The students of Hongjing No. 8 Middle School’s football team received both good and bad news during their morning training on the second day.
The good news was that late last night, Teacher Lin had received a notice from the school: starting today, they no longer had to attend regular classes.
The bad news was that the gym had sent over its final quote yesterday, but it was still a bit expensive.
As for the first piece of news, the students were actually a little confused.
Every student dreamed of not having to go to school, but when they were suddenly told they didn’t have to attend classes and had large amounts of free time to manage on their own, everyone felt at a loss.
"What are we supposed to do if we don’t have classes???" Qin Ao was the first to ask, clearly puzzled.
"Well, what do you usually do in class every day?" Lin Wanxing asked with a smile.
"Sleep," Yu Ming replied matter-of-factly.
"You’re just allowed to skip classes. If you want to go back to the classroom to sleep, that’s fine too," Lin Wanxing said.
Hearing this kind of response again, the students simply ignored her.
Learning how to manage their own time was another big challenge for the students.
Lin Wanxing didn’t plan to give them too much advice on time management. She just hoped they wouldn’t overplan.
First, they should observe what they did every day—for example, ask the coach how long their daily training should ideally last—and then think about what else they wanted to do each day.
After keeping track for a day or two, they could make a plan.
As for the second piece of "bad news about the gym"...
"How expensive is 'a bit expensive'?" the students asked one after another.
Lin Wanxing sat at the small table on the rooftop and spread out the quote she and Wang Fa had calculated yesterday, showing it to the students.
7,920, 10,989, 13,200.
The students crowded together and gasped when they saw the final price. "So expensive! How can it be this expensive?"
"How can 50 gym sessions cost 8,000 yuan? That’s over 150 yuan per session! What gives that rundown gym the right?!" Zheng Feiyang led the outcry.
Lin Wanxing noticed that although she had written the quote clearly, the boys hadn’t actually looked at it carefully. The first person shouted something, and the rest just followed suit.
She reminded them, "The last number is the total price. Each of your individual costs is listed earlier."
Qin Ao smacked Zheng Feiyang on the back. "Stop making a fuss."
Zheng Feiyang retorted, "Weren’t you the one shouting the loudest just now?"
Qin Ao replied, "I was just shocked! So, it’s only about 1,000 yuan per person?"
"That’s not bad!" Yu Ming cheered up.
"Teacher, next time, just give us the bottom line," Chen Jianghe said.
The morning sun rose over the rooftop, and a refreshing breeze swept through.
Since they didn’t have to go to school, the students were in high spirits. So, they didn’t think the gym fee of around 1,000 yuan was a big deal.
Lin Wanxing observed each of their reactions. After they had quieted down, she asked, "So now, what are you going to do?"
"Do about what?"
"Train hard, of course."
The students answered as if it were obvious.
They were full of fighting spirit and confidence, as if they could overcome any challenge.
Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and asked, "What I meant was, are you going to join the gym’s fitness training? And how will you pay for it?"
The boys were stunned. "Teacher, I thought you meant you were buying—"
"This is your training. Why would I pay for it?" Lin Wanxing countered."But teacher, you have money," Lin Lu said.
"Isn't this whole building yours?" Chen Jianghe retorted.
"Right, but that's my money. Why should I let you use it?" Lin Wanxing replied.
After spending so many days together, the students had grown accustomed to hearing her talk like this and didn't get instantly riled up like before.
"Then how about we borrow it from you? You cover the costs first, and we'll pay you back once we start earning money," Qin Ao negotiated with her.
"Yeah, we can write IOU notes!" his follower Yu Ming chimed in.
Clearly, they just wanted to resolve the issue quickly so they could focus on training.
Lin Wanxing: "I have no obligation to cover your training expenses, and that includes your coach too."
Wang Fa, sitting at a nearby table eating breakfast, glanced at Lin Wanxing and shrugged at the students, indicating he couldn't help.
"Then I'll just ask my parents for money. It's not a big deal," Zheng Feiyang said.
"We don't need your money. We have our New Year's money," Feng Suo said.
"But I've already spent all my New Year's money," Lin Lu whispered.
"What did you buy? How could you spend it all already?" Feng Suo was shocked.
"I didn't get much to begin with, and it's been over half a year. Isn't it normal to have spent it by now?" Lin Lu said defensively.
The students fell back into their usual chaotic discussion about the matter. Lin Wanxing simply went to sit across from Wang Fa to eat her breakfast. Today's meal was steamed buns and soy milk, with ice cubes in the soy milk. She took a sip, the cold chilling her lips.
"Teacher, why are you running away!"
After a while, the students gathered around the breakfast table again.
Lin Wanxing took a bite of her bun and looked up: "This is your own matter. Solve it yourselves. What can I do?"
"Teacher, you're just being difficult. Just say it directly - 'I'm not paying for this, you figure it out yourselves.' That's what you mean, right?" Qin Ao said.
Lin Wanxing looked shocked: "Was I not direct enough earlier?"
Qin Ao: "..."
=
For ordinary high school seniors, asking their families for money when facing financial shortages was completely normal.
However, asking for money to get gym memberships wasn't something parents would easily accept.
Moreover, with different family backgrounds, some dared to make that call while others didn't, and there were those who never even considered it an option.
"Mom, it's just like signing up for tutoring classes!" Lin Lu stood in a corner of the rooftop holding his phone, his voice carrying on the breeze, sounding like the conversation wasn't going well.
Zheng Feiyang wasn't having much luck either.
Zheng Feiyang's parents were northerners who ran a barbecue restaurant in Hongjing. His father found it ridiculous when his son asked for money to get a gym membership.
"Stop messin' around, never finishin' what ya start! If ya ain't gonna play soccer, get yer butt back here and help with the skewers. Just lookin' at yer dumb face pisses me off!" Zheng Feiyang's father's voice blasted through the phone speaker. Young Zheng was immediately terrified into silence, said a few placating words to his dad, and quickly hung up.
Lin Lu and Zheng Feiyang were actually among the most spoiled kids on the football team, so the others had it even worse.
As for Qin Ao, Fu Xinshu, and Chen Jianghe, they never even made that call home.
For the boys, having to ask their parents for money at their age was already embarrassing enough. Their parents' reactions made them even more reluctant to do it.
In the end, everyone fell silent.Lin Wanxing glanced up at the sun overhead, thinking that their first day without school hadn’t gone very smoothly.
Seeing how dejected his teammates were, Fu Xinshu said, “Coach, maybe we should just go train for now. If it really doesn’t work out, those like Feng Suo who can afford the membership can go, and the rest of us don’t have to.”
Yu Ming chimed in, “Old Fu’s got a point. It’s not like the gym is absolutely necessary. We didn’t go before, and we still beat Green View International.”
The more the students talked about it, the more they convinced themselves it could work.
For most people, if a problem couldn’t be solved, it was perfectly normal to just give up on solving it.
Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and was about to speak when Wang Fa’s voice cut in.
“True enough. For the opponents you’ll face next in the Group Stage,” Wang Fa said casually, finishing the last of his soy milk, “training at the gym twice a week isn’t going to make much of a difference.”
The boys weren’t so dense as to take the coach’s words at face value.
“Coach, don’t be mad. This idiot’s just lazy and doesn’t want to use his brain,” Qin Ao said, not daring to point out that Fu Xinshu had been the one to suggest skipping the gym training. Instead, he directed his frustration at Yu Ming.
Yu Ming protested, “Then what are we supposed to do? Go screw bolts at your uncle’s factory with you?”
“Are you out of your mind? My uncle’s factory is in Wuping. The round trip would take over four hours.” As Qin Ao spoke, he suddenly remembered something and turned to Zheng Feiyang.
Young Zheng shuddered. “No way, bro. If we go to my dad’s place, he’ll definitely crack your skull open.”
As the students continued to debate, it seemed they had reached another dead end.
At that moment, Qi Liang, who had been quietly listening all this time, finally stood up.
“We’ve discussed it, we’ve reflected on it. Can you say something now?”
Lin Wanxing looked up. Qi Liang, his hair a mess, walked over to her, tapped the table, and spoke.
“What do you want me to say?” Lin Wanxing asked.
“Teacher, you’ve got a lot of ideas. Ever since you said ‘no money,’ you’ve been waiting for us. Just be straightforward—are you going to lend us the money only if we meet certain conditions, or do you have some other plan?”
As Qi Liang spoke, Lin Wanxing listened attentively.
When he finished, she looked over her students and said slowly, “I’ve expressed my views many times already. Though you may not believe it, most of the time, I don’t want to tell you exactly what to do. So I would never use ‘money’ to make you obey me.”
“Then what do you want?” Qin Ao, now enlightened by Qi Liang’s words, said irritably. “Just watch over us like some kindergarten nanny?”
Lin Wanxing remained calm. “A kindergarten nanny takes care of your basic needs. I’m here to help when you want to reach for something higher.”
“So, by your logic, since we want money now, what kind of help will you give us?” Chen Jianghe asked.
Qi Liang added, “If giving money directly is a low-level way to satisfy us, what’s the high-level way? Taking us out to earn money?”
Lin Wanxing shook her head. “You were already thinking about how to earn that money earlier. Why not keep discussing it?”
“Well…” Yu Ming hesitated.
“We talked about it, but we couldn’t come up with any other ideas,” Qin Ao said.“It feels strange in every way. Because we’ve never done it before, we think we can’t do it, and we can’t think any further.” For once, Qi Liang answered her question seriously.
Lin Wanxing said to Qi Liang, “If you really want to understand what I’m trying to do, first of all, I am indeed making you ‘think for yourselves,’ because thinking and discussing mean you’re trying to solve problems on your own.”
“Are you saying we have to figure out how to make money ourselves?” the students asked. “Then what can you do to help us? Can you tell us where it’s easy to make money?”
“I could give you one yuan, or I could tell you where you can make money. But have you ever thought about learning some methods to solve problems, instead of just getting a definite answer?”
She asked this.
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