As Cao Baiming slowly applied the brakes, reducing the car's speed, he glanced at the time displayed on the navigator at the front of the car.
It was exactly 8 o'clock, not a minute more or less. The thrill of speeding all the way here felt even more exhilarating than the sense of accomplishment he felt at this moment.
Regardless, it was worth it, Cao Baiming thought to himself. He then opened his phone, navigated to the official Nottingham Forest account, and began repeatedly tapping the refresh button.
Logically, since they were specifically waiting for this time, they shouldn't post a minute early or late. Even a few seconds would go against their intention to hit this exact time node.
As expected, after waiting for just two minutes, a new message popped up on the page after Cao Baiming pressed the refresh button. In this latest message, he immediately saw his own portrait.
It was a little over ten seconds past exactly 8 o'clock. If these ten seconds were deliberately delayed by the other party, it seemed unlikely. Therefore, it was probably due to network latency. The post might have been made earlier, and only now uploaded.
Cao Baiming carefully examined the news headline and the several prominent accompanying photos below.
The entire content clearly conveyed the essence of the matter.
In addition to the headline, there were a total of six accompanying photos. Four of them featured Nottingham club players and related images, while the other two were entirely of Cao Baiming's portrait.
Since the signing with the team was scheduled for tomorrow, the final official photos would be taken when he officially signed with the club. At that time, Cao Baiming would be wearing the Nottingham Forest club jersey, and that photo would undoubtedly be the best official image to be released on the official platform.
However, the desire to release this major news was so strong that the club couldn't wait any longer. Regardless of whether they had the photos or not, they had to get the news out quickly.
Cao Baiming clicked on the headline and skimmed through the content. He then noticed a small red number in the lower right corner of the content, which had quietly reached over 600.
This was only after a little over ten seconds had passed. Furthermore, this was a post on Nottingham Forest's own platform, so logically, only their fans would see this news.
Soon, fan comments began to appear below the message.
They wrote: "??????"
"???????????"
"???"
...
Before long, the subsequent comments were all exclusively question marks, with not a single letter aside from them.
Seeing this, Cao Baiming found it increasingly amusing. He was certain that this was because the fans of Nottingham Forest, at this moment, simply could not believe the news.
Finally, after a long wait, a comment that wasn't solely composed of question marks appeared in the comment section.
"It's not April Fool's Day today, why would you play such a joke?"
It seemed that, as fans of Nottingham Forest, they were still unable to accept this news. No matter how they thought about it, it seemed unrealistic, or even impossible.
Cao Baiming looked at the comments posted by the fans in the message section and wondered what the Nottingham Forest club executives would be thinking when they saw these comments. Would they be happy or unhappy?
As expected, not long after the team publicly released this news, the media outlets published this earth-shattering story. If Max's previous statement was considered a bomb, then this was undoubtedly nuclear-level, even exceeding the detonation of ten nuclear bombs simultaneously.
Cao Baiming's transfer was undoubtedly the matter that fans had been most concerned about in the past month. Now, there was finally an answer. How could such a significant piece of news not generate buzz?
Following the initial news report, hundreds, even thousands, of similar articles appeared almost simultaneously. They were published one after another, and their click-through rates skyrocketed like rockets.
Before long, the entire football world exploded. And given Max's previous controversial statement, this news only served to make things even hotter.
When Cao Baiming's news emerged, Max's report quickly faded from public discussion and attention. Everyone had quietly shifted their focus entirely to Cao Baiming's situation.
In such a direct comparison, the difference became even more apparent. Although Max was a player who had recently gained some attention, compared to Cao Baiming, he was nothing more than a minor player.
There's always someone better, and a mountain is higher than another!
Soon, this news completely blew up. Its viewership rapidly surpassed Max's. It only took 50 minutes to reach the number of views that Max's news took 5 hours to achieve.
Beyond the internet, discussions among fans offline also revolved entirely around Cao Baiming's name. In their eyes, this was the most explosive news of the summer. It was undoubtedly the most explosive, and even looking into the future, no news would surpass this.
As Cao Baiming's fans, they were going wild. Cao Baiming's final choice was a team at the bottom of the Premier League standings! Not Manchester City, not Real Madrid, not Paris Saint-Germain!
All their guesses were wrong, and ultimately, no one had predicted the actual outcome!
However, this situation also greatly satisfied the fans. After all, being completely unexpected was precisely Cao Baiming's usual style of acting, and this was the best expression of his true self.
"So what if it's Nottingham Forest? Now that Cao Baiming is here, it's equivalent to directly booking next season's Premier League championship!"
"We have to go for it this time! Cao Baiming has gone this far!! Come on, Cao Baiming, come on Nottingham Forest!!!"
"As expected, and yet, completely unexpected!!"