It was a very ordinary September afternoon. The campus was filled with post-lunch drowsiness, and the crisp sound of students flipping test papers could be heard from outside the window.
For the first time in her life, Lin Wanxing stood before a lectern.
Although the eleven boys seated before her could hardly be considered her students.
But the youths' faces were still tender, and no matter how much they tried to conceal it with lazy and disdainful postures, their eyes held inquiry and curiosity.
The scene froze.
Like a rubber band being stretched, there would be a moment of infinite stillness.
Just before the rubber band snapped back, Lin Wanxing said, "In the spirit of fairness, openness, and justice, we will gather at the school's east gate at 12:00 noon on Sunday to go to the match together. Those who cannot attend on time, please raise your hands."
The boys looked at each other, momentarily stunned for a few seconds.
Then a few troublemakers decisively raised their hands.
First was Qin Ao. Not only did he raise his own hand, but he also signaled with his eyes for Lin Lu and Yu Ming to raise theirs as well.
Among all the students who raised their hands, one person surprised Lin Wanxing.
"Now, let's hear everyone's opinions," Lin Wanxing said, instead smiling.
"Fu Xinshu," she called out, her gaze sweeping over him.
The boy lowered his somewhat slender arm and said, "We need to familiarize ourselves with the venue. Gathering at 12 is too late."
"Objection sustained. Then 11 it is."
Fu Xinshu nodded and lowered his hand.
"Qin Ao," Lin Wanxing continued calling names.
"People can't play football with dogs," Qin Ao said coldly, glancing at Wen Chengye and Qi Liang.
"Indeed," Qi Liang's voice was light and mocking.
Hearing Qin Ao's words, he instead lowered his hand, clearly determined to oppose Qin Ao to the end.
"Piss off," Qin Ao said.
"Barking again," Qi Liang laughed.
With Qin Ao and Qi Liang leading the way, the boys below started arguing again.
For them, it didn't seem to matter much whether they were willing or unwilling.
Lin Wanxing didn't bother with them either. She looked toward the boy sitting in the farthest corner of the classroom: "Chen Jianghe, what about you?"
Chen Jianghe's face was as cold as ice as he stood up from his seat.
Although Lin Wanxing had often seen him cold and silent, his expression had never been as grim as it was today.
Without a word, he directly left through the back door of the classroom, as if unwilling to stay in the room for even a second longer.
Lin Wanxing watched the boy's thin retreating back. Qi Liang's voice drifted over from nearby.
"Ha, cool guy."
——
Overall, the "First Plenary Meeting of the Second Semester of the 2019 Academic Year for the Men's Football Team of Anning City No. 8 High School" concluded with a great consensus.
Translated, it meant that most people had no major objections to playing a match over the weekend, but it couldn't be ruled out that some were extremely dissatisfied with it.
One of them was, of course, Qin Ao, who had been provoked by Qi Liang.
Another was Chen Jianghe, who had run off before the meeting even finished.
This outcome was something Lin Wanxing hadn't anticipated.
But Lin Wanxing wasn't in a hurry to find Chen Jianghe and Qin Ao either. She returned to her desk in the sports equipment room.
On the desk were several puzzle books she had borrowed from the high school library.
She had read part of them last night and this morning. With nothing else to do, aside from when students came to borrow equipment, she spent the entire afternoon reading.
Some of the brain teasers were decades-old clichés, but there were also novel and interesting puzzles that were captivating.
Unconsciously, she had filled several pages of scratch paper with her notes.
The first to arrive was Qin Ao.
Young Qin had a bruise on his cheek. It wasn't severe, but because it was near the scar under the corner of his eye, it looked somewhat fierce.
"You still fought. Is Qi Liang alright?" Lin Wanxing glanced at Qin Ao, then lowered her head to study the puzzle in front of her.
"He's already dead."
"Huh?" Lin Wanxing imitated Qi Liang's tone, feigning shock.
Qin Ao wiped the back of his hand across his lips, looking like he was about to explode again.
Lin Wanxing quickly pulled a gummy worm from the snack bag on her desk as an apology.
Qin Ao raised an eyebrow, took it after a moment, indicating he was graciously forgiving her.
Lin Wanxing ignored Qin Ao and continued studying the puzzle she had just turned to.
"What are you looking at?" Qin Ao leaned over, only then noticing the puzzle and code books on the desk.
The nine sentences originally written on the cigarette paper and the final "⑩——口口口" had been copied by Lin Wanxing onto the same sheet of paper and placed in the upper right corner of her desk for easy reference.
Lin Wanxing rotated the puzzle she had just found 180 degrees and showed it to Qin Ao.
——A German doctor who has lived in China for many years uses a convenient method to test whether elderly people have dementia and to what degree.
Take the following five characters and add one stroke to each to turn them into different characters.
If you can only answer one, you may already be ill.
If you can only answer 2 characters, you have average thinking.
If you can answer 3 characters, you have a very healthy brain.
If you answer all correctly, then you are an extremely smart person.
If you can't answer a single one, then you are already a demented elderly person.
"Diao, Ya, Kai, She, Yu?"" Qin Ao read the five characters one by one. "Does this have something to do with that?"
"Nope," Lin Wanxing said.
"Then why are you doing it?"
"Because it's related to IQ."
Qin Ao: "..."
"So, why did you come to find me?Lin Wanxing added the first stroke to "刁," turning it into "习.""
"I still think there's something wrong with you."
Qin Ao chewed the gummy, his originally sharp tone softening a bit because of it.
"So direct?" Lin Wanxing asked. "What's wrong with me?"
"Why are you the one taking us to the match?"
"Because Teacher Qian said I get along well with you and Chen Jianghe, so he asked me to lead the team."
"It wasn't your suggestion?"
"Kid..." Lin Wanxing put down her pen. "Come on, let me repeat it: I—myself—graduated with a master's degree from Yongchuan University, was the top liberal arts student in the provincial college entrance exam, and have published 9 SCI papers, 6 of them as first author. Why would I voluntarily suggest taking you to the match, something so thankless?"
"..." Qin Ao was silenced again for a while. Suddenly, he pointed to the paper in the upper right corner of the desk and said, "So why can't the top scorer solve this?"
"If I can't solve this problem, there are only two possibilities," Lin Wanxing twirled her pen.
"What?"
"First, this isn't a puzzle yet; second, I just haven't tried to solve it yet."
Qin Ao was shocked. After a moment, he said, "You're so good at acting cool. Teach me."
Lin Wanxing laughed, added one stroke to each of the remaining four characters, then pulled over the scratch paper on the desk and placed it on top.
"All puzzle-solving starts with observation," she said, pointing to the nine sentences copied from the cigarette paper. "Observe these sentences. Can you find anything they have in common?"
"They're all brain-dead?" Qin Ao ventured.
"And?"
"Each sentence has a number and a dash in front of it?" Qin Ao paused. "This is a dash, right?"
"Yes, continue."
Qin Ao hesitated for a moment: "Could the numbers in front be related to the number of characters in the sentences?"
"Can't rule that out."
As she spoke, Lin Wanxing wrote the numbers in front of each motivational quote and the number of characters in each quote into two rows.
Qin Ao looked at them twice and couldn't help but exclaim, "This is too complicated!"
"Yeah, too complicated," Lin Wanxing mused.
Qin Ao glanced at her suspiciously: "So, you haven't solved it yet, have you?"
"Ha, you caught me," Lin Wanxing laughed awkwardly.
"Heh heh," Qin Ao sneered.
"But..." Lin Wanxing looked up.
Evening, the sun slanted westward, making the entire equipment room warm.
"If this is indeed a puzzle, then the person who made it naturally hopes you can solve it. So, it definitely won't be too difficult," she said.
At the door, Chen Jianghe stood holding a football, his expression serious.
The youth's brows were stern, sweat glistening in his short-cropped hair, shining in the sunlight.
He held the football in the crook of his arm, paused for a moment, then entered.
He had borrowed the football that morning. Although Lin Wanxing knew Chen Jianghe really didn't want to be in her presence right now, because of the "return the ball no matter how late" agreement, he had come anyway.
The boy seemed a bit tense. Without greeting her, he first returned the football to the basket, then walked back to her desk.
Qin Ao's gaze followed Chen Jianghe back and forth twice.
Lin Wanxing didn't speak. She opened the "Borrow/Return Log" and let Chen Jianghe sign.
The boy quickly signed his name, put down the pen, and glanced at her.
Lin Wanxing took back the log, closed it, and wrote a couple of strokes on the scratch paper with her puzzle solutions, still not speaking.
Chen Jianghe frowned, took a few steps toward the door.
Suddenly, he stopped, turned back, and said, "I won't be going on Sunday."
"Ah, I know. Thanks," Lin Wanxing said.
"Thanks for what?"
"Thanks for coming to specially remind me that I'll face difficulties in completing my weekend work."
Chen Jianghe was momentarily speechless. After a pause, he said, "Anyway, I won't go. You can just find someone else."
"I checked. The National Youth League requires registered players to participate. The school has already submitted the registration form; we can't just find anyone."
Chen Jianghe's frown deepened, the lines between his brows creasing like an old man's.
Lin Wanxing comforted him: "It's fine. If you don't want to go, then don't. No need to struggle with it."
Chen Jianghe looked up, surprised and somewhat bewildered.
Lin Wanxing found the boy's reaction a bit cute: "Still not leaving? Do you want me to force you to play so you can reluctantly agree to my request?"
Chen Jianghe: "..."
The youth, having been checkmated, immediately turned and left.
Lin Wanxing didn't try to stop him.
"Teacher, did you deliberately chase Chen-dog away?"
"What deliberate?"
"Seems like playing hard to get."
"Good use of the idiom."
Hearing this, Chen Jianghe's back stiffened. He halted, unsure whether to advance or retreat.
"You see, I'm not forcing you to participate in the match because whether you go or not is your own choice."
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