Chapter 151 Perugia

Saturday, April 15th. Tomorrow marks the thirtieth round of the Serie C1/B league season, with all matches kicking off simultaneously. Napoli, currently holding a commanding lead of over ten points at the top of the table, has a chance to secure early promotion to Serie B if they defeat their opponents and second-placed Frosinone happens to lose. RAI, the Italian national broadcaster, has officially scheduled a live broadcast of the match for one simple reason: Napoli is on the verge of returning.

Since there is a match tomorrow, head coach Reja kept training light. After a series of recovery and conditioning drills, he called an end to the session. The players gradually left the training ground, driving back to their homes in anticipation of a relaxed evening. Long Bisheng, however, stayed behind. His accommodation was located right inside the club complex, and it had long been his routine to put in an extra two hours of training after the regular session ended. The other players were already accustomed to this and never interfered, knowing it was simply Long Bisheng's personal habit.

By around six o'clock in the evening, Long Bisheng finished his extra training. After showering and changing in the locker room, he walked toward his dormitory, intending to grab something to eat.

The sky was growing dark. As Long Bisheng approached the entrance of his dorm, he noticed two figures standing outside, engaged in a conversation.

Curious, Long Bisheng walked forward and vaguely heard them speaking in Chinese. One voice was very familiar—it was Chu Ran. The other voice sounded equally familiar...

"Brother Lifang!" Long Bisheng cried out in pleasant surprise. He rushed forward and threw his arms around the man in a tight hug!

The visitor was Li Fang, whom Long Bisheng had not seen in nearly four years!

"Haha! You kid, A-Long, you're getting heavier and heavier. Your big brother here can barely hold you anymore!" Li Fang laughed, releasing him and looking him up and down. "Well, you've bulked up even more, though you haven't grown much in height... Still two meters and two centimeters? I initially thought you'd shoot up past two meters and ten."

Long Bisheng scratched the back of his head with a good-natured smile. "I'm not sure myself. I haven't grown at all over the past two years. When I was still back in China, the club had me go through a medical checkup, and the doctor said my growth spurt happened much earlier than most people's, and the peak period has already passed. I probably won't grow any taller."

"You never know about that," Chu Ran chimed in from the side. "Men keep growing slowly until they hit thirty. I was already nineteen when I came to Italy, and I've still grown a few centimeters over the past five years."

Li Fang glanced sideways at Chu Ran with a teasing look. "Even if you grow more, you still won't hit one meter eighty."

Chu Ran flew into a fake rage. "You little Li only stand at about one meter seventy-eight yourself! Exactly the same height as me, how do you have the nerve to make fun of me?"

"I'm not a goalkeeper. I've watched several of the goals you conceded this season. If you were just a fraction taller, you might have prevented a few of them," Li Fang chuckled. "Do you want me to recommend some growth hormones to you?"

"Go to hell, Big Brother doesn't need any of that," Chu Ran said unhappily. "If you're too tall, your reflexes might slow down a bit. It all balances out."

"Brother Lifang, Brother Chu Ran, do you two know each other?" Long Bisheng asked in astonishment, watching their familiar banter.

"We were teammates for half a season," Li Fang said with a smile. "I joined the Yunjing Tianyu first team in the second half of 2000, and he transferred to Inter Milan in 2001. We only played a few matches together because he spent the second half of that season recovering from an injury, only making it onto the pitch for the final few rounds, while I was just a substitute for Yunjing Tianyu back then."

"Still, you've made much more of yourself than I have, kid. You came to Europe a year later than I did, and now you're an undisputed regular for Fiorentina, while your big brother here is still kicking around in Serie C," Chu Ran said, shrugging his shoulders.

"You started your European career at too high a level. Coming straight to Inter Milan... Besides, the goalkeeper position is a special one," Li Fang replied with a smile.

"Brother Lifang, what brings you to Naples today? Are you here to see me?" Long Bisheng asked excitedly.

Li Fang nodded. "I came to see you... Our league match ended this afternoon, and we have a day off, so I made a special trip to Naples to check in on you."

"He's not just here to see you, nor is he just here to see me... Do you know who our next opponents are?" Chu Ran asked Long Bisheng with a grin.

Long Bisheng answered instinctively, "Isn't it Perugia? Oh, I see. Perugia was Brother Lifang's very first stop when he came to Europe."

"Yeah. When I arrived at Perugia in 2002, we were still in Serie A. Although our results were never particularly outstanding, Perugia was a very unique club in Serie A," Li Fang said, a rare look of nostalgia crossing his rugged face. "There used to be frequent player exchanges between Perugia and Yunjing Tianyu. Boss Nie Fei, Materazzi... I was the third player to come to Perugia from Yunjing Tianyu, and Grosso was the fourth. Back then, we also had Zé Maria, who later went on to Inter Milan; Tedesco, who is now playing in Serie C1 just like you guys, though in Group A; Obodo, the Ghanaian midfielder who is now at Udinese; the Greek striker Vryzas; the Senegalese defender Coly... Those guys are all top-flight players in Serie A now. To think that a team like that ended up being relegated simply because the club went bankrupt... In the second half of the 2003-2004 season, we actually played really well, but unfortunately, we lost to Fiorentina in the playoffs."

"And you lost to the very team you play for now," Chu Ran added with a chuckle.

"I played decently in that match, which is probably why Fiorentina took notice of me," Li Fang didn't deny it. "If not for financial troubles, Perugia would never have fallen to where they are today... The Gaucci family brought glory to Perugia, but at the same time, they destroyed the club—and the same goes for Napoli."

Chu Ran and Long Bisheng fell silent at the same time. Although both of them had only arrived in Naples during the very season the club went bankrupt, one could easily tell how chaotic the club's management had been just by looking at the numbers: a former Serie B club with an average home attendance of sixty,000 was somehow carrying debts exceeding eighty million euros. Gaucci had taken over Napoli after Perugia's relegation, but within a single season, not only had Napoli failed to win promotion to Serie B, they had accumulated such a massive financial deficit that every single person in Naples firmly believed Gaucci was the ultimate culprit behind the club's descent into Serie C.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this," Li Fang said, forcing a cheerful tone. "It's been a long time since the few of us got together. You two have it good, hanging out every day. In Naples—wait, I'm the one alone in Florence, I don't even get to speak Chinese as freely as this... Come on, let's go get some food, dinner's on me!"

"You're a big Serie A star and you're treating us to the team's nutrition meal? That's a bit stingy, isn't it?" Chu Ran teased.

"Then I'll treat you to a grand feast... Will you actually eat it?" Li Fang laughed. "We're still right in the middle of the league season, you know."

Long Bisheng chimed in, "I think the nutrition meals are pretty good, actually. They taste fine."

"Shut up, you'd eat anything as long as it fills your stomach," Chu Ran rolled his eyes. "I was hoping to fleece a Serie A star for a French dinner, like foie gras or something."

"Foie gras contains high amounts of cholesterol and protein, which isn't suitable for athletes..." Long Bisheng recited mechanically. At that, both Chu Ran and Li Fang shouted simultaneously, "Shut up! You're always so dead serious, kid!"

In the end, the three of them enjoyed a professional athlete's diet at a restaurant near the club—Italian pasta, vegetable salad, and a mix of chicken and beef. Players emerging from Yunjing Tianyu generally remembered the advice of the club's head nutritionist, Yuzernal: physically speaking, the Chinese truly could not compare to Europeans, Africans, and South Americans, especially in sports. These were differences caused by history, diet, and various other factors. To narrow this gap, the only thing one could do was meticulously manage their daily diet, reduce excess body fat, and build genuine muscle strength. That was the sole path to extending an athletic career and improving adaptability to physical duels on the pitch.

During the meal, a few local diners recognized Napoli's starting goalkeeper and the second-half sensation, the Chinese striker. After they finished eating, some people came over to ask for autographs. However, even though they also recognized Li Fang—a player who had already built a considerable reputation in Serie A—not a single person approached him for an autograph. The loyalty of Napoli fans was rare enough to stand out even in Serie A.

After dinner, it was already quite late. Li Fang had no intention of returning to Florence tonight, but he declined Chu Ran's invitation to help him find a local hotel, deciding instead to stay in Long Bisheng's room. He wanted a good chat with his younger brother—though not too late, as Long Bisheng had a match tomorrow.

"The reason I came this time was to watch the match against Perugia," Li Fang told Long Bisheng before going to sleep. "To be honest, the current Perugia isn't the same Perugia from the past. The old Perugia was dissolved after being ordered down to Serie C, and the team today has been newly rebuilt... much like your situation here in Naples, except you guys have already reclaimed your old name. This will probably be my last time watching a Perugia match live. I won't watch them anymore after this."

Long Bisheng remained silent, and Li Fang let out a soft sigh. "A-Long, you must remember: for professional players, when the time comes to leave, you should always make the decisive choice to move on..."