Declaration: This story is purely fictional and has nothing to do with any actual individuals, groups, or events. Any resemblance is purely coincidental!

Zhang Jun and Yang Pan had already begun training with the youth team. The one who drove them back and forth each day was no longer Mr. Li, but a Mr. Wang who owned a local Chinese restaurant. Mr. Wang was a good man and also a Volendam fan, so the club chose him to be Zhang Jun and Yang Pan's full-time translator. In addition, to better take care of their daily needs, Mr. Wang proposed that the two of them move into his house. After all, his children were studying at university in Amsterdam and wouldn't be back more than a few times a year, and he had plenty of empty rooms. The club agreed to his request, so Zhang Jun and Yang Pan moved out of the hotel on the fourth day and into Mr. Wang's home. Of course, they still had to pay rent, but the club paid it for them, so they didn't have to worry about anything. During training, Mr. Wang stayed by their side, translating every instruction from Rice, allowing them to understand the coach's intentions as soon as possible and then perform the actions accordingly. After training, he would take them to his restaurant for a hearty meal. He knew how it felt to be away from home, and that being able to eat food from your hometown was a great happiness. However, when Rice found out about this, he was furious and scolded Mr. Wang. He also ordered Zhang and Yang to follow a strict diet in the future, and they weren't allowed to touch anything he didn't allow! He gave the diet to Mr. Wang and asked him to prepare three meals a day according to what was written on it.

The staple food was generally pasta and rice, with beef as the main meat, along with appropriate amounts of chicken, pork, and fish. Salad was essential, but seafood and fatty meat were absolutely forbidden. Anything that could increase fat was not to be found in Rice's diet.

Zhang Jun frowned as he looked at the same familiar faces every meal. At first, it was fresh and he ate with relish. But eating like this every meal, day after day, the freshness turned into familiarity, and even the best appetite would find it hard to swallow. He looked up at Mr. Wang across from him. Mr. Wang shrugged at him, meaning: This is also part of your training and must be completed.

Zhang Jun grimaced. Yang Pan next to him was already wolfing down his food. Zhang Jun looked at him, then helplessly picked up his spoon…

Chewing on the tasteless chicken, Zhang Jun began to miss his dad's *laziji ding* (diced chicken with chili peppers). The green peppers, the oily chicken cubes, exuded a strong fragrance that lingered in the air. He sniffed, but smelled nothing, and had to bury his head in his "training" in frustration.

Adrianse looked at the two Chinese teenagers doing shuttle runs on the field and asked Rice, "Old pal, how are those two doing?"

"Very good!" Rice nodded. "You've dug up two more big diamonds. I really envy your good luck!"

"Heh heh, it's not luck." Adrianse pointed to his nose. "I just have a nose as keen as a hound!"

"However, they both have too much excess fat." Rice stroked his chin. "Chinese food is delicious, but it's extremely unsuitable for soccer players..." He glanced at Adrianse next to him. Ever since 1984, when he took in a Chinese player named Qiu Suhui in Zwolle, he had a strong Chinese sentiment and would often go to Chinese restaurants. The reason the club was able to find Mr. Wang to be Zhang Jun and Yang Pan's guardian in the Netherlands was because Adrianse often went to Mr. Wang's Chinese restaurant when he coached in Volendam. "I've given them a special nutritional diet and have them eat according to the diet every day. Remove the excess fat, and then combine it with regular training to make their muscles stronger. Otherwise, their current bodies won't be able to last a season."

"Mmm, mmm, very reasonable. But..." Adrianse looked at Zhang and Yang. "Your diet must be putting them through a lot of hardship, right? Heh heh, it's truly a devil's diet..."

"They had slight diarrhea at first, but that's normal. It's to cleanse their stomachs. If they can't even get through this hurdle, I don't think they'll become dazzling pearls, will they?"

"Indeed." Adrianse put away his smile. "Modern soccer, a good body is the foundation. If they can't even build up their bodies, then they should just go home..."

Zhang Jun and Yang Pan had been gone for a week. Because of money, Sophie and Zhang Jun couldn't talk on the phone. International long distance calls, this was not something her working-class family could afford. The journey was long, and letters would take more than a month to arrive. Surfing the Internet was also unrealistic. Did people who had to train every day have the time and energy to go online?

So, Sophie, who couldn't contact him, started writing a diary. But her newly bought diary always contained the following:

Year Month Day, Monday, Sunny.

Below the date were a few blank lines, and then below that was "Year Month Day, Tuesday, Sunny turning cloudy."

...

And so on.

When Zhang Jun was around, she felt that every day was ordinary and there was nothing to write about, so she never kept a diary at the age when girls liked to keep diaries. Now that Zhang Jun was no longer around, she felt a little empty, so sometimes she wanted to write something, but whenever she picked up her pen and faced the brand-new diary, she suddenly didn't know what to write. A strange feeling was stuck in her heart, unspeakable, unwriteable.

But she still stubbornly wrote down the date and weather of the day in the notebook every day, and then left a few blank lines.

A few days ago, she saw Li Shuai in the Second Teaching Building, he was using crutches. Sophie was a little embarrassed, and was thinking about whether to go up and say hello or pretend she hadn't seen him and turn around to leave, but Li Shuai saw Sophie first. He hurriedly left the hall. Sophie didn't chase him, but just watched him disappear outside the door, and then she never saw him again.

Zhang Jun and Yang Pan going abroad to play soccer caused a sensation in the school. Although U University's annual overseas study rate was among the highest in the country, going abroad to play soccer was still a first. The school of course didn't announce it, but the news had already spread among the students and some teachers. Because before Zhang and Yang left, they wrote letters to their roommates in dorm 701 and the school team coach Zhao Yu, stating that they had officially dropped out of school and would go to the Netherlands to play soccer. They were very grateful for the help and guidance in the past year and wished the school team and their friends all the best.

"All the best my ass!" Zhang Fan slammed the letter on the table and cursed loudly. "Damn it! They went abroad to show off, wrote a letter and said a few nice words that didn't hurt or itch... I don't buy it! A year of being roommates was a waste!"

"No matter what, they did write a letter, and it's already very kind of them not to leave without saying a word. Let's think about this year's league, two main players have left all of a sudden, Lao Zhao must be worried! There aren't many good players in this year's freshmen class..." Zhu Hui said.

"Nonsense, after seeing Zhang Jun and Yang Pan, no one else can arouse any interest..." Lele said, "Professional soccer players... I really envy them! If only we could become professional soccer players..."

"Don't even think about it!" Zhang Fan said loudly, "The professional soccer environment in China, hum... a genius can be turned into a mediocre talent, let alone ordinary people like us. I've already thought about it, I'll just go to a middle school and be a physical education teacher after graduating from university, I'll be satisfied as long as I can still be in contact with soccer... hey! Those two guys are really lucky..." As he said this, he looked out the window with an indescribable expression on his face.

Lele tilted his head and looked at the two empty bunks, sitting weakly on the edge of the bed.

Zhu Hui didn't say anything more, no one knew what he was thinking.

The room was silent for a while, the sun gradually set, and the room gradually darkened.

After reading this letter written by the two of them, Zhao Yu silently lit a cigarette—he hadn't smoked for a long time since Zhang Jun and Yang Pan came to this school. He had originally planned to make a big splash in the league this year—now he took the cigarette out of the drawer again.

Exhaling a puff of smoke, Zhao Yu squinted at the player registration form for this year's university league on the table. After looking at it for a long time, he finally picked up a pen and crossed out the names "Zhang Jun" and "Yang Pan" from the list.

It was getting dark, the lights in the room were not turned on, only the little red light flickered intermittently.

The summer of 2002 was a summer of mixed joy and sorrow for Chinese soccer. The Chinese national team was defeated miserably in South Korea, losing nine goals in three games, without scoring a single goal, without winning a single game, without getting a single point, thus ending its first World Cup journey in forty-four years. After returning to China, it caused another round of debate about Chinese soccer, a noisy debate like goose feathers, reflection, and finally it was still over.

On the other hand, the wave of Chinese players going abroad seemed to usher in a new spring after experiencing a low ebb. Wang Hui, who was injured in the first game of the 2002 World Cup and missed the remaining two games of the World Cup, had his club, Manchester City FC, promoted to the English Premier League. The highly anticipated Wang Hui would also show the style of Chinese players in the English Premier League.

Also from the English Premier League, Li Yi, the main defensive midfielder of the Chinese national team at the World Cup, and Wang Bin, the center back, were officially loaned to the English Premier League club Everton FC with the sponsorship of a domestic company. Now, there are three Chinese players in the English Premier League, and the new season of the English Premier League is particularly attractive to Chinese people.

While all the media and fans were focusing their excited eyes on England thousands of miles away, in the Netherlands, separated from England by a sea, two Chinese teenagers were working hard for their future, eating tasteless nutritional meals every day, undergoing arduous training, and learning Dutch from a Dutch teacher hired by the club in the evening... No one paid attention, like seeds buried in the soil, silently growing.