Return to Sao Paulo

On the other end of the line, Vizoli was clearly stunned by Chen Anno's words. It was not until three seconds later that a trembling voice came through. "Kid, did something happen? Are you... are you hurt?"

"Anno, listen to me. Medicine is very advanced now. Even if you're badly injured, you can be cured. Mm... I have some acquaintances over in Europe. I'll help you find the best doctors. Anno, tell me..."

Hearing the anxiety in Vizoli's voice, Chen Anno sniffed and wiped his eyes with his left hand. "Uncle Vizoli, I'm not hurt..."

After that, he briefly recounted what had happened since he returned from Brazil, including the incident today where he had hit the team leader.

Clang...!

Chen Anno heard the sound of something being smashed on the other end. Then came Vizoli's furious roar. "Bullshit! This is all fucking bullshit! How can there be people this shortsighted in the world!?"

"Anno, listen to me, kid. Come back. Come back to Brazil. This is your home, all right? Tomorrow I'll... no, I'll book you a plane ticket right now. Come back, kid."

[Sure enough, he's a kid raised in a barbaric country. He's only just been called up to a national-level team, and he's already hitting the team leader.]

[And what the hell is with "Sao Paulo State Twin Stars"? I don't know if the Brazilian media are blind or what. He can't even get a game in our Chinese Super League, yet they actually compare him to Neymar?]

[Exactly. Look at Neymar, low-key and modest, going to Barcelona for nearly ninety million in transfer fees. Chen Anno not only can't even get on the pitch, he gets into fights too. The gap is just way too big.]

[That's right. The national team can't make the World Cup because it's been led astray by people like this who can't play football and have rotten character too.]

In the airport waiting hall, Chen Anno was scrolling through the news online.

"Bro..." Chen Xiaolong sat beside Chen Anno and spoke cautiously. "Let's not read this kind of news anymore. I got so mad reading it I couldn't even eat..."

Chen Anno's face, however, was surprisingly calm. Hearing his younger brother's words, he still put away the iPhone 4S in his hand.

His second uncle had given it to him just last month, a gift to celebrate his selection for the U17 National Youth Team.

"Don't worry, Xiaolong. What hasn't your brother seen? These keyboard warriors online—I, Chen Anno, won't stoop to their level." Though he said that, a fierce unwillingness to lose burned in the young man's eyes. "One day, I'll make them swallow every single word they said today!"

Chen Anno wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders and said with a smile, "Xiaolong, believe it or not, in less than two years, you'll see me on TV. By then, your brother will already be playing in the Top Five Leagues."

"Mm!! I believe you!" Chen Xiaolong always listened to Chen Anno the most. Of course he believed what his brother said. Although he did not know which country's leagues the Top Five Leagues were, if his brother said it, then it was right.

"I said before we left that we should bring one more suitcase, but you insisted on stuffing everything in..."

"Now you're blaming me? Our little Anno is going so far away, so what's wrong with me packing more things for him?"

"What do you mean, your little Anno? He's my biological nephew..."

"Oh, Chen Shouqing, is your nephew not my nephew too? You're drawing the line that clearly—are you trying to split the family with me...?"

As the two voices came closer from afar, the Chen Anno brothers could not help but look at each other, both showing a hint of helplessness at the same time.

Chen Anno stood up and looked toward his second uncle and aunt. Both of them were sweating from all the rushing around, yet they were still bickering nonstop.

"Mission accomplished! Anno, your second aunt and I checked in all your luggage for you. Those local specialties, and your favorite Lao Gan Ma, I packed them all in. When you get over there, remember to give that... Dazuo..."

"Second Uncle, it's Vizoli." Chen Anno did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Right, right, right... that Mr. Vizoli. Bring him some local specialties. You'll still need to rely on him to take care of you over there," Chen Shouqing hurriedly said.

"Anno, are you really not letting your second uncle see you off? It's so far..." As his second aunt Zhang Mei spoke, her eyes began to redden. "I heard it's more than eighteen thousand li away. That's almost as far as one of Sun Wukong's cloud somersaults... How can we possibly stop worrying?"

"Mom... Sun Wukong's cloud somersault is a hundred and eight thousand li..."

The Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms smacked straight over, and Chen Xiaolong instantly shut his mouth.

Chen Anno held the two elders' hands. "Second Uncle, Second Aunt, don't worry. I grew up there. If Second Uncle went over, who knows which of us would be looking after the other."

By now, half a month had passed since Chen Anno had been expelled from the National Youth Team and the club.

It was only because Chen Anno himself had grown up in Brazil that the procedures had gone this quickly. Otherwise, it probably would not have been sorted out without at least a month.

"Anno, this is the bank card your parents left behind. I never figured out how to exchange the money, so I never touched it. Now that you're going back, take it with you." Chen Shouqing took a card from his wallet and handed it to Chen Anno.

It was actually a Banco do Brasil bank card.

"Second Uncle..." Chen Anno was a little stunned, because he knew very well that after returning to China, from the club to the National Youth Team, he had spent quite a bit of money. Yet his second uncle had never touched the inheritance his father had left behind... So all the previous expenses had been covered by his second uncle himself?

One had to know that his second uncle's entire family relied on a small community supermarket to support their whole livelihood. And Chen Anno had spent so much money over these years...

At the thought, Chen Anno's nose stung. Even his hand trembled a little as he reached out to take the bank card. "Second Uncle, don't worry. I'll work hard and make it as a player. I'll make sure you, Second Aunt, and Xiaolong all live good lives."

"Haha..." Chen Shouqing patted Chen Anno on the shoulder. "All right. Then your second uncle will be waiting to enjoy the good life thanks to our little Anno."

Chen Anno left, leaving the land his father had longed for all his life.

And Chen Xiaolong kept remembering what his brother had told him before he left. The first thing he did after returning home was log into an anonymous Tieba account and post a ten-minute-long recording in Football Bar.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves!

In less than three hours, that recording caused an uproar online and was reposted and commented on across all the major forums.

Less than three years had passed since the last football anti-corruption campaign. None of the fans who loved the sport could have imagined that something like this could still happen.

So it turned out that Chen Anno's situation was nothing like they had imagined. It had all been randomly fabricated by those parasites.

In an instant, petition posts sprang up online to clear Chen Anno's name and call for him to be recruited back into the team.

But Chen Anno himself seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, giving no response at all.

A reporter was the first to find Chen Anno's home and interview Chen Shouqing, only then learning that Chen Anno himself had already returned to Brazil.

However, it was also because of the Chen Anno incident that another internal football anti-corruption storm swept through the country.

But none of that had anything to do with Chen Anno himself anymore.

On April 16, 2013, a large Boeing 797-9 passenger plane flying from China to Sao Paulo, Brazil, landed at Sao Paulo International Airport.

Vizoli personally came to the airport to meet Chen Anno, then brought him and two oversized suitcases back to the place where he had once lived for fifteen years.

Sao Paulo was not only the largest city in Brazil, but in all of South America. Its permanent population exceeded twelve million, and it covered roughly fifteen hundred square kilometers.

Although Chen Fuqing had never sold his house in Sao Paulo, Chen Anno still followed Vizoli to the club. From then on, he would be living in the club dormitory.