As soon as these words were spoken, the entire rooftop fell silent.
The autumn wind was a bit chilly, and the lettuce seedlings in the small vegetable garden swayed in the evening breeze. Only the pies in the bag remained warm.
Someone suddenly exclaimed, "Holy shit!"
This almost perfectly captured the students' current mood.
The boys immediately erupted into chaos.
"No way?"
"The Mysterious benefactor is helping us again?"
"Helping us with what? Wen's? Could it be referring to Wen Chengye?"
Zheng Feiyang pointed at the printed characters on the paper bag as he said this.
"Could it be that the Mysterious benefactor sent us this bag of pies to hint at something about Wen Chengye?" Qin Ao pondered.
"I get it! It's hinting that Wen Chengye is a dumbass!" Lin Lu raised his hand.
"Who doesn't know Wen dog is an idiot?" Qin Ao said disdainfully.
"If it's that person, there should be a deeper meaning, right?" Fu Xinshu spoke up. "Just like the things Qin Ao, Chen Jianghe, and I received before..."
Hearing this, Lin Wanxing turned her gaze back to the "Wen" character on the packaging bag.
"The Mysterious benefactor couldn't actually want us to find Wen dog to play football together, could they?" the students said.
"Could it be they know we want Wen dog but can't get him, so they're giving us a helping hand?" Zheng Feiyang asked.
As soon as these words were spoken, Qin Ao couldn't resist smacking Zheng Feiyang again. "We want him? Can you even speak properly!"
"But why give it to Qi Liang?" Wang Fa suddenly asked.
"Yeah! Aren't these key items usually given to the main characters?" Qin Ao said, clenching his fist, tapping his own chest, and pointing forward.
"Maybe because Qi Liang has a slightly better relationship with Wen Chengye?" Lin Wanxing said.
"You saying that makes me sound like a traitor," Qi Liang said helplessly.
He grabbed the takeout bag from the table, inspecting it as if checking a faulty machine—pretending to be casual but actually examining the pie bag inside and out very carefully.
"What the hell are you looking at?" Qin Ao said irritably.
"What's the point of giving me this bag of pies? So I can take it to Wen Chengye?" Qi Liang asked.
"Maybe it's a sword hidden in fish belly?" Goalkeeper Feng Suo suddenly said. "There's something inside the pie!"
The students had many opinions.
Wang Fa kept his eyes on the pies on the table.
Lin Wanxing asked him quietly, "Want to try some?"
"That wouldn't be right," Wang Fa said politely.
The bag emitted the unique aroma of baked pies. After talking for so long, everyone was hungry.
Lin Wanxing opened the bag, took out the pies, placed them on a plate, and pushed it in front of Wang Fa, letting him choose his favorite flavor first.
Yu Ming wanted to stop her. "Teacher, what if these pies are really meant for Qi Liang to give to Wen Chengye? What if you eat them?"
Lin Wanxing glanced at Wang Fa and said to Yu Ming, "If we eat one of your pies, we'll pay you back tenfold."
"Stop using old jokes!" the students shouted.
—
Along with the various flavored pies, Lin Wanxing brewed a large pot of black tea.
Above their heads hung a faintly yellow pendant lamp, suspended from a frame that was supposedly for loofah vines. On this cool autumn rooftop night, the black tea, pies, and braised noodles with green beans had a unique charm.
They had only taken a few sips of tea, but the pies were already finished.
The students wiped their mouths, savoring the lingering aroma of the pies, having long forgotten their earlier mission.
"Did you find anything?" Lin Wanxing asked.
"The osmanthus sugar one was pretty good."
"Was it that good? I had the dried plum and pork one. I should've split it with you."
"I meant, did you find the 'sword' in the 'fish belly'?" Lin Wanxing asked.
"What sword? There's no sword, only a bastard," Qin Ao said fiercely, looking at the text on the paper bag.
"Teacher, are you stupid? How could a big store's pies have anything else inside?" Yu Ming said seriously.
"Then what should we do?" Lin Wanxing asked, stroking her chin and smiling helplessly. "The pies are finished, but we haven't found anything."
After she said this, the students started chattering again.
Some said there might be no clues at all and they were overthinking it. Others said one pie wasn't enough, and eating a few more might spark an idea.
Of course, some more naive classmates began to believe that this bag of pies was really meant as a bribe for Qi Liang to give to Wen Chengye.
Lin Wanxing listened quietly while drinking her tea.
After everyone argued, they turned the packaging bag inside out several times. Finally, Fu Xinshu said, "Based on the Mysterious benefactor's previous patterns, they would definitely give us clues. We just need to use our brains a bit."
"You don't have brains, so how can you use them?" Qi Liang sneered.
"And you do?" Qin Ao glared at him.
Qi Liang seemed to have had an idea all along. He glanced disdainfully at Qin Ao and stated his inference: "The only thing that can be called a clue is these two numbers on the receipt."
Qi Liang tore off the receipt stapled to the paper bag and placed it in the center of the wooden table.
The two numbers in the final order remarks column were particularly eye-catching.
"Could these two numbers be a locker combination, or a building number, seat number—something like that?" Fu Xinshu said.
Qi Liang: "The storage boxes behind our classroom don't have locks. And 19, 20—do they really refer to the boxes in our class? My student number isn't one of those. Should I go check someone else's box?"
"I was just giving an example."
Everyone fell into thought again.
To help the students' reasoning, Lin Wanxing specially ordered another set of pies from the same store—six flavors, two of each.
She deliberately left the same remarks on the receipt to see if this version differed from the one the Mysterious benefactor gave to Qi Liang.
When the order arrived, the students started complaining again. "We only get one each? Teacher, you're so stingy."
"Actually, you're just still craving them and want to try other flavors, right?" Qi Liang teased...
Lin Wanxing licked the pie crumbs from the corner of her mouth and placed the two receipts side by side. "How can you say that about your teacher?"
The students gathered around again. Indeed, the two receipts from different orders looked exactly the same.
After process of elimination, the only clues were still the two numbers "19, 20."
"So, what does this mean?" the students asked while chewing their pies.
They had discussed this question at length during the gap before the second bag of pies arrived.
Qi Liang had no ideas at all. The only possibility really was the lockers at the back of the classroom. Although there were guesses like Building 1, Floor 2, age, or passwords, none seemed reliable.
Qi Liang kept looking at the two receipts on the table.
"Damn, only two numbers. How long will it take to figure this out?" Qin Ao swallowed the last of his pie in one bite and complained irritably to Qi Liang. "With your brain, can you even see anything?"
Qi Liang slowly looked up. "Do you know the difference between you and me?"
"What is it?"
"The difference is that I not only have more brains than you, but I also have an extra pair of eyes!"
As he spoke, Qi Liang moved the two receipts in front of Qin Ao, crossed his arms, and said arrogantly, "There's a very obvious difference between these two receipts. And I'm not talking about the garbled recipient phone number. Do you know what it is?"
Hearing this, the students immediately crowded around.
Lin Wanxing also began quietly re-examining the two receipts.
She had filled in the address exactly as on the original receipt, even typing "5th floor" identically.
The number of pies, varieties, and even the order were the same. So what could the difference be?
Lin Wanxing finally had to focus her gaze on the remarks again—1920?
19...
"I know!" Lin Wanxing suddenly looked up.
"You know again?" Qin Ao said disdainfully.
"Let Qi Liang explain," Lin Wanxing glanced at the student.
Qi Liang didn't keep them in suspense. He pressed the two receipts onto the table and said, "The original remark was '19.20.', but the teacher typed '1920'."
Qi Liang pointed to the very small and inconspicuous "." after the numbers on the receipt.
"Holy shit, that's it?"
"Ah, just a dot?"
"What kind of obvious difference or major discovery is that?"
"This means the clue left for us isn't the two numbers 19 and 20, but 19 o'clock and 20 o'clock," Lin Wanxing said.
"Could it be a time? Or some kind of points? But why such a tiny dot?"
The students started discussing again, each voicing their thoughts. Lin Wanxing didn't speak, only sipped her tea thoughtfully nearby.
When they had talked enough, Lin Wanxing touched the side of her cup and said, "I think I know what it is."
"What is it?"
Lin Wanxing nodded and held up the receipt. "If I'm not mistaken, this is a clue that could make Wen Chengye join us."
—
Later, the students clamored to know what it was exactly, but Lin Wanxing didn't tell them.
They argued and bickered for a long time. Lin Wanxing didn't mind the students teasing her for being mysterious or saying she hadn't actually figured it out.
She remained tight-lipped about her guess.
Finally, the boys reluctantly headed home.
They felt the pie-eating puzzle game night had ended too soon.
The teapot and cups were still on the table.
The tea had been steeped many times and was now cool and weak.
Lin Wanxing opened the teapot lid, intending to add more hot water, but Wang Fa stopped her.
"If you brew black tea like that, my British neighbor would call the police," Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing let go of the thermos. She knew Wang Fa was joking, but her emotions and thoughts were elsewhere, making it hard to respond.
The rooftop was enveloped in the silence of night.
Lin Wanxing remained silent.
Wang Fa clinked and clattered as he washed the teapot and cups, then brewed a fresh pot of tea.
Amber tea streamed down, steam gently rising.
Wang Fa's voice followed: "What's the answer to the puzzle?"
"Ah?" Lin Wanxing snapped back to reality and saw Wang Fa looking at her with calm, concerned eyes.
Lin Wanxing knew very well that while Wang Fa seemed to be asking about the puzzle, he was actually concerned about her.
Gathering her thoughts, Lin Wanxing said half-jokingly, "Coach is being a bit nosy."
"Of course I'm curious," Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing took a sip of tea, dipped her index finger in some un-dried water on the saucer, and wrote "19." and "20." on the wooden table.
"These are two question numbers," she said.
"Question numbers?"
"Yes, question numbers from this month's math exam," Lin Wanxing said with near certainty.
"How do you know?"
"That's a bit of a long story," Lin Wanxing rested her chin on her hand. "It starts from when I proctored Wen Chengye's exam."
Lin Wanxing told Wang Fa that ever since she proctored Wen Chengye's exam last time, she found his test-taking behavior very strange.
"Though it might not be appropriate to say this, normally when answering exam questions, you need to think and calculate. But Wen Chengye didn't. I thought for a long time about what he seemed like during the exam..."
Wang Fa asked, "Like what?"
Lin Wanxing: "Like he was reciting from memory."
"Reciting?"
"I suspect Wen Chengye has been cheating on exams," Lin Wanxing explained. "But my suspicion is just my suspicion. After all, I was his proctor. I watched him for three full days and didn't find any issues during the exam process."
"You think someone gave Wen Chengye the answers in advance, and he's been cheating all along?" Wang Fa asked.
"I didn't think that much about it initially," Lin Wanxing said. "After all, I'm an educator and former science professional, so I try to be objective. If I can't prove Wen Chengye cheated during the exam, then he definitely didn't cheat. So for me, the matter was over."
"Really over?" Wang Fa asked.
"Well, not completely," Lin Wanxing said awkwardly. "Later, I asked Teacher Lu—Wen Chengye's homeroom teacher—about his past grades. Because the kids said Wen Chengye used to be terrible too, I wanted to confirm."
"And did you confirm?"
"Yes," Lin Wanxing suddenly sounded a bit angry. "Teacher Lu's implication was that Wen Chengye's grades were poor before. It was only after he entered his third year and distanced himself from his football team friends that his grades improved dramatically, shooting straight to the top of the grade."
Lin Wanxing patted the table and said quietly, "Not to boast, but even if I taught with everything I had, I couldn't take a student at our kids' level to the top of the grade in two or three months!"
"So, you still suspect Wen Chengye," Wang Fa said calmly, taking a sip of tea.
"I've watched Wen Chengye in class. He's always distracted. In simple terms, his body is in the classroom, but his spirit isn't. So why can he score so well when he doesn't pay attention in class? I think if he's not a prodigy, there's only one other possibility," Lin Wanxing said.
"Cheating," Wang Fa said.
"Right."
"So, what's the connection between cheating and 19 o'clock, 20 o'clock?" Wang Fa asked.
"Not 19 o'clock and 20 o'clock, but questions nineteen and twenty," Lin Wanxing said.
Wang Fa: "Questions?"
"Yes, questions from this month's math exam."
Lin Wanxing spoke hesitantly.
Although she had suspected Wen Chengye before, she had no evidence.
But in fact, the evidence she wanted, she had already seen—she just hadn't thought of it in that context.
Wang Fa asked, "What about the questions?"
"It's not that the questions are problematic..." Lin Wanxing said uncertainly. Her phone had been on the table the whole time, her fingers lightly brushing the screen.
Wang Fa watched her.
Lin Wanxing didn't know how to explain. "I've seen our school's math exam papers for this month. Questions 19 and 20 are two geometry problems. The questions themselves aren't problematic, but the answers... seem to have issues."
She took out this month's exam papers and spread them in front of Wang Fa.
Teacher Lu had previously compiled all the standard answers for her. Therefore, before the answer labels for math questions 19 and 20, there was a clear inverted arrow.
Wang Fa raised his eyes, looking incredulous.
"The answers to these two questions are printed in reverse," Lin Wanxing said.
"Did Wen Chengye also write the answers in reverse?" Wang Fa's expression grew stern.
Lin Wanxing sighed softly.
Though it seemed bizarre.
Connecting the clues, Lin Wanxing believed the "19. and 20." in the takeout receipt remarks were meant to expose a lie about Wen Chengye—
Wen Chengye's exam results were not the product of his own thinking and answering. He had obtained the answers for each exam from somewhere.
Wen Chengye had been cheating all along.
The tea was still warm, but the night breeze had grown cooler. Lin Wanxing fell into an unbearable silence.
Actually, what she needed to do now was simple.
Open her phone, call Teacher Lu, and verify whether the two questions Wen Chengye answered incorrectly on the math exam were indeed questions nineteen and twenty.
But sitting under the vine trellis, her thoughts stagnant, Lin Wanxing didn't do it.
The sound of someone opening a window and talking downstairs was faintly audible. She rarely found herself hesitating due to difficulty like this.
Wang Fa's voice came at the right moment: "Even if you call Teacher Lu and confirm that Wen Chengye indeed wrote the answers for these two questions in reverse, there's still no evidence that he cheated. He could easily say he misread the question numbers and wrote in the wrong places—that it was all a coincidence."
"Yes, he'd probably say that to Teacher Lu too," Lin Wanxing said in a very light tone.
"Actually, it's quite interesting," Wang Fa said. "This receipt is a clue, but it's also a task. It's asking you to find evidence that firmly incriminates Wen Chengye?"
"But Coach, I'm not worried about 'evidence'..." Lin Wanxing looked at him, very uncertain. "I'm just thinking... what should I do? What would be best?"
Nearby, on the rooftop wall, a banner still hung with "Warm Congratulations." Further away, the football field and the city were plunged into darkness.
Her mind conjured an image of the student.
Wen Chengye's face was cold, slightly raised. He used cheating to handle exams, refused communication, and despised everyone.
She had discovered this matter and should report it to the school. The school might expel Wen Chengye according to regulations, or they might give him a second chance with probation.
And then?
Would that fulfill her duty?
Uncertainty drifted like clouds obscuring the moon, the light hazy.
Lin Wanxing looked at Wang Fa. "In your football team, how did you used to handle players who made mistakes?"
"You want to know how we would handle a 'cheating' player like Wen Chengye?"
"Mm."
"If he isn't 'valuable,' we'd terminate his contract and expel him. But if he's valuable enough, our tolerance would be higher. However, if he crosses certain bottom lines involving interests, he'd still have to leave," Wang Fa's answer was cruel.
"Bottom line involving interests?"" Lin Wanxing didn't understand.
Wang Fa pondered for a moment, then told her a story: "Our team once had a player named Peter Warren. He had great talent—strong physique, fast, agile. At that time, my position was still very low. I heard from superiors that they considered him the next Matthew Le Tissier. The latter is the greatest player in Southampton FC's history, having played for Southampton his entire career."
Wang Fa paused, took a sip of tea, and continued, "Because Peter Warren was so talented, the club indulged him quite a bit. In the youth team, as long as you're strong enough and can be sold for a lot of money, being late or leaving early weren't big issues."
"And then?"
"Then this fostered Peter Warren's rebellious nature. He became lawless and often spoke without restraint. Once, he made 'racist' remarks in a bar that were posted online. The content was so terrible that it caused a huge uproar. Under public pressure, the club expelled him.Lin Wanxing finally understood what Wang Fa meant by "bottom line involving interests."" If the damage caused by a player outweighs their value, they are mercilessly discarded.
She looked at Wang Fa. "Did Peter Warren go to another team after that?"
"No," Wang Fa shook his head. "After that, he was dejected for a while." During a drunken argument, someone broke his leg with a steel pipe. It was a severe injury during his development years, and the repair surgery required an extremely high cost. But he had been expelled by us, so the team wouldn't spend that money on him. In the end, desperate, he even called me to borrow money. At that time, he cried and told me he deeply regretted it."
When Wang Fa told stories, there was always a profound calmness, but Lin Wanxing could also hear his deep regret.
The cool breeze flowed like water; tea gurgled as it poured.
He picked up the teapot and poured her another half cup.
Lin Wanxing fell into deep thought.
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