World Cup final. Penalty shootout. Final round.
Lin Shen saved the ball. The moment his fingertips touched the ball, he felt something - not victory, but a kind of tearing. The next second, he was standing in a dark red abandoned stadium, wearing the jersey of the opponent's forward. In the stands opposite, stood a man wearing his jersey. The man's foot slipped from the collision post when he was just making a save and died on the spot. The face is exactly like his. That's not a ghost. That was "another possibility" abandoned by his success.
Every genius is born, stepping on countless corpses of himself. Those who retired due to injuries, those who failed in trials, those who never stepped onto the court - they have not been forgotten, they are just imprisoned in this "Trajectory Exhibition Hall", waiting to be seen. Lin Shen must face the "self" whose existence has been denied due to his success. Not a fight, but a reconciliation. Not escape, but acceptance. When he finally said "I'm sorry" and "Thank you", the dark red sky began to fade. The figure showed a calm expression for the first time: "I will always be the shadow under your fingertips. But it doesn't matter. Being seen is enough."
Lin Shen opened his eyes in front of the goal. Teammates rushed over and the whole place erupted. He knelt on the goal line, tears streaming down his face. No one knew why he was crying. From then on, he would close his eyes briefly before every save - he was making sure that the shadow was still there. That was his trajectory. His price. His other half.
