ps, On the first day of 2012, start by voting for a guaranteed monthly ticket and reading *Rise of the King in the Forbidden Zone*!

When the owner of the casino returned, he was disappointed to find that Christine Cabrera had already left.

"Ah…" he sighed.

This expression made Chen Hero roll his eyes—so all he wanted to keep was the beauty…

He stood up. "I think I should go."

The other party immediately changed his expression, looking at Chen Hero with a smile. "Sorry, Hero…"

"Huh? You know me?" Chen Hero had originally planned to leave, but he was surprised to hear the other party call out his name directly. After all, they hadn't introduced themselves yet.

Although he was a public figure, he didn't think he would be recognized everywhere, especially since he was wearing sunglasses…

The man smiled and said, "Who doesn't know the Chinese Hero who is making waves in European football?"

This flattery was just right, making Chen Hero feel refreshed and comfortable. He suddenly felt that the guy in front of him looked particularly pleasing, so he stopped thinking about leaving.

"We even share the same last name, Hero. Let me introduce myself—Chen Xing, Chris Chen, you can also call me Chris." Chen Xing, also known as Chris Chen, extended his hand to Chen Hero.

Both of them shared the surname Chen, so it could indeed be said that they were "from the same family."

"You're from Chengdu, Sichuan? What a coincidence, our relationship is so close. My ancestral home is Chongqing, and Sichuan and Chongqing are one family."

"Chongqing? Can you speak Sichuan dialect?" Chen Hero asked directly in his local dialect. But seeing Chen Xing's blank expression, he knew that this kid didn't understand.

"Uh, sorry. My ancestral home is Chongqing, but that was a hundred years ago… Actually, I was born and raised in… England."

"Ah, a banana… sorry, I didn't mean that!" Chen Hero deliberately covered his mouth, pretending to be surprised, as if it was a slip of the tongue.

"Actually, you did it on purpose, didn't you, Hero?" Chen Xing was a fool if he couldn't see how obvious Chen Hero was being.

"Hey, who told you to keep thinking about Christine just now?" Chen Hero retaliated by bringing up old scores. Chen Xing's disappointed expression after hearing that Cabrera had left… had made him very unhappy, and now he finally had a chance to get revenge.

"Christine? Her name is Christine? What a beautiful name…" Sure enough, Chen Xing was still thinking about Cabrera. "Wait, you know each other?"

He stared at Chen Hero with wide eyes.

"Of course. She's my bodyguard."

Chen Xing opened his mouth wide, his lips moving a few times, finding the news hard to accept.

The next second, his face changed, and he pounced on Chen Hero. "Good brother, please introduce us!"

"You seem to be much older than me…"

Chen Xing didn't care about Chen Hero's complaints. He grabbed Chen Hero's arm and shook it. "Does she have a boyfriend?"

"As far as I know… no."

"That's great!" Chen Xing's eyes lit up.

"I think you shouldn't have any hope… you saw her skills when she was fighting just now, right? Someone like you…" Chen Hero looked Chen Xing up and down, "She could beat five of you with one hand, like it's nothing."

"I'm not going to fight her, I just… uh, I just want to pursue her!"

"That's the problem, isn't it? She usually just beats up the men who pursue her and chases them away." Chen Hero deliberately tried to scare Chen Xing.

"Why?"

"How would I know? That's just how she is."

Chen Xing thought for a moment. "If I don't pursue her, it's okay to just get to know her. Introduce us, it won't cost you anything."

Chen Hero thought to himself, it's obvious that you're just like me, not a good person. If I really introduce you, who knows how you'll pester Christine.

He patted Chen Xing on the shoulder. "Trust me, old Chen, I'm doing this for your own good."

Chen Xing's eyes darted around, a little unwilling, but helpless. He couldn't force someone to do something they didn't want to do. He decided to take a roundabout approach.

"Okay, let's not talk about women, how about football? I'm a huge fan!" Chen Xing waved his hand.

※※※

Chen Hero was awakened in his hotel room by the ringtone of his mobile phone.

As soon as he answered the phone, Chen Xing's energetic shout rang in his ear. "Get up, Hero!"

Chen Hero glanced at the still gray sky outside and wailed, "Bro… what fucking time is it…"

"'At dawn she is rose-colored, at noon she is lavender, and at dusk she is red,' do you know who this sentence describes? Toulouse! To discover the beauty of Toulouse, you must make some sacrifices, you must go to bed early and get up late!"

"Going to bed late is no problem, getting up early… this is a vacation!"

"That's exactly why you should get up early on vacation. It's a rare vacation and half of it is spent in bed, don't you think it's a waste? Get up quickly, come and see the sunrise!"

"I'm not interested in beautiful scenery…"

"If you don't get up, there's nothing I can do. I'm right outside your room door, Hero! If you don't open the door, I'm going to shout in French that you're soliciting prostitutes and not paying!"

After saying that, Chen Hero actually heard a knock on the door.

"You son of a bitch!"

Chen Hero, unable to sleep because of the commotion, rolled over and got up, going to open the door for Chen Xing with a belly full of resentment.

In the following days, Chen Hero received Chen Xing's warm hospitality in Toulouse. He drove Chen Hero around Toulouse and the surrounding areas, paying for all expenses except for tips. Chen Hero hardly spent any money.

In order to take a roundabout approach, Chen Xing was really going all out. Chen Hero lost 100,000 euros in his casino one night, and he didn't even bat an eyelid, just waiving the bill for Chen Hero.

Chen Hero didn't know what Chen Xing was thinking, he just thought that this newly acquainted boss friend was really generous, really generous, and really cool!

In this way, Chen Hero's entire vacation was spent happily under Chen Xing's warm hospitality. They even drove over the Pyrenees to Barcelona for a trip.

Chen Hero discovered that he and Chen Xing had a lot in common, such as they both liked football, they were both used to being high-profile, and most importantly, they both liked beautiful women.

Chen Xing had lived in a wealthy and powerful family since he was a child, traveled to many countries, had extensive knowledge, and was very experienced in love. He was a real playboy. And Chen Hero? Although he came from humble beginnings, he was naturally gifted and constantly worked hard in the later stage, and had achieved some success.

When they talked about beautiful women, they had endless things to say, feeling like they had met each other too late.

In the end, they simply addressed each other as brothers. Chen Xing was twenty-eight years old this year, seven years older than Chen Hero, so he was naturally the older brother, and Chen Hero called him "Brother Chen". But even though Hero was the younger brother, Chen Xing was still used to calling him "Hero."

On the last day of the vacation, Chen Xing personally drove Chen Hero to the airport.

Chen Hero said that he had been treated to everything by Brother Chen these past few days, so he would give him a gift, and would send him his Napoli jersey when he got back.

Chen Xing was overjoyed, and then said that he must go to Naples to see his little brother when he had the chance, but he didn't say the second half of the sentence—and by the way, take a look at his little brother's beautiful bodyguard…

In this way, Chen Hero embraced and bid farewell to his newly acquainted big brother Chen Xing at the airport, ending his colorful vacation trip to Toulouse.

※※※

Chen Hero, who took a taxi back to his home, was stunned when he got out of the car, because he saw the cars lined up across the road at a glance, all filled with photographers.

He seemed to remember… that he had said in an interview before the vacation that he wouldn't go anywhere and would just stay at home. That was indeed what he had planned at the time, but he didn't expect that plans couldn't keep up with changes, and he ended up sneaking out for a vacation.

But the reporters didn't seem to know… they were actually guarding outside his mansion…

Really… comrades, you've worked hard!

This time, Chen Hero, who was in a good mood, didn't give them the middle finger, but waved to them, and then turned and walked into his yard.

At this time last year, he had farmed dungeons at home for eleven days, and on the last day, he carried a bag and pretended to be returning home from traveling, so that the reporters wouldn't discover his secret. This time he wasn't pretending, but really went traveling.

At first, he was the public enemy of the whole city, but now he already had his own fan base in this city.

Conquering Naples, this task was difficult, but he was walking on this road step by step.

※※※

Christine Cabrera told Chen Hero before she left that she would report to him on the thirty-first.

But Chen Hero waited until the morning of January 1st, but didn't see Christine's shadow.

So… Chen Hero drove to the Volturno training base for training for the first time by himself.

And so… when the unprepared Chen Hero slowly drove to the training base, which was fifty kilometers away from where he lived, he was unsurprisingly late…

"Damn it!" Chen Hero, realizing that he was late, didn't even bother to park his car properly, just throwing it at the entrance of the parking lot, jumping out and running.

When he hurriedly changed into his training clothes and ran onto the training field, he was greeted by the surprised eyes of his teammates and the stern face of coach Mazzarri.

"A fine of one thousand, you can practice by yourself today."

This was the penalty for being late in the Napoli team. Anyone who was late, no matter how late, had to pay a fine of one thousand euros, and then had to practice alone for this training session.

Chen Hero could only admit that he was unlucky.

※※※

His teammates were very surprised why Chen Hero was late, because he had never been late before—he had a driver and bodyguard who drove like an F1 racer, so it was really not easy to be late.

After the training session, they all understood what was going on.

Looking at the black Land Rover that was crookedly blocking the entrance of the parking lot, Hamsik asked, "You haven't seen each other for a vacation, and you fired your bodyguard?"

"No, uh… she's still on vacation. You know, I'm a benevolent boss." Chen Hero made up a story.

Cassano then mocked Chen Hero's turtle-like driving speed, and said to the others: "Let me tell you a joke, that day I went out to play in Hero's car, yes, he was driving… and then he drove at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour, and then guess what he said?"

Then he made a very excited expression, and shouted in a drawn-out voice: "So—thrill—ing—!"

A group of people laughed so hard that they couldn't stand up straight.

Chen Hero gave him the middle finger: "Nonsense!"

Bad choice of friends…