Godfather Of Champions

"Mr. Twain, what smells good?"

"Tea… As well as…." Feeling Sophia\'s intent gaze at him with her head tilted, Tang En silently cleared his throat and mumbled, "I was saying, nothing much…"

The room was dimly-lit, and there was a beautiful lady in the room. Tang En lowered his head as a form of cover-up as he tried to resist an impulse that could not be expressed with words. It was no wonder that Collymore had expressed his interest for Sophia in public. Her natural charm was indeed enough to make anyone fall for her.

"Mr. Twain?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you looking at?" Sophia smiled as she asked Tang En.

"I am… Err, I\'m admiring an oil painting."

"Oil painting?"

"Yes… Mona Lisa…"

Right after he finished his sentence, Sophia\'s face blushed red with embarrassment, and she lowered her head shyly.

Ah! Darn it! This is simply too ridiculous! Tang En silently scolded in his heart. He originally did not want to say this, but upon seeing Sophia, he suddenly lost control over his own tongue. Wood, Wood, if you don\'t return soon, I\'ll… I\'ll!

The creaking sound of the door opening was heard coming from downstairs.

Tang En, who had been caught in an internal struggle, finally let out a sigh of relief. He sat paralyzed on the chair. God! My back is drenched in sweat!

Following a series of hurried footsteps, Wood appeared at the door of the room. When he saw Twain, who was seated before the dining table, he was stunned.

Sophia walked up to Wood and took over the bags from her son\'s hands. While doing so, she asked concernedly, "Where did you go, George? Why did you spend more than an hour… Oh!" She frowned upon smelling a strong alcoholic smell emanating from Wood. "You went drinking, George?" Her tone became slightly sterner.

Hearing Sophia say this, Tang En turned his head and stared at Wood intently. There were no bruises or cuts on his face. Shifting his gaze slowly from top to bottom, Tang En finally saw a black mark on Wood\'s pants in his knee area. Although it had been repeatedly dusted off by the owner of this pair of pants, Tang En could still tell that it was definitely a shoe mark.

"No, Mom." Wood shook his head.

Sophia had no intentions of letting Wood off the hook. She used her hands to fan the air. "Then what is with the alcoholic smell coming from you?"

"On the way back I passed by a bar street, and met with a few drunkards. They were hard to deal with, so I spent quite some time trying to get away from them." Wood tried his best to make himself appear as though nothing happened.

"Open your mouth, George." Sophia made clear her intentions for Wood to open his mouth, to take a whiff of his breath.

Wood did as he was told. Sophia went close to her son\'s mouth and took a deep sniff with her nose. Then, she gently rubbed Wood\'s cheeks and said, "Go wash your face. Look at you, full of perspiration on your face. Mr. Twain came to look for you specifically, and has waited for a very long time."

Wood shot Twain a look, before obediently heading to the bathroom.

Sophia smiled apologetically at Tang En. Tang En shrugged his shoulders to show that he understood, and the suspicions in his heart had been confirmed. It was time to bid farewell. So, he got up and said to Sophia, "So sorry Madam. I think I should be going. It\'s getting late after all."

Hearing Tang En say this, Sophia made no attempts to cover up her disappointment, and the smile on her face disappeared. She of course knew Tang En\'s request was very normal, and she did not have any reason to hold a man back in her house at around 11p.m.

"What a pity, Mr. Twain," Sophia sighed, pointing to the red tea and biscuits left untouched on the table. "You haven\'t eaten anything yet."

Actually… If not for Wood\'s timely return, perhaps Tang En would have stayed for the night. He saw Sophia\'s disappointed face, which had lost all radiance, and said consolingly, "Madam, I think… There are plenty of opportunities like this in the future."

Hearing Tang En word it like this, Sophia happily raised her head, with the radiance on her face restored.

At that moment, Wood emerged from the bathroom and frowned slightly. After that, he leaned against the door and looked at the two people in the room without uttering a single word.

Tang En saw him come out, immediately shifting his eyes away from Sophia\'s face and waved at Wood. "George, I\'m leaving. Are you not going to send me off?"

Standing outside the house, Tang En chatted with Wood casually while waiting for Landy to come and fetch him. He knew that Sophia must have been watching them from the windows on the second floor. Wood did not want his mother to worry too much and Tang En felt the same way as well.

"George, I have something to tell you." Tang En decided to test the waters so as to confirm his guesses. "That scoundrel who was all over your mom the other day has just been beat up by someone. Do you know who did it?" When Tang En said this, he stared intently at Wood, hoping to be able to spot some traces from his reaction.

But he was disappointed. Wood did not even bat an eyelid at that.

"I don\'t know." His voice also did not have the slightest fluctuation in emotion.

This brat!

But you are too calm, to the extent that you don\'t seem to be hearing this news for the first time. You\'re still too green to be playing with me.

The suspicions in Tang En\'s heart were all quelled, but he did not expose Wood. He only smiled and nodded his head, "Very well, I was worried you were the one who did it. If it\'s not you, then great."

The street in front of them became lit-up by two bright, circular lights. From this, Tang En knew that the driver, Landy was there. He decided to bid farewell to Wood, but suddenly recalled something else. "Oh, and… Hmm, I think, if there are no mishaps, perhaps from tomorrow onward, I won\'t be able to train with you and direct your matches anymore."

Upon hearing Twain\'s words, Wood turned around and looked at him. "Are you leaving?"

"Yes, I\'m leaving." Tang En suddenly thought of teasing this rigid child, as he nodded his head.

"Where to?"

"To the south."

"Is it very far?"

"I think it is…" Looking at this child who still did not reveal any signs of reluctance, Tang En was slightly disappointed… Don\'t tell me that there isn\'t any semblance of teacher-student relationship between us?

Wood remained silent for a while, before turning around and said with his back to Tang En, "Oh, then goodbye."

This scoundrel!

Tang En decided to stop playing along, and shouted as he waved, "Hold on! Forget it. I was lying to you. Although I am indeed going to the south, I am only going five meter away from the youth team training grounds—the width of a small alley!"

Just as he finished speaking, Wood immediately turned around and stared at Tony. The look on his face was definitely not one of joy, but of anger after realizing that he had been deceived.

Faced with this child\'s angry look, Tang En was somewhat at a loss of how to explain the gimmick which he thought of on the spot. He could only continue his sentence somewhat awkwardly. "Erm, if everything goes smoothly, I\'ll be the manager of Nottingham Forest\'s main team from tomorrow onward. When that time comes, I\'ll have to leave the youth team, but you have to continue to train and play for the youth team."

Landy, who was not far, sounded the car horn to rush Tang En.

"I have to go, George. I hope you can continue to listen to Mr. Kerslake and the other coaches, train hard, and play seriously. You are doing very well right now, and all of us feel that if you can continue on like this, then earning ￡120,000 a week is not an issue!" Tang En knew the one and only thing that could motivate this kid was not glory or passion. There was only one keyword—money!

"Continue performing well, kid! I will keep an eye on the youth team at all times. If you perform well there, I will promote you to the first team. At that time, you will receive an entirely different contract… Do you know how much salary you can at least get when that time comes?"

Wood shook his head.

Tang En did some mental calculation. With the club\'s financial position improved, the salary of the players should also increase in tandem. If Wood really continues his outstanding performance at the youth team, and he successfully enters the adult team, his weekly salary would be no less than ￡1,500. So, he said to Wood, "At least ￡1,500 every week! And that\'s excluding other monetary rewards!"

Only then did Wood\'s facial expression finally change. It appeared that he was very satisfied. Tang En was also very satisfied with Wood\'s expression, and therefore smiled as he waved toward him. "Work hard! Remember, George, regardless of where you are, the better you perform, the more money you will get!"

Tang En turned around and got in the car. The cab left very quickly. Wood stood in front of the door for a while before entering the house.

Sophia saw Wood return, and asked, "George, what were you guys talking about?"

Wood\'s mouth opened and revealed a rare smile. "Money. Mom, we will become rich very soon."

Sophia\'s extended her hands and caressed her son\'s hair lovingly. "Silly boy. George, you have to listen to Mr. Twain. He is a very very good person." When she was saying this, Sophia looked out of the window at the pitch dark streets. Tony Twain\'s car had long driven off.

Wood escaped from his mother\'s tender touch and suddenly asked, "Mom, do you like him?"

Hearing her son ask this, Sophia became flustered. She immediately retracted her gaze and looked at Wood, before averting her eyes again. "Ah, no no, it\'s not possible! How… How can it be?" She tried her best to avoid her son\'s eyes.

Hearing his mother reply in this manner and looking at her reaction, Wood did not say anything. He only continued to look at his mother silently, as though he could see through everything.

Sophia coughed and looked at him with a stern face. "Alright, George, you should go to sleep soon."

"Goodnight, Mom." Wood kissed Sophia on the cheek.

"Goodnight, George." Sophia returned with a kiss on George\'s forehead.

Wood returned to his own room, closed the door and turned off the lights.

Sophia sat in front of the dining table and placed one hand on the table, resting her chin on it as she stared blankly at that red tea which had already turned cold, as well as the biscuits which were left untouched. She recalled her time alone with Twain. Time no longer had any meaning, and everything around her appeared to be frozen in time. After that, it was stored inside a picture frame and stowed away in her heart.

She lightly sighed as she removed the plates and cups from the table.

When she turned around, Wood\'s unlatched room door was being softly closed.

"…There were six of them! Six strong rugby players! I don\'t know where they came from and I haven\'t met them prior to this. Just when I was about to leave, they assaulted me in an alley! It was a sneak attack, sneak attack! Otherwise I wouldn\'t have lost to them. Who do you think I am? I am Stan Collymore!"

"Hahahahaha!" Tang En and Edward, who were watching the television, could no longer hold it in and burst out laughing.

Collymore, who was lying on the hospital bed while being interviewed, illustrated his own "one versus six" heroics with his saliva splashing in all directions. Tang En, who knew what really happened, doubled over in laughter. As for the reason why Doughty was laughing so happily, it was because of an entirely different matter.

The television program which they were currently watching was only the news, and the videos played during the news would usually not be live broadcasts. So, it was not possible for that unlucky guy who had shouted "I am Stan Collymore" to be currently as excited as when he was being interviewed.

The reason was very simple, because his contract with Nottingham Forest had been officially terminated as of that morning.

Nobody expressed any form of shock, bewilderment or protest at this. When the team\'s performance was so terrible, Collymore had still gotten himself into a scandal. If he wasn\'t fired, then who would be? Even though Doughty could not avoid having to shoulder the blame of "erratic decision-making", but… surely nobody expected this club chairman who possessed 75 percent of the club\'s shares to resign and transfer away all of his shares, just because he had hired a bad manager?

Stan Collymore ended his extremely disastrous career as a manager after half a season. This experience would no doubt be remembered by him forever, regardless of whether he would continue going down the path of being a manager.

As for Collymore\'s successor, there was almost no suspense at all.

At that time, was there anyone else more suited for this role than him?

"It\'s about time, Tony. Let\'s go." Doughty looked at the watch on his wrist.

"Mhmm." Twain nodded his head.

The two of them stood up and pushed open the door of the chairman\'s office. Ms. Barbara Lucy was already waiting for them outside the door.

On the first floor, a dark red Audi A6 waited quietly near the gates. The driver was seated there waiting for further instructions, with the car doors already opened.

This car would be headed toward City Ground Stadium, where numerous reporters would be waiting at a press conference.

There was even a small group of fans assembled outside the stadium. They were led by a fat guy, and all of them were wearing the red Nottingham Forest jersey as though they were dressed to watch a match. They were singing loudly as though there was no one else in the vicinity, in front of the reporters and cameras. These fans that had attracted the attention of the reporters raised a large cartoon portrait in the air. And written beneath the head were these words:

Welcome back, Tony!