The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 231 - 63: Wang Shuo is Back! The Power of a Bundesliga Star
Wang Shuo had specifically told Jiang Pengju over the phone to keep things low-key.
But he also understood that for Jiang Pengju to develop school football programs and promote the sport, he naturally needed to network and open up various channels.
"It’s fine. In all my years, I’ve never even met our local officials."
Wang Shuo wasn’t that same naïve young man anymore.
At the very least, he could now face reporters from all over the world without feeling the slightest bit of intimidation.
Let alone his hometown’s officials.
In addition to the officials from Quanjiang City, leaders from Lingshan State had even made a special trip for the meeting.
The event was even featured on Quanjiang City television.
Wang Shuo played along enthusiastically, and during his interview, he lavished praise on his hometown.
But aside from the government, the ones he thanked the most were Jiang Pengju and his passionate promotion of school football.
He himself had come up through school football.
After finishing his business in the city, Wang Shuo went to Quanjiang First Middle School to pick up his cousin, He Jianwei, as it was the weekend.
While he was there, he took the opportunity to pay a special visit to the school’s administration.
Back in the day, if he hadn’t gone into football, getting into this top school in Quanjiang would have been his dream.
After picking up his cousin, the two of them, accompanied by Jiang Pengju, returned to Lingshan State.
Wang Shuo’s parents and his aunt and uncle were waiting for him in the county town.
The moment he stepped out of the car and saw his parents for the first time in over a year, Wang Shuo could barely hold back his tears.
"Dad, Mom!"
Wang Shuo rushed forward and hugged his parents, putting an arm around each of them.
The emotional reunion brought tears to the eyes of his aunt and uncle, who were watching from the side.
After moving abroad, Wang Shuo had started sending money back home regularly.
Wang Shuo had originally thought his parents had just rebuilt their old house back home.
But to his surprise, they had also bought a house in the best part of the county town.
And they’d bought four of them in one go.
Why four?
"One for us, and one for your aunt. You and He Jianwei get one each. That adds up to four, doesn’t it?"
His father, Wang Wenjun, had it all figured out.
Wang Shuo didn’t mind at all.
His aunt was his father’s only sister, and she had always been very good to him, ever since he was a child.
Back when everyone was poor, whenever she had something nice to eat, his aunt would always think of Wang Shuo.
In the small county town, a square meter of property cost just several hundred yuan, with the most expensive spots only going for about a thousand. A single apartment came out to less than 200,000 yuan.
For Wang Shuo, that was really no big deal.
Especially since after winning the DFB-Pokal, he was due to receive a one-million-euro bonus from Mainz.
That was equivalent to ten million RMB.
The apartments in the county town were already built but hadn’t been decorated yet.
Wang Wenjun and his wife had it all planned out. They would decorate the apartments, and then whenever Wang Shuo came back, he could stay in the county town.
This was a point of pride for them.
To move out of the village and settle in the county town—this had been the dream of generations!
After looking at their new apartments in the county town, they returned to the village.
Everyone in the small mountain village was related in some way, so Wang Shuo’s return was a major event for them.
This was especially true over the past year.
The county, the city, and even the provincial authorities had all widely publicized Wang Shuo’s exploits playing football in Germany.
So everyone knew their village had produced a big shot like Wang Shuo.
When he returned this time, the village naturally rolled out the red carpet.
The village chief had even brought a large group of villagers out to welcome him.
Naturally, Wang Shuo couldn’t come empty-handed. In front of the entire village, he announced his willingness to donate money to the local elementary school for repairing classrooms and buying new textbooks.
In addition, he offered to put up money for a village education fund.
From now on, any child from the village who was admitted to high school or college would receive a cash award, with the amount depending on the caliber of the school.
Children from families recognized by the village as being in need could also apply for financial aid.
The village was, of course, delighted and immediately established the education fund in the names of Wang Shuo’s parents.
But what truly moved Wang Shuo was seeing that his family’s old, single-story stone house had been completely torn down and rebuilt.
In its place stood a brand-new, three-and-a-half-story villa, built from reinforced concrete and freshly decorated.
A wall enclosed a spacious courtyard out front.
Incongruously, Wang Shuo’s parents had divided the vast courtyard into different plots, where they had planted all sorts of vegetables and fruit.
Still, this detail brought back some of Wang Shuo’s memories and was perfectly in character for his parents.
At least, when they showed it to him, they seemed quite pleased with their masterpiece.
’As long as my parents are happy, I wouldn’t care if they dug an outhouse, let alone planted a vegetable garden!’
’And wasn’t this the whole point of him working so hard at football?’
...
Back at home, his parents made Wang Shuo’s favorite foods for every meal.
After dinner, the family of three sat in the courtyard to cool off, just like they used to, chatting about everything that had happened over the past year or so.
"Ah Shuo," his father, Wang Wenjun, began, "remember how Old Jiang took me to the provincial capital to set up that company?"
"I did a little digging on property prices in the city. Right now, the most expensive places are only five thousand yuan per square meter, while the cheaper ones are just over three thousand."
"And in the provincial capital, the priciest spots are just over eight thousand."
Wang Shuo looked at his parents, puzzled.
Wang Wenjun and Xu Xiuying exchanged a smile. It was clear they had been secretly planning this for a long time and had already made their decision.
"Your mother and I were thinking we should buy places in both the city and the provincial capital," Wang Wenjun explained. "That way, when you come back, you can stay wherever you feel like."
"That’s right, Ah Shuo," his mother, Xu Xiuying, chimed in. "Think about it. You can’t keep coming all the way back to the village every time you visit, can you? It’s so inconvenient."
