Time is like a gurgling stream, slipping away from you and me unnoticed, taking with it countless memorable moments. And by the time we come to our senses, we realize: ah, so much time has passed!

※※※

Clear water flowed from the tap, drowning the rice grains in the basin. Sophie, rinsing the rice, leaned out. Her husband was watching TV on the living room sofa, the volume turned up high.

"Zhang Jun, we're out of oil. Go buy a can!" she shouted into the living room, turning off the tap at the same time.

Zhang Jun didn't even turn his head. "Tell Jiarui to go!"

As soon as he finished speaking, his son came out of his room. "Need to buy oil? We're using oil too fast, aren't we? I'll go, Mom." He turned to go back to his room to change.

Unexpectedly, Sophie came out of the kitchen and firmly shook her head. "No, Jiarui, you go play. Let your father buy it."

Jiarui was stunned for a moment, then he looked at his father and mother, smiled, and obediently returned to his room, not coming out again.

Zhang Jun turned to look at his wife, "Can't we not eat oil tonight?"

Sophie shook her head.

"Can't I go later?"

Sophie continued to shake her head.

"..." Zhang Jun stared at Sophie for a long time, finally raising his hands in surrender, "Okay, I'll go... Honestly, can't even watch TV in peace..." He got up and went upstairs to the bedroom to change into clothes for going out.

Sophie watched his grumbling back and revealed a mischievous smile.

When Zhang Jun came downstairs, having changed, he discovered that Sophie had also taken off her apron and tossed it aside, and was about to put on her shoes. "Huh? What are you doing?"

"Going with you."

"Ah, that's great. You go yourself, I'll watch TV..." Saying that, Zhang Jun's butt was about to land on the sofa.

"You dare!"

He jumped up again. "Just kidding..." Under Sophie's "tyranny," Zhang Jun obediently went to the door to put on his shoes.

After the two of them walked out of the door, Sophie immediately wrapped her arms around Zhang Jun's arm, leaning on Zhang Jun's shoulder like a little bird. Zhang Jun was shocked again. "Hey, hey... what are you doing? It doesn't look good if people see... We're an old married couple, still playing this game!"

"Old married couple and still shy!" Sophie didn't care about Zhang Jun's words, she just snuggled happily by Zhang Jun's side.

※※※

Yes, fifteen years have passed since that farewell match.

Time really flies.

Three years after Zhang Jun announced his retirement, Xiang Tao, then thirty-six years old, ended his career at Liverpool. Starting from representing the Sichuan Youth Team in the National Youth Championship, in his eighteen-year career, he won a World Cup once, the European Champions League four times, the Italian Serie A three times, the Italian Cup three times, the World Club Cup twice, the English Premier League once, the FA Cup once, the European Super Cup twice, and the Italian Super Cup twice. Although this fierce left-back spent most of his time on the bench at the end of his career, every time he took the field, he made his defense impregnable. The famous coach Antonio Sabato praised him as the world's best left-back after Maldini and Roberto Carlos retired.

After retiring, Xiang Tao and his Canadian-Chinese wife, You You, returned to Sichuan. They settled in Chengdu and opened a small restaurant, which was thriving. After their marriage, they had a son and a daughter, and the whole family lived a happy life in Chengdu.

Kelu, the youngest of Fiorentina's "Chinese Three Musketeers," played until he was thirty-four. He dedicated most of his career to Fiorentina, until he was thirty-two, when he moved his family to the United States to take care of his wife's career, played two seasons in the American Major League, and announced his retirement in the summer of 2022. He then moved back to London with his wife and settled in the British capital, where he lived near his parents.

His romance with the famous French actress Isabelle Karina was a topic of much discussion in the world of football and entertainment at the time, and his love life with the actress was not always smooth sailing. After several breakups, they finally came together. Although their married life was not peaceful, and was always affected by rumors, no matter what the outside world thought of their relationship, the two of them still held hands and did not separate. After marriage, they had a son, who is now taken care of by his father—Karina doesn't trust anyone else, afraid that the child will develop autism when he grows up, but she can't help it—due to work reasons, she must often travel between England and the United States. To relieve his wife's pain of missing her child, Kelu often takes his child to the United States for short stays. They have properties in both the United States and England.

Now, they too live a happy and fulfilling family life.

Kaka also announced his retirement at the age of thirty-five. He stayed at AC Milan until he hung up his boots. The Milan club originally wanted to arrange a position for him in the club, like Inter Milan's attempt to keep Li Yongle, but he refused, because compared to working at the Milan club, he had a better place to go.

Zhang Jun promised him that after he had rested enough, he would let him be the principal of his football school in Brazil.

Currently, Kaka hasn't rested enough yet... He and his beautiful and lovely Brazilian wife travel back and forth between Brazil and China, living a happy and fulfilling life.

Li Yongle, Zhang Jun's nemesis on the football field, hung up his boots at Inter Milan, dedicating all fifteen years of his career to the Meazza Stadium. When he decided to retire at the age of thirty-seven, his status at Meazza was perhaps second only to the club president. And when he decided to leave the field, he dedicated his future to Inter Milan: he became an assistant coach for Inter Milan's youth team. A year later, his title became "Inter Milan Youth Team Head Coach." A year after that, his title became "Inter Milan First Team Assistant Coach." Two years later, his title became "Inter Milan First Team Head Coach"... Two years later, at the age of forty-four, he became the head coach of the Chinese national team, and led the then unfavored Chinese team to the round of sixteen at the 2026 World Cup in England.

After the World Cup, he resigned as head coach of the Chinese national team, and at this time, people had to change their tune and call him: "Inter Milan Club General Manager."

Due to work reasons, he and He Wen lived in Milan, Italy. He Wen would return to China every summer and Spring Festival to visit relatives, but Li Yongle rarely came back, as he was too busy with work...

Currently, the two of them and their twin daughters are living a happy and fulfilling life in Milan.

An Ke and Lin Jia embarked on their "round-the-world honeymoon" after their wedding. When he brought the three-month pregnant Lin Jia back to China, Zhang Jun, as promised, gave him the principal position of the "Champion Football School," which had been vacant. Although he could no longer personally compete on the field and enjoy the feeling of the wind blowing across his face, when he saw the children under his management striving for their dreams, he felt as if his professional life was being continued in them.

Originally Zhang Jun's football school, An Ke had the deepest feelings for it.

Five years later, the Champion Football School opened its first overseas branch in Florence, Italy. A year later, a branch of the football school opened in Brazil, serving all of South America. This football school later became an undeniable force in international football. In China, they continuously supplied talent for China's professional leagues and national teams at all levels. In Brazil, they collected talented seedlings, systematically cultivated them, and then sent them to Europe and China. In Italy, their school even became a place where many European club scouts were stationed.

Hua Fang is now planning to open a third branch in South Africa. And An Ke is happily busy traveling back and forth between the three countries. Being able to find his value in another field, Lin Jia is also happy for him.

Now An Ke and Lin Jia, and their sixteen-year-old daughter, live happily and fulfilling lives together.

※※※

Originally, they were only going to buy a can of oil, but when Zhang Jun walked out of the supermarket, his hands were full of things, from food to daily necessities. Sophie took the opportunity to go on a big shopping spree.

"If I had known you were going to do a big shopping spree, we should have driven the car..." Zhang Jun said with a mournful face.

"Walking is good for your health," Sophie said happily like a child.

"Didn't I get enough exercise in the first half of my life?" Zhang Jun muttered softly, not daring to let Sophie hear him.

Sophie suddenly stopped and turned to look at Zhang Jun, startling him. He thought Sophie had heard what he said.

"Zhang Jun, did you accept Yang Pan's invitation?"

"Which invitation? He's invited me to so many things. Always this and that... One moment it's the vice chairman of the professional league, the next it's the coach of the national team..."

"The invitation to attend the twentieth anniversary gala celebrating China's World Cup victory."

"Ah, you're talking about that. Of course I have to accept. I haven't seen those people in years. I wonder how they're doing now." Speaking of this, Zhang Jun became a little excited. "Li Yongle and Kelu, those two who never come back to China, will both be back then. It'll be quite a lively gathering!"

Sophie covered her mouth and smiled. "Zhang Jun, you're like a little kid."

Hearing this, Zhang Jun obediently reached out to scratch his head, but he forgot that his hands were full of things. His left hand reached out, and the cooking oil he bought fell down...

"Ah! Oil..." Before Sophie could finish shouting, she saw Zhang Jun's foot lift up. As the oil can fell, he stretched his foot out, and the handle of the oil can caught on his foot, while the oil can had not yet touched the ground.

Zhang Jun smiled triumphantly at Sophie. "Don't worry, your husband's still got it."

Sophie took the can of oil from Zhang Jun's foot and held it in her own hands.

"I didn't expect twenty years to have passed in a blink of an eye." Sophie sighed, looking at the setting sun ahead. "Sometimes when I look at the photos from back then, it feels like it was just yesterday. It's been fifteen years since you retired." She turned back to look at Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun nodded. "Everyone's changed so much... Who would have thought back then that Li Yongle would become the general manager of Inter Milan?"

"But the most successful one is still Yang Pan, right?"

Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment, then nodded heavily. "That's right... but I'm not surprised by his position today." He also looked up towards the west. "It's getting late, let's go home. Jiarui must be hungry by now, right?"

"I think you're the one who's hungry, right?" Sophie laughed.

The two walked home shoulder to shoulder, the setting sun casting long shadows behind them. Next to the large supermarket behind them stood a huge billboard:

Full-body portraits of eleven Chinese national team players were printed on it. Half of them played for famous clubs abroad, and the other half were excellent players from domestic leagues, led by the famous coach Luo Shengmao. Today, these people are the new hope of Chinese football.

In the upper left corner of these people was a dragon-shaped logo holding a soccer ball, with the following two lines of text written in English and Chinese:

2030Chinaworldcup.

2030 中国世界杯.

※※※

Yang Pan was indeed the most successful of all the retired Golden Generation players.

When he was thirty-five years old, he refused to renew his lifetime contract with AC Milan and instead returned to China to join his hometown team, the Henan team.

He played for the Henan team for three seasons, helping the Henan team win a domestic league title and a FA Cup title. In the last season, he rarely appeared on the field. At this time, his identity was "Henan Football Club Sports Department Manager and Player."

When he completely retired at the age of thirty-eight, it was not as touching as Zhang Jun's retirement, nor did it cause much impact in the football world. He simply held a small press conference to announce his retirement, because he had hardly participated in any games in the past year, so everyone was mentally prepared for his departure. Also, it was impossible not to retire at the age of thirty-eight... Only a domestic TV station produced a special program to review Yang Pan's career.

And Yang Pan himself had no time to consider his retirement ceremony. For him, retirement was the real beginning, the beginning on another stage.

It only took him two years to take the position of general manager of the Henan club. During his four years in office, he helped Henan become a highly competitive club in the Chinese league.

Four years later, he was headhunted by Dalian Football Club with a high salary to help Dalian football rise comprehensively and regain its status as the "big brother" of Chinese football. Subsequently, he began to advocate the establishment of a new organization completely independent of the Football Association—the "Chinese Professional Football League"—in the Chinese professional football world.

This league is fully responsible for the operation and management of all major and minor leagues in China, while the Chinese Football Association will only manage matters related to the national teams at all levels. In this way, the professional league achieved a real separation from the official organization, the Football Association, and had independent autonomy. They no longer had to give way to the national team's World Cup events and the Olympic strategies of the national Olympic team.

With Yang Pan's efforts, and the appeals of Zhang Jun, Li Yongle, Qiu Suhui, and others, as well as the joint support of the general managers of the thirty-six super and A-level clubs in China, this plan finally became a reality, and Yang Pan naturally became the first chairman of the professional league.

2026 was a year to be written about in the history of Chinese football. In this year, after a long period of depression, the Chinese national team, led by Li Yongle, entered the World Cup finals, and against all odds, reached the round of sixteen, proving the competitiveness of Chinese football once again.

In this year, Qiu Suhui officially took office as the new full-time vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, fully responsible for the work of the Football Association. Fortunately, the sentence left by Chen Wei in those years was faithfully executed: "We must carry out the professional reform of Chinese football to the end!" No matter how successful Qiu Suhui's predecessors were, at least they did not stop or reverse the reform of Chinese football. No matter how much progress was made, Chinese football was indeed moving forward!

At the end of this year, the Chinese Professional Football League was officially established, Yang Pan took office as the first chairman of the league, and the situation in the Chinese league continued to rise. It is steadily catching up with the Japanese J-League, which is known as the "number one league in Asia."

In this year, Yang Pan said in an open letter to the vast number of fans after taking office: "... Some people asked me, what is the goal of what you are doing? In the past two years, in order to strive for the establishment of such a professional league, we have done a lot of work, which is very difficult. He asked me, what are you doing this for?

Yes, what are we doing this for? What is our goal?

Here, I can loudly tell everyone what our goal is! It is to make the Chinese league the number one league in Asia that continuously exports excellent players! It is to let everyone truly see a fair, just, and open league, and let fans return to the stands of their own league to cheer for their players and teams! It is to let Chinese football have a real, its own hematopoietic mechanism! In the longer term, we want to make Chinese football an undeniable and powerful force in international football in the future, and make every World Cup list us as a seed! List us as a favorite to win the championship! I, Yang Pan, never say empty words or big words, and I will do what I say!

... What kind of championship do we need? Is it to rely on a generation of players to help us become champions, and then fall into endless infighting and darkness? Or should we start from ourselves, start from improving the domestic football environment, and move forward step by step, steadily, until success comes naturally? I think the answer to this question is too simple, and you all must know which one to choose... When one day, when we can no longer care about outsiders laughing at the gold cup of the world champion for relying on the rise of a generation of players, for relying on dog luck, when we can proudly and without guilt say: 'We are the champions!' At that time, I think all the efforts we have made will be worth it..."

Two years before this year, our country won the right to host the 2030 World Cup. But that was not because of how high our football level was, but because our economy developed rapidly and had become an undeniable force in the world. Hosting the World Cup was not so much for the development of football as it was the inevitable result of China's rapid economic development, in order to expand China's political influence and status in the world.

In the four years after this year, from the chairman of the Football Association and the chairman of the Professional League, to ordinary fans, players, coaches, and even Zhang Jun's football school, everyone was working hard, trying to enable China to rely on its own football strength to win the right to host the World Cup again in the future. They knew that this road was long and arduous, but everyone did it without hesitation. Four years later, when we waited at home to welcome the thirty-one qualifying teams from all over the world, we could already say "welcome" with our heads held high under the eyes of the world.

In a few more years, every Chinese fan will definitely be able to proudly say "I am a fan of the Chinese team!" under the eyes of foreigners, and we can also make those foreigners excitedly say to us when they see us: "We are also fans of the Chinese team!"

Yes, there will always be such a day, there will always be such a day...

※※※

The sun set over the mountains, and the streetlights were lit one by one, illuminating the way home.

As you can see, Zhang Jun and Sophie lived together peacefully, happily, and harmoniously.

As for the others, everyone lived happily and harmoniously...

.

The End