On October 15, 2017, 7 o'clock in the morning.

1/

Next to Yanqi Lake in Huairou City, Beijing.

The Beijing Enterprises Men's Basketball Club, which just moved its home court back to Beijing this year, has left its training base here. After the Mid-Autumn Festival in the suburbs of Beijing, in the early morning, the sun has not yet penetrated the mist brought by the rising water vapor on the lake, the cold is very heavy, flying from the still warm south overnight, only to find a thin jacket Yu Xiaochun shivered outside the fence of the runway of the training base, stomping his feet to keep warm.

Although moisture can easily invade the muscles and bones under the clothes, Yu Xiaochun's heart is hot.

Looking around, it can be seen that he is the only reporter waiting in the mist.

Maybe it's because his sports peers haven't had time to leave yet, or it's just the weekend waiting for an interview for Monday, but in short, in the face of the blockbuster news that a little-known Chinese player is going to replace Zhou Qi to join the NBA's Houston Rockets for a new season, he is the closest person to the person concerned.

At least, that's what Yu Xiaochun thinks.

Yuris Young.

There is no way to confirm that Yuris Yang is the person of Yu Xiaochun and others. He could only wait quietly, like a hunter waiting for his prey, sniffing and waiting in the fog.

2/

The whistle pierced the silence of dawn.

In the corridor of the accommodation building of the training base, several doors opened. Some tall figures began to move, and they could not be seen in the fog.

Phew——

The second whistle was like an ultimatum, and the number of people who opened the door and walked around was noticeably larger, and the movement was faster.

Yu Xiaochun took off his glasses, wiped the contaminated moisture with the corner of his clothes, put them back on, grabbed the seine net with his hand, stretched his neck and looked at it with all his might.

In the distance, the figures in the hallway slowly converged towards the staircase in the middle, and the footsteps and occasional chatter downstairs were not loud, but they could already be heard passing through the open training ground track. When the figure went down to the runway, he spontaneously jogged in twos and threes, and the one running in front was piercing through the range of the fog, getting closer and closer to Yu Xiaochun.

"Yuris Young!"

"Hey!" There was a shouting order from the security guard at the door.

"You can only watch from the sidelines, and you can't affect the training of athletes." ——Yu Xiaochun lied to his uncle just now that he was a fan of Marbury, and he just wanted to get a chance to watch the training heroism of this "political commissar" in his mind from afar. After impressing the possibility that Marbury would also be regarded as an idol and quietly offered 500 yuan, the security uncle took such care of Yu Xiaochun, who was put into the door by exception.

But apparently Yu Xiaochun can't take care of these concerns now.

It's a matter of success or failure!

“Julius！” Yu Xiaochun shouted again before the security uncle's hand put on his shoulder.

"Let's go!" The uncle who grabbed Yu Xiaochun lowered his voice in his ear, but ordered without question.

"Wait a minute."

In the haze, a tall figure shook off the team, went straight through the training ground, and ran over. As he spoke, he waved his hand to the two people who were twisting together.

Yu Xiaochun's eyes lit up!

3/

In fact, Yu Xiaochun has seen the young man in front of him play.

Julius Yang in Woshen's tweet, Yuris Yang, if he is not mistaken, the Chinese name is Yang Yiming. In the men's basketball game of the 13th Tianjin National Games this summer, Yang Yiming played for the Beijing team, playing as the No. 3 small forward most of the time, and occasionally mentioning the No. 4 position as a power forward.

Although he saw the training list of the red and blue teams of the Chinese men's national basketball team and awakened Yu Xiaochun's memory, he saw Yang Yiming for the first time in the quarterfinals of the men's basketball team of the National Games, Beijing vs. Xinjiang. What left the deepest impression at that time was that even if he was occasionally pushed to the position of a power forward, Yang Yiming, who was only 2 meters tall, did not fall behind in several interior hand-to-hand fights, and often could reach the position in the low post, after getting the ball with his back to the basket, he relied on the defender with excellent upper body strength, and had the opportunity to turn around and face the frame, or hold the ball with one arm to find a chance to cooperate, or directly lean back to shoot on the spot.

It's a combination of Jokic and Garnett!

It's a pity that as the youngest player in the Beijing team's National Games squad, Yang Yiming didn't get much playing time. On the contrary, it was the young rookie of the opponent Xinjiang team, Abdul Salamu, whose performance throughout the game was extremely eye-catching, playing at the level of a superstar of tomorrow, and finally easily cut down 12 points and 10 rebounds, not only winning, but also shining all over the court.

"You see, I said a long time ago that Abdul Salamu would become a big thing!" Yu Xiaochun still remembers boasting to his basketball colleagues after the game, in fact, he had noticed this Xinjiang guy at the FIBA Asian Club League a year ago in the summer.

"So what?" My colleague asked rhetorically.

"I feel a sense of accomplishment!" Yu Xiaochun still couldn't suppress the excitement in his tone.

"What sense of accomplishment do you have? The ball is not played by you either. ”

"Isn't it a sense of accomplishment that the player I fancy didn't look away and played out?"

"It has nothing to do with you. Besides..."The colleague was obviously not interested in this topic, and his voice had drifted away with the people, "Isn't it just a Chinese player." ”

A Chinese player.

But at this time, through the barbed wire fence, the Chinese player standing in front of Yu Xiaochun seemed to be different from all the other Chinese players he had seen. He couldn't tell what the difference was. The morning sun had already dispelled the shrouded fog, and it was shining from the short inch on Yang Yiming's forehead against his scalp, which was divided into bundles of golden light. A small symmetrical Chinese face, thick eyebrows, thin lips, a wide and straight nose, and large eyes.

And the most eye-catching thing is his body shape.

Most of the Chinese basketball players, represented by the current Zhou Qi and the former Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, are tall and thin with slightly slender limbs, known for their dexterity and elegance, and physical confrontation is not their strong point. But the young man in front of him, although he also has the long hands and feet of a basketball genius, has broad shoulders, and he can see that the chest circumference hidden under the training uniform is amazing just by visual inspection, and it is like a hill in front of Yu Xiaochun's eyes at 172cm, and the tiger head muscles of those arms are as big as his face!

"You're Julius?" Seeing him approaching, Yu Xiaochun asked first.

"yes." Yang Yiming smiled and motioned to the security guard to let go.

"The Rockets said they wanted to select you to be on the 15-man squad to replace Zhou Qi. He's hurt. Yu Xiaochun, who had just been freed, flattened the crumpled clothes, paused, sorted out his thoughts, and continued, "Have you heard? ”

"I see. They called me yesterday. Yang Yiming was still smiling.

"Who? Team Rocket? ”

"Well, the coaching staff."

"Did you take it?"

"Yes, they asked me for my name, and I told them that my English name was Julius, but I didn't expect it to come out at night." The young man in his early 20s answered lightly.

"Are you going then?"

"Go, why don't you go." Sensing Yu Xiaochun's doubts, Yang Yiming pointed behind him, and then explained, "I have already said hello in the team, and they are very supportive, saying that the documents can be returned and made up - I will leave in the afternoon." ”

"Today?"

"That's right."

4/

The lights in the cabin were dimmed, and only a few of United's older flight attendants were walking slowly with trays and collecting boxes and empty cups after the cabin was served. They are all uniformed flight attendants in their forties, wearing heavy makeup and lipstick, and in the dim light at the moment, there is a bit of a horror movie ghost. Yu Xiaochun raised his wrist and looked at the time, it was almost the early hours of the morning in Beijing, and on the schematic diagram of the screen, the plane was drawing an arc, crossing the international date line in the vast ocean of the Pacific Ocean.

Yu Xiaochun turned his head, but Yang Yiming, who was sitting next to him, did not have any nervousness and was sleeping soundly. His giant body of 2.07 meters was stuck in the first row of seats in the economy class next to the security door, which looked a little cramped and funny. His head rested on the security door, and although his arms were clasped around his body with all his might, they still occupied a large part of Yu Xiaochun's seat.

"Hello, could you please give him an upgrade?"

The ground staff girl who changed the boarding pass looked up at Yang Yiming, knocked down her head and knocked on the computer a few times, and replied, "There are only window seats in the first row." ”

"But he's too big, you see..."

"No way, the first row is already the most spacious. If you want to upgrade, you will need to pay the fare. ”

"I can't think of a way..."

"Forget it." Yang Yiming waved his hand at Yu Xiaochun, "It's okay, let's just have the first row." ”

"Thank you!" He also did not forget to add.

The two people who got their boarding passes dragged their carry-on luggage to the security checkpoint. Yu Xiaochun walked faster and walked in front.

"Hey!" Hearing Yang Yiming speak softly from behind, Yu Xiaochun turned his head.

"Huh?"

"The next time I come, I will definitely ask you to give me a free upgrade." Yang Yiming was muttering to himself.

Maybe this Chinese player is really different!

Yu Xiaochun looked at him and thought to himself.