The dishes were sumptuous, featuring chicken, duck, fish, and meat in abundance. The drinks included baijiu, beer, and fruit wine prepared specially for the participating students.
Amidst the banquet, the teachers and students, exhausted from long labors, were finally able to relax. The instructors no longer restrained the students, personally pouring fruit wine for them.
As Wu Hua was taking a bite of food, a young man in a suit and glasses approached him and said, "You must be Wu Hua. The leadership would like you to come over."
Then he said to Teacher Bai, "I am Song Ming, secretary to the Education Department office." In truth, Song Ming was the dedicated personal secretary of Director Xu Dongliang.
Teacher Bai said to Wu Hua, "Wu Hua, the leaders are calling for you, so you should go right along."
Wu Hua acknowledged with a nod, followed Song Ming up to the second floor, and arrived at the innermost large private dining room.
Stepping inside, Wu Hua was astonished to find that seated within were high-ranking leaders such as Secretary Tao, Vice Governor Zhao, and Director Xu.
Before Wu Hua could recover from the shock, Secretary Tao patted the empty seat beside him and called out, "Little Wu Hua, come, sit next to me."
Hearing the Secretary invite him to sit together, Wu Hua felt an incredible surge of excitement in his heart. Though he didn't panic, he felt quite nervous.
Even in his past life as a station director, he had never come into close contact with such high-ranking officials, let alone shared a meal at the same table.
Wu Hua looked a bit restrained sitting beside Secretary Tao. Noticing this, Secretary Tao smiled and patted his shoulder, his eyes filled with warmth: "Young man, you don't need to be afraid of me. You did a fantastic job with your speech on stage just now!"
Wu Hua was puzzled by this look from Secretary Tao, failing to understand its deeper meaning and merely assuming it was an elder's concern for a junior. He lowered his head and replied, "Secretary Tao, I'm not afraid, I'm just a little nervous!"
Hearing this, Secretary Tao burst into loud laughter: "What's the difference between being afraid and being nervous? You weren't nervous facing all those people, so why are you nervous seeing me?"
Seeing Secretary Tao invite Wu Hua to this table, the others quietly speculated about their relationship, but since the Secretary said nothing, they did not dare to ask too much.
Seeing Secretary Tao laugh, the others joined in with a chorus of laughter.
Everyone present was a veteran of officialdom, and grasping the leaders' intentions while keeping in step with them was a basic skill.
Vice Governor Zhao picked up the thread with a chuckle, "Indeed, Wu Hua, could it be you realized how high-ranking the Secretary is, and it scared you?"
For a moment, Wu Hua could not find a response, so he feigned childishness and stammered, "Maybe. It was fine when I didn't know Secretary Tao was the Secretary, but now that I know, it feels partly like fear and partly not, partly like nervousness and not entirely. Anyway, I can't quite put my finger on that feeling."
Wu Hua's words drew varied reactions from the crowd. Most thought to themselves: *Oh, so Secretary Tao doesn't know Wu Hua after all!*
Meanwhile, Vice Governor Zhao and Director Xu pondered: *Does Secretary Tao really not know Wu Hua? But his reaction when he first saw Wu Hua's name didn't look like he didn't know him!*
"Haha, don't scare Wu Hua. Young man, what would you like to drink?" Secretary Tao said as he picked up a bottle of wine to pour for Wu Hua.
Pouring wine for a student personally?
At this, the jaws of everyone at the table nearly dropped to the floor. Their original thoughts were instantly swept away by this surprise, and their gazes unconsciously softened as they all landed on Wu Hua.
Hearing that the Secretary himself was going to pour his drink, Wu Hua quickly stood up and said, "Thank you so much, Secretary, but I really don't drink alcohol. I'll just have some soda!" With that, he reached out to grab a bottle of soda that was already open on the table, intending to pour some for himself.
The Secretary raised a hand to block Wu Hua's movement, took the soda bottle from his hands, and said, "Wu Hua, I know the difficulty of the Mathematical Olympiad, and your getting a full score made me very happy, so I specifically called you here to celebrate. As Secretary, come what may, I am going to 'cheers' you today!" As he spoke, he filled Wu Hua's glass with soda.
"Come, let us all toast to Wu Hua's outstanding achievement!"
Seeing how much store the Secretary set by Wu Hua, the people at the table naturally refused to be outdone and began praising Wu Hua one after another.
In particular, Xu Dongliang, who sat next to Wu Hua, was extremely affectionate toward him, chatting with the Secretary and Wu Hua while continuously serving food onto Wu Hua's plate. For this young man who had brought him good fortune, Xu Dongliang felt a genuine fondness in his heart.
At that moment, the door to the private room was suddenly pushed open, and a beautiful woman wearing a professional suit and a high-bun hairstyle walked in.
She carried a wine glass. Her business skirt reached just to her knees, revealing well-rounded calves encased in silk stockings. Her waist was slender, and her upper body wore a well-fitted white blouse that tightened at the waist, displaying an elegant bearing and a voluptuous figure.
A faint smile graced her beautiful face, and her graceful posture turned heads as she moved!
Except for Wu Hua, everyone else present knew that the only person who dared to enter without knocking was Tao Wenwen, the general manager of Donghu Hotel, because she was the Secretary's precious daughter.
Tao Wenwen's appearance instantly attracted everyone's attention.
Seeing Tao Wenwen looking so mature and charming, Wu Hua's heart couldn't help but throb involuntarily.
Vice Governor Zhao stood up to greet her at this point: "Xiaowen, did you come specially to toast your dad?"
Tao Wenwen flashed a radiant smile and replied, "I heard that Uncle Zhao came to our hotel, so I came specially to toast you." With that, she walked over to Vice Governor Zhao with her wine glass.
Vice Governor Zhao sat opposite the Secretary, directly facing Wu Hua. From where Tao Wenwen stood, she could only see Wu Hua's profile. Noticing a young man sitting beside her father, she felt a trace of curiosity and glanced at him a second time.
Just at that moment, Wu Hua turned his head to look at her, and his handsome face instantly left Tao Wenwen frozen in place!
Tao Wenwen shook her head, blinked hard, and looked again. That familiar face bore a gentle smile as it gazed right at her, and her heart suddenly began to beat wildly.
Xiaohua? He looked too much like him! Much, much too much!
Tao Wenwen's heart was in instant turmoil; seeing Wu Hua reminded her of her deeply beloved younger brother, Tao Jiang.
Wu Hua and her brother Tao Jiang looked remarkably alike—equally handsome, equally radiant. Yet a car crash two years ago had robbed her brother of his life, leaving her with endless grief.
After her brother passed away, her mother fell bedridden from excessive sorrow, and even after recovering later, her health remained very frail with frequent minor illnesses. Understanding that this was a heartache medicine could not cure, Tao Wenwen moved back home to stay by her mother's side and share her father's worries.
Just then, her father was transferred to Jiangnan Province, and the whole family moved from the north to Wujiang in the south, far away from those painful memories.
Time is the medicine that heals the wounds of the soul. Two years had passed, and her mother was slowly stepping out of her grief, her health growing better by the day. Although she still shed tears whenever Tao Jiang was mentioned, Tao Wenwen had gradually emerged from the gloomy shadow of her brother's death and begun to enjoy the pleasures of her work.
Seeing Wu Hua so abruptly today, she simply could not believe there could be someone in the world who looked so similar, and for a moment she thought her brother had come back to life. In her shock, she even forgot to toast Vice Governor Zhao, simply staring blankly at Wu Hua in a trance.
Naturally, the Secretary understood why his daughter was dazed; he had experienced a similar feeling the very first time he laid eyes on Wu Hua, and thus, extending his affection from the person to others, he had grown fond of Wu Hua.
Wu Hua's achievements in the mathematics competition and his outstanding performance during his speech made the Secretary appreciate him all the more, which led to today's various arrangements.