Chapter 153 He's Addicted to Scolding?

When Zhou Yi opened the door to the press conference room, he saw team leader Guo Bing standing at the door, glaring at him.

Zhou Yi wasn't embarrassed in the slightest. He greeted Guo Bing with a perfectly natural expression, "Oh, Brother Guo, you just got here?"

Guo Bing continued to glare at him, huffing, "If I'd been any later, I wouldn't have heard your wonderful speech!"

Zhou Yi laughed. "Some things need to be said, after all. It's better for me to say them than for a bigmouth like Sun Pan to say them."

Guo Bing made a pained and helpless expression. "I think you're the number one bigmouth in the Olympic team, Zhou Yi..."

"Sorry, Brother Guo, I've caused you trouble again. Once the Olympics are over, I'll let you do whatever you want with me," Zhou Yi said.

Guo Bing was amused by Zhou Yi's words. "What can I do with you? What do I dare do with you? Zhou Yi, you're my ancestor, okay..."

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand. "Brother Guo, don't say that, you're scaring me!"

Guo Bing grinned. "You're the one who's scaring me... Alright, hurry back! I hope, as you said, this matter ends here and doesn't drag on any further."

Zhou Yi nodded. "Of course, I don't have the energy to spend every day here scolding idiots."

With that, he ran off.

Guo Bing heard Zhou Yi's last curse word and wanted to criticize him, but Zhou Yi had already run far away. He could only sigh helplessly.

He was genuinely frightened because he had just heard a piece of news: Apparently, a very, very important leader greatly admired Zhou Yi... That was why Zhou Yi dared to disobey orders, but the delegation leaders hadn't punished him and just let him run wild.

What could he do? The country's next helmsman was a soccer fan...

Guo Bing didn't dare to do anything to Zhou Yi.

※※※

Zhou Yi's long speech at the press conference spread rapidly through the media. In this internet age, before the traditional media could even finish laying out their pages, the full text of Zhou Yi's speech was already available online...

Regardless of who a person was or what their views were, Zhou Yi's speech was very impactful.

Because no one had expected Zhou Yi to say such a bare and undisguised thing.

When facing the media, celebrity athletes always had some reservations and were very careful with their words. Even if their inner thoughts were different, they still had to speak according to the "unspoken rules."

For example, they had to thank the country first, be humble after winning a championship, and say they had tried their best after a defeat...

These were all routines.

But this time, Zhou Yi didn't follow any of the routines.

He didn't hide his inner thoughts, expressing his opinions directly and using the most straightforward and down-to-earth way to convey his views.

This method was unprecedented for Chinese athletes. To be honest, it wasn't just Guo Bing who was scared; there were many, many others...

Words like "idiot" might be censored in traditional media, but in the internet, they were restored and preserved in their most authentic form. From such words alone, one could feel how intense Zhou Yi's emotions were.

After the initial shock, netizens began to cheer for Zhou Yi.

"True character! Zhou Yi is a true character!"

"As expected of my husband, my husband is the handsomest!"

"Well said, so satisfying! When facing those idiots, our athletes need to speak out like this!"

"I'm tired of hearing those insincere words forced out in front of the camera. Hearing Zhou Yi's hearty rebuke is like drinking ice-cold beer on a sweltering day!"

"When we scold public intellectuals, we're labeled as internet trolls. I'm now looking forward to the public intellectuals labeling Zhou Yi as a 'troll' too, hahaha!"

"That's right, our athletes are fighting for glory for us in the front lines, but some idiots at home are stabbing them in the back. This behavior is the most disgraceful. It's ten thousand times worse than the Koreans!"

...

Zhou Yi became an "internet celebrity" overnight, becoming incredibly popular online. In fact, he had already been very popular before, as a soccer star. But his influence was mostly within the professional field of soccer. Now, even people who didn't watch soccer, didn't understand soccer, or had no interest in soccer knew that there was a man in the Chinese Olympic delegation who dared to speak out for justice. His name was Zhou Yi, and he was a soccer player.

Some enthusiastic netizens even dug up some of Zhou Yi's old news to tell the public that Zhou Yi's true character of daring to do and say what he wanted wasn't something that had suddenly emerged. He had always been like this. For example, during the World Cup qualifying twenty-team tournament, he publicly satirized Qatar's off-field tactics.

Zhou Yi's words were even compiled into "quotes," which were replied to under the Weibo posts of those big V official accounts.

Some people pretended to be deaf and dumb and admitted defeat, but others were not convinced.

For example, the official Weibo account of *Caijing* Online singled out a netizen who had used Zhou Yi's quotes to scold them, reposting and commenting, "Even small ditches have the ideal of becoming rivers. It's simply touching China."

Everyone wasn't stupid and could see at a glance what this meant: It was mocking Zhou Yi for claiming to be a "river" and saying that Zhou Yi was a "small ditch."

This led to a frenzy of mockery and scolding from netizens.

Zhang, a reporter from *Legal Evening News*, was named by Zhou Yi in this speech—although he wasn't named in full, everyone actually knew it was him, and he himself knew it—so he also responded, "Reciting a couple of poems is called having a cultural level? That's all the insight you have. Then a three-year-old child who can recite a couple of Tang poems and Song lyrics is also a cultured person? It's really laughable, how dare you talk about cultural level with this logical ability."

His reply naturally received criticism and mockery from other netizens.

Amidst a barrage of comments scolding him, a familiar name suddenly appeared.

An ID "Zhou Yi Isn't a Fortune Teller" reposted this Weibo post from the Zhang reporter and commented, "The sun is out, and the dog on the ground is barking madly. But no matter how loudly the dog barks, the sun is still high above."

The ID "Zhou Yi Isn't a Fortune Teller" wasn't an unknown figure. Behind this name was a yellow "V" badge, which meant it was a real-name authentication. In the certification information column, it was written: "Chinese National Team, Borussia Dortmund player Zhou Yi"—yes, this was Zhou Yi's personal Weibo account.

Looking through Zhou Yi's posts on Weibo, there were very, very few. He only followed a few people, and clicking on those few people would reveal that they were all his teammates. Besides that, he didn't follow any accounts. From when he registered in 2011 until now, he had only posted forty-eight Weibo posts. From this, it could be seen that he wasn't the kind of heavy social network user like Rio Ferdinand.

Whether it was Weibo, Twitter, or Facebook, he rarely used them. Because he was too busy. If he had time to go online, he would definitely be chatting and joking with his friends in the group chat and wouldn't be scrolling through Weibo.

The last time Zhou Yi posted on Weibo was half a year ago.

Weibo officials had contacted him, saying that if he didn't have time to post, the officials were willing to specially set up a management team to manage his Weibo. But Zhou Yi refused. Zhou Yi knew his brand effect. As long as he nodded, it would be a sum of money. But he didn't trust handing it over to the Weibo management team and didn't have time to review each post, so he simply left it there. If he remembered, he would go on; if he didn't remember, then so be it.

Unexpectedly, this recent incident had been hyped up so much that it had brought his Weibo account back to life.

Moreover, it continued the style he had shown at the press conference, comparing the Zhang reporter to a dog.

Many people reposted and left comments: "Spectating a face-slapping scene!" "It's simply tragic, hahaha!" "I just like Zhou Yi's arrogance!"

The Zhang reporter quickly replied to Zhou Yi, "Misinterpreting the idiom 'the dogs of Shu bark at the sun' doesn't make you look cultured, it only continues to expose your ignorance!"

After he posted this Weibo post, it continued to attract a wave of scolding from everyone. But no one scolded as refreshingly and elegantly as Zhou Yi.

This is what he said: "Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, fragrant grasses connect with the sky. Hehe."

The Zhang reporter immediately reposted and mocked, "Stop hehe-ing, you can't even remember all the words to 'Farewell,' and you're still trying to show off, it's really laughable!"

But this time Zhou Yi didn't reply to him. Instead, someone did a reading comprehension for him: "Idiot, don't be smug, he's scolding you for being shameless (bi lian)!"

At first, other netizens didn't understand what Zhou Yi meant by posting this passage. Some people, like the Zhang reporter, thought that Zhou Yi must have misremembered and was now making a fool of himself... But after a genius explained it, they suddenly realized and couldn't help but applaud.

"I've seen stupidity, but I've never seen stupidity like this! 23333!"

"It's clear at a glance who's uncultured!"

"Too tragic, a reporter known for his verbal skills was actually intellectually crushed by an athlete whom they mocked as 'developed in the limbs and simple in the mind'..."

"Haha! Zhou Yi is simply a breath of fresh air among Chinese athletes, even his scolding is so classy! This is the first time I've seen the words to 'Farewell' used like this!"

"Hey, you say, who couldn't Zhang Journalist offend, but he just had to offend Zhou Yi. Is Zhou Yi's mouth vegetarian? He's the most verbally skilled among soccer players!"

Some people also felt strange. There were many people who had previously ridiculed and satirized the Chinese Olympic team, but why did Zhou Yi only target the Zhang reporter? He only named the Zhang reporter at the press conference, and then he specifically found the Zhang reporter on Weibo to scold.

Why?

Some people guessed that this might be related to the fact that the Zhang reporter had scolded Sun Pan for being uncultured, so Zhou Yi's current war of words with the Zhang reporter was focused on the word "culture." Obviously, Zhou Yi was standing up for his good friend... That shameless Zhang reporter never expected that scolding an Olympic player would provoke the Great Demon King...

※※※

"Hey, Zhou Yi, you told us not to talk about it outside, but how come you're addicted to scolding?" Yang Muge asked Zhou Yi.

The others in the room all looked at him.

Zhou Yi's glorious performance at the press conference had already spread to the Olympic team. Everyone knew what he had said, and the scolding was so satisfying...

"That's right, what Lao Yang said is right, didn't you say you were going to control your mouth! Why aren't you following your own rules?" Sun Pan was very unconvinced. Wasn't this a double standard?

Zhou Yi smiled slightly. "Hehe, of course the captain has to do this kind of showy thing!"

"Damn it, I knew it!" Sun Pan roared.

The others laughed.