Eventually, the trio did put away the cushions.

Although they probably still had many questions in their minds, not knowing whether to continue soccer training, or how to get along with Fu Xinshu.

But Lin Wanxing didn’t want to say too much to the children. People always need to learn to think for themselves and solve their problems.

All she could do was take advantage of the lunch break to directly find the teachers from the sports department.

As she had anticipated, the teachers all felt that since the students had the initiative to train, completely refusing wouldn’t be good. So they agreed to let them use their free time for training.

Important note: This free time specifically referred to the period after school and before evening self-study.

Lin Wanxing had no other options. Training on campus always faced various constraints. In the end, she decided to take the students to check out the old stadium near the school after classes.

The venue issue was relatively easy to solve. As long as the students were willing to play soccer, even a flat piece of grassland would do.

But the coach issue wasn’t so simple.

From daytime until evening, Lin Wanxing took out her phone many times, but there was never a red number notification on the young man’s profile picture. She hadn’t received any reply message.

The evening came quickly. With the students notifying each other, Lin Wanxing met them at the school’s side gate, and they walked to the stadium.

At 5:40, seven people had arrived.

Fu Xinshu, Yu Ming, Qi Liang, Zheng Feiyang, Chen Weidong, Feng Suo, and Chen Jianghe.

Two other students, Zhi Hui, and Song Ren, were kept after class by their teacher, but they sent word to other classmates that they would come immediately after finishing.

Counting Lin Lu who had a foot injury, and Qin Ao who was still upset and hadn’t shown up, this was almost the entire team.

As the sun set in the west, Lin Wanxing walked with a group of high school students.

The boys gathered in small groups, sometimes buying fried chicken wings by the roadside, sometimes looking at sneakers in storefront windows. Rather than going to training, the atmosphere was more like everyone going on an outing together.

Lin Wanxing walked with them for a while. As they approached the field, she finally heard a student ask, “What are we practicing?”

“Yeah, is the coach coming?”

“He hasn’t replied to my message yet,” Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and answered truthfully.

The students were stunned, their footsteps faltering, showing slight uncertainty.

“Then we…” they looked at each other.

“Are we still going?” someone asked quietly.

Lin Wanxing stopped walking, and the students all looked at her.

Just in that moment, the children seemed to understand something.

“Got it!”

“We’ll make our own decision.”

“Let’s go, let’s go.”

Without giving her a chance to speak, the students headed toward the old stadium on their own.

Lin Wanxing stood there for a while, watching the students’ backs, smiling helplessly.

It was still the old stadium, with its 70s and 80s architectural style, weathered lead-gray exterior walls, and green steel windows.

Further ahead was the bustling swimming pool in the evening, and even further, there was a green soccer field.

The boys walked quickly. Lin Wanxing was still behind when the advance party had already run onto the field.

Some students, not wanting to be left behind, directly squeezed through the damaged railings on the side of the field, moving extremely fast.

The sunset was a pale orange.

Lin Wanxing walked with her hands in her pockets. When she reached the edge of the field, the stands, and the soccer field were covered in a light halo.

The students were waving toward the stands. Lin Wanxing looked over from a distance and was stunned.

Same position, but with brighter light, Lin Wanxing saw the familiar baseball cap.

The young man was sitting in the middle-upper section of the stands. His posture was relaxed, and because of the distance, Lin Wanxing couldn’t see the expression on his face.

The students, however, were very happy. The dejection from possibly not having a coach earlier was completely swept away.

Lin Wanxing wasn’t so optimistic.

She took out her phone, tapped on the young man’s WeChat profile picture, and made a call.

In the stands, the young man very obviously felt the incoming call and took out his phone.

He looked at the phone screen, then looked toward her.

The call connected.

Lin Wanxing said leisurely, “I don’t mean anything by it, I just wanted to confirm that the WeChat you gave me is actually in use.”

As she spoke, she walked toward the stands.

“This is my payment account, I won’t abandon it,” the young man’s voice came through the phone.

Lin Wanxing held the phone, suddenly at a loss for words.

“Are you implying that you didn’t reply to my WeChat because I didn’t send a red envelope?” Lin Wanxing asked frankly as she walked up the steps.

The young man tilted his head up, revealing his eyes under the baseball cap. “No, there’s only one reason I didn’t reply to your WeChat.”

“You were thinking about how to refuse me appropriately?”

“Yes,” the young man answered.

Lin Wanxing wasn’t clear on why the young man had appeared in the stands.

The most likely possibility was that he had a habit of coming here to sit every evening, thinking about problems while considering how to respond to her invitation.

So she guessed that, and the answer was indeed so.

On the soccer field, the students began to warm up under Fu Xinshu’s leadership.

In fact, before that, they had also come up to the stands to ask what today’s training content would be.

Lin Wanxing glanced at the young man. He hadn’t explicitly expressed any refusal, only saying “Warm up first.”

A hard-fought draw was enough to make the students trust their current coach.

Following his words, the students began to run laps around the field.

Lin Wanxing leaned against the chair back. The sound of car horns from afar and the shouts of people exercising in the nearby stadium were very clear, but the young man didn’t speak.

After thinking for a moment, she said, “You didn’t reply to my WeChat right away, which means we still have room for negotiation, right? Why don’t we first have a simple recruitment process? Let me ask, do you have any salary requirements?”

The young man turned his head slightly upon hearing this.

“What’s wrong? I’m not the kind of boss who doesn’t pay,” she said.

“How much is your monthly salary?” the young man asked.

“We intern teachers don’t get paid,” Lin Wanxing answered.

The young man finally showed a surprised expression.

“But don’t worry,” Lin Wanxing quickly said, “Actually, I personally… do have some modest wealth.”

The young man didn’t respond but instead kept staring at her, his gaze deep, yet revealing no discernible emotion.

“What’s wrong? Do you want to see my bank balance?”

“No need,” the young man withdrew his gaze and looked toward the field. “Do you know how much money it takes to keep a soccer team running normally?”

“I don’t know, but we don’t seem to have reached the stage of needing to maintain the normal operation of a team yet. Currently, the main expense should be your salary.”

Lin Wanxing was about to say more when she heard the young man’s straightforward voice: “You probably can’t afford my salary.”

His tone was distant, strictly business.

Lin Wanxing also realized that they had only met twice, and she didn’t even know his name.

Just one game of collaborative effort had too easily given the illusion that they were already a team.

“I want to try my best! Can you give me a chance?” Lin Wanxing said.