Chapter 64 High-speed Rail to the Finals
After his father left home, Hu Lai waited in the room for another five minutes before he got up and found his mother who was cleaning up in the kitchen: "Mom, today is the birthday of my classmate Song Jiajia. He invited me to his birthday party. , but it’s so busy, I might be late to go home..."
Xie Lan didn't speak, just looked at his son quietly.
Under the eyes of his mother, Hu Lai finally told the truth: "Okay, Mom, actually we are going to Jincheng to play a game, the Anton Cup finals, and there should be an award ceremony after the game. So today... I might It will be a little late before you come back. If dad comes back, just tell him as I said before, okay?”
After he finished speaking, he was still a little nervous, fearing that his mother would disapprove.
Unexpectedly, his mother looked at him and smiled: "Okay, you go."
It went smoothly beyond Hu Lai's expectation.
He added: "And that...I have to leave a little early today. We have to gather at the school first, and then go to the East Station to take the high-speed train..."
My mother agreed happily: "Okay."
Seeing that his mother did not object to him at all, Hu Lai breathed a sigh of relief and put a smile on his face: "Mom, you are so kind!"
Xie Lan waved her hand when she saw his fake smile: "Go, go, go and do your homework!"
"Okay!" Hu Lai took the order and left.
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When Li Qingqing came down from the second floor in her pajamas to wash up, she saw her father pushing open the door and coming in, holding two plastic bags filled with vegetables.
"Dad, did you go out to buy groceries?" Li Qingqing asked with a frown.
"Yeah, you wash up first, and I'll heat up your breakfast. Then I'll prepare your lunch and dinner. Then you only need the microwave..." Li Ziqiang walked quickly to the kitchen while carrying the dishes. While talking. By the time he mentioned the microwave, people had already entered the kitchen.
Li Qingqing caught up and grabbed the plastic bag from his father's hand: "Dad, I can cook myself. Don't do this every time. Besides, today is the finals. Do you still have time to go buy groceries?"
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"What are you cooking? It's a delay in studying..." Li Ziqiang said, turning on the fire on the gas stove and heating the steamed buns and boiled eggs in the steamer on the stove.
But Li Qingqing carried a plastic bag and went to the refrigerator to stock up on food: "Why are you wasting your studies? Those who can write were all finished yesterday, and those who can't write will still be unable to write even if they spend all day today."
Hearing this, Li Ziqiang's hands trembled with anger: "You are quite confident! What if you don't study hard?"
"Dad, are you okay?" Li Qingqing looked at her father at the kitchen door. "Didn't you tell me to stick to football? Then it doesn't matter what my academic performance is, right? I don't want to go to college, right?"
Li Ziqiang was choked by his daughter and was speechless.
"So dad, don't worry about me anymore, just worry about the finals. Didn't you say that Jiaxiang High School is awesome?" Li Qingqing came in and pushed dad out of the kitchen.
"What is there to worry about in the finals? Everything that needs to be prepared has been prepared, and then it just depends on the performance on the spot."
"What if they target Luo Kai?"
"I have a backup plan." Li Ziqiang said.
Li Qingqing's eyes lit up: "What's the backup plan?"
She knew that her father specifically asked Hu Lai to only practice shooting. Now she wanted to hear her father say Hu Lai's name in person, such as "I am considering using Hu Lai as a backup plan to send him on when Luo Kai is targeted by the opponent." kind of words.
But Li Ziqiang said: "I asked Luo Kai and Tang Yuan to swap positions, so that Tang Yuan, who is good at right footing, can cut inside and try to shoot. In addition, Chu Yifan has to be more active in the penalty area to look for shooting opportunities. When the opponent focuses their defensive attention on Luo Kai, it’s Chu Yifan’s opportunity. We have been practicing this tactic in training this week.”
Hearing what her father said, the light in Li Qingqing's eyes dimmed, but the smile on her face did not change. She still smiled and said to her father: "That's good. I'm worried that Jiaxiang will target Luo Kai." After that, we won’t be able to score..."
"Your dad is not stupid." Li Ziqiang raised his hand and touched his daughter's hair.
"Hehe!" Li Qingqing smiled and lowered her head.
Where she couldn't see, Li Ziqiang's expression changed.
The daughter may think that she is hiding well, but Li Ziqiang can see clearly. His expression can be faked, but the light in his eyes cannot be concealed.
Sometimes he really wants to ask his daughter honestly, what is it about that brat that attracts you?
But he was afraid that it would hurt his daughter. After all, it was easy to ask this question, but what happened after he asked it? How does his daughter face him, and how does he face his daughter?
So he could only suppress his emotions in his heart.
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Xie Lan bought a handful of garlic sprouts and a piece of pork belly at the vegetable market, and planned to make a dish of twice-cooked pork with garlic sprouts for her son and husband tomorrow.
After buying the groceries, she dragged the cart with the groceries back and stopped when she passed the fruit stall, looking at the red Fuji apples placed outside.
Although they are all red Fuji, they are divided into three piles, with different sizes, different colors and different prices. The cheapest apples were all thrown into a basket, with some scratches and insect holes on the outside. The most expensive apples are carefully arranged into a pyramid. Each one is round and large, with red skin and an attractive luster. They are delicious at first sight.
Xie Lan neither went to pick out the cheapest apples, nor looked at the most expensive ones with attractive colors. Instead, he directly selected two small but most beautiful apples among the mid-range ones. The good apples were handed to the boss: "Weigh them for me, boss."
The boss took it and put it on the electronic scale, looked at it and said: "Beauty, you can choose a smaller one and save ten yuan."
Xie Lan shook his head and said: "No, just these two."
At the same time, he took out his mobile phone and prepared to scan the QR code to pay.
These two apples were bought for Hu Lai. Neither she nor her husband eat them at home, so there is no need to buy more. Just buy two more when buying vegetables in a few days.
After paying the money, Xie Lan checked the time when he put away his mobile phone. It was now 10:37 in the morning. He didn't know if his son had arrived at the train station.
Xie Lan was still a little nervous at the thought of helping her son lie to her husband that night.
It had been a long time since she had lied to her husband. After all, she rarely goes back to her parents' home in Jincheng, so she doesn't have to hide the unpleasant things said by her parents from her husband.
No, you have to practice hard in front of the mirror when you go back, but you can't do it with your clothes on.
Xie Lan made up his mind. Your son has entrusted you with such an important matter. You can't mess it up for him and betray his trust. Then he may not trust himself and won't tell himself anything.
Now she is quite grateful to football, because football allows her and her son to have a common secret.
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Hu Lai sat in the window seat on the high-speed train, Mao Xiao sat in the middle, and Meng Xi sat in the aisle.
Half of this carriage was filled with people from the Dongchuan Middle School football team. Everyone was laughing and chattering, making the carriage a bit noisy.
Some people in the carriage were dissatisfied with their noisy behavior and stared at them repeatedly, but seeing the large number of young men aged sixteen or seventeen, they did not dare to make a sound.
Others noticed the Dongchuan Middle School football team uniforms they were wearing and guessed their identities to some extent, looking at them with relief and approval.
The Anton Cup is an event that has existed for many years before the unified national competition, but it was not well-known before. Except for the participating players themselves, others knew nothing about it.
In recent years, with the national competition, the Anton Cup in the province has gradually become more famous. Everyone knows that if you win the Anton Cup, you can qualify for the national competition.
So they met such a group of people on the train and didn't take it seriously.
After all, youth always has to be noisy.
This is not the first time Hu Lai has played an away game with the team, nor is it the first time he has taken the high-speed rail to an away game. But in the past, I always came back right after the game, so I could still get back before my father came home.
But this time, considering that it was the finals and there would be an awards ceremony or something after the game, the timing was uncertain, so he asked his mother to help him cover it up.
Mao Xiao really knows about the national competition, and is introducing the venue for the final to Hu Lai: "...The final is at the Provincial Sports Center, the best stadium in our province, with natural turf, and the hardware conditions are unparalleled..."
Meng Xi next to him hummed: "What's the use of having the best conditions? Aren't they just used for concerts? There are so many people stepping on the turf, and even the best natural grass has been trampled bald!"
"The stadium also needs to be profitable. How can it make money if it is not rented out to singers for concerts? Maintenance of the turf is not a small expense." Mao Xiao explained. “Who told us that our province doesn’t even have a super team?”
Meng Xi rolled his eyes: "What does it have to do with me? I just hope that the venue will be better during the competition. Don't just finish the concert and it will become a vegetable field..."
"Don't worry, Meng Xi. For this Anton Cup final, the Provincial Sports Center has not held any large-scale activities for half a month, and the venue conditions are definitely not good."
Hu Lai felt strange: "I thought the final was at Jiaxiang High School's own stadium, but I didn't expect it to be at a neutral venue..."
"What kind of neutral venue? Isn't it still the home court of Jiaxiang High School?" Meng Xi curled his lips. "What's the difference between this and playing in their school? Let me tell you, every Anton Cup final is held in the Provincial Sports Center. In fact, it is nakedly biased towards Jincheng's high school. At least they don't have to get up early in the morning and take the train to play. competition. And they can also organize their own people to become cheerleading teams - Anton The cup final is open to the public, and no tickets are sold. Anyone who wants to go can watch it. But how can we, a school from another city, organize people to go and cheer? It’s troublesome not to worry about safety issues. So, what school is willing to go to such trouble? Then we will have a complete away experience.”
Hu Lai didn't care about the away experience and the home experience. He listened very carefully, because whether it was what Mao Xiao said or what Meng Xi said, it was a very new experience for him.
In the world he came from, the finals of a middle school football match in a city could not be played in the best stadium in the city. Being able to play in a university stadium was considered important.
And here, the provincial high school football competition finals are held in the best stadium in the provincial capital. In order to ensure the quality of the turf, all large-scale events are refused to be held half a month in advance. It is open to the public and anyone who wants to see it can go... This level of attention is really great. A world of difference.
"Is there a live broadcast?" he asked.
"No. But when it comes to the national competition, it will be broadcast live. The last one was broadcast live on the Internet platform, and this time it is said that it will be broadcast live on satellite TV." Mao Xiao introduced. "Capital TV bought the broadcasting rights for about three years - in the past, these broadcasting rights were almost given away and were not worth much at all. But now as the national competition becomes more and more famous, it can finally earn some licensing fees. ...In addition, it seems that the Football Association has organized various domestic professional clubs to send representatives to observe this national competition, just to compete. Through the channel between the campus league and professional football, we can show the outstanding players in the campus league to those professional clubs and see if any lucky ones can be picked up by the professional clubs and taken away directly. Professional players. Alas, we have caught up with a good era..."
Mao Xiao was still chattering, and Hu Lai looked out the window while listening. The high-speed rail EMU is traveling at high speed between farmland and green trees. The current speed is being refreshed in real time on the display screen at the junction of the carriages. In the fully enclosed carriage, the roar from outside cannot be heard. Only when the two cars intersect will you feel the obvious vibration. .
The scene outside the window is not unfamiliar to him. Before traveling through time, he had also taken the high-speed rail EMU train on this line from Dongchuan to Jincheng. The two cities are closely adjacent. He took the high-speed rail from Dongchuan East Station to the provincial capital city of Jin. It only takes thirty-five minutes to reach the city, with only one stop in between.
When this high-speed railway was first built, the media was promoting the "half-hour living circle", depicting a life blueprint for people living in Dongchuan and relying on the high-speed railway to commute to work in Jincheng, the provincial capital, every day. This caused the housing prices in Dongchuan to rise. A wave...
An article has analyzed that China's developed high-speed rail transportation network has made football matches between schools in many provinces and cities more convenient. It has also objectively promoted the development of domestic middle school student football matches. Of course, in those provinces with vast territories, their middle school football competitions adopt a tournament system - all participating teams are concentrated in a period of time to determine the champion, which avoids traveling back and forth and affecting learning.
China's national high school football competition is different from the Japanese high school football competition that Hu Lai learned about in Japanese comics and on the Internet. It refers to some Japanese systems, but also combines China's own actual situation.
Chinese football is trying to take another path.
Just like the high-speed trains they were in, China initially introduced technology from Japan, Germany, and France, but after its own exploration, development and improvement, it eventually became a high-tech technology with independent intellectual property rights in China.
Now, a group of teenagers who are full of longing for the national competition are sitting in a train carriage made in China, driving at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour to the venue of the national competition's Andong Province qualifying finals, and also running towards their respective dreams and what makes them A longing for the future. (End of chapter)