There were 17 minutes of stoppage time in the second half. It's the first time I've ever seen stoppage time like this in my life. And we still have to be on the pitch to finish this nightmare game.

Perhaps the red card was not a punishment for a "violent foul", but rather a protection for Miller – he simply couldn't stay on the pitch. The polytechnic classmate who collided with Aqi was also replaced as soon as the game restarted, he didn't return to the bench, and ran to the locker room with his head in his arms. In the first half, the person who was scolded by him pointed his nose was picked up by a roaring ambulance in a blink of an eye, and such a short and rapid impact could engulf people in an instant. Once again, the flying calamity hits us in life, and we are in the middle of it and there is nothing we can do about it, watching while we go through it.

The phantom with flapping black wings was waiting for me again not far away, and it had approached me again and again, and even enveloped my life for a long time. I should be thankful that I was still on the field, and I had to pay attention to the stormy attack of the Polytechnic High School, and I didn't have time to think about some of the past.

Thanks to the red card, the opponent's frightened anger was diverted into the motivation of the game. The students of Polytechnic High School fought for their injured teammates, and it is conceivable that they will stop at nothing to win the rest of the time. Li Tiancheng put the captain's armband on his arm, which Aqi took off and handed to him as he was carried into the ambulance. For Polytechnic No. 14, it was like a comrade-in-arms handing him the red flag before he fell and died. The red jersey of the Polytechnic High School spread from one end of the pitch to us like a tongue of flame. On one side is the onslaught of the strong man who sacrifices his life and pierces Changhong, and on the other side is the almost pale resistance. Our morale was so low that we couldn't control the ball for three seconds at everyone's feet, and many of the technical moves that could have been done with instinct were twisted and distorted. Yan Xi actually stopped the ball directly on the side and stopped five meters away, and Brother Chuan's clearance also turned into an own long pass to the opponent. What's worse is that when he was holding the ball with his back, he was directly tackled by Li Tiancheng, who entered the penalty area from the left. In this case, Ming Ming usually clings to the opponent and continues to drive him to the bottom line. I just had to block the near post and defend the shot towards the far post. It was a tried and tested move, and in the first half, Ming Ming and I worked together to prevent an attack from Aniwal. But this time, Mingming's body was obviously weak, and he lacked strength in the few steps he kicked out, and he was thrown behind by Li Tiancheng in an instant. The ball was formed, and I had no countermeasures but to reluctantly attack. But at the moment I didn't have the courage I had in the first half, and I didn't even know what to do – I was afraid that another opponent with the captain's armband would fall to the ground. After a moment's hesitation, the acting captain of the Polytechnic shook his ankle and stabbed the ball aside.

It's over, I've been passed by, there's nothing left behind it. Although Li Tiancheng stumbled a little, he still completed the goal with his unaccustomed right foot. The ball was not fast and slowly rolled towards the goal. Almost two-thirds of the way through, if not more, I don't know. In short, Ye Ruiyang threw himself to the ground, the ball was hooked by him, and then Luka, who was killed, kicked the ball off the line before being knocked over by Aniwal. Polytechnic players and spectators raised their hands in protest to signal that the ball had completely crossed the line. The referee did not say anything, and was immediately surrounded by several players in red jerseys. I blankly pulled up Ye Ruiyang and Luca, who had fallen to the ground, and gently wrapped my hand around their waists, but Lao Ye unexpectedly poked my stomach with his fingers. I looked at him strangely, and his eyes were full of doubt. He had never done anything like it before. It's not just our state and emotions that are abnormal, but even the most ordinary behaviors.

Before the Polytechnic took the corner, he turned his finger at the coach's box. Requests for substitutions. I watched with some envy as he walked on, even as he covered his face with his hands in utter pain. In fact, this is just wishful thinking when I want to escape from the battle - you can think about it, if Pu Yun or Ah Hua were injured, I am afraid that I would not even have the courage to continue to hold on for a minute or two like Ming Ming. My friends were around, but the fear of helplessness still flooded over my head. Like soldiers trapped in the trenches in a defeated battle, the smoke and sand buried us again and again, and then shook off our breathing bodies with the artillery fire and bombardment that shook the earth. Crises come from any direction, and we will be buried here, but we are not told what minute or second destruction will come.

If last Friday, the 14th Middle School strengthened its will in the case of seven fights and eight hits, then now that we have one less fight, we don't even have an obvious desire to live. Let's just let the high school attached to the Polytechnic University advance. The thought actually popped into my head, and maybe others thought about it too. Is there really anyone who wants to keep playing? At least I want to go back to the locker room and see Miller, immediately, immediately. I didn't even be with him for the first time when he was injured last time, not to mention that he had just collapsed. No one can stand the twitching of their best friend. If I could, I would also like to cry and cover my eyes with my hands. The chest was clogged, and the heart hidden inside was constantly cracking, squeezing out one by one.

Xu Mu and Xiao Qi stood on the sidelines, playing two cards in one go. Xu Mu replaced Ming Ming, and Xiao Qi replaced Ah Hui. The former is a substitution, replacing Ming Ming, who can't hold on, with Xu Mu in the same position and function. And Ah Hui was a little exhausted a few minutes ago, and staring at Ah Qi all over the court consumed most of his physical energy. Now that the object of his defense is no longer on the field, it is better to replace him with a rest who is out of breath. Before going on the court, Xu Mu and Xiao Qi both hugged Ming Ming, even though he was no longer able to respond to his partner with open arms.

"Cheer up! The game isn't over yet! After Xu Mu ran up, he hammered his palm hard, and the tied ponytail swayed. And Xiao Qi shouted the same words and ran to Mi Le's original position. We maintained a back four, and the patchwork defence was against Polytechnic who had been forced out of their strongest form. They have lost their captain and the heart of their midfield, but their determination to win has become the new commander who will guide them to the charge. There was an attack, the player who hit the side of the Polytechnic was put down by Xiao Qi, and before the referee blew the whistle, Aniwal, who followed up on the side, rushed over to take the ball that was still rolling, and entered the penalty area with a powerful shot. The ball hit the side-netting, but the back-and-forth struggle scared us.

In the wavering will, it was the two new players who stepped forward. Xu Mu did not have the slightest fear, and had a head-on conversation with Li Tiancheng, who was stirring up trouble in our penalty area, and forced the opponent to watch the ball out of the bottom line with two wonderful card positions. And Xiao Qi carried Aniwar on the right side, which he was not good at, and fell to the ground three times in just a few minutes, and quickly got up after falling. The new blood gradually pulled us back from the nightmare to the green field, to the game in front of us. What prompted me to finally give up the idea of going off the field was Yan Xi, who had completely returned to the edge of the penalty area and blocked the long-range shot of the Polytechnic midfielder with his back. After being hit, he collapsed to the ground, struggling to support his body with one hand while the other fumbled fumbling on his back, as if searching for the source of the pain. However, his head soon hung down on the turf, and he fell down like Millet had done before, and even lay on his side, one foot rubbing the ground back and forth, and the small particles and grass roots kept bouncing. I can probably guess what happened, it wasn't the long-range shot that shot him down, but the hidden danger hidden in his body. After seeing this scene, I made a gesture to the school doctor on the sidelines to enter the field, and soon made a gesture to ask for a substitution.

We used up our last chance to leave the battlefield, and before being carried off the stretcher, he grabbed my glove and didn't say a word. There was no reluctance or request in his stunned eyes, but he looked at me in a deep black. I didn't know what Yan Xi wanted to say to me, but it made me suddenly remember that Mi Le also grabbed my hand before being helped back to the locker room by several juniors. Coincidentally, they grabbed the one with the verse written on it, as if it were a reminder.

But is "righteousness" still on our side? It seems to have been invisibly attached to the wind brought by the running of every Polytechnic player. I've never felt so genuinely that my opponent deserves to win. No, didn't I just get encouragement from my partner? Sorry, I don't remember exactly. Those ten minutes of the game were shattered in my memory, fissed into a past that I could hardly fully approach. The order is reversed, the emotions are confused, that's how I intuitively feel about it. I wasn't even sure if two people had actually grabbed my gloves one after the other—maybe it was just a suspended situation in a dream, or a story I made up while wandering my mind, and I ended up spreading it. But I couldn't get close to the vague truth through others again, and it was a day that everyone didn't want to talk about.

The long ordeal seemed to be coming to an end. The person who replaced the wounded man may not have recovered, but he is the only and last option. Xuexue rushed onto the pitch wearing a black mask, giving us a life-saving hope: there were five minutes left. As soon as the invisible second hand passes five times, the flame that scorches us is quietly extinguished – even though there are still fires outside the stadium that we don't have time to care about. I believe that everyone is silently counting the seconds, and even praying for the hourglass of life to pour out faster, faster.

The long night of hard labor is about to dawn, and it gives us the motivation to keep going. And Polytechnic, whose physical fitness is also approaching the end, still did not give up the attack. To be sure, it is not empty to strip away all the non-football-related elements of this game. The three successive central defenders perfectly limited the speed, impact and skill of a striker like Aniwal from a technical and tactical point of view, and the fierce player who was once close to Mu Zheng's Golden Boot record was close to scoring several times, but it was a fraction of a second. Although his fighting spirit danced like the sideburns of a lion, he was once unsuccessful in the face of the battle-hardened bronze wall.

Inadvertently, I was infinitely close to my partner's words that I also had no intention of leaving behind: not to let Polytechnic score a goal. At that time, we were in jeopardy for promotion, and Polytechnic did not have a single game that was prevented. At this moment, there is only one last set-piece opportunity left before the two-legged clean sheet Polytechnic advances. The Polytechnic goalkeeper rushed to join the crowd for the top of the race, a familiar scene, just waiting for the referee to blow the kick-off whistle.

"Miller, stand at the back post and guard it." I say.

Wait a minute.

Millet isn't with me anymore.

"Captain, I'm coming!"

It was Xiao Qi who said this. He patted me on the shoulder and hurried over there.

"Okay." I said to myself.

The ball is out. Soon, run to the forward point, which is the right side of the goal. Aniwal and their centre-backs are here, and they are two of their best headers. But Ye Ruiyang and Xu Mu were also there, following them closely, and I was also taking care of here. Even if they can get a point, they will have a hard time attacking the goal. Several people collided, and the ball was rubbed by someone and flew parallel to my left hand, which is also the left side of the door.

I realized something, and in my panic, I turned my body and rushed to the left, and he must have noticed it, moving closer to the right side of the goal. In the dense crowd, a familiar but not tall figure appeared with his back to the sun. I was saving, he was blocking, but it was over both of our heads, in the gap that was left behind, that the ball slipped through the shadows of the sun, scraping against the lintel.

The world is so quiet that it seems that there is nothing left. Immediately, there was a vibration in the heart, too large to be real.

Xiao Qi blocked Li Tiancheng's shot out of the goal with almost heroic and fearless movements, like a block in volleyball or a block in basketball, and the sound of the full ball being hit by the arm out of the frame was clearly recognizable, followed by the collective roar of the Polytechnic students.

It's a pity he's not a goalkeeper.

"No. 17 of Jiang Yuan No. 1 Middle School, handball in the penalty area, red card!" The second red card of the game rose in front of Xiao Qi. There will be no more controversy about the penalty award.

"Captain, I'm sacrificing. The rest is up to you, so let's get the game done. Before leaving, Xiao Qi put his forehead on my head. Unlike last year, when we conceded a goal, we still had a chance to qualify through penalties. But Xiao Qi still chose to sacrifice and maintained the advantage in the total score at his own expense. We have argued many times, and we are even dissatisfied with each other's thoughts, but we have never doubted each other's feelings and attachment to the team.

Xiao Qi's red card is definitely valuable, and perhaps what really makes us want to fight again is his "sacrifice of life" this time. It's not the naïve and ridiculous nature of adolescence, it's the greatest sacrifice for a thirteen-year-old boy, who has given up everything he could have possibly had since gone on – he could have sat back and watched the ball go into the net, and if he had won the penalty shoot-out, he would have had a chance to play in the final. Reaching the finals is everyone's dream, but in order to make it easier for his companions to step into this stage with their own beliefs, Xiao Qi almost instinctively put aside the possibility of stepping into his ideal place. What he entrusts us not only behind but behind him is all the hopes and responsibilities of his doomed appearance.

How can I live up to this tragedy? As Aniwar stood in front of me with a gritty gaze, I felt like I had regained the same determination I had with Ahua and Uchida.

But it didn't pounce. I was on the right track, and Aniwal was top speed and power, and it was like a shot put with a thousand pounds at his feet. Narrowly, the ball went from the top of the hand into the net. But I swore to face it with all my courage, even knowing that if it had been kicked in the body, it might have gone into the net with someone.

The Polytechnic players who equalized the aggregate score roared in celebration, and Aniwal played the number "16" in his hand. The goal was dedicated to the hero who retired with a serious injury, and the ball in the net was quickly picked up by Li Tiancheng. Now the field is six against eight, and the temporary captain signals his teammates to hurry up, and he can also completely kill the game through the absolute numerical advantage. I shook my head and stood up, and my teammates gathered around.

"It's okay, you can win." I gritted my teeth before they comforted me.

Even if you can't fight side by my side, I have to carry all my aspirations. Well, the game isn't over yet.