“We’re prepared to face failure!”

Of course, Lin Wanxing didn’t answer Wang Fa’s question.

Life doesn’t always require multiple-choice questions or proofs—there’s also the option of not answering at all.

So, Lin Wanxing dodged the question again.

The next day, Lin Wanxing notified the entire team they had a day off. But when she woke up and prepared to go downstairs to buy food, standing in the hallway, she heard this impassioned declaration.

“Then it’s decided. Let’s vote by a show of hands.”

Sunlight streamed through the hallway window slats, and the shadow of the iron door grille fell on her feet. Lin Wanxing pushed open the door and walked into the classroom.

The students’ hands rose one by one. In the sunlight, everyone turned to look back.

It seemed similar scenes had repeated many times—whenever students faced setbacks in their football pursuits, they would change their approach.

But this time was different from many previous occasions.

This wasn’t giving up without effort but rather giving up after realizing the gap and real difficulties through their efforts.

The students appeared very clear-headed and rational. They even used the methods she had taught them to make new plans.

They changed their goal from “advancing from the Youth Super League group stage” to “completing all group stage matches.”

According to the students, Fu Xinshu’s leg wasn’t good, and he couldn’t train at high intensity. They didn’t want to find others to join the team and go through another round of adjustment and conflict, so they decided to complete the matches with just their ten members.

“We don’t need to find anyone else. The ten of us will play. We’re going to lose anyway, so we might as well die standing.”

The students didn’t seem particularly sad. Lin Wanxing listened for a while and decided to ask once more: “Have you decided to give up on the next match against Yongchuan Hengda?”

“We’re not giving up. We’re just reducing training. Mainly because Old Fu’s leg isn’t good. Even if we try our best, we can’t win. The possibility of advancing is too low, so what’s the point?” Qin Ao said.

“Yeah, I don’t want to go around dragging people in like last time,” Yu Ming added.

The students seriously analyzed the practical factors with her, and Lin Wanxing nodded earnestly. They said a lot, all talking at once, but not one person mentioned the three words “Wen Chengye,” as if the name had become taboo.

Next, the students continued to discuss shifting their daily focus to studying.

In Lin Wanxing’s memory, the last time everyone wanted to transition to studying was when they learned their opponent was Lüjing International.

Now, just a few months later, the opponent that made them “study hard” had changed from “Lüjing International High School” to “Yongchuan Hengda Youth Team.”

Just from the names of these two teams, one could sense the difficulty. Moreover, they weren’t completely giving up like before but were preparing to “complete” the matches in a more “rational” way.

These few months seemed to have made everyone more mature.

Following this, the students continued to formulate long-term plans, arranging their studies with the goal of getting into undergraduate programs.

Zheng Feiyang had prepared a document and went up to present it.

He spoke about securing basic points and then understanding the mindset of the exam creators to optimize their performance.

The boy spoke eloquently. After listening to the end, Lin Wanxing couldn’t help but ask: “Where did you hear all this?”

“I saw it on Zhihu! ‘How to go from bottom of the school to top-tier university in three months.’ Then I summarized and refined it.”

Lin Wanxing nodded seriously.

This also seemed to be part of what she had previously taught the students—to find solutions to problems on their own.

The boys appeared full of enthusiasm. They had been studying all along, and their grades had already improved significantly. Now they wanted to invest more energy in their studies, and they were also looking forward to seeing how far they could go.

Not only that but just as they had once given up “making money” to play football, now with reduced training time, it seemed they could consider earning money again.

Being able to earn money to supplement household expenses seemed much more worthwhile than exhausting themselves playing football without results.

The more the boys talked, the more they felt they should have made smarter choices earlier and not continued to focus solely on football.

Lin Wanxing didn’t say anything, just listened quietly.

While she was still asleep, the students had already gathered to make serious plans for the future.

They had made their own decisions, set their own goals, made their plans, clearly and rationally choosing the best option, and she was just someone being informed of the results.

Lin Wanxing sat in the corner of the classroom, dust dancing in the sunlight, silently listening as the meeting continued.

Life often has moments like this, when you think this is okay, and that’s not bad either. You make the most rational analysis and the most optimized choice.

Like an adult.

Lin Wanxing did not intend to interfere with their choices.

In the afternoon, Lin Wanxing was organizing new teaching materials in her room.

According to the students’ latest needs, she had to modify some of the teaching content.

None of these were inflexible parts.

Wang Fa must have been notified of similar information. In the afternoon, he brought two cups of coffee into the room, placing one on her desk.

Lin Wanxing looked up at the young man leaning against her desk. “What’s up?”

Wang Fa’s face showed a trace of amusement: “Just now, I was notified that football training courses need to be reduced. Then the players asked me to think about what kind of playing style would allow 10 people playing against 11 to lose not so badly?”

“How about that? One surprise after another, right?” Lin Wanxing smiled.

Wang Fa raised his eyebrows, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

“They think that realistically, there’s already a 99% probability they won’t advance to the next round, so they don’t want to waste too much time on football and are preparing to focus on the college entrance exam.”

“So the probability of advancing is that low?” Wang Fa said.

“Huh?” Lin Wanxing looked at Wang Fa in disbelief.

“But as things stand, they really can’t win,” Wang Fa took another sip of coffee and simply said.

In the following days, the students changed the allocation of time between football and studying.

They went from training until tired and then studying, to studying until tired and then running a few laps, as if this was the proportion of time an interest should occupy.

After the rain, the Awakening of Insects solar term approached. Birds chirped, and vegetation gradually sprouted.

But whether on the rooftop or in the classroom, there were none of the noisy, vibrant sounds from before.

On the contrary, the students were all very quiet.

Whether it was to prepare for the assessment test after the start of school or simply because it was the time for spring drowsiness, they could spend the entire noon without speaking.

Sometimes they would listlessly water the plants, then suddenly space out, like robots rebooting.

Lin Wanxing observed all these changes in the students.

One day, everyone was sitting in a row on the rooftop.

In the distance was the field. The grass, withered and yellow throughout winter, had sprouted new buds. A thin layer of green covered the entire field, especially pleasant under the blue sky.

The boys held history materials they were preparing to memorize, but at some moment, they just gazed into the distance.

Lin Wanxing looked toward Wang Fa and suddenly said: “They’re a bit like you, aren’t they?”

Wang Fa had been quite leisurely these days, changing his spring drink from hot cocoa to lemon mint tea. Hearing this question, he didn’t react immediately.

Lin Wanxing smiled but didn’t continue.

Along with the warming weather came the fresh match reports from the fourth round of the Youth Super League group stage.

The students said they didn’t care, but in reality, as soon as the match between Yongchuan Hengda and Shencheng Haibo ended, they opened the public account.

Qin Ao held his phone, looking tense, while the others gathered around him.

The page began with some clichés, followed by the match report.

First was the match between their Hongjing Eighth Middle School and Yuzhou Silver Elephant.

The event organizers had embellished the match process somewhat and selected photos from the scene. It was still that misty, cold, rainy day. As the photos slid by, Wen Chengye’s figure appeared prominently among them. He stared intently at the distant football, his expression focused.

Qin Ao paused, then hurriedly scrolled down the page.

After Jin Ziyang took Wen Chengye back to Hongjing that day, Lin Wanxing never saw that student again. The other students hadn’t gone to find Wen Chengye, and he hadn’t returned to their place at 17 Wutong Road.

In a sense, this rupture was also a kind of tacit understanding among teammates.

The report on Yongchuan Hengda and Shencheng Haibo was in the second article.

The report showed that Yongchuan Hengda had encountered strong resistance from Shencheng Haibo. The 1:1 score even lasted until the 35th minute of the second half. If not for a precise free-kick goal by Qin Qiechu, Yongchuan Hengda might have even drawn with Shencheng Haibo.

But the students didn’t care about the two opposing teams. When they saw that Yongchuan Hengda had defeated Shencheng Haibo 2-1, they noticeably relaxed and even seemed a little happy.

Yu Ming cheerfully opened a bottle of cola, and everyone took turns filling their cups.

“Why so happy?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend!”

“Don’t you understand, Teacher? With Yongchuan Hengda advancing, we hope they win as much as possible.”

The students explained the scores and standings to her.

Looking at the fourth-round results:

Yongchuan Hengda 2:1 Shencheng Haibo

Yuzhou Silver Elephant 3:0 Hongjing Eighth Middle School

This meant Yongchuan Hengda led the standings with 12 points, while Shencheng Haibo and Yuzhou Silver Elephant had 4 points each.

Their Hongjing Eighth Middle School, with only their first-round victory against Yuzhou Silver Elephant, had 3 points, placing them at the bottom of the standings.

Being at the bottom of the standings was certainly not a good look, but losing to Yuzhou Silver Elephant was a fact. With Yongchuan Hengda certain to advance, they could only hope that their competitor Shencheng Haibo would also lose to the group leader, so everyone would be back on the same starting line, with only a 1-point difference in standings, keeping their hopes of advancing alive.

The discussion in the room was lively, and everyone was enthusiastic. This short period suddenly became their happiest time in days, as if everything still had hope.

But this joy of seeing competitors lose couldn’t last long.

After closing the page, everyone calmed down.

Whether it was Yongchuan Hengda or Shencheng Haibo, which almost drew with Yongchuan Hengda, both were opponents they would struggle to defeat even with a full team.

Let alone now when they only had ten people.

The sunset gradually grew cold, and the lights on the rooftop turned on.

“Let’s go review. The school entrance exam is tomorrow,” Fu Xinshu said.