But given the situation right now,
Li Yufei was fully capable of meeting Wenger's standards for a starting player.
In this match against AC Milan, Li Yufei scored one goal and made one assist, directly contributing to both goals.
For a young player making his first appearance with the senior team, you couldn't ask for more.
Still, Wenger wasn't going to make such a hasty decision and put Li Yufei in the starting lineup.
After all, this was only a friendly. Even if the opponent was a top European powerhouse like AC Milan, the match's nature as a warm-up couldn't be ignored.
Wenger still needed time to assess who would start in the league, domestic cup competitions, and the UEFA Champions League.
Li Yufei could only be said to have made a successful debut; that didn't guarantee he would keep performing well.
But Wenger would give him plenty of opportunities—more than most newcomers!
That was one of the privileges that came with Li's Father buying Arsenal.
Li Yufei, still on the pitch, had no idea what the old man was scheming. Besides, even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.
If this sort of thinking helped him establish himself in the senior team faster, then it was a good thing!
Li Yufei simply didn't want outsiders to think he was a nepotism hire. That didn't mean he would turn down a few shortcuts.
In his view, refusing to take an easy path just to prove yourself was something only an idiot or a lunatic would do.
As time passed,
Pato took one last long-range shot out of nowhere in the final moments. The ball skimmed past the post.
Li Yufei, up front, broke out in a cold sweat watching that shot.
That was terrifying!
If Pato had scored, Li Yufei would have been the one to lose out!
"Peep! Peep, peeeeeep—"
With two short blasts and one long one, Arsenal's preseason friendly against AC Milan came to an end.
Thanks to Li Yufei's goal and assist, Arsenal beat AC Milan 2–1.
The moment the match ended, the system's pleasant notification rang out:
[The system has detected that the host successfully completed the assigned task. Completion: 3/3] [Task completion rewards: 300 Intermediate Soft Rice Points, 100 Advanced Soft Rice Points]
Perfect!
One match had earned him 400 points, enough to raise one of his specialized attributes by 4 points.
Li Yufei was thrilled!
He wanted more tasks like this!
But he knew that wasn't very realistic. The only reason this match had earned him so many points was that it was his professional debut.
Otherwise, for a mere friendly, the system would never have issued a task unless he was playing against aliens.
After the match, Li Yufei didn't give any interviews. He went straight home with Taylor instead.
There were no mandatory interviews for a warm-up friendly like this.
Wenger stayed behind to say a few words, and made a point of praising Li Yufei's performance:
"Everyone saw that after joining the senior team, this young man still showed outstanding ability. It's clear he isn't a fake prodigy who can only play in youth matches. He's a genuine talent."
"Yes, I'll give him plenty of opportunities in the new season. I believe he'll perform well in the league."
The media quickly reported Wenger's comments and the result of the match.
Li Yufei's debut was the main selling point.
After arriving in England, Li Yufei had attracted plenty of attention over the years because he was the Son of a Super-Rich Man.
After all, people had never seen the son of one of the world's richest men take up football!
Many people wanted to see Li Yufei embarrass himself. There were plenty of people who resented the rich in this world.
Even those who didn't resent them would enjoy watching a lucky fellow born in a Roman palace fail, just to add some amusement to their dull lives.
On top of that, Li Yufei had announced his relationship with Taylor last year, raising his profile another notch.
You could say Li Yufei was the only player in all of Europe who had become famous before even playing a proper match.
He had even received endorsement offers from a number of sponsors, but his agent had turned them all down.
Seriously, how much could an endorsement deal for a youth player be worth?
Li Yufei's agent, Alan, had been personally chosen for him by Anne. His professional ability was beyond question.
He would never let his client take such a huge loss!
As the media spread the news of Li Yufei's goal and assist against AC Milan in his professional debut, even more people began paying attention to him.
When Li Yufei got home and opened Twitter, he was stunned. His follower count had risen by 10,000 in just three hours.
You had to remember, it was 2010—not the later era when people could casually rack up hundreds of millions or tens of millions of followers.
The star with the most Twitter followers at the time was Lady Gaga, whose account had more than seven million.
Britney Spears and Justin Bieber came next, with more than six million each.
Taylor Swift, Li Yufei's superstar girlfriend, had more than 4.7 million followers.
Put in that context, you could see what gaining 10,000 followers in three hours meant.
Over the years, Li Yufei had amassed fewer than 200,000 followers on Twitter, and that was after a huge surge following his relationship announcement with Taylor.
Before he announced their relationship, he had had fewer than 40,000 followers.
"Ah, looks like I still have a long way to go on my soft rice journey!" Seeing his follower count, Li Yufei couldn't help sighing.
After years of figuring things out, he had learned one thing: the system's point calculations were closely tied to his fame.
He had chosen to bind Taylor as his soft rice target because he liked her, but also because she had met the fame requirement.
The Soft Rice System had a very high threshold for the "social fame" of a binding target.
Otherwise, Li Yufei could have used his parents' connections to find a top rich woman to support him as soon as he got the system.
That wouldn't have been difficult for him.
But unfortunately, the system said that although these wealthy women had fortunes that dwarfed Taylor's, who was a singer just starting her career, their fame didn't meet the requirements, so they couldn't be bound.
Li Yufei had no choice but to carefully consider his options and ultimately choose Taylor, who suited his preferences and met the system's requirements.
And Li Yufei knew exactly how Taylor's career would develop.
With the Eras Tour, an unprecedented concert tour that could be called the greatest in human history, his wife-to-be would one day leave everyone else far behind in fame.
All he had to do was calmly keep living off her.
Li Yufei had roughly calculated that, given his girlfriend's rate of growth,
within a year at most, his Soft Rice Points would skyrocket.
The rewards for each task would become much more generous, too.
Given Li Yufei's current abilities, he could be on the rise after just one season.
All Li Yufei had to do now was wait patiently, hone his technique, train seriously, and give it his all in every match.
The rest could be left to time... No, actually, it'd be more accurate to say he could leave it to his cheat.
Before you continue