Seven-time champion

Chapter 25: The Homeroom Teacher’s Prediction Before the final exams of the first semester of his freshman year, Meijiang High School received a notice from the Zunyi Municipal Education Bureau informing them of the time and location of the finals for the 2006/2007 Zunyi High School Football League. The notice instructed Meijiang High School to assemble a team and participate on time. If they failed to report on time, they would be treated as having forfeited after the draw, and their opponent would advance directly. Zunyi City comprises a total of 14 districts and counties. The champions of each district and county’s high school soccer championship, along with the previous season’s champion and runner-up, make up the 16 teams advancing to the finals. Each team is limited to 25 registered players. While the entire roster may be brought to the bench for each match, only five substitutions are allowed—a format identical to that of the national finals. Due to weather and field conditions during winter break, the city-level tournament will not feature a group stage; instead, teams will be drawn directly into a knockout bracket. Even the champion will play no more than four matches. The winning team will travel to Guiyang next summer to represent Zunyi City in the Guizhou Provincial High School Soccer League Finals, where the champion will be crowned and the qualifier for the National Finals will be determined. When Principal Cai Yusen announced this news to the entire Meijiang Middle School soccer team in the multipurpose classroom, the Soccer Champion System in Lu Wenbin’s mind issued a new mission to him. Mission 5: Zunyi City High School Soccer League Champion. Mission Description: The Zunyi City High School Soccer League Finals are approaching, and 16 high school teams from across Zunyi will compete for the championship. To qualify for the provincial finals, the team must win the Zunyi City championship. Mission Requirements: Lead the Meijiang High School soccer team to win the championship of the 2006/2007 Zunyi City High School Soccer League Finals. Success Reward: 50 EXP, 2 Skill Points. Failure Penalty: None. Failure would mean Lu Wenbin would have to wait another year, so there is effectively no penalty. However, while the experience points for a successful mission have increased, the skill points remain at just 2. The fact that the mission reward is the same 2 skill points as in the county-level competition confirms Lu Wenbin’s suspicion: the further one progresses in the ranks, the harder it becomes to earn skill points; it does not get easier as one’s strength increases. The only way forward is to join a professional club, play in the professional league, and improve the quality and frequency of matches. In addition to announcing the notice from the Municipal Education Bureau, Principal Cai also announced the school’s support for the school team members traveling to the city for the competition. During the last county-level championship, the players had to pay out of their own pockets for German national team jerseys as required by the school team. For this municipal-level competition, they could no longer wear the German national team jerseys; Meijiang Middle School funded the custom-made full set of equipment—including two sets of jerseys, shorts, socks, cleats, wrist guards, and shin guards—for the 25 school team members selected by Zhang Minghai. The jerseys were printed with the players’ numbers, names in pinyin, and the Meijiang Middle School logo, proving that these were jerseys exclusively belonging to the Meijiang Middle School soccer team. Furthermore, the players’ numbers were reassigned; Lu Wenbin donned the No. 9 jersey—the same as Ronaldo’s—signifying his status as the team’s starting forward and core player. When traveling to the city for matches, in addition to Principal Cai Yusen and Coach Zhang Minghai, there would also be dorm supervisors handling logistics and the school nurse serving as the team doctor. The school clearly took the city-level matches much more seriously. Next up was preparing for the final exams. To be honest, ever since Lu Wenbin obtained the Soccer Champion System, he had focused all his energy on soccer. He believed he could definitely achieve success through soccer; studying was no longer important to him. No matter what his parents and teachers said, Lu Wenbin would pay lip service to them, but deep down, he dismissed their concerns. Besides, compared to those professional players who had been playing soccer since childhood and hadn’t studied much, he had at least attended high school and could be considered “educated.” Consequently, whether in or out of the classroom, Lu Wenbin had completely stopped caring about his studies. At only 16 years old, Lu Wenbin lacked the self-discipline to stay focused. He was like a nouveau riche who had suddenly won the jackpot in the Double Color Ball lottery, feeling as though he had an endless supply of wealth. Lu Wenbin was no different; he believed he was destined to pursue a career as a professional soccer player. Asking him to spend any more time studying that headache-inducing material was out of the question. Perhaps only when Lu Wenbin one day tastes the bitterness of his lack of education and changes his deepest convictions will he come to his senses. As for this semester’s final exams, Lu Wenbin—who had only been admitted in the first place because his scores were insufficient and his parents paid a sponsorship fee, and who now had the worst attitude toward studying—unsurprisingly scored the lowest in the class. If it weren’t for two other troublemakers in other freshman classes who had an even worse attitude toward studying and lower scores, Lu Wenbin might have even ranked last in the entire grade. Even so, when homeroom teacher Li Gang held the final class meeting and announced the grades, he still took a moment to mock Lu Wenbin with scathing sarcasm. Although Lu Wenbin didn’t come in last in the grade, in Li Gang’s eyes, Lu Wenbin was still the same good-for-nothing who dragged the class down the most. There’s no real difference between coming in last in the grade and coming in third from the bottom. In Li Gang’s tone, people like Lu Wenbin were destined to be a burden on society in the future. Even if Lu Wenbin led the school soccer team to win the Meitan County High School Soccer Championship and performed exceptionally well, it wouldn’t change Li Gang’s opinion. Not only did he consider Lu Wenbin’s soccer playing a waste of time and a distraction from his studies, but even if Lu Wenbin actually became a professional player and made a living from soccer, it wouldn’t matter to Li Gang. With match-fixing, gambling, and corrupt referees plaguing Chinese soccer, its overall image in Li Gang’s eyes is abysmal. Even the national team players, in Li Gang’s eyes, are nothing but good-for-nothings who smoke, drink, gamble, act like divas, and achieve nothing on the field—let alone ordinary professional players. According to Li Gang, even if Lu Wenbin were to get incredibly lucky and become a professional player in the Chinese Super League, he’d still end up as a good-for-nothing who smokes, drinks, gambles, fixes matches, and acts like a diva—a scoundrel whose influence would be all the more harmful the more famous he became. Hearing his homeroom teacher say this, Lu Wenbin was deeply offended and couldn’t help but retort, declaring his ambition to become a professional player and play in Europe’s top leagues. Upon hearing this, Li Gang burst into laughter and said, “You, Lu Wenbin? Never mind whether a high school student like you—who’s never trained at a sports school or a professional team—could even get into a foreign club; based on your attitude toward studying alone, I can guarantee you’ll never succeed.” Having grown tired of discussing Lu Wenbin’s future prospects, Li Gang stopped his sarcastic remarks, declared the class meeting over, and announced the start of winter break. Li Gang didn’t explain why Lu Wenbin’s attitude toward his studies would prevent him from succeeding. Neither the 16-year-old Lu Wenbin nor his classmates knew the reason, and no one gave it a second thought.