Chapter 60

Mrs. Cruz is sixty years old, an ordinary resident of Malaga, who has just retired this year. She was a seamstress before retirement. According to Spain's legal retirement age, she would have needed to work for five more years to officially retire, but her increasingly uncooperative physical condition forced her to retire early. Although her pension would be less, there was nothing she could do about it. Fortunately, her husband had retired officially, and the combined pensions of the two of them allowed them to live without worry.

At this moment, Mrs. Cruz was holding a homemade pastry, standing at the door of a house, her expression somewhat conflicted, seemingly hesitating whether to ring the doorbell of this house that hadn't been opened for several days.

In theory, an old lady who had lived here for nearly thirty years should be extremely familiar with the environment, and she was not someone who was bad at socializing. In fact, in this area, Mrs. Cruz was one of the most popular people, as she, being a former seamstress, often offered her help in this regard, and people who are willing to help others are always popular.

However, the enthusiastic old lady had encountered an unpleasant incident recently. A young couple had moved in next door, the man handsome and the woman beautiful, a seemingly harmonious pair. So, the enthusiastic old lady specially made pastries to visit them. Unexpectedly, when the door opened, the young woman gave Mrs. Cruz a cold and wary look. Even after Mrs. Cruz explained her intentions and offered the pastries, the woman's expression did not relax at all, though she did eventually accept the pastries. The old lady thought it was just because they were new to the area, but in the evening, when she was taking out the trash, she saw the familiar, untouched pastries in the bin. This completely changed the situation. The fiery-tempered Mr. Cruz, ignoring the old lady's attempts to stop him, went directly to the door to demand an explanation, but the other party's words left him speechless.

"We don't eat things from strangers, and besides, once you give something to me, how I dispose of it is my freedom."

After returning home, the Cruzes, who had never had a red face in their lives, had their first argument. So, before the old lady decided to visit the house again, the old man had tried to stop her from embarrassing herself, but she still came. However, when she arrived at the door, she seemed to remember the previous incident and hesitated. At that moment, the door opened on its own.

The person who opened the door was a young man with black hair and black eyes, an Easterner. He seemed to be startled by Mrs. Cruz's sudden appearance, but when he saw the pastry in her hand, his surprised expression quickly softened.

"May I ask who you are?"

"Um... Oh, I live next door, you can call me Mrs. Cruz." Although the fact that the man was an Easterner surprised the old lady a bit, seeing him made her more relaxed, and her face was filled with a warm smile. She pointed to the house next door and said, "You just moved in, right? I just came to say hello and welcome you. This is a small gift, I hope you like it."

As she spoke, the old lady handed over the pastry, her eyes subtly observing the young man's expression. To her delight, the young man happily accepted her gift.

"My name is Lin Sen, nice to meet you." The young man's tone was very polite, "Thank you for the gift."

He then bowed and invited her to come in and sit down. The old lady naturally didn't really go in, but she glanced around the room out of the corner of her eye, and her expression quickly became a bit strange.

"Sorry, I've been busy with work recently and haven't had time to tidy up, so the house is a bit messy." The young man noticed her expression and smiled, explaining.

"It's good that the young man is working hard." The old lady also smiled and nodded, then bid farewell and left.

When she got home, the old man, seeing that the old lady's hands were empty, snorted and said not to expect to see the pastries in the trash again. The old lady, seemingly not hearing the old man's sarcasm, started talking about what a good young man it was. The old man, finding it annoying but also curious, asked about the details, and the old lady recounted the whole story. Upon hearing "Lin Sen? Chinese?" the old man frowned and asked.

"I didn't ask, but he's an Easterner."

"Wait a moment." The old man thought for a moment, then got up to look for something. After a while, he found a newspaper and pointed to a photo, asking if it was him.

"It's him." The old lady felt a bit amazed, wondering how the young man could be in the newspaper.

"He's the new head coach of Malaga." The old man was also a bit surprised, saying.

"Head coach? So young?" The old lady's eyes widened. Although football is very popular in Spain, not everyone cares, and the old lady was one of them.

The old man didn't answer, perhaps thinking it was pointless to explain. He wasn't a die-hard fan, otherwise, the old lady wouldn't have been unfamiliar with Lin Sen. Football was just a seasoning for him, something that wouldn't greatly affect his life, though he would pay attention during major tournaments like the European Cup.

The head coach of the local team Malaga becoming his neighbor?

This feeling was like driving and seeing a rare supercar coming towards you. Besides the novelty, the two vehicles would eventually pass each other and head to their respective destinations.

The old lady started talking again.

---

The European Cup was still in full swing, Livermore was still in a mess, Little Sans was still indifferent, and Lin Sen was still in a difficult situation.

It's easy to make a decision, but the process is difficult.

Nineteen teams, with the league and various cup matches, there were over four hundred games in total. Speaking of which, Lin Sen was grateful for his brief coaching experience at Atletico Madrid. Although the outcome wasn't pleasant, it at least allowed him to watch fewer videos now. However, there were still many videos left. Each game was ninety minutes long, and even after filtering out irrelevant time, watching ten games a day would take more than a month. Moreover, Lin Sen had to make his own notes for each game, so, to put it bluntly, he didn't even have time to masturbate, let alone clean the house.

It wasn't until today, when Lin Sen received a call from Livermore asking him to come to the club, that he decided to go out. He didn't expect to run into Mrs. Cruz when he opened the door.

For Mrs. Cruz's visit, Lin Sen, who had moved frequently, was not unfamiliar. Although he didn't always encounter such situations in every new place, he was not opposed to building good relations with neighbors. In this world, there are good people and bad people. Don't complain when you meet bad people, and don't refuse when you meet good people. A good neighbor is better than a distant relative, and Lin Sen, who had lived abroad for a long time, had a deeper understanding of this, especially given his Chinese identity.

Although the perception of Chinese people abroad has improved in recent years with China's rise, it cannot be denied that many people still have a blind prejudice against Chinese people. In European countries, Spain is one of the places where this prejudice is more common. For example, the Spanish TV station's insulting remarks about China have happened more than once. During his brief coaching stint at Atletico Madrid, Lin Sen had never been taken seriously by the club's management, and the fans' opinions of him never changed much. Although he led Atletico back to a normal track, when he left, he only received some sparse applause.

Lin Sen had encountered such situations before and didn't want to complain. If someone stepped on him, he would step back; if someone helped him, he would never be stingy with his thanks. Simple and direct. He believed in the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Respect is built this way, not through empty words or wealth. The idea of winning people over with virtue is too idealistic.

When he arrived at the club, Livermore immediately handed Lin Sen a document. Lin Sen flipped through a few pages; it contained all the current players' contract details, including contract terms, annual salaries, and special clauses. Normally, Lin Sen wouldn't need to know these details, but since Malaga had given him the transfer rights, there was no need to hide them from him.

Lin Sen skimmed through the document and then closed it, turning to Livermore with a smile and asking about the results of the negotiations in Italy. Lin Sen already knew that Livermore had reached an agreement with Inter Milan to borrow Bonucci for a season for free, pending the player's approval. Livermore had then focused all the funds on Ranocchia, offering cash plus a special clause, which was a percentage of the next transfer fee.

"1.2 million plus 50% of the next transfer fee, or 1.5 million plus 30% of the next transfer fee. I gave Arezzo two options, and as you requested, I informed them that this is our final offer." Livermore replied calmly, "They haven't responded yet."

Lin Sen nodded.

For the partnership of Bonucci and Ranocchia, Malaga had done its best. They could only do their part and leave the rest to fate. However, Lin Sen was quite confident that these two deals would go through.

There was no need to elaborate on Bonucci. Malaga, being a La Liga team, was willing to help Inter Milan develop the player for free, and Inter Milan's approval was expected. Bonucci had no reason to object. The main obstacle for Ranocchia's transfer was on the club's side. Malaga's only competitor was **, but Malaga's advantage was that ** was not as committed to this deal as they were, and their offer was not inferior to **'s.