Reverse.

Chapter 65 The Holiday is Over

Sonny Dean was awakened again by the sounds of children screaming and laughing in the backyard.

He lay on the bed, opened his eyes, and looked at the bedroom that was no longer dark. The morning light filtered through the gaps in the curtains.

He didn't get up immediately, but just lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling in a daze, with a look of despair on his face.

He was woken up by the same thing yesterday...

At that time, he tried to cover his head and continue sleeping.

As a result, the children's laughter and screams still reached his ears clearly even through the quilt and pillow.

He tossed and turned in bed, constantly trying to find a sleeping position that would block out the sound.

The end result was that I woke myself up.

So today he simply didn't bother with it, it was useless anyway.

He lay in bed like a corpse for an unknown amount of time, and he could clearly hear every sound of the ball being kicked.

He could even tell from the sounds of the balls being hit which ones were kicked by Wang Lie and which ones were kicked by his two children...

After realizing that his mind was now extremely clear and he really couldn't continue sleeping, he sighed and sat up from the bed.

At the same time, take out your phone to check the time:

8:36 AM.

If he remembered correctly, he tossed and turned yesterday and couldn't sleep. He got up and checked the time. It was about this time...

Tsk.

It's even more punctual than a fucking alarm clock!
After complaining in his heart, Dean threw back the quilt and got out of bed.

Then go straight to the bathroom to take a shower.

This is his habit every morning. He has to take a shower after getting up to feel refreshed.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Dean walked to the window and opened the curtains completely. The room suddenly became much brighter than before.

Then he looked through the closed window glass to the backyard of the neighbor's house next door.

The old rogue was playing football with his two children.

Judging from his movements, he was demonstrating to the children how to dribble the ball around the pole, and he did it smoothly.

Then the older boy followed suit and dribbled the ball around the pole.

But to be honest... it was a bit awkward to carry, so it's not very good.

The little girl was just playing around. She didn't kick the ball the way her father had shown her. Instead, she kicked it forward and then laughed and chased after it like crazy. Most of the screams and laughter that Dean heard came from this lively little girl.

Seeing this scene, Dean remembered what Wang Lie had said to him before:

"During this period, I practice basketball with my son every morning..."

He smiled disdainfully:
You call this practicing?
It's clearly just teasing children!
He turned and left, not wanting to watch the father playing house with his children.

※※※

"If nothing unexpected happens, I still plan to let Dean start in our next game against Brighton White Mountain."

Sam McNeill said to his colleagues on the coaching staff.

Unlike last time, no one expressed any doubts this time.

Although Dean's performance in the last game was not very good, he at least had an assist and indeed carried out the tactical tasks assigned to him by the coaching staff.

This was much better than his performance when he came on as a substitute in the match against Hurlingham FC.

Seeing that no one objected, McNeill said to the physical coach Giovanni Falletti: "You have to come up with a physical training plan specifically for Dean as soon as possible to adjust his physical condition to the best. He is not yet able to play the full game."

Falletti nodded and agreed to take the task.

Assistant coach Valor chuckled and said, "It's really ironic that 27-year-old Dean is not as physically fit as 38-year-old Wang."

After the match with the Scouse team, on the first day of resuming training, McNeil arranged a physical test for Wang Lie.

In order to win the game against the Scouse people, he let Wang Lie, who had just celebrated his 38th birthday, play the entire game.

He was actually worried that Wang Lie might not be able to recover for a week after overdrawing his physical strength.

However, the results of the physical test surprised almost everyone.

Fitness coach Faletti told him that Wang Lie was in very good physical condition. Although he was a little tired after playing a game, it was within the normal range and he did not look like a 38-year-old veteran at all.

If I must say, his body looks younger than his actual age...

Because it's not just his physical fitness, but also his speed, explosive power, cardiopulmonary capacity... and so on, those data don't look like what a 38-year-old should have.

When McNeill first received the report, he thought he had read it wrong. After rubbing his eyes hard, he suspected that Falletti had written the wrong report.

After repeatedly confirming with Falletti that the report was correct, he also asked Falletti to look up Wang Lie's physical test report when he just joined the team for comparison.

The results of various comparisons show that Wang Lie is now in much better physical condition than when he first joined the team.

Then McNeill looked at the two reports in silence.

He couldn't understand why this happened...

Finally, it was Falletti who provided an idea:

He thought it might be because Wang Lie's training and game rhythm were not normal in the last half of the season at Sofia. In particular, he was sent to the youth team for training for a period of time before leaving, but the training effect was not good enough, which led to a decline in Wang Lie's physical fitness.

After he came to Tyne and underwent targeted and systematic training, his physical fitness naturally recovered gradually.

Wang Lie has always paid more attention to physical fitness training, so it doesn't seem surprising that his physical functions look younger than his actual age.

McNeill also felt that this should be the truth of the matter. After all, it was recognized by everyone that Wang Lie had good physical fitness.

Hearing the sarcasm in his partner's tone, McNeill chose to speak a fair word for Sonny Dean:

"Wang is a freak and cannot be used as a standard. Just the fact that he has not suffered a serious injury for 18 years in his career is something that almost no one can do. Not to mention that this is his performance after two consecutive knee surgeries, which is simply incredible."

If you have never been seriously injured, then it is not difficult to understand.

But Wang Lie suffered the same serious injury twice in the two years between the ages of 19 and 20, and had two surgeries. It is really amazing that he could continue to play without serious injuries for 18 years after his return from injury...

The fact that he can become the current top scorer in football is also largely related to his extremely high and stable appearance rate.

It’s not that no one has tried to explore the reasons behind Wang Lie’s strong body.

But the final conclusion can only be one word: "talent".

This may be Wang Lie’s greatest talent.

Or maybe his body was originally in some kind of imbalance, which led to two serious injuries to his left knee patellar tendon, but the surgery may have repaired his body and brought it into a perfect balance, so that he is no longer troubled by major injuries.

※※※

When Sonny Dean heard laughter coming from the backyard, he threw off the covers and got out of bed.

This time he didn't lie in bed in a daze.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, he went downstairs and poured himself a glass of milk from the refrigerator.

Then he took the cup of milk, walked back to the second floor, stood by the bedroom window, and watched Wang Lie play football with his two children.

He kept shaking his head.

The old rogue has such a great talent for football, why does his son have no talent at all?

He recalled what the old scoundrel had said to him before:
"Would you like to come too?"

The old scoundrel is in need of a training partner, so he is indirectly inviting me by teaching the kid to practice basketball?
Whoops!
Just say it!

How do you know I won’t agree if you don’t tell me directly?
If you had just said it directly, I could have rejected you directly!

what!
Dean thought about what expression Wang Lie would have if he directly rejected him.

Then he started laughing alone in front of the window.

But as he smiled, the expression on his face turned gloomy again.

A little kid with no talent can play football with his dad.

Although he has such a talent for football, his father has never played football with him...

Even his memory of his dad is vague.

Dean held the glass of milk and turned away from the bedroom window.

The closed doors and windows could not block out the laughter and playfulness outside.

※※※

"Hey, I suddenly remembered something..."

At night, my wife Tang Xingmei, who was lying in bed, suddenly spoke.

Wang Lie looked from his phone to her: "What's the matter?"

"I remember you said before that you invited Dean to join you for morning exercises?"

"Yes." Wang Lie nodded.

Tang Xingmei smiled and said, "It seems you failed."

"That kid is stubborn and there's nothing I can do about it." Wang Lie spread his hands.

"Has he not changed at all?"

Wang Lie thought about it carefully: "To say that he hasn't changed at all, that's not the case... I can still feel that he is more serious during training. Oh, and one more thing. In the past, he wore headphones most of the time in the locker room, listening to his own music, and seemed to be indifferent to what everyone in the locker room was talking about. Now... since we beat the Scouse people, he seems to have worn headphones and listened to music less often when he entered the locker room..."

After listening to her husband's description, Tang Xingmei nodded and said in a very affirmative tone: "In fact, there is a change, and it is much better than before. For a person like him who is awkward, you can't expect him to complete the transformation overnight. You have to take it slowly."

Wang Lie also agreed: "Well, I don't care about him now. When I first came to the team, I was a little anxious when I saw how arrogant he was... I thought about forcing him. But he is the kind of person who will go against you the more you force him. If you ignore him, he will know what to do."

Tang Xingmei nodded repeatedly: "To put it bluntly, he is a child who has not grown up. He knows the truth in his heart, but if you force him to do it, he will not be happy. Qiqi is sometimes like this too. For example, when I asked him to clean up his room, he was very unhappy. Obviously, his room was already very messy, and I asked him to clean it up for his own good. Why should he be unhappy? Later he told me that he had planned to do so, but I asked him to clean up in an imperative tone, and he felt that he was forced, so he was very unhappy..."

Wang Lie laughed: "You are using our son as an example to disparage Dean, right? A 27-year-old adult is actually going to compete with an eight-year-old child..."

"Some things are in common. Anyway, every time I hear you talk about Dean, the image of a rebellious child emerges in my mind. By the way, what is his family like? Where are his parents?"

"It is said that his father divorced his mother not long after he was born. He first moved to Southampton and later moved to the United States. They rarely contacted each other and the relationship between father and son was very cold. His mother...his mother may have been traumatized by the divorce and became addicted to alcohol. She didn't take care of him when he was a child. Dean grew up on the streets. If he hadn't had a talent for football and was selected by Tyne Youth Training, he would probably be in prison now."

When Wang Lie was at Sofo United, he didn't know much about Dean's situation. After all, he was not his teammate, so why should he care so much?
When he came to Tyne and became teammates with Dean, he felt that this kid was a combat force that could be utilized, so Wang Lie went online to learn about some of Dean's past, trying to figure out how his current situation came about.

After listening to her husband's story, Tang Xingmei sighed: "The influence of the original family..."

Wang Lie, however, curled his lips and disagreed with his wife's statement: "What is the influence of the original family... Where in the world is there a 100% perfect original family? If everyone attributes their problems and failures to the influence of the original family, then everyone can just lie down and be a waste with peace of mind. This is like someone killing people, setting fire to a bank, and robbing a bank just because they are poor. There are so many poor people in the world, why would he do such evil?

"Football has given Dean a chance to change his fate, but he is still so careless. If he fails in the end, who can he blame? Speaking of my family background, I left home when I was young and went to the Oriental Football School to play football and receive training. My parents were not around, so how could I not learn bad things?"

Tang Xingmei glared at him and said, "Do you think everyone is as heartless as you?"

"What do you mean by heartless? Big heart!" Wang Lie poked his chest with his thumb.

"Okay, okay, you have a big heart. But how many people have such a big heart like you? You can't always think that everyone in the world has to be the same as you, Lao Wang..." Tang Xingmei said earnestly. "Otherwise, why doesn't Qiqi have your football talent?" "Uh..."

Wang Lie was speechless after hearing his wife's words.

Wang Lie was actually quite shocked when he first found out that his son had no talent for football.

He didn't ask his son to achieve the same career success as himself, but at least he could become a professional player? Could he join the national team?
As a result, he saw from a very young age that Wang Ziqi didn't even have the ability to become a professional player...

He was very depressed. His career achievements were certainly helped by the system plug-in, but it only prevented him from getting hurt.

The rest are all the result of his own efforts, from his own talent and ability, plus hard work...

He believes that his talent is unique in the history of Chinese football.

As a result, such an amazing talent was not passed on to his son at all...

He still remembers how young he was when he showed his talent for football - more than three years old, but less than four.

At that time, there were not many toys in his family, but there was a football. Because his father was an avid fan, he threw the football to him as a toy to play with.

When he went downstairs to play in the community, he had to bring the football with him - his father asked him to run around the community with the football just for fun.

At that time, after dinner every day, there would be many children running around in the community, laughing and playing.

Little Wang Lie also wanted to play with them, but was afraid of losing the football toy his father gave him, so he simply used his feet to carry the football and chased them.

Then Wang Lie’s father discovered that his son could run faster than other children of the same age with a football under his feet!

When climbing a slope, the ball is always at feet. When going up stairs, the ball is lifted up and when going down stairs, the ball is lifted up and down.

The news quickly spread in the neighborhood that there was a kid who could barely speak fluently but was very good at playing football.

It was from that time that Wang Lie's father began to think about training his son to become a professional player.

He himself has no talent, but his son does!

Maybe his football dream can be realized in his son?

After that, Wang Lie's father began to give his son special football training.

Wang Lie also played football from kindergarten to primary school, and gradually gained achievements and fame, until he was spotted by Xu Dongfang, the founder, principal and head coach of Dongfang Football School...

Because he was like this when he was a child, Wang Lie and other friends also tried to let Wang Ziqi run with the ball when he was more than three years old.

As a result, he fell down several times. For nearly a year, Wang Ziqi refused to touch a football and cried when he saw a football. He thought his father was punishing him by asking him to kick this round thing.

It was not until he grew up a little and understood more, and knew that his father was a world-famous football star, that he was willing to try playing football again under his father's guidance.

It’s just…even though I’m willing to practice playing football, I’m still learning it with difficulty and it’s not going smoothly.

So Wang Lie was able to confirm that his son really had no talent for football.

He then gave up the idea of ​​letting his son inherit his legacy and just decided to cultivate an interest and hobby for his son.

Now every morning he says he is teaching his child to play football, but in fact he is doing parent-child activities with his child, playing with him and enjoying the short-term family happiness...

※※※

Dean looked at the figures playing football in the backyard next door. For some reason, an idea suddenly occurred to him:
If the kid accidentally kicked the ball into his own yard, could I just take the opportunity to pass the ball to them and join them naturally?
As soon as this thought came into his mind, he was shocked - Damn! Why did I think so?! Who is going to join them!

At this moment, the little boy suddenly kicked the football towards the wall that separated their two houses.

Dean's heart began to tighten, and he even vaguely expected the football to fly over the wall.

His eyes were fixed on the football in the air, like a dog staring at a Frisbee, ready to jump at any moment.

He even put down the cup of water in his hand in advance...

As he watched, the football flew to the front of the courtyard wall and suddenly fell headfirst, failing to actually fly into his yard.

waste!

Dean cursed in his mind.

You can't even kick over such a short wall! You are bringing shame to your father's family name!

He turned and left.

But he quickly turned back, picked up the cup of water placed aside, and left again.

※※※

During a break in training, Dean went to find Wang Lie and asked directly, "Do you know that your child has no talent for football?"

Wang Lie said expressionlessly: "I know, what's wrong?"

Dean showed an incredible expression: "Then why do you still take him to play football every morning?!"

Wang Lie's answer was simpler and more direct: "I'd love to."

“…” Dean took a deep breath, then slapped his forehead, turned around and left.

How the hell did I forget?
I shouldn't have come to see this old scoundrel!
※※※

"Dad, can you sleep with me tonight?"

During dinner, Wang Zilin stared at Wang Lie with wide eyes and full of anticipation.

"I want one too! I want one too!" Brother Wang Ziqi raised his hand and joined in the fun.

"Wang Ziqi!" Tang Xingmei glared at her son, "As a brother, you should give way to your sister!"

Wang Ziqi pouted and stopped talking, but the aggrieved expression on his face was very obvious.

Wang Lie held his wife's hand, and then said to the two little ones, "Let's sleep together tonight. The bed in the bedroom is big enough for the four of us to sleep however we want!"

Hearing their father say this, the two little guys cheered: "Great!"

Then they started arguing again: "I want to be next to Daddy!"

"I want to be next to Dad too!"

Wang Lie opened his arms and made arrangements: "Men on the left and women on the right. Qiqi will be on my left and Linlin will be on my right."

"Great! My left!"

"Great! My right!"

The two children kept raising their hands and cheering. Tang Xingmei looked at the heartwarming scene with a smile in her eyes.

※※※

"Does it hurt?"

In the quiet bedroom, the only sounds were the two children's gentle snoring and his wife Tang Xingmei's whispered questions.

Wang Lie also replied in a low voice: "It's not uncomfortable."

"No way..." Tang Xingmei said angrily, "I can't even turn over. How can it not be uncomfortable to keep this position?"

Wang Lie, who was lying flat on his back, turned his head slightly and looked at the two children curled up on both sides of his body. They were each hugging one of their arms and sleeping soundly.

"After a while, when they fall asleep, I can move around a bit..."

"Thanks for your hard work!"

"Oh, it's not that hard... You will have to work hard next. You have to take care of the children and my mother..."

"With Sister Deng here, I don't have such a hard time. It's also hard for you to be alone in Newcastle. I will try to visit you more often."

"OK……"

The couple chatted quietly with their child between them, enjoying their special "world of two".

※※※

When Sonny Dean woke up from his sleep, what he saw was the ceiling illuminated by the morning light.

This is the ceiling of his bedroom in his Northumberland mansion.

This is a familiar place for him, but at this moment lying on the bed, he feels a little strange, as if it is different from the scenes he is used to.

He stared blankly at the ceiling for a few seconds, then suddenly jumped up from the bed and reached out to pick up his cell phone from the bedside table.

Eight forty in the morning.

That’s right, it’s this time!
But why... is it so quiet outside?
There were no sounds of children laughing and screaming, no muffled thuds of balls hitting the ground.

Dean came to his senses and jumped out of bed, ran barefoot to the window and opened the curtains.

The backyard of the neighbor next door was quiet, without a single person in sight.

※※※

Dean parked his car in the parking lot of the training base. As soon as he got out, he saw a familiar face getting out of the Chinese-made electric SUV diagonally opposite.

He stared at the other person with wide eyes, as if he had seen a ghost, and then screamed:

"Isn't it? Isn't it?"

Wang Lie frowned: "Are you still drunk, Dean?"

Dean shook his head and denied it: "I didn't drink yesterday!"

Then he gloated, "It's you, Wang. Did you drink too much last night? Did you not get up today? Otherwise, why did you come with me? Ha! Who said before that I always come to training on time? Huh? Who also came to training on time today? Hahaha!"

Dean danced with joy, he finally got hold of Wang Lie's weakness!

If the parking lot wasn't made of cement, he would have wanted to slide down to his knees in front of Wang Lie...

Wang Lie looked at him like a fool and said, "I just sent my wife and kids to the airport before coming here."

"Huh?" Dean was so excited that he was twisted, and he was stunned. He stopped dancing. "Going to the airport?"

"Yes, the children's winter vacation is over and they are returning home today."

Dean thought about the quiet backyard this morning.

He suddenly realized that maybe not just this morning, but every morning from now on, he would not be woken up by laughter.

Surprised, he blurted out his inner doubts:

"Will you still get up early to practice in the future?"

But he regretted what he said as soon as he said it. He wished he could cover his mouth, but it was too late.

Wang Lie on the other side raised his lips when he heard this: "Of course, do you want to come?"

Dean snorted, "I'm not that stupid bird Vitini!"

After saying that, he turned and left, wanting to escape from this place of trouble as soon as possible.

Wang Lie didn't call him, but said loudly behind him: "My door is always open, Dean, you are welcome to come anytime."

Dean jogged all the way to the first-team locker room.

(End of this chapter)