On the last day of October, after seven hours of bumpy rides in a crowded coach, Gao Jinsong returned to the provincial capital again.

When he walked out of the waiting hall of the Chengnan long-distance bus station with his bulging travel bag, the cool breeze mixed with car exhaust and dust wrapped him tightly. He immediately took a deep breath of such air, almost greedily. Scold! How familiar this smell is! It's a very different atmosphere from the soothing and tranquil atmosphere of the small county town in my hometown. See! The road is full of speeding carts and bicycles, and the sidewalks are full of pedestrians of all kinds in a hurry; The shops on both sides are filled with a dazzling array of goods, and colorful neon lights are constantly flashing; The misty night had not yet finished covering the land, but the lights of the distant city center were almost half the sky—oh, the provincial city he knew, it was still so noisy, bustling, and lively......

He hesitated at the station gate for a long time, until a few sneaky men and women approached him to talk to him, and then he hurried into the taxi that happened to be dropping off on the side of the road. The few who were ready to take advantage of the shady business had no choice but to swallow their spit and turn their attention to other potential targets.

"Go to the Xijing Hotel." Gao Jinsong told the driver. After he came back from Chengdu, he had stayed there for two nights, and felt that the environment there was not bad, it was a rare and clean place, not only the accommodation and transportation conditions were very convenient, but also the price was very reasonable, so he made up his mind on the way to the provincial capital, and he settled there before going to Wuhan. He still has a few small things to deal with in the provincial capital. Once everything is in order, he will fly to Wuhan for Wei Honglin's wedding by Friday at the latest, and then decide where to go next — by which time the acquisition of the new era should be on the table. "We will have a result by Sunday at the latest." These are Sun Junshan's original words on the phone.

Provincial capital, Changsha, Qingdao or Zhengzhou? In the next ten days, he will definitely make a judgment and a decision for his future. But now he didn't have time to think about it carefully, he just wanted to take a hot bath, wash off the dust and exhaustion, and then have a good dinner.

The Xijing Hotel was still as deserted as the last time he came back. The dim light in the lobby made everything hazy, and only the four large bronze characters of "Xijing Hotel" inlaid on the wall were illuminated by the spotlights to diffuse the golden light. The two security guards, dressed in real-world uniforms, reluctantly got up from the couch prepared for guests until they saw him push open the glass door, but they sat back lazily when they saw Gao Jinsong walking directly to the main desk. Even the waiter at the front desk who connected to him was the woman with a local accent last time, and she didn't even owe her body, so she asked him very concisely and straightforwardly: "How many days will you stay?" ”

"Three days." Gao Jinsong took out the bulging wallet from the pocket inside his jacket, pulled out his ID card, and handed it over.

"Five hundred and four for accommodation, five hundred for a deposit, a total of one thousand fourteen." The waiter copied his name, address, and ID number on the passenger registration book without raising his head, and then put the registration book and his ID card on the front desk. "Sign." After counting the money, I wrote a dispatch slip and handed it out. "Number 10 on the fourth floor."

"Are there any floors with high points?" Gao Jinsong didn't care about the waiter's attitude, he cared more about the floor. In the double room on the tenth floor of the hotel, he could find the cabin he had rented, and even a few glances from a distance could remind him of many of the past, and let him recall that dreamy afternoon, in the scorching sun, he rode a dilapidated bicycle and sweated to deliver a box of clothes......

"The elevator is broken."

Gao Jinsong had no choice but to accept this harsh truth, packed up his things with some frustration, pinched the piece of paper and walked to the side door of the lobby.

Half an hour later, Gao Jinsong, who was refreshed and relaxed, came to the front desk again: "Excuse me, can you help me book a ticket to Wuhan on Friday?" ”

That's fine. In fact, before Gao Jinsong walked out of the hotel, he heard the waiter asking about the ticket on the phone.

Gao Jinsong came to the street, and now he had to find a place to fill his stomach.

It was already completely dark, but the city was still early in the sleep. The ornate street lamps on both sides of the road shine brightly and softly, forming two bright long dragons far and near, and extending endlessly along the main road in both directions to the east and west. The lights flickered like stars in a clear night sky. Men and women on the street wander from shop to shop, sometimes stopping to browse, sometimes stopping to linger, the merchants calmly waiting for customers to inquire or enthusiastically recommend them. At the entrance of a large shopping mall across the street, the flow of people coming and going, as well as hawkers selling counterfeit brands and stalls selling food and drink, make this small open space as lively as a temple fair in the New Year......

In just one month, the environment here seems to have changed, at least Gao Jinsong can't ride it, there is a big shopping mall of this size. He bought two newspapers at a newsstand, and then, with his vague memory, found the fast-food restaurant in the alley behind the mall - he first came back to eat here, and paid the bill by mistaking a hundred-dollar bill for ten dollars mixed in a few pieces of change, but when he came back to eat two days later, the waiter at the fast-food restaurant recognized him immediately and immediately returned the rest of the money to him......

In fact, the waiter still knows him, and as soon as he found a vacant seat to sit down, the waiter immediately came over to greet him with a smile and asked, "What are the dishes this time?" ”

Gao Jinsong also smiled and said, "Yes, it's still those." Can this girl with slitted eyes squinting when she laughs really remember what he ate last time? He didn't believe it. He couldn't even remember what he had ordered the last two times.

The waiter immediately shouted in a long voice, "Table 11!" Large fried rice with shredded pork with green peppers! Two boiled eggs! A bowl of kombu chicken soup! At the same time, she wrote down the name of the dish in her notebook.

Gao Jinsong looked at her in surprise. It's hard for this little girl to remember it so clearly.

The braised egg and chicken soup were immediately brought to Gao Jinsong, and the waiter smiled at Gao Jinsong: "The fried rice will be delivered to you immediately." Without waiting for Gao Jinsong to answer, she went to greet other guests.

Gao Jinsong drank the soup while flipping through the two newspapers of the day to see if there was any interesting news. When he flipped to the sports page of the evening newspaper, a piece of news immediately caught his eye: "The dream of Sunshine Group A B has been hit hard again".

Sunshine Group? He never seemed to have heard of such a company in the provincial capital, but the first sentence of the news in the newspaper answered his doubts: "Guangzhou News on October 30, the province's leading real estate Sunshine Group ......" He remembered that there is a large residential community under development not far from here, and the name there is "Sunshine Community", and in the highest residential area in the provincial city, there is also a place called "Sunshine Garden", but what connection can they have with football? "Later last evening, Sunshine Group announced that they had terminated the acquisition of a B club in Guangzhou. …… This is another attempt by Sunshine Group to try the professional football league after the defeat at the last moment of this year's second division, and it is also another regret. …… Chengdu Ipsen Football Club has already taken ownership of that club and automatically qualifies for next year's League A and B. It is reported that the sunshine set ......"

There's no need to look any further.

Gao Jinsong pushed the newspaper aside in frustration.

The fried rice he asked for had already been served, and the rice piled up on a stainless steel plate like a mountain exuded a pungent aroma, the plump grains of oil shone in the light, the slender shredded green peppers were fried in oil to an irregular brown, and the clearly textured shredded meat...... But none of this can attract Gao Jinsong's attention. He had completely lost his appetite, the thick chicken soup was as light as boiled water in his mouth, and the kelp was more like tasteless wax when chewed......

It wasn't until the waiter came up to him and asked him with concern if tonight's meal wasn't to his liking that he came back from his trance.

He pursed his lips and shook his head.

No, there was no problem with the meals, no problem at all.

The waiter looked at his face with his lips curled, and then asked, "What...... Are you feeling unwell? Sick? "It seems that this is an attentive and enthusiastic girl.

Gao Jinsong smiled bitterly.

"I'm fine." He said. "Go get busy......" He didn't want to talk now, just wanted to be alone.

She looked at his face again, hesitated, and finally made up her mind not to pay attention to him. Yes, he was just a customer and she was just a waitress, except for the little thing of overpayment, the two had nothing to do with each other, and she really didn't need to care too much about this strange guest who had only walked in for the third time, and there were other customers who wanted her to greet - this time was the peak time when the salespeople in the mall took turns to come out for dinner, and it was often the first group that had already entered the door after the other group had not left, and when she looked up, the not spacious fast food restaurant was almost all mall salespeople in uniform in uniform in the mall.

Gao Jinsong buried his head and slowly shoeed his fried rice.

Sun Junshan's promise is no longer kept, and he now has to choose between Changsha, Qingdao and Zhengzhou.

Qingdao is the easiest choice, Dai Zhenguo has paved all the roads for him before, and he doesn't need to think about his own treatment at all - what kind of treatment Qingdao Double Happiness generally enjoys, he is what kind of treatment; He doesn't need to think about his chances of playing – Coach Dai has already made a statement on behalf of the club, and as long as he is fit, he can firmly occupy a seat for himself on the bench, and he is a "hard-hitting substitute...... Zhengzhou is the safest choice, with his training state and physical condition, Henan Yaxing, who has always been hopeless and relegated to A, can provide him with a long-term job, during which it is very likely to go to the A League for sightseeing two or three times, and then return to the A B to count the money leisurely, maybe such days will continue until he retires, and then he returns to the provincial capital, or returns to his hometown, uses the money he has saved to make a small business, and lives a carefree life with his wife, children and home...... The riskiest option is to go to Changsha and follow You Shen, which is also the most challenging. He didn't know anything about the current situation of Changsha Qinyuan, except for You Shen's trust in himself and the promise of the verbal "absolute main force", the rest of the relevant treatment did not even mention a word; And Qinyuan is almost a team rebuilding, and no one can predict the fate of next year - relegation is definitely Qinyuan's top priority, but who can say that Qinyuan will not soar like this year? ……

Thinking about it, he suddenly smiled to himself, isn't he worrying about it here after weighing it repeatedly? Even if Qinyuan's conditions are not satisfactory to him, he can turn his head and go to Qingdao again, maybe he can get a better result for himself at that time - Dai Gui also hinted in words that the No. 10 ** of Double Happiness will switch to other clubs, and there will be a position in the middle of the midfield...... Moreover, he has another advantage that no one else can match: he is now a free agent, no matter which club he goes to, he does not need a penny of transfer fees from the club, and he is a very versatile ......

Thinking about this joint, his mood gradually relaxed, and the food in his mouth tasted a little, and he raised his hand, asked for another bowl of soup and a bottle of beer, and ordered two more snacks for himself.

The woman sitting across from him suddenly said in surprise, "Ah! It's really you! "A full Mandarin.

Gao Jinsong looked up at the woman in confusion.

"Oh, it's you?!" Gao Jinsong also said in surprise. He knew her, but he couldn't remember her name anymore, she was some relative of one of his former colleagues, and a close friend of his co-worker—he couldn't remember the name of that colleague anymore, only that her surname was Jiang.

Jiang Yan, dressed as a shopping mall waiter, said happily: "I've been watching you for a long time, but I didn't dare to recognize you - you are darker than before." She looked Gao Jinsong up and down again. When did you come back? Why don't you notify us? My aunt still mentions you from time to time......" She suddenly lowered her eyes, and her words gradually stopped, and she lost her voice.

Gao Jinsong burst out laughing. Every time he thought that Jiang Lihong's little girl was already such a high rank as "aunt", he couldn't help but laugh. He didn't notice the change in Jiang Yan's expression, smiled for a while and said, "I came back a while ago, but I went home for half a month first." Don't you work in the city? Why are you here again? What about Xiao Jiang, how is she? Still working at the Olympic mall? "I don't know where the original Olympic shopping mall has moved, but he visited it once at the beginning of the month when he passed through the provincial capital, which has been converted into a thriving teahouse.

"We are not employees of the shopping mall, we are just the company's counters, and we are in which mall Yafeng company arranges us to be." Jiang Yan explained to Gao Jinsong, "The shopping mall here only opened for trial operation on the 12th, and we old salesmen," she pursed her lips and smiled proudly when she said this, "and it was transferred." Of course I wanted to transfer it myself, close to where I live - a few minutes away, easy to commute to. She lowered her head and used the spoon in her hand to play with the two leaves floating on the noodle soup, and said, "Lihong...... She didn't do it at the mall. She...... She also works here with me, though, she ...... She had something going on at home, so she took a leave of absence to go home, and she won't be back until a few days later. ”

"Oh." Gao Jinsong nodded without saying a word. He couldn't find anything to talk to Jiang Yan, so he had to take the opportunity of the waiter at the fast food restaurant to serve food and wine, and said, "Get another cup." He asked Jiang Yan again, "Do you drink?" He immediately realized that there was something wrong with his words, and hurriedly changed his words and asked the waiter to take the drink.

"I'm at work, I can't drink. But I still have a bottle of wine there, which has been sitting for a few months, and it was bought by Lihong for you, who knows that you will be gone for a few months, and you won't even show your face. ”

"Busy." Gao Jinsong said, "No, I have to go to Wuhan in two days, and I should come back in the middle of next month." "Maybe it won't come back. Clubs in A, A, and B generally have six to seven weeks off after the league ends, but it also depends on the person, and teams like Qingdao Shuangxi and Changsha Qinyuan, who have just been promoted, may already start preparing for next year's league in mid-to-late November.

"That'...... Do you have to keep that bottle of wine? Jiang Yan said slightly teasingly, "That was specially bought for you by Lihong." Or," she asked, pursed her lips for a moment, "will you be free tomorrow night?" I'll ask Lihong to come over too,......" Duan Lianrui's words stopped abruptly. She suddenly realized that she had spoken away, and her face flushed with shame and remorse.

Gao Jinsong said casually: "I'm afraid it won't work tomorrow." I still have a lot of things to do in the provincial capital, and I am afraid that I will not be able to spare time these days. - You'll keep the bottle for me until I get back on my next trip. "If he visits his enlightenment coach Shen Yuanshun tomorrow, if he is in time, he is also going to go to Duan Lianrui to sit down and have a few drinks with Duan Lianrui; I will go to He Ying's house the day after tomorrow; He still has two or three old teammates he knows well in the provincial capital, but he may not be able to go one by one, but fortunately he has their phone and pager, if he really doesn't have time, a few words on the phone is also a friendship.

Seeing that Gao Jinsong didn't pay attention to what he just said, Jiang Yan's expression gradually eased, and he was silent for a while, and then asked, "What do you do?" It was something she was curious about, and it was something that her "aunt", who was too young to talk about, was very concerned about. Of course, Jiang Lihong, who has nothing to say to her, cares about not only Gao Jinsong's work, she cares about almost everything about him, and tries her best to inquire about him, but the young tall man in front of her is completely a ......

"I'm ......," Gao Jinsong didn't know how to answer. What does he do? He's playing football. But is football just a job? It seems that it is not, at least for him, football is not just a job - it is something that haunts him, something that he cannot give up and cannot give up, that black and white ball that carries his ideals and dreams, it is all he ...... He didn't know what to say to Jiang Yan, so he had to say in general terms: "I am...... Jock. ”

"Athletes?!" Jiang Yan's eyes widened suddenly. She hadn't expected such an answer anyway. She and Jiang Lihong had speculated about his profession countless times, and even had many bold and almost ridiculous imaginations, but they never imagined that he would be an athlete. It took her half a while to wake up from her shock and ask, "Are you playing basketball?" It was the first sport she had in mind. In her mind, Gao Jinsong is so tall and has such a well-proportioned and strong physique, no matter how she looks at it, he looks like a basketball player. In fact, the sport she is most familiar with is basketball, at least she played on the humble basketball court on the middle school campus in the township several times when she was a student - she and Jiang Lihong were both members of their school's women's basketball team, and before dropping out, she also served as the main force for a semester because of her height, and earned a dozen yuan in competition subsidies and two beautiful towels for this.

"No, it's not basketball, it's football." Gao Jinsong corrected her erroneous view with some embarrassment.

"Oh." Jiang Yan was a little disappointed and a little happy to respond. She was disappointed because she was sorry for Gao Jinsong, if he concentrated on playing basketball, he might be able to make a name for himself on his terms; She was happy for Jiang Lihong, so that Lihong didn't need to torture herself for those unfounded fantasies that would never happen, and his work was still a matter that no one cared about. Football is something that not many people care about, at least in her opinion, few people care.

She found that her thoughts were a little confused, and she couldn't find anything to say to Gao Jinsong, so she said apologetically, "I still have to go to work......" She beckoned to the waitress and motioned for her to come over and settle the bill, "Forget it about him." How much is it? ”

Gao Jinsong hurriedly said: "No! Then he said to the waiter, "She's on my head, too, and I'll count it later." Seeing Jiang Yan rummaging through a small wallet, he quickly took out his wallet. I'll do it. As he spoke, he pulled out a large bill and handed it over. He was keenly aware at once that the act of pulling out his wallet was clearly contrived—he was flaunting his wealth...... The complex expressions and gazes of the two women made him suddenly feel an indescribable shame, as if he had suddenly revealed an indescribable side of his personality in public......

When he returned to his hotel room and lay down, he was still deeply trapped in the shame from which he could not extricate himself, and his face was swollen and red at his actions.

Jiang Yan, and the unknown waiter, the complicated eyes of the two of them could almost penetrate the depths of his heart, and he had nowhere to hide in their gaze......

He wasn't even in the mood to take a shower.

Hey, I was looked down upon by two women......

To be continued, please land in the chapter more if you know what will happen in the future, support the author, and support the genuine