In name only: In the name of Zhao Mengsheng's son!

"Hey, hey, hey, what kind of gang leader is that? Don't call me that next time! Hehe!"

Zhao Zhongxin patted him on the shoulder, laughing heartily. This guy was quite a character! No wonder he'd been following Gao Yuliang for so many years!

The Party Secretary of Jingzhou City was also quite happy; he could tell that Zhao Zhongxin was smiling with delight!

Governor Liu's son, on the other hand, was like a greenhorn; he racked his brains but couldn't figure out how the gang leader could flatter Zhao Zhongxin with that one sentence.

After the Lantern Festival, the second quarter of the Hanchao season also began. The opening match was quite a coincidence. Last year's champions and runners-up were Lincheng Team and Yantai Team. To be honest, Lincheng Team's strength on paper is not good anymore. After all, five of the players who went to Europe last year were from Lincheng. With those five players gone, Lincheng Team is no longer the invincible team it was last year. Yantai Team only sent one player to Europe, and their overall strength is still there. In addition, Handong has produced a football genius, Sun Jiadong.

Sun Jiadong's fame spread through Douyin (TikTok). To be honest, Borussia Dortmund was genuinely interested in him and initially willing to give him a training opportunity. However, the data sent by the coaches was increasingly outrageous. They were saying he was 16 years old, 179cm tall, 70kg, and incredibly fast? Was that some kind of bragging? And his football IQ was also high? And his stamina was excellent? How could that be possible? No Asian could possibly have that…

But before he could finish speaking, the coach sent over all the training videos. Dortmund watched them for a long time and decided to send someone to take a look. It was Zhang Zhichao who went to do the job! He said, shaking his head.

"What's wrong? What's wrong, sir?"

The Dortmund players just arrived today and heard there's a football match featuring Sun Jiadong, a provincial competition. Dortmund scoffed, "Provincial league? What's so interesting about that! It's just our state league!"

But after they figured it out, they were still a bit confused. What did it mean that one of your provinces was equivalent to one-third the size of Germany, and its GDP was also one-third of Germany's? Is that right? Is this a provincial league?

Furthermore, they learned from the coach that these young players were selected from high schools and universities across the province! Hearing this, they couldn't help but wonder why Chinese football was so poorly made, with such a selection process. With so many people in China, even if Asians aren't naturally suited to football, with such a large proportion, selecting twenty-odd exceptionally talented individuals would be a breeze! And they're ranked over a hundredth in the world!

They even felt that if the German government allowed them to select players in high schools and universities like this, their German team would have no problem defending their World Cup title this year! What a pity, those German bureaucrats... China is so much better, it's practically a football paradise!

Little did they know that this was all caused by a single sentence from Zhao Zhongxin, the governor of Handong Province. If they had gone to Beijing, the stronghold of the Football Association, they would have known what the doomsday of football really meant!

The Dortmund players were stunned; for a moment, they stopped being arrogant and head-shaking and watched the game quietly!

Zhao Zhongxin and Sha Ruijin also personally hosted the opening ceremony. The two smiled at each other, both quite happy. Sha Ruijin was actually quite grateful to Zhao Zhongxin because Sha Ruijin also contributed to the rise in Handong's GDP. Last year, he was also present at the Handong finals stadium, applauding the Yantai City players. The higher-ups considered Zhao Zhongxin to be the primary contributor, and Sha Ruijin to be a secondary contributor. Therefore, Sha Ruijin's trip to Beijing this time, with a 60% chance of being promoted to the second tier within two years, is also thanks to Zhao Zhongxin's contribution to the Hanchao!

Zhao Zhongxin simply wanted to boost GDP, and he also liked this atmosphere! The two of them are now highly regarded by netizens as the people's Party Secretary and the people's Governor—absolutely perfect!

So Zhao Zhongxin and Sha Ruijin were wearing the jerseys of the Yantai City and Lincheng teams! Keep in mind, this was just after the Lantern Festival, and it was still quite cold!

Zhao Zhongxin is alright, after all, he has been practicing martial arts for many years, so he is in great shape and has plenty of energy. The main thing is that he jogged here before coming to warm up. If he hadn't gotten married and had married Zhang Wanxin instead, he would definitely be even more awesome, since he is a virgin and can unleash his full power!

Sha Ruijin was not so lucky. After all, he was over sixty years old and was almost frozen to death. The tip of his pen was red from the cold, and he was trying his best to keep his voice from trembling when he spoke!

However, this also improved Sha Ruijin's reputation. It was a live broadcast, and even the provincial party secretary was freezing, but he still came to attend Han Chao's event. He was so down-to-earth!

Sha Ruijin said, "It's all for getting into the ministry. Even if I freeze to death here today, I still have to finish what I have to say!"

Sha Ruijin finally finished his speech and stood to the side, while Zhao Zhongxin stepped forward to begin his speech.

"What our Provincial Party Secretary Sha just said encouraged the kids, but perhaps not everyone understood it clearly! Well, to put it simply, see my team uniform? Go Yantai team! Beat Lincheng team and take back everything we lost last year!"

As soon as Zhao Zhongxin said this, the people of Yantai team, along with their fans, cheered. The people of Lincheng were unhappy and immediately opened their phones to check if Zhao Zhongxin was from Yantai. "No? Then what about his mother? His grandmother? His maternal grandmother? The reputation of being a 'scattered Handong' is well-deserved; it seems like none of them can be found. There's nothing we can do!" the last sensible person shouted.

"Zhao Zhongxin is a graduate of Han University. Last time he went to Han University, he called everyone 'junior' and shook hands with them like a general. The entire Yantai team are Han University students!"

Now these people from Lincheng knew why Zhao Zhongxin, an outsider, supported the Yantai team! They all looked at Sha Ruijin, who was wearing the Lincheng team uniform.

If Liu Kun weren't around, he would have punched the kid right there and then. "You bastard, how dare you insult my boss!" But if Liu Kun went here, he'd probably be surrounded and beaten by a bunch of Lincheng people! They'd probably come out in all directions!

Sha Ruijin also got into character, and he took the microphone with a smile!

"Go Lincheng team! We're going to defend our championship title and show Yantai team what it means to be the number one team in Handong!"

But Sha Ruijin's words didn't sit well with the people of Lincheng, nor with the people of Yantai. "Who's going to compete with you for the title of number one in Handong? We're from Lincheng, China! We're from Yantai, China! Handong? What's Handong? If you add your province name to your name, other cities look down on you! It's only because there aren't county-level teams playing here, otherwise, the whole city would be locked in a fierce battle on the field! Fellow townsman? Who says we're fellow townsmen!"

So it's only people from the provincial party committee who like to introduce themselves as "Handong Province + [your position]"—who else would introduce themselves like that? You, Sha Ruijin, are just an outsider, messing things up! Do you even know anything about water?

(This is the first chapter today, and the second chapter will be released at noon. Please give me some encouragement, it's really important to me!)