Revolution

Only a desk lamp was on in Li Ziqiang's bedroom, its orange glow falling over his hunched back as he worked at the desk.

Li Qingqing quietly walked up behind her father and stood in the darkness beyond the lamp's reach. Her gaze fell on the thick stack of papers to his left.

"So many people signed up?" Li Qingqing exclaimed.

Li Ziqiang turned back, saw his daughter, and smiled. "Yes. Thanks to the country's emphasis on school football and the policy adjustments of recent years, students are very enthusiastic about football now."

Li Qingqing recalled something she had heard before. "I heard the national tournament is being reformed again this time. They say professional clubs' youth teams will be allowed to scout talent from high school football teams..."

Li Ziqiang nodded. "It's true. The country wants to open up pathways for football talent to advance, using school football to address the lagging development of the professional youth system. In the past, football talent development depended entirely on specialized football schools and club youth teams, but the results weren't good. The football-playing population kept shrinking. After all, sending a child to a professional team meant giving up their education and tying them to the professional football system. If they failed to make it, then more than a decade of training and investment would all go to waste. How many parents would be willing to let their children take that gamble? Football is destined to be a pyramid structure. In the end, only a tiny number of lucky people at the top succeed; far more are eliminated below."

"When we used to develop football, we always thought football was football's business, the sports department's business, while leaving unused an environment as suited to football as schools. But football is actually society's business as a whole... The Sports Bureau and Football Association can't do it alone. Fortunately, the people above have finally come around. The plan received support from the education authorities, which is how the new National High School Football Championship and National Middle School Football Championship came about."

Li Ziqiang explained it to his daughter without worrying in the least that she would not understand.

"The new national tournaments have been running for five years now, and middle school students across the country have been fired up about football. The time is ripe to connect professional football with school football. By bringing schools into it, social resources can be fully mobilized, spreading out the costs and risks of training football talent. Even if they don't make it as footballers, they still receive a regular middle school education and can take the college entrance exam normally, so parents naturally have much less resistance. Besides, people are placing increasing importance on the educational value of sports—especially football—and their role in youth education. Even if it's only for physical fitness or to cultivate perseverance, more and more parents are willing to let their children get involved with football from an early age. The national tournaments are meant to select talented youngsters capable of making it. Those willing to pursue a professional path can be discovered by professional clubs through the national tournaments and embark on a career in professional football... Everyone gets what they need, fulfills their own role, and follows their own path."

Watching her father speak enthusiastically about the future of school football, Li Qingqing clapped her hands. "Then it's a good thing you came back, Dad. Coming back was the right choice after all!"

But her words dimmed Li Ziqiang's expression. "I'm sorry, Qingqing. Because of me, you got dragged into this too..."

If he had not acted on impulse, his daughter should still have been the centerpiece and starting player on the girls' team at the largest and best football school in the country.

Seeing the look on her father's face, Li Qingqing hurriedly said, "It's okay, Dad. I'm happy to have the chance to study at Mom's alma mater too!"

Looking at his sensible daughter, Li Ziqiang forced out a faint smile.

Seeing him like this, Li Qingqing glanced at the things on the desk. "Dad, are you working on the plan for next week's team tryouts? Let me help you."

Li Ziqiang shook his head. "No need..."

Li Qingqing quickly said, "I've finished my homework, so let me help. I'll organize it and type up a fresh copy for you. It'll be much easier to read that way... Don't worry, your daughter's a pro!"

Without waiting for her father's approval, she pulled over a chair and sat beside the desk. She slid the tryout plan out from beneath his arm, opened a blank document on her laptop, and began organizing and typing up her father's messy, scribbled handwriting.

Li Ziqiang looked at his daughter's focused expression as she typed away, smiling and shaking his head. In the end, though, he did not stop her.

"...The tryouts are divided into three main categories. First, physical fitness testing: five-to-twenty-five-meter shuttle runs. Second, skills testing, including target passing accuracy and dribbling through poles before shooting..."

"Generally speaking, team tryouts have three parts."

At the center of Hu Lai's secret special-training base, Li Qingqing, dressed smartly in sportswear, held up three fingers as she spoke to Hu Lai.

"The first part is a physical fitness test. If your physical condition doesn't meet the standard, you naturally can't join the school team. There's only one item in the fitness test: five-to-twenty-five-meter shuttle runs. It's a combined test of short-burst explosiveness and endurance."

"The second part tests football skills, mainly basic techniques, such as keepie-uppies, target passing accuracy, and dribbling through poles... The third part will probably be a scrimmage, to assess overall ability, including physical fitness, technique, and tactical awareness... What is it?"

As Li Qingqing spoke, she noticed Hu Lai staring blankly at her and asked him.

"Um... How do you know the school team tryouts will include those events?" Hu Lai asked suspiciously.

Only then did Li Qingqing realize she had sounded too certain, arousing Hu Lai's suspicions.

But naturally, she could not tell him that she had seen it in the school team coach's document. Her eyes drifted toward the sky as she came up with an excuse. "Well, you know, I used to be on a professional team. These were the things our team used when scouting players. I figured the school team should be more or less the same, except maybe with lower standards..."

"Oh, right."

Seeing that Hu Lai accepted her explanation without probing further, Li Qingqing clapped her hands. "Now that we know what might be tested in the tryouts, we can train with a clear goal. Including today, we have two more days for special training, and we'll use them all for technical training."

Then she pointed at the rows of planted marker poles. "First, we'll practice dribbling through the poles. This is also the hardest part of the technical test. Don't worry about speed yet. First make sure you can dribble past every pole successfully without missing any."

"Okay." Hu Lai took the football to the marker poles and began practicing.

Li Qingqing stood to the side and watched Hu Lai dribble through the poles. Once again, she confirmed that after this period of coordination training, Hu Lai's coordination had indeed improved. At the very least, he no longer stepped on the ball and stumbled while dribbling through the poles. He was slow, but his movements looked reasonably convincing...

It made Li Qingqing feel a little incredulous again. Logically, coordination training over such a short period should not have produced results so quickly...

After thinking it over, Li Qingqing could only reach one conclusion: Hu Lai's coordination had been so abysmal before that even a month of training made his improvement look dramatic. It was not that the training was exceptionally effective; his starting point had simply been too low.

Hu Lai trained very seriously, but Li Qingqing had no idea whether this last-minute cramming would actually work.

Because she knew that team tryouts would not judge him solely by the results of any one test.

Even if he passed both the physical fitness and technical tests, there would still be a match waiting for him. And she had no way to prepare Hu Lai for that in advance, because everything that could happen in a match was unpredictable.

Besides, judging by Hu Lai's appearance, he probably had little match experience. No one knew how he would perform in an actual game.

Li Qingqing had the mindset of doing all she could and leaving the rest to fate, but every time she saw Hu Lai training with such seriousness and dedication, she felt uneasy.

Because it was obvious that Hu Lai probably did not share her mindset of doing all he could and leaving the rest to fate.

She could only hope the scene would not be too ugly when the time came...