At first, there was silence, like an environment drained of air or a completely soundless universe.

Darkness and depression enveloped the rooftop.

Gradually, the new moon rose, and insects and birds chirped.

A small cat below meowed very, very long, and the boys picked up their pens again, beginning slowly and painfully to make their final decisions.

Then, someone cried.

Lin Wanxing didn’t know who it was at first.

For boys, shedding tears was embarrassing. But at this moment on the rooftop, Lin Lu simply threw away his pen and openly began to cry.

Life indeed has many unexpected moments, Lin Wanxing thought helplessly. Although she knew the boys might eventually break down, facing a student who was crying, she was a bit panicked.

On one hand, she wondered if she had pushed them too far; on the other hand, she thought crying and venting wasn’t such a big deal.

Lin Wanxing took a tissue from the table and walked to Lin Lu’s side.

Lin Lu accepted the tissue and began wiping his eyes, but soon, the tears that had merely moistened his eyes turned into bean-sized drops, falling one by one.

Lin Lu wailed even louder.

“No, no, no… don’t cry.” Lin Wanxing panicked more, at a loss for what to do. “Shh, shh, shh, Grandma Wang downstairs just told me yesterday that you were making too much noise at night and should keep it down.”

At this point, Qin Ao stood up, casually tossed his completed draft paper into her hand, then picked up that ball of tissue — “He’s shouting ‘spicy.'”

Lin Wanxing was confused. Lin Lu was also howling with a lowered voice. Listening carefully, it did sound like he was shouting “spicy.”

“Teacher, spicy, spicy…” Lin Lu wiped his eyes as tears continued to surge.

Lin Wanxing quickly looked at the tissue in Qin Ao’s hand.

Qin Ao sniffed it and said — “Used, someone who ate spicy hotpot wiped their mouth with it.”

“This, this…” Lin Wanxing was shocked, “I didn’t know! Why would a tissue used to wipe someone’s mouth be folded so nicely like a new one!”

“So spicy! Teacher, I didn’t want to cry!” Lin Lu said grievingly.

Lin Wanxing immediately saluted and apologized — “Sorry!”

With this spicy tissue incident, the previously gloomy atmosphere on the rooftop was completely swept away.

Although Lin Wanxing hadn’t asked for it, while she went to find eye drops to clean Lin Lu’s eyes, the boys, one after another, handed her their completed papers.

Due to constant writing and drawing, and friction with the desk and floor, each paper was fragile.

Without realizing it, a stack of papers was placed in front of Lin Wanxing.

The students seemed casual but looked at her with hopeful eyes.

Like children waiting for their answers to be graded, or perhaps everyone wanting to check the answers together.

But more than that, Lin Wanxing knew clearly, that this was a kind of trust.

She carefully wiped her hands dry, sat cross-legged on the ground, and by the dim light hanging from the corridor eaves, began to understand the students’ final choices.

Before looking through them, Lin Wanxing had imagined many answers, but when she saw each person’s answer after their difficult self-choices, she still unconsciously held her breath.

The top paper was Fu Xinshu’s, covered with countless scratches of varying depths. Among those beautiful imaginings, he finally kept the line he had originally wanted to delete — “I want to get into a 985 university.”

Next was Qin Ao’s. His handwriting, like his, was unrestrained and free-spirited. His final answer also seemed like a decision made without hesitation — he said “want to win a championship.”

Chen Jianghe finally gave up his wish to “play football abroad,” hoping instead to “stay by mother’s side.”

Qi Liang still hadn’t crossed out “eat, wait, and die,” but similarly, he had also kept “enjoy every opportunity to play football.”

Yu Ming crossed out everything on his paper but wrote one last line — “In the end, what I want most is still to win a championship, although it’s unlikely.”

Lin Lu had two papers, one crumpled and another half-copied. He made quite a mess. Some things were crossed out, others circled. Looking carefully, Lin Wanxing saw he had circled “reach 100 stars in Honor of Kings and become a professional player,” “win the championship in the competition,” and “eat all the snacks in the world.”

In the end, he kept the middle option.

Zheng Feiyang wanted to win a championship with his brothers.

…

Before she knew it, Lin Wanxing had reached the last paper.

Lin Wanxing placed all the draft papers vertically on her legs and gently aligned them. Perhaps she had imagined the answers, but seeing those colorful responses and the ultimately converging answers, she could still feel an emotion that might be called awe.

The human mind is so colorful; each observation is admirable.

When she looked up again, the boys immediately withdrew their gazes, looking around, pretending not to care about others’ answers.

Lin Wanxing smiled and was about to speak when Qin Ao stopped her — “Don’t read them out loud!”

“Everyone has seen them already, what difference does it make whether I read them or not?” Lin Wanxing still smiled as she asked.

“So what if I just want to win a championship? Even if you say I’m being unrealistic, I still want to win!” Qin Ao shouted.

“What about you all?” Lin Wanxing asked the others.

Qi Liang was shocked, “You’ve become this lazy? After reading everything, instead of continuing to give us some motivational speech, you ask ‘What about us’?”

“Should I say ‘experiment over, now dismissed’? Or…” Lin Wanxing paused, “Do you want me to say, ‘Now go clean up the table’?”

The boys immediately began to clamor, each pushing and resisting, unwilling to take the lead in doing the work.

In this chaotic noise, Fu Xinshu’s voice arose.

He said — “Teacher, I think I chose wrong.”

Fu Xinshu frowned deeply, but his voice was extraordinarily firm.

Lin Wanxing looked at him — “There’s no right or wrong in the answers, and they’re not mutually exclusive. You can accomplish all these things.”

“No, teacher, you said you wanted us to look at what’s buried deep in our hearts, but I chickened out. When I saw others’ answers, I knew I had chosen wrong,” Fu Xinshu said.

The rooftop fell silent again. The boys who had been laughing and joking, faced with the serious Fu Xinshu, suddenly didn’t know what to say.

Fu Xinshu used his eyes to stop others who wanted to speak and continued — “Yes, I want to attend a good university, want a good future and a good job, want to make money, but compared to these things, I now want to play football well and win a championship with my brothers. But because I know this is impossible, and I’m afraid saying it out loud would become a kind of pressure, I gave up just now, but I regret it now.”

He spoke each word firmly, with conviction.

The rooftop grew quieter, the bright moon hung high, and all around was silence.

“Old Fu, don’t worry about these things!” Qin Ao looked around, hooking his arm around Fu’s shoulder to comfort him, trying to ease the atmosphere. “Aren’t we still playing football together? Whether we win a championship or not isn’t that important, and it’s not something you can achieve just by imagining it.”

“But I don’t even dare to imagine, I’m too afraid even to think about it. I’m worthless,” Fu Xinshu said.

“Old Fu, don’t be sad. The teacher already said it’s a thought experiment, there’s no right or wrong.”

“Though Qin Dog is a dog, what he says makes sense. He’s so bad, how could he win a championship?” Zheng Feiyang said casually.

Qi Liang — “+1.”

With that, both received a punch in the back from Qin Ao — “You two aren’t bad players? So what if we’re bad? Remember Leicester City?”

Qin Ao had jumped up from the ground, very excited.

Lin Wanxing looked up at him, and the boy naturally began to explain to her. “Leicester City, in the 13-14 season they were still in the Championship, which is England’s second-tier league. In 14-15, they barely avoided relegation, and in 15-16, they won the championship! The Premier League championship! If that’s not a miracle, what is?”

The boy was animated, and inspired by Qin Ao, Yu Ming suddenly thought — “Yeah, didn’t we just beat Green View International?”

“Damn, that’s right. We beat Green View, we can play in the group stage now.”

“The group stage has a double round-robin format. If we get a good draw and are grouped with weaker teams, advancing isn’t impossible.”

“By that logic, with a bit more luck, we could even reach the final four…”

The students only now remembered that they had just defeated a strong opponent today, and if they continued forward, they might be able to win again.

All at once, the rooftop was abuzz with excitement. The boys wanted nothing more than to rush down and run a couple of laps on the field.

“Getting to the final four is considered a success?” Suddenly, Qi Liang’s voice rang out, both clear and cold.

Lin Wanxing didn’t understand the meaning of this sentence, but the previously excited boys all suddenly seemed like they’d been doused with cold water.

Qi Liang — “What are you thinking? The premise of advancing from the group stage is getting a good draw. Do we have that kind of luck? Do you want me to check who the 16 teams in the group stage were last year? Yongchuan Evergrande, Yuzhou Silver Elephant, Fengcheng Jingrui, Shencheng Haibo, do I need to continue listing them?”

Qi Liang, true to his reputation as a wet blanket, presented his case convincingly. With these words, the others fell silent again.

“Are these teams really that good? Are they completely unbeatable?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“Teacher, do you not know what opponents we face next? It’s not your fault if you don’t understand football.”

“It seems we really can’t beat them. Green View International is still just a football school team, while these are all professional youth teams. They even have U19 teams; Green View International can’t compare.”

The boys began to mutter. Qi Liang’s words had brought them back to reality. No matter how grand and wonderful a dream is, cruel reality can always instantly crush a person.

“Besides, the coach is leaving. How can we win a championship?” Chen Weidong said.

Hearing this, Lin Wanxing finally couldn’t help but speak up — “First, don’t use ourselves to hold others hostage. The coach has his things to do.”

Perhaps because she rarely darkened her face, the boys all put away their joking expressions.

Fu Xinshu — “Teacher, they don’t mean it that way, they’re just trying to comfort me.”

“What you need isn’t comfort,” Lin Wanxing said. “What you need is some other kind of help. Since everyone now sees what they truly desire, you should be proud. This is already quite a remarkable psychological achievement.”

“What kind of ‘motivational speech’ is this?” Qi Liang was shocked.

“This isn’t a ‘motivational speech,'” Lin Wanxing thought for a moment, then still said very gently yet firmly, “If you’ve discovered your goal, then let’s do this thing.”

The boys all looked at her incredulously. Qi Liang even dug into his ear with a ballpoint pen.

Lin Wanxing looked at Qi Liang and asked — “Why couldn’t you choose between ‘eat, wait, and die’ and ‘enjoy every opportunity to play football’? You still really like playing football, right?”

“Yes, I like it, so I get annoyed when these idiots keep babbling about winning championships.”

“Don’t you want to win a championship?” Lin Wanxing asked again.

“Of course I want to, but what’s the use of wanting?” Qi Liang retorted.

“Then at least they have more courage than you, daring to admit it,” Lin Wanxing said.

“Is this about admitting or not admitting?” Qi Liang’s voice was crisp and proud. “Teacher, you don’t understand football. Your grades may be good, but this is different from studying. It’s not something you can accomplish just by studying hard.”

“Is there a big difference between working hard to improve football skills and studying diligently?” Lin Wanxing asked.

Qi Liang was shocked, his face showing what-kind-of-nonsensical-theory-is-this.

Qin Ao also said — “Teacher, you’re being a bit unreasonable. Football is round.”

Lin Lu — “Homework books are square!”

Lin Wanxing — “I’m not trying to convince you of anything. My point is simple: if you want to win a championship, then let’s do this thing.”

“How? By shouting slogans? ‘I want to win a championship,’ ‘I want to get full marks’—like that?” Qi Liang asked.

“If you need to hear a slogan, then it’s: adjust your mindset, master techniques, set goals, progress steadily,” Lin Wanxing said.

The boys showed puzzled expressions. Lin Wanxing sat up straight, and patted the ground beside her, asking everyone to sit down.

After Qi Liang poked his ear with a ballpoint pen — “This slogan sounds a bit better than the previous one.”

“If I must say what help I can provide for you, besides being good at shouting slogans, I do indeed possess some techniques. And these techniques apply not only to studying but also to football because all human processes of striving toward goals have consistency.”

The boys looked at each other, very confused — “What techniques?”

“My suggestion is to first correctly recognize the goal. Keep your championship wish deep in your heart; it’s the direction of effort, not simply a result,” Lin Wanxing said.

“Huh?” Lin Lu didn’t understand.

“Isn’t it the same old thing—results don’t matter, don’t think about winning or losing, just play football well? I thought it would be something impressive,” Qin Ao sighed, but there was also disappointment in his eyes.

“Why don’t you like studying?” Lin Wanxing thought for a moment and suddenly asked.

“What?” Qin Ao was shocked. “I’m just not cut out for it. Normally, I can’t study well.”

“Think back to your past, from childhood to now, why don’t you like studying?”

“Why? I just can’t absorb it. I always get problems wrong, do poorly on tests, and space out during class,” Qin Ao said.

“It feels like studying is just for exams, and if you do poorly, you get beaten. It’s no fun,” Yu Ming said.

“Then you’ve misunderstood exams,” Lin Wanxing said. “Learning itself is a process of acquiring knowledge and improving your abilities. Through exams, I understand which parts I’ve learned, and that makes me happy. And for parts where I’m deficient, where I don’t understand, I’ll continue learning. This is the most basic meaning carried by those exam papers.”

“It’s not like we want to look at scores! Parents and teachers make us look!” Zheng Feiyang complained.

“What if I can’t do any of the exam questions…” Yu Ming asked weakly.

“Let’s think from another angle. If my goal is to eventually become a member of the school’s female staff football team, how would you continue to teach me?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“First do ball juggling with your foot, practice getting a feel for the ball?” Qin Ao thought for a moment and answered.

“You wouldn’t set a goal for me like, ‘Lin Wanxing, you need to win a championship,’ would you?”

“Of course not, wouldn’t that be crazy?” Qin Ao was also shocked.

“OK, have you noticed that you’re already helping me break down a huge result-oriented goal into smaller process goals, bit by bit?” Lin Wanxing paused. “This is why I don’t recommend setting results like scoring 100 on a test or winning a championship as your goals, because they’re not suitable in terms of psychology.”

“Then what is suitable?”

“I’m asking you, to continue helping me.”

“Wait, does our school even have a female staff football team?” Chen Jianghe was stunned.

“Just a hypothetical,” Lin Wanxing said.

“Oh, then… you also need physical training, that’s very important,” Chen Jianghe said.

“You need to practice ball sense too! After ball juggling, you should practice dribbling!”

“Ball-carrying slalom practice.”

“Being skilled yourself isn’t enough; everyone needs to practice together, like those group passing and receiving drills.”

The boys spoke one after another about their specialties, becoming quite eloquent.

Lin Wanxing pondered for a moment and asked — “Are there any standards for physical assessment?”

“Yes, 100-meter sprint, and long-distance running,” Chen Jianghe said. “Various kinds of assessments.”

“What if my 100-meter time doesn’t meet your standards? What then?” Lin Wanxing continued asking.

“Ah, why do you need to meet our standards? Teacher, you’re already so old.”

Lin Wanxing laughed at their train of thought but also felt helpless — “What I mean is, if I don’t meet the standards, and physical training is too boring, and then I don’t want to play anymore, what would you do?”

“Then practice more! Besides, you don’t need to compare yourself to our standards. There are many interesting physical training exercises. Although they’re tiring, they feel good after you do them. Let our coach teach you,” Zheng Feiyang suddenly winked.

“But what if I don’t want to do physical training anymore? It’s not interesting, it’s bitter and tiring. How would you persuade me?”

“Uh, good physical training makes you a beast?”

“It helps you lose weight.”

“You get beautiful muscle lines.”

“You can carry a mineral water bottle up five flights of stairs without getting out of breath!”

The students spoke one after another, starting to paint rosy pictures for her.

“Teacher, why don’t you join us for a morning run tomorrow? Looking at those skinny arms and legs of yours, I think you need some training!” Qin Ao said.

“Sure,” Lin Wanxing agreed readily. “Then can you design a plan for moving toward your goal, just like you did for me?” she asked.

“Ah, how would we know how to do that?” Yu Ming was confused.

“What plan, a championship plan? That’s simple, we all know how, but the difficulty level between us and you is different.”

The boys spoke one after another, puzzled and confused.

Lin Wanxing carefully observed the students’ expressions and said — “What I mean is, calm down and think about it first.”

In the deep night, from the distant field grass, came the alternately high and low chirping of crickets. The boys gradually quieted down, from initially being foggy-headed and resistant to thinking, slowly recalling their football experiences amid today’s still-warm-blooded experiences.

“Like ‘Tactic One’? We set individual small goals, then master them, like that?”

“I think so, just like today, we didn’t think about anything else, didn’t think about whether we could beat Green View. Our goal was just to complete ‘Tactic One.'”

“Right, right, right, focus on the game, and when we complete it, it feels great!”

As someone mentioned today’s victory, the rest of their eyes brightened.

“But ‘Tactic One’ succeeded because the coach is awesome!” Lin Lu suddenly interrupted, flattering.

At this moment, the person who had been sleeping deeply in the lounge chair suddenly moved.

Wang Fa raised his hand and stretched.

Lin Wanxing heard his slightly hoarse voice, floating in the moonlight.

He said — “No, because Teacher Xiao Lin is amazing.”

Lin Wanxing had been immersed in the exhilarating mood of educating her students, but his sudden interruption made her blush involuntarily.

Wang Fa jumped down from the long chair and walked toward them.

Lin Lu — “Teacher, is it like when we play games, earning stars one by one?”

“Perhaps in some ways it’s very similar, so let’s start thinking,” Lin Wanxing guided patiently. “So what’s the most basic thing for playing Honor of Kings well?”

“Having a good phone,” Wang Fa answered.