The old stadium had no dedicated field lighting, relying only on streetlamps and fading daylight for illumination.
By now, the sky had completely darkened. Lin Wanxing peered cautiously from outside the field.
Chen Jianghe followed behind her, holding a football impatiently.
The scout, having been thoroughly scolded by Chen Jianghe, had already slipped away.
The few young men from earlier were playing on the field, and everything seemed to have returned to its usual calm.
As for the stands...
Lin Wanxing breathed a sigh of relief—the young man was still sitting there.
In the pitch-black stands, his long legs were crossed, his baseball cap pulled low as if he were asleep.
Her backpack still lay on the seat beside him. Tiptoeing over, Lin Wanxing tried not to wake him.
But just as her hand touched the strap, a cool gaze swept over her.
The young man slightly lifted his cap and looked up at her.
In the darkness, his pupils were pitch-black, as if waiting for her to say something.
"Thank you... for watching my bag?" Lin Wanxing ventured.
He was clearly unsatisfied with her response.
Before he could speak, Lin Wanxing quickly cut him off: "I haven’t asked you yet—do you know me?"
How did you know the agent was lying to Chen Jianghe? How did you know I was here for him? And why did you tell me to go help him?
"Not at the moment." The night cast shadows over his brow, accentuating his sharp, refined features.
"Well, even if we don’t know each other, we can get to know each other." Lin Wanxing smiled and pulled out her phone. "How about adding me on WeChat?"
"Sure." The young man took out his phone, tapped a few keys, and handed it to her.
Lin Wanxing hadn’t expected him to be so cooperative. Not noticing the yellow background, she scanned the QR code with the profile picture directly.
The page jumped, switching to a new window:
————
Pay to Individual
Winfred (*Fa)
Amount
￥10.00
Add Note
Pay
————
Lin Wanxing was stunned: "What is this for?"
"Storage fee."
"..."
Lin Wanxing turned off her phone screen, deciding to play dumb.
"How stingy." The young man stood up, grabbed the baseball jacket tossed aside, and turned to leave.
He took two steps.
"Oh, right." He glanced back at Chen Jianghe.
Under that gaze, Chen Jianghe couldn’t help but shiver.
"Why haven’t you ever dreamed of becoming a professional player?" he asked.
Chen Jianghe opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a word.
—
Wang’s Beef Rice Noodles.
The rice noodles were snow-white, scalded thoroughly in boiling water. From the pickled vegetable jar, well-marinated napa cabbage was fished out and placed over the noodles, topped with sliced beef.
A large wooden barrel simmered with a clear beef broth, and a ladle of the piping hot soup was poured into the bowl. Cilantro, scallions, chili, and Sichuan pepper were all added to taste.
The shop’s atmosphere warmed with the steam from the soup, appealing in both aroma and appearance.
Lin Wanxing rubbed her disposable chopsticks together and said to the boy sitting across from her, "It’s super delicious. Have you been here before?"
Chen Jianghe finally showed a hint of local disdain: "This place is famous."
"The owner said it’s been open for over twenty years. Did you grow up eating here?"
"What’s it to you?" Chen Jianghe glanced at the table. The noodles were tempting, but he stubbornly refused to pick up his chopsticks.
Lin Wanxing paid him no mind and continued talking.
She told Chen Jianghe that she was also a native of Hongjing but had left the city with her parents later on.She asked Chen Jianghe which shops in Hongjing were trending lately, then told the young man about the old shops hidden in small alleys she had visited.
Finally, Chen Jianghe couldn’t hold back: “Do you ever stop talking?”
“Is it that bad?” Lin Wanxing poked at his rice noodles with her chopsticks from across the table. “Are you really not going to eat?”
Chen Jianghe kept a cold expression, refusing to yield.
Lin Wanxing laughed. “You’re still young and thin-skinned. Look at that guy today—we didn’t even know him, but not only did he eat my snacks, he even dared to charge me 10 yuan!”
“We don’t know each other either, do we?” Chen Jianghe replied, still expressionless.
“How can you say that? You asked to borrow a football from me today.” Lin Wanxing smiled and pulled out the “100 Times” card from her pocket.
Chen Jianghe’s expression instantly changed, as if saying, “Put that down and we can talk.”
“Are you on a football team? Which one? If a scout approached you, you must be pretty good, right?”
“What’s it to you?”
“You seem to know a lot about football. Manchester United’s youth training isn’t doing well—which European clubs have good youth training systems?”
“La Masia, Southampton, Atalanta.”
“You really know your stuff. So, who gave you this card? You kept it and brought it here instead of throwing it away—there must be a reason, right?” Lin Wanxing pressed.
Chen Jianghe fell silent again.
“Oh well, if you don’t want to say, forget it. Do you still want to borrow the football?” Lin Wanxing held up the handmade card, the first box already crossed out.
Chen Jianghe stared at her, his expression serious, and remained silent.
“There are 99 times left on this card. If you come to borrow the football every day, that’s over three months.”
Lin Wanxing’s smile faded as she spoke seriously, “I can lend it to you, but there’s one condition: no matter how late it is, you must return the football every day. That’s the agreement. Can you do it?”
Chen Jianghe didn’t respond, remaining rigid.
Lin Wanxing didn’t lower her hand, keeping her gaze fixed on him.
Finally, the young man gave a slight nod.
“Then let’s eat.” Lin Wanxing handed the “100 Times” card back to him, lowered her head, and picked out the beef from her bowl to eat first.
The rice noodle shop was bustling with people, and outside, traffic flowed steadily.
After a while, the other pair of chopsticks on the table moved.
Across from her, the sound of slurping rice noodles began.
—
Lin Wanxing parted ways with Chen Jianghe at the intersection.
The football the young man had “borrowed” was back in her hands.
She didn’t offer to walk him home, only left her phone number and asked him to send a text when he got back.
The sky was completely dark now, and the traffic had thinned. The walk back to school grew quieter and quieter.
Lin Wanxing looked up to see the brightly lit teaching building. The school stood orderly and disciplined.
The campus was silent.
She first returned the football to the equipment room, then circled around the teaching building and headed toward the school dormitory.
When she started her internship, the high school had arranged dormitories for all the interns, housing them alongside the students.
But because the floors were low and they had to follow the same schedule as the students—waking up at six every morning to the bell—many interns had gradually moved out.
The dormitory building was extremely quiet. She had previously shared a room with Teacher Xu, right across from the dorm supervisor’s office.
The students were still in evening self-study. The supervisor had turned on a desk lamp and was knitting under its light.Lin Wanxing greeted the auntie and gave her half of the sugar-roasted chestnuts she had bought on her way back.
"You're too kind, Xiao Lin," the auntie said, using a bamboo basket to hold half of the chestnuts. With a "crack," she peeled one open and asked, "Were you tired at work today? Which grade are you teaching?"
"I wasn't assigned to teach a class. I was put in charge of the sports equipment instead."
"Oh dear, what a shame. Was it tiring?"
"It was very relaxed. No one bothered me, and I could even play games," Lin Wanxing said with a laugh.
"By the way, your package arrived today. It was incredibly heavy—such a big box. It must be full of books, right? I had the young man help move it to your dorm."
"Thank you, Auntie," Lin Wanxing said.
"Reading so many books, you must be a good student. You'll make a great teacher."
Lin Wanxing opened the dormitory door, and the night breeze swept through the room. Teacher Xu's bed had already been cleared out.
The left side of the room was suddenly empty, while the space from the right bedside to the desk was occupied by a half-person-tall, massive cardboard box.
As the light turned on, the transparent tape wrapped around the box gleamed brightly.
There were also many markings she had made on the box with a marker pen.
Lin Wanxing stood in front of the box for a while but ultimately did not open it.
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