Chapter 54: Will's Southern Tour

This story is purely fictional.

Will had mentioned his intention to inspect the Great River, but for numerous reasons, the visit had never materialized. After the World Football Championship, he found himself stretched too thin. For those players who performed well in the tournament, he had to sort out their contracts and subsequent collaborations one by one.

Jesse, the star from Country A whom he had secured, successfully underwent the implant procedure and felt greatly relieved. Jesse’s performance would be crucial in launching the future league. They had spent nearly two hundred million, including signing Jesse’s new club, making them MC’s sharpest weapon in the Codfish Country league.

The club agreed to all of MC’s demands; the signing bonus did not even include later profit-sharing. The terms were already set between MC and the club. Both Jesse and the club were destined to become MC’s money-making machines.

After Jesse recovered from his surgery, the club, erring on the side of caution, did not let him play in the first league match. This decision infuriated Codfish Country’s fans. They brandished Jesse’s name, cheering for him in the stadium.

With the fans’ impatience growing, the club couldn’t afford to bench Jesse again. Yet his employer did not start Jesse in the opening lineup, because Will’s order was paramount in deciding whether Jesse would take the field.

Will’s command depended on the betting situation for the match. If victory was essential, Jesse would stride onto the pitch, bearing that glorious mission.

In a weekend match, the club kept Jesse on the bench for half the game, awaiting Will’s instructions. Unfortunately, the club's odds were too high, and the fans, knowing Jesse wasn’t starting, boldly placed their bets on a mid-tier team.

“If the tiger doesn’t roar, you really think it’s a sick cat!” Will sneered coldly in MC’s command center.

When his call connected to the Royal Club, his deputy relayed the must-win order to the field.

During stoppage time, the Royal coach had Jesse get up to warm up.

As Jesse exercised at the edge of the pitch, countless fans at Bonaway Stadium chanted his name.

The stadium erupted. Waves upon waves of supporters created a breathtaking spectacle.

Once Jesse entered the game, he reversed the passive situation; attacks surged relentlessly, danger looming at the opponent’s goal.

No one could have foreseen it—star players are star players. With Jesse on the field, the collective sport transformed entirely. In just ten minutes, Jesse completed a hat-trick for H Club, sealing a flawless three-goal victory.

With the joy of this triumph, MC’s accounts swelled from a single match. Jesse’s success inflated Will’s ambition; he now sought to enlist all the world’s best forwards for himself.

His purpose in visiting the Great River went beyond meeting the woman he adored, Grace Gao; he also intended to negotiate cooperation with the top management of the Great River Club. It had been more than half a year since he last saw the woman he couldn’t let go of, making his desire to see Grace even more urgent.

When the plane landed at the Great River International Airport, dusk had already fallen. Grace was waiting at the exit, anticipating Will’s arrival.

Grace, stylishly clad and wearing sunglasses, glanced around as she waited. A young man watched her from a hidden corner.

When Will appeared before her, Grace smiled and walked up to greet him.

Perhaps because they’d lived together for so long, Grace received Will's enthusiastic embrace like a gentle bird. After all, they’d shared ten years of life. Those ten years had been Grace’s hardest; her parents were ill, and it was Will’s support that allowed them to live several extra years. For the man who rescued her from despair, Grace always felt profound gratitude. What moved her most was that he never sought to possess her for life, but instead gave her funds to pursue her ambitions in HZ.

She lay against Will, lost in memories, inhaling the familiar scent of the man she knew so well, recalling the days they’d spent together. Will tapped her waist, kissed her forehead with his bearded lips, and said, “Let me introduce my deputy, Norb Ocean.”

Grace snapped out of her reverie at Will’s words, her cheeks flushed. Glancing at the handsome man beside Will, she extended her slender hand and greeted Norb, “A pleasure to meet you!”

“A pleasure indeed!” Norb replied, his face bright with a radiant smile.

“My car is in the parking lot, and I’ve already booked your hotel,” Grace said softly to Will.

“Let’s go,” Will replied.

Norb wheeled Will’s suitcase, following behind the pair.

After getting into the car, Grace instructed her driver, “To AS Hotel.”

“Understood!” the driver responded.

The Rolls-Royce glided into the AS Hotel parking area. The driver picked up a parking card at the gate; the barrier lifted and the car found its slot.

Behind the Rolls-Royce, a Mercedes van parked nearby. A young man, still wearing sunglasses, stepped out—the same one who had secretly observed Grace at the airport. After the driver collected the room key at the front desk, he accompanied Grace and Will to the elevator.

The young man followed discreetly, sharing the elevator ride.

Once Grace selected her floor, the young man pressed a lower one.

He exited the elevator first and hurried toward the stairwell.

Grace and her party reached the hotel floor. After the elevator doors opened, they calmly stepped out.

The driver rushed ahead to open the room door, with Will and Grace close behind. From airport to hotel, none of them noticed the tail behind them.

After opening the hotel room, the driver greeted Grace and prepared to leave.

The young man, having learned their room number, quietly left the hotel.

After the driver closed the door, Will was already unable to contain his excitement. The days without Grace had left him untouched by any woman. In his eyes, Grace’s allure was unmatched and irreplaceable. He had thought his declining vigor was due to aesthetic fatigue, but when countless beauties threw themselves at him, he found himself incapable—not even the basic urges remained.

He realized then that his weakness wasn’t from boredom or Grace’s lack of charm; it was the excessive toil during the two years without her that had drained him completely.

So, through a friend’s introduction, he sought a renowned Chinese doctor for a month-and-a-half regimen. Afterward, he felt restored to his prime, brimming with unspoken confidence and renewed virility. He regretted letting Grace go, for he could never find joy with another woman—she was peerless, irreplaceable.

After so long apart, Will was like a newlywed youth reuniting with his beloved after a brief separation. Gazing at the woman who had shared his life for ten years, he was overcome with excitement; without waiting to shower, he pressed Grace beneath him.

Grace, pinned beneath Will, sensed his lustful gaze and the dopamine-charged urgency emanating from him, her body met by her former lover. She could scarcely fathom his newfound strength.

“We haven’t showered yet, darling,” Grace reminded him.

“Hm, I’ve missed you for so long. When I see you, I forget everything,” Will said, holding Grace tenderly. “Come, let’s shower together.”

Steam filled the suite’s bathroom; inside, two blurred figures laughed and bathed, utterly joyous.

The young man who had followed them returned to the Supreme Football Bar, reporting the airport events to Yun Jiu Dai: “I followed President Gao and Will from the airport to their hotel. Here’s their room number.” He handed Yun a card.

The card bore the number of a room in AS Hotel; seeing it, Yun knew it was the presidential suite. He was intimately familiar with its amenities: a private sauna, a waterbed massage imported from Country D. Grace had once brought him there for an unforgettable romantic rendezvous. But now, the woman he’d just started to like was sharing that space with Will. He could imagine what was happening without needing to be told.

When Yun was at MC, Grace had already arrived in the Great River from HZ ten years ago. He never knew that the woman now living with him had once been Will’s de facto wife. All he could think of was his woman, alone with a foreign man, stirring a powerful sense of disgust.

He disliked foreign men, and not without reason. Years ago, his wife—already mother to their daughter—resented his poverty. One day, while he was at work, she eloped with a foreign man. That painful memory resurfaced. (To be continued)