After work, Lin Wanxing carried her backpack and went as usual to the old stadium where the students had their evening training.

Wang Fa appeared in the stands as always. Lin Wanxing sat down beside Wang Fa and looked around. Today was different from usual.

She got off work later than the students’ training time, so when she arrived at the field, she could always see the students training. But today, apart from a few adults playing casual football, none of the boys had shown up.

It seemed the students were obsessed with “waste recycling” and couldn’t pull themselves away…

Lin Wanxing was prepared for this. She unzipped her backpack and took out chips, shrimp crackers, two cans of Coca-Cola, a large pack of marinated duck necks, and many other snacks.

She piled these things on the empty seat between her and Wang Fa.

Wang Fa glanced at them, didn’t stand on ceremony at all, and naturally opened a pack of Lay’s Italian Red Sauce flavored chips. Lin Wanxing followed his example, rested her legs on the seat back in front, and waited for the students while eating snacks.

The sun hadn’t set yet. The glow of the sunset enveloped the empty stands, and the aroma of snacks filled the air.

“Although we may be relatively poor materially, we must be abundant in snacks,” Lin Wanxing remarked casually.

However, Wang Fa didn’t respond, just quietly eating his chips.

Lin Wanxing tilted her head, leaned slightly toward Wang Fa, and examined his expression.

Indeed, Wang Fa’s face was calm. He looked straight ahead, his pupils were very light in color, making him appear indifferent, without any expression.

Just as Lin Wanxing was about to pull her head back, Wang Fa suddenly lowered his.

They were very close, and the young man’s unobstructed gaze fell entirely on her face. With his baseball cap pulled down, his gaze suddenly became profound, his eyelashes casting a large shadow, making his look incomprehensible to Lin Wanxing.

The air was filled with the rich aroma of Italian red sauce-flavored chips, and it was a bit hot.

Lin Wanxing backed down. She quickly returned to her seat and sat properly, not daring to provoke him.

“Don’t be angry,” Lin Wanxing forcibly took two sips of mineral water, pointed to the stack of file boards beside Wang Fa, and tried to calm herself.

“Is Teacher Lin buying snacks to help appease me for your students?” Wang Fa asked.

“You’re angry, so of course I need to appease you,” Lin Wanxing said.

“I don’t even know myself,” Wang Fa said dismissively.

“Wang Fa, anger is a very serious emotion, more serious than writing many training plans. You care about us,” Lin Wanxing said.

The young man turned his head and looked at her.

Around them was the hazy light of evening, street lamps gradually turning on, everything ambiguous.

Wang Fa didn’t speak but turned sideways and picked up a stack of file boards from the seat to his right.

Lin Wanxing’s hands felt heavy as Wang Fa handed her the stack of file boards.

Looking through them one by one, Lin Wanxing discovered that the file boards were organized by individual students, with separate training plans for each.

Besides different physical training exercises, each player had their additional practice content.

For example, Lin Lu needed to train in crossing the ball while running.

Center backs Qi Liang and Chen Weidong both trained in jumping to head the ball, while Zheng Feiyang trained in lateral movement and covering positions.

Qin Ao trained in competing for headers, and Chen Jianghe strengthened shooting training.

Fu Xinshu needed to train in long passes.

These individual training exercises could be combined after advancement.

For instance, Fu Xinshu and Lin Lu could continuously cross from two directions, then Qin Ao would compete with the two center backs for the landing spot, Chen Jianghe would always be ready to shoot from the second landing spot, and Zheng Feiyang would always be prepared for follow-up shots…

Lin Wanxing read through item by item, listening to Wang Fa explain the specific content. Although this was a knowledge domain she hadn’t much contact with, as Wang Fa explained it slowly, it didn’t feel boring but rather full of fun and imagination for the future.

The sun gradually tilted westward, the sky darkened, and people coming in and out of the stadium changed in waves.

The children running on the field gradually gave way to residents who came for a walk after dinner. Lin Wanxing and Wang Fa chatted for a long time in the stands.

Turning to the last file board, Lin Wanxing saw the content about goalkeeper Feng Suo, which only had one sentence—”To be trained by the coach.”

“Do you place special emphasis on Feng Suo?” Lin Wanxing couldn’t help asking.

“Why do you say that?” Wang Fa asked.

“Then why do you personally train only him?” Lin Wanxing asked curiously.

“The goalkeeper position is very special, and the training methods are also special. Regular teams usually have dedicated goalkeeper coaches, but we don’t, so I have to do it,” Wang Fa said.

The stadium stands were very quiet, with insect sounds chirping around.

Lin Wanxing had originally been resting her chin on one hand. At first, listening to him explain those training contents that were completely unfamiliar to her was a comfortable process.

But after talking about the goalkeeper issue, she couldn’t help but be forced to think about what to do with goalkeeper training after Wang Fa left.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Lin Wanxing paused, “I mean, after you leave, who will help Feng Suo with goalkeeper training? Can I do it?” Lin Wanxing pointed at herself, seeming a bit eager to try.

“You can’t do it,” Wang Fa said.

The young man lowered his head, lost in thought. The pencil in his fingertips turned a couple of circles, and the hazy street light fell on his straight nose, outlining his clean jawline.

The earlier feeling of anticipation when listening to Wang Fa explains the training content had completely disappeared. Not all problems could be solved—that was just real life.

“I’ll see if I can find another goalkeeper coach by then.”

Finally, Lin Wanxing said this.

The snacks on the bench were almost finished, and the silhouettes of the students running frantically finally appeared at the entrance of the stadium.

Qin Ao and Yu Ming were running while dragging sacks half their height, in a strange posture.

When they reached the stands, the boys were breathing heavily, looking as tired as if they had played an entire match.

The students’ faces were sunburned red, their hands dirty, but their expressions couldn’t hide their excitement. They protected the sacks as if they were dragons guarding the treasure.

“Coach, sorry we’re late!” Lin Lu jumped and waved to them from below the stands, looking very happy.

Wang Fa didn’t go down from the stands, and Lin Wanxing sat on the stands, eating snacks on her own.

They didn’t move, and the students, already feeling guilty, immediately all ran up to the stands. They carefully, like small animals observing their owners’ expressions, stared at them with confused and frightened eyes.

“Teacher, Coach, are you angry?” Lin Lu was pushed forward and asked softly.

Lin Wanxing munched on the last pack of Oishi cheese sticks with a crunching sound, raised her hand, and said, “I’m not angry. Your coach was angry but was appeased by me.”

Wang Fa — “It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving in a few days, so don’t worry too much about me.”

With these words, the students became even more flustered.

“We were planning to come at four for training, but we were at that residential area, and an auntie called us, saying she had boxes for us to deal with, so we went to get them. The auntie bought from IKEA, and the furniture packaging cardboard was piled so high, so high. Teacher, you don’t know how much there was. We sorted it for a long time, found we didn’t bring enough rope, went to get more rope, then sold it, and then it was too late.”

Lin Lu explained remorsefully. There were very obvious cuts on his hands from handling cardboard boxes, and his nose was somehow scraped, looking extremely pitiful.

“I said time was yours to arrange freely, so I won’t blame you for being late,” Lin Wanxing said.

Suddenly becoming obsessed with something was perfectly normal for children, and even adults would have similar situations where they suddenly became fixated. Brain filled with passion, only wanting to do this one thing, not wanting to do anything else.

“But the issue is, while I don’t have time constraints for you, you’ve made your arrangements and confirmed times with the coach. Being on time for training is basic respect for him.”

Lin Wanxing knew her words were a bit harsh. Like a bucket of cold water poured over them, the students all quieted down.

They all looked at Wang Fa. The coach stood under the streetlight. At some point, they had grown accustomed to this young man being by their side.

Although the coach spoke casually, he was extremely serious about what he did. He didn’t treat them carelessly just because they were a group of high school students. This also made them depend on him psychologically and feel that he would always be there.

“Coach, sorry, next time we’ll be on time,” Fu Xinshu bowed to Wang Fa and apologized.

“Coach, we were wrong.”

“We were at fault.”

Wang Fa nodded without saying any other words of reproach.

He distributed the already prepared file boards to the players.

Seeing this training content carefully designed by Wang Fa, the students felt even more ashamed.

Wang Fa said, “For physical training, setting goals of moderate difficulty is very important. We generally recommend a target improvement value of 5-15%. When just starting to accept similar systematic training, setting the target value at the lowest 5% is also perfectly fine.”

The students nodded one after another. Looking at their previous physical test data, they calculated that if they only needed to improve by 5%, it seemed to only require improving by a few seconds, which seemed very simple.

“It’s a bit like what the teacher said before.”

Chen Jianghe thought seriously for a moment. The experience of earning money these past two days had given him a deeper understanding of how to see and achieve goals.

“But Coach, I don’t quite understand if the goal is set low, but I can do more, what then?” Yu Ming asked, raising his hand without fully understanding.

“First, maintain your focus and effort in each training session, rather than simply wanting to do more,” Wang Fa looked at the players in front of him and continued, “Training is like your current daily money-earning plan. If you’re too greedy, you’ll become fatigued and confused due to lack of restraint. A string pulled too tight will break. Staying clear-headed is very important.”