When the two sat down in the restaurant and finished ordering, Carter's first words were, "Cheqi Gaoli has refused my offer, and also turned down several other offers for Florence. It seems everything you told me last time was correct, and now your judgment has been proven accurate." He paused, then Carter continued expectantly, "I believe that after I revealed to you my intention to acquire Florence, you must have come up with a plan. Now, I need you to tell me your plan in full, so that the two of us can carry it out together."

"Before that, tell me, have you already given up on forcibly acquiring Florence?"

"You said Florence would not be destroyed! Everything must be based on that premise!"

"Of course! Florence definitely won't be destroyed, because there are many people who don't want to see her ruined just like that." Leon Thompson already understood Carter's bottom line, so under these circumstances, he could also reveal a little information.

"I believe what you say." Carter was no fool; his rash actions earlier were only because he was too worried about Florence's future and lost his usual judgment. After calming down for a while, he had also thought of many aspects he hadn't considered before.

"So, can you tell me your plan now?"

"Of course!"

"Go ahead! I've been looking forward to this for a long time!" Carter relaxed his body, leaned back in his chair, spread his hands, and assumed a posture of listening intently. "What should our first step be?"

Leon Thompson knew his friend had already gotten into character, so there was no need to keep up the act. "The first thing we should do is wait!"

"Wait?" Carter frowned. "If that's the case..."

"That's right! We have to wait until Florence goes completely bankrupt!"

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PS: Starting tomorrow, there will be two chapters a day, each about 3,000 words. Normally, one chapter in the afternoon and one in the evening. Okay, that's it...

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Chapter 3 Florence's Bankruptcy

Time quickly moved to July. During this period, Carter did not return to Italy, but instead wandered around Germany with Leon Thompson, even making a few trips to France.

Originally, after talking with Leon Thompson, Carter was planning to return to Italy and quietly wait for an opportunity. But Leon Thompson told him, "Don't go back now. This way, when Florence goes bankrupt, you can use the excuse of raising funds abroad to show that it's not that you didn't want to buy Florence earlier to prevent its bankruptcy."

Carter nodded in understanding. If the fans found out that he had already prepared the funds and was staying in Florence, but didn't participate in the auction, it would be easy for people to attack him for it. Because it would look like he was just waiting for Florence to go bankrupt so he could swoop in for a bargain.

Although that was the truth, to avoid being used by those with ulterior motives, it was better to find a suitable excuse. As for whether people would believe it? That didn't matter at all. A suitable excuse isn't meant to be believed by everyone, it's just to give those who really hold power a way out.

From this, you can see that even if someone who truly loves the club becomes president, once in that position, their attitude toward the fans might be a bit better, but real decisions still won't be swayed by the fans.

Although Carter hadn't yet become president, after hearing Leon Thompson's plan in full, he was confident about taking the position of Florence club president.

For various reasons, the two temporarily put aside everything about Florence and wandered endlessly through Germany and France, until Carter's man in Florence called to tell him, "Florence's bankruptcy auction has ended, and no one participated in the bidding."

"Leon Thompson, it seems you were right—no one is willing to take over Florence, which is bound for hell, at this time!" After receiving the news, Carter didn't know whether to be happy that things were going as he had hoped, or sad about the predicament of the team he loved.

Standing beside him, Leon Thompson heard his friend's words and already guessed the content of the call. Knowing that things had developed almost exactly as he remembered, he let out a long sigh of relief. He had really been afraid that his presence would trigger a huge butterfly effect, turning the neglected Florence into a hot commodity and letting someone else snatch it up at the auction.

But now that the bankruptcy auction was over and the result was just as he had told Carter, the two could move on to the next step.

"Looks like you need to get ready to return to Italy." He looked at the street beneath his feet, the French people passing by, and the constant sound of French in his ears.

That's right, the two of them were now walking down the streets of Auxerre, France. Don't ask me why they came here—over the past month, they had basically been taking trains, stopping wherever they ended up, without ever considering a destination. Europe's developed transportation made their journey full of unknowns.