Chapter One: After the Retirement Bell

Three months ago, he could still play forty uninterrupted minutes in private scrimmages. Two weeks later, the Skyvault Dynasty’s chief physician slid a gray scan across a desk and told him that his heart muscle had suffered irreversible damage. Chairman Pei Jinchuan then offered him a dignified lifetime advisory position—provided Lu transferred his personal training brand and youth-academy rights to the club. Lu refused to sign away the rights, but he retired. It was not surrender. He simply could not gamble with his life. After the crowd dispersed, he walked alone into the players’ tunnel. Championship photographs lined the wall, and his younger face occupied four of them. Near the testing room, pain stabbed through his chest.