Chapter 281: He's a Great Player

Chapter 281: Chapter 274: He’s a Great Player

Even though he was already in a taxi headed back to Oude Kerk, Chen Tao was still in a state of utter shock.

The scene that had just unfolded at the airport had been an immense shock to him.

He saw how everyone—from the flight attendants and the captain to the travelers in the terminal—changed completely the moment they saw Yang Yang. Their faces filled with respect, even adoration. A few kids, no older than five or six, even ran up to Yang Yang, asking for autographs and photos.

Even the taxi driver was incredibly respectful, almost ridiculously polite.

He got the feeling that Yang Yang was a hero in this city.

And it was all because of soccer.

…

After they boarded the plane, Yang Yang chatted with him for a bit before falling asleep.

But Chen Tao couldn’t sleep a wink the entire way.

He had made a firm decision to go abroad with Yang Yang, and he was truly putting everything on the line.

He hadn’t even dared to tell his parents where he was going, only that he was leaving to play soccer.

Now, there was no turning back. He could only press forward.

‘It’s do or die!’

Now that he had left the country, he had no intention of ever going back to play there again.

He was going to make a name for himself in the Netherlands, in Europe.

Just like Yang Yang.

……

……

If Oude Kerk were in China, it would probably be considered a small village.

Its neat, clean streets gave it a unique charm.

Yang Yang got out of the car at the door. He argued with the driver for a moment before forcing the fare into his hand, then led Chen Tao inside.

“It’s a two-bedroom apartment, but there’s a small single room upstairs that we can fix up for you to stay in.”

Yang Yang enthusiastically showed Chen Tao around his rented apartment.

“I live with a player from the Belgian National Team, Thomas Vermaelen. He’s a great guy, so just make yourself at home.”

“Ibrahimovic used to live in that house across the street, and Maxwell lived next door. After Ibrahimovic transferred, Maxwell rented it out. Right now, Maicon and Filipe Luís from Brazil are living there.”

“A lot of other guys from Ajax live nearby too, so it’s usually pretty lively. You’re always bumping into people you know when you go out.”

After hearing Yang Yang’s explanation, Chen Tao thought the place seemed pretty nice.

On the second floor, Yang Yang showed Chen Tao the small single room. It was a bit small, but perfect for one person. It already had a single bed. They could buy some bedding, and he’d be able to move in that very night.

“What do you think? It’s a little small, but it should do,” Yang Yang said with a smile.

Chen Tao’s eyes welled up a bit as he nodded gratefully. “It’s great. It’s much better than our dorms back in China.”

“Alright then. You can stay here as long as you need. Don’t worry about a thing.”

Chen Tao nodded emphatically.

“Albess already gave me a call. He’s making some arrangements over the next couple of days and should be able to set up a trial for you soon. So, starting tomorrow, you’ll come with me to train at Ajax. You can shake off the jet lag, stay in shape, and be ready to perform your best when the trial comes.”

“Thank you,” Chen Tao said gratefully.

“Don’t mention it,” Yang Yang laughed.

The two of them immediately got to work, tidying up the small room and wiping down the bed frame.

Just as they were finishing their quick and efficient cleanup, they heard a noise from downstairs. Vermaelen was home.

Yang Yang had already told him about the situation over the phone, and Vermaelen had agreed to let Chen Tao stay for a while, so he was particularly welcoming when he saw him.

Before long, Maxwell, Maicon, and a few others heard the news and came over, and the house instantly burst with activity.

Everyone was curious about Yang Yang’s new companion and started asking him questions. Since Chen Tao had long planned to play abroad, he had been studying English. While not perfectly fluent, he could hold a conversation.

But he quickly discovered they weren’t interested in Yang Yang’s career in China. They were far more interested in whether he had a girlfriend back home, and just how many he’d had in total.

“Here, Chen, take a look at this photo. Is this Yang Yang’s girlfriend?” Maxwell pulled out his phone, found a picture, and showed it to Chen Tao, all while shooting a mischievous look at Yang Yang.

He had a look that seemed to say, ‘Buddy, you really messed up this time.’

The photo showed a beautiful young woman with an almost ethereal quality—it was none other than Su Ye, also known as Su Xiaomei.

The photo had been taken by a Dutch journalist during last year’s Champions League final. The press had assumed the people in the photo were Yang Yang’s family and friends, but they couldn’t confirm it. They ended up asking the Ajax players, and through the grapevine of rumors, she was identified as Yang Yang’s girlfriend.

Chen Tao looked up at Yang Yang, his expression asking, ‘Bro, am I allowed to say?’

“Go ahead, tell them who she is,” Yang Yang laughed breezily.

“Oh, her? She’s really not his girlfriend.”

“She’s not?”

“Nope. The media back in China already figured it out. She’s Yang Yang’s younger sister.”

“Sister?” Maxwell asked, puzzled.

“A biological sister?” Vermaelen asked, his interest piqued.

Chen Tao shook his head. He didn’t know the specifics either, just that Yang Yang called her “Xiaomei.” ‘But one is named Yang and the other is Su, so how could they be biological siblings? They must be cousins or some other kind of relative.’

But he didn’t want to speculate.

“I don’t believe it,” Vermaelen insisted, shaking his head. “He’s always secretly chatting with her on QQ at night, and he gets this all-too-suggestive look on his face.”

“What the hell? Who has a suggestive look?” Yang Yang couldn’t take it anymore and cut in.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, calm down.” Maxwell immediately stood up to block Yang Yang. “We’re just trying to get to the bottom of this, aren’t we?”

The others all nodded in unspoken agreement. They turned to look at Yang Yang, their eyes seeming to say, ‘We’re just checking. What are you getting so worked up for?’

‘Could it be… he’s got something to hide?’

“You guys are really something else…” Yang Yang shook his head, exasperated.

They were just keeping in touch normally, but this bunch of jokers, with their back-and-forth comments, had twisted it into some secret love affair—secret QQ chats, daily calls and texts, making it all sound incredibly sordid.

It got to the point where even Chen Tao was swayed.

“You know, hearing them talk about it… I’m starting to think there might be something between you and this Su Xiaomei…”

Yang Yang was utterly speechless.

‘Now I’ll never be able to clear my name.’

……

……

The next morning, Chen Tao was up bright and early with Yang Yang.

Back on the National Team, he had heard Zheng Zhi talk about Yang Yang’s routine and had wanted to see if he could keep up.

As it turned out, it wasn’t just him. Vermaelen, Maicon, Filipe Luís, and Maxwell were all up early for morning training too. Joining them was a tall, powerful Danish center-forward named Niklas Bendtner.

Even though this was his first real interaction with them, he could feel that this group of Ajax stars genuinely respected Yang Yang.

It wasn’t just because Yang Yang was the team’s top star. It was a deeper respect, one that Yang Yang had earned slowly, step by step, with his sheer ability, until they were all completely won over.

Even the Danish center-forward with his somewhat blunt way of speaking.

Back in China, even on the National Team, Chen Tao had always been a player with exceptionally outstanding technical skills—it was something he was very confident about. But now, as he jogged with Yang Yang and the others around the Oudekerk Lakefront while juggling a ball, he could barely keep up at the start and was soon completely exhausted.

The main reason was his stamina giving out, which caused his technical movements to lose their form and become unstable.

Yang Yang, in contrast, didn’t look particularly built, but his every movement was incredibly stable. Every step was steady. This allowed him to maintain his smooth, skilled technique throughout the entire run, without the slightest falter.

It wasn’t just Yang Yang; the other Ajax players were the same, even Vermaelen, a center-back.

Even from this simple jog-and-juggle, Chen Tao was already beginning to feel the gap between himself and the Ajax players.

After breakfast, Yang Yang took Chen Tao to De Toekomst.

Even though he was only there to train with the team, the staff had already been briefed. They had an extra set of Adidas training gear ready for Chen Tao and had even assigned him a temporary locker in the changing room.

The team captain, Galasek, who had arrived early at the training facility, gave Chen Tao a warm welcome and personally showed him around. Meanwhile, Yang Yang went to the medical room for a check-up before heading to the gym to begin his daily extra training session.

By the time Galasek brought Chen Tao over to the gym, he saw Yang Yang had already finished his weight training and was now on a stationary bike. Chen Tao was stunned to see him working so hard, drenched in sweat.

“Is he like this every day?” Chen Tao asked in astonishment.

Galasek nodded. “Yeah. I remember, in the almost two years since he joined the team, he’s trained like this nonstop, every single day. When he first started coming to the gym six months ago, a lot of the guys on the team figured he’d last two months at most. But here he is, still at it every day without fail.”

As he said this, Galasek’s face was filled with admiration.

On the soccer field, ability is what matters most. But not everyone is blessed with incredible talent. People who are diligent and hardworking will always earn respect, no matter where they are.

And Yang Yang was the type of player who was both incredibly hardworking and incredibly skilled.

Seeing is believing.

Chen Tao had read countless media reports about Yang Yang before. But only now, seeing it all with his own eyes and hearing these words directly from the Ajax captain’s mouth, did he truly understand how Yang Yang had burst onto the scene in just two short years, going from a complete unknown to one of Europe’s most famous rising stars.

“He’s a remarkable player,” Galasek said with a smile of praise.

Chen Tao nodded repeatedly.

By the time Yang Yang had finished his strength training, run the stairwells, and returned to the training pitch, his teammates were already in a rondo.

Since Chen Tao was Yang Yang’s friend, players like Vermaelen, Maxwell, Sneijder, and Heitinga went out of their way to look after him. This gave Chen Tao an even clearer sense of Yang Yang’s standing within the Ajax Team.

But during the training session that followed, he gained a much deeper appreciation for the intensity of a European club.

He gave it his absolute all, yet he still struggled to keep pace with the Ajax players.

The killer was that after the session, Yang Yang told him that morning’s workout had just been a recovery session—far less intense than a normal training day. This revelation nearly drove Chen Tao to despair.

‘If a recovery session is this much more intense than training back home, what is a real session like?’

But then he thought about it from another angle. ‘If you hone your skills in this kind of high-intensity training every day, of course you’ll improve much faster.’