The delivery guy hummed a cheerful tune and quickly left.
The students, holding the freshly delivered package, could no longer sit still.
They didn’t even wait to push open the rooftop door and go back inside; instead, they stood right there at the stairwell, tore open the envelope, and peered inside.
Inside was just a single sheet of paper, with red background and black text, resembling a certificate.
"Congratulations to the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School football team for completing the team reassembly task and successfully advancing to the knockout stage of the National Youth League. Below is the prize list:
Cash reward of 5,000 yuan
LEGO sets of your choice, total value 5,000 yuan
One PS4 console
Three pairs of new football boots
One mobile phone
……
……
The list featured a total of 11 enticing prizes, each estimated to be worth around 5,000 yuan. At the end of the list, there was a "prize collection contact number."
It felt like a windfall had dropped from the sky. The students were instantly exhilarated, practically drooling over the 11 prizes listed.
These items held no appeal for Wang Fa, who stood quietly to the side, calmly examining the delivery envelope. But indeed, aside from the "Prize List," there were no other valuable clues.
After a burst of excitement, the students gradually calmed down. At their age, they were already skeptical of "free lunches" falling from the sky.
"Who... sent this?" Yu Ming was the first to ask.
His question sparked a flurry of exchanged glances among the students. Suspicious bubbled up in their minds, but no one dared to voice them outright.
"Could it be our teacher?" Zheng Feiyang blurted out.
Zheng Feiyang wasn’t the only one thinking this; the other students were also somewhat doubtful. It seemed plausible that Lin Wanxing, having helped them advance through the group stage, had left them something as encouragement before she left.
"Since when did she become so generous? What’s this all about?"
"Is she letting us divide her inheritance?" Yu Ming suddenly quipped.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was immediately pummeled by the others.
He cried out while spitting and begging for mercy, "Stop hitting me, stop! I was wrong, I was just joking."
"It probably isn’t her," Wang Fa said slowly.
Hearing their coach’s words, the students took another look at the prize list in their hands.
Indeed.
"Congratulations to the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School football team for completing the team reassembly task"—that didn’t sound like something Lin Wanxing would say.
After all, she herself had been inexplicably assigned to coach the team. Why would she congratulate them on that?
"Besides, our teacher would never be this generous!" Lin Lu analyzed seriously.
Hearing this, the students nodded in agreement. "That makes sense."
"Then who is it?"
The similar format, the same air of mystery—they had experienced this kind of situation many times before.
Their first thought had been Lin Wanxing simply because her recent request for help moving things was still fresh in their minds.
"Could it be... the 'mysterious person' again?" Feng Suo exclaimed, almost in disbelief.
The students had long speculated that the "mysterious person" who had been watching over them and trying to get them to play football again was Coach Jiang.
If it were Coach Jiang rewarding them for reassembling the team and advancing to the knockout stage, it would make perfect sense.
The only issue was that this was far too extravagant!
Shocked, delighted, doubtful, uncertain—their emotions were a tangled mess.
Speculation was useless. With mixed feelings, the students pushed open the rooftop door, gathered around the long table, and sat down.
The list was passed around, and finally, Fu Xinshu took out his phone and dialed the number provided.My heart was racing.
I pressed the speakerphone button, and the call connected almost instantly.
Everyone around the dining table jolted in surprise, except for Wang Fa, who leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and watched calmly.
"Hello, hello!" Yu Ming was the first to greet.
Just then, a mechanical female voice responded from the phone: "Hello, this is the Prize Redemption Center. Congratulations to the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School Football Team for completing the task of reforming the team and successfully advancing to the knockout stage of the National Youth League. Below is the list of prizes."
The sweet mechanical voice in the phone repeated the contents of the list once more—it was clearly a pre-recorded message.
Before making the call, everyone had been very nervous, thinking they would finally get to communicate with the "mysterious person" who had been helping them all along. Now, faced with a robotic electronic voice, they were left bewildered.
One thing after another.
In the night breeze, Lin Wanxing's room next door was pitch black.
As the students listened to the list of expensive gifts, a sense of unreality lingered.
No one spoke.
Until—
"Above is the list of prizes. Press '1' to accept the reward, or press '2' to decline. Declining the current reward will be considered as accepting a new task." The sweet electronic voice announced this, and the students froze for a moment before turning their eyes in unison to the phone Fu Xinshu had placed in the center of the dining table.
"What does that mean?"
"Decline the reward... What’s the new task?"
"Hurry, should we press 1 or 2 now?"
"Press—hang up." Qi Liang’s voice cut through with sharp clarity.
Only then did Fu Xinshu snap out of it, fumbling to hang up the call first.
While the students were chattering noisily, Wang Fa remained a quiet observer from start to finish.
After hanging up, the students all turned to look at their coach.
"What should we do now?"
"Isn’t this a simple either-or choice? Accept the gifts or take on the challenge of a new task."
"‘New task’?" The students were completely baffled. "Then what was the ‘old task’?"
"Obviously, it was reforming the team and advancing from the Group Stage," Qi Liang said.
"Then..." Everyone exchanged glances. "Is the new task winning the championship? And if we win, will there be even more and better prizes?"
"Haha, maybe." Qi Liang sneered. "Wishful thinking."
"It’s not about wishful thinking—it’s a reasonable deduction."
"Or it could just be messing with us, making us do something impossible."
"That can’t be. Coach Jiang wouldn’t do that."
Since Wen Chengye received the CD, everyone had pretty much confirmed that the person who had been sending them clues and helping them reunite to play football was their former Coach Jiang.
If it was him, he would probably assign them something challenging but still achievable.
They looked back at the list on the table—those tempting prizes, things they had never owned before. If it was Coach Jiang, he would definitely deliver on his promise as agreed.
Were they really going to give all that up to take on an unknown challenge?
"Let’s vote."
Under the rooftop night light, Fu Xinshu lifted his head and said this to everyone.
The vote was anonymous. Whenever they had to decide something important, this was how they did it.
Eleven neatly cut slips of paper were quickly distributed.
Write "1" to accept the reward, "2" to accept the task.Qin Ao: "I almost pulled out my SIM card and put it in the new phone just now."
Chen Jianghe: "That's my new phone."
While exchanging these words, they quickly finished writing their answers.
There were 11 votes in total:
Three votes for "1".
Eight votes for "2".
Following the majority rule principle, they chose to forgo the easily attainable high-value prize and accept the unknown challenge.
After all,
"I really want to know what the new mission is!" Lin Lu exclaimed.
Fu Xinshu redialed the recorded message, and the sweet mechanical electronic voice sounded again. Without listening to the lengthy list from the first half, Fu Xinshu decisively pressed "2".
At first, there was no response from the other end of the line.
Then came a soft "beep".
"Please go downstairs to receive the fax. If automatic reception is not set, press the 'Start' button to print."
Once again, they found themselves in unfamiliar territory.
"What's a fax?"
"Do we even have a fax machine?"
Wang Fa pushed back his chair and headed downstairs first.
He moved swiftly, almost at a run, and the students, catching on, rushed downstairs after him.
Pushing open the door to the small storage room at Yuan Yuan Cram School, they saw that the fax-copier combo machine they used for copying exam papers was indeed already lit up.
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