Chapter 1 A Cyber Cafe?

"Cyber cafe?" This answer truly baffled Gao Yingjie. He even wondered if he had misheard. But when he saw Qiao Yifan nod clearly again, he realized that Qiao Yifan had already packed all his things.

It was just a suitcase, containing some personal clothing. All other equipment was provided by the club. Newcomers really didn't have the qualifications or the means to pursue too much material comfort. Unlike many famous star players, who purchased their own properties outside, the rooms provided by the club were just a place for them to rest. However, because professional players had a certain degree of mobility, and might have to transfer to another city one day, whether or not to buy a house depended on individual circumstances.

"Where did you say you were going just now?" Gao Yingjie still had doubts about Qiao Yifan's answer.

"I'm going to a place to continue training and improve myself," Qiao Yifan said with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll be back."

"Oh..."

"It's just that, by then, we probably won't be teammates anymore. It's a shame, I never had the chance to compete alongside you," Qiao Yifan said.

"It doesn't matter, we'll always be friends!" Gao Yingjie said.

"That's right," Qiao Yifan smiled.

"I'll see you off?"

"Okay."

The two teenagers walked out of the club together. But after leaving the main gate, one got into a car, while the other remained in place. They waved to each other, and from then on embarked on their own different paths.

H City, Excellent Era Club.

The various welcome activities specially arranged for Xiao Shiqin went on for almost an entire morning, and only ended around noon.

The fans left, filled with excitement and anticipation, while Xiao Shiqin's understanding of the internal workings of Excellent Era Club had only just begun. All the professional players, the various departments of the club, and the department personnel, etc., were busy for another afternoon. Excellent Era was very satisfied with Xiao Shiqin, and Xiao Shiqin, of course, was not unhappy to receive such treatment.

The dinner that day was arranged relatively casually, you could only say it was a simple meal with a lot of people. However, the boss, Tao Xuan, still personally accompanied them. But at this time, the main character was no longer just Xiao Shiqin. Sun Xiang, the player who transferred during the winter transfer window, half a year earlier than Xiao Shiqin, was also regarded by Tao Xuan as an important figure for the future. He couldn't just neglect him after Xiao Shiqin arrived. In Tao Xuan's heart, after all, Sun Xiang was the real trump card and core.

At the dinner, these two were pulled to his left and right like Tao Xuan's right and left arms, talking and laughing, which made the other team players quite envious. In fact, Excellent Era was not as harmonious and stable as it seemed in front of people. After all, it was a relegated team, and which of these players in the team didn't have their own plans? Some people were willing to bet on Excellent Era's future, while others were not. It was just that no one was in a hurry to finalize their next home before July 1st. The transfer window was only just opening from July 1st to August 31st. There were two months to operate, and there was plenty of time to observe.

In fact, which of these players, especially the main players, didn't have several invitations in their hands? Relegated teams had always been like a supermarket that other teams would heavily shop at. It was just that usually the relegated teams were bad teams, and the goods in the supermarket were limited, but Excellent Era was different! Excellent Era's relegation was completely regarded as a miracle, and no one had ever questioned the level of Excellent Era's players. With Excellent Era's relegation, countless clubs contacted Excellent Era, or secretly communicated with Excellent Era's players.

Excellent Era's big hype about Xiao Shiqin's joining was, on the one hand, to appease the fans and keep supporters confident in Excellent Era; on the other hand, it was also to knock on the competitors, telling them: Excellent Era is not finished yet, don't treat us as a market, on the contrary, we will continue to strengthen ourselves! See, Xiao Shiqin, we can still get an All-Star player even if we are relegated!

As for the team, Sun Xiang and Xiao Shiqin were of course the ones to be properly won over. As for the others, some work had been done in advance, and now they could take advantage of Xiao Shiqin's joining to strike while the iron was hot. But you can't get fat in one bite, and any work must be prioritized and done step by step! Currently, of course, Sun Xiang and Xiao Shiqin were the main focus.

While Tao Xuan was chatting with these two core figures, he was also paying attention to the other players in the team, and occasionally greeted everyone, and even sometimes chatted with someone one-on-one by name, without completely neglecting anyone.

But there was, after all, one person at this table who made him feel rather embarrassed.

Su Mucheng.

Although Su Mucheng had cooperated with all the club's affairs throughout the day, she was basically absent-minded. Just now, when Tao Xuan said a few words to her, they were all replies of "uh-huh," "ah," "oh," and other omissions that couldn't be omitted any further.

"Haha, Mucheng is like Zhou Zekai today?" Tao Xuan was being humorous, and of course everyone had to laugh along with the boss's joke. As for why Su Mucheng was like this, everyone had their own ideas in their hearts. Only Xiao Shiqin was more confused. He was no stranger to Su Mucheng. The two of them became professional players in the Glory's fourth season, and the professional players who became rookies in the league that year were known as the Golden Generation in Glory's history, because a large number of players emerged in that season and eventually became All-Star level.

In addition to Su Mucheng and Xiao Shiqin, there were Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian of Blue Rain Team, Zhang Xinjie of Tyranny Team, Chu Yunxiu of Misty Rain Team, Li Xuan of Void Team, Tian Sen of Wind Howl Team, and Li Yihui of Tiny Herb Team. This group of All-Star players who are currently in their prime in the league all emerged in the fourth season. Moreover, each of them became the main force of their respective teams as soon as they came up. Zhang Xinjie even assisted Han Wenqing in ending Excellent Era Team's three consecutive championships in that year, becoming the first rookie in Glory history to win the championship as the main force of the team in his first year.

Golden Generation, worthy of the name.

And they, this group of people, also quite unassumingly built a group called "Golden Generation." Of course, it wasn't really arrogant, it was just that young people were playing for fun. In fact, every year's rookie players may build a group to communicate with each other, but they, this year, had the nickname "Golden Generation." Another difference was that most rookie groups initially had rookies complaining about how difficult it was to get ahead, while they, this "Golden Generation," were all talented main forces as soon as they came out, so they couldn't talk about such topics.

With the group chattering and arguing, everyone's relationship was naturally very good. Moreover, there were two female players in this group, and one of them was the super beauty Su Mucheng. Teasing the girls when bored was no different from ordinary people. The Golden Generation was quite harmonious inside, and Xiao Shiqin and Su Mucheng could be considered to have some personal friendship. Coming to Excellent Era, he was still thinking that, among this Golden Generation, apart from Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian, who were on the same team from the beginning, they were finally brought together through transfers. As a result, now seeing Su Mucheng being absent-minded and lukewarm, he was a little puzzled.

Based on Xiao Shiqin's understanding of Su Mucheng, this emotion shouldn't be directed at him. After seeing Su Mucheng say "uh-huh," "ah," "oh" to Tao Xuan, Xiao Shiqin, who came from being a captain, could see a little bit. This Su Mucheng was probably having conflicts with the team? Excellent Era, it seemed, also had internal problems. And the problem was with Su Mucheng, Xiao Shiqin immediately thought of the various rumors circulating about Ye Qiu's retirement.

Just as he was thinking about it, Tao Xuan's attention turned to him and Sun Xiang: "I'll take you to a place later."

"Ah?" Xiao Shiqin was stunned. "Where to?"

"Very close," Tao Xuan said with a smile.

Xiao Shiqin glanced at Sun Xiang, but Sun Xiang shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he didn't know either.

"Eat, eat," Tao Xuan greeted everyone again with a smile on his face. In fact, at this time, he was also a little annoyed by Su Mucheng.

In fact, he had already planned not to keep Su Mucheng, and he wasn't worried about not being able to sell her for a high price. As a result, he didn't expect that she would be stuck with Su Mucheng herself in the end. Su Mucheng had no intention of transferring at all. To acquire a transfer, it was useless to toss around without the player's approval. As for an exchange transfer, Su Mucheng's remaining one-year contract was a major obstacle. No one was willing to exchange for a valuable player and then have them expire and leave after a year, so even with an exchange transfer, in Su Mucheng's case, the buyer would require that the contract renewal issue be discussed first. But the problem was that Su Mucheng was now refusing to renew her contract with Excellent Era, and she was also refusing to renew her contract with the exchange buyer, making it clear that she wanted to finish this year's contract and leave on her own.

Tao Xuan was depressed! A player who could be exchanged for a lot of money couldn't be sold for money. What made him even more depressed was that Su Mucheng, a player with many commercial endorsements, would have her required to have a certain number of appearances in the contracts between the club and the sponsors, otherwise the sponsorship fee would be discounted. But what about the current Excellent Era? Relegated... appearances in the Challenger League didn't count, and the endorsement fees that Su Mucheng brought her this season would definitely be greatly discounted. The sponsors were still unhappy about this! But there was nothing they could do. They really couldn't have imagined that Excellent Era would actually be relegated and play so big. It was really a miscalculation!

Such a valuable player, staying to play in the Challenger League, and as soon as she returned to the professional league, she would pat her butt and leave. This really didn't fit Tao Xuan's operating philosophy at all. But he had no way to stop her. He couldn't sell her if he wanted to, and keeping her was already a struggle. As a result, Su Mucheng was still pretending to be Zhou Zekai, creating even more entanglement. Tao Xuan was so angry that he couldn't do anything. He knew clearly that Su Mucheng was waiting for her contract to end so she could go find Ye Qiu. Who knew if her current actions were Ye Qiu's instructions!

Ye Qiu!

Tao Xuan was already preparing to visit this former captain, yes, with the two core members of his new Excellent Era. He wanted to see how Ye Qiu could maintain his confidence in the face of such a combination.