Chapter 136: Where Fear Dwells, Ghosts Appear

After celebrating once more in Qingdao, the Qingdao Sea Breeze team, much like the majority of clubs in China League One, was temporarily disbanded on the spot. Long Bisheng made a phone call to Ning Xi to inform her about Qingdao Sea Breeze's intention to buy out his contract for the upcoming season, after which he packed his bags and flew back home. It had been quite a long time since he last spent the Lunar New Year at home, and his father had already called several times urging him to return for the holidays. He was eager to return home, having never been one accustomed to a nomadic lifestyle. Once he settled into a place, it was always difficult for him to adapt to a new one. Yet, over the past year or two, he had moved from Yunjia to Newcastle, and then from Newcastle to Qingdao. Such frequent relocations were a first in his life.

The very first thing Long Bisheng did upon arriving home was to hand over all his earnings from the past few months to his parents. Long Yuyun, who was relatively familiar with China's professional leagues, took it in stride, but Yin Xiuping was nearly frightened out of her wits when she saw the bankbook Long Bisheng handed her showed a full total of one hundred and fifty thousand yuan. Her son had only been playing football in Qingdao for a few months, yet he had earned so much money!

It took a great deal of effort for Long Bisheng to explain to his mother that of that one hundred and fifty thousand, the base salary only accounted for about thirty thousand. The rest consisted of tens of thousands in club bonuses for successfully avoiding relegation, alongside regular training subsidies, appearance fees, and bonuses for goals and assists, which finally brought the total to that figure. Had he not scored five goals over the past few months that directly secured nine points for the team, such earnings would have been entirely out of the question. Only after hearing this did Yin Xiuping finally set her mind at ease.

Older generations of parents were always like this: while they hoped their children would find success and earn substantial money, once the amount exceeded their expectations, they would inevitably worry whether their children had done anything unlawful. Moreover, Yin Xiuping seemed to have heard rumors about "match-fixing" being a way to make a lot of illicit money.

Having reassured his mother, Long Bisheng discussed Qingdao Sea Breeze's plan to buy out his contract with his father. Since his mother could not weigh in on such matters, she put on an apron and went to the kitchen to cook—naturally using the healthy recipes Long Bisheng had brought back with him.

After listening to Long Bisheng's account, Long Yuyun pondered for a moment before speaking. "Matters like this depend entirely on your own thoughts. Didn't your club assign you an agent? It is best to discuss it with them. Professionals should handle these things, but most importantly, your own feelings matter most. However, in my view, since Qingdao Sea Breeze is so sincere, has promised you a regular starting position, and their head coach trusts you... such an environment is crucial for a young player, as it allows you to progress further. From that perspective, going to Qingdao... is not a bad choice! Even if you eventually want to play in Yunjia, you are still young. If you play well in the future, Yunjia will naturally buy you back."

Knowing his father's words made sense, Long Bisheng nodded. "I understand. I've already spoken with my agent, and she will handle this aspect for me. To be honest, I've had a wonderful time in Qingdao these past few months. The coach is great, my teammates are wonderful, and the fans are very passionate."

Long Yuyun chuckled. His son's vocabulary truly was rather limited, but looking at his expression, he was genuinely satisfied with Qingdao Sea Breeze. That was for the best. If the club valued him and he was happy with the club, only in such an environment could a son play football with peace of mind. Not being distracted by messy affairs outside the pitch was the most important thing of all.

The days that followed were exceptionally pleasant for Long Bisheng. He would wake up early for a run, train alone in the courtyard for a couple of hours, and then head inside for a meal. In the afternoon, he would run over to the gym in a nearby town to work out, and occasionally spend his evenings at an internet cafe in the town, chatting online with Ning Xi about his transfer arrangements.

Coach Fan Yuhan frequently found excuses to drop by Long Yuyun's house, followed by a series of long sighs and laments about his own son Fan Pengfei's lack of filial piety. The league season was over, yet he refused to come home. Professional players barely had any time to spend the Lunar New Year at home anyway—could he not even return for New Year's Day?

In truth, Coach Fan knew very well that his son was currently busy scrambling to find a new club. Nanchang Liberation Army had been relegated and might dissolve at any moment. For a young player like Fan Pengfei, his few goals from the previous season were simply not enough to generate interest from other teams. If he failed to find a new club, Fan Pengfei would have no choice but to return to Dalian's youth system and wait for an opportunity—and heaven only knew how long that would take!

At a heavyweight giant like Dalian Orient, young players were rarely utilized in the forward line; the club preferred spending large sums of money to purchase established star players. Precisely because of this, when Long Yuyun proudly flaunted to Fan Yuhan that Long Bisheng had already secured his next destination, Fan Yuhan's sighs grew even heavier.

"I was so foolish, truly. I thought the Dalian Orient Football School was no worse than the Yunjia Tianyu Football School, yet I never expected Yunjia Tianyu to consider things so much more thoroughly for young players." It was said that every day Fan Yuhan played the role of a resentful soul at home. Watching this, Long Yuyun felt inwardly delighted. Ever whose son was more successful, and he had constantly lost. Now, having finally shaken off the yoke like a liberated serf to become the master, the exhilaration in his heart was beyond description.

Days passed by one after another, and Long Bisheng's online communication with Ning Xi grew increasingly frequent. Almost every evening he would visit the internet cafe to chat with her. Although his father had bought him a mobile phone a few days prior, out of his habitual frugality, he still preferred this method of online chatting.

Judging from the content of their chats, Qingdao Sea Breeze and he were getting closer to a finalized deal. The Yunjia Tianyu club had not made exorbitant demands regarding his transfer fee, and Qingdao Sea Breeze had demonstrated ample sincerity. It was anticipated that once the domestic transfer window opened on January first of next year, he would quickly be able to begin negotiations with Qingdao Sea Breeze concerning his compensation.

This aspect naturally presented even less of a problem. As the head coach, Cai Sheng held the authority in this regard, and the promises he had made to him back then should not encounter any issues. He only hoped it wouldn't turn out like last year, when everything seemed practically set in stone only to suddenly fall apart—Long Bisheng sometimes thought to himself, before quickly laughing it off. Surely he wouldn't be unlucky to that extent, right?

How did that saying go? Speak of the devil.

Long Bisheng felt his premonition was proving rather accurate; he really had encountered what he feared most. New Year's Day was approaching, yet Ning Xi had not contacted Long Bisheng for three days. Since Ning Xi was not yet a fully official agent and her income was relatively low, she didn't own a mobile phone, leaving Long Bisheng unable to reach her. When he called the club, he found that no one could be reached due to the holiday closure.

Just as it had been half a year ago, right when Long Bisheng thought the contract was about to be settled, he suddenly lost contact with his agent for several consecutive days. Long Bisheng smiled bitterly; it seemed Ning Xi was still not quite qualified enough as an agent.

Then again, Ning Xi wasn't even seventeen years old yet. If it were anyone else her age, they would still be children, and missing a few details was inevitable. Besides, didn't he himself sometimes mess things up entirely?

Furthermore, there was still plenty of time; the transfer window hadn't even opened yet, and Qingdao Sea Breeze couldn't possibly go back on their word unless their finances had run into the same trouble as Napoli's. But the Chinese league had no rigid regulations regarding that. Could it be... that they had changed coaches?

Long Bisheng hurriedly dug out all the sports newspapers from the past few days to read through them. Qingdao Sea Breeze was an established team in League One; a team like that changing its coach would surely generate some news.

There was no news.

Every single newspaper was filled with reports on the national team's training camp, and not a single paper mentioned Qingdao Sea Breeze changing its coach. Long Bisheng even logged onto the official website of the Qingdao Sea Breeze club, and it was entirely peaceful as well.

Long Bisheng did not dare mention this matter to his parents for fear of worrying them. Besides, nothing might be wrong at all; perhaps the negotiations had reached a critical juncture, leaving Ning Xi no time to go online. Perhaps good news would arrive in just a few days!

Comforting himself, Long Bisheng anxiously endured another day. That evening, he made another trip to the internet cafe, but still failed to reach Ning Xi.

Disappointed, Long Bisheng sat in the internet cafe for a brief while before leaving, striding back toward home.

Just as he reached the military residential compound, Long Bisheng saw from afar a similarly tall figure standing not far from his front door. A spark of a cigarette glowed intermittently in the dark air. Upon seeing this, Long Bisheng smiled and called out as he walked over, "Dad, why are you out here in the courtyard smoking today? Did you have a fight with Mom?"

Long Yuyun turned around, stubbed out the cigarette butt, and strode briskly toward Long Bisheng. Instinctively, Long Bisheng felt a twinge of apprehension. Before he could utter a word, Long Yuyun grabbed him by the collar. "You rascal! You actually started hiding the truth from your old man!"

"What did I hide..." Long Bisheng stammered, caught off guard as his father collared him.

"You still want to hide it from me? You never mentioned that your agent is actually a young girl your own age!" Long Yuyun roared in a lowered voice.

Long Bisheng genuinely hadn't mentioned this to his family; he had completely forgotten about it upon returning home, and Long Yuyun didn't pry much into his football affairs anyway. But how on earth did his father suddenly find out?

Just as Long Bisheng remained baffled, Long Yuyun released him and then patted his shoulder cheerfully. "Haha, son, were you startled? But you've got some real skill, kid—you even managed to find a pretty female agent... The girl's not bad, and she's quite tall too. I think she's great!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Long Bisheng shook his head blankly, before realization suddenly dawned on him. Could it be that Ning Xi had come here?

No wonder he couldn't reach her for days—she had actually traveled all the way to Xinjiang!