Mocked for saving face, yet sales suddenly soared? Oh no, Tang Long really had become your dad!
Four goals in 20 minutes, Bony started to feel dizzy!
I even started hallucinating.
At that moment, he saw himself at the age of five, playing football with his friends on the uneven, puddled muddy ground at the entrance of a poor village in Ivory Coast.
Back then, Bony was definitely the best player in the village; none of the other kids could beat him.
"Bony, you'll definitely be able to play football in Europe someday, make a lot of money, and give your family a wealthy life!"
The words of the old village chief, who often watched these kids play football and used to lean on his cane, echoed in Bony's ears once again.
These words, like a seed, took deep root in Bony's young heart, sprouted, and grew strong.
When Bony's consciousness was pulled back to reality, the lush green grass of the Etihad Stadium came into view, and he almost instinctively wanted to repeat that familiar celebration move—sprinting off his shirt.
During Bony's childhood, the only black-and-white television in the village was placed in the village chief's yard. Whenever there was a football match, the children would always sit around it, and although the screen was filled with static, it couldn't stop their love for football.
I happened to see Brazil soccer star Rivaldo take off his shirt to celebrate a goal on a TV screen filled with static, and I've remembered that move ever since.
He would happily take off his shirt to celebrate every time he scored three goals in a game with his friends, and he would do so every time he scored another goal.
Bony was often scolded by his mother for this, because he got too excited when taking off his clothes, which often made his already patched clothes even more tattered!
So much so that later, whenever Bony went out to play football, his mother would make him take off his shirt before he went to play;
Five-year-old Bony could only take off his pants.
Later, his mother wouldn't even let him wear pants anymore, so Bony had to go to the village entrance to play football completely naked.
His playmates laughed at him, "Look, naked Bony's here again!"
The nickname "Naked Bony" quickly spread.
One day on the field, Bony got angry at being mocked, reached out and started pulling at other people's clothes, got into a fight with the kids from his village, was pinned down in the mud and beaten, and his little brother was even stepped on.
He returned home, clutching his groin and with a bruised and swollen face, crying to his mother, "Why can all the other kids kick with their clothes on, but I can only kick with my bare bottom on?"
Faced with her son's confusion and grievances, the mother's eyes were filled with helplessness and bitterness.
The mother cradled Bony's face in her hands, looked around the small, dilapidated shack where six other emaciated children sat, and choked back tears as she spoke to Bony the words he would remember for the rest of his life:
"Child, because I simply can't find any more patches to mend your torn clothes."
From that moment on, Bony vowed to become a professional footballer in the future. He immediately told his mother, "When I make a lot of money in the future, I can buy lots and lots of patches, so I won't have to worry about my clothes getting torn and not having patches to fix them."
Tang Long rushed over and grabbed Bony's jersey, which had been pulled up to his chest, and pulled it back tightly.
"Stop taking your clothes off! You already have a yellow card. If you take them off any more, you'll get a red card!"
Bony was still in a daze. He mistook Tang Long for a playmate from the same village and reached out to take off Tang Long's jersey.
Bony had done farm work for his family since he was a child, so he had a lot of strength in his hands, and his finger joints were as thick as chestnuts. Tang Long couldn't beat him, and he watched as his jersey was already pulled up over his neck and covered his face, about to be taken off.
Tang Long inwardly groaned, "I helped you out three times, and you still want to take my clothes off, making me get a wrongful yellow card!"
Knowing Bony's background, Kolarov realized that Bony was overly excited, so he rushed over and slapped Bony across the face!
"Wake up, Bony! You're not dreaming, you really scored four goals! Wake up!"
Bony snapped out of his daze, stared blankly at Tang Long, and then, in front of more than 50,000 fans, hugged him and burst into tears.
Just like a few days ago, he was in the car, crying his heart out while leaning on Tang Long in the passenger seat.
The fans inside the Etihad Stadium were quite surprised by Bony's overly emotional outburst;
However, they immediately gave a thunderous round of applause to the heroes of today's game.
Many fans are unaware of Bony's background. They might think that while scoring four goals is certainly cause for celebration, it seems a bit much for him to burst into tears while hugging his teammates.
With the score at 4-0 after 89 minutes, the game was essentially over; even the King of Heaven couldn't turn it around.
Pellegrini found it very strange that Bony had tried to undress Tang Long and then burst into tears.
He felt Bony was losing control of his emotions and dared not keep him on the field any longer, so he immediately substituted Bony with Agüero.
"Sergio, just run around a bit, warm up for next week's Manchester Derby."
Pellegrini's move was unintentional; he simply wanted Agüero to get some exercise and maintain his fitness.
Little did they expect that what was said unintentionally would be taken to heart by the listener!
Bony scored 4 goals in 20 minutes, and it's almost the 90th minute, and you bring me on, telling me to just run around?
Thus, a seed of hatred towards Bony was planted in the heart of Agüero, the leader of the Spanish-speaking Faction, which further deepened his hostility towards the entire French-speaking Faction.
Manchester City thrashed Aston Villa 4-0 at home, maintaining their lead at the top of the Premier League table.
A beaming Bony received the match ball from the referee.
He was in high spirits after being named Man of the Match and attended the post-match press conference with head coach Pellegrini.
At the press conference, a reporter compared Bony to Bayern's center forward Lewandowski.
Bony waved his hand modestly, indicating that he was no match for Bonnie.
Lewandowski scored 5 goals in 9 minutes, while I only scored 4 in 20 minutes. In terms of both scoring efficiency and number of goals, I cannot compare with the Poland.
However, Agüero interpreted these words as a quintessential Versailles moment!
Since joining Manchester City in 2011, Agüero has never felt so strongly in the past four years that his status as a starting striker may not be as secure as he imagined!
After this match, Bony has scored 6 goals in the league;
He surpassed Agüero to become the team's top scorer.
Some commentators have said that Bony's strong emergence has made the race for the Premier League top scorer this season full of suspense.
Major bookmakers have also raised the odds for Bony to win the Premier League Golden Boot this season.
Although, judging from the odds, he is far behind top strikers such as Agüero, Icardi, and Kane;
However, it's important to remember that at the beginning of the season, Bony's odds of winning the Premier League Golden Boot were outside the top 40, and no one could believe he could score four goals in a single game!
Of course, when Bony stunned the Premier League with four goals in a single game, people did not forget who orchestrated it all.
In the first half, when Silva controlled possession, Bony struggled and made frequent mistakes;
Manchester City, playing at home against bottom-ranked Aston Villa, were unable to break through their defense for a long time.
After Tang Long came on in the 60th minute of the second half, Bony scored his first goal in just 8 minutes and then put on a spectacular four-goal haul within 20 minutes!
Three of the assists came from Tang Long, and Kolarov's cross from the wing, the penultimate goal, also came from Tang Long's pass from the wing while under pressure.
It can be said that Tang Long was involved in every one of Bony's four goals.
A rather amusing phenomenon was that the Daily Telegraph, which had previously been tricked by Tang Long in Chinese, swarmed around Manchester City like ugly flies throughout the match, relentlessly nitpicking and finding fault with Tang Long.
Even when Tang Long had just come on and hadn't touched the ball much, Manchester City were still broadcasting live news, emphasizing Agüero's importance, as they hadn't scored yet.
But just as Tang Long assisted Bony to score the first goal that broke the deadlock, the Daily Telegraph's live news stopped updating.
Subsequently, Tang Long orchestrated Bony's spectacular four goals in 20 minutes.
Other media outlets followed suit, even publishing lengthy reports after the match describing this phenomenal game.
However, the traditional right-wing newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, was conspicuously absent from the list.
They even dug up the old interview with Agüero after his game-winning goal against Queens Park Rangers in 2012, which helped Manchester City win their first league title, and put it on the front page the next day.
This attempt to cover up the truth only made many UK people laugh.
They flocked to the Daily Telegraph's website and social media to mock their burying their heads in the sand.
Many enthusiasts bought the latest edition of the Daily Telegraph, wanting to keep the newspaper as a souvenir.
This led to a surge in the Daily Telegraph's popularity in the UK, with the entire day's edition selling out.
This bizarre phenomenon also made their arch-rival, the traditional left-wing newspaper the Guardian, laugh their heads off!
They jumped on the bandwagon and published a darkly humorous news story.
The Daily Telegraph's sales surge, and the reason behind it is heartwarming!
"After Manchester City's match against Juventus, 19-year-old China player Tang declared to the media in his native language, 'Some people keep saying he's finished, but he could be their father every time!'"
"Our prominent media outlet, the Daily Telegraph, unable to understand Chinese, interpreted this as Tang Long's subsequent English remarks, a manifestation of his reserved and tolerant Eastern character."
"They must think this player is easy to manipulate, and they even shamelessly promote the so-called UK gentlemanly spirit, saying that this is the result of foreign players being civilized after coming to UK."
"But look at the drunken harassers on the streets at night, and the endless brawls and hooligans at the sports stadiums!"
"The old fogies at the Daily Telegraph are probably still living in the Victorian era; they're completely unaware that in modern UK, the spirit of gentlemanly conduct has vanished with the demise of the steam engine!"
"They are still urging people to vote for Brexit to this day. This closed-minded mentality will lead to the continued decline of UK civilization and its international standing, ultimately reducing it to a dispensable little Europe country."
"Data released by the Press Association shows that the Daily Telegraph's domestic sales have continued to decline this year, and it has been surpassed by the Guardian for six consecutive months."
"This also greatly troubles our peer; the decline in sales has led to a continuous reduction in their advertising budget, which in turn has resulted in a drop in employee salaries, causing widespread discontent."
"It's said they're searching everywhere for big advertisers!"
"However, according to the latest statistics, the new edition of the Daily Telegraph is currently the top-selling newspaper in the UK, far surpassing ours!"
"Manchester City player Don played an indispensable role in this!"
"With a brilliant slap in the face, he delivered a scathing warning to the conservative UK gentlemen, led by the Daily Telegraph: I can triple newspaper sales with just one game; I'm your father!"
After training that day.
On the way home, Bony took a bracelet made of strung pebbles out of his bag and gave it to Tang Long.
"Tang, thank you for your help. This is a treasure that the village chief gave me after praying to a wizard before I left Ivory Coast to play football in Europe. It is said to bring good luck, and I have carried it with me for the past ten years. Now I want to give it to you to bless you with good fortune throughout your life."
Tang Long couldn't refuse, so he put it on his hand.
When I got home, I casually took it down and placed it on my desk.
I'm about to go into the AI Cloud Training Ground for a while.
The simple Stone Bracelet, strung together with thick thread, bounced slightly on the table...