Chapter 1 Winning Yourself

Winning yourself means winning everything. In the future, you will be like a proud warrior, heading towards the crowds with your head held high. The most painful realization will also bring you immense happiness. Tomorrow is the future, and the more distant tomorrow holds even more anticipation...

Who is humming? Zhang Jun struggled to open his eyes and saw an endless expanse of blue sky.

"You're awake?" a pleasant voice sounded beside him. He turned his head and saw a girl sitting next to him. The singing must have been coming from her, but she had her back to him, so he couldn't see her face and didn't know who she was.

But the clothes she was wearing looked familiar, as if he'd seen them somewhere before. Zhang Jun was still wondering who the girl was when she started humming again.

...

The road you're traversing is long and arduous, and you must take care of yourself. Just when you feel the most exhausted, you will hear the triumphant horn. The night of wind and rain is cold, but your blood boils with passion. When dawn breaks, sing out loud for all those who love you...

What exactly is she singing? Zhang Jun felt a headache coming on. Why is she singing this song? Is she trying to tell me something?

When he shook his head, Zhang Jun realized that he was lying on the grass. The grass was so soft, the breeze so gentle, and the sunlight so warm that he just wanted to lie there forever...

Suddenly, the singing stopped abruptly. The girl paused for a moment, then asked, "Zhang Jun, do you like soccer?"

Zhang Jun was suddenly stumped. He didn't answer, just stared blankly at the long-haired girl. He stared for a long time, realizing that the girl had a nice figure from the back, but...

There were too many girls who looked good from the back. Show me your face and let me see if you look just as good from the front! Please don't look like Ru Hua... (a famously unattractive movie character).

"Anyway, I like soccer, haha!" the girl said, and then, as Zhang Jun had hoped, she turned her head.

Then, when Zhang Jun saw the girl's face, he froze again... no, this time he seemed to turn to stone.

...

That morning in his first year of high school, he and A Biao were bored, leaning on the railing of the second-floor corridor. A Biao was angrily expressing his disappointment that there weren't any beautiful girls in this year's class, and then they saw her, the girl who A Biao thought only had a nice back view. That morning, like now, the sunlight shone on her fair skin, making her look particularly dazzling, so dazzling that people dared not look directly at her smile.

"Because I like soccer!" she had said that day in the corridor, and because of that sentence, he joined the Shuguang soccer team. Now, as the number one striker on the national Olympic team, he had never regretted it, because he had a group of good brothers and she had always been by his side.

If it weren't for that sentence and that smile, I could never have imagined my future. Thank you, Su Fei... Zhang Jun thought foolishly, looking at Su Fei's smiling face.

Suddenly, he felt a headache again, accompanied by an irresistible drowsiness. He wanted to sleep, wanted to sleep desperately.

Su Fei noticed his abnormality and tried to grab Zhang Jun, but she suddenly realized that she couldn't catch him. No matter how hard she tried, her hand was always just a little bit away from his.

Then she watched as Zhang Jun drifted away from her, becoming more and more blurry...

Su Fei suddenly opened her eyes. She wasn't sitting on soft grass, and she wasn't humming. Zhang Jun wasn't lying next to her, sunbathing. It was four o'clock in the morning, no sunlight, no gentle breeze. She was still lying in her dorm room at US University. It was just a dream... Su Fei wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her back was also soaked in sweat. The fan wasn't working, and the summer night was so stuffy and hot that she couldn't sleep.

Why did I have such a dream? Su Fei sat up in bed. There was still more than an hour until dawn, but she couldn't sleep. She tiptoed out of bed and walked to the window, resting her hands on the windowsill, leaning her head out slightly to let the outside breeze dispel the stuffiness.

It was still very dark. The eastern sunlight couldn't reach here yet, but now it was a good time to see the brilliant starlight in the sky. Su Fei moved her gaze to the western sky.

Zhang Jun, which star is you?

※※※

When the reporters waiting outside the hospital entrance were all a little tired, the door was pushed open. The sound made all the Chinese reporters perk up. The people who had been yawning just a moment ago immediately picked up their equipment and watched the dim interior of the door nervously. What kind of future would walk out of there?

Sai Yang pushed open the door and saw a large group of Chinese and Dutch reporters. He had seen scenes like this many times before, back when he was treating Ronaldo. He walked down the steps and headed straight for his office building.

The reporters immediately surrounded him, microphones with various logos thrust at Sai Yang. The reporters' questions were like a barrage of machine-gun fire, and the bullets were naturally their spittle.

"Dr. Sai Yang, how did the surgery go?" This was probably the question everyone cared about the most, and it was naturally at the top of every reporter's list.

After asking this question, no one asked anything else. Everyone was waiting for Sai Yang's answer. Without his answer, the subsequent questions couldn't continue, because they were all based on the premise that Zhang Jun's surgery was successful.

Sai Yang stopped and looked at the expectant reporters. "Zhang Jun's surgery?"

A reporter nodded impatiently, as if to encourage him to speak faster.

"Well..." Sai Yang said expressionlessly, "His surgery can be said to be successful, but he still needs to be observed for a while."

The reporters were stunned for a moment, then erupted in enthusiastic cheers. "Hooray! It was a success!" "Great! Great!"

Sai Yang walked away amidst the wild celebrations. By the time the reporters noticed, only a nurse who had been standing to one side was reminding everyone, "Please go to the conference room. Dr. Sai Yang will hold a press conference about the surgery."

The reporters screamed and rushed to the press conference venue like hunters who had bagged their prey and were eager to return to the village to share the news.

"It's strange. A bunch of reporters shouting and screaming, they don't act like reporters at all!" a young nurse said disdainfully, looking at the Chinese reporters.

"No," the nurse who delivered the message said with a smile. "It's because they have great hopes for that young man named Zhang Jun, which is why they reacted so strongly to the news of the successful surgery. That twenty-two-year-old kid is really something, to have so many people pinning their hopes on him."

"But Dr. Sai Yang is so tired, almost exhausted, and they didn't even say thank you. It's too much!"

"Haha! Forgive them, they're immersed in great happiness." The older nurse smiled. At that moment, she saw someone stop in the crowd. He turned around, looked at her, and bowed very respectfully to her.

Wang Hua realized that Li Yan was no longer beside him, so he stopped and looked back, just in time to see Li Yan turn around and catch up.

"What are you doing? You won't get a good seat if you dawdle."

"My shoelaces came undone, I just tied them," Li Yan said with a smile.

"Shoelaces?" Wang Hua looked down in surprise. Sure enough, the kid was wearing leather shoes without shoelaces, so how could they come undone? "You were just..."

"Let's go! You won't get a good seat if you dawdle!" Li Yan quickened his pace.

It was almost midnight, but for these reporters, tonight was another sleepless night.

※※※

"Sai Yang said the surgery was very successful, and the torn ligaments have been completely reconnected. However, as a precaution, he is still in the post-operative observation period. And in order to allow Zhang Jun to get plenty of rest and post-operative rehabilitation, he declined all interviews and filming requests for Zhang Jun, so we can only film the exterior of the hospital..."

Cheers and applause erupted once again in the US University cafeteria. It was lunchtime, but the midday "Sports Express" was clearly more appealing than the food. Everyone craned their necks and stared at the small television screen.

A roommate wanted to share the joy with Su Fei, but she called her name for a long time without getting a response. Surprised, she looked away from the TV and was shocked. "Hey? Where's Su Fei? She was just next to me!"

Another roommate pointed to the door. "She left while they were all watching TV. She left in a hurry. Do you want to go find her?"

She looked at the empty seat, then looked at the door that was still swinging, and shook her head. "No, let's go eat."

Su Fei ran all the way to the school's soccer field. It was lunchtime, and everyone was crowded in the cafeteria watching the midday sports news. The field was empty and quiet.

Su Fei couldn't explain why she chose to run here instead of going straight back to her dorm room. When she saw the news, she only knew that she had to leave the cafeteria, otherwise she was afraid she would cry in front of her roommates. Whether she was sad or happy, she was always a strong person in the eyes of her roommates. She didn't want them to see her cry, it wasn't good. But why it wasn't good, she couldn't say, she just didn't want others to see her tears, the tears that could reveal her heart.

Su Fei sat on the bleachers, looking at the green artificial turf field below. She didn't wail – that wasn't her style – she just sat quietly, crying quietly. The days and nights of worry had been released because of the sentence "Zhang Jun's left ankle ligament surgery was very successful." She could finally truly relax.

Su Fei wasn't a crybaby, but sometimes it wasn't good for your health if you didn't cry a little.

Two clear tears slid down her cheeks and landed on the back of her hand.

She didn't know how long she sat there. She must have thought a lot, thinking about all the moments she and Zhang Jun had shared, from the dusk when they first met until now. So much had happened, but the feelings between the two had not changed, and that was a great happiness.

Su Fei gently wiped the tears from her face, then walked down the bleachers, across the soccer field, and disappeared into the stadium exit.

※※※

"The surgery was successful?" Qiu Suhui murmured, looking at the rain outside the window. The weather in Malaysia was terrible. Just a moment ago, the sun was shining so brightly that he wanted to sunbathe, but now it was suddenly raining heavily.

"It's really laughable weather!" Qiu Suhui stood up, stretched, and shouted to the next room, "Lao Hu! Let's go down and have a cup of coffee!"

※※※

A cup of fragrant Blue Mountain coffee was still steaming gently, but the owner of the coffee had no intention of tasting it. He was on the phone.

"Yes, I know. Thanks, Hua-jie! Oh, right. How was Zhang Jun's surgery?" Li Yongle asked. "Really? Is that so? That's great! Haha, a lot of people can rest easy now. About the issue of going abroad, I think as long as it's beneficial to my development, that's fine, but if there's an invitation from Inter Milan, please keep an eye out for me, Hua-jie, okay? Because that's the team I like, and if I can play there, I'm willing to play in the youth league!"

"Okay, then please take care of my affairs. Goodbye." Li Yongle hung up the phone and gently stirred the coffee in his cup with a spoon.

Then he picked up the cup and took a sip. The rain outside the window was pattering, and he could only hear the sounds outside. The rain was making him irritable, but fortunately there was a warm cup of coffee to gradually calm him down with its rich aroma.

That kid Zhang Jun's surgery was successful, the national Olympic team qualified ahead of schedule, and his own matter of playing soccer abroad was also progressing smoothly under Hua-jie's management.

Good things were happening one after another, and the feeling was like this cup of Blue Mountain coffee: fragrant, mild, smooth, and rich.

Suddenly, two girls timidly walked up and asked for his autograph. Li Yongle glanced at them, and they immediately became too embarrassed to speak clearly. "We... we are fans of the Chinese team, ah, and also of you! We... we'd like to ask you for an autograph, is that, is that okay?"

Li Yongle smiled at them and bent down to sign his name on the national Olympic team jersey they handed over. After signing it, he returned it to them, but they said somewhat shyly, "Could you, could you also write some words of blessing on it?"

"Words of blessing? What should I write?" Li Yongle asked.

"Any, anything. Write whatever you want." The two girls probably felt that it was already very good that a player like Li Yongle would give them an autograph, and it was a bit too much to ask for this and that.

But Li Yongle didn't say anything. He thought for a moment, then bent down and wrote on the jersey, "Wishing you good health and happiness every day!"

These words were really clichéd and overused at the end of every letter, but they were now Li Yongle's sincere words.

Good health and happiness every day, these things are more important than anything else, and not everyone can have them, like Zhang Jun.

※※※

"Lao Hu, what do you think of Li Yongle?" Qiu Suhui and Hu Li sat on the other side of the coffee shop, watching Li Yongle sign autographs for fans in the distance.

"Well, he's a pretty good kid. Although he doesn't talk much, he's very nice to people and has a good reputation..."

Qiu Suhui coughed lightly, interrupting Hu Li's "assessment." "I don't mean that, Lao Hu. I want to hear your opinion of him as a player, what do you think of his potential?"

"What do I think?" Lao Hu smiled. "I really admire your vision, turning an unknown college student into the core of the national Olympic team's midfield. I'm really impressed..."

Qiu Suhui interrupted Hu Li again with a cough. "Lao Hu... I mean, what do you think about him going abroad to play soccer?" Hu Li had been Qiu Suhui's partner for so long that he couldn't possibly not know what he meant. He must be protesting Qiu Suhui's earlier act of forcibly dragging him out of bed and ruining his sweet dreams by pretending to be stupid.

Hu Li didn't make a fuss either. He calmly stated his opinion. "I think it's not a good idea for him to go abroad now."

"Oh? Why?"

"He doesn't have even the slightest bit of experience playing in a professional team. If he goes abroad directly like this, I'm afraid he won't be able to adapt and it will affect his future development."

"But think about Zhang Jun, think about Yang Pan..."

"When they went abroad, no one paid attention to them, so there was less pressure and they could develop slowly, step by step. But the environment is different now. Li Yongle will receive a lot of attention when he goes abroad. Wherever he goes, many, many Chinese reporters will flock there. This will put a lot of pressure on him, and he will be criticized for even the slightest mistake..."

"Haha! I know what you're worried about. Although the enthusiastic news media are always doing more harm than good, Li Yongle is different, completely different from Zhang Jun." Qiu Suhui took a sip of coffee and continued, "No matter how others see him, he will always follow his own choices. He is very strong and very patient, so he will adapt to the environment better than Zhang Jun. No matter where he goes, as long as there is a good soccer atmosphere, he can improve. But conversely, if he continues to stay in China..."

Qiu Suhui stirred his coffee with a spoon and didn't finish speaking. But Hu Li understood what he meant. Yes, the environment of Chinese soccer is ruining people! No matter how talented you are, if you're not ruined in this melting pot of corruption, it's not called "Chinese soccer"!

"In that case, he should go abroad..." Hu Li suddenly felt weak all over. What would be the fate of these twenty-odd players on the current national Olympic team after the Olympics? After all, few people would be able to go abroad like Zhang Jun, Yang Pan, or even Li Yongle. Then most of them would inevitably have to return to their respective clubs. After a few years in the melting pot of Chinese soccer, how many of them would not be tainted?

Chinese soccer yearns for the emergence of geniuses year after year, but it also intentionally or unintentionally, but certainly very ruthlessly, destroys those emerging geniuses and those soon-to-be geniuses. Then, amidst sighs, it yearns for the next genius... When people cannot completely explain some strange repetition or reincarnation, they simply attribute it to "fate," and the above seems to be the fate of Chinese soccer.

Hopefully, this "fate" will not befall these kids.

※※※

When the national Olympic team defeated its opponent 2-0 away two days later, securing their qualification, Chen Wei returned to Beijing with great joy. At the international airport, they were not only greeted and praised by their superiors, but also welcomed back to China by a large group of Beijing fans outside the airport, banging drums and gongs. The Chinese men's soccer team could only have enjoyed such treatment by the national Olympic team led by Gao Fengwen in 1987, which defeated Japan to advance to the Seoul Olympics, and the national team that qualified for the 2001 World Cup with an absolute advantage.

Chen Wei took the bouquet from Luo Wenqiang with a smile and waved to the fans. Listening to the cheers of the fans, he had a feeling of success. How many people in the Chinese Football Association could receive such heartfelt cheers from the fans? Zhang Jilong was called "Brother Long" by the fans because of that "hand of God"-like draw, but he couldn't think of anyone else.

He wondered if he would be called "Brother Wei" in the future for his contributions to Chinese soccer?

Luo Wenqiang patted Qiu Suhui on the shoulder with some excitement. "Good! You did a good job! You showed the outside world the good side of Chinese soccer!"

Qiu Suhui was disgusted by this, feeling like a leader patting a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old child and calling him "little devil." But he couldn't show it and could only smile at the news media, indicating that they were united, so it was only right that they achieved good results.

The players, who looked a little tired, received the most cheers. Their appearance triggered a wave of screams from the fans on the scene. When Li Yongle walked through the channel opened by the airport security, the shouts of the female fans on both sides were obviously louder, but Li Yongle just lowered his head, expressionlessly pushing his luggage and hurrying past.

Xiang Tao waved hard to the fans, but apart from a few male fans who applauded him, it was basically calm. Xiang Tao awkwardly lowered his hand. "Damn! Who cares!" he muttered.

※※※

In the evening, the Football Association held a small celebration for the national Olympic team at the Xianghe training base in Beijing. It was called small because they didn't invite too many superiors and social celebrities, but gave all the slots to reporters from various places, TV reporters, print reporters, and photographers. The Football Association would never miss any opportunity to build a memorial for itself.

Li Yongle was still an important figure at the banquet. After receiving the Football Association leaders' official praises and encouragement, he was immediately surrounded by reporters who were "starving." All kinds of questions were thrown at him, but of course the issue that people were most concerned about at the moment was his destination after the Olympics.

Li Yongle painstakingly dealt with the reporters, carefully avoiding them from catching any loopholes that could be exploited. That feeling was more tiring than playing two consecutive finals.

Seeing Li Yongle's sweaty expression and stuttering, Xiang Tao was a little gleeful. "Yes, yes, that's right." "No, things are not as you imagine." "It's hard to say right now, we'll see later." "Focus on playing soccer, don't think about anything else..." Xiang Tao was bored and lip-synched Li Yongle's answers, making a group of teammates laugh so hard they bent over.

This was an outdoor barbecue, and the Xianghe base had specially hired several chefs from outside to barbecue various foods in a clearing in the training base, followed by a fireworks display. The Football Association had arranged everything carefully to give the players, who had been fighting for nearly a year, a chance to relax.

When the smell of barbecue filled the air, the celebration reached its climax. Xiang Tao was devouring a large pile of food in front of him, leaving everyone around him stunned.

"Hey, Xiang Tao, there are reporters here! Aren't you going to pay attention to your image?" Zhao Pengyu grinned, completely shocked.

"Shao... shao fei hua! Lao tzu chi le zai shuo! (Stop talking nonsense, I'll eat first)" Xiang Tao said vaguely with a large piece of meat in his mouth, concise and to the point, never wasting a single second of eating time.

Zhao Pengyu looked at Xiang Tao eating what was in his mouth, holding what was in his hand, and staring at what was in his bowl, and sighed helplessly, "The glorious image we managed to build up was destroyed by him alone, and he only spent one meal doing it..."

Li Suisheng took a sip of juice and asked Zhao Pengyu, ignoring Xiang Tao, "Why isn't Xiang Tao here? He wouldn't miss something like this... hey? Who brought this pig? Is it a pet?"

Xiang Tao, who was focused on eating, keenly captured this information that was unfavorable to him, and then his face changed. "What did you say? Lebanon (Xiang Tao's nickname for Li Suisheng)! You have guts..."

"Wow! What beautiful fireworks!" someone shouted, and Xiang Tao then noticed that a beam of light was rising from the ground not far away, and then exploding in the air, like a flower, emitting a beautiful golden light.

The fireworks rose and fell, and the crackling sound never stopped. All kinds of fireworks bloomed in the deep blue night sky. People's upturned faces were constantly dyed red, yellow, green, purple, white... Someone turned off the lights, and apart from the flames of the barbecue, there were only these fireworks, illuminating the night sky one by one, and also illuminating everyone's smiling faces.

Many years later, when Xiang Tao saw Zhang Jun raise his arms to bid farewell to the fans, he was surprised that he didn't think of all the moments he had spent with that silly kid, but instead thought of the fireworks that night, dazzling, beautiful, and incomparably brilliant.

Li Yongle sat on the grass, watching the blooming fireworks, and sighed softly, "How beautiful!"

Chen Wei was chatting with a reporter, but was also attracted by the beauty of the fireworks. "He turned his head and quietly looked at the sky dyed red by the fireworks, his face intoxicated and longing," the reporter wrote in an article recalling the development of Chinese soccer a long time later.

When the first firework bloomed, Qiu Suhui was lying on the grass covered with dew, joking with Hu Li. Hu Li told him to find a wife and settle down after the Olympics. Qiu Suhui said with a smile that he wasn't in a hurry, he was only in his thirties, and if he couldn't find anyone, he would just marry soccer. But Hu Li said to him very seriously, "Lao Qiu, I've always called you that, even though I'm older than you, it's because I respect your soccer. But on this issue, you have to listen to my advice, get married, it's not good to drift around like this. Besides, with a stable family, you'll have more energy to put into your work. Your parents don't want to see you like this, do they? You eat whatever you can get your hands on for three meals a day, and you stay up all night until dawn..."

At that moment, with a "pop," the fireworks bloomed, attracting everyone's attention. Qiu Suhui put his hands behind his head and looked at the unpredictable fireworks in the sky. Lao Hu also made sense. How long had it been since he had returned to his hometown of Liaoning to visit his parents, and how long had it been since he had contacted her? Thinking carefully, since becoming the head coach of the national Olympic team, his mind had been filled with soccer, the future of Chinese soccer, the future of this group of players, but he had never thought about his own future. There is an ancient saying: "There are three unfilial things, and having no descendants is the greatest." Although his parents understood him, he was no longer young, and for these thirty-eight years he had been an unfilial son!

Okay, after the Athens Olympics, he would marry her, he couldn't let her wait any longer!

Looking at the fireworks, Qiu Suhui made a wish like he was facing a shooting star.

※※※

When the petals of the last firework fell to the ground and disappeared, everyone had left except for the base staff who were cleaning up the mess. The players would be dismissed on the spot tomorrow for a vacation, and two weeks later, they would regroup for the last training session before the Athens Olympics. Then, in early July, they would fly to the Netherlands again for a training camp in Europe. After all this, they would appear at the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics, paying their respects to the podium, to the audience, and to the world as the Chinese men's soccer team.