The entire National Day holiday left students even busier than during regular school days.
Aside from their daily "favorite" football training sessions, they now had brand new academic courses.
In truth, Lin Wanxing had long understood that whether it was the cigarette case that initially prompted Qin Ao to come, or the treasure map that later led students to "Yuan Yuan Cram School," the mysterious figure behind the scenes was practically nakedly asking her to properly tutor the students.
He genuinely hoped the children would study hard and improve their exam scores.
Lin Wanxing had previously seen the students' test papers and had even taught a brief "academic lesson" in her small storage room, giving her a general understanding of their "dismal" exam results and weak knowledge foundation.
However, regardless of their academic foundation, it didn't mean the students lacked willingness to learn. For them, those subjects were simply boring, making it difficult for them to focus.
All the football team members were humanities students. Therefore, during this period, Lin Wanxing reorganized high school humanities subjects based on her own understanding and previous part-time experience at educational institutions during university.
A couple of days earlier, in her grandparents' cram school storage room, she discovered some leftover teaching equipment, including an old projector that could be used after replacing some components.
For the first "Chinese Language" class, Lin Wanxing showed the students a documentary about human language.
This came as a great surprise to the boys who had prepared themselves to memorize classical texts.
Lin Wanxing gave each of them an outline - the first half completed by her, the second half left blank.
Initially, when hearing the English narration, the students thought she had confused Chinese with English class.
But as the gentle narration and melodious background music progressed with the visuals, they gradually embarked on this journey exploring the origins of human language.
The entire documentary lasted one hour. By the time it finished, the students felt as if waking from a dream.
The process was very relaxed, and what the boys needed to do was simple: after watching the documentary, they should complete the second half of the outline she hadn't finished, based on their understanding.
Student Qin Ao initially thought this task was simple, commenting: "You've managed to be lazy again!"
But when he actually started writing the first line, he suddenly found his mind completely blank.
So Lin Wanxing had them watch the documentary again, teaching them how to take notes, record key points, and finally organize their thoughts.
Lin Wanxing didn't completely separate Chinese and English classes.
All teaching materials were arranged according to the students' knowledge level and her own understanding.
For instance, she believed that learning how to learn - such as proper note-taking and outline organization methods - was more important than learning specific subject knowledge. Or regarding writing, she prioritized teaching basic logic courses first.
Lin Wanxing very frankly told the students:
All courses from elementary school to doctoral programs are available on the internet. Humanity's basic knowledge sharing system is far more powerful than they imagined. Whenever, wherever, as long as you want, you can find complete and excellent courses online.What she could do was build an academic system she believed suited them, select learning materials she considered excellent, and provide feedback on their "assignments" to help students learn more effectively.
What the students needed to do was value knowledge itself.
Just like the gradual progress reflected in their daily training and physical data charts, Lin Wanxing hoped her students would experience the joy of "knowledge growth" and "learning something new."
As for math class...
Lin Wanxing invited a friend she knew from a university education institution to conduct online classes for the students.
When the projector lit up and a girl with a sweet smile appeared on the screen, the boys stared with wide-eyed fascination.
———
Everyone's energy is limited.
Though progressing haltingly, the students threw themselves into studying with greater focus than before.
Simultaneously, they still devoted most of their time, energy, and physical effort to football training. Under Wang Fa's guidance, they were making an all-out sprint for the upcoming National Youth League Group Stage.
On the first workday after the National Day holiday, Lin Wanxing received an email from the National Youth League organizing committee.
The email content was roughly as follows:
Congratulations to Hongjing No.8 Middle School for qualifying for the "National Youth League South China Regional Main Competition."
The competition schedule and venue procedures are hereby sent via email.
Participants and teams can check match schedules and standings through the WeChat official account.
Lin Wanxing immediately informed the students upon receiving the email.
The boys were still on the field, having just finished training. They excitedly rushed to the tutoring classroom.
After turning on the projector, Lin Wanxing displayed the email content on the screen and opened the competition regulations for the students to read themselves.
——The "Yongchuan Cup" U-19 category of the National Youth Football Super League is a competition participated by U-19 teams from Chinese Super League and China League One clubs, along with eligible teams from China League Two clubs, football schools, amateur clubs, Chinese Football Association member associations, and school football teams. Abbreviated as National Youth U-19 League.
...
The competition regulations were lengthy, mostly filled with official jargon, but the students read them with great enthusiasm.
Lin Wanxing slowly scrolled through the email while the students took turns reading paragraphs aloud. If she scrolled too quickly, they'd complain.
For them, the leisurely reading of the regulations itself seemed like a delightful process of savoring their victory.
Overall, the email's key information lay in the "Competition Format" section.
——The competition adopts a home-and-away double round-robin format with 16 participating teams. All teams are divided into 4 groups based on proximity and equal distribution according to their home stadium cities.
The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.
Lin Wanxing highlighted this section in yellow.
The students started getting anxious when they saw "home stadium city."
"Who are we playing against?"
"Do we even have a home stadium?"
"Are you idiots? Hongjing Mingzhu Stadium is our home ground," Qi Liang said.
"Damn, aren't there many strong teams near us?"
"Yongchuan Evergrande wouldn't be in our zone too, would they?"
Zheng Feiyang's comment immediately caused an uproar.
"Their youth team is joining our competition? That can't be right."
"Are you stupid? There's no way we'd be in the same group.""Who cares if we're in a group, we'll just fight it out!"
The small classroom erupted in noise. Some were scared, some worried, but the little gang led by Qin Ao was brimming with confidence, believing that if they had to fight no matter what, they couldn't back down.
After listening to the students' clamor, Lin Wanxing quietly scrolled to the end of the email and said, "Actually, the group assignments and match schedule have already been sent. There's an attached document."
"Damn, why didn't you say so earlier!" the boys chorused.
Lin Wanxing opened the attached Word document, and a clear match schedule appeared on the screen.
Wang Fa, who had been sitting at the back of the classroom, also looked up, carefully studying this crucial table that would determine their future matches.
At first, the entire classroom was quiet. The students maintained the same upward gaze, intently observing the table.
There were quite a few participating teams in the table, most combining city names with sponsors. Names like "Yongchuan Evergrande" were likely youth teams of professional clubs. Only two teams appeared to be clearly school football teams.
Lin Wanxing quickly found "Hongjing No. 8 Middle School" in the table, but was completely unfamiliar with the remaining team names.
She discovered they were placed in Group C, with four teams total in each group. Besides themselves, Group C included... "Yongchuan Evergrande," "Yu Zhou Silver Elephant," and "Shen Cheng Hai Bo" - these three teams.
Lin Wanxing's eyes fixed on the four characters: "Yongchuan Evergrande."
Yongchuan Evergrande was really in the same group as them?!
The students made the same discovery simultaneously.
The classroom erupted with exclamations: "Holy shit, they're really in our group?"
"Damn, and Yu Zhou Silver Elephant too? Are they using us for practice?"
"Why is Shen Cheng Hai Bo here too? Rigged, absolutely rigged!"
"How the hell are we supposed to play this?"
The classroom became noisy and chaotic, with students first ganging up to beat up Zheng Feiyang for his "inappropriate remarks."
Lin Wanxing knew nothing about these teams, but judging from the students' reactions, these three teams must be extremely strong.
After waiting for the students to calm down a bit, she tentatively asked: "How good are these teams? Are they very strong?"
"What do you mean 'very strong'? These are top Chinese Super League clubs!" Qin Ao immediately shouted. "Look at Group B - there's Nan Yun Foreign Language School, that's a high school like us. Ba Ping Football School is just a football academy. But here in our group, they're all professional club youth teams!"
"How do they compare to Green View International?" Lin Wanxing still didn't understand and continued asking.
"We played against Green View International High School, which is essentially still a school team. Remember when we played Honor of Kings with you a few days ago? If Green View International is Diamond rank, these professional teams are King rank with fifty stars or more," Chen Jianghe said.
"But I'm only Bronze," Lin Wanxing raised her hand.
Qin Ao continued angrily: "Anyway, we're in the group of death. Just understand that."
"We're going to get slaughtered like dogs~" Qi Liang said in a gloomy tone.
"Is that so? It seems the football level in our division is quite high," Lin Wanxing comforted the students. "Looking at it this way, we're above average too."
"Stop with that nonsense, toxic positivity doesn't work," Qin Ao said irritably.
"How is it nonsense? I'm saying that since we made it to the top 16, we must be among the best in the region, right?"Lin Wanxing genuinely wanted to encourage her students, but this was also her true feelings. She didn’t have a clear understanding of the strength of the football team or the level of the competition. Judging by the students’ reactions, the tournament they were about to participate in was practically on par with competing against youth training teams of professional clubs—a height Lin Wanxing had never imagined before.
But the students thought completely differently.
"What’s the use of being the best of the best?!"
"Well then..." Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and asked very sincerely, "Should we withdraw from the competition?"
"Withdraw your ass!"
"What kind of nonsense are you talking?"
The students grew agitated again.
"Since we haven’t even played yet and already think we can’t win, wouldn’t it be better to withdraw and focus on studying and improving every day?" Lin Wanxing added.
The students were even more displeased, with several of them glaring angrily: "The reverse psychology tactic is way too outdated!"
"Teacher, are you hinting at that time we said we wouldn’t play against Green View International?"
"Not at all," Lin Wanxing said with a laugh.
After this bit of banter, the students’ earlier tension and intensity eased considerably.
Lin Wanxing said, "The competition is important, but for you, it’s not a matter of life and death. Even if you lose, you can still take the college entrance exams. If that doesn’t work out, you can find ways to make a living and support your families. There’s no need to be so 'afraid.'"
"Damn, why are you so pessimistic? Making it sound like we’re definitely going to lose?"
"Who’s afraid?!"
"Right, we’re just taking our opponents seriously!"
In just a few words, the boys started talking tough again, completely forgetting their earlier complaints about strong opponents and the match schedule.
Lin Wanxing laughed.
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