Chapter 138

P.S. I owe everyone two updates. I'll make up for one today. Please allow me to slowly accumulate drafts. I'll make up for another one tomorrow, and the debt will be cleared!

Also, please give me your guaranteed monthly votes!

※※※

Chen Hero was deep in thought about his situation and didn't notice Cristin Cabral's glance at him.

He felt like he had come to a crossroads. To put it seriously, he might be facing the most severe challenge of his career—Saint Petersburg Zenit didn't count because he hadn't even started his professional career then.

When he decided to transfer to Napoli, he really didn't expect to face such a situation after arriving. He thought that at most, he would have some acclimatization problems, and as long as he adapted, there shouldn't be any problems. He felt that his adaptability was quite good. Back when he was alone in Saint Petersburg, Russia, didn't he make it through?

Now he realized how naive he had been. Reality wasn't as smooth as in a video game. He could make them do whatever he wanted.

In reality, there were many issues he needed to consider.

Football tactics were something he had never really paid attention to before. Now, in Italy, a country where tactics were paramount, he had to face them.

Could he really only either work for others or leave in disgrace?

No, it shouldn't be like this!

There shouldn't only be these two paths. There must be another path, but it was hidden somewhere between these two, obscured by dense jungle. He just hadn't found it yet…

But what exactly was this path, and where was it hidden?

Chen Hero pondered.

Just then, he suddenly felt a sharp brake. Sitting in the back seat, he lunged forward, hitting the back of the driver's seat.

"Damn…" Chen Hero couldn't help but curse.

He looked up and asked, "What's going on?"

The bodyguard and driver, Cristin Cabral, just glanced at her employer in the rearview mirror and said, "Road construction ahead. This road is closed."

"Then how do we go? Turn on the GPS and see…"

He leaned forward to turn on the car's navigation, but at that moment, Cabral suddenly started the car, reversing sharply. Chen Hero, unprepared, was thrown back into the back seat, his body tilted to one side, looking very disheveled.

"Damn! What…" Chen Hero was about to reprimand this clueless bodyguard and driver.

Who would have thought that just as he opened his mouth, the car slammed on the brakes again and then sped forward!

He almost bit his tongue from the jostling.

He was about to scold again when he saw Cabral turning the steering wheel very quickly. Then, the scenery outside the car window changed.

They had driven off the road! Leaving the two police cars parked stupidly on the road, they drove straight down the highway!

"What are you doing? This is a bush!" he yelled, afraid that the female bodyguard would drive the car into a tree.

"For safety, Mr. Chen, please sit in your seat and fasten your seat belt." Cabral's voice rang out. Compared to Chen Hero's panic, she seemed calm and composed. "Before it's clear whether the road closure and those extreme fans targeting you are related, staying in place is not a good choice." She didn't usually talk much, but this time, she explained a lot.

But Chen Hero didn't listen at all. "Where are you going to drive? There's nothing ahead…"

His words were cut off because, at that moment, the dense bushes in front of him suddenly parted to the sides, as if they were moving automatically. A ray of light shot out, shining in front of them.

A road, a road, a narrow, winding, and not very flat road appeared before Chen Hero's eyes in such a dramatic way.

The car jolted violently. Chen Hero was thrown up from the back seat, his head hitting the car's roof. When he fell back down, he hurriedly fastened his seat belt. Then he continued to look out the window in surprise.

What appeared before his eyes was a roadside scene he had never seen on the way back from the training base to the hotel—the lush bushes always gave way to a small road. It really was a small road, not cement or asphalt, but a dirt road.

The surrounding bushes were like a green wall, blocking both sides of the small road. Looking around, besides the yellow dirt road and the green bushes, and the blue sky and white clouds in the distance, there was nothing else to see.

The sunlight shone diagonally, drilling through the dense bushes, and scattering dappled spots of light on the dirt road. As the car sped along, they jumped and stretched forward, as if they were going to connect to the horizon.

Chen Hero looked at the scene in front of him, somewhat dumbfounded. He suddenly felt like he had come to a never-before-discovered secret realm, where the world consisted only of him and Cristin Cabral, who was driving attentively in front of him. The black Land Rover Discovery 3 rumbled over the dirt road, raising a cloud of dust. Where was it going?

Chen Hero suddenly leaned forward, successfully turning on the car's GPS this time. When the map appeared on the screen, he saw that the triangular arrow representing his car was driving on a blank space. Behind it was a thick red line, representing the highway they had just been on. There were also a few winding roads around it, but there was nothing on the road his car was on.

"This road is a small road, not marked on the GPS," Cristin Cabral said, knowing what Chen Hero was going to do, explaining as she drove.

"Oh, then how do you know this road?" As soon as he asked, Chen Hero regretted it.

"A qualified bodyguard cannot rely on GPS," Cabral said, concisely and clearly. She was a local of Naples, a snake in its hole!

Chen Hero stared at the car's GPS screen and the world outside the windshield, and something suddenly came to him.

Yes, the third way, another way!

A road that didn't exist on the satellite navigation system, wasn't it right in front of him?

His choices in Naples weren't limited to either working for others or leaving in disgrace!

He would break out a path from it, just like creating a new path in a GPS where there was no road. This road might not be smooth, and it might not get support, but he would take this road, and he could only take this road!

When he kept scoring goals on the field in his way, he would see if the coach still let anyone else be the offensive core!

That's right, that's his, Chen Hero's, style! Hahaha!

Having figured this out, Chen Hero suddenly laughed out loud in the car.

This made the beautiful bodyguard and driver in front glance at him again through the rearview mirror.

In Chen Hero's laughter, the Land Rover Discovery 3, like a boat breaking through the waves, rushed out of this shaded path covered by bushes. In front of them was the familiar highway to Chen Hero.

Cabral made a beautiful fishtail maneuver, driving the car onto the highway and heading towards Chen Hero's hotel.

At this moment, Chen Hero's phone rang. When he answered it, it was the anxious voice of the police squad leader in charge of protecting Chen Hero: "Where are you! Where are you!"

Chen Hero could understand these two sentences in Italian.

He laughed and replied in broken Italian, "We're going home!"

After speaking, he didn't care whether the other party understood or not, ended the call, threw the phone aside, and hummed a song with a smile on his face.

Cristin Cabral glanced at her employer in the rearview mirror again. Her employer was really strange today. He had been frowning before, not knowing what was wrong, but now he suddenly smiled and even hummed a song.

What a weirdo!

※※※

After driving Chen Hero's Land Rover Discovery 3 into the hotel's underground parking lot, the two got out of the car one after another.

The dull sound of the door closing echoed in the empty parking lot.

"Ah! Speaking of which, I have to thank you! Come, a hug…" Chen Hero opened his arms and lunged towards Cabral.

However, he didn't manage to get her into his arms. Instead, he suddenly felt a dizzying sensation. By the time he realized what was happening, he was lying face down on the ground, his chin pressed tightly against the cold cement floor, his hands pinned behind his back, a leg pressing against the connection between his thighs and calves, and his shoulder firmly held down by an elbow, preventing him from turning over…

"Ah… this…" Chen Hero exclaimed.

"Please behave yourself, Mr. Chen." Cabral's cold voice sounded from above the back of his head. Although her voice had been cold before, it was obviously even colder now. He didn't know if it was because of her voice or because the ground was really bright, but Chen Hero felt his heart turn cold…

"I, I just… uh… just wanted to thank you… damn it…"

With his shoulders and neck pinned down, his whole body was pressed firmly against the ground like a piece of paper, making it difficult for Chen Hero to speak.

But he still didn't forget to curse.

After he said this, he felt the pressure on his body suddenly lighten—he was free to move.

"Next time, please don't make such aggressive movements suddenly, Mr. Chen. I'm sorry, I startled you," Cabral said to Chen Hero as she stood up.

Chen Hero also got up from the ground. He patted the dust off his chest, stomach, and legs in a somewhat embarrassed manner. He said unhappily, "I just wanted to thank you. That's just how I am, emotionally outgoing, impulsive personality. I do whatever I think of… Is a hug considered a damn aggressive action?"

"You can use a hug as an opportunity to suddenly lock the other person's arm and then use your knee to strike their abdomen," Cabral said with a calm expression.

Chen Hero rolled his eyes. "Why would I do that to you!"

Why did he always meet such women? Now it seemed that Sharapova was considered truly gentle and lovely…

Seeing Chen Hero's displeased expression, Cabral had no choice but to apologize again: "I'm sorry, Mr. Chen. We bodyguards react relatively quickly. Many times, it's completely subconscious. Are you injured? Should I call a doctor for you?"

Chen Hero said unhappily, "If I was really injured, I wouldn't be coming to you, but that old man Laurentiis!" Wasn't that right? He had spent a lot of money to buy a striker, but he was injured by his own bodyguard. Who could he reason with?

"I'm really very sorry!" Cabral apologized again. "I misunderstood your good intentions."

After speaking, she opened her arms, tilted her head slightly, and looked at Chen Hero.

Chen Hero was confused by her actions.

"What are you doing?"

"As compensation, I can let you hug me," Cabral said.

Chen Hero's eyes paused on her tall and erect breasts for a second, but he shook his head: "Forget it, a begged for handout isn't interesting!"

He turned and walked towards the elevator: "But I still have to thank you. I'm a person who distinguishes between gratitude and grudges. I should thank you, so I will. Thank you for helping me find another way. It's made me feel good today, so I won't hold it against you for pushing me to the ground and pinning me down!"

Cabral followed him: "It was just a detour. There's nothing to thank for, Mr. Chen."

"No, it's another way, another way, a way you can't see, but I can see."

After pressing the elevator button, Chen Hero turned to look at Cabral, who was still unsmiling, while waiting at the door.

"Are you a Napoli fan?"

"I don't watch soccer, Mr. Chen."

"Oh, that's a pity. You won't see a good show…" Chen Hero muttered, his face full of regret.