I'll teach you

When the cheerful music signaling the end of school rang out from the loudspeakers scattered across every corner of campus, Hu Lai pulled his already-packed schoolbag from his desk, got up and shoved his chair aside with a clatter. Then, holding his bag in one hand, he squeezed through the gap between Song Jiajia and the desk.

He impatiently ran out through the classroom's back door.

By the time Li Qingqing had packed her own bag and walked out with the crowd, the hallway outside was already packed with students from every class. They carried their schoolbags toward the stairwell, forming a tide of people.

She did not see Hu Lai among them.

Hu Lai had been in such a hurry because he had secretly drunk the task reward, the [Marrow-Cleansing Potion], earlier. Items from the system could appear directly in his hand with a mere thought, but to avoid frightening anyone and being unable to explain himself, Hu Lai had taken advantage of a bathroom break to retrieve the potion in a stall and drink it amid the restroom's distinctive pungent odor.

The potion looked colorless and smelled of nothing. It was no different from an ordinary bottle of purified water, and it tasted the same as well.

After drinking it, Hu Lai wanted to see whether his physical abilities had improved, only to realize that there was no data at all—none of his bodily attributes appeared before him in numerical form.

So there was no way for him to get a clear, immediate understanding of his physical condition through numbers.

Since he could not look at an attribute panel, Hu Lai decided to test it through actual practice.

That was why he had been so eager to be the first one to rush out of the classroom after school.

He wanted to go to his secret base and test whether his coordination had improved.

When Hu Lai pulled out the football he had hidden in the bushes yesterday, he could not suppress the acceleration of his heartbeat.

He was both expectant and nervous, his heart filled with unease.

He was afraid that his body had not changed at all after drinking the potion. He was afraid that its effects were extremely slight. He was even afraid that everything he had experienced today was nothing more than a dream...

Then he slightly spread apart the hands holding the football, letting it fall through the air. At the same time, he raised his right foot to meet it.

The football landed on the top of his right foot and bounced upward. Hu Lai's right foot then came down, while his left foot rose to meet the falling ball.

Hu Lai had never been able to juggle the ball well before, so now he wanted to use this method to test his coordination.

But when his left foot made contact with the football, he failed to control the force. The ball suddenly bounced crookedly away.

"Damn!"

Watching the football roll away, Hu Lai cursed, chased after it, picked it up again, and continued trying to juggle it.

This time, he managed three exchanges before failing again.

But Hu Lai did not give up. He kept trying.

Sometimes he could keep it going for a few more touches; other times, he failed on the very first touch.

Through attempt after attempt, Hu Lai gradually discovered that his body seemed to have changed somewhat. It was different from before.

His body used to be like a rusty machine, creaking and stiff.

But now, every joint in his body felt as though it had been coated in lubricating oil. As he kept trying, that congealed oil melted and wrapped around his joints, allowing his body to move more smoothly...

Though he was still far from especially coordinated, he was indeed better than before.

At first, Hu Lai thought it was an illusion. But as he repeatedly juggled the ball, the feeling became clearer and clearer. At last, Hu Lai could be certain—the potion rewarded by the system really worked!

After confirming this, a bold idea emerged in Hu Lai's mind—he wanted to try a more difficult juggling move!

So he juggled the football up again. As it descended, he lifted his left foot high and circled it over the ball, then raised his right foot to control it.

He had seen professional players perform this juggling move. They made it look effortless and graceful.

But when it was his turn to do it, things were completely different.

As he lifted his left foot around the ball and raised his right foot to juggle it, he lost his balance and fell backward onto the ground on his butt.

"What are you doing?"

At the same time, a crisp voice came from behind him.

Hu Lai turned around and saw Li Qingqing standing there with her hands behind her back, looking at him curiously.

"Why are you here?"

"Can't I be here?"

"This is my secret training base..."

"This is my home."

Hearing Li Qingqing say that, Hu Lai scrambled up from the ground. "Your home?"

"That's right, my home." Li Qingqing gestured with her chin toward the red brick wall atop the raised platform to the left.

Hu Lai looked over and finally noticed that one of the windows there was half-open. Curtains had somehow already been hung inside, and when the wind blew through the window, the pale green curtains swayed gently with it.

"But... I've been playing football here for a month, and I've never seen anyone living inside..." Hu Lai pointed around him. Aside from that window, the windows on the other two walls were tightly shut, with no sign that anyone lived there.

"I just moved here," Li Qingqing said.

Hu Lai remembered that Li Qingqing was a transfer student and had nothing more to say.

Then his heart ached—his secret base, which had once belonged to him alone, now had someone living here. That probably meant he could no longer keep playing football here...

As Hu Lai wondered where he could find another perfect secret base for continued training, he heard a dull thud.

Thump!

Li Qingqing threw something from behind her back, and it landed between Hu Lai and herself.

It was a black crossbody sports bag.

"What's this?" Hu Lai looked down at the bag.

The zipper was not fully closed, revealing something rope-like inside.

"Your coordination is indeed very poor, but coordination can also be improved through training." As she spoke, Li Qingqing crouched down and began taking things out of the bag.

When she pulled out the rope-like object, Hu Lai realized it was an agility ladder.

Then Li Qingqing took out marker cones, marker discs, and marker rings in different colors.

"Starting today, I'll train your coordination." After taking everything out, Li Qingqing stood up and said to Hu Lai.

Hu Lai looked at the pile of equipment on the ground and asked doubtfully, "How?"

Li Qingqing first took out two red marker discs and placed them apart at her feet.

Then she picked up the agility ladder and measured out the distance with her steps. About five meters from the starting line, she laid out the ladder. Continuing forward along it, she placed a yellow marker cone ten meters beyond the ladder.

After finishing all that, Li Qingqing returned to the red marker discs. Standing between them, she said to Hu Lai, "This is the starting line. Run from here to the agility ladder, then hop into every square on one foot. Finish the ladder, sprint to the yellow cone, circle it counterclockwise, and run back to the starting line."

After saying that, she sprinted out. When she reached the agility ladder, she switched to hopping through the squares on one foot, completing it one square at a time. Then she accelerated toward the yellow cone, circled it, slowed down, and jogged back in small steps. The entire sequence was smooth and natural, flowing like water.

"Your turn," Li Qingqing said after running back.

"That's it?" Hu Lai had watched Li Qingqing do it with ease and doubted whether such a simple drill could improve his coordination.

"Try it once and you'll know." Li Qingqing did not explain.

"Fine, I'll do it." Hu Lai stood at the starting line and saw Li Qingqing take a whistle from her pocket and put it in her mouth.

Beep—!

At the sound of the whistle, he sprinted out.

He covered the five meters in two strides and reached the agility ladder, where he had to switch to hopping on one foot. Only then did Hu Lai realize that the actual situation was not quite what he had imagined...

When he rushed up to the ladder and tried to change his movement, his momentum kept him from stopping. He jumped straight into the second square...

The whistle blew.

"Wrong. Jump one square at a time. Don't skip any." After blowing the whistle, Li Qingqing said sternly, "Again!"

The second time, Hu Lai slowed down as he sprinted out. When he reached the agility ladder, he successfully hopped into the first square.

"Ha!"

He laughed.

But then came the second, third, and fourth squares. With every hop on one foot, his accumulated momentum grew greater and greater. Finally, at the fifth square, the force built up from the first four made him lose his balance, and he stumbled right out of the ladder.

Li Qingqing's whistle sounded again.

"Again!"

The third time, Hu Lai got smarter. Before every hop, he made sure he was steady before jumping into the next square. That solved the momentum problem, but Li Qingqing sent him back to the start. "Six-year-olds are faster than you!"

The fourth time.

"Keep standing on one foot! Don't let the other foot touch the ground!"

"Keep your balance! Don't sway your upper body around!"

"Counterclockwise! You went the wrong way!"

After completing ten sets in a row, Hu Lai was already panting heavily—he had thought the drill would be simple, but it was unexpectedly exhausting.

"Rest for thirty seconds." Li Qingqing glanced at the electronic stopwatch hanging from her chest. "Then switch to two-foot hops."

Hu Lai thought hopping on both feet would be easier than hopping on one, since single-leg hopping required him to consider balance. But when he actually began hopping on both feet, he discovered it was the same—each square of the agility ladder was small, and if he failed to control his speed and strength, he could still easily lose his balance and rhythm, leading to failure.

After another ten sets of two-foot hops, Li Qingqing had Hu Lai use both feet for the first four squares of the ladder, then switch to one-foot hops for the final four.

He did ten sets like that, rested for thirty seconds, then returned to the original single-leg hopping drill for another ten sets... repeating the cycle over and over.

Hu Lai trained seriously, while Li Qingqing watched from the side, blowing her whistle to stop him and calling out reminders less and less often.

The training was actually very dull, and the intensity was not low. When Li Qingqing had trained this way before, she had not been alone; she had other teammates. They trained in groups of ten. After each person finished a set, they went to the back of the line and waited until all the teammates ahead had finished before it was their turn again.

So their rest time was definitely much longer than thirty seconds.

But Hu Lai had no teammates. He was alone. Once he finished one set, he had to begin the next immediately, and could only rest for thirty seconds after completing all ten sets.

But he did not complain of fatigue or hardship.

He was like a man about to drown, clutching at the last straw and struggling desperately. He did not care whether that straw could truly save him from danger...

Li Qingqing did not tell Hu Lai the truth. The best age for coordination training was between eight and thirteen, a period known as the golden age of coordination training.

In other words, even if she started training Hu Lai's coordination now, the final results might still be poor.

It was possible that Hu Lai would train seriously for a month and still fail to make the school team.

But Hu Lai did not know any of this. Just from the intensity with which he trained, anyone could guess that he truly seemed to see hope in this training.

That made Li Qingqing feel somewhat guilty. She had first shattered this boy's hope with her own hands, then used a false hope to deceive him... If he learned the truth, would he hate her for the rest of his life?

As the training continued, Hu Lai felt the sensation of lubricating oil melting inside his body return.

He knew it was the effect of the [Marrow-Cleansing Potion]. Without it, he might not have noticed the changes in his body so quickly.

He enjoyed the feeling so much that when Li Qingqing told him the day's training was over, he still wanted more.

"Huh? That's all?"

"Of course. Training is not better just because it lasts longer." Li Qingqing began packing up, stuffing the agility ladder and marker cones from the ground into the large bag. "Come again tomorrow."

Hu Lai wanted to nod and agree, but then remembered something. "Tomorrow won't work. I won't be free until next week... I only have three days a week to train."

Li Qingqing thought for a moment and nodded. "That's fine. You can't train every day anyway. The intensity is too high; your body wouldn't be able to handle it."

After Li Qingqing packed everything away and Hu Lai hid the football, the two were about to say goodbye.

Li Qingqing watched the boy push his bicycle, preparing to leave, and suddenly asked, "Why did you do that during the exercise break?"

Hu Lai, who was about to get on his bicycle, paused. He had not expected Li Qingqing to suddenly ask about that.

He could not exactly tell her that he had done it to complete a task given by the system, could he?

So he vaguely said, "It was coordination training..."

"Coordination training?" Li Qingqing had not expected that answer.

"Didn't you say my coordination was bad? I searched Baidu last night and found some methods..." Hu Lai continued to brush it off.

The look in Li Qingqing's eyes changed as she stared at Hu Lai, as though she were looking at an idiot. "Are you stupid? You actually trusted Baidu? If you get a fever and search Baidu, you might end up thinking you have a terminal illness! Then you'd better search Baidu for which cemetery has the best feng shui!"

After saying that, Li Qingqing felt that she had been too harsh. Thinking of Hu Lai playing football here alone before, with no one to help him, what else could he do besides trust unreliable stuff like Baidu?

So her tone softened. She said to Hu Lai, "It's okay. I'll teach you from now on."

Hearing that, Hu Lai smiled. "Thanks, Coach!"

Then he got on his bicycle and left.

The setting sun hung huge on the horizon ahead of him.

Heat rose from the ground after a day beneath the blazing sun. As the heated air expanded and changed the refractive index, everything along the horizon seemed to waver, as if it might melt away and collapse at any moment.

In the girl's eyes, the boy rode toward that enormous sunset. His figure warped along the horizon and became indistinct, as though he were about to blend into the sunset and the whole of the evening.