Chapter 136: The Lunar New Year Schedule

Villarreal’s objective in La Liga this season was to finish in the top four and secure qualification for next season’s Champions League. However, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid already having all but locked up the top three places, achieving that goal would be anything but easy.

On January 21, the nineteenth round of La Liga began, and Villarreal welcomed former Spanish giants Valencia to the Estadio de la Ceramica.

In their midweek Copa del Rey match against Real Sociedad, Villarreal had lost 0–2, “successfully” freeing themselves from the cup schedule.

For this match, key players such as Roberto Soriano and Trigueros were absent through injury. Dai Zhiwei and new signing Bacca formed a strike partnership for the first time, but unfortunately, the combination failed to produce the desired effect.

The stadium remained packed after the New Year, but Valencia showed the home side no mercy whatsoever.

From the opening whistle, Valencia’s determination to win was clearly stronger. Despite playing away from home, they held their ground at the Estadio de la Ceramica and did not rush into attack. Yet every one of their threats was dangerous. With just two counterattacking opportunities in the first half, they completely stunned the Yellow Submarine.

In the thirty-fifth minute, Nani sent a low cross from the left side of the penalty area, and an unmarked Soler finished from in front of the six-yard box.

In the forty-second minute, Santi Mina stole the ball from goalkeeper Asenjo’s feet and rolled it into an empty net.

“What the hell! He’s turned into Karius!”

Dai Zhiwei was utterly stunned by Asenjo’s mistake. A blunder like that from a goalkeeper could destroy the morale of an entire team. Even when the first half ended, he still had not recovered from the shock.

During the interval, Asenjo apologized in the dressing room, and his teammates all expressed their understanding.

But understanding did not mean acceptance.

Villarreal launched a fierce attack at the start of the second half, but despite gaining the upper hand, they could not find a goal. Without Roberto Soriano and Trigueros, their midfield lacked players capable of driving the ball forward. They relied almost entirely on Dai Zhiwei dropping deep to receive possession and on crosses from the wings, which made them easy for the opposition to contain.

It was not until the seventy-eighth minute that Dai Zhiwei used his dribbling ability to win a free kick for the team. He then found the net with a curling effort, raising his league tally for the season to twenty-one goals while salvaging a little pride for the home side.

In the end, Villarreal had no choice but to accept a 1–2 defeat. Sevilla overtook them, and Villarreal dropped to fourth in the league table.

On January 28, the first day of the Lunar New Year, a full slate of matches was played in the twentieth round of La Liga. The match chosen for live broadcast by Huaxia Television’s sports channel was Villarreal against Granada.

Villarreal began the first half by relentlessly pressing Granada and launching attack after attack.

Whenever Granada’s players thought the latest wave of pressure was finally over, Villarreal struck at their confidence again, continuing to pin them back as though their energy would never run out.

Dai Zhiwei fought energetically for every ball in the final third. Whether those challenges produced results or not, at the very least, he showed the right attitude.

That was what he believed to be the minimum professional standard every footballer should possess.

A negative example was Paul Pogba, who in his previous life had helped drive Jose Mourinho out. Pogba possessed extraordinary talent and outstanding ability, but his professionalism left much to be desired. As a result, he was destined never to reach the level of a true superstar on the football pitch.

Because Bacca had performed poorly in the previous match, Bakambu was given a starting place. After passing to Dos Santos, he immediately surged forward. With Bakambu dragging one Granada player away, the pressure around Dos Santos eased at once.

Dos Santos turned his back to goal and made a feint before spinning around. Just as the defender realized what was happening and tried to block him, Dos Santos rolled the ball beneath his foot once again. The sudden change of direction left his opponent stumbling.

Dos Santos had rarely used the sharp, right-angled body feint in recent matches. On the one hand, it consumed too much energy. On the other, he could beat most defenders without relying on any special technique at all.

He accelerated at once. His burst of speed far exceeded the Granada defender’s reaction time, carving out a huge gap. Before Ochoa could close him down, Dos Santos drove into the space between Granada’s defenders and unleashed a ferocious shot from close range toward the near corner.

Granada goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa had correctly anticipated that Dos Santos would shoot, but before he could react, the ball was already flying toward him.

Ochoa instinctively crouched, and through sheer luck, the ball struck his body and rebounded away. The Granada defender recovered quickly and cleared it over the touchline before Dai Zhiwei could follow up.

Dos Santos could only grit his teeth and shake his head in frustration.

After play resumed, Villarreal continued to rely on the speed of their attacking players to create danger for Granada again and again, preventing their opponents from circulating the ball smoothly.

Granada’s players did not panic. They knew that if they could survive the opening twenty minutes, Villarreal would no longer be able to run with such relentless intensity.

But could they really hold out for twenty minutes?

Roberto Soriano received a pass from Ruiz deep in his own half and immediately launched the ball forward. It flew rapidly over the halfway line and soon reached the feet of the advancing Bakambu.

Bakambu nudged the ball with his right foot and then cut inside, shifting the center of gravity of Granada midfielder Cuenca. Rather than moving toward the wing, he continued toward the center, while Cuenca stayed tight to him.

As he ran, Bakambu spotted a familiar yellow figure sprinting at high speed. Without hesitation, he sent the ball powerfully toward the right flank, where Dai Zhiwei was already racing forward.

Using his advantage in speed, Dai Zhiwei shook off the Granada defender beside him, collected the ball, and tore down the right wing, constantly preparing to deliver the decisive blow.

He had been in La Liga for only a year, but his pace and dribbling had already become feared by every club. Opposing managers repeatedly warned their defenders about him: once he got up to speed, he was extremely difficult for any player to stop.

Dai Zhiwei was not intimidated by Granada’s tall defender. Using his speed and technique, he carried the ball forward directly at him and soon reached the area just outside the six-yard box. Ochoa immediately moved across to cover the near post.

With the ball at his feet, Dai Zhiwei swayed his body as though he intended to burst down the touchline, drawing the defender’s balance in that direction. Then, with a sudden touch, he pushed the ball to the right and shifted his weight back, leaving his opponent stumbling.

He now rarely relied on the sharp body feint when taking on defenders. One reason was that it consumed too much stamina. Another was that, without using any special move at all, he could already get past the vast majority of defenders.

Dai Zhiwei accelerated again. His burst of speed instantly left the Granada defender far behind, opening a massive gap. Before Ochoa could rush across to surround him, Dai Zhiwei squared the ball into the six-yard box, where two Villarreal players had already arrived to meet it.

Goal!

The scorer was the rarely selected Denis Cheryshev. Bakambu did not compete with his teammate for the finish. Cheryshev reached the ball before Ochoa and poked it into the net.

Villarreal’s recruitment the previous summer had been nothing short of a failure. Apart from Roberto Soriano, none of their new signings had been able to establish themselves as regular starters. At best, they had become rotation players.

That was also connected to Villarreal’s reluctance to spend. In the modern transfer market, it was not easy to accomplish great things with very little money.

One-nil. The Yellow Submarine were comfortably ahead.

Shen Fangjian, the commentator for Huaxia Television’s sports channel, saw Cheryshev suddenly appear in front of Ochoa and stab the ball into the net. He cried out excitedly.

Only after he pointed it out did the fans realize that Dai Zhiwei had also recorded nine league assists this season. With just one more, he would complete the outstanding feat of twenty goals and ten assists.

At that moment, the television camera suddenly cut to a middle-aged Chinese couple in the stands. They were naturally Dai Zhiwei’s parents.

The day before, they had just arrived in Villarreal. After spending a day resting at their son’s luxurious apartment and adjusting to the time difference, they had come to the Estadio de la Ceramica that evening to see their son’s career for themselves.

Dai’s parents had previously watched him play for the Chinese national team and Evergrande, so they were already accustomed to hearing entire stadiums praise their son. Even so, hearing tens of thousands of Spaniards chanting “Dai” still filled them with a spontaneous sense of pride.

After the restart, Granada launched a fierce attack. Their midfield and defense pushed farther forward, while their play on both flanks began to change. For a time, Villarreal’s back line was under immense pressure.

Fortunately, little time remained in the first half, and Villarreal survived the most dangerous period of the match without conceding.

At the beginning of the second half, Villarreal continued to endure Granada’s assault. Adrian Ramos received a through ball from the center of the pitch by Maley and managed to shoot before Costa could block him, but Asenjo, fully focused, gathered the ball with ease.

Soon afterward, Samper forced his way through the middle and created room for a shot, but Costa cleared the ball before it could cross the goal line.

Granada attacked relentlessly for nearly ten minutes after the restart, yet still found no reward.

As their prolonged assault failed to produce a goal, Granada’s defensive line pushed higher and higher. To Dai Zhiwei, the space left behind them looked irresistibly inviting.

In the sixty-third minute, Villarreal once again defended against a Granada attack. Bruno won possession and immediately played the ball into the center to Roberto Soriano.

Soriano had also noticed Granada’s shape. Without giving them any chance to intercept, he sent the ball directly toward Bakambu near the center circle.

As Bakambu received it, Ingason had already stepped forward, but the space behind him was enormous. After carrying the ball a few steps, Bakambu slipped it to Ingason’s right.

Granada defender Silva was still desperately racing back, but someone was faster.

The moment Dai Zhiwei saw Roberto Soriano receive the ball, he had already begun his run, sprinting wildly along the flank.

Bakambu spotted him as well. With one long pass, he instantly tore open Granada’s fragile defensive line.

Dai Zhiwei took the ball and used his speed to stride past Silva, leaving him far behind.

Then he was through on goal.

“He’s scored! Two-nil! Dai Zhiwei has sealed the victory for Villarreal!”

In the commentary booth, Fang Shenjian was extraordinarily excited as he watched Dai Zhiwei charge into the penalty area at full speed and blast the ball past the advancing Ochoa.

“That is Dai Zhiwei’s twenty-first La Liga goal of the season. Congratulations to him! Oh, Dai Zhiwei has lifted his shirt. There seems to be a message written on the shirt underneath.”

After scoring, Dai Zhiwei did not perform his trademark shooting-a-pistol celebration. Instead, he ran straight toward the camera beside the corner flag and lifted his jersey. Across the tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt beneath it were nine Chinese characters:

“Happy New Year to everyone in the country!”

Granada’s manager returned to his bench in frustration. The 0–2 scoreline was difficult for him to accept, but what could he do?

On the football pitch, when your skills are inferior to your opponent’s, defeat is inevitable.

In the end, Villarreal defeated Granada 2–0 and claimed all three points. They did not allow Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Sevilla to pull away at the top of the table. The gap remained at two points, while Atletico Madrid continued to pursue them closely from behind. The race for Champions League qualification in La Liga was becoming exceptionally intense.

After the match against Granada, Dai Zhiwei specifically asked Escriba for two days off so that he could show his parents around Spain.

It saddened him somewhat to realize that this was his parents’ first trip abroad.

Before long, however, he experienced both the sweetness and the agony of traveling with them.

Like parents everywhere in the world, Dai’s mother and father absolutely loved taking pictures.

Dai Zhiwei had always thought photography was a visual art, just like the images of his parents captured through his lens.

One was beautiful as a flower, the other elegant and distinguished.

One still possessed her former charm, while the other was upright and dignified.

But when the two of them held hands and posed in front of him while he carried the camera behind them, taking pictures, Dai Zhiwei suddenly felt like a dog being walked, his mouth filled with dog food.

Dai Zhiwei did not like having his picture taken, but he could not resist his mother, who was obsessed with photographing her son and kept insisting on taking pictures of him.

As for the results?

Had you ever seen those exaggerated memes on the internet?

Faces twisted beyond recognition, nostrils enlarged to absurd proportions, bizarre poses, or bodies blurred into the shape of an overexcited husky?

That was exactly what Dai Zhiwei looked like through his mother’s camera.

Not only that, his parents especially loved posting everything to their social media feeds. Within only a few days, ugly pictures of Dai Zhiwei had appeared on the phones of every relative and friend.

Only then did Dai Zhiwei truly understand the saying:

“Taking your parents on a trip is not traveling. It is spiritual cultivation.”

His mother photographed him from every possible angle and insisted on going wherever the crowds were.

Dai Zhiwei had planned to visit museums, but his parents wanted to go to a shopping village.

He had arranged visits to historical sites, but his mother insisted on going to an outlet mall to hunt for bargains. She complained that everything was too expensive while saying, “Since we’re already here, how can we leave without buying something?”

Then came gifts for every distant aunt, uncle, and cousin, until their luggage was overweight.

Still, whenever Dai Zhiwei remembered how his parents had taken him out when he was a child, cameras in hand as they photographed him, his heart warmed considerably.

When we were young, they took us out to see the world.

Now we accompany them as they see it.

Pictures, chatter, endless shopping—

What did any of that matter?

Perhaps the world did not change simply because our parents grew older.

But the opportunities to be with them diminished as time passed.

What we could do was cherish the present.

Do not keep saying that you will take your parents traveling once you have the time and money.

This Spring Festival, take your family out to see the world.