Cao Baming's lips curved slightly, seemingly satisfied with this result.
The audience present was stunned; that number was surely not human!
The young player from China's youth team's expression brightened, looking incredibly regretful, as if he had done something wrong and wished to start over.
Everyone saw the defiance in his eyes, but perhaps it was characteristic of children his age.
Cao Baming seemed to exist on a different plane; such shots were likely as simple as eating for him.
This was also why the organizers dared to offer such a high reward of fifty thousand yuan per person, knowing that as long as Cao Baming played seriously, there was no possibility of defeat.
In the subsequent groups, participants still held onto hope, but ultimately, they only walked away with a signed jersey.
It wasn't until the sixth group that Cao Baming finally saw a female participant!
She was wearing football shoes today and had a high ponytail, looking like a university student.
He was not unaware of the current state of Chinese football; let alone girls, even boys rarely enjoyed playing football. Such a rare specimen was truly a sight to behold!
And this woman's appearance was strikingly beautiful; based on experience, she was at least a class beauty.
Cao Baming became even more curious: how was her skill?
Soon, the competition began to be timed.
This time, Cao Baming intentionally glanced at the girl from the corner of his eye.
Her movements were standard, her kicks clean and swift, and her shooting accuracy was remarkably high, even leading among these ten people.
Furthermore, she seemed quite intelligent, devising a method no one had thought of before: using a basket to block the ball at her feet, preventing it from rolling and speeding up her shooting frequency.
Who said women's football wasn't up to par? Open your eyes and see.
With Cao Baming's attention diverted, his footwork slowed down considerably compared to before. Up to this point, the highest record was still 105 balls.
Unless it was a particularly pressure-filled group, he generally wouldn't exert his full effort.
An idea suddenly struck him.
The fans were trying so hard, what was wrong with going easy on them?
Let them win once!
Especially that girl; her appearance was truly captivating. More importantly, it was so rare to encounter a girl who loved football in China, so she deserved encouragement!
Although he had been specifically instructed not to go easy and to show his true skills, Cao Baming believed that if he wanted to go easy, those incompetent individuals wouldn't notice anything amiss.
While these people claimed the event was to promote the influence of Chinese football and encourage national football, it was merely lip service.
At its core, it was about finding sponsors for advertisements and attracting more attention with high rewards, yet they were unwilling to part with even this meager sum of five hundred thousand.
Cao Baming's lips curved, and on the next kick, he deliberately made the trajectory of two balls wider, causing them to collide in the air and miss the goal!
...
As time neared its end, the scorekeepers by the sidelines began to hesitate, secretly contacting their superiors.
Cao Baming saw it at a glance.
Were these people planning to secretly alter the results!
The tens of thousands of spectators were watching; how could they know if people wouldn't count for themselves?
Indeed, after deliberation, the scorekeepers still didn't dare to arbitrarily change the result, but seeing this, Cao Baming was already content. It seemed his ball control was still good.
This meant the score was indeed not as high as the opponent's!
"The total goals for the fan group is 79!"
"The total goals for Cao Baming's group is... 78!"
"Congratulations to the fan group for becoming the first group to successfully challenge today!!!"
The ten people on the field jumped up in excitement!
"We won??"
"I just won fifty thousand! Wife, I've made it!"
The event organizers' faces turned grim. While these 10 fans each earned fifty thousand yuan, for the organizers, it was an immediate loss of five hundred thousand.
Looking at the expressions of these high-ranking officials, Cao Baming was already secretly delighted.
The ten fans on the field lined up neatly and followed the assistants to the sidelines to receive their jerseys, each autographed by Cao Baming himself, as everyone present was his fan.
Then, they followed the assistants to another table where five red prize cards were displayed. Under the guidance of the staff, five people lined up again and walked to the center of the field, raising their hard-won rewards high.
Their smiles were brighter than the sun that day.
The organizers had never expected that these cards would actually be used!
Due to time constraints, a few more groups were processed, and then the event concluded. Spectators were informed that the next day there would be another competition in the same location with a different format.
And more generous rewards awaited them.
Unconsciously, the afternoon sky had gradually darkened; a full four hours had passed.
Before leaving, Cao Baming and Wu Xue each went on stage to say a few words. This appearance and speech immediately garnered a large fan base for Wu Xue.
Initially, the fans might have seen Cao Baming's mysterious girlfriend, but now their eyes were solely on Wu Xue, almost forgetting Cao Baming's existence.
Among all the streamers, Wu Xue was definitely a treasure. A football area UP host with such high beauty was rarer than gold, and coupled with Wu Xue's attire today, it made many spectators in the stadium's noses bleed.
"I declare today's event a complete success!"
With the host's announcement, the fans erupted in thunderous cheers. Some received prizes, while others, though they didn't win any prizes or even a jersey, were very satisfied with the exciting competition they had witnessed all afternoon.
Most importantly, almost everyone had the opportunity for close contact with their beloved star, which was not something easily obtained!
On the way back to the hotel, Cao Baming saw the expressions on the faces of those few high-ranking officials.
Along the way, they were still grumbling and arguing amongst themselves about whether the five hundred thousand should be paid out.
Losing a bit more on the first day was necessary; only by offering more benefits at the start could they hook more fish.
However, none of them had imagined that Cao Baming had deliberately lost the competition.
Even the female fan who had captured his heart was unaware of this.