Chapter 52

Nanding Middle School abandoned their attack in the last ten minutes, retreating to defend comprehensively, and the final score was set at 3:1, with Guanglin Middle School successfully securing three points as they wished.

After the match, the changing room of Guanglin Middle School was bustling with excitement. Everyone praised Wang Bo's performance in the second half, which had turned the tide. In response, Wang Bo attributed the success to Coach Zhang's timely adjustment of tactics. Realizing this, everyone started to flatter the coach.

Although Zhang Guangda was criticizing the poor performance in the first half, he was secretly pleased. The turnaround in the second half proved that it wasn't his tactical ideas that were lacking, but rather the lack of capable players to execute them. Fortunately, heaven had sent him Wang Bo. He felt that this young man might have a future in professional football, already showing the demeanor of a great leader.

Winning the match and keeping their hopes for the championship alive, all the players were elated. Even the two full-backs who were substituted at halftime were happy, as their sacrifice of playing time had contributed to the victory. Especially the left-back who had made a mistake in the first half, he was relieved not to be blamed for the loss.

After showering and changing, Wang Bo saw a crowd gathered outside the changing room corridor, near the stands. They were mostly football enthusiasts, mostly men, who had come to watch the match.

Seeing him come out, they all gave him a thumbs up, praising his performance. "Number 19, you played great, I support you!" "Well done, keep it up!" "If you keep this up, I'll get the Blue Devils to come watch the games!" Haidong City had a professional football team that performed well in the national league, and thus had a large fan group called the "Blue Devils," widely distributed across the city. This uncle seemed to be one of them.

"Thank you, thank you!" Wang Bo nodded and thanked everyone, feeling a bit shy from the sudden attention. "I'll try my best next time," he said and then fled.

He walked to the exit and saw his parents and Liu Yan waiting for him. As soon as he approached, his father gave him a thumbs up, "Son, you did an amazing job! I'm so happy I came to watch this game today!" Wang's father had never known his son had such talent for football, and he was pleasantly surprised.

"Of course, who do you think I am?" Wang Bo was less modest in front of his father. His father said, "Your coach is also very capable, he directed the game well." His mother asked, "There's a coach too?"

They chatted for a bit, and Wang Bo asked Liu Yan, "Did you just get here? I didn't see you earlier."

"We've been here for a while," Liu Yan said, "It was too sunny on the stands, so we hid." Jin Xiaoli added, "Yeah, we watched the game from the administrative building."

"How could you see clearly from there?" Wang Bo looked at the small building at the far end of the field, which was the canteen and office of the sports center.

"We could see," Liu Yan said excitedly, "We saw you score, Number 19, right?"

"Yep." Wang Bo nodded, and Liu Yan nudged her friend, "See, I told you it was Number 19, but you didn't believe me."

Jin Xiaoli was surprised, "You really are that strong guy?" She had mild myopia, so she hadn't recognized him at first, just assuming that Wang Bo, who had just joined the team, couldn't be that good, or he would have been on the school team already.

Wang's father pulled Wang's mother, "Let's go, let the kids chat." They said their goodbyes and parted ways. Wang Bo and Liu Yan walked out of the sports center, still talking about the game. Jin Xiaoli said, "By the way, we met a big shot in the administrative building."

"Who?" He had seen several black cars enter the sports center during the match, and a group of people had accompanied someone to the administrative building, but he didn't know who it was.

"Seems like the new deputy district chief came to inspect the work," Liu Yan said, "She watched the game from the window next to us and even praised you to her entourage."

"Uh-huh," Jin Xiaoli nodded, "She said Number 19 is good, a promising talent."

Wang Bo was quite surprised, not expecting his first appearance to catch the attention of a leader. They were almost out of the sports center.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Wang Bo, Wang Bo! Wait up." He turned around and saw Zhao Jianbin, the right winger, running over. Seeing Liu Yan and Jin Xiaoli, he greeted them, "Hey, beautiful ladies." Then he turned to Wang Bo, "Wanna play tomorrow? We have a match with the Accounting College, five of us are going, you in?"

"When?" He had to distribute flyers in the afternoon, worried about the time conflict.

"Nine in the morning, can you make it?" Zhao Jianbin seemed eager, clearly wanting him to come.

"Sure, I'm free in the morning, count me in." Wang Bo nodded, agreeing. He didn't have many football friends and needed to integrate into a group.

Zhao Jianbin patted his shoulder happily, "Great, see you at the Accounting College at nine, be on time! I'll leave you to your date." He turned and muttered, "Hey, scoring two goals on the field, and off the field too..."

Jin Xiaoli asked Wang Bo, "Should we take a taxi or the bus?" A taxi from here to the city stadium would cost about a hundred yuan, and she thought Wang Bo should pay, so she couldn't be too generous.

"Let's take a taxi," Wang Bo said casually, "Taking the bus would require two transfers, too time-consuming." So the three of them hailed a taxi at the sports center and headed straight for the city stadium.

On the way, Jin Xiaoli asked, "I heard you two were caught chatting in the middle of the night by Director Liu! How was it? Exciting?"

Wang Bo thought, these two really talk about everything, "What's exciting? We were chatting, and she suddenly disappeared. I thought their electricity bill wasn't paid and the power was cut."

"Ha ha..." Jin Xiaoli laughed, clapping her hands. Liu Yan scolded, "Your family is the one with unpaid bills. My dad scolded me this morning, and I almost couldn't come out today. You two are still making fun of me."

Having a dad like Liu Dad, she was quite pitiful. Wang Bo turned and said, "You didn't rat me out, right?"

Liu Yan blushed, thinking if she had told her dad, what would he think? I'm not that stupid. So she said irritably, "No, I'd never tell on you, even if I were beaten to death."

"Good buddy, you're loyal!" Wang Bo said with a smile. Jin Xiaoli added, "You two are buddies now? What about me, buddy or sister?"

Wang Bo looked at her, "You're neither, you're a transgender."

Liu Yan burst out laughing, and Jin Xiaoli, angry, started to pinch Wang Bo's neck, "You're the transgender! You're the transgender! Have you ever seen such a beautiful transgender?"

Wang Bo cried out in pain, "I have, in 'Lost in Thailand.'" Liu Yan couldn't hold back, clutching her stomach and laughing, and even the taxi driver glanced at Jin Xiaoli in the rearview mirror.

They laughed and joked all the way to the stadium. When they arrived, there were still over two hours before the game, so they found a place to eat.

There were many restaurants around the stadium. After a quick look, they chose a stir-fry restaurant, ordered a bunch of ingredients, and enjoyed a large pot of delicious food.

This meal cost over a hundred yuan, and Liu Yan felt a bit embarrassed, "Wang Bo, we should pay for the meal. It's not right to always let you treat us..." She hadn't heard that Wang Bo's family was wealthy, so she was considerate of him.

Wang Bo said, "No problem, if I invite you out, how can I let you pay?" He suddenly wiped his mouth and said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Jin Xiaoli, I have something for you."

Then he took out a gold card from his wallet, indicating a balance of at least 100,000 yuan, and handed it to Jin Xiaoli, "The password is the last four digits of the card number." The card had 300,000 yuan, which he had arranged at the bank that morning, including the expenses for the favor, showing his generosity.

Jin Xiaoli took the card without a word, "Since you trust me, I won't let you down."

Liu Yan, seeing them whispering, couldn't help but ask, "What are you two up to? Why are you giving Xiaoli so much money?"

"Oh, there's something at home, and I'm asking Jin Xiaoli's dad for help. I can't go into details, it's a bit embarrassing," he explained vaguely, as it involved a criminal matter, which he couldn't talk about in detail.

Liu Yan asked Xiaoli, "Really?"

"Or what did you think?" Jin Xiaoli joked, "Does Wang Bo want to keep me as a mistress?" She obviously didn't think Wang Bo wanted to keep her as a mistress, or she wouldn't have given her the money in front of her, so she believed it to be true.

She said a bit jealously, "You two are so close, keeping secrets from me..."

Seeing her jealous, they looked at each other and smiled, "Eat up, you ordered so much, we can't finish it all." Among the three, Liu Yan was the most gluttonous, yet she had the slimmest figure, no matter how much she ate, she never gained weight.

After eating for a while, Jin Xiaoli asked, "Wang Bo, did you prepare this money yourself? My dad said your parents don't seem to know about this."

"Uh-huh," he nodded, "I kept it from my parents."

"Where did you get so much money?" Jin Xiaoli asked curiously. He leaned in and whispered, "Don't tell anyone, actually, I won the lottery recently, so I have a lot of money."

She widened her eyes and looked around, then whispered, "Really?"