Wang Fa told them they had plenty of time to think.
First ball.
The coin toss result: Yongchuan Evergrande chose sides, Hongjing No. 8 Middle School kicked off.
The opening whistle blew.
Qin Ao passed the ball to Chen Jianghe first, and Chen Jianghe passed it back.
But the moment Chen Jianghe made the return pass, Qin Qiechu dashed past him like a lightning bolt, swift as a leopard!
"Shit!" Chen Jianghe was caught off guard and couldn't help but curse.
Such speed and intensity made Chen Jianghe's heart race. Fortunately, his return pass had enough power, and the ball safely reached Zheng Ren's feet.
Zheng Ren was clearly startled by Qin Qiechu's sudden press as well. He immediately turned and passed the ball to Fu Xinshu, who was positioned further back.
The ball changed feet twice in a very short time, but Qin Qiechu had no intention of letting up. He accelerated like a mad dog, charging toward Fu Xinshu like lightning. Fu Xinshu had no choice but to lift his foot and pass the ball to Lin Lu on the wing.
Clearly, Yongchuan Evergrande's offensive pressure wasn't solely from Qin Qiechu. The moment Lin Lu touched the ball, another player closed in on him.
With no teammates ahead to pass to, Lin Lu could only opt for a backward pass, sending the ball to Zheng Feiyang, who was even deeper.
To play it safe, Zheng Feiyang chose to pass back to the goalkeeper, Feng Suo. But by then, Yongchuan Evergrande's press had even reached the goal area.
Feng Suo had no time to waste; he could only pass the ball back to Lin Lu, who had dropped wide to receive it.
The ball was back at Lin Lu's feet.
Lin Lu noticed two opposing players closing in on him. Whether it was Chen Jianghe ahead of him or Qi Liang beside him, both were marked by opponents.
If he made a sideways pass now, the ball would surely be intercepted!
At that moment, Lin Lu sensed a hint of danger.
How many balls did they need to defend?
First, this one.
He gave the ball a powerful kick, sending it flying far away.
With a heavy "thud," the ball soared high into the air.
"What do you mean, Wen Chengye is missing?"
Lin Wanxing tightened her cardigan.
After one phone call, Teacher Qian received another. He repeatedly explained the match situation to the caller before coming to the coaching bench to relay the news to Lin Wanxing and Wang Fa.
"Wen Chengye's father said he saw his son before bed last night. He was supposed to take Wen Chengye to a study abroad agency for a consultation this morning, but when he went to his son's room this morning, no one was there."
"What do you mean, no one? Did he run away from home? What about Wen Chengye's phone?" Lin Wanxing had a vague suspicion but found it hard to believe. She took out her phone and instinctively tried to call Wen Chengye.
"His phone is turned off," Teacher Qian said.
The number you have dialed is powered off.
Sure enough.
Lin Wanxing: "They think Wen Chengye sneaked out to play in the match, so they called to confirm?"
Teacher Qian nodded.
"But Wen Chengye isn't here."
Lin Wanxing immediately called the contact at the Yongchuan Evergrande base, asking if any student had come looking for them. The reply came quickly.
No.
Thin mist lingered over the pitch, and the distant lake stretched vast and hazy.
Where are you?
Have you ever had such a moment in your life?
You don't want to settle for the present, and suddenly, an impulse drives you to do something. You decide to go all out, no matter the cost.
But reality tells you it was a stupid, utterly foolish decision, and you're nothing but a complete joke.
You shouldn't have even entertained the thought.You're terrible, so you should just accept being a loser.
The cold highway rest stop was filled with a chaotic and piercing background noise—many people were arguing.
"Why can't we leave yet?"
"We're fine now, what's there left to investigate?"
"I have urgent business in Yongchuan!"
The voices of middle-aged men and women were particularly loud, while the teenager with a backpack remained curled up in a corner seat the entire time.
He wrapped his entire head in a scarf, not wanting to appear in anyone's line of sight.
Exhausted, nauseous, his dreams were almost completely black.
If only he could disappear—that's what he thought.
"How can someone just vanish for no reason?" Lin Wanxing found it hard to comprehend. "Have they checked the residential surveillance footage?"
Teacher Qian: "They said Wen Chengye's parents are still arguing. They only made a fuss over the phone at school—they probably haven't even checked the residential surveillance yet."
Lin Wanxing frowned and looked at the person beside her.
Wang Fa crossed his arms: "You still think Wen Chengye came to us?"
Lin Wanxing took out her phone and opened the cloud storage download page.
Downloads: 1.
"He read my email and downloaded the match to watch," Lin Wanxing said.
"But he didn't show up," Wang Fa said.
"Let's assume he wanted to come compete—then he should have arrived at the venue before 8 AM. It's too early; unless he took a taxi, the only option would be the overnight bus."
Lin Wanxing remembered something, scrolled down her message list, and showed Wang Fa and Teacher Qian the breaking news about the incident on the Hongjing Expressway Shifang section.
On the field.
Short-handed, Hongjing No. 8 Middle School was forced to adopt a 5-3-1 formation.
Fu Xinshu was assigned to the center-back position to fill Wen Chengye's vacancy, Chen Jianghe dropped back to midfield, leaving only Qin Ao up front.
The football shot forward like lightning.
One person simply couldn't get the ball while surrounded by opposing defenders. Though Qin Ao was running desperately, he still lagged behind the opposing defenders.
Just as a Yongchuan Evergrande defender extended his bright yellow cleat to touch the ball, Qin Ao gritted his teeth, went in for a slide tackle, and sent the defender tumbling to the ground.
His body scraped against the grass, one side burning with pain.
The referee's whistle blew—Qin Ao had committed a foul.
Yongchuan Evergrande was awarded a free kick in their own half.
The boy got up from the wet grass, brushed off the mud and grass stems, and glared at the smug teenager across from him.
Which of your twenty goals is this one?
"You think Wen Chengye is on that hijacked bus? Are you joking?" Teacher Qian found Lin Wanxing's speculation utterly ridiculous.
First, there was no guarantee Wen Chengye was even coming to Yongchuan to compete—no one could guess what was going through that kid's mind.
Second, even if he was coming, what were the odds he'd be unlucky enough to board exactly that hijacked bus?
This isn't...
This isn't...
Teacher Qian racked his brains for the right word but felt every term carried heavy sarcasm.
"Can we confirm with the police about the passenger list?" Lin Wanxing asked.
"How would we do that? Tell them our student might be on board and ask the police to check for us?"
Lin Wanxing nodded: "Please help us with this."
Gasping for breath, running, hopeless chasing, a road that never seemed to end.
Wen Chengye was having trouble distinguishing the boundary between dream and reality.He remembered boarding the bus from Hongjing to Yongchuan at 4:30 in the morning.
The sky was still dark then, and the bus smelled absolutely terrible.
He clutched his ticket. It was clearly the compartment he detested the most, reeking of nauseating engine oil, yet he felt an unprecedented sense of relief. He even fell asleep in that environment.
In his dream, there were vast stretches of green, with a dark red track encircling the outer edge of the field. He stepped onto that track and began running forward.
Then came the gunshot—someone had hijacked the bus.
In an instant, the entire cyan-green world began to contract.
It kept squeezing the space of the track, reeds grew wildly, and everything around him pressed in. Even the colors faded completely as the space collapsed.
The reeds swayed, blotting out the sky, and he could only see a short stretch of the path ahead.
Dark red rubber granules—it was indeed still a track.
The hijackers left the bus, and the highway police rescued them to a rest stop, yet he seemed forever trapped on this stretch of track, unable to reach the end no matter how hard he ran.
A complete and utter joke.
The football soared high, shooting straight into the sky.
Next door, at the Yongchuan Evergrande coaching bench.
The head coach watched the ball land and roll after flying out of bounds, feeling slightly regretful.
Just moments ago, a free kick had been sent directly from their own half into Hongjing No. 8 Middle School's penalty area.
Yongchuan Evergrande's tall center forward, Fang Sulun, overpowered Zheng Feiyang and attempted a header pass to Qin Qiechu, who was ready to receive the ball. Unfortunately, as soon as the ball was headed down, Yu Ming, who had tracked back in time, took a step forward and kicked the ball far out of bounds.
If Hongjing No. 8 Middle School's defenders had hesitated even slightly, Qin Qiechu would have had countless ways to send the ball into the opponent's goal the moment he received the header pass.
Unfortunately, it was thwarted.
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