All the students stared at the frozen projection.
At that moment, Yuzhou Silver Elephant's center forward was competing with Zheng Feiyang for the first touch, while their other striker had stealthily made a run into the open space in the penalty area without being offside. This meant Yuzhou Silver Elephant's forward could receive the header pass from the center forward at any moment and then face the goalkeeper Feng Suo directly.
If Wen Chengye were erased from the picture, this defensive issue would indeed become simple and clear.
Zheng Feiyang had to win the header.
Everyone around fell silent, seemingly accepting this answer as the default.
"And then?" Wang Fa's voice broke through the dark contemplation.
The students looked at their coach.
"What happens after Zheng Feiyang wins the header?" Wang Fa asked.
The students felt puzzled.
If there were only 10 players on the field, winning the header to defend was already difficult enough—was there really a "what next"?
Fu Xinshu: "Coach, do you mean a counterattack?"
Wang Fa handed him the laser pointer, signaling him to continue analyzing the match footage.
Fu Xinshu, who played as a midfielder, understood organizing counterattacks better. He began observing the entire field.
Wang Fa had paused the footage at a very tricky moment.
In it, Yuzhou Silver Elephant's two full-backs had pushed forward, and one of the center-backs had also advanced, leaving only the other center-back wearing the number 3 jersey in the defensive line. In other words, most of Yuzhou's strength was concentrated on the wings and the center, with only two players capable of tracking back in time.
In contrast, on Hongjing No. 8 Middle School's side, Chen Jianghe was near the top of the center circle, while Qin Ao had already started tracking back. This meant...
"If Zheng Feiyang wins the first touch and can head the ball toward the top of the arc, that area is completely open—no players from either team are there!"
As Fu Xinshu spoke, he suddenly looked at the screen. There, the red tape Wang Fa had just stuck on stood out starkly, like a freshly cut wound.
The arrow pointed to Wen Chengye, who was moving toward the open space Fu Xinshu had identified.
The old projector hummed loudly from overheating in the room, and under the flickering light, Fu Xinshu's face turned completely pale.
No one in the classroom spoke.
Wang Fa was the first to move again.
He pressed play, and the match footage finally continued rolling forward.
Qin Ao snapped out of his stunned state. Seeing Fu Xinshu's pale face, he took a deep breath and said, "Coach, are you actually trying to say that we can't completely blame our loss on Wen Chengye? That he actually had his own ideas?"
"I think, since these are your last two matches, it's better to focus less on 'whose fault it is' and channel your limited energy into the game itself. For example, think carefully about how to continue playing with a 10-man lineup." He paused.
Lin Wanxing, sitting at the back of the classroom, noticed Wang Fa glance at her before he said, "Keep watching the match carefully, write down your thoughts, and hand them to me."
Chapter 101: A Thousand Homes
Although Lin Wanxing clearly understood that Wang Fa was making the students think for themselves, she couldn't help feeling that his teaching method bore a suspicious resemblance to "borrowing."
After showering that evening, Lin Wanxing worked on the rooftop, her laptop open on the wooden dining table.
She was organizing the students' names and identification information.
According to the latest schedule from the organizing committee, their match against the Yongchuan Evergrande youth team would begin at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, so everyone needed to go to Yongchuan a day early.The school bus couldn’t be used for their overnight trip, as it was needed again the next day. So she discussed with Teacher Qian how to handle the students’ transportation and accommodation. Teacher Qian felt that the recent weather had been poor, with frequent night fog, and there had even been a bus robbery on the highway. Therefore, he suggested she book high-speed train tickets for the students, prioritizing safety during the trip.
Lin Wanxing then verified the students’ identification details, booked the high-speed train tickets, and, staying within the budget, reserved a hotel near the competition venue.
Downstairs, the evening news shifted from the "highway robbery" to a recent crackdown on a local criminal gang. The host was reporting on the gang’s crimes, including robbery, illegal activities, organizing underground soccer betting, and other offenses.
The guest across the hall was taking a shower, and the sound of running water, along with the news broadcast, became the background noise for Lin Wanxing’s work. By the time she finished these tasks, Wang Fa had just finished his shower and stepped out.
The rooftop was still chilly on this spring night, and the wind carried the scent of lemon-mint shower gel. A light rain began to fall outside. Barefoot, Lin Wanxing opened a new email window. She uploaded the competition schedule and some other materials, typed out the message with a clatter of keys, and hit send. Only then did she look up and complain to Wang Fa, "Because you made them write those essays, the grandma downstairs just said the kids left in a bad mood and told us to ease up on the pressure."
A large blanket descended over Lin Wanxing’s head, enveloping her instantly in the lemon-mint fragrance. She struggled briefly, adjusted her position, and tucked her feet under the blanket.
"Learned from Teacher Lin," Wang Fa said, drying his hair with a waffle-patterned towel as he sat down opposite her. "Keeping teaching methods up to date."
"Up to date with laziness!" Lin Wanxing laughed, picking up a nearby soda can to take a sip, only to find it empty.
Wang Fa was already brewing tea.
On the table sat a packet of tea wrapped in oilpaper, printed with the words "Produced by Wan Nan Village Tea Factory" in red.
The soft waffle-patterned towel lay beside her hand. The spring night was a bit cool, but the small stove provided a gentle, quiet warmth.
Lin Wanxing had always felt that, although Wang Fa had lived abroad for a long time, he didn’t have many obvious foreign habits. He spoke little, his Chinese was fine, and he could even be humorous at times.
Just as she thought this, Wang Fa’s gaze drifted over. Lin Wanxing met his eyes and couldn’t help but cough lightly.
"What does Teacher Lin want to ask?" Wang Fa inquired.
"Uh!" Just as Lin Wanxing was about to speak, she suddenly noticed something on the computer screen. She paused the video and asked Wang Fa, "Actually, you noticed it from the start, didn’t you?"
Lin Wanxing was watching the footage of their earliest match against Yongchuan Evergrande. Her soccer knowledge had been built up bit by bit recently, but she could sense that Wen Chengye in the video wasn’t entirely acting out or refusing to defend properly. At times, he seemed like a sharp hunting dog, always ready to charge.
"Noticed what?"
"About Wen Chengye..." Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and said, "Wen Chengye isn’t deliberately uncooperative. He has his own ideas."
"Where?" Wang Fa asked.
Lin Wanxing threw off the blanket, picked up her laptop, and moved to sit beside Wang Fa to watch the match together. But before her bottom even touched the bench, she noticed Wang Fa’s gaze fixed on the blanket across the long table.
Lin Wanxing quickly set down the computer, dashed back, retrieved the blanket, and wrapped herself up properly again.Wang Fa finally withdrew his gaze and looked at the laptop screen.
The water had just been put on to boil but hadn’t reached a rolling boil yet. The faint crackling of firewood could be heard in the air.
On the pitch, every time Wen Chengye made a move, Lin Wanxing would pause the video.
“This is just slacking off and playing recklessly,” Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing felt a bit awkward, let the video play for a while longer, and then paused it again.
“What about this?”
“A very good idea for a counterattack.”
“And here?”
“Misjudgment.”
Under the dim yellow light on the rooftop, every time Lin Wanxing paused, Wang Fa could accurately assess Wen Chengye’s intentions.
It was as if he had watched these matches many times before.
Another possibility was that Wang Fa had already understood the players’ intentions and the direction of the match while it was happening on the pitch.
Perhaps it wasn’t just the matches—during daily training and post-match reviews, he had always been fully aware of the players’ thoughts.
Lin Wanxing suddenly realized that Wang Fa had been herding his little flock all along. Though he appeared lazy and laid-back, he would still rein them in whenever they strayed too far.
He had always been in control of this football team, and his decisive call to “forfeit” was the best proof of that.
But why hadn’t he commented on Wen Chengye’s performance earlier? Why wait until tensions had escalated and the team was on the verge of disbanding before having the players calmly revisit the match?
The water in the iron kettle finally came to a boil, and the sizzling sound grew louder in the air.
Lost in thought, Lin Wanxing gently tapped her pen on the draft paper.
Wang Fa warmed the teacups, his expression calm, and began the leisurely ritual of making tea.
Time and again, images of Wen Chengye’s defiant positioning during training flashed through Lin Wanxing’s mind. The arguments among the students on the pitch, Wen Chengye choosing to dribble on his own during “return-pass drills,” completely ignoring instructions…
A fresh cup of tea was placed beside her.
Lin Wanxing picked it up instinctively and took a sip. Instantly, a fragrant aroma filled her mouth.
As she flipped to the next page of the draft paper, Lin Wanxing suddenly noticed that the notebook she was using today was made from old homework assignments bound together.
On it was a fill-in-the-blank exercise for a classical poem.
Gazing at the South River - Written on the Transcendent Tower
Song Dynasty: Su Shi
Spring not yet old, the breeze gentle, willows slanting.
I try climbing the Transcendent Tower to gaze afar:
Half a moat of spring water, a city of flowers.
After the Cold Food Festival, sober from wine, I sigh.
Do not pine for home with old friends—
Instead, try new tea with fresh fire.
The handwriting was scrawled and uneven, but surprisingly, the two lines of the poem were filled in correctly.
Looking at the top left corner, the name written in the space provided was “Wen Chengye.”
Lin Wanxing twirled her pen and marked it with a check.
In the night sky, a continuous drizzle drifted from one side of the city to the other.
Fu’an Garden was one of Hongjing’s earliest villa communities, and precisely because it was old, every building here looked somewhat worn.
The remnants of ivy clung to the brick walls. The neighborhood had no separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, so even from inside the rooms, one could hear cars outside rumbling over the narrow roads, clattering over manhole covers with a grating sound.
No. 14, Fu’an Garden.
Overall, it was a lively house.
The housekeeper on the first floor had just finished clearing the dining table, while the mahjong game among the ladies was still ongoing. The household had been unsettled lately—the picture frames on the walls and the noticeably damaged porcelain decorations were clear evidence of intense conflicts that had taken place here.
But that didn’t mean the home lacked warmth.The old villa district had no underfloor heating, yet two oil heaters were positioned beside the ladies' mahjong table. The young housemaid approached with tea and cake, feeling a wave of warm air wash over her. The Earl Grey tea poured out in a gurgling stream of amber liquid as she overheard the conversation at the table.
Ms. Li was talking about a new counter guy she’d recently met.
Mrs. Wang remarked that he surely couldn’t be any good.
Between rounds of mahjong, they took moments to analyze the counter guy’s social media feed, checking whether it was clean and if there was any potential.
Finally, Mrs. Chen glanced at the hostess and said, "Mrs. Wen has experience with this sort of thing, doesn’t she?"
The young maid, who happened to be pouring tea at that moment, nearly spilled the tea in fright.
But her mistress remained unflappable. She slapped down a one-dot tile: "What experience? It’s just that my late ex-husband was always fooling around with other women. Who would’ve thought that even on a Spring Festival vacation, he’d manage to sleep with the secretary brought along by his business partner? Ended up stranding us in that godforsaken place, Iceland."
"Old Wen is dead?"
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