The delivery guy found it a bit strange that a document for a high school football team would be delivered to a residential area.

But he was just here to deliver a package.

He glanced at the high school students sitting on the stairs before him, who were still in shock, so he asked again, “This delivery is for the rooftop terrace. Is that you?”

At this, the high school students finally snapped out of their daze: “Yes, that’s us, that’s us.”

The young man sitting at the front stood up and signed for the package.

The delivery guy hummed a little tune and quickly departed.

The students, now holding the freshly received package, couldn’t sit still any longer.

They didn’t even bother pushing open the terrace door to go back; they just stood there at the stairway entrance, tearing open the envelope to peek inside.

There was only one sheet of paper inside, with black text on a red background, like a certificate.

Congratulations to Hongjing Eighth Middle School Football Team for completing the team reformation mission and successfully advancing to the Youth Super League knockout stage. Below is the prize list:

1. Cash reward of 5,000 yuan

2. Lego sets of your choice worth 5,000 yuan

3. One PlayStation 4

4. Three pairs of new sports shoes

5. One smartphone

…

…

11. One Laptop

The list enumerated exactly eleven tempting prizes, each estimated to be worth about 5,000 yuan. At the end of the list was a “prize claim phone number.”

It was like a windfall from heaven. The students’ spirits instantly soared as they drooled over the eleven prizes on the list.

These things held no attraction for Wang Fa. He just stood to the side, quietly examining the delivery envelope. But indeed, besides the “Prize List,” there were no other valuable clues.

After their initial excitement, the students calmed down. Children their age probably no longer believed in the “pie falling from the sky” kind of good fortune.

“Who… sent this?” Yu Ming was the first to ask.

With these words, the students looked at each other, their suspicions bubbling up but none daring to speak them aloud.

“Could it be our teacher?” Zheng Feiyang blurted out straightforwardly.

It wasn’t just Zheng Feiyang who thought this; other students were suspicious too. Because it seemed like Lin Wanxing had completed the task of getting them through the group stage, so before leaving, she wanted to leave them something as encouragement.

“Would she suddenly be so generous? What’s this supposed to be?”

“Letting us divide her estate?” Yu Ming suddenly said.

The moment he said this, he was immediately pummeled by those around him.

He also kept saying “pei, pei, pei” while begging for mercy: “Stop hitting me, stop hitting me, I was wrong, I was wrong. I was just joking.”

“It’s probably not her,” Wang Fa spoke slowly.

Hearing their coach’s words, the students looked again at the prize list in their hands.

Indeed.

“Congratulations to Hongjing Eighth Middle School Football Team for completing the team reformation mission”—this didn’t sound like something Lin Wanxing would say.

After all, she was someone who had been inexplicably assigned to lead the team, so why would she congratulate them on this?

“Besides, our teacher couldn’t possibly be this generous!” Lin Lu was assessed seriously.

Hearing this, the students all agreed: “That makes sense.”

“Then who exactly is it?”

Similar format and, the same mysteriousness—they had experienced this situation many times before.

They first thought of Lin Wanxing simply because the matter of her calling someone to move her things was so recent.

“Could it be… the ‘mystery person’ again?!” Feng Suo exclaimed, almost in disbelief.

The students had speculated before.

The “mystery person” who had always cared about them and wanted to bring them back together to play football was Coach Jiang.

If it was Coach Jiang rewarding them for completing the team reformation mission and advancing to the knockout stage, that would make sense.

The only issue was that this was too extravagant!

Shocked, delighted, doubtful, uncertain.

Speculation was useless. The students, harboring various complex emotions, pushed open the terrace door and sat down around the long table.

The list was passed around in a circle, finally ending up with Fu Xinshu, who took out his phone and dialed the number left on it.

Hearts racing.

He pressed the speakerphone button, and the call connected almost instantly.

Everyone around the table gave a start, except for Wang Fa, who leaned back slightly in his chair, folding his arms to observe.

“Hello, hello!” Yu Ming rushed to greet them first.

At that moment, a mechanical female voice came through the phone: “Hello, this is the Prize Redemption Center. Congratulations to Hongjing Eighth Middle School Football Team for completing the team reformation mission and successfully advancing to the Youth Super League knockout stage. Below is the prize list.”

The mechanical female voice on the phone sweetly repeated the contents of the list, which was pre-recorded.

Before dialing, everyone had been very nervous, thinking they would finally communicate with the “mystery person” who had been helping them all along. Now that it turned into a mechanical electronic voice, everyone became confused again.

One item after another.

In the night breeze, Lin Wanxing’s room beside them was pitch black.

As the students listened to all those expensive gifts, they still couldn’t quite believe it was real.

None of them spoke.

Until—

“Above is the prize list. To accept the prizes, press ‘1.’ To decline the prizes, press ‘2.’ Declining the current prizes will be considered as accepting a new mission.” The sweet electronic voice on the phone announced this way, and the students were stunned for a moment before all turning to look at Fu Xinshu’s phone placed in the center of the table.

“What does that mean?”

“Decline the prizes… what’s the new mission?”

“Hurry, should we press 1 or 2 now?”

“Hang. Up. The. Phone.” Qi Liang’s wise voice sounded.

Only then did Fu Xinshu react, hurriedly hanging up the call.

While the students were clamoring, Wang Fa had been quietly observing from beginning to end.

After hanging up, the students unanimously looked toward their coach.

“What should we do now?”

“Isn’t this a simple either-or question? Choose to accept the gifts, or accept the challenge of the new mission.”

“‘New mission’?” The students were completely baffled, unable to make heads or tails of it. “Then what was the ‘old mission’?”

“Reforming the team and getting out of the group stage,” said Qi Liang.

“Then…” everyone looked at each other, “is the new mission to win the championship? Will there be more and better prizes after winning?”

“Haha, possibly,” Qi Liang laughed coldly. “Dreaming big, aren’t we?”

“It’s not about dreaming big, it’s just a reasonable deduction.”

“It could also be just playing with us, making us do something we absolutely can’t accomplish.”

“I don’t think so. Coach Jiang wouldn’t do that.”

Ever since Wen Chengye received the CD, everyone had basically confirmed that the person who had been sending them clues and bringing them back together to play football was their former Coach Jiang.

If it was him, he would probably assign tasks that were challenging but achievable for them.

They looked again at the list on the table, those tempting prizes, things they had never owned before. If it was Coach Jiang, he would fulfill his promise to give them these things.

Did they want to give up these prizes to accept an unknown challenge?

“Let’s vote.”

Under the night light of the terrace, Fu Xinshu raised his head and said this to everyone.

The vote would be anonymous, as they usually did when deciding important matters.

Eleven small pieces of paper were quickly distributed.

Choose “1” to accept the prizes, and choose “2” to accept the mission.

Qin Ao: “I almost took out my SIM card to put in the new phone.”

Chen Jianghe: “That was my new phone.”

While saying this, they quickly wrote down their answers.

A total of 11 votes:

“1” – 3 votes.

“2” – 8 votes.

According to the principle that the minority follows the majority, they choose to give up the easily obtainable high-value prizes and accept the unknown challenge.

After all—

“I want to know what the new mission is!” Lin Lu said.

Fu Xinshu dialed the recorded message again, and the sweet mechanical electronic voice sounded once more. Without listening to the first half of the lengthy list again, Fu Xinshu simply pressed “2.”

At first, there was no response from the other end of the phone.

Then came a soft “beep.”

“Please go downstairs to receive the fax. If automatic reception is not set, please press the ‘Start’ button to print.”

This plunged them into another knowledge blind spot.

“What’s a fax?”

“Fax machine? Do we have such a thing?”

Wang Fa pushed back his chair and was the first to go downstairs.

He walked very quickly, almost running, and when the students realized, they followed, rushing downstairs.

Pushing open the door of Yuan Yuan Tutoring Center’s small storage room, they found that their fax copier machine, which they used to copy exam papers, was indeed already lit up.

Wang Fa quickly went over and pressed the “Start” button.

After a loud “beep,” the printer started working, the light smell of ink wafting through the air as a sheet of paper was slowly ejected.

On it was a poem:

Life

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting Robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

Wǒ ruò néng zhěngjiù yī kē bīnlín pòsuì de xīn

Wǒ jiāng méiyǒu xūdù cǐ sheng

Wǒ ruò néng fǔwèi yīgè shēngmìng de chuāngshāng

Huòzhě píngxī yīgè rén de bēishāng Huòzhě bāngzhù yī zhī xūruò de zhīgēngniǎo

Huídào tā de xiǎocháo

Wǒ jiāng méiyǒu xūdù cǐ shēng.

New Mission: Save a lost ☆.