Chapter Seventeen: The Boy's Common Hobby

  At the Inter Milan Apiano youth training camp, most of the players are Italian, so it is natural that Italian becomes the first language in Apiano. In order to facilitate foreign players to integrate into the team more quickly, when assigning rooms, coaches often arrange a foreign player with a domestic player together.

  For some reason, Chu Jiang was arranged to share a room with Baldy.

  When Chu Jiang opened the door with his key and saw Baldy sitting in the room, both of them were shocked, then a bit awkward. Just now they were still facing each other on the training ground, but when they turned around, they were still living in the same room, it was inevitable that they would feel a little embarrassed.

  Actually, these things on the training ground are not a big deal when mentioned. In a large club, mutual competition is a very ordinary thing, nothing to be surprised about. Moreover, after learning about Baldy's gambling curse, Chu Jiang even took the initiative to help him out of trouble, making it less embarrassing for him, and the two had already let bygones be bygones at that time.

  What really made them both awkward was that Chu Jiang basically didn't know much Italian, and his English was just barely passable. As for Baldy, it's certain that he absolutely wouldn't know a word of Chinese, and his English level was also not much better than Chu Jiang's. This way, the two had some difficulty communicating with each other.

  After staring at each other for a while, Bardi suddenly did something that would kill people without compensation. He flipped out a treasured English version of Playboy magazine and threw it to Chu Jiang as if he was offering a treasure. In his opinion, all men should like this kind of thing, so he was catering to his taste.

  Chu Jiang took the book and flipped through two pages before being shocked. The illustrations inside were even more explosive than the cover, full of capitalist style. He had never seen anything like this in his home country. Chu Jiang had always been a good boy since he was young and had never come into contact with such things.

  Chu Jiang subconsciously wanted to throw away that "Playboy" magazine, but before he could take action, Baldy leaned in close, much faster than his speed on the soccer field.

  "Good, good look!" Baldy pointed at the woman in the painting, saying in broken English, his face full of lewd smiles.

  Chu Jiang was stunned. He didn't know how to answer this question. Out of courtesy, he should have politely said it looked good; but the traditional education he received made him unable to speak up.

  Does it look good? Chu Jiang stole a glance, seemingly not bad...

  As for Chu Jiang's embarrassment, Baldy didn't think much of it. He was already staring at the pin-up with shining eyes, where would he notice Chu Jiang's expression? Casually flipping through a page, Baldy stretched out his dirty hand towards the basically naked woman on the picture, touching her while making strange noises with his mouth.

  "These breasts are really big! At least a D cup! Right? Chu."

  Chu Jiang looked at it curiously and thought that maybe it was a D-cup, but he didn't understand what that meant. Anyway, it was really big. As an honest person, he nodded in agreement.

  Seeing Chu Jiang nodding, Baldy became even more pleased, "Haha!"

  "What a pity, can only look but not touch!" Baldy stretched out his hand and rubbed it in the air, obviously already in a fantasy stage. Although his English was not standard, looking at his posture, everyone knew what he wanted to express.

  Chu Jiang couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

  "Know what, Chu? Simonne's girlfriend has bigger breasts than this!" Baldy continued to gesture with his hands, and judging from the size he was indicating, it was almost as big as a football.

  Baldi's mouth watered at the sight, "What a pity! If I could touch it, I'd die of pleasure! That shape, wow! That feel, wow!"

  At this time, Chu Jiang suddenly noticed a person standing at the door, whose facial expression seemed somewhat strange.

  "Hello, Drajiero!" If I'm not mistaken, that should be his name.

  "Ha! What did you say?" Baldy came back to himself and only then noticed that the one standing at the door was none other than Simone Delannoy!

  The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat eerie.

  "There's killing intent!"

  Chu Jiang shivered with cold and stood up involuntarily, walked out of the room door, turned back and said: "You guys chat slowly, I'll go first!"

  Chu Jiang closed the door and let out a long sigh.

  In an instant, the room was filled with intense and chaotic sounds. There were cracking wooden sounds, urgent pleas for mercy, and more "slapping" impact sounds, all sorts of noises, one after another...

  After a while, the door opened and Dlaneyro came out with a blank expression, holding a PlayStation in his hand. Seeing Chu Jiang, he squeezed out a smile, "Hello!"

  Chu Jiang awkwardly nodded.

  After Draenero turned and left, Chu Jiang quickly slipped into the room. Inside, Baldy's skin was a sickly pale color, his expression mournful, how pitiful...

  It's strange to say, but after this, the three young men actually became very good friends. Although it was not easy for them to communicate due to language barriers, with the help of gestures, game consoles and picture books, everything seemed not so difficult...

  For Chu Jiang, coming to Apiano brought more than just making two new friends.

  On the first day of training, Chu Jiang's Epiphany skill was triggered again. This time, his luck wasn't bad, and the new skill that Chu Jiang gained was another special skill, Language!

  "Language: Special Skill. Those who acquire this skill will speed up their understanding of new languages when learning other national languages, especially in football terminology. This skill cannot be upgraded."

  This skill came just in time!

  Football is a team sport, and the communication and coordination of the entire team directly affect the combat effectiveness on the football field. If language is not communicated, teammates cannot understand each other's intentions in time, and cooperation on the field will be greatly discounted. This point is especially important for goalkeepers.

  In defense, the goalkeeper is usually the core of the team's defense. Commanding teammates to run positions and coordinating defensive work with teammates are the responsibilities of the goalkeeper. If language is not communicated, even the best goalkeeper cannot exert his strength. If due to untimely communication, the team loses the ball, the loss will be even greater.

  So, learning Italian as soon as possible became Chu Jiang's top priority in Apiano. At this time, mastering the "language" skill was like a long-awaited rain after a drought, or dry wood meeting a raging fire...

  At the same time, in the "Gate God Cultivation System", Chu Jiang's training intensity also rose from level 5 to level 3; each training session earned 5 experience points, comparable to the experience gained during school competitions. No wonder good players all like to go to high-level leagues, where they can learn things that are simply incomparable to low-level leagues.

  However, the "Gate God System" still believes that Chu Jiang's level has exceeded his current training level and warns him that if he stays in the current environment, his training experience will be halved after 90 days and zero after 180 days. The system continues to urge Chu Jiang to choose a higher-level training and competition environment.

  The training level of Inter Milan's youth team is just a third-tier in the system. Chu Jiang estimated that in the eyes of the system, even the Chinese Super League may be at this level. To get a better training environment, they must strive to stay in Europe. Even if they can't stay with Inter Milan, they should at least join an Italian Serie B-level team or above.

  From this moment on, Chu Jiang completely eliminated the idea of returning to China and joining a certain team. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to training, striving to show his best level. Chu Jiang knew that only by doing so could he attract the interest of high-level teams; only then would he have the possibility of continuing to stay in Europe after the trial training ended.

  So, in every day's training, Chu Jiang doubled his efforts. In the eyes of other teammates, the daily training was ordinary and monotonous, but Chu Jiang couldn't think so. If he didn't train hard, the two-week trial period would pass in an instant, and if he didn't seize the opportunity, the next game would be a regrettable return.

  Chu Jiang cannot allow such a situation to happen. Every time he thinks of his parents' expectations, every time he recalls the pain he brought to his parents before rebirth, Chu Jiang trains even more diligently.

  "This life, this world, I must bring the greatest glory to my parents, and never let them have a slightest heartache!" This is what Chu Jiang thought in his heart.

  In the next three days of training, Chu Jiang wore a yellow vest as the substitute goalkeeper.

  In the team's confrontation, Chu Jiang couldn't remember the Italian names, so he called the defenders in front of him from left to right "1", "2", "3" and "4", and the two full-backs were "5" and "6". Although his Italian was not good, it didn't stop Chu Jiang from shouting orders at his teammates on the field.

  "It doesn't matter if you can understand or not, as long as you can grasp my intention!" Chu Jiang thought.

  Under his command, in a three-day small-scale confrontation, the substitute side won three times against the main force! The goals lost in three days were fewer and fewer every day!

  Then, in just three days, Chu Jiang squeezed out Baldi's position and officially became the main goalkeeper.

  Chu Jiang's outstanding performance in training and his ability to quickly integrate into the team have earned him widespread praise from the youth team coaching staff. Especially the youth team goalkeeper coach Bosagri, who regards Chu Jiang as one of his most satisfactory disciples.

  Chu Jiang occasionally liked to drink Coke, but this habit was forcibly quit by Bosagri because he thought football players should not drink carbonated drinks. With his help, Chu Jiang learned to mix his own sports drinks, although the taste wasn't great...

  Chu Jiang's weight was not enough, so Bosa Gria helped him develop a special diet, letting him eat more fruits, more Italian noodles, and more beef. Every morning, Bosa Gria would also come to knock on Chu Jiang's door, taking him out for a run together to prevent him from sleeping in late.

  In short, every detail related to football, Bosagri will help Chu Jiang to be the best.

  After joining the main team, Chu Jiang did not slack off and treated every day's training as if it were his last. In the main team, Chu Jiang amazingly maintained a record of no losses and even kept an average scoring record of three goals in two games.

  In the subsequent matches, Kolso came less and less often, but a middle-aged man named Pagano almost returned every day. Every time he came, he would stand by the court, seriously paying attention to Chu Jiang's performance.

  The potential shown by Chu Jiang in training has deeply attracted him!