Chapter 278: The birth of a tradition

"Yesterday the 2025-2026 Premier League came to an end. After thirty-eight rounds of fierce competition, Leeds City, who was not optimistic, finally won the Premier League championship this season unexpectedly... After winning the championship, the Flemish Stadium became a happy one. Ocean, after the team won the cup, the fans were also reluctant to leave for a long time...Finally, they followed the team's bus and started a parade around the city...Of course, there were many accidents during the parade, and there was little traffic. Accidents happen from time to time. Considering that this is the first Premier League champion in Leeds history, it is understandable that this happened... Of course, I still want to remind everyone to be safe..."
The television was showing footage of the Leeds City championship parade last night.
Carrying a sports bag with jerseys and sneakers, Matthew ran down the stairs and took a look over there. He found that his father was not in front of the TV. He asked the mother in the kitchen: "Mom, where is my father? He didn't want to give me a gift. Are you going to train?"
"He is packing the car outside." Mom screamed to the yard outside.
Little Matthew ran out the door with his bag, and saw his father David Miller squatting beside the main driver door of the Citroen car, carefully sticking to a garland.
In the place where it had been posted, Matthew saw that it was the Leeds City team logo, and as his father smoothed and pasted the pattern in his hand next to the team logo, Matthew also gradually noticed that it was ... the Premier League championship trophy!
"Okay!" The dedicated David Miller didn't know that his son was standing behind him. He looked at the results of his work with satisfaction, and the more he looked at the Premier League trophy that appeared next to the Leeds City team badge, the happier he became.
So he gently hummed Leeds City’s team song:
"We love you, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds... we experience together, the ups and downs... we walk together until the earth stops turning... move forward, Liz... eh?"
He got up and walked back while humming a song, and then he saw his stunned son Matthew.
After the initial astonishment, he frowned: "When did you come out?"
Little Matthew came back to his senses and teased: "Dad, I heard them all. Honestly speaking, you sing compared to Hu You's—it's terrible to hear people in the club sing nonsense!"
David Miller glared at his son vigorously: "Is this your attitude towards our team's champion hero!"
Little Matthew's eyes widened: "Isn't it? Dad, isn't it? Who said he was only here to sell jerseys?!"
David Miller took a deep breath, then gritted his teeth and said: "If you don't want to walk to train by yourself today, then you'd better shut up!"
Little Matthew accepted it when he saw it, and quickly opened the door of the back seat and threw himself in with the sports bag: "Dad is the best!"
David Miller was standing outside the car, and when he saw his son like this, he laughed again and decided not to care about his son.
He also opened the main driver's door and got into the car. After starting the car, he drove to the youth training base in Leeds.
On the road, they saw a lot of cars of all kinds, with different brands, models, prices, and grades... But there is another point in common, that is, there are garland stickers on the outside of the car that are related to Leeds's championship.
And when such cars meet, the two cars will whistle each other: "Beep!" (Go!)
"Baba!" (Leeds!)
This is a secret signal belonging to the Leeds City fans. As long as you press the horn twice and get two responses from the other side, everyone is a fellow traveler.
Then the drivers pass by with a knowing smile, and drove away.
This way, David Miller didn’t know how many times he honked his horn and communicated with how many Leeds City fans... He even saw someone on the side of the road picking up a phone and taking pictures of his car. He knew it must be him driving. The garland stickers outside the door attracted the attention of those people.
So he rolled down the car window and proudly gave a thumbs up to those people. Then his facial expressions were recorded along with the drawing stickers...
"Wow!" Matthew, who was sitting in the back seat looking down at his phone, suddenly exclaimed, "Someone actually bought Leeds before the start of the season to win the championship! At that time, the odds were five thousand one! The truck driver who won the lottery said he would continue to drive the truck...It's crazy. If I had so much money, I would definitely not go to school..."
"Huh?" Father's grunt came from before.
"No, I mean, if I won so much money, I would definitely change your car to my dad! When he lost five thousand, he spent two hundred pounds bet, and now it's one million... ah! Dad, as a Leeds City fan, why didn't you think about making the next bet?"
"Who would have thought that Leeds could win the championship?" David Miller hummed.
"Niel Mullin didn't expect this either." Little Matthew pointed to his cell phone and said, "He said in an interview that he placed a bet just to show his support for the team. Dad, you see how people love the club... …"
"To shut up!"
Little Matthew grinned, then cast his gaze out of the car window, and then wowed again: "There are so many people in the red pepper!"
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Wang Haoxi, Pei Yu and Song Xinghe looked up at the hotel sign hanging on the wall.
"Red pepper!" Wang Haoxi said excitedly. "Chinese football holy land tour! Let\'sGO!"
He waved his hand and took the lead to walk in.
Song Xinghe who followed spit out: "What a tour of the holy land of Chinese football, it is clear that he wants to find an excuse to eat red pepper!"
Pei Yu laughed and said: "Using Chinese food to commemorate the first Premier League champion of a Chinese player...I don't think there is a problem!"
The three people walked into the restaurant and then collectively gave a "wow".
The restaurant was almost overcrowded, with a lot of people.
The waiter had to run up to serve the guests, so as not to let the guests in the restaurant feel that they were being neglected.
And looking around, there are many people who are not the Oriental faces like Wang Haoxi and the others, but the natives of Leeds.
"I know that'Red Pepper' is not low in the hearts of the locals in Leeds... When I can come to eat, I have never seen so many foreigners at the same time!" Wang Haoxi was stunned.
Song Xinghe said next to him: "Pharaoh, why do you come to have red pepper for dinner? Then they are here."
As they were talking, a waiter passed by them, glanced at them and said, "Sorry for the full seat, would you like to line up outside?"
After speaking, he ignored the three foreign students who were about his age, and ran to the back kitchen.
Wang Haoxi, Song Xinghe, and Pei Yu still retreated and stood at the door consciously queuing. Some people soon came out behind them and lined up with them.
"Forget it, the three of us will take a photo first." Wang Haoxi took out his mobile phone and motioned for two roommates to come over and move closer to him, and then they took this group photo with the red pepper restaurant sign above his head behind him as the background.
Then Wang Haoxi lowered his head and performed some operations on the phone, and posted a circle of friends and Weibo:
"Chinese football holy land tour: Leeds City celebration party designated restaurant-red pepper!"
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"... After the victory celebration parade ended yesterday, the whole Leeds City team soon appeared at the'Red Pepper' restaurant. This is already their team went to the'Red Pepper' restaurant after the end of two consecutive seasons... ...Have to make people wonder whether this is a new tradition of the Leeds City team...
"Of course, after the dinner, Hu clarified in our interview that this was just a small bet between him and head coach Clark. Before the season, Clark had bet with him that if he can get the season's top scorer, please He had a meal of red pepper... but I don’t know how, the news was leaked, so he was originally invited by himself, but it turned into an invitation to the whole team...
"But I think this is a good group activity. After each season, the head coach pays his own pocket to invite all the players to dinner... It can unite people, boost morale, and enhance the relationship between players and coaches, so that both sides can It will be better to cooperate in the next work...Although we guessed wrong before, I think maybe Leeds City can really seriously consider this matter as a team tradition and stick to it...
"After all, there is one thing that has become a tradition in Leeds City today-the panda puppet who competed with Hu at the joining ceremony for the ball. Since Hu joined, every time Leeds City plays at home ~EbookFREE.me~ This panda doll will appear on the sidelines, jumping and jumping to cheer for the team. Over time, Leeds fans have become accustomed to having such a naive puppet on the sidelines, and many fans even think it is this panda. The dolls bring good luck to the team, so that the team can always win the game... So it was originally a business activity and naturally became a new tradition of the club...
"So now why can't it become a new tradition for the team to go to the'Red Pepper' meal after the end of the season? Regardless of the original purpose, when one thing is repeated many times, the tradition is established. Just like New Yorkers’ Christmas tradition of eating Chinese food, it was only because the Jews of New York didn’t do Christmas at first, but on that day most of the restaurants on the street were closed, and only Chinese restaurants were open. So they were on Christmas Day. I can only choose to go to a Chinese restaurant to eat... When this scene is repeated every Christmas, it has changed from the habit of one person and a family to the tradition of a group of people and a city.
"What if there is no tradition before? Now it is enough to create a new tradition from scratch. Just like the past history of Leeds, it is boring and blank. But they now have the Premier League champion! Maybe a few years later, this champion will be Will it be the beginning of the Leeds champion tradition?"
"Leeds City" reporter Jason Lowe's column article "The Birth of a Tradition"