During the entire National Day holiday, the students were busier than when they weren’t on vacation.

Besides their “favorite” daily football training classes, they now had brand new cultural courses.

Lin Wan Xing had always understood whether it was the cigarette pack that first prompted Qin Ao to come or the treasure map that later led the students to find the “Yuan Yuan Tutoring Center.”

The “mysterious person” behind the scenes was almost blatantly asking her to properly tutor the students.

He sincerely hoped that the children would study hard and improve their test scores.

Lin Wan Xing had previously looked at the students’ test papers and had given the students a brief “cultural class” in her small storeroom, so she roughly understood the students’ “terrible” test scores and weak knowledge foundation.

However, regardless of their academic foundation, it didn’t mean the students had no willingness to learn. For them, those things were just boring, and they simply couldn’t absorb the material.

The football team students were all liberal arts students. Therefore, during this period, Lin Wan Xing reorganized and integrated the high school liberal arts curriculum according to her understanding, combined with her previous part-time experience at educational institutions during university.

A couple of days ago, in her grandparents’ tutoring center storeroom, she found some teaching equipment left behind, including an old projector that could be used after replacing some components.

For the first “Chinese Language” class, Lin Wan Xing showed the students a documentary about human language.

This was very unexpected for the boys who had prepared to memorize ancient texts.

Lin Wan Xing gave each of them an outline, with the first half completed by her, while the second half was left blank.

At first, when the students heard the English narration, they thought she had confused Chinese class with English class.

But as the narrative unfolded with gentle explanations and melodious background music, they gradually embarked on this journey exploring the origins of human language.

The entire documentary lasted one hour, and by the time they finished watching it, the students all had a sense of awakening from a dream.

The process was very relaxing, and what the boys had to do was simple. After watching the documentary, they needed to refer to the outline and organize the unfinished second part according to their understanding.

Student Qin Ao initially thought this task was simple, commenting, “You’ve found another way to be lazy!”

But when he started writing the first line, he suddenly found his mind completely blank.

Lin Wan Xing then guided them through watching the documentary again, teaching the students how to take notes, record key points, and finally organize their thoughts.

For Chinese and English classes, Lin Wan Xing didn’t completely separate the two subjects.

All teaching materials were arranged according to the student’s knowledge level, based on her understanding.

For instance, she believed that learning how to learn, such as proper note-taking and outline organization methods, was more important than learning specific subject knowledge. Regarding writing, she placed basic logic courses at the beginning of her teaching.

Lin Wan Xing told the students very frankly.

All courses from elementary school to doctoral programs were available on the internet. The human basic knowledge sharing system was far more powerful than they imagined. Whenever and wherever, as long as they wanted, they could find complete and excellent courses on the Internet.

What she could do was build a subject system she deemed suitable for them, select learning materials she considered excellent, and provide feedback on their “homework” to help them learn better.

And what the students needed to do was value knowledge itself.

Just like the gradual increase in their daily training and physical data charts, Lin Wan Xing hoped the students would experience the joy of “knowledge growth” and “learning something new.”

As for math class…

Lin Wan Xing invited a friend she knew from the university educational institution to teach the students online.

When the projector was turned on and a girl with a sweet smile appeared on the screen, the boys stared with wide eyes.

Everyone’s energy is limited.

The students stumbled along but invested in their studies with more focus and enthusiasm than before.

At the same time, they still devoted most of their time, energy, and physical strength to football training. Under Wang Fa’s guidance, they were sprinting with all their might for the upcoming Youth Super League group stage matches.

On the first working day after the National Day holiday, Lin Wan Xing received an email from the Youth Super League Organizing Committee.

The general content of the email was as follows:

Congratulations to Hongjing City Eighth Middle School for entering the “Youth Super League South China Region Main Competition.”

The match schedule and venue procedures are being sent in this email.

Participating players and teams can check the schedule and match points situation through the WeChat public account.

Lin Wan Xing informed the students of the email content as soon as she received it.

The boys were still on the field, having just finished training. They excitedly rushed to the tutoring center classroom.

The projector was turned on, and Lin Wan Xing projected the email content onto the screen, opened the participation rules, and let the students read it themselves.

The National Youth Football Super League “Yongchuan Cup” U-19 category is a league jointly participated by the U-19 teams of clubs participating in the Chinese Super League, China League One, as well as clubs from China League Two, football schools, amateur clubs, member association teams of the Chinese Football Association, and campus football teams that meet the requirements of the regulations, abbreviated as Youth Super League U-19.

…

The competition rules were lengthy, and generally full of official language, but the students read with great interest.

Lin Wan Xing slowly scrolled through the email, and the students read paragraph by paragraph. If she scrolled too quickly, the students would get upset.

For them, slowly reading through the rules seemed to be a process of sweetly enjoying the fruits of victory.

Overall, the email’s focus was on the second part, “Competition Methods.”

The competition adopts a home-and-away double round-robin system, with a total of 16 participating teams. All teams are divided into 4 groups based on the city where their main stadium is located, for nearby and balanced competition.

The top 2 in each group advance to the knockout stage.

Lin Wan Xing highlighted this section in yellow.

The students started to get anxious when they saw the “city where the main stadium is located.”

“Who will we play against?”

“Do we even have a main stadium?”

“Are you all idiots? Hongjing Mingzhu is our main stadium,” Qi Liang said.

“Damn, there seem to be many strong teams in our area?”

“Yongchuan Hengda won’t be in our district too, right?”

As soon as student Zheng Fei Yang said this, it immediately stirred up a huge commotion.

“Will their youth team also participate in our competition? That can’t be right.”

“Are you an idiot? How could they possibly be in the same group as us?”

“Even if they are in the same group, we’re not afraid. Let’s just do it!”

The entire small classroom became noisy, with some fearful and others worried, but the small gang led by student Qin Ao was brimming with confidence, feeling that no matter what, they couldn’t back down if they had to play.

After letting the students make a fuss, Lin Wan Xing quietly scrolled to the end of the email and said, “Actually, the grouping and schedule have already been sent, there’s an attachment document.”

“Damn, why didn’t you say so earlier!” the boys exclaimed in unison.

Lin Wan Xing opened the attached Word document, and a clear schedule table appeared on the screen.

Wang Fa, who had been sitting at the back of the classroom all along, also looked up, seriously examining this important table that concerned their future schedule.

At first, the entire classroom was very quiet, with the students maintaining the same upward angle, and carefully observing the table.

There were quite a few participating teams in the table, mostly combinations of cities and sponsors. Similar to “Yongchuan Hengda,” these names should be the echelon teams of professional clubs. And there were only two teams that looked like campus football teams.

Lin Wan Xing first found the name “Hongjing Eighth Middle School” on the table, but she was completely unfamiliar with the names of the remaining teams.

She discovered that they were assigned to Group C, with 4 teams in each group. Besides them, Group C also included… “Yongchuan Hengda,” “Yuzhou Yinxiang,” and “Shencheng Haibo.”

Lin Wan Xing’s gaze fixed on the four characters “Yongchuan Hengda.”

Was Yongchuan Hengda really in the same group as them?!

The students also discovered this.

Exclamations erupted in the classroom: “Damn, they’re really in our group?”

“Shit, there’s also Yuzhou Yinxiang. Are they using us to grind for experience?”

“Why is Shencheng Haibo here too? Conspiracy, it’s a conspiracy!”

“What the hell are we going to play for?”

The entire classroom was in an uproar, and the students beat up Zheng Fei Yang, who had made the “inappropriate remarks,” quite severely.

Lin Wan Xing was completely unfamiliar with the various teams, but judging from the students’ reactions, these three teams must be very strong.

After a while, when the students had calmed down, she tentatively asked, “How good are these teams? Are they very powerful?”

“What do you mean ‘are they very powerful’? These are all top clubs from the Chinese Super League!” Qin Ao immediately shouted. “Look at Group B, there’s also Nanyun Foreign Language School, which is a high school like us, and Baping Football School, which is a football school. In our group, they’re all subordinate echelon teams of professional clubs!”

“How do they compare to Lüjing International?” Lin Wan Xing still didn’t understand and continued to ask.

“We played against Lüjing International High School, which is essentially still a school team. Remember when we showed you how to play Honor of Kings a few days ago? If Lüjing International is Diamond, then these professional teams are King rank with fifty stars or more,” Chen Jiang He said.

“But I’m just Bronze,” Lin Wan Xing raised her hand.

Qin Ao continued angrily, “Anyway, we’re in the group of death, just understand that.”

“We’re going to be slaughtered like dogs~,” Qi Liang said in a tone of resignation.

“Is that so? It seems the football level in our division is very high,” Lin Wan Xing comforted the students. “Looking at it this way, we’re also above average.”

“Don’t talk about this nonsense, chicken soup for the soul is useless,” Qin Ao said impatiently.

“How can you call it nonsense? I’m saying, since we made it to the top 16, we must be among the best in the region, right?”

Lin Wan Xing was indeed trying to encourage the students, but this was also her genuine thought. She didn’t have a clear understanding of team strengths and competition levels. From what the students were saying, the competition they were about to participate in was almost on the same stage as the youth training teams of professional clubs, a level Lin Wan Xing had never imagined before.

But the students didn’t think so at all.

“What’s the use of being among the best?!”

“Then…” Lin Wan Xing thought for a moment and asked very sincerely, “Should we withdraw from the competition?”

“Withdraw your sister!”

“What nonsense are you talking?”

The students became agitated again.

“Since you haven’t even played yet but already think you can’t win, why not withdraw and focus on studying hard every day?” Lin Wan Xing added.

The students were even more displeased, with several glaring at her: “Your reverse psychology is too outdated!”

“Teacher, are you implying we’re like Lüjing International when they said they wouldn’t play anymore?!”

“Not at all,” Lin Wan Xing said with a smile.

After this banter, the students’ initially tense and intense emotions had largely calmed down.

Lin Wan Xing said, “The competition is important, but for you, it’s not a matter of life and death. Even if you lose, you can continue with the college entrance examination. If that doesn’t work out, you can also find ways to make money and support yourself. There’s no need to be so ‘afraid.'”

“Damn, why are you so pessimistic? Making it sound like we’ll lose?”

“Who’s afraid???”

“Right, we’re just respecting our opponents!”

In just a few words, the boys started talking tough again, completely forgetting their earlier complaints about strong opponents and the schedule arrangement.

Lin Wan Xing smiled.