The Wuchuan Road Stadium stood between Hongjing No. 8 Middle School and Wutong Road, visible from Lin Wanxing’s rooftop terrace.
She grew up in this neighborhood as a child, as did her students. Because they were all so familiar with it, they had developed the habit of adding the word “old” before its name.
“Old stadium,” “old swimming pool,” and “old gymnasium” — for children living near Hongjing No. 8 Middle School, these all referred to the Wuchuan Road Stadium.
The place had a legendary history: Wuchuan Road Stadium was over a hundred years old. During the Qing Dynasty, it had been a training ground. In the early Republic era, the province’s first modern stadium was built here. After a century of tumultuous changes, the Wuchuan Road Stadium had now become a “playground” for nearby residents.
Qin Ao, Yu Ming, Chen Jianghe, and many others had grown up playing football at the Wuchuan Road field. Next to the field was the gymnasium with an outdoor swimming pool, which had reportedly produced an Olympic champion.
After school, Lin Wanxing and her students gathered at the entrance of the Wuchuan Road Gymnasium, right when the outdoor swimming pool was at its busiest.
A group of children was practicing breathing and kicking under their swimming coach’s guidance, creating splashing white waves. Meanwhile, the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School football team of high school students was even louder than the splashing waves by the pool.
“Why are we at the gymnasium?”
“Did the coach ask us to meet at the gymnasium entrance?”
“Is the coach making us do extra swimming training? Swimming tickets are a bit expensive at 20 yuan each.”
The students had endless questions, desperately wanting to know the coach’s entire purpose for gathering them. Lin Wanxing couldn’t answer any of them and could only lean against the iron railing by the pool, eating a chocolate-coated ice cream.
Wang Fa arrived at the appointed time, but he didn’t come through the main entrance; he emerged from inside the gymnasium.
There was a young man following behind Wang Fa.
The young man wore a fluorescent green tank top. Although he wasn’t tall, his skin was dark, and his muscles were gleaming with oil. He had a neatly trimmed goatee on his chin. If Lin Wanxing hadn’t thought the young man looked somewhat familiar, she would have suspected Wang Fa had gotten involved with some gangster.
Lin Wanxing waved at Wang Fa from a distance, and the young man in the fluorescent green tank top also waved at her, enthusiastically calling out, “Sis, you’re here!”
His voice was rough and energetic. He looked about thirty years old. When he called her “Sis,” Lin Wanxing’s first reaction was “How can I accept this!”
The boys burst out laughing, but then the muscular young man greeted the boys with equal warmth, “Bros, you’re all here!”
The high school students all froze in shock, which balanced Lin Wanxing’s mood.
By the pool, someone made a “splash” as they dove into the water.
Lin Wanxing shuddered, as the muscular young man’s dark and enthusiastic smile came into view. She could only ask, “You are…?”
“Sis, I’m Little Sun! Don’t you recognize me?!” the muscular young man introduced himself enthusiastically.
“Little… Sun?” Lin Wanxing looked toward Wang Fa.
“You don’t know him?” Wang Fa asked in return.
“How would I know him!” Lin Wanxing was shocked.
“But he lives downstairs from us,” Wang Fa said.
“That’s right, Sis! You’re my landlord! You and my Brother Wang live upstairs from me. Do you not remember me?” the muscular young man said somewhat sadly.
Wang Fa had the look of someone enjoying a show, and Lin Wanxing could only hurriedly say, “Ah… Little Sun! Now I remember!”
But in reality, she still didn’t remember…
Fortunately, Comrade Little Sun was talkative. Without her having to ask questions, he explained everything while leading the way.
Little Sun’s full name was Sun Baili. He was the tenant of Room 02 on the 4th floor of 17 Wutong Road.
He used to be a homebody working in IT in a big city but later fell in love with fitness and decided to return to his hometown, finding work at the Wuchuan Road Stadium fitness club. His position was health consultant, or in simpler terms, a gym membership salesperson.
Lin Wanxing had never met Little Sun before, mainly because the gym only opened after noon, meaning her schedule and Comrade Little Sun’s were completely out of sync.
“Then how did you meet Little Sun?” Lin Wanxing asked Wang Fa.
“Is it possible that…” Wang Fa led them up to the second floor of the Wuchuan Road Gymnasium.
“What?”
“He’s the one who stuffs fitness center flyers into the rooftop door crack every day,” Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing suddenly understood.
The Wuchuan Road Fitness Club occupied the southwest corner of the second floor of the old gymnasium.
Unlike the enthusiastic and outgoing Comrade Little Sun, the fitness club truly had the decaying feel of a century-old gymnasium.
The entire space was dim and dilapidated. Two large iron cabinets stood at one side of the entrance for customers to change clothes, while shoe cabinets were on the other side, the small space packed full.
Walking further inside, the space opened up a bit.
A row of fitness equipment was arranged by the dusty floor-to-ceiling windows. Fortunately, the equipment was complete, with treadmills, elliptical machines, and spinning bikes, and even rowing machines and stair climbers…
The large equipment area had many machines, more professional than ordinary gyms. Only the floor was made up of colorful plastic mats pieced together, with blackened edges, broken and old. More surprisingly, Lin Wanxing was seeing rusted equipment like dumbbells and barbells for the first time.
“How is it, Sis? Not bad, right?” Little Sun lifted his goatee-covered chin proudly and said, “This place used to be used by the weightlifting team, badminton team, and swimming team. Later they moved out, and our boss took over the place, but the professional level is still undeniable.”
“Uh… I don’t know about this,” Lin Wanxing looked toward Wang Fa.
“My Brother Wang said that for big and small matters at home, you make all the decisions,” Little Sun said.
“Ah? Decide… decide what?” she asked.
“The membership, of course!” Little Sun was very direct.
“Should we get it for them?” Lin Wanxing looked at the students and asked Wang Fa.
“For players, two gym equipment training sessions per week are essential,” Wang Fa said.
Behind her, the students were still looking around the gym, not minding that it was run down. Their faces were full of anticipation as if they couldn’t wait to get on the equipment and train.
“How much do you charge here?” Lin Wanxing asked Little Sun.
Comrade Little Sun immediately broke into a smile, “Sis, I’ll give you the biggest discount!” As he spoke, he guided her to the rest area. “Please sit for a while, let me pour you some tea, and I’ll explain the costs to you slowly.”
“Wait,” Wang Fa suddenly interrupted them.
“Let’s try out the equipment and have a trial session first,” Wang Fa said to the students.
The eleven boys seemed to instantly get Wang Fa’s meaning and immediately lined up, rubbing their hands in anticipation.
Little Sun’s eyes widened, “You also want a trial session? Do you need a personal trainer? You have quite a lot of people.”
“No need for a personal trainer, I’ll lead them myself, just to teach some basic movements,” Wang Fa said, then turned his head completely, ignoring the gym salesman in the fluorescent green tank top.
Lin Wanxing heard Wang Fa instruct her, “You go ahead and listen to the prices, try to stall for time. The longer we can freeload, the better.”
Comrade Little Sun — “…”
The summer night breeze blew, and the iron door of the rooftop at 17 Wutong Road opened and closed.
Coach Little Sun who lived downstairs had just visited. In the evening, Lin Wanxing had seriously discussed the pricing with him, and he had gone to consult his manager. Now after work, he had brought the final discounted price list.
Single gym session price: Original 40, discounted 30 yuan
50-session card: 50 sessions, discounted price of 999 yuan (limited to single-person use)
Annual card: Unlimited sessions, group purchase discount for 10+ people 1200 yuan/person
Lin Wanxing and Wang Fa sat on opposite sides of the small round table on the rooftop, with the wall lamp from the veranda casting a dim yellow light.
She looked it over herself, calculating, then changed the direction of the paper and pushed it in front of Wang Fa.
“The group stage schedule is quite long, at least two or three months,” Wang Fa said.
The implication was that single sessions and the session card weren’t cost-effective.
“Gyms always try to sell annual memberships, which are the most economical. Besides, Coach Little Sun said that with the annual card, they’ll throw in 20 swimming pool vouchers. Is swimming helpful for football?” Lin Wanxing asked.
Wang Fa — “Swimming after exercise can relax the muscles and improve muscle endurance. Increasing lung capacity and cardiopulmonary function are more long-term benefits.”
Lin Wanxing looked at the three options on the white paper.
Calculating the total cost for 11 players, twice a week, for 3 months.
The costs for the three options were:
Single-session card: Total 7,920
50-session card: Total 10,989
Annual card: Total 13,200
She wrote these three numbers on the paper, then looked at Wang Fa.
“Is there a problem?” Wang Fa asked.
“The annual card is too expensive,” Lin Wanxing said. “The single-session card would save half the cost.”
Rarely, Lin Wanxing saw Wang Fa pause, as if he had never encountered this kind of problem before.
“You’ve probably only dealt with people who pay to learn football from you,” Lin Wanxing smiled.
“Our club pays decent wages for youth training, but what you’re talking about are other revenue-generating projects. We don’t make money from those,” Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing rested her chin on her hand. This was also roughly the first time she heard Wang Fa mention details about his previous coaching work. She casually opened a can of tonic water just taken from the refrigerator and poured half into the glass in front of Wang Fa.
“You know, I went to see Teacher Qian today.”
She took a sip of the sparkling water, which was ice-cold with a faint taste of quinine, initially sour and bitter, then sweet afterward, making her feel comfortable.
Wang Fa talked with her about his past for the first time because of this comfortable atmosphere, and because of this comfortable atmosphere, she suddenly wanted to chat with Wang Fa.
“Who is Teacher Qian?” Wang Fa asked.
“Ah, he’s my direct superior in the school’s physical education department,” Lin Wanxing paused, and like sharing a little secret, winked at Wang Fa, “I suspect that it was Teacher Qian who has been guiding the students to approach me all along.”
Wang Fa’s slender fingers held the glass, his fingernails turning pale from the cold, “Why do you think so?”
“Because Teacher Qian, like the person behind the scenes who set up all those little tricks to make the students approach me, has the same goal — he wants the students to study well under my guidance.”
From the early “Ba Zhong Little Lin specializing in treating study-aversion, truancy, and unwillingness to learn” written on the cigarette box, to the later treasure map that led the students to find “Yuanyuan Tutoring Class,” the intention was very obvious.
“You didn’t do as they said,” Wang Fa said directly.
“More than that, I feel like I’m practically ‘outwardly complying but inwardly opposing,'” Lin Wanxing laughed. “Teaching them to read is quite simple for me, and I could do it well, but is that enough?”
Wang Fa took a sip of sparkling water, maintaining his composure, only saying, “Everyone has their path to walk.”
“Yes, but if people are destined to grow into what they are predetermined to become, then where is the meaning in my work?” she asked.
The sparkling water contained no alcohol, but Lin Wanxing unknowingly leaned on the table and said, “You and I both know very well that even if everyone follows the same physical training plan, the effect manifested in each person can be completely different, because the gap was never here…” Lin Wanxing poked her head, then with her finger, pointed at Wang Fa’s chest, saying, “The real gap is there.”
Wang Fa was very sincere, “In our physical training, we have a professional term called ‘psychological skill,’ which should be your specialty.”
“My research isn’t in that field,” Lin Wanxing shook her head, “Wang Fa, there are many areas I’m uncertain about, but also many things I’m certain of.”
“What are you certain of?”
“What I’m certain of is that my students’ families aren’t wealthy, especially Fu Xinshu — he truly lives in poverty. I can persuade the parents to spend this money so they can receive gym training, but is that enough?”
The young man lowered his eyes to think for a moment, then looked up at her. His eyes were naturally light-colored, and in the dim light, they rarely showed a gentle expression.
It seemed he still felt somewhat apologetic about his imminent departure.
“Are you thinking that, if necessary, you could pay for this?” Lin Wanxing asked Wang Fa.
Wang Fa didn’t deny it but instead fell silent for a moment.
The weather was clear today, and the starry sky above was exceptionally clear and gentle.
Lin Wanxing knew his answer.
“But I disagree,” she said.