Rony's Plea

His brace against Loretano greatly improved Su Dong's standing at Sporting Portugal.

Although the club had already valued him before, after this match, everyone clearly realized his potential and future.

At sixteen, putting on such a performance, along with the rate of progress he'd shown over the past period, Su Dong's future was definitely worth looking forward to, and a player like this probably wouldn't stay at Sporting Portugal much longer.

Not only were Matello and the others friendly toward Su Dong, even the starting striker he'd pushed aside didn't hold a grudge against him.

For one, Su Dong now had the club's full backing; for another, they all felt he wouldn't be around long.

Since that was the case, why make an enemy?

The Portuguese Second Division didn't carry much influence; in fact, away from home, hardly anyone paid attention.

After scoring his brace, Su Dong was excited for a whole night, but he quickly returned to normal.

He still did the same as before: waking up at a little past four every morning, starting with physical training, then heading to Edward VII Park to train with Rony until the afternoon, returning to the club for practice, and then doing an extra hour of drills with Matello.

The difference was that two more people had joined the training group.

One was the midfielder who'd threaded the through ball to Su Dong against Loretano, Canelas, a product of Benfica's youth academy.

This twenty-one-year-old had good passing, plenty of ideas, and solid footwork, but he was short and physically weak, which put him at a big disadvantage in senior matches.

Though they hadn't known each other before, after that one game, he struck up a friendship with Su Dong.

The other was the right winger who'd also set up Su Dong with a great pass, Baru.

This twenty-four-year-old had African heritage and came from Belenenses' youth system. His fundamentals were decent, but nothing special; his biggest asset was his speed, and his physicality was also quite good, which made him very effective in lower-tier teams.

Canelas and Baru were both full-time players at Sporting Portugal, showing the club recognized their ability.

With two more people to train with, the drills became more varied, reportedly arranged personally by head coach Gorba.

All of this sent a clear message to everyone: the club was treating Su Dong as their top prospect, with the ultimate goal of cashing in on a transfer fee from him.

Su Dong didn't mind that.

Treating players like commodities might seem cold, but wasn't it a win-win?

Besides, when the time came for a transfer, his opinion would still be the final say.

After all, he'd only signed a youth contract.

In the rhythm of a full life, another week passed quickly.

The Portuguese Second Division ushered in its third round of matches.

This time, Sporting Portugal was away again, facing a tough opponent: the B team of Maritimo, a Portuguese Super League side.

As one of the stronger teams in the top flight, Maritimo's B team wasn't weak; in the Portuguese Second Division South Group, they consistently ranked in the upper-middle, a notch above Sporting Portugal.

Unlike the first away match, this trip was far away on the Madeira Islands, off the European mainland.

The Madeira Islands lie west of the African continent, neighboring Spain's Canary Islands, both famous tourist destinations. Flights from Lisbon to Madeira ran daily, taking about two hours.

While it was possible to fly in and out on match day, that was too rushed, so the usual practice was to arrive a day early, stay overnight to recharge, and return the same night after the game.

Sporting Portugal did the same this time.

When head coach Pereira announced the matchday squad, Su Dong unsurprisingly made the cut.

Though Pereira later told him he'd still be on the bench, Su Dong was still thrilled.

Making the squad consistently said it all.

The evening before the match, after finishing training and packing his bags at the dorm, Su Dong got a call from Rony.

"What are you doing here?"

Su Dong jogged downstairs and saw Rony standing at the street corner below, carrying bags of stuff, and hurried over.

"The thought of not seeing you tomorrow got to me, so I had to come by." Rony put on a dramatic, pained expression.

"Aren't you going to invite me up?"

Su Dong hesitated for a moment, but still led his guest upstairs.

The apartment he lived in—if you could call it that—was a single room, old and rundown, with aging facilities and a lot lacking. The hallway and corridor were pitch black.

As soon as Rony stepped inside, his brow furrowed and stayed that way.

He'd often complained to Su Dong about his old digs at Gate 10 of Alvalade Stadium—how awful the conditions were, a four-person room and all—but compared to where Su Dong was now, living in the stadium dorm back then might not have been five-star, but it was definitely a three-star hotel.

Su Dong had never mentioned his living situation, and Rony had never asked. It was only because he had something to discuss today that he'd tracked down the address Su Dong had once given him, never expecting to see such a miserable setup.

This place had nothing going for it except being cheap.

"My old agent rented this for me," Su Dong explained, noticing Rony's expression.

"I don't have high standards for where I live, as long as I can focus on playing football. So I never thought about moving."

Rony nodded quickly. That was exactly Su Dong's style.

Once inside, he saw the room had floor mats, a metal bar hanging in the hallway, and some sandbags in the corner—all things Rony had bought earlier with Su Dong for physical training.

Taking advantage of Rony not paying attention, Su Dong turned and swapped out two bottles of Bull from the system, casually handing one to Rony.

"Alright, what did you want to see me about?" Su Dong asked with a smile.

Knowing Su Dong would soon have to report to the team, Rony didn't waste any more time.

"This morning, you told me you made the roster and were heading to the Madeira Islands for a match, right?"

"Yeah." Su Dong had mentioned it to him that morning.

"Then you probably don't know that Marítimo's reserve team's home ground is right at my doorstep."

"What?" Su Dong was a bit surprised.

How could it be at Rony's doorstep?

"I joined Andorinha when I was nine. Our training ground is a few hundred meters north of the Marítimo training center, and my house is on the little hill west of that center, far from the tourist areas where visitors gather."

Su Dong nodded, but quickly thought of another question. "But I remember you used to be in the Nacional youth academy."

"That's right." Rony grinned and nodded. "I was almost set to join Marítimo—I even bought their jersey—but they didn't take me seriously. They skipped out on the negotiations, which pissed us off, so I went to Nacional, a few dozen kilometers away. That's why I can only train three times a week."

Su Dong finally understood. So that's how it was.

"The people at Marítimo must be kicking themselves now."

Rony shrugged, unconcerned.

Even though he hadn't made a name for himself yet, Marítimo missing out on a player like him—there's no way they wouldn't regret it.

But who could they blame?

"You want me to bring something?" Su Dong glanced at the bags in Rony's hands.

Rony nodded and handed them over. "These are some gifts I bought for my family, plus a Sony PlayStation. I was planning to take time off later and deliver them myself, but since you're heading there now, could you take them for me?"

"Of course." Su Dong nodded without hesitation.

This was the first time Rony had asked him for a favor; he couldn't refuse.

Besides, as far as he knew, Funchal, where Marítimo was based, was tiny. The team's accommodation was probably not far from Rony's house—a quick cab ride away.

"Thanks." Rony expressed his gratitude.

Su Dong quickly told him not to be polite.

Rony stayed a bit longer, looking like he wanted to say something more, but in the end, he didn't. He just said he'd call home tonight, then wrote down an address for Su Dong, telling him to mention it to the cab driver and he'd know the place.

After putting the address away, Su Dong saw Rony out downstairs and then went back to pack his things.

At 7:30 that evening, Sporting Portugal flew from Lisbon Airport on TAP Air Portugal, catching the last—and cheapest—discount flight to the Madeira Islands.

The Madeira Islands are known as the Island of Eternal Spring.

As the name suggests, it's spring-like all year round, with temperatures never exceeding 33 degrees Celsius—warm in winter, cool in summer, perfect for vacations.

Every year, countless tourists travel south from mainland Europe to visit the Madeira Islands.

Sporting Portugal's group arrived late at night, went straight from the airport to the hotel, which wasn't anything fancy—just close to the match venue.

The next day dawned clear and cloudless.

Su Dong, as usual, got up early, worked out a bit with the hotel's simple exercise equipment, had breakfast with the team, then found head coach Pereira and captain Matello to ask for a short leave.

Although the coaching staff forbade players from going out without reason, when they heard Su Dong was delivering something for a friend, they didn't make things difficult. They just told him to be careful, remember the coach's and captain's numbers, and contact them if anything came up.

After their reminders, Su Dong got into the cab the hotel had arranged for him.

As soon as he got in, he handed the driver the address Rony had written.

"Falcao Village. I know the place—right next to Santo António Cemetery." The driver recognized it immediately.

He drove Su Dong out of the hotel and headed north.

The cab was called by the hotel, so Su Dong wasn't worried about safety. He just asked the driver to wait for him a moment—he'd leave right after dropping off the stuff.

"That Ronaldo guy asked you to bring this, didn't he?" the driver chatted curiously as he drove.

"How did you know?" Su Dong was surprised.

"He's a bit of a local celebrity around here. Same name as Ronaldo, plays great ball. Some journalist even came all the way from Lisbon to cover him—lots of folks here know about him."

Su Dong smiled faintly, not surprised by that.

"But his family's had something come up recently."

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