Emily stood in the stands, searching for the most familiar figure among the Wimbledon players who were warming up, but she was disappointed.

Among the Wimbledon players who came out to warm up, she did not see Chu Zhongtian.

Yang Yang, an alumnus of Wimbledon Art School, stood beside her and muttered: "Strange, where is that boy from Da Chu?"

She and Yang Yang met outside the stadium gate half an hour ago. When they heard that Yang Yang was here to cheer for Chu Zhongtian, Emily warmly greeted Yang Yang to walk with them and occupied such a Feng Shui treasure land behind the goal.

A terrible thought flashed through Emily's heart, and she was shocked by her own thoughts - Chu always ran on the side of the road... There were so many cars on the road, would she encounter it... She didn't dare to think about it anymore.

"Will Chu delay anything?" Boss John and his team also discovered that Chu Zhongtian was not in the team. A group of people began to speculate.

The people who speculate why Chu Zhongtian has not appeared yet are not just these people in the stands. The team's head coach Eames, assistant coach Ingrich, and Wimbledon's teammates are also confused.

"It's strange. In the past, Chu always came early. Why didn't you see anyone until you start warming up today?" Ingrich looked at the players who were warming up on the court and said to Eames next to him.

"Have he asked for leave and said he wouldn't come today?" Eames asked.

Ingrich shook his head: "No. I remember when he was training before, he said that this was the last game before school started. Once school started, he would not have that much time. The mid-week game may not be able to come every game. So he must perform well in this game today..."

Eames stopped talking, and he slowly frowned. Chu Zhongtian is the team's main midfielder. When he was considering tactics, he put Chu Zhongtian in and considered it. If Chu Zhongtian couldn't play, then he would change himself... It's really troublesome, what happened to Chu?

"Hey, Russell. Have you seen Chu on the way here?" While warming up, Shilin came up to ask Russell and Borger.

The two shook their heads. They didn't see Chu Zhongtian running on the bus today. At first they thought they had just missed it and didn't take it seriously. As a result, they didn't see Chu after they arrived. After waiting for a while, they waited until they entered the locker room to change their clothes. Chu still didn't show up, so they felt something was wrong.

"It's so strange... Chu is not a person who likes to be late." Xilin murmured. He couldn't figure out why Chu Zhongtian hadn't come yet.

Borger suddenly said, "It's not a car accident..."

"Shut up!" Russell and Shilin shouted in unison, scaring Borger.

"Uh...well, I'm just kidding... He must have been halfway through and found that he forgot to bring his sneakers, and then went home to get it..." Borge explained randomly, but he could only make the listener's brows tighter and tighter.

※※※“Do you have Chu’s phone number, Yang?” Emily asked suddenly.

Yang Yang shook his head: "He doesn't have a cell phone. He said that no one would look for him here anyway. If he wanted to call his home, he would use the card to call."

Emily frowned. She remembered that it was indeed the case. She had been in contact with Chu Zhongtian for so long, and had never known her mobile phone number, nor had she seen him use it. She originally thought that her relationship with him was extraordinary, but she didn't expect that she was just an ordinary friend and knew nothing about him.

That terrible thought popped up in Emily's mind again, and she couldn't press it no matter how hard she pressed it. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that it might be true.

Just stood in the stands restlessly for a while, Emily shook her head: "No, I'll go find him!"

After saying that, she turned around and ran out of the stands. Yang Yang was stunned for a moment and followed her out.

※※※Russell, who was warming up on the court, saw Emily running through the bottom of the stands, followed by a Chinese man who had been with Chu, and the two of them hurriedly ran towards the stadium gate. This gave him a bad premonition... Did Gavin really make the point? Something happened to Chu?

Fuck...I haven't tortured you enough...※※※※Emily and Yang Yang ran to the entrance of Jack Goodchild's alley. Kingston Road was coming and going, and there were pedestrians on the sidewalk in a hurry under the scorching summer sun, looking no different from any ordinary afternoon.

Emily held the phone in her hand, but didn't know who to call. Yang Yang frowned next to her, thinking about the problems that Chu Zhongtian might encounter.

There was a No. 131 bus. The red bus stopped in front of the platform. The door opened and two people came out from the top, but neither of them were Chu Zhongtian.

"He may be on the next shift..." Yang Yang murmured.

Emily thought that if Chu wanted to take the bus, he would have arrived long ago and would not have been gone until now... The red No. 131 bus made a "chi" exhaust sound, raised the body, closed the door, and slowly drove away from the platform.

Just as Emily and Yang Yang's brows were getting tighter and tighter, Emily had good eyesight suddenly saw a figure emerging at the end of the road at the horizon.

He had black hair, which was a little white in the dazzling sunlight. His neck and arms were covered with shiny sweat. He was wearing a white T-shirt and sweatshirt. He slowly exposed his head from the horizon, his upper body, his legs, and finally his feet... football.

When he ran up completely, Emily and Yang Yang saw Chu Zhongtian slowly running towards them with the ball. He used the inside of his right foot to dribble the ball, then changed to two steps to dribble the ball on the outside of his foot, then changed to two steps to dribble the ball on the inside of his left foot and two steps to dribble the ball on the outside of his foot... This was repeated.

He lowered his head and dribbled the ball very carefully, and did not see Emily and Yang Yang in front of him at all, until Yang Yang shouted happily: "Da Chu!"

He stopped and looked up at the two people standing in front of him in surprise: "Why are you here?" He spoke unevenly and was panting harder. He was much tired than when he ran over.

Emily noticed that when he stopped, the sweat on his body slid down his neck, arms and legs, just like a stream flowing.

Yang Yang saw Chu Zhongtian Ping'an appear in front of him, and his nervous mood just now relaxed. He pointed at Emily and smiled, "Emily was worried that something happened to you, so she ran out to pick you up. She said you always arrived very early, so what happened today?"

Chu Zhongtian looked at Emily, who was still stunned, and scratched her head embarrassedly: "I came with the ball all the way, but I overestimated my ability to dribble... I ran slower than usual, and I didn't get the right time, am I late?"

Emily finally came to her senses, she shook her head: "Not yet, they are warming up."

Chu Zhongtian breathed out: "That's good."

"What's good?" Emily said angrily, "Why are you practicing ball control on the road?" She saw Chu Zhongtian's strange ball control rhythm, which was the ball control practice Russell taught him last time.

"I feel like I'm taking the time to practice, and there's not much time when school starts..." Chu Zhongtian defended himself.

"Okay, okay, hurry up and enter the court. If it's late, you can only be the bench!" Emily pointed at Yang Yang and said, "How disappointed Yang, who came to play football at that time, will be here to play."

Yang Yang was happy.

Chu Zhongtian lowered his head and brought the ball up again. Emily saw it from behind and shouted in anger: "Why are you still so slow!"

"I haven't reached my destination yet." Chu Zhongtian replied to her and ran to the stadium with the ball.

"So stubborn!" Emily pouted as she looked at his back.

Yang Yang smiled beside her: "He is very serious in doing things. If he says he wants to take the ball to the stadium, it means he really wants to run to the stadium, and it cannot be a meter away."

※※※When Chu Zhongtian took the football through the main entrance of the stadium and appeared on the sidelines, he had just finished the warm-up and was walking down the stadium to see him at a glance.

"Look, Chu!" Borger shouted very loudly and was also very happy. Because he had been ungrateful and said unlucky words before, he was coldly opposed by Shilin, Sullivan and Russell, which put him in great psychological pressure. Now, seeing Chu Zhongtian appear completely in front of him, how can he be unhappy?

"Hey, Chu! Here!" He waved to Chu Zhongtian, so enthusiastic that he seemed to be his little wife who hadn't seen her husband for a long time.

Chu Zhongtian also saw Borge who kept waving to him, so he picked up the football and walked over.

Seeing him coming, his teammates also surrounded him.

"Why are you very hot when you sweat so much, Chu?" The main defender of the team, Sim Johnston, looked at Chu Zhongtian sweating profusely and panting.

Russell and Xilin looked at each other, and they knew that Chu Zhongtian must have come over again. But today Chu Zhongtian looks even more tired than before. Is he in poor health?

Seeing everyone looking at him with caring eyes, Chu Zhongtian knew that he could not hide this matter today. He shook his head and then threw down his sweat. "No, Sim. In fact... I came here."

The players were quiet for a moment, and then… “Wow——!”

"I heard it right, God!"

"Where did you come? Is the platform on Route 131?"

"Idiot, it's obviously from Wimbledon!"

"Who are you lying to? It's at least four miles away from us!"

"Can you sweat so much when you run from the platform?"

"But how is this possible? We are about to play a game. How much physical fitness is unnecessary to come over?"

“It’s unimaginable…”

Ingrich and Eames found Chu Zhongtian a little later and were squeezed out of the crowd, but they all heard Chu Zhongtian's words clearly.

The two looked at each other.

"Do you believe it, Nicky?" Eames asked his assistant.

"Do you believe it, Terry?" Almost at the same time, Ingrich turned his head and asked Eames.

"He was not pretending to be sweaty." Eames analyzed.

"And he doesn't have to pretend, either," Ingrich added.

"Running from Wimbledon? He's so crazy... But what I care more is that this is his first time, and it's still like this again and again..." Terry frowned and pondered.

Ingrich thought for a moment and punched his hand. "I said why did I always feel that he was sweating a lot when I saw Chu before. At that time, I just thought he was afraid of heat, so he sweated a lot when the weather was hot. Now it seems..." When he said this, he suddenly looked at Eames in surprise.

Eames raised an eyebrow at him. "It seems that the Chinese foreign aid in our team is still a physically abnormal."

"It's incredible... Run four miles, play another ninety minutes of game, run non-stop during the game, responsible for all the defense in the midfield... I've never seen him lose his energy and get his tendons..." Ingrich murmured.

※※※Kevin Cooper saw that everyone was getting more and more discussions, and almost forgot what the matter was. He quickly showed the captain's majesty and said loudly: "Okay, guys, don't forget that we have one more game to play!"

As he said this, everyone realized that they had just finished warming up and were about to go to the locker room to make the final preparations before the game. Everyone looked outside and saw Eames wave at them: "Go to the locker room, guys."

When everyone heard the head coach say this, they turned around and walked towards the locker room. Chu Zhongtian also wanted to do this, but he was kept by the head coach: "Wait. Chu."

Xilin blinked at Chu Zhongtian and followed the team. Russell looked at Chu Zhongtian, looked up and down, and finally turned around and left without saying anything.

After everyone was almost gone, Ingrich went to the locker room to greet the players, while Eames walked in front of Chu Zhongtian.

He looked at Chu Zhongtian and laughed. Chu Zhongtian was so angry that he laughed. I wonder if the head coach was planning to punish him - because he was late. He decided to take the lead and act first: "I'm sorry, boss. I'm late..."

Eames waved his hand and interrupted his apology. "Tell me, Chu. Do you run all the way from Wimbledon every time you train and compete?"

Chu Zhongtian nodded.

Eames whistled. "It's incredible that I've never seen you have any physical problems. Despite this, your physical fitness is beyond my imagination. I think you have reached or even exceeded your professional level in terms of physical fitness alone."

"Uh, thank you for your praise, boss..." Chu Zhongtian didn't know what the boss was selling.

"But why are you late today?" Eames asked at Chu Zhongtian. Looking at his eyes, Chu Zhongtian did not doubt at all. If he lies, he would definitely be exposed ruthlessly.

He honestly pointed at the football that was stuck under his armpit: "I tried to take the ball to the court today, boss. But the ball control was harder than I thought, so the speed slowed down. I will set out in advance next time..."

Eames interrupted Chu Zhongtian's explanation with a loud laugh.

"Do you still need to warm up?" he asked after laughing.

Chu Zhongtian looked at Eames's eyes and found that he had no intention of blame, so he smiled and said, "No, I don't think I need it anymore, boss. I'm already overheated."
To be continued...