614 9527 (1/2)

”One, two, three, start.”

”Hello everyone, I am the thirteenth contestant and my name is Chen Jian. I'm nineteen years old and from Chengdu, Sichuan province.” A dark-skinned teenager, standing in front of the camera, introduced himself with a grin that revealed his striking white teeth. He turned his head to look to the side, and there was a man gesturing to him.

”Shout out a slogan and strike a POSE!” the man mouthed to him.

The teenager, who called himself ”Chen Jian” turned back and thought about it. The camera's monitor entered a brief silence.

”I want to play professional football and hopefully everyone will... like me.” He laughed nervously. He wanted to say, ”I hope everyone will support and vote for me,” but he remembered that the talent show did not have an audience vote, so it was useless even if the audience supported him. He had to change his words. Therefore, when he thought about it, he laughed.

”Good!” The cameraman put down the camera and muttered, ”luckily it wasn't live...”

”Next!” The man waved to another teenager waiting at the side, and motioned for him to go up for his introduction. Chen Jian returned to a group of teenagers of similar ages.

It was the training camp for the finals of The Football Kid talent show held by the Hunan Television and a number of local and foreign media and companies.

The audition for the country's six competition districts had already ended, with fourteen lucky winners selected from the six areas. Now they were gathered in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province to participate in three and a half months of training. A variety of assessments and competitions would be conducted with the contestants to gradually eliminate them and three contestants would advance to the finals. After that, three judges on live television would rate the three contestants based on their performances over the past three and a half months. The top two contestants would be rewarded with a one-year trial in England's top teams. For these Chinese teenagers who liked football and desired a future in professional football, it was a good dream and more exciting than one million dollars.

Chen Jian was one of them. Watching him stand in front of the camera and introduce himself with a smile, how many future television viewers would know the story behind the smile?

※※※

The nineteen-year-old youth, who spoke Mandarin with a slight Sichuanese accent, initially auditioned for the Beijing division where he attended the Justice Jingguan School in Tianjin, close to Beijing. However, he was eliminated. The reason for his elimination was simple — he was not strong enough.

Out of the ten thousand people who auditioned in the Beijing division, his strength was not enough to even enter the top one hundred.

The majority of the youth who came to audition were able to enter the final one hundred and then face the British coach's personal assessment. Most of them were professionally trained, from a sports school or from a third team of a professional football club. Chen Jian had not received even a day of professional training. He got played football as a hobby. He was one of the best in terms of amateur playing and as a hobby. Since he was young, he was the main player in the school teams, including in Tianjin Justice Jingguan School, where he was also a main player who represented the university in the China University Football League. That was also what gave him the confidence and motivation to participate in this talent show.

But compared with people of similar ages who had received professional training, he was not strong enough as an amateur player who adopted football later in life. He barely made it into the top one hundred before he was eliminated by the British coach.

When an average person was eliminated, they would be depressed and return home dejected. Chen Jian was not the average person. He was only frustrated for one night. Once he heard that the people who were eliminated in that division were also free \ to participate in the other division selections. He rekindled his hope. He felt that he had a turn of bad luck. In the next division, he would be able to play to his strongest level and impress the coaches.

The next day, he called his instructor to apply for a leave of absence, packed his bags, and left from Beijing for Wuhan.

This time, he stopped at the top fifty. The first time, he did not make it to the top fifty, but what was the point? He was still eliminated.

Chen Jian refused to admit defeat. He continued to apply for leave and went to Changsha to participate in the auditions in the Changsha division. He got into the top thirty.

As Changsha was the location of the organizers, there was some preferential policies. The other divisions only had two candidates who could enter the final training camp, whereas Changsha was allowed to have four spots. The extra places might let some people achieve what they wanted, but if one could not get in that division, the remaining Chengdu division was basically pointless.

Chen Jian still did not pass the assessment. Did he give up?

No. Chen Jian did not even apply for a leave and skipped class to take the train to Chengdu.

It was his last chance to try. He would give up if he failed again. He would set his mind at rest and study to become a policeman, work to support his family, and find a decent girl to start a family with. As for my love of football, I can at least play football in my spare time and watch the games.

The road to happiness was paved with hardships. Chen Jian did not manage to buy a train ticket for the right day. The train ticket he bought to Chengdu was on the afternoon of the audition. He even did not have time to rest before the selection.

To make matters worse, he was burning up with a fever from the mental stress and being constantly on the move. He also had the runs from eating contaminated food on the train.

When the train arrived in Chengdu, he felt weak as he dizzily walked out of the compartment. He did not know how he rushed to the selection venue, Sichuan Gymnasium.

When he arrived outside the stadium and saw the sea of people at the scene of the audition, he felt faint.

After he obtained a number, he found a shady spot to sit down and rest. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. He had not had breakfast or lunch. Although he was hungry, he did not have an appetite to eat. His fever had not receded and his limbs were sore and weak. He felt dizzy and cold.

There was no contestant more wretched than him.

Most people would have gone to the hospital for an IV drip and headed home after they recovered. It's not my wish to meet with such an awful situation and it looks like God does not want me to pass. So why should I still bother to do it?

A lot of people would think that. But Chen Jian was not the average person. He was tough and obstinate. He refused to concede. He would take that last chance to finish.

He leaned against the concrete border of the flower bed. Around him, competitors were either eating a simple lunch to replenish their strength or doing warm-up exercises and drills. He leaned there lethargically and did nothing. It was not that he did not want to warm up. He did not have the strength to warm up. He could only save his strength at the most critical moment.

He sat like that until he heard the speakers in the square blaring the contestants' numbers from 9500 to 9550 and pushed himself against the platform to stand up. He staggered into the crowd.

He did not know how he had held on, nor did he know how he passed each of the assessments. All he knew was that the sky had dimmed, and the bustling crowd outside had dispersed with only the trash littering the ground. He could not hear the buzzing noises. He stood in the grassy stadium. With the exception of five coaches, three television camera men and reporters, only ten of his peers wearing training vests were left.

And he, Chen Jian, stood among these ten men.

He was in the top ten of Chengdu division, which was his best result after his participation in the four competitions.

Among the five coaches, there was also the chief judge whose face was familiar to Chen Jian. He was the British coach who had eliminated him in the Beijing division. He saw the man twice again in the Wuhan division and Changsha division. Chen Jian could not remember this person's name until now. It was useless for him to know. He had to rely on his own strength to pass the assessment rather than claim connections with the chief judge to climb higher.

He glanced a few more times and averted his gaze to stand in line to wait for the next assessment. As he had not eaten for a day and could barely stand, but he clenched his teeth to persevere. He smiled on the outside and looked confident while he gritted his teeth behind his closed lips.

The chief judge, Kenny Sansom swept his gaze across the ten lucky contestants standing in front of him and discovered a familiar face — Number 9527 with his smiling face, tanned skin and strong body. If he had only seen the face once in the Beijing division, Sansom would not have remembered the youth at all. But he saw the smiling, tanned face four times: Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha and Chengdu.

He had a deep impression of the smile because he could see that this kid was trying his hardest to hold on.