Translator:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
Look! This is the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium!
Tang En stood under the huge white wall, and pointed at the name on the wall as he said it happily. But Jude just yawned. They had been in Spain for a few days, and she thought that they would go to the beach or do some sightseeing. She had not expected that they would be visiting a stadium so early in the morning.
Uncle Tony, have you not seen enough stadiums in your work?
Tang En was so impressed by the grandiosity of Bernabéu Stadium that he did not see the dissatisfaction on Jude’s face and in her tone. He shook his head.
How can that kind of middle school level stadium be compared with this football palace?
This time Jude purposely yawned louder and with exaggeration, and Tang En finally noticed.
Aren’t you awake yet? I thought I asked you to go to sleep by 11 last night.
His reply made Jude feel hopeless, and she rolled her eyes and stopped yawning.
I did. I was just exercising my face muscles, a beauty trick.
You are too young to be thinking about such things,
Tang En laughed. After a few days of staying with this girl, he felt that she was very cute.
Sometimes he thought that if the girl really did not want to return to her adoptive parents, he could apply to adopt her. Though he did not know if he would feel like having a kid around in the future, he kind of liked his current life with the company of this outgoing angel. He was rarely bored, and having someone to bicker with made life more interesting.
You really love football,
Jude said it in a sarcastic tone.
Don’t you like it? I thought you came from Brazil.
Tang En glanced at her.
Of course! I am Brazilian. I like football, too. So let me change my words…. you do not just like it! You are obsessed with it! Obsessed!
Jude pointed at Tang En and announced loudly,
You are obsessed with football, just like how you can be obsessed with women!
What do you know about obsession with women!
Tang En let go of Jude’s hand and pointed at her.
Football and women are two separate things. Are you hungry now? C’mon. I’ll take you to get something to eat.
Jude thought it was weird that they were leaving.
Are you not going in?
Tang En raised his head and looked at this magnificent stadium, then shook his head.
Jude, I am a football manager. You know that right?
Jude nodded, but she had no idea why he was asking.
If the day ever comes when I enter this place,
Tang En pointed at Bernabéu and said,
then there will only be two possible reasons why. One, because I brought my team here for a match. Or two, because I own the place.
Tang En’s back was to her when he said this, and Jude could not see his face.
Let’s leave here and go to lunch! I’ll take you to eat the famous Madrid ragout.
Tang En held Jude’s hand and left the football palace of his heart without looking back.
In the following days, Tang En took Jude to the home stadium of Madrid, Calderón, the home stadium of Barcelona, Camp Nou Stadium, and also to the Mestalla Stadium, which was the home stadium for Valencia. They rushed over to different cities as if they were running out of time, then roughly and briefly visited the stadiums in each city, and then went to the next destination.
Jude could only look at her beloved sun and beach from a distance, as well as the rippling sea far away from the windows on the train when they were passing the outskirts of Barcelona.
Although she had physically been in Spain for a week, she felt no different than being in Brazil or England. Did we go to Paradise City Malaga? Did we watch the famous bullfights? Did we go to the last land of heaven on the Mediterranean, Formentera Island? Did we go to the Seville Cathedral? Did we even go to Catedral de Santa Eulalia de Barcelona? We have not gone anywhere yet. All the hundreds of pictures in that phone’s gallery are of football stadiums!
She sighed and looked at Tang En, who was sleeping beside her, and pouted.
The vacation that she had been looking forward to would be over soon. So boring!
Tang En, who was so sleepy, and Jude, who was pouting about the trip, did not know that while they were running around Spain, someone was frantically searching for them in England.
The gentleman Finnan’s ritual was to read The Times newspaper after he finished his breakfast. After carefully reading the latest financial and political news, he saw a photo in the corner of one of the pages.
It was a notice for missing person. The extremely worried parents were asking for the public’s help in finding their daughter who ran away from home. Beside the photo was a clear description of the girl, including her name, age, and height.
The photo caught Finnan’s attention. He was sure he had seen her before. Then he realized that it was the girl from the cab, the sick one that had been curled up in Tony Twain’s arms.
Although he did not know the whole story, he felt it was his responsibility to call the number in the notice about the missing girl.
While waiting for their flight at the Madrid Airport, Tang En tried to sort through the photos in his camera. This was indeed a huge, time-consuming process, and Tang En did not expect to finish it in just this one short hour. Jude was sitting opposite him, kicking her legs back and forth. The constant movement of the two snowy white legs was very distracting.
Tang En kept his original position, but was secretly looking up to examine the little girl closely.
She seemed to be bored and did not sit still on the chair. She was looking around as if she did not know what to do. Sometimes she pouted while watching the planes landing and taking off outside the window. And sometimes she took out her nail file to file her nails. Then her attention was soon on the long beard of a man who sat diagonal to her.
That’s when Tang En realized that the whole time his mind had been on football and famous teams, and that he had unintentionally snubbed Jude. Despite this, Jude had not acted pissed off at all in front of him, and the most she ever did was sigh a lot or pout.
Tang En decided to try to do something for her, and he got up said,
Jude, I’ll be back in a while. Just wait for me here.
When she heard Tang En talking to her, the sadness on her face immediately faded, and she nodded.
Okay, I will wait for you here.
Coming out of the waiting area, Tang En looked around the terminal for a souvenir gift shop. He had meant to buy her something, but he forgot about it when they were in the tourist places. It was hard to find something suitable now to make up for it.
Tang En was just looking around without any particular plan, and then he found a shop that sold souvenirs. The soft toys posing cutely in the display case caught his attention. He was sure that girls liked cute little creatures like them.
He went into the shop to pick out one that Jude might like. There are so many of them! Which one would be best? Finally, he stopped on the largest soft toy, and it was a Totoro. He remembered when he first met Jude, there was a mini Totoro hanging on her bag. This is the one!
After returning to the waiting area, Jude was still filing her nails with her head lowered, though there was nothing much left to file. Since she was distracted, Tang En decided to tease her.
He quietly went over behind Jude’s seat and put the stuffed Totoro slowly in front of the girl. Tang En purposely lowered his voice to emulate the sound of Totoro.
Waaaaa!
Jude almost jumped off from her chain from fright.
Tang En could not help but laugh loudly as he watched her pop up in her seat.
Jude realized that she had been teased by Tang En and frowned. She sat with her lips tightly closed and did not say anything. She only glared at Tang En, but Tang En could not see any real anger in her eyes. He handed over the soft toy to Jude, who was pretending to be agitated.
See, this is for you. At first, I said I was taking you on a trip, but it turns out that you accompanied me in my pursuits. I have totally forgotten about your feelings.
Tang En felt embarrassed as he said this, and he nervously touched his nose and scratched his head with his free hand and did not know where to put.
Jude made a
hmm
sound in reply to Tang En, noticing his embarrassment. But then she took the soft toy and hugged her face into the fluffy Totoro.
Totoro!
she shouted with excitement into its fur
Seeing her mood was better, Tang En felt relieved.
His holiday was over, and he needed to face the new training for the upcoming season when he got back to Nottingham. Although the team was still on their holiday, he, as manager, had to prepare in advance. What if his work got super busy and irregular? Then how was he going to take care of Jude? He had to face the question that he had been avoiding for a week.
After one week’s time with her, Tang En discovered many adorable and pleasing things about Jude. He felt that perhaps his life would not be so bland with the company of this outgoing little girl. Before he met Jude, his life was actually very simple and boring. Except for his job, he spent most of the time in bars and occasionally looked forward to Yang Yan’s lessons.
If Jude also enjoyed spending time with him, why not just adopt her? Especially since she had been adopted by cruel parents. Actually, the real reason for wanting to adopt her—that Tang En kept hidden in his heart and maybe even from himself—was that this 13-year-old intelligent little girl made him think of another child, who would be around the same age as her, but would never have the chance to show his smile.
Jude, do you still want to go home? Uh, I am referring to your home in Brazil.
Jude shook her head while she was happily playing with Totoro.
Then…you…
Tang En did not know how to ask that question.
I can just live with Uncle Tony. Don’t worry. I will not make any trouble for you!
This was what Tang En wanted to hear, and he grinned. However, his heart frowned. The child thinks that this is going to be an easy thing. Though Tang En had never adopted any children, he knew that the process would be complicated. It looks like this summer is going to be busier than usual. Maybe I’ll have to find that lawyer, Jack Landy, to ask about legal procedures for adoption.
Tang En could not stand it as he watched Jude hugging the Totoro who was almost half her size. He shook his head and laughed. It was quite unexpected that he did not have wife, but had a child instead.
