A big competition was like a major exam.

Parents worried, and even if children pretended not to care on the surface, they couldn’t help feeling nervous inside.

On a winter Sunday, the students of Hongjing No.8 Middle School team stood at the school gate.

Yellow leaves fluttered down, the bus arrived, and Wen Chengye boarded this vehicle heading to the competition venue for the first time.

Today’s weather was pleasantly warm, sunlight filtered through bare branches, falling on the white body of the bus.

Playing at home, the road was still the one leading to Hongjing Mingzhu Club.

This time, the students’ mood wasn’t particularly high.

Inside the vehicle, there was none of their usual chatting and joking around.

Wen Chengye sat alone in a seat. Normally, the boys would occasionally start small conflicts with him. Today, everyone didn’t even have an interest in provoking Wen Chengye.

Each person sat quietly in their seat, either listening to music or resting with closed eyes. The bus had a rare atmosphere of low spirits.

Lin Wanxing sat beside Wang Fa, looking back at the students in the rear, wanting to liven up the atmosphere, “What was it like when you went to competitions together as children? Would you all sing together?”

Unusually, hearing this question, the boys had little reaction.

In previous similar situations, the boys would always criticize her ideas as old-fashioned or ask her not to force awkward conversations.

But this time, no one even paid attention to her.

Silent bus compartment, with the rumbling engine sound inside. Lin Wanxing could only clear her throat lightly, turn back around, and look at the young man beside her.

But Wang Fa wore earphones and similarly did not react.

The air was quiet and stuffy. Lin Wanxing didn’t dare break it, so she could only take out her phone and type a line in WeChat — “Are you feeling down too?”

Wang Fa looked down at his phone and pressed a button simply.

Lin Wanxing looked down to find that Wang Fa had sent an emoji — an excited hand-raising smiley face.jpg.

[Lin Wanxing: ???]

[Wang Fa: I’m looking forward to the upcoming match, quite happy.]

[Lin Wanxing: Being happy isn’t right either~! We’re going to lose today!]

[Wang Fa: Why can’t we look forward to a meaningful defeat?]

Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and felt there was some truth to it.

Wang Fa had a good mindset.

His words also indirectly influenced Lin Wanxing.

So before actually seeing the members of Yongchuan Hengda Club’s U-19 team, Lin Wanxing was also wondering what this team would be like.

They first encountered a high school team like them, Anning Experimental Team, followed by the football school Lüjing International, and then, their opponents after making it to the group stage.

Professional team players already showed a stark difference from the preliminary opponents.

What left the deepest impression on Lin Wanxing were the players from Shencheng Haibo who had previously defeated them decisively.

Each player was well-trained, and in good physical condition, always making Lin Wanxing think of the animal kingdom. They were like young leopards running on the grasslands, full of wildness and power.

As for the players from Yongchuan Hengda Club, Lin Wanxing couldn’t quite imagine — what could be stronger than beasts?

After more than an hour’s journey, the bus stopped at the entrance of Hongjing Mingzhu Club.

Lin Wanxing looked toward the gate. Under the camphor trees at the entrance, a young man wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap came directly toward their disembarking point.

Before the bus had even stopped properly, the young man was already jumping up and down by their window.

He had dark skin, bright eyes, and an extremely cheerful expression.

The students had been resting with their eyes closed all the way, so apart from Lin Wanxing and Wang Fa, no one initially noticed this excited young man.

Lin Wanxing recalled the emoji Wang Fa had sent on the bus, which somewhat resembled this happy hand-raising young boy. Surely this couldn’t be someone the coach had arranged to meet them?

She looked suspiciously at Wang Fa.

Wang Fa’s face showed no sign of orchestrating anything; he looked at the young man with some surprise.

The vehicle opened, Lin Wanxing got off first while the students were still gathering their things on the bus.

“Excuse me, are you the Hongjing No.8 Middle School team?” The young man suddenly darted to the door, his expression extremely excited.

“Yes, we are. And you are?”

“Big sister, hello big sister!” The baseball cap-wearing young man bowed very politely. Lin Wanxing saw his small shaved head. “My name is Qin Qichu!”

“Qin… Student Qin? Is there something we can help with?” Lin Wanxing felt that the name Qin Qichu sounded somewhat familiar, but couldn’t immediately recall where she had heard it before.

Qin Qichu didn’t speak, however. His bright black eyes scanned behind her as if looking for someone.

The students came off one after another, and everyone froze when they saw Qin Qichu.

Wang Fa was the last to get off.

Qin Qichu’s eyes brightened instantly when he saw him, “Coach! Coach! Coach!”

He excitedly rushed to Wang Fa’s side, grabbed his hand, and when he smiled happily, there were two deep dimples on his cheeks.

“Coach Winifred, finally I see you again, Coach! Why did you abandon us?”

Qin Qichu’s tone was especially sincere and innocent.

At that moment, Lin Wanxing was quite certain that Wang Fa’s face finally displayed the legendary expression known as “cracking up.”

The usually arrogant students were extremely shocked, and after the shock, they widened their eyes with a “are you fucking kidding me” look.

Lin Wanxing could only tug at Wang Fa, secretly asking, “Is this your former student from England?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“He’s Qin Qichu from Yongchuan Hengda,” Wang Fa said.

Yongchuan Hengda’s… Qin Qichu?

Lin Wanxing finally realized where she had heard this name before.

Was this the player being groomed as the national team’s future defensive pillar?

“Coach, you still remember me, I’m so touched!” Qin Qichu jumped up and down around Wang Fa like a little monkey, extremely happy. “Earlier, Director Liu said you were coming to coach us, but you didn’t come in the end. So after you’re done coaching them, can you come to our team?”

As soon as Qin Qichu said this, classmate Qin Ao from the same surname immediately became displeased.

“What are you saying? This is our coach, don’t call someone else’s coach your coach!” Qin Ao immediately stepped forward, standing in front of Wang Fa, separating Qin Qichu.

“Oh, Qin Ao? I like your penalty area breakthroughs.” The young man suddenly changed topics and, as if performing a magic trick, pulled out a permanent marker from his pocket and handed it to Qin Ao. “Can you give me your autograph, right here?”

Qin Ao held the pen, suddenly bewildered.

Qin Qichu tugged at the corner of his hoodie, gesturing to Qin Ao.

Qin Ao looked completely at a loss, having no idea how the plot had progressed to this point. After a good while, he took the black permanent marker and signed “Qin Ao” in a crooked manner on the young man’s hoodie.

Qin Ao wrote very slowly; the pen was difficult to use on the soft white T-shirt, making the name particularly distorted.

The young man waited patiently for him to finish. He looked at the “Qin Ao” written on his clothes and very seriously evaluated, “If you become a star player in the future, this kind of handwriting won’t do.”

Qin Ao was struck again, “How could I possibly become a star player.”

He said instinctively.

Qin Qichu didn’t respond to Qin Ao’s words but looked at the next player beside him.

“You’re Fu Xinshu, right? Your coordination with Qin Ao and Qi Liang, I’ve watched it, very interesting.” The young man spoke while enthusiastically shaking Fu Xinshu’s hand, and casually putting the permanent marker back in his pocket. “Oh, I don’t mean I don’t like you so I don’t want your autograph, I just prefer the person who carries the ball for breakthroughs.”

“It’s… it’s okay…” Fu Xinshu also began to stammer.

The young man chattered away, incredibly sociable.

He greeted every player in the team, talking about their coordination and match details with great familiarity.

Lin Wanxing had previously thought her students talked a lot of nonsense, but compared to Qin Qichu, her babies were completely outmatched.

This bunch of high school students from Hongjing No.8 Middle School, contrasted with Qin Qichu, seemed like they had social anxiety, only awkwardly saying “thank you” while unable to say anything more.

After enthusiastically greeting them all, commenting on and praising each person’s technical style, the young man finally left as swiftly as he had arrived, saying, “I won’t disturb you anymore, or the captain will scold me later!”

After saying this, he happily ran to the iron gate and into Hongjing Mingzhu Club. Just before entering, he looked back, the dimples on his face forming a sweet smile as he said, “Coach, see you later.”

The young man’s figure disappeared into the club. The high school students, who had been struck speechless by Qin Qichu’s series of performances, slowly recovered after a long while.

The boys muttered to themselves.

“Qin Qichu, knows us?”

“He even knows each of our positions?”

“And he asked Qin Ao for an autograph?”

“That just seems not quite right in the head…”