Because You Know Where the Goal Is

After the dismissal bell rang, the classroom grew lively.

Li Qingqing quickly pulled out the backpack she had packed in advance and headed straight for Hu Lai.

"See you at the usual place later," she said to Hu Lai.

Hu Lai was a little surprised. "I can't do special training today..."

"I have something to tell you," Li Qingqing said seriously.

Song Jiajia, who was sitting right beside Hu Lai and had been busy packing his own backpack, paused when he heard that. Then he turned to Hu Lai with a surprised look.

"Uh, all right, but it can't take too long..." Hu Lai was worried that if he got home late again, his father would give him a hard time.

"It won't. Just a few words." Li Qingqing smiled faintly.

Song Jiajia turned his astonished gaze toward Li Qingqing again.

Under his gaze, Li Qingqing left him with a smile before turning and walking away.

Song Jiajia grabbed Hu Lai. "You little punk, you've been hiding something!"

"Huh?" Hu Lai looked completely baffled.

Song Jiajia wore a lecherous grin. "No wonder Li Qingqing kept speaking up for you during that match..."

Hu Lai brushed Song Jiajia's hand away in disgust. "Filthy-minded! She's my coach!"

With that, he ran after Li Qingqing.

Only then did Song Jiajia process what Hu Lai had just said.

Coach?

What coach?

When he wanted to find Hu Lai and get to the bottom of it, Hu Lai was already nowhere to be seen.

The moment Li Qingqing walked up to Hu Lai, Luo Kai's gaze fixed on her graceful figure.

Even his movements as he packed his bag slowed considerably.

He saw Li Qingqing take the initiative to approach Hu Lai and stand before him to say something, as well as the somewhat reluctant expression on Hu Lai's face.

In the end, Li Qingqing even smiled at the reluctant Hu Lai!

That made Luo Kai rather unhappy.

He figured that if Li Qingqing had smiled like that at him, he would have been over the moon already. But look at that bastard Hu Lai—what did he do?

He actually looked troubled!

What the hell were you troubled about?!

The goddess was talking to you. Straighten up your attitude!

After exchanging a few words, Li Qingqing left. Then, after Hu Lai said something to his deskmate—the big fat guy—he left as well.

The classroom was noisy, and Luo Kai could not hear the conversation happening all the way over there. He did not know what Li Qingqing had said to Hu Lai, nor did he know what Hu Lai had said to his deskmate.

But he could see their expressions.

Look at that fat guy's greasy, sleazy face. What did it mean? They were all guys—he got it instantly.

His hands sped up as he hurried to pack his backpack.

Just then, Li Zhiqun came over with a somewhat fawning smile. "Brother Kai, Brother Kai, even though the results won't be posted until tomorrow, let me congratulate you in advance on joining the school team..."

Luo Kai was a little annoyed. Wasn't it only natural that he would join the school team? What was there to congratulate? It made it sound as though getting onto the school team had been difficult for him.

Joining the school team was merely the first step. His goal was to lead this once-proud football powerhouse, now in decline, to the national tournament.

He casually nodded, his hands never stopping as he gave a perfunctory grunt.

But Li Zhiqun did not notice the perfunctory look on Luo Kai's face at all. He continued chattering away, saying the same old things about how awesome Brother Kai was, hoping that once Brother Kai joined the school team, he would look after him and give him more support...

But to the impatient Luo Kai, those words only sounded grating and irritating.

In the end, he could no longer stand it and roughly shoved Li Zhiqun aside. "Enough. I'm going home."

But when he picked up his backpack and prepared to chase after them, Hu Lai and Li Qingqing were nowhere to be seen in the classroom.

Not only were they gone from the classroom, they were not even in the hallway outside.

Luo Kai had already felt that there seemed to be something going on between Li Qingqing and Hu Lai. After all, several times after school, they had always left the classroom one after the other, and it was very regular—three days a week.

Anyone with normal intelligence would probably start drawing conclusions, right?

But aside from leaving one after the other three days a week after school, nothing else had happened. The two of them did not interact much on campus either, just like an ordinary pair of classmates. After all, there were more than fifty students in a class; not every classmate became close. Some people could be classmates for three years and still not exchange a hundred sentences.

Until after school today, when Li Qingqing had actively gone over to Hu Lai. After the two exchanged a few words, they left one after the other.

He had originally wanted to follow them out and see where they had gone, but Li Zhiqun, that oblivious idiot, had held him up.

He turned back and glared at Li Zhiqun, his expression ugly.

Li Zhiqun, meanwhile, was completely bewildered, unable to understand how flattering him had somehow ended with him kicking the wrong horse.

Hu Lai and Li Qingqing stood in the secret training base that belonged to only the two of them, looking at each other.

"Why do we have to talk here? Couldn't we just find somewhere else, or talk on the way..." Hu Lai was still worried that his father would give him hell if he got home late. His dad wasn't working overtime today.

Li Qingqing shook her head. "No, that wouldn't be formal enough."

"Formal?" Hu Lai gave Li Qingqing a suspicious look, then remembered Song Jiajia's expression. "You're not planning to confess to me, are you? Let me tell you, I..."

Li Qingqing had not expected Hu Lai to say something like that. She snapped, "What are you even thinking?!"

Hu Lai hurriedly patted his chest.

Seeing him like this, even the little guilt Li Qingqing felt toward him began to waver—this guy was seriously unreliable!

But she quickly composed herself. No matter what, she had to take responsibility for the unreliable person standing before her.

The whole world had given up on him. No matter what, she could not give up on him just like that.

Give herself one year. Give him one year. She believed she could definitely transform Hu Lai completely.

Then she would make her father understand that Hu Lai had been taught by her!

With that thought, Li Qingqing straightened up slightly, cleared her throat, and said to Hu Lai, "Hu Lai, has anyone ever told you that you have talent for football?"

Hu Lai shook his head. "No."

"Then you know what? You actually have a lot of talent." Standing before Hu Lai, Li Qingqing looked straight into his eyes and spoke with utmost seriousness.

"I have talent?" Hu Lai froze for a moment.

"Yes." Seeing that Hu Lai did not seem convinced, Li Qingqing explained, "You scored three goals in that trial match. Don't you think your luck was a little too good?"

Hu Lai burst out laughing. "What are you talking about? That was my skill!"

Li Qingqing simply looked at him quietly.

Under her gaze, Hu Lai's laughter grew quieter and quieter. In the end, he scratched his head and said gloomily, "Fine. I did think I was really lucky. I even went and bought a lottery ticket..."

Li Qingqing's eyes curved into crescents when she heard that—he had actually gone to buy a lottery ticket. This boy was kind of cute...

Then Li Qingqing wiped the smile from her face and tried to speak in a very serious tone. "It wasn't just luck. Of course, luck played a part. But the main reason was that you have talent in this area."

"So I really do have skill?" Hu Lai asked uncertainly. Li Qingqing's sudden turn had left him a little confused.

Li Qingqing nodded hard. "Yes!"

"Then... what exactly is my talent?"

"You know where the goal is," Li Qingqing said with a smile.

"I know... where the goal is?" Hu Lai did not quite understand. "Isn't that obvious? Who doesn't know where the goal is? It's at either end of the field, behind the goal area, on the end line..."

"No, it's different. The goal we know and the goal you know are different. Those three goals... they all looked like you appeared in unmarked spaces, then easily put the ball into the net. Of course, many people would think it was just good luck. But why were you the one who appeared in those gaps? Why couldn't the others spot them? Take Li Zhiqun, for example. Why didn't he show up there?" Li Qingqing patiently explained. "The fact that you could appear there means you knew those places were open..."

"No, I didn't know. It was just instinct..." Hu Lai instinctively shook his head in denial.

Li Qingqing corrected him. "Instinct is talent. Space in the penalty area is so limited—how hard is it for an opening to appear? Isn't what people call a striker's instinct in front of goal just the ability to find those openings in the box? If you can appear in an open space, you can create a shooting chance. Those openings also point you toward the goal, making it easier for you to score than anyone else... Do you know how incredible that talent is, Hu Lai?"

As she spoke, Li Qingqing actually became a little excited.

Hu Lai stared at her blankly, not understanding why this female classmate had suddenly gotten so worked up. I'm the one with the talent, not you, classmate.

Seeing Hu Lai stare at her so dumbly, Li Qingqing thought he still had not realized how precious his talent was.

So she waved her arms and continued explaining to Hu Lai. "It's like you're on a pitch-black sea. You don't know which direction land is in, how far away it is, or whether there are reefs around you. Then suddenly, a lighthouse beam shines over and lights the way to shore. It lets you see which direction the coast is in and that there are no reefs in your path... Your talent is that lighthouse! It lights up the direction of the goal for you!"

When she spoke of the lighthouse, Li Qingqing stood tall, spread her arms, and leaned back slightly, as if she really were a lighthouse casting out two beams of light.

Then those two beams swept over him. Li Qingqing's hands gripped Hu Lai's shoulders tightly as she leaned closer, staring into his eyes from inches away. Gazing at him, she told him with utter seriousness, "So, Hu Lai, you really do have talent—and it's an incredible talent! Because you know where the goal is!"

They were incredibly close. Hu Lai could even smell the fragrance in the warm breath from the girl's nose, and he could clearly see the sunset behind him reflected in her eyes.

Sunlight flowed and burned in those clear pupils, condensing into a halo.

That halo seemed ready to leap out of Li Qingqing's eyes, envelop him within it, and melt him away.

Hu Lai had once been certain that he had no talent, so his original goal had merely been to join the school team. But after obtaining his cheat, he had developed ambitions of his own. He thought that perhaps he could take a shot at becoming a professional.

So all of this had come from the cheat.

—That was what he had believed.

But today, a girl was telling him with such seriousness and excitement that he actually had talent.

Not a cheat. Talent.

In sixteen years of life, this was the first time anyone had told him that he had talent for football.

He was caught completely off guard.

When Li Ziqiang returned home, he heard his daughter's voice and called out, "Qingqing, are you back?"

But no one answered him.

"Qingqing?" Li Ziqiang stood at the foot of the stairs leading from the first floor to the second and called again.

There was still no sound. There was no sign of movement upstairs at all.

But Li Ziqiang had clearly heard his daughter's voice just now.

Puzzled, Li Ziqiang stepped onto the stairs and entered his daughter's room.

Her schoolbag was gone. She really hadn't come back.

It seemed he had only imagined it.

A gust of wind blew in through the window, making the notebook spread open on the desk flutter noisily as its pages kept turning.

Seeing this, Li Ziqiang shook his head with a smile.

His daughter had left the window open again when she went to school. What if it rained and the rain blew in, soaking the books on her desk?

That child...

So he walked into the room. Instead of looking at the notebook laid open on the desk, he went to the window, intending to close it for his daughter.

Just as he leaned out to grab the old-fashioned sliding window, his gaze naturally fell upon the abandoned empty lot outside.

In the middle of that weed-choked lot stood a boy and a girl.

They were standing extremely close, practically face-to-face.

The girl had both arms wrapped around the boy.

Her tall figure made Li Ziqiang's pupils contract sharply.

That was his daughter.

He then looked at the boy in his daughter's arms. After staring at his profile for several seconds, Li Ziqiang remembered him. He was the boy who had scored three goals in the team tryout match through what seemed like "sheer dumb luck."

His name was rather unusual. It was...

Hu Lai.

Yes, Hu Lai.

As he recalled that name, Li Ziqiang also remembered how his daughter had asked him the previous night whether he would recruit Hu Lai into the school team. There had seemed to be a note of defense in her words...

The smile on Li Ziqiang's face vanished completely as he stared at the scene outside the window. His gaze turned somewhat sinister.