818 Two Years Later

The rays of the morning sun seeped into the room through a small gap between the curtains.

Twain gently got off the bed before turning around to glance at his sleeping wife. He then donned on his pajamas and left the room quietly. He turned on the tap and squeezed a lot of toothpaste over his toothbrush. He then put his neatly folded bath towel next to the sink. He was all prepared to wash his face and brush his teeth so as to get refreshed for the new day.

The moment he raised his head, however, he became dumbstruck. The man he saw in the mirror was foreign to him. He looked like someone who hadn't slept in ages. The crisscross wrinkles on his face seemed as if they had been engraved into his face with a knife, and his eyes were bloodshot as well. However, what he found most unsightly wasn't his wrinkles or his bloodshot eyes but the clump of dishevelled white hair on top of his head.

Twain tilted his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror for a long while. He didn't care that the tap was still running and that his toothpaste had already slipped off his toothbrush down into the basin.

He had welcomed his forty-fifth birthday a month ago on September 9, 2013. Time passed by really quickly. Before he knew it, it had been more than ten years since he had transmigrated.

If not for the transmigration, he would only be thirty-two years old right now and would still be considered young. He would have been at an age where he could still afford to mess around in life and pretend to be someone young on the internet. He also wouldn't have cared about any complex philosophical issues, such as where life comes from and where it leads to. However, as a result of his transmigration, he was already forty-five years old this year.

It is said that you have lived half your life when you reach fifty years old, but how many people in this world live until they are one hundred years old? One is considered to have lived a long life if he or she is able to live until they are ninety years old. Hence, being forty-five years old signified that he had already lived half of his life.

A thought surfaced in Twain's mind for the very first time as he stared at his aged self in the mirror:

It doesn't matter if I never suffer a second heart attack. I am not far away from death either way. The time I have left will not be longer than the time I have lived.

Melancholy welled up within him at the thought. When would he turn into an old man who spoke gibberish, was confused, unable to speak loudly, perpetually wheelchair-bound and required assistance wherever he went?

He had always thought that he still had a long way to go before he would end up in that state, but why did he feel like those things would happen very soon now?

The sound of the running water caught the attention of Shania, who had been lazing around on the bed. In truth, she had woken up when Twain had gotten off the bed. She had lied on the bed and had tried her hardest to suppress her smile as she watched her husband gently get off the bed so as not to wake her.

The sound of running water had emerged shortly after Twain had made his way into the bathroom. However, it had been almost ten minutes since he had gone in, and the sounds hadn't ceased.

The smile on Shania's face disappeared. She sat up on the bed and called out, "Uncle Tony?"

There was no response.

Shania's heart began to beat wildly. An unpleasant thought surfaced in her mind. Did Tony have another heart attack?

At the thought, Shania jumped off the bed in a panic. She didn't care that she was only wearing underwear, and she didn't bother trying to put on her slippers, either. She ran into the bathroom next door without anything on her upper body or her feet.

The first thing she saw wasn't Uncle Tony lying unconscious on the floor. She heaved a sigh of relief and broke into a smile when all she saw was Twain holding onto a toothbrush and staring at his reflection in the mirror with his head tilted to the side.

"You scared me to death, Uncle Tony."

He didn't respond.

"Uncle Tony!" Shania had to raise her voice to a shout.

"Huh? What? Oh…" Twain saw the way that Shania was dressed, and he immediately understood what had happened.

"You must have let your imagination run wild again, right?"

Shania rolled her eyes. "You look like a corpse, and you didn't answer when I called you. Of course I'd be worried." She walked over behind Twain and hugged him from behind.

"What were you looking at? You were so engrossed earlier," she whispered into Twain's ear.

"I was just looking at my white hair." Twain forced a smile.

"You can just dye it." Shania kissed the back of Twain's neck. "Besides, it's not like all your hair has turned white. It's just your sideburns."

The pair were being intimate with each other, but somehow the sight of it seemed a little jarring when viewed from the mirror. The man looked old while the woman's naked body emanated youth and passion.

If the two of them hadn't been doing such intimate acts, one would have thought that they shared a father-daughter relationship.

"Dye my hair?" Twain contemplated it for a moment and then nodded his head. "That's a good idea. But I've never thought that there'd come a day where I needed to dye my hair."

Shania smiled. "Every human being ages with time. I might look young to you now, but ten years from now I will be just like you. My dear philosopher, you will age faster if you keep having such deep thoughts about life every morning."

Twain's nether regions slowly started to react to the feel of the two lumps of plump flesh against his back. However, now wasn't the time to be doing such things.

He turned around and grasped Shania by the shoulders before trying to push her out of the room. "Put on your clothes. Don't catch a cold."

The eagle-eyed Shania noticed the abnormality in his nether regions. She smiled proudly and said, "Look at that, Uncle Tony. We already did it yesterday, but you are still lustful in the morning! It's proof that you haven't aged at all!"

She then giggled as she finished her words and ran away right as Twain raised a hand and pretended that he wanted to hit her.

Twain saw Pierce Brosnan when he drove over to the training grounds at Wilford. The way in which he stood with a cigarette in his mouth and his brows furrowed made him look much older than he was.

Twain realized that he now had a tendency to observe the changes in the outward appearances of every person he interacted with. It might be due to what had happened in the morning.

Time changes many people. He wanted to see what those changes were exactly.

"Hey, Mr. Bond. Why do you look so depressed in the morning?" Twain poked out his head from within the car and greeted Brosnan.

"Ah, Tony… The interview that you promised me…"

"I will arrange for it to happen some other day."

"Not another day, Tony. My boss told me to get the exclusive interview with you today or else… Help me out, please…"

"All right, all right. Let's do it this afternoon, then. At the restaurant in Wilford. We'll chat while we eat."

More reporters rushed up to Twain when he finished dealing with Brosnan. They were all fighting for the chance to ask him questions.

"Mr. Twain! Can you discuss Lennon's transfer…"

The reporter's question touched a nerve with Twain. He glared at him fiercely. "That is something that happened almost two months ago. What else do you want me to say? If you really can't find a question to ask me, I'd suggest that you ask me about what I had for breakfast this morning or what I intend to eat for lunch or dinner!"

Indeed. That was something that had happened two months ago…

Aaron Lennon's outstanding performance in Forest had allowed him to cement his position as a starting left winger for England's national football team.

Currently, both the right and left winger positions on the national team were taken up by players from Forest, namely Bentley on the right and Lennon on the left. Walcott, who was nicknamed "The Little Tiger," was forced to sit on the bench whenever the two could play.

Of course, Fabio Capello wouldn't be displeased with such a situation. He was very fortunate to be able to choose from a number of high-quality players for the same position.

Lennon's ability to play on both the left and right wing had benefited his career significantly because he was able to obtain more chances to play in a game compared to others. The numerous chances to play in games allowed him to improve his skills and become more mature as a player, and his good performance eventually led to interest from other football clubs.

There were numerous football clubs that had put in a bid for Lennon that summer. They all wanted to buy a player like Lennon who could play on both the left and right wing.

However, Twain insisted that Lennon was not for sale. Lennon was a player whom he personally groomed. He was a player who climbed through the ranks from the youth team all the way to the first team, and he was also a player who was well-liked in the team.

Why would Twain think about selling a player like that, especially now that he was in his prime?

Despite Twain's refusal, however, Lennon still left Forest in the end. The reason was simple. Inter Milan had put in a bid that Forest could not reject: thirty million pounds!

Allan Adams didn't care about Twain's refusal to sell Lennon and had insisted on involving himself with the transfer. He forcibly sold Lennon to Inter Milan, and his actions led to a huge rift between the two. Things got very bad between them, and the two nearly engaged in a physical fight before Evan Doughty.

When the press started publishing articles about how the two did not see eye to eye, Twain did not offer any clarification on the issue.

I'm not clarifying anything because I obviously don't get along with that money grubber!

Sometime later, Kerslake consoled Twain by telling him about how Lennon was also intent on leaving the club because Inter Milan had offered him a higher salary as well as other bonuses.

Twain was well aware that Inter Milan's offer was an attractive one. However, he felt that he would have managed to keep Lennon at the club for another two seasons by making use of his personal charisma. If Lennon wanted to leave the club after those two seasons, Twain definitely wouldn't have stopped him then because Adriano Moke would have developed into a good player by then, but Allan's interference had completely foiled his plan.

He wasn't upset about Lennon's sale. He was upset that Allan Adams had gone against his word, because they had previously come to an agreement that Allan would not interfere with his job.

As someone who liked to have control and authority over everything, Twain saw Allan's actions as a humiliation. The only reason why he didn't resign and walk away from the club was out of consideration for Evan Doughty and the team. It would be very easy for Twain to leave the club and find a higher-paying job elsewhere based on his achievements. However, it would be very difficult for him to groom another team like Forest in a short period of time. Forest was a club that he had spent ten years to groom. It was his everything.

Twain still had yet to bear a child of his own with Shania, but Nottingham Forest was just like his son. He had developed a deep bond with the team, and he just couldn't toss this 10-year-old son of his aside.

Brosnan, who was well aware of Twain's temper, hadn't dared bring up Lennon's name in front of him for the past two months.

The reporter who just asked him the question clearly looks like a newbie…

Twain was left in a bad mood due to the reporter's question. He decided to take out his anger on all the other reporters at the scene by refusing to answer any of their questions. He pulled a long face and rolled up his car window before driving into the training grounds.

Some of the reporters began ranting about the situation. Of course, their rants were not directed at Twain, since they were well aware of his fiery temper after years of interviewing him. Their rants were directed at the young reporter instead.

"Are you new to the job? How could you not know the rules?" A middle-aged man questioned the young reporter with a voice brimming with hostility.

"Who was it that got you to ask such a stupid question? Which news agency do you work for?" Another bespectacled man, who looked like he was a gentle and well-mannered person, also questioned the young reporter through gritted teeth.

"That's a piece of news that was widely reported two months ago. Why are you still asking about it now?" This reporter was the only one who asked his question in a nicer tone.

"Do you know who exactly you are interviewing? It's not the 'Mr. Nice Guy' Kevin Keegan! It's Tony Twain! Tony Twain! You must be an intern reporter… I really hate newbies who don't know anything…"

The crowd of reporters left after reprimanding the young reporter. Brosnan looked at the young reporter who looked helpless after being chided. He walked up to him, gently patted him on the shoulder, and left without saying anything.

The incident made Brosnan recall his experiences as an intern reporter. He didn't need to tell the young reporter anything. The young man would definitely come to understand that it's normal to make mistakes as a newbie.

The reporters who congregated around Wilford were perhaps the most unique group of people in the whole of England. The various news agencies would only send their most talented or most experienced reporters to carry out interviews at Wilford. It was very rare for any agency to send a newbie because they would just end up humiliating themselves.

The job of interviewing Tony Twain, who was known as the hardest man to deal with in the whole of England's footballing scene, was not something that any newbie reporter could handle. Additionally, a newbie reporter would also find it hard to fight for a piece of news amongst a group of veteran reporters.

Every single reporter who appeared frequently at Wilford was a veteran reporter who had written articles about Nottingham Forest for more than three years. They had all picked up numerous strategies on how to deal with the moody "King of the Forest" through their long-standing "battles" with him. They were all more familiar with Twain than they were with their own wives and children.

Many of the veteran reporters were known as the "wily old foxes." They were called such because they knew how to observe and analyze a situation. They knew when they could ask a particular question, and they knew what questions they must never ask him. They also knew what questions could potentially elicit a fierce reaction from Twain that they could then report about in their articles. Last but not least, they also knew the best way to ask their questions so as to elicit the best results.

They learned everything through experience. It was no different from how a professional footballer develops himself. A footballer isn't able to grow if he isn't able to play in games… New football players will become seasoned players one day, just like how newbie reporters will also become capable veteran reporters over time.

A certain inept manager was also only able to lift two Champions League trophies, two Premier League trophies, one EFL Cup trophy, one FIFA Club World Cup trophy, two Community Shield trophies, two UEFA Super Cup trophies and become known as the "Manager of Champions" after suffering a concussion by the side of the pitch.

The City Ground Stadium was usually silent when there were no matches being played. However, there were times where the silence would be broken by visitors who had travelled from thousands of miles away.

A big luxurious bus was parked at the parking lot outside the City Ground Stadium. A group of yellow skinned Asians wearing red caps over their raven black hair followed a slender white skinned beauty into the trophy room within the City Ground Stadium.

"This is Nottingham Forest's trophy room. This room holds all the trophies and honors that Forest has earned ever since it was formed." The beautiful tour guide was British. Her Chinese pronunciation was not very accurate, but she could still use it to communicate with others as a tour guide and translator.

"The team has obtained one EFL Cup trophy after its current manager Tony Twain took over," the tour guide said as she pointed at a small but exquisite trophy in the cabinet.

"They were also crowned as the champions of the Community Shield twice." She then pointed at two silver trophies that were shaped like a shield.

"They were also able to obtain two UEFA Super Cup trophies, one FIFA Club World Cup trophy…" The beautiful tour guide introduced the trophies of varying sizes to the visitors behind her. The trophies were all exquisite, and they shimmered under the light. "… And two Premier League trophies. The one on the right is a trophy that they obtained during the 2007 to 2008 season. That very season was also the season where Nottingham Forest was able to achieve the Double. The trophy on the left is very new. It's the one that Manager Tony Twain was able to achieve in the previous season."

She walked towards a big glass cabinet in the center of the room before stopping in her tracks. She then pointed at the four trophies within the cabinet and introduced them with pride. "These four trophies that are shaped like big human ears are the trophies that signify the greatest honor possible among the European football clubs… the Champions League trophies!"

Some of the visitors who understood football led out gasps of astonishment, while the others remained emotionless. They simply stared at the trophies and wondered if they were truly made of silver…

The visitors crowded around the glass cabinet. There was a rule that stated that they were not allowed to take photos, but there were football fans among the crowd who still secretly fished out their digital cameras or handphones to take a photo. After all, it's not every day that one is able to see four Champions League trophies all in one place.

The tour guide didn't notice the visitors' actions. She excitedly told the visitors the significance behind the trophies.

"The number of European football teams who have managed to win four or more Champions League trophies can be counted with two hands. They are the nine-time champions Real Madrid, the six-time champions AC Milan, the five-time champion Liverpool, the four-time champions Ajax, Bayern Munich, and Nottingham Forest! It is possible that Nottingham Forest will clinch a fifth trophy under the guidance of Manager Tony Twain soon!"

A visitor among the crowd raised his hand to ask a question. "Miss Tracy, are you a die-hard fan of Tony Twain?"

The beautiful tour guide smiled after hearing the question. "Half of the people in Nottingham are his die-hard fans."

The four Champions League trophies sat quietly within the glass cabinet and accepted the looks of wonder and admiration from the people beyond the glass. There was an extraordinary story behind every single one of the trophies.

In Munich, Twain's "swordsmen" pulled their long swords from their sheaths and shocked the whole of Europe during their very first appearance in the Champions League.

In Madrid, Forest was able to retain their champions title by defeating a tough team that had the then European Footballer of the Year as its player.

In Athens, Forest, who made its return to the top-flight European football competition, was able to put in a performance that made the King, AC Milan, pale in comparison. At that time, Tony Twain even shouted arrogantly that he would "jump into the sea" if he couldn't win, but, sadly, no one was able to get him to fulfil his promise.

In Moscow, Eastwood was able to clinch the winning goal against Chelsea amidst a heavy rain and help Forest defend its champions title for the second time. They were also able to achieve the double in that season as well.

If one were to quiet down and listen carefully, one could almost hear the sound of muffled cheers from a distant time and space reverberate within each and every trophy.

"… The match is over! 1:0! Nottingham Forest, the club from England that made its maiden appearance in the Champions League, has been crowned champion!"

"… Robson's goal! The match is over…! Brian Clough has successfully led his team to retain the Champions League title at the Bernabéu! This is the highest ever honor for any football club! They are the Kings of Europe…"

"Freddy Eastwood! He has scored the goal needed to seal the victory for Forest! Tony Twain has finally led his team to clinch the Champions League trophy! They have defeated the mighty AC Milan!"

"It is pouring in Moscow right now, but the rain doesn't dampen the passion within the Nottingham Forest fans! It's Freddy Eastwood once again! He has scored the goal needed to seal the victory for Forest again! The ones to topple under Robin Hood's arrow this time round are the Blues! This is Nottingham Forest's fourth Champions League trophy! All hail Forest! They have achieved the double!"

The visitors from China left. Most of the lights in the trophy room were switched off, and the room went dark, but the trophies continued to shimmer faintly within the darkness.