Chapter 23 (2/2)

“You’ve already waited for half a year; there’s nothing in waiting for one more year.” Zhang Yang soothed him. “Stop letting your mind wander, and focus on the game.”

Li nodded. “Wait, shouldn’t you be more worried than me! Your opponent this game is Yang Pan!”

“…Argh!” his teammate yelped. “I forgot…”.

…

In the host team’s locker room.

“There is nothing for me to say; Zhongyuan is a very powerful team. All of you, look at this match schedule and remember how our last few games have been won. Do whatever you can in this game to achieve victory!”

The locker room was silent.

As he stared at the fixture list, Zhang Jun remembered the night he saw Su Fei bent over on all fours to draw the huge graph. He was not going to play this time; he did as Liang Ke told. But then, his mind went even further to recall the day he first came to this school, the day he joined the soccer team and the days that led up to the present with every single detail attached, Su Fei’s smile and her line, “I like soccer”, the hat-trick in the warm-up match as well as Liu Qi and the huge flag with “victory” written over it.

It had just been two months, but it felt like it had been a very long time.

…

The away team’s locker room.

“I will say this again, Shu Guang is not a weak team. Any form of underestimating will put us at a disadvantage. Play the game as if it’s the final. Li Yongle, since Zhang Jun will not be playing, you can focus more on offense and register more attempts at the goal!”

Li nodded slowly.

Sun Laihong’s eyes swept across the players, before saying, “Our objective is the entire nationals. Pay all dues and achieve your dreams!”

…

The whole arena thundered with cheers when the two teams stepped outside the preparation rooms and into the field. This was the first time that the Shu Guang team heard cheers intended for them; starting from today, they were no longer the Shu Guang of old.

Li Yongle watched Zhang Jun, who sat expressionlessly on the bench; there was no telling what he was thinking. Li himself was not calm.

When I asked you about it yesterday, you said you had no problems with jogging―but today you’re on the bench like all’s right in the world. What the hell?

Zhang Jun watched Li Yongle, who stood expressionlessly in the field; there was no telling what he was thinking and Zhang Jun was not calm. He very much desired to play, to sprint, to shoot, to enjoy those cheers. But the doctor said that the damn injury needed at least 10 days for a full recovery.

Ten days…

Zhongyuan got the initiative but allowed Shu Guang to take the kick-off. Both teams stood in formation and waited for the referee’s whistle to signal the start of the match.

Without any photographing duties left, Chen Huafeng could finally climb the stands and watch the game. Zhou Peng sat down beside him.

“How was the interview?”

“Only managed one question. When I told him Zhang Jun wasn’t playing, his face became terrifying.”

“That means the rumors are true, Li Yongle wants to play against Zhang Jun.”

“Yup, I’ve checked. They never met on the middle school level, so there’s really no telling where all that tension is coming from.”

“Still, a selling point of the game vanishes with Zhang Jun’s absence. Such a shame…”

The entire stadium went quiet as everyone waited.

The referee looked at his watch once more―it was 3.00pm sharp.

“Beep!”

And the match began!