No matter what, since they weren’t planning to withdraw from the competition, they could only give it their all.

After criticizing the organizers’ grouping, the students began to seriously observe their group stage opponents and the match schedule.

Because they adopted a home-and-away format, the entire group stage would be relatively long.

The students would need to travel to three different cities and play a total of 6 matches.

Yongchuan was the provincial capital, while Yuzhou and Shencheng were cities near provincial capitals, with the furthest being only a 3-hour drive away.

Overall, the organizers had indeed grouped teams according to geographic proximity.

Lin Wanxing recorded the times of the 6 matches in her phone calendar, then looked up and asked the students, “When you went to away games before, did the organizers provide food and accommodation?”

“Some did, some were same-day round trips,” Fu Xinshu said. “We’ve never made it to the regular season of the Youth Super League before, so we’re not entirely sure.”

Lin Wanxing nodded, thinking seriously, “If there’s extra time, could we go sightseeing after the matches? Have you been to Yuzhou Lake?”

Qin Ao immediately shouted, “Why are you only thinking about going out to play?”

“Huh?” Lin Wanxing straightened her face. “What else could I do? Qin, do you have some serious misunderstanding about me? I don’t even know what these three teams are like.”

“You should at least analyze our opponents with us!” Qin Ao turned and shouted, looking like he was calling for a parent. “Coach, can you please control our teacher!”

“What she said makes sense,” Wang Fa sat in the last row of the classroom, lazily raising his hand. “Just do her the favor and explain it to her.”

With Wang Fa’s suggestion, the students immediately took the chicken feather as if it were an imperial decree.

They crowded around the podium, ordering her to sit down and listen carefully. Lin Wanxing beckoned Wang Fa to her seat, indicating that he should share in the experience.

These days, Lin Wanxing had been letting the students teach classes themselves, so they were very familiar with using the projector and the entire set of equipment.

“First, Yuzhou Silver Elephants!” Qin Ao used her computer to open the Baidu browser, typed in these four characters, and the Yuzhou Silver Elephants Club’s Baidu Encyclopedia was projected onto the screen.

The giant Silver Elephant LOGO came into view.

As the encyclopedia stated, Yuzhou Silver Elephants Football Club was established in 1994, a professional football club located in Yuzhou City, currently competing in the Chinese Football Association Super League. At the same time, Yuzhou Silver Elephants was also one of the founding clubs of the Chinese Football Association Super League.

“Seems like they have quite a history,” Lin Wanxing said from her seat. “Are they a formidable opponent?”

“Student, please don’t arbitrarily link ‘history’ with ‘formidable’!” Qin Ao criticized. “Can’t you read the second line? In terms of club honors, Yuzhou Silver Elephants has played for over a decade and only managed a third place in 2016. Where’s the strength in that?”

“I just saw you panicking earlier and thought they were all fierce!” Lin Wanxing mocked, imitating Qin Ao’s style.

Qin Ao immediately widened his eyes and became anxious, “Don’t spout nonsense! Who panicked? I’ll sue you for defamation! Besides, a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Yuzhou Silver Elephants is at least a Super League club, so showing some respect isn’t a problem, right?”

“No problem~” Lin Wanxing agreed. “So, Teacher Qin, can you guys beat them?”

“How vulgar!” Qin Ao criticized again. “I asked you to learn about the various Super League teams, why are you only asking if we can beat them? Let me tell you, Yuzhou Silver Elephants’ youth training is quite mediocre, the team is in the lower tier, basically they only sell players and don’t buy any, and they have their football school, so they might not send their professional reserve team to participate, maybe just a school team that’s slightly stronger than us…”

“Oh, stronger than you guys? How strong would that be?” Lin Wanxing immediately praised.

“When you compliment us, it sounds like you’re insulting us,” Qi Liang said casually from the side.

Lin Wanxing smiled.

“But Yuzhou Silver Elephants is indeed the weakest among our opponents.”

“Yeah, we have a coach too, we can beat them, right?”

“Don’t get too cocky, what if Yuzhou Silver Elephants sends their U19 team to compete?”

Although the students seemed cautious when they spoke, the happiness in their eyes betrayed their true emotions.

Originally thinking the opponents would be unbeatable, but as they talked, they suddenly felt that perhaps they weren’t so terrifying after all. This was probably the lovable aspect of these boys.

Yuzhou Silver Elephants didn’t seem too problematic, so the next opponent was Shencheng Haibo.

The boys assigned Yu Ming, who was from Shencheng, to explain.

“Uh, actually I grew up in Hongjing, just went back to Shencheng during holidays every year…”

“But you’re still from Shencheng, right? Stop the nonsense and teach her properly!” Qin Ao commanded again. “Don’t copy me and just look up the Baidu Encyclopedia.”

“That’s too difficult… I-I haven’t kept up with Shencheng Haibo for a long time!” Yu Ming was a bit flustered.

“It’s fine, I don’t know much either,” Lin Wanxing rested her chin on her hand and asked, “Isn’t Shencheng known for its strong football atmosphere? I remember Shencheng Haibo is quite famous, wasn’t there a TV drama?”

“Yes, my dad was a Shencheng Haibo fan when he was young. Back then, the national team made it to the World Cup, there was a nationwide football craze, and the TV drama was produced by Shencheng TV station. That’s when my dad sent me to train with our coach.”

“So you do know a lot.”

“No, my dad later stopped being a fan because Shencheng Haibo was relegated at one point, changed coaches and management, breaking the fans’ hearts.”

“So, are they still formidable now?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“I’ve just heard… heard from my dad that they’re about to sell their training base and are on the verge of bankruptcy,” Yu Ming said.

“Holy shit!” “Bankruptcy is good!”

The students suddenly became excited, startling Lin Wanxing.

“They’re about to sell their base! They must be really poor, right? Do they even still have youth training? Will they just forfeit?”

The boys chattered away, showing a strong tendency to “profit from others’ misfortune.”

“Um…” Lin Wanxing raised her hand. “If I may be blunt, we struggle to pool money for gym memberships; however poor they are, they’re still richer than us, right?”

“Just sit quietly and listen!” the students said in unison.

At that moment, another hand next to Lin Wanxing was raised.

Wang Fa, who had been checking his phone all this time, indicated he wanted to speak.

“Coach, please go ahead,” the students immediately changed their attitude, becoming extremely obsequious.

“I just checked the Super League standings, Shencheng Haibo is leading,” Wang Fa said thoughtfully. “Can selling a training base stimulate players’ potential?”

The students looked at each other, and finally spaced out, pretending not to have heard Wang Fa’s latest report.

“Coach, with you here, why should we fear a Super League team?” Yu Ming was flattered.

“I think they’re very capable,” Wang Fa said.

“Being capable in the Super League doesn’t necessarily mean their youth training is strong,” Chen Jianghe said.

In short, if they were going to be overconfident, they might as well go all the way.

Regardless of the home team’s performance, in the students’ minds, a team that was about to sell its training base must have a reserve team that was nothing to fear.

Now, only their last opponent in the schedule remained—Yongchuan Hengda.

Qi Liang was responsible for explaining this team.

He lazily pinched a piece of chalk, staring at the four big characters “Yongchuan Hengda” on the blackboard for a long time, slowly drew a circle with his hand, put down the chalk, and said, “Can’t beat them.”

The classroom fell silent. Extraordinarily, the boys who usually loved to make noise didn’t object to Qi Liang’s conclusion.

In the quiet air, Lin Wanxing glanced at Wang Fa.

“Damn, what a fateful connection!” At the podium, Yu Ming also looked at Wang Fa and said.

“I want to crush them!” Qin Ao exhaled angrily. “I hate this stupid team the most.”

Lin Wanxing was very curious, “Have you played against Yongchuan Hengda before? Do you have a grudge?”

“They tried to poach our coach, and you ask if we have a grudge?” The students were shocked.

“What’s that called?” The students started to use literary references. “It’s like in that novel, the hatred of killing one’s wife, the resentment of stealing one’s husband?”

“That doesn’t seem quite right,” Lin Wanxing glanced at Wang Fa again and smiled. “What does Coach think?”

“Doesn’t Teacher Lin think so?” Wang Fa suddenly put down his phone and slowly asked.

Lin Wanxing, facing his sincere gaze, suddenly felt her heart skip a beat for no apparent reason.

In terms of teasing each other, she was far inferior to Wang Fa.

Lin Wanxing decided to concede, “Actually, I’ve visited Yongchuan Hengda’s base before, our department used to be a partner with them.”

She changed the subject.

“Have you met Zhou Miao then?”

“What about Shen Lei?”

“I like Wu Gang, did you get an autograph?”

The students’ attention was immediately drawn away, and they all asked eagerly.

Lin Wanxing looked at Wang Fa.

“They’re all national team stars,” Wang Fa prompted.

“Oh? Then no,” Lin Wanxing shook her head. “We were just nobodies, had some collaboration, visited the base, that’s all. The base is indeed very large and quite standardized.”

“What collaboration?”

“You still have collaborations?”

“Collaborating on what? You didn’t get any autographs? Isn’t that a huge loss?”

The students persisted.

“Let’s talk about Yongchuan Hengda’s youth training,” Lin Wanxing shook her head, feeling like she was digging herself into a hole. “Do we really have no hope at all, absolutely can’t beat them?”

“They were last year’s champions!” Qin Ao said.

“They have at least six national youth level members in their U19 reserve team, absolutely the favorites to win the championship. No matter how confident we are, we know our capabilities,” Chen Jianghe said seriously.

“National youth means the national youth team, right?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“Yes,” Fu Xinshu said. “Teams like Anning Experimental are strong, but they’re still roughly in the same league as us. Giant powerhouses like Yongchuan Hengda might even have players who have played abroad, we can’t possibly beat them.”

Fu Xinshu spoke with some despair.

“You can still try, right? Didn’t you also think you couldn’t beat Lüjing International, but you won in the end?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“How do we explain this to you?!” Qin Ao scratched his head in frustration. “The team levels are different, don’t you understand?”

“Let me give you a simple example,” Qi Liang’s voice came at the right time. “Even in our Hongjing Eighth Middle School, there are academic stars who can get into Yongchuan University and pathetic wastes like us.”

“Damn,” the students all glared at Qi Liang, but couldn’t come up with any rebuttal.

Fu Xinshu continued with Qi Liang’s analogy, “The youth training levels of various clubs are uneven. Some take it seriously, some set up football schools for youth training to scam local government money, and others don’t even bother to scam, they just give up completely.” Yongchuan Hengda’s youth training level was comparable to Southampton in English football.

Fu Xinshu’s words made Lin Wanxing understand that even if they occasionally pretended to be confident and happy on the surface, they were very clear about the gap between themselves and professional reserve teams.

As Qi Liang completed his introduction to Yongchuan Hengda, the classroom suddenly quieted down. The boys either looked at the floor, out the window, or at her, as if hoping she could say something more.

“Anyway, the top two in the group can advance,” Lin Wanxing said. “Shall we try our best?”

Such encouraging words obviously couldn’t satisfy the students.

They looked at Wang Fa again, seeking a response from the person they trusted most.

Fu Xinshu tentatively asked, “Coach, what do you think?”

“Think about what?”

“Can we win? Do we have any hope of advancing?”

Lin Wanxing also looked over, waiting for Wang Fa’s assessment.

“To be honest, I never think about the possibility of winning or losing a match,” Wang Fa said instead.

The projector light fluctuated.

The students on the podium all looked at the coach below the podium.

“If there’s no hope, why would we still stand on the field? Even if the score is fixed for this match, we still have the opportunity to pursue victory in the next one.”

Wang Fa’s voice wasn’t loud, and this didn’t sound like some blood-stirring declaration.

But the light gradually returned to the student’s eyes.

What is football, and what will it bring?

Perhaps no one knows the answer, or perhaps everyone is trying to find their answer on this path.