Three warm-up matches, three wins for the Yun City Team; even facing a long-established powerhouse like the Su Province Team, who are upper-tier in the Xia Chao, Yun City Team still beat them by two goals.

3:1!

This is destined to become a much-talked-about legend.

The very night Yun City Team took the win, the internet blew up.

"Holy shit, Yun City Team actually beat the Su Province Team, did that really just happen?!"

"I feel like I'm dreaming, but this is real!"

"Yun City Team is seriously badass now, no doubt about it!"

"I don't know why, but Yun City Team has really been reborn!"

"Li Yi, Zheng Zhi, Sun Jihai… these young players are awesome. In them, I feel like I see the hope of our national team!"

"I've decided, I'm going to be their braindead fan!"

"No no no, from today on I'm going to be Yun City Team's braindead fan. Yun City Team, charge for me!"

Countless netizens were going crazy expressing their excitement.

With three warm-up wins, with real strength, and with the players' outstanding performances on the pitch, Yun City Team washed off the reputation of being a trash team and, overnight, pulled in a massive wave of fans.

Some fans suddenly remembered big-name pundit Lu Dong's mockery of Yun City Team back then, and they all flooded into Lu Dong's Weibo to start trolling.

"Dongzi, your face must be swollen now!"

"Still think Yun City Team is just relying on luck?"

"Brother Dong, come out and embarrass yourself."

Seeing these comments, Lu Dong immediately posted a new Weibo: "Heh, since when did Yun City Team pick up so many braindead fans? No need to spam my comments. I'll say it again, luck runs out one day. Just wait and see!"

Looks like Lu Dong plans to tough it out to the end.

As expected, this Weibo of his was widely ridiculed by netizens. The once "authoritative football critic" who roamed the Jianghu, Lu Dong now looked just like a clown.

However, the fact that Lu Dong had been bought off by the Wei Family hadn't been exposed. For now he was just being mocked; it wasn't enough to ruin him completely, so he still dared to jump around.

At the same time, the business world was buzzing as well, and everyone was completely won over by Lin Fan.

"What kind of godlike figure is Mr. Lin anyway? He took over Yun City Team and in such a short time turned them completely around!"

"Yun City Team's future looks bright. The value of this club has just skyrocketed overnight. As an investor, I admit I'm jealous!"

"Where on earth did Mr. Lin find these outstanding players? I'm convinced!"

"Same here. I'm never doubting Mr. Lin's investment eye again."

"You want to know what turning trash into treasure looks like? This is turning trash into treasure!"

"Mr. Lin really is a divine figure!"

Praise for Lin Fan and optimism about Yun City Team suddenly became the mainstream voice.

This positive momentum showed up in the stock market the next day as well: Mortal Group's share price hit the upper limit as soon as trading opened.

This had Mortal Group's investors grinning from ear to ear.

"Follow Mr. Lin and you get to eat meat"—this basically became the investors' catchphrase.

Watching all this, the Wei Family's father and son were seeing stars, almost having a heart attack.

"That brat Lin Fan, that brat Lin Fan, that brat Lin Fan!" Wei Tiansheng slapped the table, yelling three times.

He was not willing to accept this. Time and again he'd tried to trip Lin Fan up, and every attempt had ended in failure. All his efforts had turned into a joke. Lin Fan had dissolved his schemes without even knowing about them, while they were the ones flailing around like clowns!

Lin Fan practically ought to thank them—for doing reverse publicity for Yun City Team early on, which helped the team attract a ton of attention.

Then Yun City Team relied on their actual strength to turn all those people who came to watch the joke into fans.

Every trap the Wei Family's father and son dug somehow turned into an assist instead. How could Wei Tiansheng not be furious and frustrated!

"Father, looks like what Jin Jiufu said was right: Yun City Team really has improved in strength, otherwise they couldn't have beaten the Su Province Team. Old Jin was after all once an excellent player; his eye is sharp! The key to Yun City Team getting stronger is Wu Da! He really is a genius, both as a player and as a coach," Wei Jiansheng analyzed.

Wei Tiansheng said, "So what you mean is, without Wu Da there would be no Yun City Team as it is now?"

Wei Jiansheng said, "Yeah. Everyone knows that brat Lin Fan doesn't understand the game. At most he knows how to use people. I already had Jin Jiufu look into it—those few players who've blown up recently at Yun City Team, Li Yi, Zheng Zhi, Sun Jihai, every single one was discovered by Wu Da. This guy has been doing this all along, even when he was dead broke. Gotta say, that kind of persistence is… ahem. Before, they never had any stage to shine on. Ever since Lin Fan put Wu Da in charge, these players were all recruited into Yun City Team by him."

Wei Tiansheng calmed down and said, "So what you're saying is, if we want to weaken Yun City Team, we have to start with Wu Da and those players…"

Wei Jiansheng chuckled, "I've already sent Jin Jiufu to work on it. Jin Jiufu is on the same boat with me now. He's Wu Da's enemy—there's no way he'll just sit and watch Wu Da having a good time. As long as we can pry away just one of their players, Yun City Team will lose their rhythm!"

Wei Tiansheng said, "And what about Wu Da? I don't want to see him coaching at Yun City Team anymore!"

Wei Jiansheng said, "As for Wu Da, I'm looking for a chance to deal with him. Wu Da is the backbone of Yun City Team. If he goes down, Yun City Team will definitely collapse!"

An evil gleam flashed in Wei Tiansheng's eyes. "Then let's make sure he goes down!"

Yun City Football Club.

After beating the Su Province Team, Yun City Team flew back to the club.

As soon as they returned, they found the club decked out anew with a festive atmosphere—it turned out this was a welcome-back celebration and a victory party for them.

This was Lin Fan's idea, and he had even come in person.

"You've all worked hard." Lin Fan greeted everyone warmly. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

This left the players flattered and thrilled; the boss was too considerate.

Lin Fan said, "I'm giving everyone the day off today. Go relax as much as you want, the Company will cover the costs. Just come back and have finance reimburse you. Also, according to the bonus policy we set earlier, you've won three in a row, so your bonuses will be issued before tomorrow. I hope you keep it up and keep pushing forward in official matches!"

The players were over the moon—nothing makes people happier than getting paid!

"Long live the boss!"

"We're kneeling to the boss!"

"Boss, I'll definitely score my guts out!"

The whole crowd practically dropped to their knees.

Off to the side, Wu Da's eyes filled with gratified tears. It had been 30 years, and he had finally fulfilled his dream. He had produced a proper team and hadn't let Lin Fan's expectations down!

He was full of gratitude toward Lin Fan. Without the boss recognizing his worth, he'd never have had this day in his life.

Just then, a security guard walked in, came up to Wu Da, and said, "Uncle Da, there's a teenager outside, crying and begging to see you. I told him to leave, but he said if he doesn't see you he'll just keep standing there."

Wu Da let out an oh: "Do you know who he is?"

The security guard said, "He said his name is Wu Lei."

As soon as Wu Da heard, his face lit up with delight. He walked over to Lin Fan and said, "Boss, remember I told you about a genius teenager?"

Lin Fan said, "You mean Wu Lei, the one whose family won't let him come?"

Wu Da said, "Yeah, he's outside right now."