Chapter 1 The Hospital Discharge

Zhou Yi went through the discharge procedures the next day. When he left the hospital, the media gathered at the entrance and photographed him walking out with a neck brace and getting into the car.

Because of the neck brace, Zhou Yi's body movements looked a little stiff, which made the media reporters on the scene a little worried.

They took pictures of Zhou Yi.

The club's sports director, Zorc, kept waving his hands to the surrounding reporters: "We don't accept interviews, sorry, we don't accept interviews..."

But the reporters still stubbornly threw out questions: "When will Zhou Yi be able to return?"

"Is Zhou Yi's injury serious?"

"Does Zhou Yi have a problem with his cervical spine?"

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi, how are you feeling now?"

...

Zhou Yi didn't answer their questions either, but just gave a thumbs up, showing a smile, indicating that he was fine.

Then the two got into the car and drove to the airport.

The reporters who stayed at the scene discussed the matter, but they were not optimistic about Zhou Yi's injury...

Mainly because the brace on his neck was too conspicuous and too scary. Generally speaking, people with neck problems would wear this. Zhou Yi was carried out on a stretcher yesterday, too. But it's been a night, and it's still on his neck... what does that mean?

This shows that his cervical spine was injured in that collision!

Cervical spine injuries can be big or small. If it's small, it'll be fine after a few days of rest. If it's big... if it's big, he might retire directly...

The Dortmund club didn't say, Zhou Yi didn't say, so the reporters didn't know if it was a big deal or a small deal.

"It shouldn't be a big deal, right?"

"Hopefully it's not a big deal..."

"Tui, tui, tui! What could be a big deal!"

Although every reporter said so, deep down in their hearts, they were still worried.

※※※

Zhou Yi returned home. When his mother saw the brace on his neck, tears almost came down. Li Cuiyun didn't know if it was because of her increasing age, but she used to be quite capable and tough, but now she had a tendency to be sentimental...

Zhou Jianliang was always carefree, or rather, calm.

He asked his son, "Is there something wrong with your neck?"

Li Cuiyun glared at him—isn't that obvious! Can't you see the brace on your son's neck?

Zhou Yi neither shook his head nor nodded: "It's not a big deal, I need to rest."

"Can't you move your neck?"

"It's best not to move it," Zhou Yi said. "Better safe than sorry."

When it came to his injuries, Zhou Yi was very careful. Even the slightest injury, he would pay extra attention to it. When he was still a fan, he had seen too many news about players getting injured. Some injuries were small at first, and everyone didn't care, but eventually they slowly turned into chronic old injuries, and then they couldn't get rid of them.

So in fact, Zhou Yi took the initiative to ask to wear this brace, even though the doctor had told him that he didn't need to wear it. But Zhou Yi thought, what if the reporters got too excited when he was discharged from the hospital and rushed up and bumped into him, causing his neck to get injured again?

So he insisted on wearing the brace.

So the injury that wasn't very serious in the first place gave people the feeling that it was very serious because of Zhou Yi's actions...

That day, whether it was the German or Chinese news media, they were reporting on Zhou Yi's discharge from the hospital, but the image of Zhou Yi wearing a brace brought a great shock. If you didn't look at the news content, just looked at such a photo or image, many people would think that Zhou Yi's injury was very serious and recovery was far away...

In China, this news was like a bolt from the blue for Chinese fans.

Dortmund fans in Germany were not much better.

Many people even lamented that Dortmund was about to start declining, Zhou Yi was injured, Gündoğan was injured, Piszczek was injured... Injuries were increasing, which would affect Dortmund's performance.

Non-Dortmund fans inevitably gloated a little. Dortmund's decline was their opportunity. Of course, they would hope that Dortmund would be even more unlucky.

For example, Bayern Munich and Schalke 04, Dortmund's direct competitors, were happy to see Zhou Yi's injury—since Zhou Yi's life was not in danger, they didn't need to worry. They could return to being ordinary fans and cheer for anything that was beneficial to their team.

Zhou Yi's injury fell into this category.

If Gündoğan was absent for a season and Zhou Yi was absent for half a season, then Bayern Munich would definitely win the league title this season!

What about Zhou Yi?

He did not explain his injury on any occasion. He only posted messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Weibo thanking everyone for their concern, and then said that he was fine, so everyone shouldn't worry. But he didn't explain the specifics of his injury, nor did he respond to the reports in the media.

The day after arriving in Dortmund, he went to the Brackel training base to train.

However, he didn't drive himself, but his agent Schulze came to pick him up.

This made the reporters and fans who were waiting for Zhou Yi at the entrance of the training base miss him—they were always staring at Zhou Yi's Mercedes-Benz C, who knew that Zhou Yi was riding in his agent's Audi A4 today...

※※※

At the training base, Zhou Yi met his teammates. This was the first time he had seen his teammates since his injury.

Everyone asked about his injury with concern.

"It's not a big deal." Zhou Yi couldn't shake his head, so he just smiled and answered his teammates' concerns.

"But it doesn't look like it's not a big deal..." Reus frowned.

"As a precaution, I don't dare to shake my head now," Zhou Yi explained.

"When will you be able to come back, Zhou Yi?" Şahin asked.

"I don't know, it depends on what the team doctor says, right?"

"Sigh." Someone sighed. "It feels so uncomfortable without you..."

Zhou Yi smiled: "What's so uncomfortable about it?"

Then he said to Reus and Mark: "I came here specially to thank you two. I heard from the coach that it was your immediate rescue that kept me from dying. So you guys saved my life!"

Everyone thought Zhou Yi was exaggerating, including Reus and Mark, who waved their hands again and again: "It's just a small effort, don't exaggerate so much, Zhou Yi..."

"No, no, no, it's not an exaggeration at all." Zhou Yi was very serious. "Really, I want to thank you."

After speaking, Zhou Yi bowed to them very seriously, which surprised everyone. Mark and Reus were even more embarrassed.

Such a serious Zhou Yi... is really too rare!

From this, it can also be seen how important Mark and Reus's actions were on the field at that time.

In fact, this was indeed very important. Before the start of training, Klopp emphasized to all the players how important it was to have the correct first aid techniques on the field. He once again praised Mark and Reus and suggested that all players should learn some basic first aid measures. Who knows when they might come in handy?

But at this time, Zhou Yi was not on the scene.

He went to the physiotherapy room to report.

※※※

When Kotana saw Zhou Yi appear in front of her, she couldn't help but keep laughing, making Zhou Yi very unhappy: "What are you laughing at! I'm like this, and you're still laughing! Do you have any sympathy!"

Kotana said with a smile: "I thought of what you said when you moved, you said you'd never see me again? That wasn't a good thing to say, look, we're meeting again now."

Of course Zhou Yi knew this, he said depressedly: "That's why I said I wanted to never see you again..."

"Stop daydreaming. It's impossible for you not to get injured."

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes at what Kotana said.

Although he was unhappy, Zhou Yi still had to honestly see Kotana, because his neck injury required him to come to Kotana for massage and physiotherapy every day.

"Alright, take off your shirt and lie on the bed," Kotana ordered.

Zhou Yi had no choice but to obey.

Looking at Zhou Yi lying naked on the massage bed, Kotana didn't rush to start. She recalled the scene she saw on TV at that time.

When she saw her younger brother pulling Zhou Yi's tongue out with his hand, she was also frightened. She knew that action meant that Zhou Yi's life was really in danger.

A living person, someone she knew and was familiar with, fell into a coma in front of her, and could lose his life at any time. Kotana felt cold hands and feet.

Fortunately, her younger brother made the right move. If he had just knelt in front of Zhou Yi and cried helplessly, an accident might have happened.

That night, Kotana was very upset. She tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, and was very restless.

She actually knew why she was like this.

Because she was concerned about Zhou Yi's safety.

The boy she often teased was now making her restless.

But Kotana wasn't surprised why she had such a reaction.

Zhou Yi was probably the boy who spent the most time with her, besides her younger brother, in Kotana's life.

After a long time together, feelings that are different from others will naturally arise...

※※※

Zhou Yi, who was lying on the bed, shivered. He waited for a long time with his upper body naked and didn't see Kotana come to massage him, so he buried his head and said "Hey".

This sound awakened Kotana, bringing her back from her trance.

She then began to work.

Zhou Yi didn't feel Kotana's hand, but felt a numbness in his neck, followed by some soreness.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Acupuncture," Kotana replied.

Zhou Yi was dumbfounded and almost wanted to turn over to see what was going on—a German blonde beauty, holding a silver needle and stabbing herself, looking like an old Chinese doctor... He thought this was very magical.

"What?" Although Zhou Yi didn't say anything, Kotana keenly noticed Zhou Yi's thoughts.

"Uh, no... just felt very surprised."

"What's so surprising about this? Acupuncture is very popular in Europe. I've been learning it for a year. Recently, I'm also learning cupping, would you like to try it?"

"You can't find a test subject, right?"

"That's right." Unexpectedly, Kotana admitted it very generously.

"Okay, then I'll be your test subject." But to Kotana's surprise, Zhou Yi actually agreed so readily.

"Anyway, I'll definitely be seeing you every day for a while," Zhou Yi said the reason.

Kotana, who was applying the needles, pursed her lips and smiled.