Chapter 12

Chunxi was successfully accepted as a disciple by Professor Xu, and Chris gradually realized his dream. After David and his family left, David's initial greetings took effect. The Madeira National Club reconsidered and accepted Chris. Chris finally embarked on the path of pursuing his dream.

Then he went to Sporting Lisbon. At this time, Chris gradually began to feel less happy. Ronaldo was born on the island of Madeira, and his strong accent from a remote island caused laughter among his peers. Others called him a "country boy." In his first training session at Sporting Lisbon, Ronaldo was ridiculed and had a conflict with his teammates. The older kids bullied Ronaldo, and while he was sad, he thought about the agreement he made with Ivory and made a vow: When I become the best player in the world, I will see if you dare to bully me again!

But as Chris grew up and gradually showed his powerful brilliance, he began to lose himself. Especially after he transferred to Manchester United at a high price, the previous No. 7 was Beckham, and everyone was questioning whether Chris could continue Beckham's outstanding performance. Under such doubts, he played perfect results and made everyone recognize him. In this situation, everyone was cheering and applauding Chris, and his teammates who had originally excluded him also began to accept him. His salary increased, and his family conditions also improved.

Chris slowly began to suppress Ivory in his heart, and slowly stopped wearing the jade pendant Chunxi gave him. When he entered the colorful and extravagant life of adults, he slowly began to feel that Ivory might just be a pure white dream in his childhood, and they would never have the chance to meet again.

The jade pendant is still very important to Chris. When he was still playing for Sporting Lisbon, the 15-year-old Ronaldo went shopping with three teammates in a shopping mall in the east of Lisbon, but encountered a group of knife-wielding gangsters on their way back late at night. Two of the teammates chose to run away, while Ronaldo and another teammate fought with the gangster because the gangster wanted to take Chris's jade pendant. In the end, Ronaldo returned to the Lisbon training base with cuts and bruises, but he kept his jade pendant. Although Ronaldo was criticized for violating team regulations, he was not punished for it.

The mischievousness of fate has pulled the two originally intersecting lines further apart. Chunxi is receiving more in-depth singing instruction, and Chris is enjoying the happiness brought by money and fame as his fame gradually rises.

Although it is a bit regrettable, both of them are indeed on a steady rise.

Chunxi has been busy with her youth singing competition recently, which was signed up by Professor Xu to test her stage performance. For a singer, personal singing skills are important, but stage presence is equally important. It is not okay if you sing well but get timid when you go on stage.

This youth singing competition is a more professional one. It is not a talent show. Instead, it is for children under the age of 18 who have been learning to sing for many years. It is an elimination system with three rounds in total. The last round decides the special prize, first prize, second prize, and third prize. The song Professor Xu selected for Chunxi's first round of the competition was "Night in Ulaanbaatar", a Mongolian song written in 1985 (music: Pujibudorji, lyrics: Pujibudorji). In 1987, the Mongolian "Genghis Khan Band" went to □□ to perform this song, making it known to the Inner Mongolian audience. The melody was simple at first, but later in 1992, Pujibudorji, singer Ganghuyaga and Sarentuya re-recorded the song in Singapore, making the melody more complex and forming its current style. It has gradually become a household song in Mongolia and even among the Mongolian ethnic group.

This song is difficult to sing, and what is even more rare is the rich emotions it contains. This emotion needs to be felt and performed by the singer himself. But it is not an easy thing for Chunxi, a girl from a wealthy family who has never felt the pain of separation or suffered much. Chunxi really wanted to feel the emotions contained in it, but she was never able to grasp the pain of longing and the suffering of separation.

This was the first time in all the time Chunxi had been learning to sing that she encountered something that made her so frustrated. She had always thought that she could sing well without any effort, because the exercises given to her before were too simple and did not involve too many unnecessary and deep emotions. This time, perhaps, was the difficulty that Professor Xu had set for Chunxi at the moment of singing with emotion.

After all, Chunxi is too young and has experienced too little, so she is unable to incorporate her emotions into her singing. Professor Xu was satisfied with everything about Chunxi except her singing emotion.

Chunxi can easily grasp those cheerful songs that express happiness, and she can perform these songs perfectly, but for those emotionally sad songs, she has no way to infect herself with sadness, and of course no way to infect others with sadness.

This setback made Chunxi feel depressed and unable to cheer up these days. David and Fu Chanwei naturally felt sad when seeing this situation. David regretted that he would not have let Chunxi learn singing if he had known earlier. He hoped that his daughter could have a bright future, but he also hoped that she could always be happy and not be unhappy like she is now.

After school, Chunxi still felt unhappy and didn't want to go home, so she went to her grandma's house. Theresa set up an orphanage in Shangjing and adopted many orphans. When Chunxi was free, she liked to go there and play with her grandmother and the children. Of course, Theresa also noticed Chunxi's unhappiness and absent-mindedness.

"What's wrong with my little angel? Who made you unhappy?" Theresa asked with a smile.

"It's not anyone's fault, it's just that I'm useless..." Chunxi was in a very low mood and really began to doubt herself. Is what she has learned over the years really good? Am I really as good as my teacher says? Maybe they just say I'm good to please me...

"Little angel, why do you think so? You are very good. You have learned so many musical instruments, and you have persisted in each of them and done very well. You sing so beautifully, and even with such high-intensity study, your academic performance has not dropped. You are such a great child. How could you question yourself?" Theresa gently stroked Chunxi's hair, looking at this little girl with loving care, who was sad because she was so good that she felt she was not good enough.

"But Professor Xu told me many times, but I still couldn't sing Ulaanbaatar Night well. Professor Xu said that I didn't get into the emotions of the song. A song like this with only technique but no emotion will not impress others." Chunxi said frustratedly.

"The night in Ulaanbaatar..." Teresa raised her head as if recalling something. "I've heard that song when I was in Mongolia. It's a very famous song in Mongolia. It contains memories of "past feelings." Chunxi nodded. Professor Xu said the same thing, past feelings. But Chunxi really doesn't know what past love is.

"Ivory, do you still remember brother Chris?" Theresa pondered for a moment and asked Chunxi a question.

"Brother Chris? I have some impression of him. I met him when I went to Portugal to see you after having surgery on my head. I remember." Chunxi didn't remember him particularly well, she just remembered that there was such a person.

"You've forgotten a lot. When you spent a week in Funchal, you spent every day with your brother Chris. Even your father David was jealous. Chris's dream was to play football, and you even gave him a football. Don't you remember that?" Theresa looked at Chunxi with a smile, but Chunxi could no longer remember these things, so she could only shake her head.

"I remember that on the last day, you told us that you and brother Chris had made an appointment to meet again. He worked hard to play football and stand out, and stood in a place where everyone, including you, could see him, so that you could find him." Theresa paused and turned to look at Chunxi: "Do you remember the jade pendant you wore since you were five years old?"

Chunxi nodded: "I remember that one, it was in the shape of a monkey, my grandfather gave it to me, saying it was a zodiac jade pendant to bring safety, but I don't know how it disappeared later."

"It's not that you don't know how it disappeared, it's that you gave it to your brother Chris, and you said that you couldn't see what your brother Chris looked like at the time, so you gave the jade pendant to him. If you recognize the jade pendant, you can recognize Chris." Theresa slowly helped Chunxi recover her lost memories, and Chunxi indeed slowly remembered these past events.

The memories of playing together in Funchal, the memories of playing together in Chris's brother's school, even the stench of the slums, the crowded crowds, the children running around, those memories without light and shadow but only sound, touch and smell all came back to Chunxi's mind. What also comes to mind is the reluctance and sadness I felt when we parted.

"Past Love", we ran in the sunshine, you were afraid that I would fall so you kept holding my hand, your palms were very warm, with the smell and temperature of sunshine, just as warm as your heart. You taught me Portuguese and I taught you English. Even though you didn't speak it well, at least you tried to understand me. We walked through the sunshine and the wind. Although we are now separated by distance, the feelings we had in the past will always be in my mind. During that "dark" time, they guided me, protected me, and enriched me.

Chunxi immediately understood the pain of separation and the ache of longing, and found a resonance of sadness in the song "Night in Ulaanbaatar". She suddenly became enlightened and jumped up with joy: "I understand grandma, I finally understand what "past feelings" are. Thank you, grandma, I love you. But now I have to go to Professor Xu to discuss this song. Goodbye grandma." Chunxi picked up her backpack and was about to walk out, turning back to say goodbye to Teresa as she walked.

Theresa smiled and waved her hand: "Go ahead, go ahead, fly in your own direction."

The author has something to say:

First, the last chapter. I was busy all day yesterday and didn't have time to write until I got home at night. I will make up for it today.