The nights in Moscow in the summer are extremely short, from 11 pm to 4 am when it is completely dark. So when Chen Yingxiong lay in bed, ready to go to sleep, although it was only 11:30, the sky seemed as if the sun had just set.
He looked at the sky outside the window, and there was a ray of afterglow in the west.
More of the sky has turned a deep blue.
On the bed next to him, his father had fallen into a deep sleep and was snoring. This was his habit. He always snored when he slept, and the snoring came in many forms: some with a long tail, some gradually reaching a climax, some with ups and downs, some with a torrential rain, and some with a serenade...
In short, he tortures your nerves in various ways. It is said that before marriage, mom didn't know that dad had this problem - premarital cohabitation and premarital sex were not popular at the time. As a result, on the wedding night, Chen Tao couldn't sleep all night because of his snoring in fear of angering his new wife.
The next day, he was tortured and forced to confess, and only then did she know that Dad had such a problem. When mom thought about having to sleep with such snoring for the rest of her life, she was immediately heartbroken and almost divorced...
What was the result now?
The two had been together for decades. Mom often joked that she couldn't sleep without it.
Chen Yingxiong knew that his father snored loudly, but he had rarely felt it up close like this. He stopped sleeping with his parents when he was very young.
This trip to Europe was a very interesting experience all around...
The snoring was terrifying at the beginning, but later Chen Yingxiong learned a trick - he put on headphones and turned up the volume of the CD music to drown out his father's snoring, and only then was he able to fall asleep peacefully.
The snoring father was sleeping soundly. He understood something in his heart and felt relieved. Perhaps their troubles had ended.
Just ten minutes ago, the conversation between father and son had ended.
The core idea was established during this conversation, which was to accept Ruslan Panchenko's invitation and try his luck at Zenit St. Petersburg.
Chen Yingxiong was worried about whether they could make it as he had little money. His father patted his chest and said to his son, "I'm telling you, Yingxiong. You may not have enough money for anything, but you must have money to go to St. Petersburg!" He said it with absolute certainty.
Chen Yingxiong actually knew nothing about Zenit St. Petersburg.
Although he was a semi-professional player before, not to mention professional players, even fans don't know much about this team. In China, there are very few reports about the Russian Premier League.
Everyone's attention is focused on the five major European leagues, and those giant teams are well known. Second-rate leagues like Russia are almost ignored.
Chen Yingxiong didn't know that Zenit St. Petersburg had finished third in the league in the 2004 season and had reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup in the 05/06 season. It was a team that was striving to rise.
Lying in bed, he wondered what would happen to him tomorrow... Would he be humiliated and looked down upon like he was in CSKA Moscow? If so, what would he do?
After being released by the club he used to play for, he felt like a lost dog. Today, he finally got back some dignity in CSKA Moscow.
Don't mention it, it felt really good to slap someone in the face… He turned over.
If Zenit St. Petersburg and CSKA are of the same character, I will beat them hard like I did today, even if it means I have to fight to the death!
I'm not the kind of person who can stand being angry...
Now that I think about it, it all started because I couldn't stand being angry.
In domestic clubs, if someone does something bad to you, you will do everything you can to get revenge.
The same thing happened when I was humiliated in Moscow.
If you make me uncomfortable, I will make you even more uncomfortable!
This seems to be my life creed.
After the beating incident at a domestic club, my father asked me to be calmer and more steady... Chen Yingxiong thought about it and thought, wouldn't that make me an old man?
He didn't want to!
He was only eighteen years old, he should live the way he liked. How could he live with his hands tied and timid in everything he does?
Forget it, don't think about it. No matter what happens tomorrow, just do it in your own style.
Who am I? I am Chen Yingxiong!
If you make me look good, I will make you look good!
Chen Yingxiong put on his headphones and turned on the music.
Amidst the stormy climax of Bon Jovi's "Is_My_Life", the eighteen-year-old Chen Yingxiong fell asleep with the confidence and that special arrogance unique to teenagers.
…
The singing voice floated out through the headphones and drifted into the quiet room.
"This! Is! My! Life!… This is my life!"
Every note and every line of lyrics goes from vague to clear.
The singing seemed to take on a physical form, the notes dancing in the night sky.
The sky outside the window seemed to change with the music.
The distant night sky suddenly twisted, and the stars were spinning and changing rapidly. Then it suddenly froze, like an emergency brake. This process of change was extremely short, and even if someone happened to look up at the night sky at this time, they could only see the picture after it froze.
A beautiful colourful aurora stretched across the night sky of Moscow, the light flickered and made everyone who saw it marvel at its beauty.
The aurora covered almost half of the Moscow sky and was so large and eye-catching that almost no one could ignore it.
Someone first spotted it and exclaimed. Then more and more people looked up at the sky, mouths wide open. Some looked incredulous, some were inexplicably excited, and some took out their phones and cameras and pressed the shutter at the sky.
The aurora is not a rare natural wonder on this part of the planet. Even though this aurora has more colours and looks more beautiful, it is not something too amazing.
But it's not normal when it appears in Moscow.
It is impossible to see the aurora at the latitude of Moscow because it is not high enough. In St. Petersburg, it is not uncommon to see the aurora...
The aurora changes shapes in the night sky of Moscow, like a flowing abstract painting.
After attracting tens of thousands of people to watch and lasting for half a minute, this unexpected aurora phenomenon disappeared.
The sky instantly returned to calm, as if nothing had happened before.
The aurora suddenly disappeared, and many people were still looking up at the sky, not yet able to come to their senses.
However, this will definitely appear in the news tomorrow. In fact, shortly after this, reports about this incident have appeared on the Internet. Netizens uploaded their own photos of the aurora to the Internet and told netizens in other places about this magnificent scene that just happened in the night sky of Moscow.
But no one knew that the aurora did not disappear, but instead entered a guest room of a small hotel. After scanning the body of a young boy who fell asleep listening to music, it turned into a ray of starlight and entered his body.
…
Ruslan Panchenko opened a newspaper in his car. He'd arrived at the training base of CSKA Moscow early in the morning. As a scout, it was his duty to find talented players for his club. Of course, these days, all geniuses have already been spotted. Social information was becoming more and more developed, and there is almost no genius that is not known.
The competition for good seedlings among the European giants had already reached the age group of players under ten years old... As long as the parents of those seven or eight-year-old players upload a video of their children playing football to a video website, they may be spotted by European scouts.
Talking of advanced information... Panchenko marvelled as he read the newspaper. An aurora phenomenon that was never seen before suddenly appeared in the sky of Moscow at midnight yesterday. The situation at that time could be described as a sensation in the whole city. Even those who were asleep were woken up to enjoy the spectacle.
Panchenko was still awake at the time, and he also saw the wonder. He was really surprised because the aurora could usually not be seen here. And this aurora was very strange. He had seen the aurora many times in St. Petersburg, but he had never seen such a beautiful aurora - the seven colours seemed to be flowing, constantly changing. Even though he had seen many auroras, he was stunned by the scene before his eyes.
Early this morning, he now saw a detailed report in the newspaper.
The situation was illustrated with pictures and texts, and the interviews of many people, including ordinary eyewitnesses, experts and scholars.
It wasn't only in newspapers but also in the early morning news programs. In addition, the radio and the Internet were full of discussions about this aurora. Everyone was very excited.
However, Panchenko did not focus all his attention on this matter.
Although the aurora was beautiful and its appearance over Moscow was a rare story, it had little to do with him.
He remembered the number he gave to the oriental boy yesterday and looked down at his cell phone.
There was no movement the entire night.
Maybe they thought he was a scammer after all.
Panchenko laughed. He had been a professional scout for 25 years, but this was the first time he was considered a liar.
The father and son said that they had encountered a scammer who claimed to be a scout in Italy. What else had they experienced? He suddenly became very interested in the story of why the father and son appeared at the training ground of CSKA Moscow and why they begged for a chance to try out...
Before coming to Russia, had they been to Italy? Or other countries? Did they just keep asking clubs to come knocking on their doorsteps to promote the son?
That's really... Panchenko didn't know what to say.
Just at that moment, his cell phone suddenly rang!
"Hello, is this... Mr. Ruslan Panchenko?" A voice speaking very non-standard English came from the phone.
"Yes, it's me."
"I'm... uh, I'm the person you left us yesterday. You wanted us to try Zenit St. Petersburg. I said I would think about it with my dad..."
"Yes, yes, yes, I remember." Panchenko was very happy to receive the call from this kid. At least the father and son chose to trust him. He was a little abrupt yesterday, but he was afraid of losing the opportunity here and not being able to find them in the vast sea, so he was so straightforward... It was inevitable that people would be suspicious.
"Um...when can we go to St. Petersburg?"
"It depends on when you plan to go. Don't you plan to see Moskow..."
"We can go now!" Chen Yingxiong interrupted Panchenko.
"That's great. What's your address? I'll pick you up!" After asking for the address, Panchenko started his old-school Lada car and left the parking lot outside the gate of the Moscow Central Army Training Base.
Are those who are already 18 years old and have not yet been discovered and need to go door-to-door to sell their products geniuses?
Panchenko didn't know, he only knew that he saw something exciting in the big guy's performance yesterday.
He didn't know if this kid was really talented, but he was willing to give him a chance.