Ender's Football

Just after the Christmas holiday, a few children made an appointment to go to the ice skating rink in the city center.

By the time Helena walked into the children's play area with her little pink backpack on her back, her best friends Demi and Yael had already arrived.The two of them were lying on the table, playing with the toys that the store deliberately placed on the table.Demi was a little quieter than Yael, but also very involved, while playing and yelling things like "Got to win!" "Oh! This one doesn't count!" I was taken aback.

Thanks to the large number of children who came here today, everyone was joking loudly, so the voices of the two of them were drowned in the noise of others, and did not attract any special attention.

Demi, who was addicted to the game, looked up inadvertently, and saw her good friend walking towards this side, immediately put down the toy in her hand happily, and waved vigorously at Helena: "Helena! Here! Come here !"

Hearing Helena's name, Yael quickly pawed at the messy table twice before raising his head and smiling, and also greeted Helena.

Helena walked to the side of the friends, she didn't look very happy, her face was sullen, her lips were pursed, and she sat next to Demi with such an expression.

She pulled the little pink backpack off her shoulders, threw it on the table, and then lay down on the backpack without saying a word.

Demi looked at her good friend worriedly: "Helena, what's wrong with you?"

Yael also asked with concern: "Are you unhappy, Helena?"

Helena raised her head, which had just been buried in her arm, with a sleepy expression: "I have an unsolvable trouble."

Hearing what she said, Demi's little face wrinkled all of a sudden. "Is it so serious that even Helena, a smart kid like you, can't solve it?"

Yael sighed foolishly along with Demi: "Well, since we grow up, 'trouble' seems to have become more."

He said, and quickly put the toy in his hand aside, moved closer, and said mysteriously: "Let me show you something good! Helena! You will definitely be happy!"

Helena did not refuse Yael this time, the little girl propped her chin with one hand, looked at him tiltedly, and asked, "What is it?"

"Dangdangdangdang!" Yael took out a blue membership card from his pocket, with the team logo of the Uwensburg team printed on it.

Yael presented this card in front of Helena and Demi as if offering a treasure, and let the two little girls see the words printed on the card.

[Stein Energy Stadium ice cream coupon: 5 times]

"Whoa!" Demi exclaimed. "That's great! Yael! You're our hero! You really did it!"

When he was still in school last month, Yael patted his chest to the two little girls and promised that he would get ice cream coupons for the Uwensburg team. Helena and Demi were looking forward to it, because Ender was in The Uwensburg youth team played football, so the children imagined that in the summer, Brother Ander would take them out to play and eat ice cream together.

But after a month, Demi and Helena didn't see the voucher that Yale had promised to get. They didn't expect this card to finally appear during the Christmas holiday.

Demi looked very happy, grinning from the corners of her mouth to her ears, complimenting Yale sweetly.

The two children flattered each other, and Yael turned to look at Helena, who had been silent all this time, only to find that the girl's little mouth was even higher, and she didn't look happy at all with the good news.

"Helena, don't you like ice cream?" Yael was worried, completely unable to understand why the little friend was upset.

Helena shook her head and sighed, this supposedly mature action felt indescribably inconsistent on her body.

"It's not that I don't like ice cream," Helena said, she still propped her head on one hand with a very melancholy expression, "but... Ender won't be able to take us to Stey Energy Stadium to eat ice cream in the future."

"Why?" Demi was puzzled. "Brother Ender didn't let you eat ice cream because he was afraid of tooth decay?"

Helena continued shaking her head and sighing, before saying, "He is leaving Uwensburg and going to Leipzig."

***

Ender announced this at the dinner table on the night he returned to Uwensburg from Leipzig.

——Dinner is the Schneider family's "dedicated time for talking about business". During the day, those in the family who have to go to school and those who go to work are the most crowded at dinner time, and there is still time to discuss "business".Therefore, whether Helena proposed to take language classes, or An De wanted to add a football lesson, or Li Mei wanted to change the oven for the family, they would usually say it during dinner.

"I want to go to Red Bull." Ender said, "They are willing to have me... Besides, I think Red Bull's conditions are better than Uwensburg's. I can train with better players..."

Stanzel nodded in agreement with Ender. He went to Leipzig with the child this time, so he was very clear about the conditions that Leipzig could provide to Ender.

"The training environment in Leipzig is really good!" Stanzel highly praised, "We also met coach Ahlbeck, who is very famous among the youth training coaches in Germany and has trained many players, and they are very optimistic about Anne. He is also willing to provide dormitories and other things, and the living conditions are also very good!"

When the two of them brought this up together, Li Mei probably had some concerns in her mind. She put down the spoon in her hand, looked at her husband to the left, and her son to the right, and found two people, one big and one small, sitting at the dining table. , with the same thing written all over their faces——

"Ambition".

"Ah, this matter..." Li Mei opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say, so she had to ask Ander again, "Zaizai, are you sure? You have to live in a city in East Germany, and you have to leave home very far……"

"I can take the train back and forth," Ender said. "The Leipzig Red Bull's youth dormitory is very good. Stanzel has seen it, right?"

Stanzel nodded cheerfully: "Yes, the Red Bull Group just bought it, you know, all of them are newly built, so the facilities are really good, and the Red Bull staff also told me that they will There are dedicated staff to manage the dormitory to ensure the safety of all underage children. The restaurant is also open 24 hours a day. If you are hungry, you can go to eat at any time. They even have tutors! I think it is difficult to find a comparison in the whole country. Red Bull is okay and the youth training center."

He spoke vigorously, but Li Mei couldn't help but glared at the man.

Stanzel caught her gaze and immediately fell silent.

There was a sudden silence at the table.

"...It's not that I can't understand." After a long time, Li Mei sorted out her mood. The woman brushed her hair behind her ears, and the light was projected from her side face, emitting a burst of white light behind her graceful neck. Halo, "It's just... I kind of..."

She didn't go on, but everyone saw the sparkle in her eyes.

Ender's eyes widened, and Stanzel froze in place.

Only Helena is still eating.

The little girl hadn't spoken since Ender's announcement just now. After she finished eating, she flicked the fork into the plate, made a crisp "ding" sound, and left with the empty plate. Speaking, and did not make any comments on the fact that Ender was going to Leipzig, he was so quiet that he was not like his usual self.

Ender was a little at a loss. He could see that his sister was a little angry, but his mother's tears had firmly nailed him in place at this moment, which made him completely unsure whether to continue talking.

In the end, it was Stanzel who resolved Ender's embarrassment. He patted Ender's stiff back and said, "Okay, little man, let's talk to your mother."

After he finished speaking, he also left, leaving the restaurant to the mother and son.

After turning around from Stanzel, Li Mei began to cry.

Her tears seemed to be completely unstoppable at once, the tears flowed down her cheeks, and the glint of water shone in her eyes, which made Ander's heart ache.

"Don't you want me to go...?" He couldn't help asking.

"No, of course not." Li Mei said quickly.

She wiped her face twice, and it could be seen that she was trying to hold back her tears, but the tears kept flowing disobediently, staining her eye sockets red, making her look so fragile.

"...I'm just very happy that you can go to Leipzig," she said in that kind of Chinese with a strong nasal voice, "I'm so happy, Zizai..."

"Then don't cry." Ender took out a few pieces of paper and handed them to her. He didn't know how to comfort her. He actually didn't understand why Li Mei said she was happy, but she cried like this.

Li Mei took the tissue from him and covered her face.

"I'm so happy," she said, "I'm crying just... just because I think of your father... Zizai, his lifelong dream is to play in a big club, he can't realize it, but you... you closer to his dream than all his whims..."

She spoke incoherently, but Ender understood.

He couldn't help looking at Li Mei, with some surprise in his eyes.

"I thought...you hated him." He lowered his eyes, "I can't help but hate him sometimes."

This "he" of course refers to Anguo Day.

"I..." Li Mei didn't know how to explain all this to her teenage son. She looked at An De's face, as if she could see traces of her ex-husband from his face somewhat similar to An Guoqing's. .

But her son is very different from her ex-husband.

"It's hard for me to explain... Even your grandma may think that I will hate National Day," Li Mei said, her tears seemed so sincere at this time, "Maybe, when he vented to me more than once Seeing his dissatisfaction, when he shook his fist at me, I hated him so much, I wished that I never met him that summer... But, I occasionally think of us when we were young, and think of his first time. When he took me to Moscow once, in order to let me sleep more, he could get up early and drive five kilometers to buy breakfast for me..."

Speaking of this, she no longer knew why she was crying.

Li Mei came from a small village. At that time, it was hard for her to imagine that she would be able to go abroad one day, and even be able to speak a foreign language fluently like she is now.

When she was 20 years old, all the amazing changes in her life were brought about by An Guoqing. He gave her a good life and talked to her about her dreams. Their love seemed so inappropriate, so passionate, Be bold and free.The girl who came out of the countryside bravely broke away from the object arranged by her family, ran to the handsome and charming athlete in the city, and also saw a world that she had never imagined.

From the man, it was the first time she heard that there are so many clothing brands in the world, the first time she received a lipstick as a gift, and the first time she saw what five-star hotels and high-end restaurants look like ——Before that, the closest she was to these places was just passing by the door.She began to learn to get rid of her local accent, and tried to speak standard Mandarin. She passed the Yangtze River Bridge in a car that was rare in the city at that time. Heart.

She didn't have a job because An Guoqing said to her "I will support you", and then he carried out this promise for ten years.

They went all the way north to Moscow. That was the first time Li Mei went abroad. There, she saw many blond-haired Slavs. In reality, the Kremlin was as red as in the photo. She held hands with men on Red Square. Go for walks and take their kids to eat at the best restaurants in all of Moscow.When walking on the road, occasionally fans even stopped them and asked for autographs and group photos. Her husband was playing in Lokomotiv Moscow at that time, and many fans were very curious about this player from China.Li Mei enjoys this feeling. When she started learning Russian with a personal trainer, she often used local newspapers in Moscow as reading materials, because the sports pages of those newspapers occasionally mentioned her husband.

However, spring in Moscow is always so short.

The honeymoon period between Anguo Day and Lokomotiv Moscow passed in a flash. In the end, he was given up by Lokomotiv and had to go to Metallurgical Donetsk, a club in the Ukrainian First Division.At that time, An Guoqing hadn't given up. He wishful thinking that he could be valued by the coach through hard work. He dreamed that maybe the Shakhtar team in Donetsk might be able to notice him, and Shakhtar Donetsk is a frequent visitor to the Champions League. , so that he can return to the European arena, and even go further than when he was in Lokomotiv Moscow.

But the reality gave An Guoqing a heavy blow. He began to suffer some minor injuries frequently. The head coach also had his own favorite players. The coach was in conflict with the top management at the time, and was determined not to compromise.

Being seen by miners has become an unattainable dream.

An Guoqing gradually began to give up on himself. The former high-spirited man became a drunkard who indulged in alcoholism. Li Mei quarreled with him. When they quarreled fiercely, the man raised his hand and slapped her.

Li Mei and Ander both remembered that slap very clearly, because the sound was very loud and the slap was so severe that half of Li Mei's face was still swollen the next day.

After An Guoqing sobered up, he regretted it too much. He even knelt on the ground and begged his wife's forgiveness, and promised that he would never do it again.

Of course, like all stories, this flimsy guarantee was blown away by the wind as An Guoqing's career slipped, and it was as thin as a piece of paper.

An Guoqing's alcoholism has not been corrected, and his temper has gradually become irritable and irritable. He has attacked both his son and his wife, and even if An De asked his grandma to discipline him, the man would always promise him when he was sober. When I'm drunk, I forget everything.

During those days, Li Mei often cried too.She didn't know whether she was crying in the past or in the present, she only knew that the happy life was gone forever, and as time went by, she couldn't see any signs of improvement.

At the end of the story, she left her husband, the man who gave her the most beautiful love when she was young, and was forced to leave her son at the same time.

It's hard to say whether Li Mei's decision to abandon her children was the right choice as a mother, but the fact is that she lived well after leaving them. She had a new family and a new life. She started to work and changed.

When An De thought of Li Mei's decisiveness and firmness, as well as that kind of courage, it was hard for him not to admire her.

"Don't hate your father," Li Mei said, "he has done a lot for you, we were both so happy when you were born, and that was our first time as parents... So, Ender, forgive your father , Forgive me too... When I was in Germany, I often thought of you, every time I saw Helena playing with toys, I would think of you, wondering where my Zaizai would be now, and what she was doing..."

Looking at her tearful eyes, Ender replied vaguely: "I see."

"Play well, okay?" Li Mei continued to whisper to him, "Play hard and study hard, although I am worried about whether you can take care of yourself... You just came to Uwensberg, I haven't How long have you been together, you are going to Leipzig... But I know, this is what you want, I shouldn't stop you."

Ander nodded solemnly: "I will."