“Lin Wanxing, to be honest, with your major, it would have been difficult for you to intern at our No. 8 Municipal High School,” he said.

“After all, you studied psychology, and there aren’t many positions for that in our specific educational work.”

“But I’ve known Old Chen for many years, and he put in a good word for you. I thought about it and found a position with a light workload, suitable for young ladies like you. Wait here for a moment, a teacher will take you there shortly.”

The old reddish-brown wooden door creaked open, revealing a dim storeroom. The Vice Principal’s words, carrying the scent of tea and cigarettes, seemed to still echo in her ears.

Lin Wanxing stepped back half a step, gazing incredulously at the sign in the upper right corner of the door frame.

“This is the sports equipment room,” said the logistics teacher who had brought her to the position.

The logistics teacher entered the equipment room, the bundle of keys hanging from his hand jingling noisily.

The space felt oppressive, and even the sunlight seemed to move sluggishly as if it would take a very long time to penetrate through the window at the far end of the equipment room.

Dust danced in the air, and shelves lined the room to the back.

Lin Wanxing hesitated for a moment before following him inside.

The shelves were filled with various sports equipment, both new and old. Jump ropes, torn basketball nets, deflated basketballs, and broken rackets… All had lost their most vibrant colors and were piled together, forming what seemed like some strange, tangled space.

Lin Wanxing became momentarily immersed in it all, finding everything around her incredible.

Until the logistics teacher’s voice broke the silence.

“Young lady, you’re quite lucky. The previous equipment manager just retired, so there’s this vacancy for you.”

The logistics teacher pointed at a yellowed and curled notice on the wall and continued without pause — “The wall shows the borrowing and returning guidelines. You must strictly follow the rules.”

He then walked to the only desk in the room and began rummaging through drawers.

Soon, he pulled out a thick ledger and slammed it heavily on the desk — “This is the inventory list. According to the list, you need to check the large equipment once a month and verify the inventory every quarter. If there are any damages or repairs needed, write up a plan and submit it at the logistics meeting.”

Lin Wanxing rushed from the wall to the desk, but before she could open the ledger, she heard the male teacher drawl — “And the simplest part of this job is, without a PE teacher’s approval, no equipment is to be lent out in principle since students often borrow things and don’t return them. Which means…”

“You don’t have to deal with students, just serve the PE teachers well.”

The logistics teacher gave her a look that suggested she was teachable and handed over the large, jingling bunch of keys.

Lin Wanxing took the heavy keys as he said, “It’s all yours now.”

She opened the window, and fresh air rushed into the stuffy equipment room.

Lin Wanxing leaned on the windowsill with both hands and looked outside.

Beyond the window was the playground, empty during class time. Under the sunlight, the lawn looked moist, willows swayed in the breeze, and everything seemed leisurely and peaceful.

She stood by the window catching the breeze for a while, with a strip of peeling yellow tape fluttering near her face.

After some time, Lin Wanxing finally began to have a somewhat real sense of her current situation.

Now, she had returned from Yongchuan to her hometown of Hongjing. Not only had she found an internship at a low-tier high school in the city, but she had also been assigned to a very leisurely position.

Everything seemed completely different from the life she had once imagined, but…

Lin Wanxing turned and squinted, looking at the dust-covered equipment filling the room.

Maybe this job would be quite challenging.

Organizing the desk, finding cleaning cloths, finding a water basin…

Lin Wanxing circled the equipment room, even discovering a bundle of small colorful flags in the corner, but couldn’t find any cleaning tools.

With dust floating throughout the room, she had no choice but to pocket the large bunch of keys and head out.

The auntie at the school’s small shop was very kind. Learning that Lin Wanxing was a new intern teacher, she told her that mops and clothes could be obtained from the general affairs office without having to pay for them.

Lin Wanxing made another round through the office building, then returned to the equipment room door with the mop, broom, and basin she had procured.

Opening the door, the wind rushed through, stirring up the dust again.

Lin Wanxing’s eyes were blinded by the sandy wind. She rubbed her eyes. Then, she saw a young man straddling the windowsill.

The boy was lean and dark with a crew cut and narrow eyes, a look that would normally appear somewhat fierce. But at this moment, his face was completely blank, as if he hadn’t expected anyone to be in the equipment room, which entirely neutralized his gloomy appearance.

Lin Wanxing roughly understood how the hole in the window sealed with tape had come about.

However, she pretended not to see this student trying to sneak into the equipment room, and instead busied herself with the broom and water basin, placing them beside the desk and starting to clean up the garbage on the desk.

Crumpled paper, old newspapers, a blackened ashtray — Lin Wanxing even found half a pack of yellowed tea leaves.

She shook open a garbage bag.

“Hey!” the young man called out.

“Can I help you?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“…What are you doing here?” the young man asked the most ambiguous question possible.

“Cleaning,” she said.

The young man looked her up and down several times, and finally, as if believing her answer, said, “Then clean it well.”

With that, he turned and walked toward the shelves.

He walked to the ball section with practiced familiarity, fished out a soccer ball from the basket, draped his school uniform over one shoulder, and swaggered toward the main door, preparing to leave.

Seeing the young man’s nonchalant attitude, Lin Wanxing smiled — “Excuse me, student~”

“What?”

“Don’t you need to tell a teacher when you borrow a soccer ball?”

“None of your business.”

“But what if a teacher asks about it?”

“So annoying. You’re not wearing a school uniform because you got punished with cleaning duty, and now you want to tattle to the teachers?”

Lin Wanxing was startled for a moment, looking at her blurry reflection in the window, and suddenly felt quite amused.

“I wasn’t planning to tell on you to the teachers,” she said.

“Then what do you want?”

“Because I am the teacher,” Lin Wanxing smiled.

“Plop” — the soccer ball dropped from the young man’s hand.

His mouth fell open, and it took him a moment to recover. Then his expression shifted rapidly, looking embarrassed at his own blindness.

“Come, sit, sit, sit.” Lin Wanxing completely ignored the fact that it was class time. She enthusiastically pulled up a stool, placed it in front of the desk, and sat down behind it herself.

Constrained by the fact that she was a teacher, the young man very reluctantly sat down on the stool, not forgetting to pick up the soccer ball he had just “borrowed” and clutch it to his chest.

“…You’re a teacher?” the young man still asked doubtfully.

“Yes, I’m new here, currently managing the equipment room.”

“Managing sports equipment, so teacher, what sport do you practice?”

“Weightlifting,” Lin Wanxing said.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“You already know, don’t expose me.” Lin Wanxing smiled.

The young man jumped to his feet.

“Don’t be angry.” Lin Wanxing waved her hand and said soothingly, “I, well, because of family connections, just started interning and was assigned to this relaxed and pleasant position managing equipment.” She looked up, “That’s the truth, I’m not lying to you.”

The young man remained standing with his back to her but didn’t leave.

Lin Wanxing looked at the soccer ball in his hands and asked — “So, now, let’s return to our first question, what can I do for you?”

“I came to borrow equipment and knocked but found no one, so I climbed through the window,” the young man answered haltingly.

If the logistics teacher hadn’t just instructed her not to lend equipment directly to students, Lin Wanxing might have believed the young man’s explanation.

But she didn’t intend to expose him immediately. Instead, she opened the thick equipment borrowing ledger, pushed it across the desk toward the young man, and placed a pen beside it.

The ledger had four columns — Equipment Borrowed, Borrower’s Class and Name, PE Teacher’s Signature, and Return Signature.

The young man paused for a moment, then picked up the pen and filled in “Soccer ball,” “Class 5, Senior Year 3,” and “Qin Ao.”

Lin Wanxing noticed that he hesitated before writing his class and name as if he needed to think about who he was.

The young man put down the pen.

Lin Wanxing pointed to the teacher’s signature column — “What about this?”

“You sign it!”

“This requires a PE teacher’s signature. Which teacher asked you to come to borrow it?” Lin Wanxing looked up, staring directly into the young man’s eyes.

Now the young man became embarrassed and angry again — “Are you being difficult? Forget it if you won’t lend it!”

He dropped the soccer ball and was about to leave, but Lin Wanxing didn’t call him back.

One, two, three…

Before the young man had taken three steps, he turned back.

“Damn,” he cursed, pulled something out of his pocket, and slammed it on the desk with determination, asking, “Then is this useful?”

Lin Wanxing looked down. On the desk was a handmade card.

The card was handwritten, with 100 straight horizontal and vertical grids drawn in watercolor. Some grids had patterns drawn in them, and small red flowers were pasted in the four corners. Rather than something a high school student would produce, it looked more like a toy made by a lower elementary school child out of boredom during class.

Most eye-catching was an interesting line written on the card — “100 Free Soccer Ball Borrowing Times” Card.

Lin Wanxing suddenly found her job becoming interesting.

She looked up at the young man with a smile — “Is that all?”

“Damn, I knew someone was messing with me.” The young man’s face was filled with shame and anger as he grabbed the handmade borrowing card, ready to flee.

But Lin Wanxing moved faster, slamming her hand on the desk to stop the young man from taking the card and leaving.

“This works too. You can borrow the soccer ball,” she said decisively.

The young man froze, looking at her in disbelief — “What… did you say?”

“I said, this card is valid, you can borrow the soccer ball.”

“This… isn’t… real, whose signature is that?”

Lin Wanxing didn’t say anything. She picked up the pen and wrote her name in the “PE Teacher’s Signature” column.

She put down the pen, and the young man still stood frozen.

After a while, the young man pointed at the soccer ball on the ground — “So I can go now?”

“Yes, goodbye.”

The young man seemed dazed. He awkwardly walked toward the soccer ball, bent down to pick it up, then secretly glanced back at her.

As if afraid she might change her mind, he suddenly hugged the soccer ball and ran, quickly disappearing.

The room grew quiet again.

The dust floating in the air slowly settled.

Lin Wanxing looked at the “100 Free Soccer Ball Borrowing Times” card on the desk, lost in thought.