Sun Hao had nearly forgotten the dream he had in the bar that day, after so much time had passed.
But Lartigue's words brought the dream flooding back all at once.
The name he had kept calling out turned out to be Jocelyn.
Even with a fully mature Angela sitting beside him, the name he called in his dream had still been Jocelyn.
In an instant, everything from the past resurfaced in his mind.
"I was born in New York, but my father is Danish and my mother is American. They met in Denmark."
"This is my email. Make sure you write to me."
"Sun."
Lartigue pulled Sun Hao back from his thoughts.
"No, she must have misheard."
Sun Hao shook his head directly. He would never admit it.
Lartigue froze for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter.
For that instant, his face carried the feeling of someone who had found his youth again.
After leaving the things behind, he got up and left.
After seeing Lartigue off, Sun Hao stared blankly out the window for a long while before finally patting his own head.
Damn it, were first loves really that hard to forget?
After returning to Spain from Italy, the first thing Sun Hao did was open the email account he had not touched in two years.
Before opening it, he had felt hopeful. But after opening it and seeing an inbox full of automated messages, he was disappointed again.
In the end, he shut down the computer and swore he would never look at it again.
Whoever looked was a dog!
After losing their opening UEFA Champions League match, Real Madrid Team returned to Spain, where Laso reviewed the team's performance and arranged targeted training.
It was obvious that the team's overall mentality had changed from before.
It was like someone walking along, suddenly seeing a mountain rise before them, taking a fall, then climbing to the summit and discovering a broader view than before.
After two days of rest, Real Madrid Team continued their La Liga schedule.
This time, their opponent was Alcant team, who had eliminated them last season.
After winning the title last season, Alcant team underwent a magnificent transformation in the new season, leaping into the league's top tier alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona Team.
So far, they held a 7-1 record, second only to Real Madrid and ahead of Barcelona Team in second place.
Calderon in particular averaged 12.6 points and 3.6 assists per game, making him one of La Liga's best Point Guards.
This matchup looked destined to be a fierce battle.
But once the game actually began, its course left the fans dumbfounded.
Real Madrid Team suppressed Alcant team from the opening tip and ultimately cruised to a 70-50 victory.
The biggest contributor to the win was not Sun Hao, but Prigioni.
The Point Guard who had been thoroughly dominated by Calderon in last season's playoffs hounded Calderon relentlessly all game, falling down, getting back up, falling again, and rising once more.
The fans could see how badly he wanted to avenge last season's humiliation, and they could also see the work he had put in over the summer toward that goal.
Alcant team's weakness was exposed in this game as well.
They had Calderon on the perimeter, but no reliable offensive focal point inside.
Once Calderon was contained, their offense suffered enormous problems.
Moreover, having just lost in the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid Team displayed their best details and intensity of the season.
With both factors at play, Alcant team's loss was hardly undeserved.
Riding that momentum, Real Madrid Team continued their winning streak.
By the twelfth round of league play, they had achieved an unbelievable twelve straight wins!
They had broken the record for the longest winning streak to start a La Liga season!
The fans had gone from the freezing winter of last season's semifinal exit straight into the scorching summer of nonstop wins, experiencing the extremes of ice and fire firsthand.
But a season was long. The reason those historically great teams could keep winning, besides strength, was that luck also mattered greatly.
Real Madrid Team's opponent in the thirteenth round was their longtime rival, Barcelona Team.
Barcelona Team had improved significantly this season.
That improvement came from two young players on the team, Navarro and Gasol.
The two had become Barcelona Team regulars in the second half of last season, and their performances had risen to another level this season.
Navarro in particular was averaging 11.8 points and 2.6 assists, already showing the ability of a top European guard.
Playing on the road, Real Madrid Team fell into a passive position from the opening minutes.
They spent the entire night chasing the score, and the physicality on the court was incredibly intense, with players constantly being knocked to the floor.
It was not until the fourth quarter, when Sun Hao found his touch from outside and hit two Three-pointers in a row, that Real Madrid Team finally tied the game.
In the final deciding stretch, the physical battle on the court grew even fiercer.
Then an accident occurred. Prigioni landed awkwardly while defending and sprained his ankle, requiring the team doctors to help him off the court.
With Prigioni out, the backcourt's strength dropped sharply, and Real Madrid Team regrettably lost the game.
Worse than the loss, Prigioni's postgame MRI came back positive for an ankle sprain. He was expected to miss two to three months.
This was absolutely terrible news for Real Madrid Team.
Thinking back, Prigioni had also missed a month with injury last season. He had a fragile body, and since he had played even harder this season, the injury was not entirely unexpected.
The problem was that this absence would last far too long.
And when Prigioni had been injured last time, the team had discovered Sun Hao. But it would be difficult to find a second one this year.
Laso's coaching would also face a challenge. How to arrange his lineup became his next major concern.
Laso's initial strategy was to continue using the Dual Point Guard Tactic, starting Lopez and Sun Hao together in the backcourt.
But the results were poor.
Against Bilbao Team, although they ultimately won, the opposing guards combined for a full 30 points.
The pair had no problem offensively. The problem was on defense.
They were both relatively short. Not only were they repeatedly targeted by opponents, but their ability to obstruct the opposing perimeter players' vision was also limited.
Laso persisted for one more game, but against the stronger Manresa, their perimeter defense was thoroughly exposed and the team lost as well.
Fortunately, Laso reacted quickly. After trying it for two games, he abandoned the idea and put the original Shooting Guard, Trinidad, back into the starting lineup.
Trinidad was a capable defender, but he had almost no perimeter shooting ability.
That pairing meant the team's perimeter offense had to rely entirely on Sun Hao.
Sun Hao did not disappoint Laso.
Although his passing was not as good as Prigioni's, with the Silver Grade Basketball IQ Badge, his playmaking ability was no worse.
Of course, the most important thing was that he could score!
He scored 19 points to lead the team past Murcia Team, exploded for 22 points against Burgos Team to tie his single-game scoring record and lead the team to another win, and although they lost against Tesla Mi Team, he set a new single-game scoring record again with a wild 25 points!
As he kept scoring, he also broke La Liga's scoring record for players under eighteen again and again.
Over the week's games, he averaged 22 points per game!
That kind of performance was crazy in La Liga, and even across the entire European League!
The nickname Napoleon of China was no longer limited to Spain. It began sweeping across the entire European continent.
Sun Hao was not even eighteen yet!
And his unprecedented style of scoring set off an unparalleled storm across Europe.
Fans poured into arenas just to watch his scoring performances!
Some fans even imitated his style on outdoor courts, repeatedly firing away from the perimeter!
Even in the upcoming game against Obaduru Team, scouts from NCAA University of Connecticut and the NBA Spurs appeared courtside!
University of Connecticut was renowned for producing quality perimeter shooters, and young players with Sun Hao's outstanding Set shot ability were among their key recruiting targets.
As for the Spurs, overseas players were their favorite!
Sun Hao would turn eighteen after this season, and such a crazy performance was well worth their attention.
Sun Hao continued his hot form in this game, hitting six Three-pointers from outside for 26 points and once again setting a new personal La Liga single-game scoring record!
For three straight games, Sun Hao proved one thing to the fans: records were made to be broken!
After the game, scouts from UConn and the Spurs both came to the locker room.
The two had clearly spoken beforehand, and they approached Sun Hao one after the other with their invitations.
"We want you to come play at University of Connecticut. We'll provide you with a full scholarship."
"We want you to attend a workout for the Spurs before this year's Draft. I understand that you will be eighteen before the Draft."
The two invitations were exactly like the ones he had received after the domestic high school finals.
The difference was that one invitation offered a full scholarship, while the other was a workout with an NBA team!
Compared with before, these two invitations were far, far more generous.
Before you continue