Cristiano Ronaldo? Who Is Lionel Messi?

"It's over, it's over..."

As Hu Lai walked into the classroom, he kept muttering under his breath, his face full of worry.

Not being able to play the game last night had annoyed him badly, but he had no time to be annoyed now. The moment he woke up, he realized something serious—his facial data had all been collected by that game or whatever it was, and then the game had vanished. Could it have been some hacker's Trojan program? One designed specifically to collect the facial data of kindhearted people like him who trusted others too easily?

In this day and age, when you could pay just by scanning your face, facial data was as important as fingerprints and bank passwords.

Could that mysterious hacker or organization use his facial data to steal his assets?

How could he have been so stupid as to believe there really was a game that could use 3D scanning technology to create a model?

If such an awesome game really existed, why wasn't there any news about it online? Why wasn't there even a single review in the app store?

So this was obviously a Trojan program!

"It's over, it's over..."

Sitting at his desk, Hu Lai had no interest in packing his schoolbag. He just stared blankly at the desktop and muttered to himself.

He began worrying about the money in his WeChat wallet. Every cent of it had been painstakingly saved from snatching red packets in the class group and family group.

"What's over?" The fat boy sitting beside Hu Lai, the one who had bumped into him yesterday, asked curiously. "Hu Lai, did you get yourself into trouble again?"

Hearing that, Hu Lai turned to his deskmate. "Hey, Song Fatty, let me ask you something... If your fingerprint or password got leaked, would you be afraid of the money in your WeChat and Alipay getting stolen?"

Song Fatty nodded seriously. "Of course I would!"

Hu Lai pointed at himself.

"What?"

"My... my password got stolen."

Song Fatty's expression relaxed. "Oh, yours... Then there's nothing to worry about. You don't even have fifty yuan in WeChat and Alipay combined. Even if your password got stolen, the account thief would probably cry from how poor you are when they saw your assets. Maybe they'd feel sorry for you and top you up with another ten yuan. Wouldn't that be a profit for you?"

Hu Lai got angry. "What do you mean? You looking down on me? What's wrong with forty-eight yuan and seventy-three cents? Even a mosquito is still meat! If you've got the guts, don't snatch my red packets every time I send one!"

"Don't even mention the red packets you send. One yuan split into a hundred shares... Damn it, there aren't even fifty people in the class group. Every time you send a red packet, you can still get back at least fifty-four cents!"

"Then don't grab them! You're always the first one to grab them!"

"My hands are fast. Is that a crime?"

"Fine, fine, your hands are fast. You're fast, you fast gunner, damn fast!"

While the two were bickering, a group of boys walked in from outside the classroom. Luo Kai was among them, surrounded by several boys, and they were passionately discussing the football match from early that morning.

"Caesar scored another hat trick! He's seriously incredible!"

"Yeah, yeah! Your uncle is still your uncle. He really deserves the name 'Emperor Caesar'!"

"That free kick was insanely awesome! Before Caesar took it, he deliberately pointed at the top-right corner of the goal, then kicked the ball right in from there! Calling his shot like that was unbelievably cool!"

"Where the Emperor's blade points, none can stand against it!"

"Even the way he popped his collar after scoring was as domineering as ever!"

"Hey, don't you think Brother Kai is actually a lot like the Emperor?"

"Now that you mention it, he really is! Brother Kai and Caesar both have 'Kai' in their names!"

Amid everyone's praise, Luo Kai did not speak up to deny it. He simply kept smiling that smile that could make girls blush.

Clearly, he enjoyed the flattery.

Of course, he did not imitate Caesar by popping his collar right then, because his school uniform collar was already standing up.

Just as Luo Kai was feeling pleased with himself, a grating voice rang out. "Where did this Caesar guy even come from?"

The praise came to an abrupt stop, and everyone turned toward the source of the voice—Hu Lai was sitting at his desk, looking slightly up at them as they entered through the back door.

"Hu Lai, what did you say?" The boy who had refused to be Hu Lai's dad yesterday glared at him. He felt that Hu Lai was deliberately picking a fight with Brother Kai.

Hu Lai asked with a puzzled look, "Didn't you guys say Luo Kai looked like Cristiano Ronaldo before? Because they both have Luo in their names. Why has he suddenly become like Caesar instead? Wasn't Caesar that Roman emperor? Did he travel through time and get reborn? Can he play football too?"

The boy frowned. "What the hell is Xiluo?"

"Not Xiluo, Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano Ronaldo. Li Zhiqun, you don't even know Cristiano Ronaldo, and you call yourself a football fan?" Hu Lai looked so sincere that no one could tell whether he was genuinely asking or mocking Li Zhiqun.

"You don't even know Caesar, and you have the nerve to talk about me?" Li Zhiqun shot back.

Hu Lai smiled confidently. "There's no point arguing for the sake of arguing, Li Zhiqun. Ask everyone—are there more people who know Cristiano Ronaldo, or more people who know some Caesar guy? Speaking of 'the Emperor,' I do know a player with that nickname, but it wasn't originally meant as a compliment..."

Before Hu Lai could finish, a burst of laughter erupted from the group opposite him.

"I told you, Li Zhiqun, why lower yourself to Hu Lai's level? He lives up to his name," someone among them said with a laugh.

"Exactly, exactly!" Someone in the crowd pointed at their head, implying that Hu Lai had something wrong with his brain.

"Who knows what kind of stimulation Hu Lai got today..."

"His account got stolen!" Song Fatty, Hu Lai's deskmate, raised his hand.

"No wonder, no wonder! The loss must have been huge, huh? Losing fifty yuan must be heartbreaking!"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Who has fifty yuan?"

"I understand Hu Lai now. Everyone should stop provoking him, or Hu Lai really might start acting recklessly! Let me tell you, when Hu Lai goes crazy, even he's afraid of himself!"

"Hahaha!" Another round of laughter broke out as they clustered around Luo Kai and walked away.

Hu Lai turned and glared at his deskmate, then grumbled, "How can they possibly not know Cristiano Ronaldo? They're just twisting words and arguing for the sake of it. What's the point?"

Song Fatty, who had heard him, carefully looked Hu Lai over. "Hey, Hu Lai, it's only fifty yuan. You didn't seriously get so mad that you lost your mind, did you?"

"What?" Hu Lai's tone was unfriendly. "You actually betrayed me just now. I'm cutting ties with you..."

"No, who's this Cristiano Ronaldo you've been going on about?" Song Fatty asked, deeply confused.

Hu Lai was indignant. "You're in on it with them too? Cristiano Ronaldo! Cristiano Ronaldo! Real Madrid's number seven, one of the 'Peerless Twin Stars' alongside Lionel Messi. How can you not know him?"

Song Fatty looked even more confused. "What's Real Madrid? And who's Lionel Messi?"

Hu Lai opened his mouth to snap back, but when he saw Song Fatty's expression, he froze. No matter how he looked at it, Song Fatty's confusion did not seem fake.

So he asked cautiously, "You really don't know who Lionel Messi is? Lionel Messi, the Argentine superstar, Diego Maradona's successor, the real boss of Barcelona Football Club..."

That only earned him more questions from Song Fatty. "Who's Maradona? I know Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city, but what's Barcelona Football Club? And you're really funny, Hu Lai. Why do you sound like someone from Game of Thrones when you introduce a person, piling on a whole bunch of titles..."

"You know Game of Thrones, but you don't know Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? You don't even know Diego Maradona?" Hu Lai reached out and pinched Song Fatty's fleshy arm.

Song Fatty let out a scream, drawing sideways glances from the people around them. When they saw he was Hu Lai's deskmate, they merely looked away again as if it were nothing unusual.

"What are you doing, Hu Lai?" Song Fatty rubbed the spot Hu Lai had pinched red and complained unhappily.

"I was checking whether I'm dreaming."

"Then pinch yourself!"

"It hurts."

"You know it hurts, huh?" Song Fatty turned away angrily and ignored Hu Lai.

Hu Lai lowered his head and looked at his thigh. After hesitating for a moment, he still reached out and pinched it.

Then...

"Hiss—!" He sucked in a breath and collapsed onto the desk from the pain.

It hurt like hell! He wasn't dreaming!

They really didn't know who Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were?!

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