The Young Lion

A turbid Thames divides London into north and south. Traditionally, the south is poor and the north is rich, and the east is poor and the west is rich. Perhaps this is to blame for the German army. In World War II, London was bombed, and the east end of London was the hardest hit area. Abandonment has also formed the indomitable spiritual quality of East Londoners.

In 1986, Aldridge-Hall was ten years old. He was an East Londoner. Compared with children born in northwest London, he obviously had no innate material conditions to show off, but he lived in this mixed immigrant industrial area. In the circumstances, he was obviously lucky that his father, Arthur Hall, co-founded a glass factory here, which was small but sufficient to support his family, especially since Arthur had three sons.

Aldridge's eldest brother, Barnett, was eighteen years old and worked next to Arthur as a glass fitter with no future.

The second brother, Andrew, is only three years older than Aldridge and is still in school, but no matter how he looks at it, he will follow in the footsteps of the older brother and become a member of the blue-collar class.

Aldridge is a big kid, and his family sells glass, so at night he always sneaks a broken stone in his arms, and then takes advantage of the darkness to smash the windows of some immigrant restaurants or shops in the community...

Walking a lot at night, it is inevitable to run into ghosts.

At the end of May, Aldridge went out at night and planned to repeat his old tricks. His target was a new black video shop. He is tall and majestic, and he must manage his life carefully. He has inquired about the situation in the surrounding communities and heard rumors of naughty children smashing the glass, so he did not go upstairs to rest after the video store closed every night. Staying in a dark-lit shop, although more of a defense against thieves and robbers, has somehow become a wait-and-see.

crash

Sand burst into a roar in the darkened store after a small rock smashed the window glass and shot into the video store.

This made Aldrich, who had just thrown a stone outside the store, startled. He didn't expect the store to respond so quickly. He was so startled that he hurried into the alley across the street. In a panic, he walked in. At the dead end, when he heard the door of the video store across the street behind him open, he was almost scared to death. Although he was a native of East London, most of the immigrants here lived in clusters. The immigrants from Africa were united, and the immigrants from West Asia were different. Partner......

If it was broad daylight, Aldridge would naturally not be afraid. As long as the white people here saw that the black people were difficult for him as a child, no matter whether they knew it or not, there would naturally be someone to help him, and the black people would not dare to provoke the locals. Derich feared that he would fall into the hands of the blacks and be alone.

Facing the dead end, Aldrich's ten-year-old body was agile, and he climbed up the high wall to escape, but in his panic, the wall climbed up, but he accidentally fell to the ground, his head was hit with blood, and he fainted. died on the other side of the wall.

Sander jumped and scolded on the street, causing the surrounding movement, so someone soon found the unconscious Aldridge and kindly sent him to the hospital...

Aldridge was hospitalized for three days. His injuries were not serious, but after he woke up, he became dazed and silent. Even his parents, Arthur and Amelia, and his two older brothers, Barnett and Andrew, surrounded the bed. He didn't say a word, and even covered his head under the quilt to see no one. At one point, Arthur was anxious to find a doctor to ask if there was something wrong with his young son's head or if he had become a mute.

In fact, Aldrich is not only confused on the surface,

The heart is even more fearful. No one knows that under the skin of this ten-year-old child, there is a soul from thirty years later, and it is the soul of an atheist Chinese.

In line with the idea of ​​​​what he came, Aldridge quickly adapted to everything. He didn't know why he came to London in 1986. At least he didn't care about it. He was an orphan in China.

Three days later, Aldridge was discharged from the hospital. The Hall family prepared a sumptuous meal for Aldrich at home, but the family members were worried about Aldrich implicitly.

Aldridge, who used to be lively, playful and mischievous, suddenly became polite and peaceful after he was discharged from the hospital.

No one asked about this. It was only considered that Aldridge had learned a lot, and fell off the wall to break his blood. It was also a bloody lesson.

Since May 31 is the opening day of the World Cup in Mexico, the football atmosphere in London has not declined because of the end of the league. On the contrary, every fan hopes that England will be able to lift their eyebrows at the World Cup and teach the world's powers a lesson. World: Banning English teams from the Big Three is a loss for Europe and a loss for the world!

Although the ban on English clubs from European competitions was ordered by Iron Lady Thatcher.

In May of last year, the tragedy of Heysel massacre dealt a heavy blow to English football, not only because of the spiritual loss caused by the tragedy, but also the economy and even the national image.

At the beginning of the night, Aldridge was led by his two brothers to a fan bar in the community. The bar was full of smoke and smelled bad, but the atmosphere was very high.

Barnett casually greeted the young people he knew. Andrew also had friends who didn't talk much. Aldridge, who was only ten years old, was obviously out of place here, and there was no familiar face that caught his eye.

Fortunately, the two older brothers took him to the corner after greeting people.

Aldridge pricked up his ears and listened to the laughter of the surrounding fans, mostly about the game, where they were either talking about Millwall, the team supported by the community, or about the upcoming World Cup, among other things. In addition, you can occasionally hear the talk of the mad gang Wimbledon.

rogue!

The bar is full of foul language, and Aldridge has a certain understanding of these joking fans in his heart.

They don't talk about Millwall's season results, and they don't look forward to next season. They talk more about things outside the game, fighting, brawling, provoking opponent fans, how to embarrass opponent fans... .

No wonder, England's East London team is the most notorious, with two rivals known as the cradle of football hooligans: West Ham United and Millwall.

Just like the fans of Leeds United, no matter how long it has been in the past, they have always been considered the most extreme racist.

Chatting and chatting, many fans in the bar began to praise Wimbledon.

To be honest, Wimbledon has created a miracle in the past three years, completed the triple jump, and will appear in the first division next season, which is definitely a commendable achievement.

But to be praised by Millwall fans, it naturally has nothing to do with the team's record. The most important thing is the performance of Wimbledon players on the court. They are brutal and violent, and even the manager instills a kind of playing fight. Thought, for Millwall fans, this is the most appetizing game.

What is football?

Nothing to them!

Football is best a combination of boxing and American football with the feet!

It is difficult for Aldridge to integrate into such a public opinion environment. He can only lower his head and sneer in his heart: Crazy help Wimbledon?

Don't look at the smugness of the current gang, and even a mainstream whirlwind has been blowing in England, but after missing the World Cup in 1994, it was more or less affected by the adoption of rough play that led to the exit.

And Wimbledon is even more betrayed in the future, separated from the English team supported by the community, it is difficult to have a fan base.

Hey, give me a reference.

Just as Aldrich was thinking, Barnett sat down with a few bottles of wine, and directly gave the bottles to the two younger brothers, the last beer.

Although Andrew and Aldridge were still children, they didn't think there was anything wrong with drinking. The two of them turned their attention to the paper Barnett put on the table. On it was a list of 24 Mexican teams in detail. participating teams.

Barnett took a pen and wrote the names of several teams on another piece of white paper, then handed it to his two younger brothers and said, How is it? Champion England, runner-up Brazil, third and fourth are France and West Germany.

Thirteen-year-old Andrew knelt down on the board, looked down at the names of the four teams, and applauded.

Aldridge was confused for a moment before he suddenly realized: Big Brother wants to bet on the ball!

Aldridge hurriedly tried to stop it, but he swallowed the words again.

This is London, my eldest brother is an adult, and everything is legal.

But Aldridge looked at the names of the four teams and frowned.

Seeing his expression, Barnett chuckled: Why are you looking like this?

Aldrich looked up at the relaxed elder brother and asked solemnly, How much do you want to bet?

Barnett put away his smile and whispered: Five hundred pounds, I saved for two years.

He started working for Arthur two years ago.

Aldridge's sadness increased, but he shook his head and said: If you want five hundred pounds in return, don't support England to win the championship. You will be emotionally inclined. Don't waste money.

But we have Lineker.

Argentina and Maradona, why do you think Argentina can't even make it to the semi-finals?

Argentina can't beat England.

If you were talking about the Falklands War four years ago, yes, the UK won, but football and fighting are two different things. Otherwise, there would be no Brazil in the semi-finals.

Barnett was silent, his expression a little uncomfortable.

The hatred between England and Argentina is well known in the world. Four years ago, when England regained the Falkland Islands, the people naturally supported it in general, and naturally they did not like the losers.

Seeing that the elder brother stopped talking, Aldridge rolled his eyes and said softly, Lend me a hundred pounds, and I will bet too.

Then I want too!

Andrew also looked at his elder brother unwillingly.

Barnett performed his duties as an elder brother. He loved his two younger brothers very much on weekdays. The family was very united. This was probably one of the characteristics of East London families and groups. He nodded helplessly.

It is said that it is borrowed, in fact, it is no different from sending it.

Seeing that Big Brother agreed, Aldridge said, Well, Big Brother, let's bet on the teams that make it out of each group, how about that?

Barnett actually wanted to get rich overnight, betting on the championship, runner-up, and third or fourth place. The reward was amazing, but now he calms down and thinks it is better to seek stability.

The three brothers got together to discuss the teams that qualified for each group.

24 teams, two from each group, plus the four best-performing groups in the third place, make up 16 teams to enter the knockout stage.

They only guess the top two in the group.

Aldridge can't remember the group stage situation in his mind, only remember the champion and runner-up of this World Cup.

According to the conventional thinking, the strong teams of the six groups qualified for the qualifying. Aldrich asked his brother not to bet all the money at one time, but he himself asked his brother to help him bet 100 pounds on the champion Argentina and the runner-up West Germany. .

In fact, the only thing that impressed him was the match between the final and Maradona's Hand of God, but the odds of betting on the champion and runner-up before the match were high. When the top 8 and 4 of the knockout rounds are released, the return will obviously not be very high. .

The second brother, Andrew, treats his 100 pounds as a treasure, and he just carefully asked the older brother to help him bet on the teams that are sure to qualify in each group. Although the odds of the strong teams must be very low, Andrew does not have the strong heart to go all out. .