Chapter Sixty-Two: Ladies of the Women’s Football Team, Are You Beautiful?

To call Yun Jia Tian Yu Football School the Shaolin Temple is no exaggeration at all. The entire institution, with over five hundred students, consists solely of boys. There are ten grades and nearly fifty coaches, all men. Only a handful of female teachers can be found among those teaching academic subjects—which is due to the fact that most elementary school teachers are women. Otherwise, you would be hard-pressed to spot a single female creature on campus.

Even the men's restrooms are magnificent, occupying vast space with forty or fifty stalls, while the women's restrooms are much smaller. As for how many stalls they have, the students have no idea.

To call life here monotonous would not be an understatement. While their age precludes any deeper thoughts about the opposite sex, vague longings have begun to stir within them. After all, they do not live in a closed world; they watch plenty of television and movies. Nowadays, these are not like those of the seventies—almost every show contains scenes inappropriate for children. A crowd of half-grown boys, witnessing such, inevitably let their imaginations wander.

Once, during a discussion about “Ordinary World,” Zhou Wei, ever sly, raised a question: “Do you think Sun Shaoping and Tian Xiaoxia ever did that—that?” The question had barely left his lips when the others nearly beat him to death—too shameless, too filthy! How could anyone ask such a thing? It was a desecration of the most beautiful love in the world!

Yet after pummeling Zhou Wei, the others secretly wondered: for Sun Shaoping and Tian Xiaoxia, if they had truly tasted forbidden fruit, would it not have been a blessing? For two lovers doomed to be forever separated, would it not be good to leave each other with deeper memories?

Over the following days, the focus of their discussions about “Ordinary World” gradually shifted to whether Sun and Tian ever had the chance to do that, and if so, when it might have happened...

If Master Lu Yao’s spirit could witness a bunch of half-grown boys so crudely dissecting his golden couple, he would surely revive out of rage, only to die again from sheer exasperation.

In a sense, this little story proves these boys are growing up. For a man, the onset of interest in girls marks the passage from childhood into youth.

“Hurry up, tell us!” Zhou Wei urged Liu Lin with exaggerated impatience. Though the others were less obvious in their eagerness, all eyes were fixed on Liu Lin.

“Damn, a bunch of hypocrites,” Liu Lin thought, but he dared not say it aloud. “Supposedly, this semester our school will add a girls’ football class, covering all age groups. During academic classes, girls will be distributed by age into various classes, but for training, they’ll practice together... Their training will be on the main field, separate from ours.”

“What’s the point of that?” Zhou Wei grumbled. “I thought we’d train together.”

Everyone immediately looked down on Zhou Wei. Li Jie glared and said, “What do you want, huh? You want boys and girls training together so you can take advantage?”

“Yes, yes!” Zhou Wei nodded repeatedly. The others immediately collapsed in laughter, sighing at how a shameless person is truly invincible—Zhou Wei being a prime example.

After a few more exchanges, everyone went back to their own affairs. Though Liu Lin’s news seemed reliable, it didn’t really matter to them. Did anyone truly expect personal issues to be solved by this?

---

When the official school term began and Principal Rad announced the news, it caused a sensation throughout the school.

Except for the youngest students, the older ones began to dream of training alongside girls—even if not on the same field, their classes would surely have a few girls, right? Even if they couldn’t watch the girls train, merely hearing their voices would be a treat. After all, “mixed teams work better.”

At this moment, Long Bisheng’s dorm stood out. Even the senior students were excited by the news, while Long and his friends remained calm and composed, impressing several coaches—these were indeed the most promising students in the club, their psychological resilience was first-rate!

The coaches didn’t realize that the reason for their composure was Liu Lin’s advance warning. Otherwise, with Zhou Wei’s temperament, he would have embarrassed himself for sure.

Especially these days, Zhou Wei spent his free time humming “Beautiful Girl,” mimicking He Yong’s concert opener at the Hong Kong Stadium, shouting, “Girls from the football team, are you beautiful?!”

---

Sure enough, within a few days, the girls’ football squad arrived.

There were around forty or fifty girls, about the same as a single grade’s worth of players, but their ages ranged from seven to fifteen. When they first reported in, Zhou Wei and his friends, busy training, nearly drooled at the sight.

It wasn’t that these girls were particularly beautiful; truthfully, girls who play football—especially those who sweat under the sun all day—rarely stay beautiful for long. Even a ten out of ten, after a tan, would drop to seven or eight. But since Zhou Wei and his friends rarely saw any females, especially peers, scarcity made them precious. They couldn’t help but start critiquing and commenting openly.

It took Ding Yu’s furious scolding to refocus their attention on training. But as soon as the session ended and break began, the boys excitedly resumed their chatter about these budding young girls.

Zhou Wei’s saliva flew as he spoke. It was a wonder he had any left after sweating so much. Long Bisheng listened with a grin, sipping water—he had glanced at the girls, too, but was less invested than Zhou Wei.

“Hey, look, they’re running over,” Li Jie shouted, pointing outside the field. The others turned—sure enough, the girls, having settled into a row of dorms, were jogging under the guidance of two coaches, heading right past Long Bisheng’s training ground.

“A beauty! I see a beauty!” Zhou Wei cried. Indeed, among the group, a tall girl stood out. She looked young, but was tall, her skin was dark yet smooth, with a delicate oval face and two long, athletic legs.

Compared to the others, this girl was like a firefly in the night, drawing every “man’s” gaze.

---

“She really is a beauty,” Dai Guangming sighed, and even Hu Gantang couldn’t resist looking.

Zhou Wei’s loud shout attracted the girls’ attention, and forty or fifty pairs of eyes glanced over, most focusing on Zhou Wei. Even his thick-skinned face flushed, and a few girls sized up Long Bisheng—after all, he was tall and conspicuous.

Zhou Wei had some charm himself, so no one took offense at his rude exclamation. Instead, the girls began to chatter, their topic clearly revolving around the boys at the edge of the training field.

In a school, the relationship between boys and girls is an eternal topic, and today, Yun Jia Tian Yu Football School finally filled that gap.

“Hey, Long, do you want to find someone among them?” Wu Bufan nudged Long Bisheng, waggling his eyebrows.

“Yes, yes, I saw several girls looking at you earlier!” Zhang Yi chimed in with a laugh.

“I just want to play football well. Now’s not the time for that... Maybe after I become a professional player.” Lost in his own thoughts, Long Bisheng said casually, “Besides, didn’t Zhao Benshan’s skit say? First love isn’t real love! If there’s no love, what’s there to talk about?”

Focused as he was, Long Bisheng spoke a bit loudly, and everyone heard him—including the girls jogging by the field...

Long Bisheng suddenly sensed the quiet around him. Looking up, he found everyone staring—boys and girls alike. Only then did he realize what he’d said, his face turning crimson.

Laughter erupted all around. Long Bisheng buried his head between his knees, sinking lower and lower...

Because of a casual remark, Long Bisheng instantly became a school legend: “First love isn’t real love”—damn, that was classic!

Ding Yu shook his head with a sigh. Clearly, the girls’ magic was powerful; their arrival had disrupted the boys’ focus on training. But he, too, had once been a young man, and he believed his students would not neglect their training just because the school now housed a few dozen girls.

PS: Hehe... off to watch “The Regiment Commander”—just one chapter today.