training, Huang Fan became truly unstoppable. He single-handedly carried all his teammates, fighting their way to the quarterfinals of the Zhejiang Province Kindergarten New Star Cup. In every match, he broke through with the ball, shot directly, and made all the opposing children cry bitterly.
Although the subsequent opponents were not as fragile as the earlier ones, fortunately, the other young players, after Huang Fan took them home to train with his private coach, saw their technical and tactical abilities soar. They encountered almost no opposition throughout the quarterfinals. It was only in the finals that they felt a slight challenge.
This was because the opposing team was the kindergarten of the Zhejiang Province Professional Football Technical Academy. As the name suggested, it was a kindergarten affiliated with a professional football academy. Those studying there were almost exclusively the children of professional players, coaches, or other individuals involved in football.
Moreover, the academy itself was the youth training base for the Zhejiang team. Therefore, even though the opponents were still a group of children, their skill level far surpassed all the opponents they had encountered before.
As it was a children's final, Boss Huang, for once, personally went to the stadium to cheer for his son. The audience present consisted almost entirely of parents.
The final was very intense, considering it was at the kindergarten level. Although the average skill level of all the opponents was higher than Huang Fan's kindergarten, Huang Fan's height and stamina gave him a significant advantage. None of the children on the opposing team could outrun Huang Fan.
Whenever the ball fell to Huang Fan's feet, he could at least advance to the vicinity of the penalty area before taking a shot.
Whether he scored or not was another matter, but the attacking momentum was terrifying.
However, Huang Fan's individual strength struggled to mask the inadequacy of his teammates. By the twelfth minute of the second half, Huang Fan's team was already trailing by three goals, and seemingly had no chance.
But at this moment, Huang Fan showed no signs of backing down. He roared like a crazed tiger, his fighting spirit so astonishing that even Huang He, standing behind him, was impressed.
At this point, another of Huang Fan's advantages became apparent: his stamina.
Although it was a kindergarten soccer match, with both halves lasting only 20 minutes, the time had been significantly shortened. However, after playing for 32 minutes, most of the young players were already exhausted, but Huang Fan was still charging forward like a tiger.
As a result, in the later stages, the opponents could no longer defend against Huang Fan. He scored consecutive goals, and by the time the final whistle blew, Huang Fan had scored an astonishing 5 goals by himself, securing victory by a margin of 1 point. Huang Fan and the entire team erupted in celebration.
"Fanfan, you're truly amazing! You're just like us!" Looking at her son's heroic figure on the field, his mother, Leng Zhiruo, was overcome with emotion and deeply moved.
"This child is indeed excellent. This drive is very commendable!" Boss Huang was not stingy with his praise. His son had won the championship, and he had done so in such a heroic, individual manner. How could Boss Huang hold back his compliments?
Then came the championship team's award ceremony. However, what happened next silenced the entire stadium.
Normally, Huang Fan's Little Star Kindergarten team should have stood in the champion's position to receive gold medals and the championship trophy.
But during the award ceremony, Huang Fan and the entire team were informed that they were not eligible to receive awards on the podium because they were ranked fourth.
"How is this possible? My son clearly won the championship!" Boss Huang rushed forward like a madman, grabbing a staff member from the organizing committee by the collar.
"Sir, please calm down. You may not have carefully read our rules. We clearly stated in the rules that friendship comes first, and competition second. The outcome of the competition has no bearing on the championship."
"The teams that ultimately receive medals and the championship are those who demonstrate their friendship and team charm on the field and receive more likes on WeChat. The second and third places are also determined by the number of likes. Your team's total likes ranked fourth, so you are indeed not eligible to receive awards on the podium."
"Waaah waaah waaah!" Huang Fan was a very intelligent child. He immediately understood what the staff member meant and started to cry loudly.
"I'm never playing soccer again!" Huang Fan cried out.