Chapter Three: The City Watches Him Rise

Under pressure on his third, Luo turned and swung his right foot toward the goalkeeper. Lu Ye began running two seconds early. He burst through the rain, stole the ball with his left toe, rounded the keeper, and finished from a narrow angle. Two–two. The stadium froze for half a heartbeat, then the away end tore the silence apart. Lu Ye slid through the mud to Chenzhou's feet. "Two hundred thousand!" he shouted. Chenzhou laughed. "Every cent!" The broadcast cut to Wanqing. Watching that bright, unfamiliar man, she realized he had never laughed like that during their engagement. Not because he had never loved her. Carrying the Gu family, he had never been allowed to lose—and never truly won for himself.