“You’re afraid of your dreams, defeated by them, crushed by them.”

Sitting on the bed, Mark’s mind was still echoing with these words. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Such insightful words could only come from God, right?

Was he lucky enough to have God descend upon him?

The moment this thought popped into Mark’s head, he felt something was off.

In movies, when gods manifest, they’re always accompanied by extraordinary phenomena, making everyone around them aware of the divine presence, right?

Why was there no reaction when God appeared in his bedroom?

His room wasn’t filled with a soft, hazy light, and he didn’t hear ethereal, beautiful celestial music. Where were the cute, holy little angels?

If it really was God manifesting, this scene was way too shabby, wasn’t it?

Wait…

Although Mark was sometimes slow to react, he wasn’t stupid. He still had doubts about things that exceeded common sense.

He carefully recalled the earlier conversation and realized that the voice that spoke to him… seemed to be coming from under the bed?

God was under the bed?

※※※

Zhou Yi lay silently under the bed, not daring to breathe loudly. He had said everything he needed to say. He just hoped that his final bit of "chicken soup for the soul" would overwhelm Mark, preventing him from asking any more questions, and ideally, make him fall asleep while pondering.

Once he was asleep, he could sneak away quietly.

Otherwise, lying on this hard, cold floor all night would be truly miserable.

Just as he was holding his breath, he suddenly heard a rustling sound from the bed above. Then a face appeared upside down in front of Zhou Yi: “Zhou Yi?!”

Zhou Yi was startled by the sudden face and voice. His head reflexively shot up, and with a "thump," he inevitably collided with the bed frame.

“Ah!”

He screamed in pain, immediately clutching the back of his head as he collapsed back onto the ground.

“God” accidentally bumped his head…

※※※

“So, you were worried I’d be disheartened, so you hid under my bed to pretend to be a ghost?” Mark sat cross-legged on the bed, looking at Zhou Yi, who was sitting on the chair next to him, constantly rubbing the back of his head.

“What do you mean ‘pretend to be a ghost’? I was just pretending to be a god, not making ghosts.” Zhou Yi said through gritted teeth. He felt a bump swelling up on the back of his head. This was a high price to pay… “People say they’ll take a knife for a friend. Mark, I’ve got a bump on my head for you. Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”

Mark smiled. “I never doubted your friendship, Zhou Yi. You’re my best friend in this life! But next time, if you have something to say to me, don’t crawl under the bed. Just tell me directly…”

“You think I wanted to crawl under the bed?” Zhou Yi rolled his eyes. “Your under-bed is full of your stinky socks and dirty shoes. I was almost suffocated! But if I didn’t do it this way, would you have listened? Look at how you were acting today, like you’d lost your soul. If I didn’t pretend to be a god, would you have listened?”

Faced with Zhou Yi’s complaints, Mark fell silent.

His behavior today had indeed been too negative, and he knew it wasn’t good. But that’s how he felt at the time; he really couldn’t act normal. Not being able to play in matches was one thing, but trying to train hard and getting scolded by the head coach, and then Gotze telling him he wasn’t even qualified to play in the U19… One blow after another, he was just a seventeen-year-old boy whose mind wasn’t strong enough to withstand it.

“Sorry, Zhou Yi. I made you worry…” Mark said softly, his head lowered.

“Don’t mention it. If you can cheer up, then it’s worth it.” Zhou Yi waved his hand, getting up to leave. He was tired and wanted to go to sleep.

Seeing Zhou Yi about to leave, Mark quickly said, “But I’m still confused about why you said that, Zhou Yi.”

“Said what?”

“Why would I be afraid of my dreams? What’s so scary about dreams?”

Zhou Yi spread his hands. “What’s not to be scared of? Then think about how you acted today.”

Hearing this, Mark’s mood darkened.

“I wasn’t afraid of my dreams. I just realized that I was daydreaming…” Mark said softly.

“Isn’t that being afraid of your dreams? In your heart, this dream is too powerful, you can’t achieve it, so you’re retreating, chickening out. What’s that if not fear?” Zhou Yi leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, and asked Mark.

“It’s recognizing reality, knowing my limits!” Mark retorted.

“First of all, this isn’t reality. Not achieving your dream is just a guess in your head. Second, you haven’t even tried hard yet. How do you know for sure you can’t achieve it?”

“How haven’t I tried hard? I’ve been working so hard in training! And what happened? I became a laughingstock! I messed everything up. Even the coach couldn’t stand it anymore! Didn’t Gotze say so too? My skills aren’t good enough to stay in the U19!”

Mark Wagner’s emotions suddenly erupted, and he shouted.

Mrs. Wagner, who was sleeping in bed, suddenly sat up.

“What’s going on…” Old Wagner was awakened by his wife’s movement.

“I heard Mark shouting…”

Old Wagner lifted his head from the pillow and listened, but there was no sound.

“You must be dreaming? Go back to sleep…” Old Wagner turned over.

Mrs. Wagner frowned and listened again, but there was indeed no sound.

“Strange…” So she muttered and burrowed back into the covers.

※※※

While Mark was shouting excitedly, Zhou Yi remained silent, just watching him calmly.

After he finished shouting, Zhou Yi asked, “Anything else?”

Mark stared at him, panting heavily, and didn’t speak.

Seeing Mark like this, Zhou Yi scoffed, “Stop being dramatic, Mark. It was just one training session. Or are you only willing to work hard for one training session to achieve your dream?”

Mark was stunned by what Zhou Yi said and couldn’t answer for a moment. Yeah, when it all came down to it, it was just one training session…

Zhou Yi seized the opportunity and said, “You said you understood why you couldn’t start the first game. I thought you really understood… Turns out you were just making excuses to look cool. Okay, I admit I was too idealistic before, thinking that you and I could rise to the U19 and everything would go smoothly. But in reality, soccer is more complicated than we imagined. If you want to play in the U19, if you want to nail Schneider to the bench, you have to work harder, even harder than you did in the U17. But this effort can’t just be one training session.”

“It’s too early to say that you’re destined not to achieve your dreams. If you really think so, then I’ll have to wonder if your dreams are just empty words.”

Zhou Yi looked at Mark with a serious expression.

Mark was completely speechless by what Zhou Yi said.

“Now, are there any other problems?”

“I… I don’t want to depend on you, Zhou Yi… But I really don’t know what to do…” Mark said with a distressed look.

Zhou Yi walked up and patted Mark on the shoulder. “This isn’t dependence, Mark. I’m your friend, and of course I have to help when a friend is in trouble. If I was in trouble, wouldn’t you help me?”

“I would, Zhou Yi, I definitely would!”

“So, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re just helping each other. Of course, if you want to have better development, you do need to improve your own skills. At the very least, you have to be able to score without my assists. If you still want to become a Dortmund legend, you have to do this.”

What Zhou Yi said made Mark feel better. Zhou Yi didn’t think he was a burden or a drag.

“I know, Zhou Yi, I also want to improve my skills. Otherwise, why would I work so hard in training? But… I don’t know how to do it… I, I can’t find the direction…”

Zhou Yi said to Mark, “Don’t worry, Mark, there’s always a way. But first, improving your own abilities is definitely the right thing to do. Your shooting technique needs to improve. Otherwise, if you get the chance, you won’t be able to score. You can’t expect every ball passed to you to be easy to shoot, right?”

“Yeah, I really need to improve my personal skills…” Mark thought of the character he had deleted, the virtual Mark, whose shooting attribute was as high as ninety-two.

“So, there you go.” Zhou Yi spread his hands. “Improving technical abilities isn’t something that happens overnight. There’s no use being anxious now. Just practice. Alright, it’s getting late. Let’s go to sleep…” He yawned.

“Okay, sleep, let’s go to sleep…” Seeing Zhou Yi yawning from tiredness, Mark was embarrassed to ask any more questions, even though he had many questions in his heart.

Zhou Yi seemed to understand this, so he said to Mark, “Don’t think about anything now. Don’t think about the future, don’t think about your dreams, and don’t think about how to do it. Just sleep. When you wake up, everything will be better. Nothing will be a problem. Good night, Mark.”

After saying that, he waved goodbye.

“Good night, Zhou Yi. Thank you.” Mark also said goodbye to Zhou Yi.

※※※

What made Mrs. Wagner happy was that when they were eating breakfast the next day, she secretly and carefully observed the two boys’ behavior and found that although they couldn’t be said to be laughing and talking, they were much better than they had been the night before.

Although she didn’t know exactly what had happened to cause the children to act the way they did yesterday, and to change today, she was much more at ease knowing that the two children were gradually returning to normal.

She really couldn’t help her son much with soccer.

Her son had indeed changed after Zhou Yi came.

She hoped that both children’s careers would go smoothly.

※※※

After arriving at the training ground in his father’s car, Mark got out of the car, went around to the driver’s seat, and said to his father, “Dad, come pick me up half an hour later.”

Old Wagner didn’t ask him why, but nodded, “Okay.”

Zhou Yi, on the other hand, looked at Mark strangely.

“I’m going to do extra training, Zhou Yi.” Mark said to Zhou Yi. “Extra shooting practice. When you finish training, I’ll have to trouble you to wait for me for a while…”

“Oh, it’s okay. Then I’ll do extra training on my physical fitness in the gym.” Zhou Yi wasn’t willing to waste that half hour waiting. Since Mark was doing extra training, so would he.

Anyway, he really needed to continue to strengthen his physical fitness now.

※※※

The two of them entered the locker room, and after a while, Gotze also came.

After seeing the two of them, he walked straight to them, then stopped in front of Mark and said to Mark, “I came to apologize to you, Mark. I thought about it all night and felt that what I said yesterday was a bit too much. I hope you don’t take it to heart…”

Mark didn’t expect Gotze to come and apologize to him, and was flattered. He waved his hands repeatedly, “Ah, no, no… I didn’t blame you, Mario. And you’re right, I really shouldn’t rely too much on others, whether it’s Zhou Yi or anyone else.”

Seeing Mark say this, Gotze smiled. “It’s great that you can think that way. I was afraid you’d get hung up on it.”

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes on the side—if he hadn’t crawled under Mark’s bed in the middle of the night to pretend to be a ghost, he might have really gotten hung up on it!

And he bumped his head… Is it easy being my friend!

He carefully touched the back of his head. The bump was still there.

Because you’re so straightforward and quick-tongued, I not only had to lie on the smelly, cold, and hard floor under the bed, but I also had to take this hit for no reason… How innocent am I!

Gotze seemed to notice Zhou Yi’s movements on the side, and he turned around and said to Zhou Yi, “I have to apologize to you too…”

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand, “No need, no need. You’re as pure as a blank sheet of paper, which is good.”

Gotze frowned and thought for a few seconds, then said, “I feel like you’re mocking me?”

“I’m already satisfied that you didn’t understand that I was mocking you until you thought about it all night.” Zhou Yi grinned.

Usually, people would be very angry when they’re mocked, but Gotze wasn’t. His reaction was to laugh. “You’re a really interesting person, Zhou Yi.”

“You’re the interesting one, Mario. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone so happy after being scolded.”

“It wasn’t a scolding. You were just telling the truth. The truth may be harsh, but it’s right.” Gotze said very seriously. This was the same as his view yesterday. It seemed Gotze was still a person who stuck to his principles…

Faced with such a Gotze, Zhou Yi was speechless.

“You know that and you still do it!”

“Of course this is my shortcoming, but shortcomings and strengths are both part of me. I’ll try to change, but I won’t feel uneasy about it.” Gotze said calmly.

Zhou Yi looked at this genius who was a year younger than him and sighed, “You’re really a weirdo, Mario… But I admire you for living so matter-of-factly.”

Gotze smiled. “Thanks for the compliment, Zhou Yi. Actually, I think you’re pretty weird too.”

He obviously understood Zhou Yi’s “weirdo” as Mourinho’s claim of “the special one”…

“‘Weirdo’ isn’t a compliment!”

※※※

ps, Actually, whether Gotze really has this personality, I naturally have no way of knowing. You can hardly get to know what kind of person a player is just from news reports.

Because news reports are one-sided and not three-dimensional. There may even be contradictions.

For self-created characters, I can completely fabricate his personality traits, because I am the God of these characters. What personality I say they have, they have.

But real players like Gotze are different. They are stars, and many fans and readers are also familiar with them. Everyone must also have their own understanding of such real players, including their imagination of their personalities.

It is difficult for me to write a real Gotze, and it is also difficult for me to write a Gotze that best fits the impression of most people on Gotze.

I can only fictionalize on a certain realistic basis.

So what kind of personality should Gotze have?

I thought about it for a long time, tangled for a long time. I have also checked the information, but unfortunately there is too little information I found mentioning what kind of person Gotze is in life.

Later, I finally set Gotze as such a slightly dull, but not bad child.

He speaks as if he hasn't gone through his brain, unintentionally, but he will apologize for what he said, he will also help Mark speak out righteously, he has a set of his own principles and standards in his heart, and will not change because of the opinions of others.

I think Mario Gotze, who can directly get hard in public when he sees his girlfriend, and whose bed sheets are the Bayern Munich team emblem and color while in Dortmund, really lives very self-consciously, and is a bit dull...

Of course, if the Gotze I describe does not match the Gotze image in your mind, it doesn't matter, this is just a Gotze in the world where there is a Chinese player named Zhou Yi in the Dortmund club.