"The Incredible Rise of a Goalkeeper from the East!"
"A Youth Team Goalkeeper Goes Berserk Straight in the Milan Derby! Can You Believe It?"
"Leon Feng's Fitness Test Data Exposed! Take a Look! Take a Good Look!"
"If Someone With Fitness Numbers Like These Can Put In a Performance Like That, Doesn't That Mean I Could Walk on Water?"
"Shocking! Goalkeeper from the East Takes Banned Substance!"
"Confirmed! The Real Reason Behind the Eastern Goalkeeper's Dominant Performance!"
...
One headline after another appeared before Leon's eyes.
The story had broken on the Serie A side first and had not yet reached the East.
So Leon, who habitually browsed websites from back home, had genuinely not caught wind of any of this.
Even so, when Leon looked over at Inzaghi, he found that Inzaghi appeared entirely calm.
He seemed completely unbothered.
"Alright! Let's not frighten this good lad any more than necessary!"
Inzaghi patted Leon on the shoulder and smiled.
"I've already reported your latest fitness test results to the club."
"They may still need you to run through the tests again in front of the media and the public."
"Honestly, if I hadn't personally put you through a full assessment myself, even I might have had my doubts!"
Inzaghi continued with a smile.
"Right! It's not a big problem!"
"The reason I called you in was to tell you not to pay too much attention to what the media are saying."
"The truth speaks for itself."
"Leave the club side of things to me."
Inzaghi sent Leon on his way.
On the surface it seemed like nothing serious, but in reality things were far from straightforward.
Otherwise Inzaghi would not have had Tassotti go out of his way to bring Leon in.
AC Milan was currently in a particularly sensitive period.
Old Berlusconi was actively working to sell the club.
At a time like this, if the club genuinely had a story break about a player using banned substances, it would inevitably affect the club's valuation.
Put plainly, it would make the club harder to sell for a good price.
So once the media had blown the story up, Berlusconi and Galliani had gone straight to Inzaghi without delay, demanding he sort the matter out as quickly as possible.
Even though Inzaghi had insisted repeatedly that there was nothing whatsoever wrong with Leon's performances on the pitch, under the pressure of the situation, he would not be able to keep starting Leon until Leon had fully cleared his name.
He had simply chosen not to mention that to Leon just now, not wanting to pile too much pressure on him.
'What a mess this has become.'
Inzaghi furrowed his brow, feeling a quiet frustration with how the club had handled things.
But at the same time, he felt there was little he could do.
Milan was no longer the club it had once been.
The warmth and sense of legacy that had once defined it had all but vanished.
Leon himself was not especially troubled.
Had this happened before he joined AC Milan, he would have had a genuinely difficult time explaining himself.
The [One-on-One Must Save] talent had led to a great many saves that defied all natural explanation, and his physical attributes at the time would have been a complete mismatch with that level of performance.
If the media had exposed this back then, Leon might truly have had no way out of the situation.
But things were different now.
Since joining AC Milan, Leon had already pushed his physical attributes to a considerably higher level.
With that foundation in place, pulling off those extraordinary saves was no longer so inexplicable, and no longer looked quite so outrageous.
'System! Exchange the [Reaction] attribute up to 15!'
Leon said it quietly to himself in his mind.
"Ding! Congratulations, Host! The [Reaction] attribute has been raised from 9 to 15! 550 System Points have been consumed!"
The system notification chimed in Leon's head.
Exchange successful.
With that, Leon had patched up what was currently his last remaining vulnerability.
The [Reaction] attribute was admittedly somewhat intangible, with no single defined standard to measure it by.
But the various extraordinary saves Leon had made could certainly be explained through that attribute.
Having completed the exchange, Leon put the matter out of his mind.
He went about his daily training in his usual methodical way.
And then AC Milan released an official statement.
"In light of the questions raised concerning squad member Leon Feng, Leon Feng has been suspended with immediate effect."
"All of Leon Feng's actions are his personal responsibility alone."
"Further drug tests and fitness assessments will follow in due course to establish the truth for the public."
The AC Milan statement immediately sent shockwaves through the footballing world.
Supporters who had initially assumed the whole thing was nothing more than irresponsible journalism now started to believe Leon genuinely had a case to answer.
He had already been suspended, so surely there had to be something to it?
"Damn it all!"
Inzaghi was furious when he saw the club's statement.
Galliani had issued it without so much as a word to him.
It was the most effective way to distance the club from the fallout, but it had all but completely destroyed Leon in the process.
"Ha! I always said there are no shortcuts in this world! That goalkeeper from the East is finished! The club's future starting goalkeeper will always be me, Donnarumma!"
Donnarumma saw the club's statement and was visibly delighted.
"You've got to be kidding! The East finally produces one footballer who amounts to something, and it ends like this?"
"Pack it in! From now on, if I read anything about football from the East, I'm a complete idiot!"
"Ha! Football from the East is rotten to the core! Bringing shame all the way out here in public!"
"Just blacklist Leon Feng outright! He's done more damage to the reputation than any of the useless players we've seen before!"
The supporters back home saw the news a day later and immediately erupted.
And because football in the East had such a wretched reputation, not a single supporter stepped up to defend Leon this time. Instead, they all seemed convinced he must be guilty.
The higher the hopes, the harder the fall.
The supporters who had praised Leon the most before were now the harshest in their condemnation.
Furious at the disappointment of it all.
"How did it come to this?"
"How could they do this?"
Su Jing, far away in Spain, had naturally seen the news as well.
She had been following Leon quietly all along, and now a fire of indignation rose within her.
There was no way she believed Leon had done anything wrong.
She knew better than anyone how relentlessly he trained.
Was it really so strange that a player who worked that hard had improved dramatically?
And beyond that, even if Leon did have a case to answer, no verdict had been reached yet.
What gave all those supporters back home the right to act as though it were already proven?
They were all from the same country.
This was the moment to speak up for him.
"No."
"I have to do something for Leon."
Su Jing got moving.
"Why Do We Refuse to Believe in Our Own Players?"
Using her connections back home, Su Jing had the article published in the domestic sports weekly.
In it, she described Leon's dedication in training in vivid detail once again, and laid out the trajectory of his improvement step by step.
If Leon's outstanding performances were truly down to banned substances, then why had his performances improved significantly with every single match?
Banned substances could perhaps help a player produce one exceptional performance.
But how could taking them repeatedly lead to a permanent and continuous rise in ability?
That simply defied all logic.
Su Jing's article did begin to give some supporters pause for thought.
However, the release of AC Milan's squad list for the match against Lazio pushed Leon back into the centre of the storm all over again.
Leon had not even made the squad.
It genuinely looked as though AC Milan had suspended him.
If he had been suspended, surely that was all the proof anyone needed?
Supporters back home turned on Leon once more with full force.
At that point, Su Jing's article counted for nothing.
Some supporters even dug up photos of Su Jing and Leon together from their time in Sarria, claiming the two had an inappropriate relationship and that Su Jing was simply defending someone close to her.
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