After the away game against Royal Cathorn, Hu Lai did not return to Leeds, England with the team, but went directly to Barcelona to meet Zhang Qinghuan, then took a flight from Barcelona via Dubai, and finally arrived in Jincheng.
There, they will gather with their national team teammates to prepare for the next two China Cup games.
The China Cup is held on international match days, so it does not need to delay club events like the Asian Cup. Each club must also release players unconditionally and will not affect the return of national team players to participate in the competition.
In fact, the original idea of the China Cup was to be held during the Spring Festival every year, as a New Year gift to Chinese fans.
However, once this idea was proposed, it was rejected at the internal meeting.
The reason for the denial is not because they are afraid that the Chinese team will cause trouble to fans across the country during the Chinese New Year. After all, the current Chinese team has remained undefeated in the World Cup and will not collapse in a match with its opponents.
But during the Spring Festival...are there any national team match days?
No.
What about the national team competition?
Let’s not consider the trouble of recalling overseas players. The Asian Cup had not yet started at that time. No one realized that letting overseas players return on non-national team match days would have serious consequences. Let’s just talk about the Chinese team.
Opponents, if it’s not the national team match day, they can’t recall the players who played in the European leagues. If they can’t field the strongest lineup, they can only use the second team or even the third team to fool the China Cup.
This is a fatal blow to an emerging event. It has been labeled as "unprofessional and unclassy" since the first event.
How will we conduct the next games?
Therefore, competitions must not be organized during the Spring Festival.
It must and can only be held on national team match days.
As a result, the two national team match days at the end of March have been determined to hold the China Cup.
The four teams are divided into two groups, and they will compete in the semi-finals first. The winners will compete in the finals on the second national team match day, while the losers in the semi-finals will compete for third or fourth place.
Besides Zhang Qinghuan, there was another person with Hu Lai.
That was his club teammate, Dominic Laski.
The Polish striker was naturally selected for the Polish national team, and he will travel with the team to this China Cup.
It can be seen that the Polish national team attaches great importance to this event and has recalled all the main players they can.
Lasky's performance in the first half of this season was average, but he is also a regular player in the Polish national team. After all, he is the strongest player in this age group in Poland.
As his performance improved overall in the second half of the season, it was impossible to miss him in national team games.
In fact, the Polish national team originally planned to have the international players scattered across Europe return to China to gather, and then take a flight to Jincheng, China.
But Lasky applied to the national team and went with Hu Lai, which would save him a day on the road and make it easier for him to rest and get rid of jet lag.
The national team did not refuse and simply agreed.
Hu Lai naturally had no problem with it. How could he refuse if his teammates were leaving with him? Besides, this young man Lasky is quite likable. If Charlie Potter had that big mouth, he might find an excuse to refuse.
Already...
So just like that, Hu Lai brought Lasky and Zhang Qinghuan to meet at the Barcelona airport.
Seeing Lasky standing next to him, Zhang Qinghuan did not speak. Instead, he lowered his head and asked Hu Lai on WeChat: "Does he understand Chinese?"
Hu Lai glanced at his phone and replied directly in Mandarin: "Don't worry, Brother Huan, he doesn't know Chinese."
"Oh, that's good..." Then Zhang Qinghuan stretched out his hand to Lasky and said in English: "Hello, nice to meet you."
To Zhang Qinghuan's surprise, Lasky was a little...excited. He grabbed Zhang Qinghuan's hand with both hands, shook it hard and said, "Hello, hello, I finally met the legendary 'Huan Bro'" (Note 1)
Zhang Qinghuan heard this slightly weird title and turned to look at Hu Lai.
Hu Lai quickly explained: "'Brother Huan' means Brother Huan."
"I understand. I'm just wondering why he called me that?" Zhang Qinghuan asked with a frown.
At this moment, before Hu Lai had time to answer, Lasky next to him gave Zhang Qinghuan a thumbs up and praised repeatedly: "BroHuan, NewBee!"
Zhang Qinghuan's face looked like a black question mark: "Hu Lai, didn't you say he doesn't know Chinese?"
Hu Lai was also a little embarrassed and quickly explained: "He can say this...oh, two sentences, one is awesome and the other is fucked."
Zhang Qinghuan twitched the corner of his mouth: "What's wrong with you kid? Teach this!"
Over there, Lasky grinned and gave Zhang Qinghuan a thumbs-up with a smile, while repeating words like "awesome".
"Why does he always say that I am awesome?" Zhang Qinghuan was confused. Although he had already played the main role in Saria, Saria did not even qualify for the European competition, and his influence was limited to La Liga.
Logically speaking, it is impossible for him to still have a fan in the distant Leeds City, right?
"Uh, this..."
Seeing that Hu Lai was hesitant to speak, Zhang Qinghuan simply bypassed him, walked to Lasky, and started chatting with him in English: "Hello, I heard you can speak Chinese?"
Laski didn't expect Zhang Qinghuan to speak English, so he nodded happily, a bit like a husky: "Brother Huan, you can speak English? That's great! Actually, I can't speak Chinese either, but I know these two sentences,
'I'm so fucking awesome', it's all taught by Hu..."
Zhang Qinghuan turned around and glanced at Hu Lai. Seeing that he was moving out, he asked, "Why are you going?"
"Go to the bathroom." Hu Lai didn't even look back.
Zhang Qinghuan ignored it and continued chatting with Lasky: "Do you know what 'awesome' means?"
Lasky nodded: "I know, it's nonsense, it means it's very powerful."
Zhang Qinghuan nodded when he heard this. Hu Lai didn't explain blindly. He thought Hu Lai was using curse words to deceive his teammates and said it was a low-level way to say hello.
Since Lasky knew what awesome meant, Zhang Qinghuan was even more surprised: "Then why do you say I'm awesome? I remember this is the first time we met, right?"
Lasky quickly explained: "Oh, that's it. I heard Charlie from our team, Charlie Potter, talking about you..."
"Speaking of me? Charlie Potter?" Zhang Qinghuan's mind was already full of question marks.
Where is this going?
He has heard about Charlie Porter, Hu Lai's teammate, and he seems to have a good relationship with Hu Lai. But what is his relationship with me? Why does he want to talk about me?
Lasky continued to answer: "Charlie said that he also heard nonsense. He said that when he was playing football in China, he had a very good teammate who changed his girlfriend every day. He also witnessed three women fighting for each other while eating out.
Fighting over who gets to sleep with his teammates at night..."
The more Zhang Qinghuan listened, the more something was wrong. He felt like he had a subtle sense of déjà vu...
At this moment, Lasky stared at him and said with some excitement: "Brother Huan, that teammate... is you! You are the legend!"
Zhang Qinghuan was stunned for a few seconds, then turned back and glanced in the direction of the toilet:
"Hu Lai, what the hell!"
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"Are you immoral or not, Hu Lai!"
In the cabin of the airplane flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, Zhang Qinghuan angrily scolded Hu Lai.
"It's unfair, Brother Huan. Isn't it normal for young people to get together and brag for fun?" Hu Lai looked pitiful.
"Then why are you bragging on yourself? Why are you bragging on me?!"
"That won't work." Hu Lai shook his head and said firmly, "You have to be realistic and realistic. I've never done this kind of thing. How could I do such a shameless thing as putting gold on my own face?"
Zhang Qinghuan looked at his face for a few seconds: "You don't have to put it on your face, it's already stinky and shameless."
"Hey, Brother Huan, how can you spit on others? What I said is true. I did see it when Lao Wang and I had dinner on Senwei Road..."
"That's not like changing women in one day! You treat me like a stallion!"
"Isn't a stallion bad? Besides, I am exaggerating at most, that is, I say one is a hundred...but I haven't really done it. I want to blame you on me.
That is the relationship between zero and one. There is no confusion between presence and absence. This is a matter of principle. Brother Huan, you must be honest."
Hu Lai said it very seriously.
Zhang Qinghuan couldn't laugh or cry. He didn't know what to say when faced with Hu Lai's sophistry. In the end, he could only resort to his mantra again: "Hu Lai, what the hell..."
Laski, who was standing next to him, saw Hu Lai and Zhang Qinghuan having a lively conversation with each other. He became interested and approached Hu Lai, who was sitting in the middle, and asked: "Hu Lai, what are you talking about? Can you tell me?"
"Ah, it's nothing, I just looked forward to the 'China Cup'. It's a pity that we are not grouped together." Hu Lai found a reason casually.
The matchup situation of the first China Cup has been revealed. The Chinese team’s opponent in the semi-finals is not Poland, but South Africa.
Poland's opponent is Mexico.
"It doesn't matter, Hu. As long as you beat South Africa and we beat Mexico, can't we meet in the final?" Laski said confidently.
Hu Lai smiled: "Mexico is in the top 16 of the World Cup!"
Lasky thought about it, and that was the case.
Mexico is in the top 16 of the World Cup, while Poland, like the Chinese team in the last World Cup, failed to advance out of the group stage.
Both teams scored three points in the group stage, but the Chinese team gained these three points through three draws. Poland actually won one game in the World Cup in which they were already determined to be eliminated.
In the group stage, they defeated Australia from Asia with a score of 2:1.
In terms of strength, Mexico is definitely better than Poland and better than the Chinese team.
So it's not easy to beat Mexico.
"How about we lose to Mexico and you lose to South Africa?" Lasky suggested after careful consideration.
Hu Lai pushed Laski: "Don't curse us!"
Laski laughed. He was obviously joking.
"No matter what, I will try my best to help the team defeat Mexico, and then meet you in the finals, Hu." After laughing, Laski looked at Hu Lai seriously and said.
"Okay, see you in the finals!"
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Note 1: Bro is the colloquial abbreviation of Brother, which means brother, buddy, buddy.