Chapter 138: Different Values
Gareth Ainsworth walked into the players' tunnel with a dark expression, while the Swans fans in the nearby stands flipped him off and showered him with mocking laughter.
"Who's the relegation team now?"
"Your whole family's going down!"
"Wycombe Wanderers are dog shit!"
Ainsworth cursed Swansea the entire way back to the dressing room.
For some reason, the door to the away dressing room refused to open today. He twisted the handle several times in a row, but it would not budge. Already burning with rage, Ainsworth raised his leg and kicked the door open.
Naturally, the lock broke.
One of Swansea's staff members wanted to step forward and warn him, as well as demand compensation, but Joseph Levin stopped him.
Levin laughed loudly at Ainsworth and said, "Even if Wycombe Wanderers kick down every door in the Liberty Stadium, it won't change the fact that you're a bunch of cowards on the pitch!"
"Shut your fucking mouth, idiot!"
After roaring back at him, Gareth Ainsworth stormed into the dressing room and slammed the door behind him.
Of course, it no longer shut properly.
Lynn did not return to the dressing room. He simply sat on the bench by the pitch, with the seats around him empty. He had sent all the substitutes out to warm up, leaving himself sitting there alone, calm-faced as he waited for the second half to begin.
Swansea did not need any tactical changes at half-time. The match was already decided.
Wycombe Wanderers were inferior to Swansea in overall strength and form. As long as Swansea did not collapse on their own, beating them was basically a certainty.
In the dressing room, Hughes let the players rest for a bit, then emphasized the tactical discipline they needed to maintain in the second half. After that, the team would return to the pitch and continue the match.
The Swans fans were growing fonder of Lynn by the day, because Lynn often showed a maturity and composure that did not match his age.
Even the commentator could not help joking, "A week ago at the Community Stadium, people saw Lynn looking overwhelmed and frustrated, but today, we are seeing him calm, composed, and perhaps even a little too relaxed. With a four-goal lead, he has no reason to still treat Wycombe Wanderers as a dangerous opponent. Swansea have never led by four goals at home and then conceded three or more! Lynn has every right to sit there and enjoy the sunshine."
The two teams changed ends for the second half.
During the break, Gareth Ainsworth had torn into his players.
The Wycombe Wanderers players also declared that they would fight to equalize in the second half!
But Swansea did not give them any chance at all.
When Wycombe Wanderers kept forcing their attacks forward and kept piling attacking players up the pitch, their back line became full of holes.
Sitting on the bench, Lynn could not help joking to Hughes, "Actually, we should thank Fleet Street. When they trample us into the dirt and look down on us, they make other teams fail to take us seriously too. If you think about it that way, maybe we really do work well with Fleet Street. They look down on us, mislead our opponents into underestimating us, and when we beat those opponents, the shock and impact end up even bigger than expected."
Hughes shook his head hard and said indignantly, "That isn't fair. I won't say we're already a powerhouse, but at the very least, we deserve the proper respect and treatment. Fleet Street treats us with prejudice. Luckily, we've got enough fight in us."
Lynn simply smiled and let it pass.
On the pitch, Swansea's attack continued to give Wycombe Wanderers a headache.
In the 56th minute, James Cook switched play from the right side of midfield with a long diagonal ball, making Wycombe Wanderers' compact midfield press fail completely.
The ball crossed half the pitch from right to left. Tobias Rau and Grosso's partnership on the left was becoming more and more polished.
When the opponent thought Grosso would receive the pass, they did not notice Tobias Rau charging forward. Just as the ball was still more than ten yards away from dropping in front of him, Grosso suddenly made a forward run.
The player marking him was caught completely off guard and failed to follow Grosso in time.
Tobias Rau arrived from behind. As the ball dropped in front of him, he did not stop it. Instead, he used the inside of his foot to cushion it forward directly.
It turned into a lofted through ball.
Grosso burst through the opponent's flank defense. The ball flew past him from behind, and after sprinting fifteen yards, he caught up to it. He glanced at the situation inside the box and sent in a cross.
The ball curved around the back of Wycombe Wanderers' defensive line. Charisteas had arrived at the far post, and he hammered a direct shot into the top right corner!
The Wycombe Wanderers goalkeeper took a step back, then sat down inside his own goal.
His miserable appearance made the Swans fans in the stands burst into laughter.
"The fifth goal! Swansea's fifth goal has arrived! Charisteas has scored twice!
"Wycombe Wanderers have no way back now. Although their second-half performance is clearly more aggressive than the first half, it has not changed the shape of the match at all. Swansea are still the rulers of this game!"
Gareth Ainsworth was furious on the touchline, raging like a beast trapped in a cage during mating season.
Lynn remained seated, smiling as he applauded Charisteas' goal.
Ibrahimović, meanwhile, stayed expressionless.
Wycombe Wanderers' players had completely lost their spirit.
They no longer wanted to play!
This was a fucking nightmare!
They had never seen such a strong promoted side!
Damn it, if Swansea were this strong, then just how strong were Brighton, the team that had beaten Swansea?
Was this some kind of dark joke from God on Wycombe Wanderers?
There had to be a mistake, right?
Swansea were not a promoted team at all. They must have been relegated from the First Division!
The Swans fans sang and danced in the stands, swaying their bodies and singing self-made songs as they began to entertain themselves.
In the 71st minute, Cromwell charged into the penalty area from deep and headed in James Cook's cross. After scoring, he stood inside the box and looked around at the opponents, smiling as he shouted, "So who's the clown now? Who's the circus now?"
The Wycombe Wanderers players wanted to surround Cromwell and beat the hell out of him, but all they could do was lower their heads, swallowed by humiliation they had no way to wash away.
Three minutes later, Lynn made substitutions.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Horatio Nelson, and Robert Badenberg came on together.
To Wycombe Wanderers, the scoreline of 6–0 probably already looked like the end.
But they never imagined the nightmare was not over yet.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Badenberg, both coming off the bench, each scored in the final twenty minutes.
8–0.
The match ended perfectly.
The moment the full-time whistle blew, some Wycombe Wanderers players collapsed straight onto the pitch, covering their faces.
How were they supposed to face anyone back in Buckinghamshire after suffering such a brutal 0–8 defeat?
The Liberty Stadium erupted into cheers like a crashing tidal wave.
Lynn stood up and walked toward Gareth Ainsworth, who looked ashen and defeated. When Ainsworth mechanically raised his hand to shake Lynn's, Lynn saw that his eyes were still dull and vacant.
"Now you know who your daddy is, don't you?"
He shook hands, left that sentence behind, and turned away.
Gareth Ainsworth painfully clenched his fist. He seemed to snap back to himself all at once, staring at Lynn's back with towering hatred, yet there was nothing he could do.
Lynn maintained the habit he had developed midway through last season. Hughes would handle the post-match press conference, while he returned to the dressing room and waited for the players to come back.
The players returned to the dressing room laughing and shouting, full of joy.
"Hahaha, did you see their faces at full time? Too bloody funny! Let them act arrogant! Let them run their mouths!"
"The Swans cure all arrogance! Fucking hell, coming into our house and acting all high and mighty—were their brains flooded or what?"
"We put eight past them! If we'd had better luck, I think we could've scored at least ten today! Wycombe Wanderers, pah, what a garbage team!"
Lynn leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. After the players finished "sharing" their thoughts on the match, he clapped his hands and said, "I'm very satisfied with your performance today, but I don't know whether you can maintain this level in the next match, and the match after that, all the way until next May."
Villa shouted, "Don't worry, Boss, we'll only perform better than we did today!"
James Cook also shouted, "That's right! We'll keep getting better and better!"
Lynn smiled and nodded. "Good. I believe you. Don't let me down. Eat something, take a shower, do your post-match recovery work. I'm leaving first. You should all head home early too. We still have a League Cup match in two days."
After saying that, Lynn opened the dressing room door and left first. Behind him, the players called out their goodbyes one after another.
The player who left immediately after Lynn was Ibrahimović.
Lynn had just opened the door to his car in the parking lot when he saw Ibrahimović walking over as well. He originally thought Ibrahimović had come to talk to him, but instead, Ibrahimović walked straight toward his motorcycle.
Neither of them spoke. Their eyes may not even have met.
Lynn got into his car and started the engine, but Ibrahimović rode away on his motorcycle first.
Lynn did not take it to heart. The team needed Ibrahimović, and it would be better to have him, but it was not a matter of life and death.
Keeping him was a statement from the club, as well as insurance in case he was needed. If he wanted to continue this cold war, Lynn did not mind.
Lynn could afford to lose.
Could Ibrahimović?
Besides, if Lynn softened first now and went to coax Ibrahimović—yes, in Lynn's view, he would have to act like a nanny, coaxing Ibrahimović until he was happy enough to stop sulking and continue scoring goals for the team—then Lynn could not accept that.
He could not pretend nothing had happened!
He drove to a South American-style barbecue restaurant in the center of St. David's Square. When Lynn entered the private room, he saw Catherine Carter sitting there in a cool black dress, smiling beautifully at him.
"Congratulations. An 8–0 win should finally let you breathe a little, right?"
Lynn stepped forward, lowered his head, and gently kissed Carter on the lips. After pulling out a chair and sitting down, he smiled and said, "Micky Adams gave me a blow to the head, Fleet Street kicked me while I was down and sang about Swansea's downfall, and all our opponents are looking down on the Swans. But if you look at it from another angle, it's actually quite wonderful. The opponents are like people who've been drugged, willingly walking up to the gallows. All I need to do is sharpen the knife in my hand, then chop off their heads one by one and kick them around like footballs!"
Catherine Carter rested her chin in her hand, tilting her head as she watched Lynn with all kinds of charm in her eyes. She smiled and said, "Looks like Fleet Street tried to crush you, but ended up helping you instead. Hehe, I was even thinking about how to comfort your wounded soul, but it seems I was flattering myself again."
Lynn raised an eyebrow and said, "If my soul were that fragile, I wouldn't have lived this long. All right, enough work talk. Catherine, you said today you had something important to discuss with me. What is it?"
Catherine Carter looked hesitant. Her expression also became a little unnatural.
"Let's eat first. I'll tell you afterward."
Lynn did not force her. When the delicious grilled meat was served, his mood was good today, so his appetite was excellent too, and he drank quite a bit of wine with the meal.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Carter took the initiative to reach out and hold Lynn's hand. Her fingers gently brushed over the back of his hand, soft and teasing, and Lynn felt something strange.
He could tell Carter was acting unusual today.
Carter looked at Lynn with deep affection and said softly, "Darling, let's live together."
Lynn smiled. Almost instinctively, he asked, "Why?"
"Because I want to live with you. I don't want to keep going through the pain of missing you because I can't see you often. I feel more like your lover than your girlfriend."
Lynn nodded slightly. He agreed with her words.
She was more like a lover.
He had his own family. Although there was no wife-like role in it, he went back almost every day to the luxury seaside villa north of Oystermouth Road.
He had his work. When he entered work mode, no one could disturb him unless they were his family—and that did not include Carter.
Carter looked at Lynn with expectation in her eyes. She really liked him. There had been no dramatic emotional entanglement between them, no thousand hardships before they finally came together.
But Lynn made her feel comfortable. In public, he was bright and dazzling. With women, he was gentle and considerate. He also had the kind of social circle that all of Swansea's middle class envied.
She hoped that one day, she would become Lynn's wife.
Perhaps because of her own values, she did not think there was any huge obstacle to Lynn marrying her. The only question was whether they loved each other, and whether they were willing to walk into marriage together.
But Lynn was not a completely free-spirited, modern Westerner with open and forward-thinking values.
Deep down, he was Chinese.
He said softly, "Catherine, in my family values, parents are very important. My father is busy with his career, and my mother is an office worker. What does she want most when she comes home every day? Just to see me and say a few words to me. That alone makes her very happy. And I'm happy too. So I won't move out of my home and live with someone else, because that would make my mother lonely. It would make her uneasy."
"She can't need you to keep her company forever, can she?"
Carter said it in disbelief.
Lynn shrugged. "Unless I get married, I won't live separately from my parents. That's the difference in our family values."
Carter suddenly blushed and said, "Then let's get married!"
Lynn's only response was a silent smile.
He did not answer.