Chapter Two: The One-Pound Auction

Van der Veer did not ask what Club Zero was. He only said, “Bring the player to Portdam Training Centre at nine tomorrow.” That half-second hesitation was worth more than a confession. Lu edited a nine-minute, forty-second video overnight. No music, no glamorous highlights—only Lin's scanning angles before receiving and his heart-rate recovery after every sprint. At two in the morning, Lu used the last five hundred yuan on his credit line for two budget flights. By 8:40, they stood outside Harbor United's gates on three hours of sleep. The trial had been designed as a dismissal: forty minutes with the reserves, no medical, no promised meeting. Van der Veer did not come downstairs. An assistant watched with a tablet.