The instant he sent Glen Johnson sprawling, Li Yufei nudged the ball forward, adjusted his stride, then struck the underside of it cleanly with the inside of his foot.
Faced with a shot from such close range, Liverpool keeper Reina was helpless. All he could do was pray the ball wouldn't hit the target.
But unfortunately for him, Li Yufei's shooting had now reached the level of a top-class striker.
He wasn't about to miss such a golden opportunity.
"Whoosh—"
The ball rocketed into the net, sealing Reina's fate.
"Oh, my God!!!"
"Frye just sent Johnson tumbling to the ground! That's unbelievable!!!"
"This young man, making his Premier League debut, has scored his first Premier League goal in less than four minutes on the pitch!"
"And he did it after leaving a Liverpool defender flat on his back!"
"With a start this dazzling, are we witnessing the birth of a legendary player?"
"I don't know, but I think Frye has every chance of becoming a legend!"
"Viewers, ten years from now, you may be glad you happened to watch this match live."
"Because this could very well be the first official match of a truly gifted player!"
In the Sky Sports studio, Martin Tyler was so excited she could barely find the words.
Andy Gray, sitting beside her, wasn't quite as over the top, but his hands were trembling slightly. It was clear Li Yufei's dazzling performance had stunned him, too.
Meanwhile.
Far away, in the Eastern Great Nation.
New Sports, which had bought the Premier League broadcasting rights, was showing Liverpool's home match against Arsenal live.
In fact, the moment Li Yufei came on, the comments below New Sports' live stream had already begun flooding in.
Quite a few Chinese fans, especially Arsenal fans, had already heard of Li Yufei, the Chinese-heritage super-rich son who played for Arsenal's youth academy.
After all, it was now the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century.
China no longer relied solely on newspapers and media to keep up with news from abroad.
Since forums, Tieba, and Weibo had appeared,
many fans had already found places to gather online.
In those online fan communities, news from foreign websites was constantly being brought over.
As a result, players like Li Yufei, who had already made a name for themselves in Fleet Street, had also become known on Chinese websites.
So quite a few experienced fans, especially Arsenal fans, knew about Li Yufei.
But since Li Yufei had only been a youth player, and domestic media didn't cover English youth matches,
Chinese fans knew very little about him.
Now they were seeing Li Yufei come on as a substitute in his very first Premier League match and score a goal full of individual heroics.
The entire live-stream chat instantly exploded!
[Holy shit!!! This guy's amazing! He came on and immediately sent someone sprawling. So cool!]
[Honestly, I'd known about Li Yufei for ages, but I always thought he was just a nepotism hire, using his dad's connections to play around at Arsenal. Now I can only say I was blind.]
[Incredible. I've got nothing to say. I never thought an Asian could one day run riot on a football pitch in one of Europe's top leagues. One word: respect!!!]
[Come on, stop patting yourselves on the back. He's not pure Chinese. He's mixed race, get it? If you ask me, his Asian genes are holding back his white genes. Otherwise, this guy would be even better!]
[The guy above is an idiot, right? You're pushing that white-supremacist nonsense again? Why don't you go grovel to your foreign daddies? What, they look down on you so much they won't even throw you a bone? Pathetic!]
[...]
The chaos in the chat, naturally, had no effect on Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu, who were commentating on the match.
Though Zhan Jun was a devoted Liverpool fan, even he had to praise the spectacular goal:
"Unbelievable! Li Yufei's first goal came so quickly. It's been less than four minutes since he came on as a substitute. Lightning-fast!"
Zhang Lu chuckled beside him. "Heh-heh, there's no denying it—what a beautiful goal! Arsenal's super-talent really does live up to his reputation!"
Li Yufei, of course, had no idea about the ugly arguments among fans back in the Eastern Great Nation.
At that moment, he was celebrating wildly on the touchline!
"Bro, you actually sent the guy tumbling! That was insanely good!"
As Li Yufei's best friend on the team, and the one who had assisted the goal,
Wilshere was the first to run over and celebrate with him.
"Thanks, bro. I wouldn't have scored without your assist."
Li Yufei slapped hands with Wilshere, then went on to high-five the teammates gathering around him.
Of course, Li Yufei wasn't about to forget the most important thing.
Once his teammates had gradually moved away, Li Yufei made a heart with his hands toward Taylor, who was sitting in a box, then pointed to the number 13 on his back, making sure the cameras got a clear shot.
Li Yufei's gesture drew a considerable chorus of boos from the crowd.
After all, this was Anfield, Liverpool's home ground!
So what if some rookie had scored? He even had the nerve to flaunt his romance in public?
Did he think he could just ignore the Red Army KOP?
Liverpool fans didn't care about the love between a Golden Boy and Jade Girl. If you did anything against their team, you couldn't expect them to be gracious!
But Taylor, watching from the box, was already clapping wildly. Her whole body swayed to a silent melody.
After seeing her man's declaration of love, Taylor blew him a kiss in reply.
Liverpool manager Hodgson was completely thrown off balance on the touchline.
He'd never imagined that the kid he hadn't given a second thought to before the match would hit him with such a thunderbolt!
Honestly, if there'd been a hole in the ground, Hodgson would have dived straight into it and never come back out.
What a disgrace! An absolute disgrace!
He'd only just said it, and now he'd been proven wrong. Even the thick-skinned couldn't take that!
After Arsenal equalized, Hodgson hesitated, but ultimately decided to go all out.
He wasn't willing to accept this! He absolutely wouldn't let a kid ruin Liverpool's opening Premier League match of the season!
He immediately signaled to the fourth official, bringing on number 17, Maxi Rodriguez, to replace number 14, Milan Jovanovic.
Then he brought on El Niño Torres early, even though he was still regaining his fitness after the World Cup, and substituted goal scorer N'Gog.
Hodgson had played both his cards at once. He was certain Liverpool would take the lead again!
Before you continue