Lin Wanxing’s understanding of Wen Chengye was limited to her observations during those three days of exam supervision.

If she had to count, before the football team’s first assembly, she also had a general understanding of Wen Chengye and his family.

Wen Chengye had a cold and solitary personality, with poor relationships with other students. Among all the football team students, the only one he showed any closeness to was Qi Liang.

His family was wealthy, and his parents had very strict expectations for him. But apart from demanding “excellent grades” as a result, they didn’t seem to show much other concern.

Of course, making these assumptions based solely on one phone conversation with Wen Chengye’s mother was not objective enough.

But with Wen Chengye, Lin Wanxing truly couldn’t sense that he had grown up in a family filled with love.

At noon, Lin Wanxing specifically went home for lunch. At the same time, she tentatively shared Teacher Qian’s suggestion with the students, wanting to hear their thoughts.

Unexpectedly, the students’ reactions at the dining table were intense, even stronger than when they heard Chen Weidong was leaving.

“Why look for Wen the dog?”

“I’d rather play with an actual dog than with him.”

“He’s completely inhuman, just an animal.”

They argued as they complained, with Qin Ao being the main force opposing Wen Chengye.

Other students were indeed also cursing “Wen the dog,” but mostly just shouting a couple of phrases, then instinctively looking toward Fu Xinshu.

Fu Xinshu remained quiet throughout, not habitually calming his teammates as he used to.

In the end, when the boys had finished venting and were too lazy to curse anymore.

Only then did Fu Xinshu realize that everyone was paying attention to his mood.

He somewhat uncomfortably put down his chopsticks, one hand stroking the seam of his pants, and slowly said: “Finding Wen Chengye is fine, it seems like there’s no one else…”

Though he said this, his eyes were downcast, as if avoiding something.

Lin Wanxing could sense the grievance between him and Wen Chengye.

So, Lin Wanxing comforted him: “Don’t think too much about it. Even if we approach Wen Chengye, he might not be willing to join, just like last time. And he has good grades, his mother is very strict, and his family’s intention is probably to focus entirely on the college entrance exam. So let’s wait for news from Teacher Qian first. And you all should also look for your friends.”

Lin Wanxing said this, but her greatest hope was still with Teacher Qian.

The news from Teacher Qian came quickly, but the feedback wasn’t good.

He first went through the original team roster, asking all the substitutes one by one, hoping to get them to fill in.

There were indeed students willing to make guest appearances for a match or two like Chen Weidong had, but when it came to training with the team, no one was interested.

According to Teacher Qian, autumn was the peak season for various track and field competitions. Sports students were all working hard on their events and didn’t have that much time to add football as a secondary sport.

Moreover, the Youth Super League had reached the group stage, which wasn’t something amateur levels could handle. Everyone knew their capabilities.

There was also Chen Weidong’s situation—sports students all knew each other, and they might also fear injury as Chen Weidong did.

Most importantly, their schedules often conflicted with the Youth Super League, making adjustments difficult.

“Look, finding one or two people to help you fill in for matches is doable, but to play every match, I truly can’t find students willing to come,” Teacher Qian finally said helplessly.

Lin Wanxing stood in the sports department office during the break, with students coming and going in the classroom opposite.

Lin Wanxing broadly understood Teacher Qian’s meaning. What he said was also the reason Chen Weidong left the football team.

They weren’t football team members, to begin with, and now asking them to spend too much time and energy on football was indeed asking too much.

In the classroom opposite, the teacher was distributing test papers, and students were receiving their copies.

Lin Wanxing thought that at this point, she could only place her hopes on the students, hoping they might have some other good brothers somewhere in this school.

Lin Wanxing hadn’t expected that when she assigned this task to the students, they would take it as a great opportunity for Hongjing No. 8 Middle School’s football team to recruit new members.

The first poster was attached to the door of the sports equipment room.

On the reddish-brown door panel, a dark green poster paper with bold, flowing black brush characters read:

**Hongjing No. 8 Middle School Football Team Recruitment Notice**

In response to the call of the Party Central Committee and to better promote campus football, the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School football team is now recruiting new players. Players will be guided by famous teachers, enjoy superior education, and experience the charm of a top Premier League coach.

Positions await, and opportunity knocks but once, time waits for no one.

If interested, please register with Teacher Lin Wanxing at the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School sports equipment room.

Contact number: 189123098xx

Lin Wanxing returned to her small storage room from Teacher Qian’s office and immediately saw a large poster attached to the equipment room door.

The boys had learned quickly, clearly copying the text from the cigarette wrapper Qin Ao had received.

In the bottom right corner, there was also a drawing of a girl with a sparrow tail ponytail and a hairpin in her sidelock.

Lin Wanxing stared at it for a long time, touching the hairpin on her head.

This abstract stick-figure girl seemed to be her.

She finally understood what the boys had been secretly plotting at noon behind her back.

She stared at the stick figure girl on the poster, feeling a headache. She took a photo with her phone, circled “experience the charm of a top Premier League coach” with the screenshot pen, and sent it to Wang Fa.

Soon, Wang Fa replied with a surprised cat emoji with a question mark on its forehead.

“Aren’t they training at this time? Help me ask those little ones, how did I get involved in this?” Lin Wanxing sent a voice message, half angry and half amused.

Shortly after, three voice messages were rapidly sent back.

“Football team matters, shouldn’t you take responsibility?” said Qin Ao.

“Yeah, Teacher, you should screen people first to see if they’re suitable. Didn’t you study something?” said Yu Ming.

“Psychology, idiot!” Qi Liang said, exasperated.

“Anyway, just register anyone who comes. It’s no trouble. We’re planning to recruit on Saturday afternoon. You just need to notify the people who come!”

The boys’ ability to take action was astonishing.

When Lin Wanxing had free time in the afternoon, she took a walk around the school.

According to the student’s schedule, they only had so many minutes of rest time each day. But in that limited time, they had done unlimited poster work!

The sports equipment room, school cafeteria bulletin board, teaching building bulletin board… football team recruitment posters appeared everywhere.

Even when getting afternoon tea, Lin Wanxing also found a huge green poster on the railings at the designated takeout pickup spot by the school’s back gate.

For this, Lin Wanxing not only suffered being surrounded by students getting takeout but was also sought out by the logistics teacher and given a lecture.

In short, under the boys’ efforts.

At 13:00 on October x, the Hongjing No. 8 Middle School football team held its first recruitment meeting at the Wuchuan Road Stadium in Hongjing City.

There were quite a few boys interested in football, so there was a decent turnout for the Saturday afternoon recruitment meeting.

Lin Wanxing had registered 7 names on her list, including the rare Chinese Super League little fan they met at the cafeteria entrance that day.

The boys had also brought brothers they knew from the gym, including Coach Xiao Sun in parentheses, totaling 11 people—enough to form a football team.

Lin Wanxing only took care of notifying the registered students to attend and didn’t interfere with their self-designed recruitment meeting process.

By the time she arrived at the field, people had mostly arrived.

The setup organized by the students looked quite substantial.

On the ground was a net bag of footballs and marking poles and cones, with standard physical test lines drawn on the grass.

The trial participants appeared to be of varying quality, with a very wide age range.

After arriving, Lin Wanxing observed from the side for a while before being chased away by Qin Ao.

She could only run up to the stands and sit beside Wang Fa.

In front of the goal, Qin Ao held a megaphone from who knows where and very seriously had the “tryout (?)” candidates line up in front of the goal.

“Comrades, brothers, good afternoon!” Qin Ao shouted.

Sitting in the stands, Lin Wanxing had just opened a bag of “Guai Guai Crispy Fruit” and was startled, almost spilling half of it.

Qi Liang stood outside the crowd, rolling his eyes.

Qin Ao, unfazed, continued to shout: “First of all, thank you all very much for coming here! Then, don’t think that just by coming here, you can join our excellent football team! Joining requires passing strict tests, with no room for falsehood!”

“Test what?”

“Ah, there’s still testing?”

The tryout candidates who had come to make up numbers immediately started howling, not understanding.

“Without testing, how could you easily enjoy the guidance of a top Premier League coach?” Qin Ao pointed distantly at Wang Fa in the stands and shouted, “Such football lessons would cost at least 500 per session!”

Lin Wanxing handed the “Guai Guai Crispy Fruit” to Wang Fa, who was shielding his eyes from the sun, and leaned in to ask: “500?”

“Small Teacher Lin always gets a discount price.” They suddenly were quite close, and Wang Fa’s pupils were very light as he gently took a handful of crispy snacks from her.

Lin Wanxing felt her face heat up a bit: “What did they tell you?”

“About what?”

“Using your name to ‘deceive’ people?”

And you agreed…

Lin Wanxing swallowed the second half of her sentence.

“Honestly, is it deception?” Wang Fa asked in return.

Lin Wanxing was taken aback and instinctively nodded.

“Of course, they also made some exchanges,” Wang Fa added.

Lin Wanxing: “What exchanges?”

“Obviously can’t tell Small Teacher Lin,” Wang Fa said.

He lightly chewed the puffed snack, with the scent of butter in the air.

Lin Wanxing decided to control her curiosity and ignore the mysterious hints, so she changed the topic: “Did they ask you about this recruitment test?”

On the field, Qin Ao had just announced the first test item: a 3000-meter run!

“3000 meters?”

“Are you crazy?”

The newcomers on the field started clamoring, all with shocked looks.

“They asked,” Wang Fa said.

“What did you say?” Lin Wanxing turned her head away from the field to ask Wang Fa, withdrawing her eavesdropping ears.

“I said everything is fine,” Wang Fa replied.

Lin Wanxing found it quite incredible.

Those who also thought Qin Ao was being unreasonable included the newcomers participating in the “tryout” on the field.

“Isn’t 3000 meters too much?” said those with good temperaments.

“Can’t run that much, bro,” someone said helplessly.

“Making us run 3000 on a Saturday, are you sick?” Those with worse tempers started cursing.

“If you can’t persist through a 3000-meter run, how can you become a member of our glorious football team?!” Qin Ao insisted.

“So I won’t run, is that okay?” one replied.

“Fine, you play by yourself.”

The newcomers immediately dispersed like birds and beasts, and indeed, two left.

Qin Ao immediately became anxious, looking around, receiving a “stupid” from Qi Liang.

“How about this, just 2000 meters, five laps around the track,” he compromised.

No one stopped walking away.

“1600 meters, four laps!”

“1500!” It couldn’t go any lower.

Finally, with continuously lowering standards, the remaining 8 reluctantly began the long run around the track.

This included Coach Xiao Sun, who had changed into a fluorescent pink tank top today and was among the more enthusiastic tryout candidates.

Lin Wanxing moved slightly to the side and quietly asked: “Why is Coach Xiao Sun here too? Can we use non-school students in the Youth Super League now?”

“Probably not,” Wang Fa said.

“Huh?” Then what to do?

“A plant,” Wang Fa said, chewing the crispy snacks. “Same nature as us.”

Lin Wanxing was shocked.

On the field, including Coach Xiao Sun only 3 candidates appeared to have a sports foundation and were seriously running.

The others were either walking or had thin arms and legs, clearly just there to make up numbers.

Their willingness to follow along with the lap running was less out of love for football itself and more because of the face-saving concept of “since we’re already here.”

No wonder they needed a “plant” to motivate everyone…

After the 1500-meter run, Lin Wanxing knew without even checking the time that no one here qualified.

If they had to pick the best of a bad bunch, there was a thin, dark-skinned boy and another said to be from a shot put background who barely met the standard.

But in reality, who were they to be picky? They should be begging people to come.

Qin Ao had initially shouted about “high standards and strict requirements.” Now,

He pretended to check his stopwatch, recorded the 1500-meter results, then turned a blind eye and began the next test.

The next item was football-related.

Professional football training poles were set up on the field, with the test item being “pole dribbling.”

The students didn’t use these marker poles much; they were brought out now mainly for show.

The gap between ideal and reality was exposed in the pole dribbling test.

In Lin Wanxing’s view, even the two boys she had initially thought were decent knew nothing about football.

The affinity between a person and a ball is not something that can be cultivated overnight.

Most students controlled the ball for just two steps before it left their feet, let alone controlling the speed and power to navigate around the marker poles.

Of course, there were also some whose footwork seemed passable, but they were not high school students in terms of age.

Qin Ao sometimes couldn’t help but shout a few words, saying their technique was poor, only to be immediately retorted with: “Wasn’t it said there would be free lessons? If I was already that good at playing, why would I come to you?”

Digging his own grave and jumping in, Student Qin Ao was left speechless.

One sturdy, chubby boy even tripped over a pole and fell heavily.

By the end of the pole dribbling, it could be described as chaotic, with everyone feeling more exhausted than after running 1500 meters.

Fu Xinshu went up to the stands to get mineral water for the friends participating in the team test.

“Where did you find these friends you know?” Lin Wanxing asked quietly.

“We don’t know other people either, just two older brothers we met playing football before who were willing to come today,” Fu Xinshu said somewhat embarrassedly.

“How old are they?”

“I think they’re working.”

“What about that one?” Lin Wanxing pointed to the boy who had just finished the 1500 meters and was standing in the sunlight wiping sweat—one she had just thought barely met the physical standard.

“He’s a young worker at the recycling station we know. Qin Ao thought his physique was decent, so he tricked him into coming…”

The word “tricked” was very telling. Lin Wanxing couldn’t help but remind him: “Non-school students probably can’t participate in the competition, right?”

“We couldn’t find anyone else,” Fu Xinshu said helplessly. “We just thought, if nothing else works, we could at least make up the numbers.”

“Eh,” Lin Wanxing was also at a loss.

Although the test was prepared to look proper, it ended hastily.

After the pole dribbling item, 3 more people left, leaving only 4 people on the field.

Two of them were the older working brothers, along with the young worker student Qin Ao had found, and everyone’s good friend Coach Xiao Sun.

To demonstrate the team’s professionalism, Qin Ao finally wanted the 4 to train with them.

The students intended to let everyone experience training, thinking that since they had come, they could also integrate in advance.

But compared to the 3000-meter run or pole dribbling test, the daily physical training designed by Wang Fa was much more frightening.

The boys practiced like this every day and had grown used to it.

Others couldn’t endure it.

The two working brothers followed for two training items before directly lying on the ground.

“You’re too extreme. Do you do these items every day?” The two working brothers refused to get up no matter what.

“Really can’t do it anymore, too exhausting…” The young worker also refused to move.

Even Coach Xiao Sun…

Coach Xiao Sun was also hunched over, hands supporting his thighs, breathing heavily.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay if you can’t do it now. Join us, and after complete systematic training, maybe you can do it!” Qin Ao ran and jumped a couple of times, demonstrating his perfect physical fitness to others.

“That’s right, we even have a direct path to Yongchuan Hengda’s professional team! Our coach has connections!” Chen Jianghe chimed in, exactly like that football agent scammer he had encountered.

Qi Liang was too lazy even to roll his eyes. He looked at the darkening evening sky, feeling these people were completely beyond saving.

As the students spoke, they tried to drag the 4 for the remaining tests.

The two working brothers immediately found excuses, saying their girlfriends were urging them home for dinner, and ran off.

Coach Xiao Sun: “I just remembered I have a contract to sign!”

Young worker comrade: “My brother called me to play games. Sorry, got to go first.”

After speaking, all of them ran away without exception.

“You’re just Bronze rank, what the hell are you going to play?!” Lin Lu cursed at the rapidly fleeing figure of the young worker comrade.

The sun was setting, casting a huge shadow over the stands.

As people dispersed, the bustling returned to calm. The boys silently completed the remaining training before finally sitting back in the stands.

Wang Fa had not expressed any opinion from beginning to end.

Lin Wanxing silently drank water beside him.

“Maybe I should send them a text, meet at nine tomorrow morning,” Qin Ao poured himself a bottle of water and finally spoke, saying rather dejectedly.

“Will anyone come?”

“Even if they come to play, won’t the organizing committee discover that their age and school don’t match?” Qi Liang sneered.

“Then what should we do? Are we just going to accept any Tom, Dick, or Harry?” Qin Ao was very uncertain, his voice growing weaker.

The boys finally looked to Wang Fa for help.

Fu Xinshu: “What does Coach think?”

Wang Fa’s answer was as consistent as ever: “All fine.”

“Ahhh…”

“Ummm…”

Hearing Wang Fa’s words, the boys all let out muffled expressions.

“They’d just be a hindrance on the field. We might as well play 10 against 11,” Chen Jianghe was as cold as ever.

“Didn’t Chen Weidong say that if necessary, he could still come?”

“Go beg him again?” Qi Liang snorted.

In the dejected and silent stands, someone, who knows who, softly spoke: “Maybe we should go find Wen Chengye after all?”