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"I'm already in the hotel room. Look. The environment's pretty nice, right?"
"That's great! Looks like you'll be able to rest well."
"Yeah. I wish you could be here next year. I really hope you'll be standing beside me when I lift the trophy."
Hearing Lance personally say he wanted her there, Chloe immediately blushed and shyly moved the camera away.
Lance only caught a brief glimpse before the screen shifted elsewhere. He couldn't clearly see the girl whose face had already turned red like an apple.
They were already this close to becoming a real couple, yet she was still so shy.
What Lance didn't know was that Chloe simply didn't want to reveal her little secret too early.
Looking at his handsome face on the screen, Chloe nearly blurted out her plan several times.
"I need to head to training now. Remember to watch the live broadcast tomorrow. When I win the championship, I'll let you touch the Champions League trophy."
After arriving in Milan and resting briefly, Atlético Madrid still needed to head to the Meazza Stadium for a light field training session.
Lance quickly ended the call.
"Warte! Wait!"
Chloe instinctively shouted in German, but Lance had already hung up.
The girl sighed softly.
She had wanted to talk to him a little longer, but this was the most critical stage of his preparation. The final was tomorrow.
The atmosphere felt almost like the night before the Chinese university entrance exam.
Even if Lance himself wasn't nervous, Chloe was nervous for him.
A few seconds after the video call ended, another incoming call appeared.
"Hey, girl! You're still in the dorm? Haven't left yet?"
"My luggage is packed already. I'm about to head out."
"That's amazing! You actually get to watch Lance's match live!"
Laila sounded incredibly jealous.
Originally, she had wanted to go too, but after hearing Chloe was heading to Milan to watch the match with her "boyfriend," she decided not to interrupt their private time together.
"When you see Lance, remember to help me get an autograph. You already got one back in Bayer Leverkusen, so you're experienced."
"Of course. Absolutely."
Even now, Laila still believed Chloe was simply an ordinary fan who had met Lance a few times during his Bayer Leverkusen days.
How innocent.
Looking at her beautiful but somewhat airheaded French roommate, Chloe suddenly felt a little guilty.
"Oh right. When you meet your boyfriend, remember to video call me. You're always hiding him."
"Alright, alright. I'll show you."
Chloe suddenly wondered what expression Laila would make after discovering her "boyfriend" was actually Lance.
"Also, remember to prepare protection. If you don't have any, I've got a box in my drawer..."
"Alright, alright! I need to go now!"
Chloe hurriedly hung up, her face burning hot.
Protection?
So far, they had only hugged a few times. They hadn't even kissed yet.
How could things possibly develop that far?
Seeing the time, Chloe quickly grabbed her suitcase, put on her jacket, and rushed toward the airport.
When the moment came, she would definitely give Lance a huge surprise.
...
Munich Airport.
Inside the waiting area near the gate, Chloe sat quietly with headphones on while waiting for boarding.
At that moment, a middle-aged couple walked past her.
They had familiar faces.
The same kind of features as Lance.
Were they Chinese? Japanese? Korean?
Chloe couldn't quite tell.
"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"
The German was spoken with a slight foreign accent.
The middle-aged woman looked refined and elegant, smiling warmly.
At the very least, she looked much friendlier than Chloe's career-focused mother.
For some reason, Chloe instantly felt a strange sense of closeness.
"No, nobody's sitting here. Please."
"Thank you. You're very beautiful."
The auntie's straightforward compliment made Chloe blush slightly.
"Thank you."
Lu Yongping and Zhao Ping looked around.
There weren't many empty seats near Gate 23. Only the two seats beside the beautiful German girl remained available.
They had no choice but to sit down there.
"Did you remember to turn off the faucet before we left? And the circuit breaker too?"
"I turned it off already. How many times are you going to ask?"
"I just get worried whenever we travel far."
Because they had spent years working nonstop, the couple had missed many of their son's important matches.
Even though they lived in Europe, they only saw Lance briefly during winter and summer breaks.
So there was no way they could miss this Champions League Final.
Lance had personally arranged two VIP tickets through the club and had even prepaid the five-star hotel and private transportation expenses for the trip.
Otherwise, given Zhao Ping's personality, she genuinely might have hesitated to close the restaurant for two days.
Their Chinese restaurant business was booming.
More and more tourists traveling through Europe deliberately made detours to visit their restaurant in Munich.
At first, the couple had been confused about why business suddenly exploded.
Only later did they learn that Lance's rise to stardom and his life story had already been thoroughly exposed by domestic media.
The location of the family restaurant was no longer a secret.
The massive surge in traffic meant customers now waited at least an hour every day just to get a table.
Even local German diners struggled to reserve seats.
Thinking about losing two full days of income made Zhao Ping's heart ache.
"Stop thinking about money. If you miss your son's final, you'll regret that even more."
"That's true. Money can always be earned later."
By now, Lance earned more than enough money for the family to live comfortably forever.
But the couple still preferred staying busy. Sitting around doing nothing simply made them uncomfortable.
As Chloe listened to the familiar language spoken by the couple beside her, she quietly lowered the volume of her headphones.
Chinese.
The same as Lance.
An indescribable sense of warmth suddenly washed over her.
Unable to resist, Chloe turned her head slightly and glanced at the elegant woman beside her a few more times.
Noticing the gaze from the beautiful blonde girl nearby, Zhao Ping responded with a kind smile.
"Are you going to Milan too? Is it for school?"
The girl looked young enough to be either a high school or college student.
Her face was unbelievably delicate.
Zhao Ping's natural "social butterfly" instincts instantly activated, leaving the usually introverted Chloe slightly flustered as she hurriedly removed her headphones.
"No, no. I'm going to watch a match."
Chloe smiled shyly, revealing the red-and-white Atlético Madrid jersey beneath her jacket.
Then, in slightly accented but fluent Chinese, she added:
"I'm an Atlético Madrid fan."
"Wow! Your Mandarin is really good!"
"Not really..."
"You support Atlético too? What a coincidence. My son also plays football for Atlético Madrid."
The thing Zhao Ping was proudest of in her entire life was her superstar son.
Because of that, she constantly posted on WeChat Moments and frequently spammed the family group chat named "Loving Family" with news articles about Lance.
She sometimes wondered whether her older sisters had already muted her.
Faced with this beautiful doll-like German girl who could even speak Chinese, Zhao Ping instinctively wanted to brag a little.
Meanwhile, Chloe froze completely.
"They're actually..."
Oh no.
She had accidentally met the parents.
Wait.
What was she even supposed to do now?!
Chloe's face instantly turned into a fully ripened tomato.
...
Meanwhile, in Milan, Lance had absolutely no idea that Chloe had already started chatting happily with his parents.
At that moment, he was sitting inside Atlético Madrid's conference room, listening to the team's final tactical meeting of the season.
Or rather...
A pre-match rally speech.
"Guys! Tomorrow, at this exact time, you'll step onto the most important field of your careers!"
"I know this match won't be easy. But I believe..."
Simeone took a deep breath.
"You will absolutely lift that damn trophy!"
"The treble. Nobody can take it away from us!"