Chapter 3

This is a university stadium, with a low stand filled with people. On the football field surrounded by the stands, twenty-three young boys stood in formation, and in front of them stood a few middle-aged men.

One of them stood out, drawing the attention of everyone present.

He was the former main striker of the Chinese national team, the top striker in Asia, Hao Dong. Although he had retired, he now stood before everyone in casual clothes.

Not only were the twenty-three boys looking at him, but the people in the stands were also watching him, with some taking out their cameras to take photos.

Zhou Jianliang was among the crowd, holding a camera to take photos, but his lens was not focused on the legendary figure of Chinese football, but on his son, Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi was among the twenty-three boys.

When he first convinced his wife to let his son participate in this tryout, Zhou Jianliang probably never imagined that his son would make it through all the rounds, standing out in the preliminary selection and advancing to the final national competition. Although his son's performance was the last among the twenty-three, he was still one of the best twenty-three young football players in China.

He wanted to take more photos of his son as a memento of this unforgettable summer.

In his lens, Zhou Yi was intently watching Hao Dong, just like the other children around him.

For a football-loving boy, Hao Dong, the former national team player, was a famous figure and an idol to all of them.

Being so close to his idol, Zhou Yi's face was filled with excitement. There was no sign of nervousness about the final competition on his face...

***

Hao Dong stood in front of the twenty-three boys and began to speak.

"First of all, congratulations to the children who have made it to the finals. You are already the best twenty-three in this age group in China. In the upcoming final, I hope you can perform at your best, play well, and strive to become the winner, earning the chance to represent China and challenge the youth teams of European top clubs."

His words excited the children.

Going to Europe and competing against the youth teams of top clubs was the goal for which they had worked so hard to reach the finals.

Now, they were just one step away from this goal—just by performing well in the finals and winning the favor of this legendary national team player, they could make their dreams come true!

However, the elimination rate was quite high... out of the twenty-three, only one would stand out in the end.

Of course, every boy was very confident, believing that he could be the best.

Hao Dong continued, "Before the final begins, I have one more thing to say: remember, children, football is a team sport."

After saying this, he scanned the field, taking in the expressions on the faces of the twenty-three boys.

The children seemed to still be lost in their beautiful dreams, and their faces showed no change when they heard his words.

He knew that these excited and nervous boys had not really taken his last words to heart.

So he waved his hand, "Alright, let Coach Wu come and divide you into teams."

After that, a slightly overweight middle-aged man stood up. This was Coach Wu.

Hao Dong, on the other hand, turned and walked with the others to the side of the field, heading for the VIP stand.

"The ones selected from all over the country are different. Most of them seem very excited and not at all nervous..." a man walking with him said, looking a bit younger than Hao Dong. "We might really find some good talent!"

Hao Dong replied noncommittally, "Let's see, Xiao Wang."

He took off the sunglasses from his collar, put them on, and looked up at the sky. The scorching sun at four in the afternoon appeared blue-green through the sunglasses, the light less glaring, slightly softer, but the temperature had not dropped, and the heat on everyone's heads made them feel like they were in an oven.

***

Hao Dong left, and Coach Wu clapped his hands, "Alright, let's divide into teams."

The boys' gazes reluctantly shifted from Hao Dong's back to Coach Wu.

"I'll call out names. Those I call, come and get this." Coach Wu raised his hand, holding a red training jersey with a white number on the back.

"Huang Zhihua, Zhang Yihao, Liu Yiwei, Li Haoran..."

Each boy whose name was called ran out of the line happily to get his jersey, while those not called looked at the lucky ones with envy and anticipation, hoping their names would be called.

Unlike the various creative selection methods in the preliminary rounds, the rules for the final were simple—twenty-three boys divided into two teams, playing a match, and the best player would get the chance to participate in the reality show.

Eleven players were quickly selected.

Next, Coach Wu picked up a blue training jersey and said, "Those I call, come and get this."

This was the blue team.

"Liu Yadong, Yang Fei, Li Xiang, Liu Haowei..."

One by one, the boys came out of the crowd to get their jerseys.

Twenty-three boys divided into two teams, eleven on each, leaving one unlucky one without a chance to start.

When the coach called the last name, Zhou Yi was still standing in place.

He was taken aback, raised his hand, and asked, "Coach, what about me?"

"You're the substitute," Coach Wu looked at Zhou Yi and said.

A burst of laughter came from the crowd—twenty-two out of twenty-three had a chance to play, the last one was obviously the substitute. They laughed at Zhou Yi for asking, thinking it was a self-inflicted humiliation.

No one was surprised that Zhou Yi was the substitute. He had the worst performance in the national preliminary selection, so who else should be the substitute?

Zhou Yi seemed to understand this, so when the coach said this, he just said "Oh" and didn't say anything else.

***

Zhou Jianliang, who had been observing his son, also noticed that his son was the only substitute.

When the red and blue teams ran onto the field to prepare for the match, only his son, Zhou Yi, turned and walked to the sideline, sitting down on the long bench.

Zhou Jianliang remembered a conversation he had with his son after he successfully made it to the finals.

At that time, making it to the national finals had already exceeded Zhou Jianliang's expectations. He didn't want to put too much pressure on his son, so on the way to Beijing, he talked to Zhou Yi about his expectations for the final. He told his son that making it to the final was already something to be proud of and satisfied with.

He meant to ease the pressure on his son.

But his son's response was unexpected.

"I want to go to Europe, Dad."

On the train to Beijing, Zhou Yi smiled at his father.

Zhou Jianliang still remembered his son's expression—it wasn't a mischievous smile, but a smile filled with longing.

As a father, Zhou Jianliang could see that his son really wanted to go to Europe, really wanted to join that team and challenge the youth teams of the top clubs he only saw on TV.

Before this, his own intention was just to give his son a pleasant memory during the last relaxing summer before the crucial college entrance exam. His wife, Zhou Yi's mother, probably just wanted to use this failure to dispel her son's "unrealistic" dreams about football.

What they didn't expect was that their son had a clear goal from the beginning; he wasn't there for a vacation.

Seeing his son sitting alone on that metal bench, Zhou Jianliang, as a father, felt a deep sense of frustration.

***

As the head coach of the team in this reality show and the final judge of the tryout, Hao Dong sat in the VIP stand, his hands resting on the table, supporting his chin.

Staring at the field, he frowned slightly.

He wasn't trying to mimic the deep, serious look of Commander Ikari from "EVA"; the current situation was indeed troubling him.

The nationwide tryout for "Heir of the Superstar" had been going on for a month, and it was finally reaching its conclusion, which should have been a happy thing.

But Hao Dong couldn't be happy because he hadn't seen anyone on the field who was qualified to join his team.

Although the producers had told him that the tryout was just a gimmick, mainly to attract public attention and increase fan interest, so they just needed to symbolically select one person, and no one expected that person to be a genius or to really make a significant contribution to the team that would compete in Europe...

As a former successful professional player, Hao Dong had his own pursuits and principles in football.

He still hoped to find some good talent through this process. This was why he had turned a blind eye to those who had previously trained in professional football club youth teams—despite the rules stating that no one who had received professional or semi-professional football training could participate.

Hao Dong did this because he believed that only those who had been trained by professional football clubs had the ability. Football is a very specialized sport, and it's hard for someone without professional training to compete with foreign talents who had been trained at the highest levels from a young age. Additionally, as someone who had been through the system, he knew the dirty politics in Chinese football, and there might be some very talented players who had been kicked out of their teams for offending coaches or leaders.

This tryout was a chance for them.

But unfortunately, after the nationwide tryout, the final twenty-three boys who came to Beijing for the finals included some with good skills and abilities, but none of them truly stood out, meeting Hao Dong's standards.

Am I really setting the bar too high?

Hao Dong asked himself.