Chapter 1: The Demon of Dribbling
Brazil, 1950. (Baidu search 4G Chinese network update faster)
50 km from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the small town of PauGrande.
"So, you are the one who secretly occupies my body and goes to the textile factory to work for me while I am taking a nap these days? You mean...... You've been following me for a while and you're only going to be by my side? Your name is Thunder Wing? From China, born in 2021, thirteen years old this year? Oh! It's incredible! I mean, it's pretty cool. You're such an imaginative ghost. It's 1950 now, and this is Brazil! But for the sake of you having one leg long and one leg short, I allow you to kick the ball with my body when I don't want to move. Remember my name, okay my name is long, but you can call me Garrincha like my friends do! β
- Garrincha, Brazilian, one of Brazil's greatest players at the same time as Pele.
2034, China.
A car accident happened to an unfortunate boy, and passers-by screamed in horror about the tragedy.
"Oh my God! He bled a lot! Who's going to save him!! The boy looks very young, he may be fourteen years old, or even younger!! I found out his student ID! His name is Lei Yi, and he is only in the second year of junior high school this year! β
Brazil, 1951.
50 km from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the small town of PauGrande.
"Didn't I tell you? Garrincha, in Portuguese, is the name of a small bird. It can fly lightly, gracefully and quickly in the primeval forest. My friends say I run with the ball like Garrincha! So, how can you be sullen just because one leg is five centimeters longer than the other? One of my legs is six centimeters longer than the other! Even I had my left leg outwards and my right leg inwards, which was natural. But I can still run in the sun, and no one plays better than me! β
2035, China.
One of the closest hospitals to that crash.
"You'd better find the perpetrator of that car accident and make him pay as much as you can. The patient's body was severely injured, and although the operation was successful, he still had to undergo more than one operation. Depending on your family's situation, it may be difficult to cover these subsequent medical expenses. And even more regrettable to us, the patient received a strong blow to the head, and we do not rule out the possibility that he will become a vegetative state. β
Brazil, 1952.
"Oh, please, Lei Yi, stop telling me that if I continue to skip work and be lazy, I will lose my job. The boss wouldn't do that, he needed me to play football for the factory team! If he really can't take it anymore, I'll ...... I remember to put on my shoes and stop sneaking home early to catch the last train. β
-- As a teenager, Garrincha was encouraged by his friends to try out for a big team because of his excellent football skills. But for the first time, he was turned away because he didn't wear shoes. The second time, he slipped home early to catch the last train. It wasn't until he was nineteen years old that he was very reluctant and dragged by passing players to the Brazilian Serie A club Botafogo.
In his first full game, Garrincha scored a hat-trick.
Two years later, he was selected for the Brazilian national team.
In his international career, he won 52 and drew seven in 60 games, with just one defeat.
Brazil, 1958.
"Hey! You played well last game, Thunderwing! No one found out that it wasn't me playing that game! No, no, no, Bailey didn't, and Bailey didn't find out! Okay, okay, Pele found out, and he said that I seemed to play very seriously in the last game, I didn't play with the goalkeeper, and I didn't continue to compete with me after the ball went out of the touchline...... Oh, Thunder Wing, please stop talking! Please, don't be like Bailey who keeps telling me not to drink! Don't go to women! You know, if you hadn't been chasing me and asking me to do this and that, I wouldn't have spent so much time playing football every day, men should fish and hunt and have women, of course I love football, but I was born to be loose, you can't ask me to change myself for it just because I like football. β
- In 1958, Garrincha, who played as a right winger, and Pele, who was only 17 years old at the time, teamed up to win the World Cup.
Brazil, 1962.
"Thunder Wing! I'm!! You shouldn't have grabbed my body with me when I was dating Miss Elsie!! You shouldn't have taken my body while I was drunk and begged my friends to take care of me, tell them not to listen to my nonsense as long as I was drinking, or even let them tie me up when they saw me pick up a bottle!! This question is very strict, and it is also very strict! Don't expect me to forgive you! β
ββIn 1962, during the Intellectual World Cup, Pele said goodbye to the World Cup early due to injury. But the Brazilians also have Garrincha. In the two crucial knockout matches, Garrincha contributed two goals each in Brazil's 3-1 win over England and 4-2 win over Chile, leading Brazil's ascent to the top. At the same time, he won two World Cup awards that year, the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball. The World Cup that year belonged to Brazilians and to Garrincha.
Garrincha's left and right legs differ in length by six centimeters. This alone is enough for him to become a third-degree physical disability in medicine. But he was also born with a deformity with his left leg facing outwards and his right leg turning inward.
But with such a pair of legs, he became the first dribbling demon in football history.
Countless strikers want to learn from his almost bizarre skills.
But it would be a century, and there would be no such person.
In 2036, a shabby, poverty-filled residential area.
A scruffy-looking woman in loungewear is humming a song while mopping the floor with a mop. Sunlight shone through the blinds onto a hospital bed not far from her.
On that hospital bed, which could be gently propelled, lay a teenager who had fallen into a deep sleep for a year.
A year ago, he was caught in a car accident on his way home from school.
Under the investigation and pursuit of the police, the driver who escaped after the accident was recovered, and the poor family recovered enough compensation to pay a huge handling fee. But after that car accident, the 14-year-old boy became a vegetative state. The doctor said he could wake up tomorrow or next week, or he might never wake up.
For the longer term, the boy's parents decided to take him home from the hospital and not continue to pay for his hospitalization.
In addition, in order to be able to go out to work and earn two salaries, his parents entrusted him to the full-time housewife of another family to take care of him during working hours, and also gave the housewife a certain amount of money every month to take care of him.
At this moment, the boy's eyelashes, who had been lying on the hospital bed for too long and had not woken up, trembled slightly, and then opened his eyes. The strange sight in front of him made him feel a little overwhelmed for a moment. He tried to jerk himself up, but found ...... That seems hard.
After several attempts, he succeeded. Then...... A middle-aged woman's scream rang out in the room.
This...... Where exactly is it?
He's ...... now. And who?
He remembers that he had a big fight with a very angry Garrincha after successfully preventing Garrincha from dating the sexy female singer after the final match of the World Cup. Garrincha said he was angry, and this time he was really angry.
But then what?
The person beside him who couldn't remember who it was for a while kept talking to him, and the volume was very loud because of the excitement, which made Lei Yi, who had just woken up from a deep sleep, feel very uncomfortable.
βDesculpeβ¦β¦β
Lei Yi just wanted to open his mouth to say to that woman, please forgive me, let me think about it calmly first, okay, but I found that as soon as I opened my mouth, I spoke Portuguese, which made him completely ...... Stunned.
"Thunder Wing, what are you talking about? Auntie didn't hear it just now! β
"I ......" This time, Lei Yi finally found his voice, he looked at the woman with yellow skin and black hair that he hadn't seen for a long time, and said, "Now...... How many years is it? β
Lei Yi spoke in a somewhat stiff tone, like a person who had not been exposed to his native language for many years and used it again. And the woman who was at his bedside at the moment was only like this if he hadn't spoken for too long.
"It's 36 years now! You've been sleeping for a year! The middle-aged woman, who was just living in a cramped and high-rise apartment like Lei Yi's family, said this very loudly.
From the neighbor's aunt, Lei Yi finally learned about the changes that had happened after his car accident. But that made him extremely confused. He even ...... Even the memory of the moment when I was hit by a car is already very vague.
Thunder Wing's head went blank when he woke up in an unfamiliar place. The memories of Garrincha's acquaintance in Brazil in 1950 are so vivid that they are even ...... Even every game he played on the football field in place of Garrincha was so clear.
Wait a minute...... Garrincha !?
Lei Yi can clearly remember the last moments before he returned, it was 1962, and Garrincha had not yet passed his 29th birthday! So if that qiΔ is all true, Garincha...... Even if he were alive now, he would have been 104 years old!?
"Electricity, telephone! Can you borrow my phone? β
Lei Yi's first instinct was to ask for a borrowed phone from the only person he could turn to now, and he was so eager to call Garrincha's home. But how can a number from 75 years ago be dialed now? There was a prompt voice on the other end of the phone telling him that his number did not exist, which made Lei Yi, who had just woken up from his slumber, completely unable to come back to his senses, and then asked the woman beside him in a daze:
"Do you know Garrincha? Do you know how Garrincha is now? β
"What Garincha? Lei Yi, what's wrong with you, kid? β
Seeing that the neighbor's aunt didn't care and even slowed down the attitude of letting him pick up a little memory, he was anxious to know what was going on with the Brazilian who had a special meaning and was extremely important to him, and he was so anxious that he almost jumped up. Then he suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and said loudly in a dumb voice: "Computer! Do you have a computer with internet access to lend me ......?"
Before he finished speaking, Lei Yi was already coughing violently because of the dryness of his throat. The woman who was in charge of his caregiving quickly poured him a glass of warm water and led him to her and her husband's bedroom.
Garrincha!
Garrincha!
When this name that could not be more familiar was silently pronounced in his heart, Lei Yi's fingers began to tremble uncontrollably as he tapped the keyboard. But in the end, he only got a bunch of words of praise and regret.
The first dribbling demon in football history died of cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcohol abuse at the age of 49.
When I saw this, hot tears poured out, and the boy, who was actually only fourteen years old now, finally couldn't hold back his cry.
Thankfully, you really did save zΓ i.
Moreover, I have also been in your time.
But now, I am no longer the Garrincha who has performed countless miracles on the court with you, and the deformity of my legs is the most dazzling medal I wear.
From today on, I am the introverted boy who was ridiculed by the people around me and said that he had long and short legs and a small disability.