A turbid Thames River divides London into the 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 because of the German army. London was bombed during World War II, and the East End of London was the hardest hit area. Everything was turned into ruins. It seemed like it was
Abandonment also formed the perseverance and perseverance of East Londoners.
In 1986, Aldrich Hall was ten years old. He was from East London. Compared with children born in northwest London, he obviously had no inherent material conditions to show off, but he lived in this industrial area mixed with immigrants.
In the environment, he was obviously lucky. His father, Arthur Hall, co-owned a glass factory here. It was not large, but it was enough to support the family, especially since Arthur had three sons.
Aldrich's eldest brother Barnett is eighteen years old and works beside Arthur. He seems to be a glass decorator with no future.
The second brother, Andrew, is only three years older than Aldrich. He is still in school, but no matter how he looks at it, he will follow in his eldest brother's footsteps and become a member of the blue-collar class.
Aldridge is a kid, and his family sells glass, so at night he would secretly carry gravel in his arms, and then take advantage of the darkness to smash the windows of some restaurants or shops owned by immigrants in the community...
If you walk a lot at night, you will inevitably encounter ghosts.
At the end of May, Aldrich went out at night and planned to repeat his same trick. His target was a new video store opened by a black man. This black guy was named Sander. In East London, a place with the most severe racial discrimination, even if Sander was born
Although he was tall and powerful, he had to run his life carefully. He inquired about the surrounding community and heard rumors about naughty children breaking the glass, so he did not go upstairs to rest after the video store closed every night.
Staying in a darkened store, although the purpose is more to guard against thieves and robbers, has accidentally become a wait-and-see situation.
"Wow"
When a small rock shattered the window glass and flew into the video store, Sander roared in the dark store.
This startled Aldrich, who had just thrown a stone outside the store and was feeling very proud. He didn't expect the store to react so quickly. He was so frightened that he hurried into the alley across the street. He walked in in a panic.
He reached a dead end and heard the door of the video store across the street open behind him. He was 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 those from West Asia were one.
Partner......
If it were broad daylight, Aldrich would naturally not be afraid. As long as the white people here saw the black people making things difficult for him as a child, no matter whether they knew him or not, someone would naturally come to help him. The black people would not dare to actively provoke them, the locals, but now it is night, O.
Derich was afraid that if he fell into the hands of black people, he would be left alone and helpless.
Facing a dead end, Aldrich, who was ten years old and agile, climbed up the high wall and tried to escape. As a result, he panicked and climbed up the wall, but accidentally fell to the ground. His head was bleeding and he fainted.
Died on the other side of the wall.
Sander jumped on the street and cursed, causing commotion in the surrounding area, so someone soon found the unconscious Aldrich and kindly sent him to the hospital...
Aldrich was hospitalized for three days. His injuries were not serious, but after he woke up he became dazed and silent. Even when his parents Arthur and Amelia and his two brothers Barnett and Andrew gathered around the hospital bed, he was speechless.
He said nothing and even hid his head under the quilt. At one point, Arthur was so anxious that he went to the doctor to ask if there was something wrong with his little son's brain or that he had become mute.
In fact, Aldrich was not only confused on the surface, but also fearful in his heart. No one knew that under the skin of this ten-year-old child, there was a soul from thirty years later, and it was the soul of an atheist Chinese.
With the idea of taking peace of mind as he came, Aldrich quickly adapted to everything. He didn't know why he came to London in 1986. At least he didn't worry about it. He was an orphan in China.
Three days later, Aldrich was discharged from the hospital. The Hall family prepared a sumptuous meal for Aldrich at home, but the family members were worried about Aldrich.
Aldrich, who used to be lively and naughty, suddenly became gentle and quiet after being discharged from the hospital.
No one asked about this, they just thought it was Aldrich who learned a lesson from the experience and fell from the wall with a bloody head. It was also a bloody lesson. It would be better to calm down and let the adults worry less.
Since May 31st 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 can be proud of the World Cup and teach the world's top players a lesson, which can be regarded as a disguised message.
World: Banning English teams from participating in the three major cups is a loss for Europe and a loss for the world!
Although the ban on English clubs from participating in European competitions was an order issued by Iron Lady Thatcher.
In May last year, the tragedy of the Heysel tragedy dealt a heavy blow to English football. Not only did the tragedy cause mental losses, but it also affected the economy and even the country's image.
As the lights began to turn on at night, Aldrich, led by his two brothers, went to a fan bar in the community. The bar was filled with smoke and smelled bad, but the atmosphere was very high.
Barnett casually greeted the young people he knew, and Andrew was also present with friends he didn't talk to much. Aldrich, who was only ten years old, was obviously out of place here, and no familiar face could be seen.
Fortunately, the two brothers took him to sit in a corner after greeting him.
Aldridge pricked up his ears and listened to the chatter among the fans around him, most of which were about the game. Here, they were either talking about Millwall, the team supported by the community, or about the upcoming World Cup.
In addition, you can occasionally hear the crazy talk about Wimbledon.
"rogue!"
The bar was filled with foul language, and as Aldridge listened, he had a certain understanding of these laughing and talking fans.
They don't talk about Millwall's season results, nor do they look forward to next season's situation. They talk more about things outside the game, fighting, brawling, provoking opponent fans, and how to embarrass opponent fans...
.
No wonder, the East London team in England is the most notorious, with two rivals known as the cradle of football hooligans: West Ham United and Millwall.
Just like Leeds United fans, no matter how long they have passed, they have always been considered the most extreme racists.
As we chatted, many fans in the bar began to praise Wimbledon.
To be honest, Wimbledon has created miracles in the past three years, completed three consecutive jumps, and will appear in the first-class competition next season. This is definitely a commendable achievement.
But being able to be praised by Millwall fans 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 head coach instills a "fight on the field" mentality.
Thinking of it, for Millwall fans, this is the most appetizing game.
What is football?
It means nothing to them!
Football is best a combination of boxing and American football with your feet!
It was difficult for Aldridge to integrate into such a public opinion environment. He could only lower his head and sneer in his heart: Helping Wimbledon?
Despite the fact that the Kuang Gang are so proud of their success now and even caused a mainstream whirlwind in England, their absence from the World Cup in 1994 was more or less due to the adoption of rough play that led to their elimination.
And Wimbledon will become even more alienated in the future. It will be difficult for the English team to break away from the support of the community and have a fan base.
"Hey, give me a reference."
While Aldrich was deep in thought, Barnett sat down with a few bottles of wine and gave the bottles directly to his two brothers, the last beer.
Although Andrew and Aldrich were still children, they didn't think there was anything wrong with drinking. The two of them looked at the paper Barnett put on the table. On it was a match list, which listed in detail the twenty-four Mexican teams.
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 to read and said: "How about it? Champion England, runner-up Brazil, third and fourth place are France and
West Germany.”
Thirteen-year-old Andrew knelt on the bench, looked down at the names of the four teams, and clapped his hands.
Aldridge was confused for a moment before he suddenly realized: Big brother wants to bet on the ball!
Aldrich hurriedly tried to stop him, but he swallowed the words as soon as they reached his lips.
This is London, my eldest brother is of age, everything is legal.
But Aldrich looked at the names of the four teams and his brows knitted together.
Seeing his expression, Barnett chuckled and said, "Why are you looking like this?"
Aldrich looked up at his older brother who looked relaxed and asked solemnly: "How much do you want to bet?"
Barnett put away his smile and whispered: "I have saved five hundred pounds for two years."
He started working for Arthur two years ago.
Aldridge's expression of sadness only worsened, and he shook his head and said: "If you hope to get a return for five hundred pounds, don't support England to win the championship. It will be emotionally tilted, so don't waste the money."
"But we have Lineker."
"Argentina still has Maradona. Why do you think Argentina can't even make it to the semi-finals?"
"Argentina can't beat England."
"If you are talking about the Falklands War four years ago, yes, Britain won, but football and war are two different things. Otherwise, Brazil would definitely not be among the top four."
Barnett fell silent, his expression looking a little uncomfortable.
The hatred between England and Argentina is well known to the world. When England regained the Falklands four years ago, the people naturally supported it, and naturally they had no favorable impression of the loser.
Seeing that his elder brother was silent, Aldrich rolled his eyes and said softly: "Lend me a hundred pounds and I'll bet too."
"Then I want it too!"
Andrew was unwilling to be alone and looked at his elder brother.
Barnett fulfills his responsibilities as an elder brother and loves his two younger brothers very much. The family is very united. This is probably one of the characteristics of East London families and groups. He nodded slightly helplessly.
It is said to be a loan, but in fact it is no different from a gift.
Seeing that his eldest brother agreed, Aldrich said, "Let's do this, eldest brother, let's bet on the team that advances in each group. How about that?"
Barnett actually wanted to get rich overnight by betting on the first, second, third and fourth places. The rewards were staggering. But now that he has calmed down, he feels it is better to play it safe.
The three brothers got together to discuss the teams that would qualify in each group.
There are 24 teams, two from each group qualify, plus the four best third-place teams from the group, making a total of 16 teams entering the knockout rounds.
They only guess the top two in the group.
Aldrich can no longer remember the group stage in his mind, but he can only remember the first and second place in this World Cup.
According to the conventional thinking, the strong teams from the six groups qualified. Aldrich asked his elder brother not to bet all the money at once, but he himself asked his elder brother to help him bet 100 pounds on the champion Argentina and the runner-up West Germany.
.
In fact, the only thing that left a deep impression on him was the match between the final and Maradona's Hand of God. However, the odds of betting on the championship and runner-up before the game were high. If the top 8 and top 4 of the knockout round were announced, the return would obviously not be very high.
Already.
The second brother Andrew regarded his one hundred pounds as a treasure, and he just carefully asked his eldest brother to help him place bets on the teams that were sure to qualify in each group. Although the odds of strong teams must be very low, Andrew did not have the strong heart to go all-in.
