"I have a dream! I dream that in the future I can wear the jersey of the Chinese team, participate in the World Cup as a national football team, and eventually win the championship! Let Chinese football stand on top of the world! I also want to make those foreigners become Chinese
Fans of the team! Just like we in China also have many Brazilian fans, Argentinian fans, German fans, and Spanish fans! I believe...I believe there will be one day! Yes, there will be one day!"
Xiao Hu Lai, wearing a white shirt and a red scarf around his neck, stood on the podium, with one hand behind his back, and the other hand violently waved forward along with his last words. At the same time, he stepped out with a lunge.
, raised his little head slightly, and looked at the place where he pointed, which was a five-star red flag posted on the back wall of the classroom.
In the classroom in front of him, the students were already swaying in their seats with laughter, leaning forward and back.
Little Hu Lai didn't care, he just stared at the national flag, just like he was watching the flag rising with the national anthem on the World Cup podium.
…
Hu Lai looked at the five-star red flag being waved vigorously in the stands of the Lotus Stadium, and his ears were filled with the crazy screams, cheers and roars of his teammates.
This made him realize that he was not on the podium of a primary school classroom, but at the Lingnan Lotus Stadium on December 19, 2025.
It is the last play-off match of the 2026 United States and Canada World Cup qualifiers.
Just now he scored a crucial goal.
That's why he was hugged by so many ecstatic and excited teammates.
No matter who it is or for what reason, I am brought into this world...I want to say thank you! Thank you for making it possible for my daydreams to not be laughed at...
※※※
There was no one on the bench of the entire Chinese team. Whether they were substitute players or coaching staff, they all rushed to the corner flag area and rushed to hug Hu Lai and participate in the carnival.
Even all the fans in the stadium were converging on the stands in the corner flag area where Hu Lai was, like a surging red tide...
No matter what you say in the live environment, you can no longer hear your own voice.
But everyone is still making their voices heard, and they don’t care whether their voices can be heard. They just don’t want to remain silent at this time!
In the commentary booth, He Feng and Yan Kang pressed the earmuffs of the sound-isolating headphones with trembling hands to minimize the interference of environmental sounds on their work. Others can ignore the specific sounds they make, but the commentators cannot. They
I also have to explain the game to thousands of households in front of the TV.
But maybe not many people actually care about what they say at this time...
"The Chinese team... the Chinese men's football team has never been so close to the World Cup as it is now! From 1961, when Chinese football failed to compete in the World Cup for the first time, to 2025, we have been chasing for sixty-four years! Finally, we are close to the World Cup.
It only lasted a few minutes! I don’t know how many people who cheered for the Chinese team in the stadium stands can see this scene today..."
"Sixty-four years... is enough for a newly born child to enter old age... but the dream chaser is still young! This ball started from Paraguay's corner kick, was hit by Lin Zhiyuan, and was headed back by Chen Xingyi
Point to Wang Guangwei, then Zhang Qinghuan, Luo Kai... Finally, it returned to Wang Guangwei's feet and passed to Hu Lai... They are all young people under the age of 24! This is the future of our Chinese football! Thank you to these young dream chasers.
, thank them for giving the sixty-four-year dream the closest chance to come true! Youth is invincible and dreams never die!"
Li Ziqiang stood in front of the sofa, staring blankly at the spectacular scene on the TV screen, feeling that something was rushing inside his chest, trying to rush out.
He never expected that the brat that he disliked at first would almost help him realize his biggest dream!
He took several deep breaths, and finally the suddenly turbulent and roaring sea gradually calmed down and returned to its usual calm state.
After calming down, Li Ziqiang suddenly remembered something. When Hu Lai scored the first goal, there were loud cheers and screams from his neighbor. How could it start from Hu Lai's second goal just now?
So far, there has been no movement?
※※※
Xie Lan turned to look at her husband and found that his face had been filled with tears for some time.
So she stood up gently, took her husband into her arms, and gently patted his back with her hands, as if comforting a child who had been wronged.
Her husband must have also dreamed of this day, right? In his young years before he lost all his enthusiasm for football...
※※※
Wang Xianke drank all the liquor in the cup and placed the cup heavily back on the coffee table.
After a bang, he leaned back on the back of the sofa, raised his hands and then put them down, pillowing them behind his head. He just stared blankly at the TV screen and listened to the sound coming from the Lotus Stadium in Lingnan City, thousands of miles away.
of cheers.
Then his eyes moved upward little by little, from the TV screen to the white ceiling, and then to the lighted ceiling lamp. He just let the white light fill his field of vision without blinking or looking again.
Look away.
Until the stinging eyes burst into tears uncontrollably, they overflowed from the corners of the eyes and slid down the arc of the cheeks.
He remained motionless and did not raise his hand to wipe away his tears.
Just closed his eyes.
※※※
In a luxury apartment in a high-end community in Dashun City, Jin Yong raised his babbling child high and smiled at her: "Hua Hua, let me tell you, my father was lucky to stop at that moment! Lucky, lucky! Haha.
!”
The wife next to her stretched out her hand to take it nervously: "Be careful! Don't drop the flowers! If you are happy, why are you holding the flowers so high? Oh, you are spinning!"
Even though her mother was very worried, the little Huahua, who was held high by her father, seemed to be on a merry-go-round, giggling happily and not thinking it was a dangerous thing.
In the brightly lit living room, the huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows reflected a family of three, as if they were dancing.
※※※
On a bar street near Jincheng Jiukong Bridge, countless cheers came from various bars, drowning out the roar of the engines of the sports cars on the street.
Excited fans kept rushing out of those bars, waving their arms and shouting to the sky.
No one could understand what they were shouting specifically, but everyone knew why they were so excited.
The Chinese team has just scored its second goal, drawing with Paraguay with a total score of 3:3, and also has an away goal advantage. This makes the Chinese team very hopeful of reaching the World Cup finals!
This is the first time in the history of Chinese football that it has entered the finals of the Men's Football World Cup!
All of them experienced history personally tonight and became a part of history.
In one of the bars, the members of the Jincheng branch of the Dongchuan Middle School football team raised their arms and shouted, throwing the wine in their glasses into the air. The whole bar was filled with the sweet smell of alcohol.
“Hu Lai is awesome!! Dongchuan Middle School is awesome!”
In another bar, Wu Yue and his companions shouted with tears: "The Chinese team is awesome! The King's team is awesome!"
“Dongchuan Middle School will always owe us Jiaxiang High School!”
※※※
“I have a dream. I dream that one day I can wear the Chinese team’s jersey and win the World Cup!”
Li Qingqing can still remember the scene when Hu Lai said these words.
Although she did not see it with her own eyes at the time, she later reviewed it through news videos. In front of the camera, Hu Lai stood upright with his hands behind his back, trying to make himself look taller, with his head slightly raised. He said this in a clear and unmistakable voice.
talk.
Many people laughed when they saw this scene, and Li Qingqing also laughed. But it was not the same ridicule as others.
It’s the same smile as at this moment, happiness, relief, admiration, pride...all mixed in this one smile.
The tablet computer and the stand were placed on the coffee table. Li Qingqing sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of the coffee table, holding her head up with her hands together.
She just tilted her head slightly, staring at the familiar face on the tablet screen with a smile.
Great, Hu Lai, you are almost catching up with me!
※※※
PS, this chapter is less than 3,000 words, not long, but it is very long. For nearly five hours, I listened to Feng Feifei's "Dream Chaser" repeatedly, allowing myself to be completely integrated into this scene.
.
Transitioning between different people and different scenes...
These are not my fictitious scenes, but they actually happened in another time and space.
I just described them in words.
Those people, no matter what happens now, they once pursued that supreme dream.
So I named this chapter "Dream Chaser".
PS2, two updates will be resumed tomorrow. Another update during the May Day holiday will allow me to slowly accumulate some articles. Thank you all for your enthusiastic support! Thank you!
