Chen Lu took us to the mall on Taiyuan Street. She was very generous, buying Lin Xi, Chen Ke, and Diana lots of new clothes, shoes, and bags, and also bought me a tracksuit.
When she saw the spokesperson for a certain sports brand, Chen Lu suddenly remembered, "Hey, since you're all free anyway, my dad's company has a soccer match this afternoon. Do you want to go see it? There will be lots of handsome guys!"
"Is it an internal match for your dad's company, or are you playing against others?" I asked.
"Playing against another company, it's our province, oh no, it's our province's amateur league," Chen Lu glanced at her watch. "It starts in an hour, and my brother is playing too!"
Her cousin, or was it second cousin, the one from the wedding I attended last time.
I looked at Lin Xi and the others. Lin Xi, full of interest, asked me, "You're so good at sports, can you play soccer?"
"A little bit, I played in the college's soccer match."
"I was the best scorer in last year's league in my system, and that was for the men's team!" Lin Xi said proudly.
"Did you use martial arts?" I asked.
Lin Xi shook her head, "Pure skill."
After speaking, Lin Xi turned to Chen Ke and whispered, "Can you help me change my appearance to look like a guy? I suddenly feel like playing today!"
Chen Ke looked at Lin Xi's figure, "Captain, the face is easy to change, but your... I can't press it down!"
"That's easy, a sharkskin swimsuit can cinch it in. Diana, do you want to join?" Lin Xi then asked Whale God.
Diana shook her head, "I don't understand what soccer is."
"It's like 'cuju'."
Diana still shook her head, "Don't understand."
Fortunately, she didn't understand. If Diana had joined, the opponents wouldn't have been able to play. One kick from her could send me flying tens of meters into the air like a shot put. If she were to score, wouldn't she send the ball through the entire field!
"Let's go, let's go, Cheng Feng, come with me to buy soccer shoes!" Lin Xi was genuinely excited. After handing over the new clothes to assistant Liu, she pulled me to the adjacent Hook's store.
Lin Xi is about 1.7 meters tall, but her shoe size is only 36. There were no soccer shoes that small, the smallest being 38. There was a lot of excess space at the toe. I thought of a solution and asked the salesperson to find some large pieces of foam from shoe boxes in the back. I cut them into curved shapes with a utility knife and stuffed them into the toe of the shoes, perfectly solving the problem of foot fit. As for the width, it could be adjusted with the shoelaces.
"You should buy a pair too, play with me," Lin Xi said.
It was easy for me, size 42 had plenty of options. Two pairs of Assassin soccer shoes cost 3600 yuan. Are physical stores this expensive now? I remember a pair online was only a little over a thousand yuan.
It didn't matter, it was assistant Liu who swiped the bank card anyway.
Besides soccer shoes, Lin Xi also bought shin guards, padded pants, and other professional gear. She has short hair, so dressing as a boy wouldn't require much effort, just a headband.
After buying the gear, the group, laden with bags, left the mall and headed to Wulih River Stadium by car.
If I remember correctly, about twenty years ago, this stadium witnessed a great miracle in Yanxia soccer!
Upon arriving at the stadium, Chen Lu's family's team went through the VIP channel directly to the locker room.
In the car, Chen Ke had already disguised Lin Xi, making her look like a pretty boy, seemingly modeled after Lu Han. The appearance was somewhat androgynous, which avoided being too awkward. Chen Lu's brother was the captain. Chen Lu whispered a few words to him, and her brother looked troubled, saying the starting lineup was already set and any last-minute changes would require discussion with the organizing committee.
"Can she be a substitute?" Chen Lu asked.
"A substitute is fine, but it still needs to be reported to the organizing committee. I'll arrange it now." Chen Lu's brother called a young player, wrote down my and Lin Xi's names, and had him run the errand.
An assistant coach brought us two unnamed team jerseys, number 27 and number 34, likely numbers no one wanted. The yellow and green colors were quite nice. kuAiδugg
Lin Xi and I changed into our team uniforms, put on our substitute vests, and went out with Chen Lu to sit on the bench by the field and watch the game.
"Sigh, what are they even playing? Garbage..." Lin Xi shook her head.