The UEFA Youth League was a huge opportunity to make a fortune.
Hugo also had an insider like Ronaldo. If the information was detailed enough, they could even buy a relatively accurate score.
The rate of return was enough to drive people crazy.
"As long as we invest twenty thousand, our family won't be short of money for three to five years!" Hugo was extremely determined and unwilling to give up such a golden opportunity.
Of course, he cared about his family, but there was a serious problem with the way he chose to love them.
Kai firmly opposed this approach.
By the end, Kai and Hugo were red-faced and completely at odds.
If Ronaldo hadn't been standing between them, the two might have come to blows—well… to be more accurate, Kai would probably have been beaten unilaterally.
"Please leave. You're not welcome here! And don't ever come to Alcochete looking for Cristiano Ronaldo again. I will never allow you to harm him! Get out, get out! May you die like a dog!" Kai roared.
An eviction order was issued.
Ronaldo persuaded Hugo to leave first and handed him a bag.
Hugo took the bag and turned to leave, slamming the door so hard that the whole house shook.
The sound of his footsteps going downstairs was deafening.
"Kai, don't be angry. I'm sorry about this," Ronaldo said. He knew Kai was doing this for his sake.
But Hugo was his brother, after all.
The words "after all" are sometimes truly embarrassing. No matter how capable a person is, they will stumble over those two words.
Kai's expression suddenly changed. He was no longer angry at all.
He looked toward the door, put a finger to his lips to signal Ronaldo to be quiet, then deliberately raised his voice and said loudly, "Cristiano Ronaldo, don't tell your brother anything about the team in the future."
"Especially the next match."
"There's no way we can beat Feyenoord."
"You absolutely must not mention Coach Márcio's tactics to anyone."
"The conservative system he set up is meant to help us concede as few goals as possible."
"In this European match, a small loss would already count as a win. As long as the defeat isn't too ugly, both the fans and the club's top management can accept it."
"After all, we're the core of the team, but we're one or two years younger than players at the same level. Achieving this result is already good enough."
Hearing Kai "telling the truth" inside the house, Hugo—who had already stepped out—paused, then the corners of his mouth slowly lifted.
Young.
Chinese kids are still too young.
They don't even understand the saying, "Walls have ears."
This bet was stable.
Wait… "walls have ears" is a Chinese idiom, right?
…
Lisbon, a slum neighborhood.
"Hey, Hugo, how did it go?"
As soon as Hugo returned, his friends crowded around him excitedly.
"Of course there's no problem!" Hugo said confidently. "Small score, definitely a small score."
"Small score?" One of his friends was surprised.
Recently, Sporting Lisbon had been winning continuously, and their form had clearly improved.
Their star striker Cristiano Ronaldo topped the regional scoring charts, and their new midfielder Kai was already being praised as a master-class playmaker with deadly passing.
This European match was a do-or-die battle for qualification.
If they lost, their chances of advancing would be gone.
Sporting Lisbon was full of firepower, while Feyenoord also played attacking football and had a super striker in Robin van Persie, who was performing even better than Chris in European competition.
On top of that, youth matches were prone to high scores.
No matter how you looked at it, this game didn't seem like it would end with a small score.
"Feyenoord are too strong. Sporting Lisbon has no intention of winning," Hugo said confidently, recalling Kai's words and repeating them one by one. "Their European results aren't good, and they're just trying not to lose badly."
"But the league is different. They've found their rhythm there. If they go all out, they might even push into the North–South divisions or the Championship group."
"The club's senior management values league stability more."
"And Coach Márcio also needs league results to prove his coaching and youth training ability, rather than gambling everything on cup competitions that depend more on luck."
"So in the next European match, Sporting Lisbon will completely pull back. A 0–0 draw is the result they want most. Even if they concede, as long as it's not ugly, it's acceptable."
After Hugo finished speaking, everyone around him applauded enthusiastically.
Once his friends dispersed, Hugo opened the bag Ronaldo had given him.
There were two items inside.
The first was a book.
Hugo didn't even touch it.
The second was an envelope with some cash.
It wasn't much, but it was money Ronaldo had saved on food and accommodation while staying at Kai's house—a subsidy for the family, which he'd asked Hugo to bring back to their mother.
Hugo stared at the money for a long time, hesitating.
"Sorry, Chris. Brother will make a lot of money. Believe me."
Hugo clenched the cash tightly and made his choice.
"Mike, help me buy more. I want to stake more…"
…
"Are you crazy? You knew he was eavesdropping outside, and you still said all that?"
"You're insane!"
"I gave him one and a half thousand! That even included an advance subsidy!"
"What if he loses everything?"
"Our family can't afford this kind of trouble!"
Facing Ronaldo's near-hysterical outburst, Kai calmly added, "What's one and a half thousand? From your brother's behavior, it's obvious he's prepared more gambling funds. I'd say it's definitely not less than this amount."
Kai raised one finger.
Ronaldo instantly froze. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "Ten thousand? You mean… no, that's impossible. He doesn't have that much money, he—"
Kai looked straight at him. "But he has a lot of bad friends. Who do you think suggested the big bet first? It definitely wasn't your brother. To be honest, he's actually not that bad."
"Only milk sellers persuade people to drink milk."
"Only phone companies tell you why you need to upgrade your computer."
"People who persuade others to gamble are almost always bookmakers."
"Among that group of friends who've been hanging around your brother recently, there must be someone who's a runner for a bookie. Maybe there are even multiple layers of them. In short, aside from blank slates like your brother, most of them have other identities."
"I've never heard of your brother having friends like this before, right? Believe me, even their contact with him is selective—because he's the brother of Portugal's next Cristiano Ronaldo, a name already famous in the youth football world."
Ronaldo suddenly understood.
So that's how it was.
For ordinary fans, Cristiano Ronaldo was still an unknown name.
Even hardcore fans rarely paid attention beyond the reserve teams.
Who cared about U15 players?
But for people who made a living from football—scouts, youth coaches, gambling agencies, underground intermediaries—this name had long been familiar.
A fast player. A prolific scorer. Rapid improvement. An unshakable desire to win.
Sometimes, their judgment of young players was even more accurate than the clubs'.
Clubs might just be scratching lottery tickets.
But these people were betting their livelihoods on these kids.
Never use your hobby to challenge someone else's profession.
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