Chapter 43: The Deep-Seated Grudge of the Scorsians

Despite having a small birthday celebration the night before with his family and agent—which essentially just meant sharing a meal at home—Wang Lie was still awakened promptly at 7:30 a.m. by his body's internal clock.

Lying in bed, before he even had a chance to embrace his wife sleeping beside him, the moment he opened his eyes, the sight before him left him frozen and unable to move.

He did not see the familiar ceiling, nor the familiar indoor furnishings... No, it was the familiar ceiling and the familiar indoor furnishings, but superimposed over them was a set of golden numbers:

37

Thinking he was seeing things, he closed his eyes and squeezed them tightly before opening them again.

Indeed, it was still "37".

This was the system telling him:

Your physical condition is currently at the state of a thirty-seven-year-old.

For a fraction of a second, Wang Lie panicked.

All that hard work for most of the day, only to be set right back to where he started overnight?

But he quickly calmed down:

No.

This wasn't being set back to square one!

He had just celebrated his thirty-eighth birthday, not his thirty-seventh...

Without the cheat, he would currently be thirty-eight years old with a thirty-eight-year-old body.

Because of the cheat, and thanks to his goal against Hellingham FC, he was now able to possess the body of a thirty-seven-year-old despite being thirty-eight.

So the cheat hadn't failed; he was indeed one year younger than his actual age.

It was just that he had forgotten time kept moving forward, and he was still growing older.

The cheat only made his physical age younger; it did not stop his body from continuing to age.

Youth could be regained, but the passage of aging never stopped for even a single second.

He was truly racing against time.

Of course, he could catch up to time—and even surpass it—by scoring goals. Yet if he stopped and did nothing, time would gradually catch up and eventually overtake him.

Wang Lie finally understood the mechanism of this cheat.

He had scored that goal on January 31, 2037, and that was the day he had grown younger.

Although the system told him his physical condition had reverted to the state of a thirty-six-year-old, he realized he had harbored a slight misunderstanding back then.

Age is a very broad concept; you are thirty-six immediately after turning thirty-six, but the day before your thirty-seventh birthday, you are technically still considered thirty-six.

So when the system notified him that he was one year younger, it only displayed the number of years without showing the remaining days, perhaps because the UI would look too cluttered otherwise...

The complete information should actually have been 36 years and 349 days.

Such a long string of golden numbers would indeed look rather messy...

How could it compare to a large, prominent "36" for simplicity, clarity, and visual impact?

Although the days were invisible, this number would still continue to tick forward as time passed.

By the second day after the match against Hellingham FC, which was February 1st, this number would automatically change to 36 years and 350 days.

When his birthday arrived, the days would reset to zero, and the age would increase by one.

This was why he was seeing the digits "37" now.

He currently had no idea how many goals were required to become one year younger a second time.

He had scored twice against Hellingham FC, but nothing happened after the second goal.

He would definitely need to keep scoring to grow younger again.

Assuming it didn't take too many goals to shave off another year, and he achieved his goal in the match against Brighton Whites on February 28th,

he should be able to see the number "36" once more.

The digit would be the same, but it would differ from the first "36" he saw, as the hidden number of days trailing behind would certainly be different.

Specifically, it would actually be 36 years and 11 days.

His physical condition at that time should be just past thirty-six, equivalent to resetting his body back to February 28, 2035—right at the start of the second half of the 2034-2035 season.

By extension, Wang Lie could deduce that at this time next year, his physical age would increase by another year along with his actual age.

If by then he managed through hard work and goals to restore his physical condition to thirty-three, a single birthday might push his physical condition back up to thirty-four.

To avoid being overtaken and lapped by time, he had to score frantically throughout the year.

Yet just thinking about the new tactics the team was drilling made Wang Lie sigh inwardly—wanting to score goals, lots of goals, was never that easy...

As Wang Lie pondered, the golden numbers in his field of vision vanished.

Once his vision returned to normal, he turned on his side and kissed his still-sleeping wife. She had been utterly exhausted last night; he should let her sleep a little longer...

***

Unexpectedly, this kiss woke his wife instead. Opening her eyes to find her husband hovering close by, she blinked in a daze before realizing it was time to get up, propping herself up with both hands to sit.

"Don't rush, sleep a bit longer..." Wang Lie tried to press her back down, but to no avail.

"I'll go make you breakfast."

Wang Lie ultimately didn't force his wife to stay in bed.

As his wife went to prepare breakfast for him, he headed down to the basement gym to begin his morning workout.

Even if his physical condition had been restored to youth, it would be meaningless if his training didn't keep pace; all the goals he scored would go to waste.

Since he had managed to regain his youth against the odds, he needed to work even harder than before, forging his body into something stronger than it used to be. Only then would he live up to the Traveler's gift, treating him to a much more magnificent show than before.

***

Ordinarily, Tyne’s home match against the Scousers held no special significance; it was just an ordinary Premier League fixture.

Yet because of Wang Lie, this twenty-fourth round Premier League clash commanded attention far beyond the match itself.

Much like the situation in the twenty-second round, when Roster launched a verbal assault on Wang Lie before the match, turning Tyne’s home fixture against Hellingham FC into the most anticipated match of that round.

Wang Lie truly lived up to his reputation as the "traffic king" of the Premier League; wherever he went, the spotlight followed.

Tyne and the Scousers indeed harbored no ancient grudges or fresh hatreds.

However, Tyne's star player, Wang Lie, certainly had a grudge against the Scousers!

And it was a deep, long-standing one.

Wang Lie's feud with the Scousers had nothing to do with his former status as a Solport United player—or at least, very little to do with it.

Because long before he played for Barcelona Athletic, he had already faced the Scousers.

The animosity had begun back then.

It started as a pitch-level conflict between Wang Lie and a Scouser player—as a striker, he had clashed with Joe Wesley, the Scousers' starting central defender at the time.

Playing in direct opposition meant the two had numerous duels.

Furthermore, Wesley had an aggressive playing style and loved talking trash.

Throughout the match, he continuously targeted Wang Lie with heavy challenges and a foul mouth.

However, back then Wang Lie didn't quite understand English spoken with a thick Liverpool accent, so Wesley's trash-talking tactics didn't have much effect.

Wang Lie scored a goal in that match, helping Barcelona Athletic defeat the Scousers and win the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

After the match, Wang Lie posted a photo on his personal social media account. In the picture, Wesley stood behind him with his mouth open and chin slightly raised, facing Wang Lie—capturing the exact moment Wesley was hurling abuse at him.

Wang Lie captioned the photo with a proverb:

"We have a saying in China: 'Barking dogs don't bite.'"

He wrote this in English, terrified people wouldn't understand, which could be considered very thoughtful of him.

Coupled with the photo, it was practically sticking a "dog" label directly onto Wesley.

Winning the match and then mocking the opponent online stirred up massive controversy at the time.

His critics claimed he lacked sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, winning the match while losing his character.

His supporters argued that Wesley had cursed at Wang Lie for the entire match; if anyone lacked sportsmanship, it was Wesley. Besides, who told him to lose? Wang Lie could reply however he pleased, and Wesley just had to take it. If he was unhappy, why didn't he win? Was it because he didn't want to?

Regardless, Wang Lie's actions undoubtedly pushed the conflict to a brand-new height—previously, it was at most a match-day dispute that ended when the whistle blew. Now, it didn't end with the final whistle and spilled over into subsequent fixtures.

In the second leg, from the very first minute, Wesley subjected Wang Lie to the tightest marking. Combined with playing at home where refereeing standards were slightly lenient, he successfully kept Wang Lie scoreless for the first seventy minutes.

Did Wang Lie score after the seventy-minute mark, then?

Certainly not.

Amidst thunderous jeers from the Scouser fans and under the heavy attention of Scouser defenders including Wesley, Wang Lie remained goalless throughout the match.

Then why couldn't it be said that Wesley successfully shut Wang Lie down for the entire game?

It was quite simple: Wesley received a red card in the seventieth minute. Wang Lie had received the ball with his back to goal outside the penalty area, preparing to turn, when Wesley scissored him down from behind.

No matter how lenient the refereeing was, such a blatant foul could not be ignored.

Consequently, Joe Wesley was shown a direct red card and expelled from the pitch!

And Wang Lie...? He hopped back to his feet shortly after, completely unfazed.

At that moment, the Liverpool Grand Stadium was deafening with boos, as Scouser fans insisted Wang Lie had dived!

Even though television slow-motion replays and VAR footage clearly proved Wesley had indeed clipped Wang Lie.

Blinded by rage, the Scouser fans didn't care about any of that.

They clung to a single logic—Wang Lie had cried out so miserably and fallen so dramatically, yet he didn't even need Barcelona Athletic's medical team to come onto the pitch to treat him before getting back up himself... If that wasn't a dive, what was?!

If Wesley's red card couldn't be rescinded, they at least wanted that bastard Wang Lie dragged off the pitch along with him...

This marked the beginning of Wang Lie locking horns completely with the Scousers, especially their fanbase.

From then on, athletic "opponents" transformed into personal grievances.

As for Wang Lie's subsequent transfer to Solport United, it merely added layers to this personal feud, cementing it further without altering the nature of the conflict.

Now forty-five years old and long retired, Joe Wesley worked as a football pundit and commentator. The grievances between him and Wang Lie from years ago had never been dissolved with a smile.

Whenever Wesley mentioned Wang Lie nowadays, he rarely had anything nice to say.

Naturally, as a commentator, he still needed to maintain a facade of objectivity and fairness.

Yet Wesley always managed to slip personal bias into his objective commentary. For instance, when Wang Lie scored a brace in a match, Wesley would specifically emphasize that it took Wang Lie ten shots to achieve it, subtly implying that Wang Lie was a wasteful volume shooter whose efficiency was low and who hogged the team's scoring opportunities...

He only recited statistics, and statistics were factual, so no one could accuse him of lacking objectivity. As for how the outside world interpreted his commentary afterward, that was beyond his control.

If people chose to view Wang Lie as a wasteful, low-efficiency ball-hog, what did that have to do with an impartial provider of data like himself?

Everyone was aware of his history of enmity with Wang Lie, so even when he inserted private biases, people understood and didn't demand strict neutral objectivity from him regarding Wang Lie.

The feud between Wang Lie and Joe Wesley was merely one example in his long history of animosity with the Scousers; there were many others, some even more severe.

This hatred even implicated Chi Zhen.

When Chi Zhen initially chose to accept the Scousers' terms, signing with them to become a Scouser player, it had provoked dissatisfaction among certain Chinese fans of Wang Lie. They felt Chi Zhen's transfer choice showed disrespect toward "Brother Wang"—knowing full well how much the Scousers loathed Brother Wang, how could you still join them? What does that mean? Do you hate Brother Wang too?!

The deep-seated hatred between the Scousers and Wang Lie was evident from this.

And the fact that Wang Lie had scored twenty-three goals across thirty-four matches against the Scousers, including three hat-tricks, truly lived up to the "irreconcilable" hatred between them.

***

Putting past history aside, Saturday's match held another crucial significance for the Scousers.

That was getting revenge on Wang Lie.

Last season, the league title that had been practically within the Scousers' grasp was kicked away by Wang Lie's hat-trick.

That had been the closest the Scousers came to a Premier League title in the past seven seasons—their last league championship dated back to the 2028-2029 season, when Arthur Eloine was still on the squad...

Having lost 3-2 away to Solport United, the Scousers had to surrender the top spot, ultimately paving the way for Clayton Athletic's three consecutive league titles.

Had London giants Kensington not clinched the league title in the 2032-2033 season, Clayton Athletic might even have achieved a historic five consecutive Premier League titles, meaning the two Manchester clubs would have monopolized every single Premier League crown of the past seven years.

These seven years were the glorious era of Manchester football, yet they were also the bleak years of Liverpool football.

Last season, having finally found an opportunity to reclaim the throne, they were blocked by Wang Lie.

Both Scouser fans and players had been bottling up this resentment for nearly a year.

During the first half of the season, the Scousers had geared up for revenge, only to be held to a 1-1 draw away by Solport United under new manager Helden in a match where Wang Lie did not play.

Vengeance remained unfulfilled, and they were mocked by the Manchester media: "Are you really here for revenge?"

They would naturally settle accounts with Solport United—after this match, their next fixture would see them host Solport United at home.

However, settling the score with Wang Lie came first.

Solport United was Solport United, and Wang Lie was Wang Lie.

Even if they beat Solport United in the first half of the season, if Wang Lie wasn't on the pitch, every Scouser felt it wasn't true revenge.

Now, the ultimate opportunity had arrived.

Wang Lie had transferred to Tyne, and Tyne lacked strength.

Even away from home, the entire Scouser squad, players and fans alike, possessed the confidence to defeat Tyne and Wang Lie and achieve sweet revenge!

When Wang Lie terminated his contract with Solport United, Scouser fans had worried he might leave the Premier League altogether, robbing them of any chance for payback.

Therefore, the ones rejoicing over Wang Lie joining Tyne and staying in the Premier League were not just Wang Lie's fans, but those very Scouser fans.

Ever since then, every single Scouser fan had been crossing days off their calendars, eagerly anticipating this fixture.

With only two days left until the match, Scouser fans could no longer contain themselves!

Social media platforms abroad were flooded with trending hashtags like "Scouser Revenge" and "Scousers VS Wang"...

Anticipation wasn't limited to the Scousers; Wang Lie's fans were equally excited.

Scouser fans began creating hashtags in advance, shouting for revenge. They started revisiting Wang Lie's top ten face-slapping moments against the Scousers to educate newcomers on why Wang Lie was hated to the bone by Scouser fans.

Yet all the pre-match hype generated by both fanbases was completely overshadowed by an explosive news story on Wednesday night, which was quickly picked up and reported by multiple media outlets:

"In-fighting! According to an anonymous Tyne insider, ever since Wang joined the club, there have been two consecutive internal conflicts within the team, with one of them even escalating to physical blows!

"... Contrary to the unity Tyne outwardly strives to portray, undercurrents have long been surging within this club. Both conflicts are related to Wang. The first reportedly occurred when Wang's fan Vitiny engaged in a fierce argument with Dean in the locker room, which escalated into physical contact. As for the second, it was a direct shouting match between Wang and Dean...

"According to sources, after Wang arrived in the Tyne locker room, his unreasonable style of conduct sparked dissatisfaction among the other players. Whether in training or the locker room, everyone has been operating under a tense atmosphere..."

"Lawrence Dadomo published a post on social media confirming the authenticity of these leaks, though to protect his source, he could not disclose detailed information about the whistleblower, stating only that the leak was one hundred percent authentic because the news originated from inside the Tyne locker room.

"With Tyne suddenly rocked by an in-fighting scandal on the eve of their match against the Scousers, it is bound to have a severe impact on their preparations!"