Chapter 56: The Hero's "Special Supply"

Although they were photographed by reporters going to a nightclub before, Chen Yingxiong prevented the group from going to the reserve team. Thus, the Eat, Drink and Play Group had something to celebrate.

This time there was a new member joining - Andrei Arshavin.

Since Arshavin was there, they didn't go to the club. Chen Yingxiong took them directly to Ruilongju for dinner.

Ren Tianhua, the owner of Ruilongju, was very happy when he saw Chen Yingxiong. There had been more reports about Chen Yingxiong in the media recently. At first, it was about him hanging out in bars, and later it became about him performing a hat trick. Ren Tianhua was very excited to see it.

When he first saw the news about Chen Yingxiong clubbing, he was worried that Chen Yingxiong would be like those Chinese players who lost themselves in fame and fortune. But he immediately scored a hat trick in the game, severely hitting back at the media's criticism and doubts about him.

Although Ren Tianhua didn't know much about football, he could see that Chen Yingxiong was quickly becoming a new hero in the city. The Russian college students who worked in his shop would talk about Chen Yingxiong from Zenit St. Petersburg all the time.

Of course he was happy that his compatriot had become famous, but Ren Tianhua had a small regret, which was... the last time Chen Yingxiong came, they didn't take a group photo.

There was a wall in his shop with group photos of customers and himself, some of them were ordinary tourists and some were celebrities.

But his wish was soon fulfilled... because Chen Yingxiong brought his teammates to eat here again.

And this time they brought a big-name star - Andrei Arshavin!

After Ren Tianhua took a photo with the five people with a smile on his face, he ordered the kitchen to prepare two dishes. One was of course a sweet and sour Chinese dish for the Russians, and the other was an authentic Sichuan dish prepared specifically for Chen Yingxiong.

When Denisov saw that Chen Yingxiong was being treated specially, he was not happy. "Hey, Yingxiong. I am the head of the regiment, right? Why are you being treated like this?"

Chen Yingxiong was tasting Maoxuewang. He thought that although the taste was not as good as that in his hometown, it was probably considered authentic in St. Petersburg. At least it had the spicy and fresh taste he was used to.

He looked at Denisov, then at the other three men, all of whom were staring at him with the same gaze, as if he were eating alone.

He smiled, and a teasing idea flashed through his mind. "Ah, well... I don't think these dishes are to your taste..."

The more he covered it up, the more excited and interested his teammates became.

"No, if you consider us friends, we must try these them!"

Denisov reached out his fork, put a piece in his mouth, and then...

Chen Yingxiong's face turned red from laughter instantly when he saw Denisov!

Russians were Eastern Slavs with fair skin, so when Denisov blushed it was very, very obvious... like a monkey's butt.

Denisov, feeling the spiciness, grabbed the beaker next to him and drank it in one gulp... Then it became even more tragic because what he drank a large glass of vodka...

Vodka was a well-known strong liquor.

Then Denisov grabbed a nearby cup.

"That's my..." Anyukov wanted to stop him, but it was too late. He saw that Denisov had already tilted his head back and the cup was empty.

"...Vodka..." he muttered.

Denisov felt that his throat and mouth were burning! It was as if a raging flame would burst out as soon as he opened his mouth.

He wanted to speak, but nothing came out. In the end, he was so angry that he yelled, "It's so fucking hot!!"

Chen Yingxiong was laughing so hard that he leaned over the table and clapped his hands on the edge.

…

Denisov drank two large bottles of iced mineral water before he was able to control the burning sensation. Despite this, his face was still red all the way to the base of his neck and there were beads of sweat on his forehead.

That showed how embarrassed he was just now.

"I told you this dish is definitely not to your taste..." Chen Yingxiong shrugged and spread his hands, looking innocent.

"Damn it..." Denisov admitted defeat.

Arshavin, who was standing next to him, saw how embarrassed Denisov was and asked, "Is it really that scary?"

Chen Yingxiong shook his head. "If you are afraid of spicy food, just drink some water, but don't drink this..." Chen Yingxiong pointed to the vodka in their glasses.

"You are wrong, hero! For Russians, vodka is water!" Anyukov said righteously.

"Water is vodka!" added Kerzakov next to him.

Chen Yingxiong curled his lips. Sichuan people drank as much as they ate, but he had never seen anything so exaggerated as the way Russians drank alcohol. He really wasn't sure if it was something to be proud of.

Denisov looked at the colourful dishes in front of Chen Yingxiong with some hesitation. "But... now that I think about it, I think the taste is pretty good..."

"Really?" Arshavin was obviously also very interested in the "special Chinese food" that Chen Yingxiong was eating.

"Really!" Denisov nodded vigorously.

"Then let's try it!"

The other three people stretched out their hands towards the plate of food in front of Chen Yingxiong.

Then...

Then there were four monkey butts in front of Chen Yingxiong!

…

After having a meal with Arshavin, Chen Yingxiong felt that the relationship between the two of them was closer than before. In the past, they were just teammates, but now they could be regarded as "better teammates".

It is best to build relationships at the table...

In fact, when it came to talking about feelings at the dinner table, Chinese people and Russians could find common ground.

Of course, the relationship between Chen Yingxiong and Arshavin had not reached the point where they could joke around as easily as he did with Denisov, Anyukov, and Kerzakov.

After the match with Soviet Wings, the league entered a break period because the national team called up their players, so the league was suspended and the next round would not be until October 14th.

The Udney Park training base suddenly became much quieter.

Those non-national team players would of course continue to train according to their normal schedule. It was impossible for non-national team players to have a holiday while their teammates were working hard in their respective countries.

So for Chen Yingxiong, except for the slightly deserted locker room, there was no real change. He just took advantage of this time to train hard and accumulate experience.

It took 90,000 experience points to upgrade from level 5 to level 6, and at the moment he had only upgraded by 33%. In the past, he thought upgrading was fast and easy, and he could jump up a lot by doing all-nighters. But now that the experience points required for upgrading were more, he found that the experience bar was moving too slowly!

During this period, Advocaat arranged a warm-up match for the first team, and the opponent was... their own youth team.

One month after leaving the youth team, Chen Yingxiong finally met his teammates in the youth team and head coach Popovich again.

Everyone exchanged pleasantries on the sidelines.

The teammates in the youth team were envious when they saw that the Chinese kid, who had just joined the team not long ago, had already become the hottest main striker in the first team and had scored five goals in three league games.

Seeing Popovich, Chen Yingxiong naturally bowed again to thank Popovich for his training. Although they had not been together for a long time, he felt that Popovich was a serious and responsible head coach who was good to the players, and...he could get along well with young people, so that he, a new player, did not feel any alienation and integrated into the team quickly.

Popovich was surprised that Chen Yingxiong had such an attitude when he saw him. He thought that Chen Yingxiong should be as proud as any other young man who was in high spirits, but he didn't expect that Chen Yingxiong had not forgotten him.

He was suddenly very happy.

Patting Chen Yingxiong on the shoulder, he said. "No matter what happens, don't forget the afternoon when you joined Zenit."

He was referring to the afternoon when Chen Yingxiong defeated the Zenit youth team and proved his strength to everyone with practical actions.

Chen Yingxiong nodded. "I understand, coach!"

Popovich winked at him and said, "Do a good job on the first team!"

In this warm-up match with the youth team, Chen Yingxiong started for the first team and was replaced after half the game. He once again showed his header power in the game, and his former teammates in the youth team deeply felt that after several rounds of the Super League, Chen Yingxiong was better than before in many aspects. It was not just a quantifiable difference, but also a pure feeling - the central defender Krotkov, who had been competing with Chen Yingxiong since the test before Chen Yingxiong joined the team, clearly felt that Chen Yingxiong was more difficult to deal with than before. He felt that Yingxiong had completely left the level of the youth team and became a qualified professional player.

In the warm-up match, Chen Yingxiong once again completed a hat trick, of course, all of them were scored with his head.

However, no matter how many goals you scored in the warm-up matches, it was useless because the goals scored in the warm-up matches were of too low value, so the rewarded experience is much less.

…

In addition to the upgrade, there was another thing that had been bothering Chen Yingxiong, and that was... money!

He was very short of money now. His family owed more than 100,000 yuan which had not been repaid yet. Although he was helping with the debt, he only earned 20,000 yuan a month. After deducting the money he needed for his own expenses, even if he sent the remaining money to his father, it was barely a drop in the bucket.

However, the contract was signed when he just joined the team. At that time, he had nothing and had not proven his strength in any competition. To the Russians, he was no different from an amateur player.

It was different now. He had scored five goals in three league games and even had a hat trick to his name.

He felt that he had the capital to negotiate better terms with the club.

Become famous as early as possible, and get a raise as early as possible... That had been the plan. Now it was the time to execute it.

But first, he needed an agent.