Wen Chengye was furious. Lin Wanxing was deliberately provoking him.

But the advantage of being a teacher was that no matter how angry Wen Chengye got, he could only see in private.

The young man quickly walked back to his classroom.

Lin Wanxing went to the senior grade’s room 408 to report on her work.

Lin Wanxing had already sent a message to Wen Chengye’s homeroom teacher, Mr. Lu, saying that she had found him and calmed the anxious teacher.

So as soon as he saw her, Mr. Lu asked, “Did Wen Chengye return to class?”

“He did.”

“No fighting?”

“None.”

Lin Wanxing stood obediently at Mr. Lu’s desk.

In the office, Teacher Xiao Xu was there, and Lin Wanxing was surprised to find Jin Ziyang was there too.

The male teacher smiled at her and nodded in greeting.

Lin Wanxing nodded back.

“What exactly happened?”

Mr. Lu’s stern voice rang out. Lin Wanxing hurriedly turned around and explained about the soccer team being short of players, so the students hoped Wen Chengye would rejoin the team for the competition.

All the other teachers in the large office were listening intently.

Mr. Lu listened with furrowed brows. “Isn’t this just making trouble?”

Lin Wanxing — “We had no choice, so we wanted to ask if Wen would be willing. We interrupted his class today.”

“Teacher Lin, do you know what time it is now? The college entrance exam is approaching. Although there’s still more than half a year, every minute and second is crucial. Having a student like Wen Chengye play soccer—isn’t that wasting the student’s time?”

Lin Wanxing — “Actually, it mainly depends on the student’s wishes. If Wen Chengye wants to play soccer, we could still give it a try.”

“Does he want to?” Mr. Lu asked in return.

“Um…” Lin Wanxing was at a loss for words. “Currently, no.”

“Teacher Lin.” Mr. Lu pushed up his heavy glasses frame and opened a drawer, taking out a stack of exam papers.

Lin Wanxing noticed they were the students’ monthly exam papers.

The papers were organized by subject, and Mr. Lu had clipped each set with a paper clip.

At the top of the test papers was a summary table of student scores and the standard answers for each exam.

Mr. Lu’s work was very thorough and meticulous.

“I was planning to find you later today. Your soccer team has made great progress this time, and I wanted to praise you. I didn’t expect this situation to happen,” Mr. Lu said regretfully.

“I’m sorry,” Lin Wanxing said.

She pulled up a chair and sat down at Mr. Lu’s desk.

Mr. Lu was the grade leader, so these papers that didn’t currently belong to any class students had ultimately fallen into her hands.

Lin Wanxing looked through the students’ test papers.

First, she looked at the score summary table. As Mr. Lu had said, everyone had made significant improvement compared to the last monthly exam.

After all, during the last exam, most of the boys had simply given up.

Absences, sleeping during exams, only writing their names, or drawing turtles were common. But now, at least they could complete the papers.

In the humanities subjects, the students had recently studied various materials. Although their answers weren’t necessarily correct, they could at least analyze the questions somewhat. Just this change in attitude made the subject teachers willing to give them a few more points.

English requires a feel for the language. Everyone was still confused about grammar and such, but because they had recently watched some American TV shows and BBC gardening documentaries, their accuracy in guessing answers had somewhat improved.

What surprised Lin Wanxing most was that she found everyone, including Qin Ao, had completed their English compositions.

Although they were somewhat off-topic… being able to write was already good.

As for the mathematics section, her friend who taught the subject liked to teach systematically, so there was still a large portion of the content that the boys didn’t understand.

But for the basic sequence problems that her friend had covered, they had all answered correctly.

This way, with small improvements in each subject, accumulated together, their overall grades showed significant improvement.

Lin Wanxing finished looking through the exam papers.

Mr. Lu spoke slowly, “Teacher Lin, I’m not criticizing your work today. You’ve shown skill in bringing these children this far in such a short time.”

“I understand.”

“I understand your quality education philosophy, but Wen Chengye is different. His grades are too good—playing soccer would be a waste.”

“Did Wen Chengye do well in this monthly exam?” Lin Wanxing asked.

Mr. Lu didn’t speak but opened a document on his computer, selected Wen Chengye’s name, and let her see for herself.

Lin Wanxing was stunned.

Wen Chengye’s total score was 615 points, ranking 53rd in the grade, putting him in the range to solidly aim for a 211 university and potentially reach a 985 university.

Lin Wanxing continued looking at Wen Chengye’s previous monthly exam results and found they were even higher than this time, with as many as 655 points.

“His grades are indeed very good, but they seem somewhat unstable?”

With many incredible thoughts in her mind, Lin Wanxing hesitated slightly but still asked, “I heard he wasn’t originally in Class 1 but tested up during class reassignment?”

Mr. Lu — “Yes, Wen Chengye’s grades used to be poor, but many students are like this. They suddenly decide to study hard, and their grades improve rapidly. Because their foundation isn’t solid, fluctuations in grades are normal.”

After that, Mr. Lu, perhaps thinking she was very concerned about Wen Chengye, told her a lot about the student’s previous situation. Other subject teachers in the grade office who had taught Wen Chengye also added their perspectives.

The consensus among the teachers was that when the soccer team was still organizing activities, Wen Chengye’s grades were indeed poor, but after he stopped playing soccer, his grades improved dramatically within a few months.

While listening, Lin Wanxing re-examined his monthly exam papers.

Finally, Lin Wanxing pointed to the mathematics section where Wen Chengye’s fluctuation was most obvious and said, “His math isn’t very stable.”

“Oh, he was mainly careless this time. He switched the positions of two major problems in math. Otherwise, his score would have been higher,” Mr. Lu said.

Lin Wanxing took the test papers and returned to her small warehouse.

Opening the door, she found all the soccer team’s “puppies” sitting inside.

The room was dim, with the sunset shining through the window bars.

They all hung their heads, their expressions showing dejection, looking dispirited.

It seemed that although everyone acted wildly confident when facing Wen Chengye, privately, they were still full of worry about not being able to fill the soccer team.

Seeing her enter, Qin Ao coughed twice to alert everyone.

In an instant, the students either sat up straight or suddenly punched the air a couple of times, pretending to be full of energy.

“Teacher, if you’re coming in, just come in! Don’t hold your breath!” Qin Ao was the first to shout.

“I did breathe, you just didn’t hear it.” Lin Wanxing returned to her desk, put down the test papers, and packed her things. “Why are you all so respectful today? Coming to escort me after work?”

“Because of Wen Dog, we wasted a day of training, we’re not specially waiting for you!” Qin Ao rolled his eyes.

“Oh, so Wen Dog is more important than me.” Lin Wanxing said as she stuffed her thermos and two bags of snacks into her bag.

Yu Ming, sitting on a cushion, was the first to notice the stack of papers.

He widened his eyes in horror, tugged at Qin Ao’s sleeve, and pointed at the papers.

Qin Ao — “What are you doing? Having a seizure?”

He then walked over and similarly turned to stone, his face full of terror.

More and more boys gathered around.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Wanxing smiled and spread out the test papers.

The boys reacted dramatically, collectively covering their eyes and backing away.

“Let’s talk properly, don’t hand out papers.”

“What the hell is this!”

Lin Wanxing — “What’s wrong? You weren’t this dramatic last time, were you?”

“Last time we answered casually, this time we wrote seriously,” Chen Jianghe said.

“Because you wrote seriously, you’re afraid you didn’t do well?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“Yeah.”

“What else could it be?”

“I think you all did pretty well,” Lin Wanxing said cheerfully.

Until they saw their test papers, the students didn’t quite believe her words.

But what Lin Wanxing hadn’t expected was that when they saw the papers, the students were shocked at how satisfied they were with their scores.

“Damn, is he grading papers randomly? Why would I get such a high score?” Zheng Feiyang asked.

“This Chinese teacher gave my composition 20 points. Do I deserve 20 points?”

“I got points for my English composition too, 7 points. How could the teacher give me 7 points??”

They gathered together, talking loudly.

The gloomy atmosphere in the small warehouse was completely cleared away. The boys held their papers excitedly, eager to have her explain the questions right there in the warehouse.

Lin Wanxing’s stomach was growling with hunger. She told them to take their test papers and then collectively shooed them out of the warehouse.

Since the students had started regular training and study, it seemed Lin Wanxing hadn’t left work with them for a long time.

They walked from the school toward 17 Wutong Road.

It was evening, and the autumn sunset cast an orange-red gentle light.

The streets were filled with traffic, shops lined both sides, a queue formed outside the braised meat shop, and the aromas of lamb soup and barbecue wafted from the stores.

The students had been busy all afternoon without eating. Stimulated by the fragrant smells on the street, they began to discuss what food they had at home and what else they needed to buy.

Talking about food made them even more energetic.

Lin Wanxing thought that with the test papers just distributed and the anticipation of dinner, the students might temporarily forget their worries.

But everyone still had the team issue on their minds, and inevitably, the topic returned to the soccer team.

Mentioning this, Qin Ao became angry at “Wen old dog” again. “He’s a bastard, doesn’t respond to soft or hard approaches, is impervious to persuasion, and is just mean!”

“It’s not like you just met him today,” Fu Xinshu said.

“Boss, why is he such an asshole?” Yu Ming followed behind, sincerely sighing. “Today he came alone, wanting to beat us up, not even afraid we’d hit him. Too ruthless!”

“Wen Dog’s character is not good. Even if he were willing to join our team, I think he’d be up to no good. Maybe we should forget it,” Lin Lu said while pushing Qi Liang.

“Why push me? Wen Dog is a jerk, but am I any good?” Qi Liang put both hands on his head and said listlessly.

“You just can’t get over him!” Qin Ao cursed.

“What else can we do? Finding someone who can play soccer now is like waiting for the pie to fall from the sky,” Qi Liang said lazily.

“I better not catch Wen old dog doing anything wrong,” Qin Ao grew angrier. “I’ll make him crawl on the ground someday!”

Lin Wanxing patted Qin Ao’s shoulder and laughed, “Please calm down.”

“What do we do next?” Chen Jianghe’s voice rang out, clearly asking her.

“There are always more solutions than problems,” Lin Wanxing looked at a liangpi stall by the roadside. “If all else fails, we’ll have to find Chen Weidong for the match.”

“Teacher, I don’t like when you say ‘if all else fails,'” Zheng Feiyang shouted. “He’s already gone, with so many excuses. I’m not willing to go beg him again.”

“So you’re willing to ask Wen Chengye?” Lin Wanxing asked with a smile.

“Teacher, you’re so disgusting!”

“But you care a lot about Wen Chengye,” Lin Wanxing continued smiling.

“Stop talking!”

“I want to vomit!”

The boys wailed in unison, telling her to shut up.

“Ah, I don’t understand you boys.” Lin Wanxing was pulled away from the liangpi stall by the boys. After walking a few steps, she noticed the beef-stuffed pancakes at the next stall.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“What are you planning to do?” the boys asked.

“Everyone’s worked hard. Teacher’s treat,” Lin Wanxing said, wanting to have the owner weigh a few.

“Are you crazy, teacher? 7 yuan for one beef pancake!” Zheng Feiyang ran to the stall, saw the price list, and suddenly raised his voice.

Lin Wanxing — “Huh?”

Zheng Feiyang’s words drew the other boys over.

A group of people surrounded the owner’s stall and began to criticize her.

“You’re going to eat a 7-yuan beef pancake? That’s too wasteful!”

“How much is a pound of beef filling anyway?”

“Yeah, do you know how much flour costs per pound!”

“That’s seventy yuan for one per person.”

The boys stood at the beef pancake stall and started calculating.

“Yeah, we’ll go buy groceries later. Let us make you some when we get home. Don’t be wasteful, woman.”

The owner listened until the veins on his forehead were bulging. This was sabotaging his business.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Lin Wanxing hurriedly apologized to the owner and quickly ran away with the grumbling students before the owner could explode.

The students expressed extreme indignation at her behavior, clearly planning to eat at a roadside stall when she could cook at home.

From collecting garbage for money to starting to grow vegetables, the students’ stinginess had intensified, basically reaching the point of quibbling over every penny.

For example, although they had agreed to make pancakes, when they got to the market, the boys didn’t buy beef filling.

Because the market’s cold chain prices weren’t good, and online shopping coupons were supposedly cheaper.

The boys would usually plan their menus, but today’s plans had been disrupted by Wen Dog, so they could only eat whatever.

Based on vegetable prices, the boys finally decided to have green bean noodle stew for dinner. This was a recipe trending online, though this had a lot to do with the cheapness of green beans and pork.

They carried several bags of vegetables home and opened the rooftop door. Wang Fa was sitting outside drinking a beverage.

Lin Wanxing was already used to the scene of the students bustling about while she and Wang Fa waited for food.

So she put down her bag, washed her hands, took two bags of snacks, and sat in front of Wang Fa.

“Hungry?” Lin Wanxing tore open a bag of Cheetos and handed it to him.

Wang Fa nodded slightly, then picked up the teapot and poured half a cup of freshly brewed lemon black tea into her cup. “Why so late today?”

Lin Wanxing picked up the teacup, blew on the hot steam, and began to tell Wang Fa about today’s strange experience.

She went from the boys’ “Wen Cheng Princess” daily life account to Wen Chengye flatly refusing Lin Lu. When the story progressed to the “construction site” part, where Wen Chengye tried to trick the other team members, Wang Fa finally showed a hint of surprise.

“Although it may be redundant to think about this now if Wen Chengye joined us, would you feel that ‘this group is harder to manage’?” Lin Wanxing asked.

At this moment, the students on the rooftop were busy with their tasks.

The green onions in the vegetable garden were growing well, and they had just discussed making scallion oil. Now they occasionally cursed at each other, making a noisy commotion.

Wang Fa took a sip of tea and asked her in return, “Does Teacher Lin have some misunderstanding?”

“What?” Lin Wanxing didn’t understand.

Wang Fa asked with a smile, “Do you think our current players are easy to manage?”

“It should be better than before, right?” Lin Wanxing was somewhat uncertain.

“Or do you think that the players I’ve coached before were all well-behaved, so I would find a ‘troublemaker’ player difficult to handle?”

“Uh?” Lin Wanxing looked at his casual expression with a confused look.

“I was originally a player too. Some kids in our team were sent by their parents to play soccer because they had violent tendencies when young. Parents hoped that sports could release their excess energy,” Wang Fa added. “Of course, not all students who came to play soccer were like this, it’s just one situation.”

“Mm.”

“Later I became a coach. Although the team rules were strict, there were still many people who hung out on the streets. Those with self-control would at most get into fights or use their youth team player identity to pick up girls. And those who couldn’t control themselves might have their legs broken or end up using drugs, eventually ruining their professional careers. So don’t worry about what trouble Wen Chengye might bring me,” Wang Fa explained calmly.

Lin Wanxing suddenly felt she was indeed overthinking.

Wang Fa had once been a lion at the mountain peak. In his long half-life, he must have tamed many untamed beasts.

Compared to those players, Hongjiang Eighth Middle School’s children could only be considered newly weaned puppies.

Lin Wanxing said, “I just worry they’ll argue and give you a headache.”

Wang Fa — “Anything involving a group with a common goal will inevitably lead to arguments. Whether it’s difficult to manage depends on only one thing.”

“What?”

“Team performance,” Wang Fa said frankly.

Although concise, it was the best summary.

Lin Wanxing thought about it and realized it was indeed true.

When team performance is good, the players unite like a rope, rushing toward the championship. But once performance declines, they start blaming each other, gradually falling apart.

Performance and relationships complement each other, influencing each other—this is the simplest truth. But perhaps it was precisely this that made Wang Fa feel tired.

Lin Wanxing took a sip of the increasingly sour lemon black tea and didn’t ask further.

Wen Chengye wasn’t coming to play soccer now, so it was difficult for them to continue discussing.

The boys divided the work efficiently, and after half an hour, meals for 12 people were served.

Just then, the rooftop door opened.

The iron door made a light “creaking” sound. The students were all busy with their tasks and didn’t notice the arrival.

A young man wearing a blue work uniform stood in the doorframe. He wore a helmet of the same color on his head and carried a paper bag in his hand, looking around with a confused expression.

The outfit was so conspicuous that even without turning around, Lin Wanxing knew the young man’s uniform had “Ele.me” written on the back in large letters.

“Did you order takeout?” Lin Wanxing asked Wang Fa.

Wang Fa shook his head and pointed to the students. “They’ve already been warned.”

“Who ordered takeout?” Lin Wanxing called out while going to the door to meet the delivery person.

“Is the delivery for us here? Who is it for?”

The delivery man took out the receipt from the bag. Having climbed five floors, he was panting. Looking at the receipt, he then said, “Qi Liang.”

“What?” Qi Liang, who was picking green beans, stood up instinctively when he heard someone call his name.

“Did you order takeout?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“What takeout?” Qi Liang dropped the beans and came over.

Lin Wanxing took the bag, and the “Ele.me” delivery man left directly.

“Wen Ji Pancakes,” Lin Wanxing read the printed words on the paper bag, finding it very strange. “You ordered pancakes?”

“What the hell?” Even Qi Liang, rarely impatient, looked confused as he took the bag. Opening it, there were well-packaged pancakes inside.

“Are you being so considerate of your teacher, especially buying food for me?” Lin Wanxing asked in shock.

“I didn’t buy it. I’ve never bought this,” Qi Liang grabbed the receipt, saying angrily, “Don’t flatter yourself. I wouldn’t buy this for you even to feed pigs.”

“So fierce?” Lin Wanxing showed a hurt expression.

The students heard the commotion and all gathered around, looking at the receipt together.

The receipt showed the store name “Wen Ji Pancakes.”

On the list were red bean paste, beef, osmanthus white sugar, three delicacies, chive egg, and preserved vegetables and braised pork—six flavors in total.

Two of each flavor, adding up to exactly 12, matching the number of people currently on the rooftop.

Looking at the end, they double-checked the address on the receipt — 17 Wutong Road, rooftop.

It was here.

It seemed this bag of pancakes was indeed specifically ordered for them.

The students also realized this and were very surprised.

Lin Wanxing couldn’t help but look at Wang Fa.

Wang Fa came over — “It wasn’t me. I always freeload. When have I ever voluntarily spent money?”

That seemed true.

Lin Wanxing looked at the phone number on the receipt. The phone number on the “Ele.me” receipt was scrambled and unreadable.

The receipt was passed around among the students, and Lin Wanxing also observed everyone’s expressions.

Each of them looked puzzled, clearly indicating that the pancakes weren’t ordered by any of them.

Qi Liang finally became somewhat frantic. “What’s going on? Is it really ‘pie falling from the sky’?”

Lin Wanxing looked at the receipt. There were no clues about the buyer.

If anything was suspicious, it might be the two numbers in the remarks column.

Yu Ming also raised his hand. “What do these numbers 19 and 20 in the remarks mean?”

Lin Wanxing shook her head.

But for some reason, a familiar feeling surfaced in Lin Wanxing’s mind.

“Could it be… that ‘mysterious person’?” Lin Lu’s voice sounded.

His eyes were wide open, full of excitement.