You Will Regret It

When Dejan Lu saw the news about himself, he felt terrible.

Who taught you to hype things up like this?

He clearly remembered the "208 marketing his small feet and couldn't buy shoes" trending topic about a celebrity, seeing related news every time he opened his browser for a year or two. It was disgusting.

With how much he earned in a year, would it kill him to get two pairs of shoes made?

Later on, whenever netizens saw celebrity gossip trending, they'd sarcastically ask if the UN had been notified about such a huge event.

Even though entertainment was scarce these days, Dejan Lu didn't want to overexpose himself, lest he face backlash later.

Sigh.

He should have handled things with Old Bianchi himself.

Now he had to submit articles to help his teammates trend and share the heat.

Originally, he wanted Bagnato, that old guy with good looks, to be the protagonist of a Hollywood scandal, but since Bianchi mentioned Dino, he'd make Bagnato the scandal protagonist for Dino's movie.

Anyway, Dino's movies didn't have high demands for male leads. He was good at filming women and showcasing various kinds of beauty. Compared to Quentin, who liked filming feet, Dino preferred filming the curves of buttocks.

His movies contained a lot of discussions about human nature, without being overly profound, which was why they were so popular.

If you couldn't understand the refusal, it would lose a lot of its appeal. Just treating it as an erotic film would be a waste.

Dejan Lu propped himself on the table and wrote furiously: "Undeniably, post-war erotic films are timeless classics. 'Miranda' and 'The Desire of Jenny Flower' both emerged from such a backdrop.

But Dino De Laurentiis has entered a bottleneck period. He needs more breakthroughs, and Reggina is that breakthrough... Dreams and reality, desire and effort, whether effort can succeed – these are questions many people enjoy exploring.

Recently, this Serie C2 team, Reggina, has become famous because of their beloved owner and their Chinese player. In reality, Reggina's Giuseppe Bagnato is the one worth exploring.

Born in 1960, he was unremarkable, yet he always worked hard to do his job well. Filming a movie based on him would be brilliant – striving without reward, athletic talent being innate and unchangeable through hard work. In his dreams, he lived in a mansion, surrounded by sexy women, a guest of honor in European royalty, getting involved with the young wives of top tycoons… But upon waking, he'd find himself just tired from training and lying on the green field, still wearing worn-out sneakers.

Finally, letting him walk home with a smile to eat a cheap dinner – that would be a classic movie. Failure is the main theme of life. Rather than how to succeed, we should learn how to calmly accept our own mediocrity."

He then wrote two more inspirational pieces about a teammate's prodigal son returning and Old Bianchi's impoverished youth and hard work leading to wealth. Dejan Lu checked for spelling errors before rubbing his right wrist.

Writing with his non-dominant hand wasn't difficult for him; the main reason was to hide his handwriting.

There was no need to sign his name for good deeds like praising his teammates.

Outside, news about Reggina was flying around, a mix of truth and falsehood.

Reggina's performance remained stable. After their comeback against Calabria, they had firmly held the top spot and hadn't relinquished it.

Dejan Lu's performance was still outstanding.

Scouts from Italian teams also frequented Reggina's Granillo Stadium.

However, most of them were for Serie B teams.

Even Dejan Lu himself felt that his potential realization still needed some time, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

This season marked the ninth year since Italy resumed allowing foreign players, and it had just changed to a three-foreign-player limit.

This meant a team could have a maximum of three foreign players, regardless of whether they played.

When Dejan Lu first came to Italy, he applied for long-term residency through family reunification and never changed his nationality. Therefore, it was normal for Serie A teams not to be optimistic about him.

This wasn't like later situations where you could buy a young talent and loan them out.

This was the biggest problem at the time.

Serie A teams couldn't even emulate Chelsea's later model of being a "loan army" because there were only so many talented young players from domestic youth academies. Often, multiple teams would be interested, or the parent club wouldn't sell for a low price and would gamble on the player's future, leading to situations of co-ownership.

Milanello.

Rivera's appearance attracted quite a bit of attention.

This legendary player had built the Rossoneri's second dynasty during his career and had served as the Vice Chairman of AC Milan for a long time after retiring, wielding significant influence within the club.

Upon receiving the news, Galliani immediately jogged out, smiling exaggeratedly, and opened his arms, shouting, "Look who's here, Gianni! It's so good to see you."

"Give me a break. If I had been in a car accident, you probably would have opened a bottle of red wine after my funeral," Rivera retorted with annoyance.

After Berlusconi acquired Milan, the two had clashed many times.

Even with his direct remark, Galliani showed no embarrassment. He walked over to Rivera warmly and led him towards the office.

As they walked, he briefed Rivera on the recent changes in the team.

Berlusconi's acquisition of Milan was largely driven by political needs, but his investment in the team was genuine.

Rivera didn't refute this.

After all, the training facilities at Milanello had visibly improved.

Once inside the office, Galliani asked his secretary to get coffee and offered Rivera a cigar, asking, "You wouldn't come here without a reason. Is there some good news today?"

He knew Rivera's personality well.

If he were in trouble, he wouldn't come to Milanello for help.

This legendary player was too proud.

Rivera turned on the TV in Galliani's office, which was showing a Serie C2 match.

This was Berlusconi's TV station, Canale 5. The Serie C team Reggina had been very popular recently, and both Old Berlusconi's TV station and his personal style were excellent at capitalizing on hot topics, so they had specially arranged a live broadcast of Serie C2.

As Berlusconi's chief butler, Adriano Galliani was well aware of this.

He pointed at the TV and said, "Reggina seems to have quite a story. That Bianchi has been making a lot of moves lately."

"Do you see that young man?"

Rivera asked, pointing at Dejan Lu on the TV.

"You think highly of him?"

Galliani asked, narrowing his eyes.

Rivera's intention was already very clear.

"Yes, I believe in three to five years, he will be the best midfielder in Italian football and the guarantee for Milan's next dynasty. His technique might not be the best, but his game reading ability is absolutely unparalleled!"

Rivera said with some excitement.

He had watched several of Dejan Lu's matches recently, and the young man was truly too smart.

There were many times when the opponent's actions on the field confused him, but seeing the subsequent results, he would suddenly understand.

Rivera even suspected that if the young man played international chess, he would definitely become a world champion.

Berlusconi nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

He even felt a bit amused.

Why had he gotten into a power struggle with this kind of person back then?

In his opinion, Rivera was too green and too naive.

Crushing Rivera no longer brought him much joy.

Such an opponent was too weak.

Galliani said directly, "Gianni, we are AC Milan. We can't use our limited foreign player slots to sign a foreign youngster who might become a star."

"I've seen his profile. He's lived in Italy for many years,"

Rivera said directly.

"Gianni, Gianni, Gianni... Poor Gianni, you don't understand football at all." Galliani shook his head and said, "My meaning is very clear. Milan only signs established star players."

You have talent?

I'll buy World Cup winning players and European Cup winning players. If you eventually fulfill your potential, I'll just buy you again.

Italian teams are this arrogant now. Even when scouting young players, they focus on local talents, and foreign players are always big names.

No matter how much talent you have, can your immediate impact compare to a Yugoslavian international or the Golden Bomber? How can your future greatness compare to the Dutch Trio's current prowess?

"He's worth it!"

Rivera shouted, "That young man's success is inevitable!"

"Alright, I hope he can cause us some trouble in the future," Galliani said, shrugging.

He wanted to take back his previous words.

Seeing the furious Rivera was quite amusing.

"Adriano, you will regret this!" Rivera slammed the table fiercely and stormed out.

Galliani took a sip of his coffee, looked at the retreating figure, and chuckled softly, "Gianni, I'm the Vice President of Milan!"