Wu Hua was the first to raise his hand and go over to Teacher Zhang to carefully copy down the essay requirements, the mailing address, the recipient department's postal code, and everything else.
Song Xinmei was somewhat astonished. The global selection trials for the municipal math competition were just around the corner, and Wu Hua still had a bet with her. What was he doing writing essays now? It felt rather like he was "neglecting his proper business"!
Or did he think he could surpass her simply by taking the exam offhand? Did he still have spare energy for such things?
This made Song Xinmei a bit angry again. However, this time she did not stubbornly try to enter the essay contest herself; after all, the municipal math competition was of "vital importance" and left no room for failure.
Let him fool around, then! Let's see who has the last laugh! Song Xinmei even felt a secret sense of delight, thinking her opponent was letting his guard down.
In truth, she failed to notice that deep down she had already begun to treat Wu Hua as a match for her, which was why she cared so much.
Upon returning home, Wu Hua began to conceptualize his piece. He chose "Dreams" as his theme. The concept of the "Chinese Dream," put forward in later generations, did not yet have any similar promotional slogans in this era, so it could be considered quite original.
A high school student's essay certainly could not read like a government report; it had to start small and build up. By examining the everyday needs and aspirations of ordinary people, he would slowly lead into the theme, and finally elevate the perspective to sublimate the whole piece.
After polishing it repeatedly, Wu Hua felt there were no more issues. Both in its conception and writing style, this essay had already reached an excellent level. The key was that Wu Hua's mature soul knew precisely what kind of essay would align with "political correctness" and fulfill the needs of the essay contest's organizers.
He carefully placed the essay into an envelope, affixed the postage stamp, verified the address, and dropped it into the mailbox in one smooth motion.
In the 1990s, those green mailboxes were still used for dropping off letters—in another twenty years, they would no longer be seen. Times were constantly progressing, and doing so in leaps and bounds.
Monday was the day of the math competition.
Wujiang University specially dispatched a car to take Wu Hua, Song Xinmei, and three other students to the designated examination venue.
This time, Wu Hua found solving the problems relatively easy. He had already thoroughly reviewed university-level mathematics, brushing up on the old to understand the new, so there would be no moments of getting stuck this time around.
When the test papers were handed out, Wu Hua first read through the questions carefully, and immediately felt confident. He had done similar types of problems before, and two of them were even ones he had reviewed himself.
He worked very quickly, finishing all the questions in less than an hour. Having plenty of time left, he checked his work twice. Feeling that sitting there idly any longer was pointless, he handed in his test paper and left the examination hall.
As soon as he stepped outside, he saw the school's supervising teacher chatting idly at the door. The teacher was startled to see Wu Hua come out—there were still dozens of minutes left in the exam, yet a student had actually handed in his paper early.
"Wu Hua, why did you come out so early? You're being much too casual!" the supervising teacher said with some displeasure. Each contest spot was extremely precious, and he assumed the test was too difficult, causing this student to give up and hand in his paper prematurely.
Wu Hua chuckled softly without offering a lengthy explanation.
"Do you still remember the problems? Write them down for us to see," said Shi Yinan, a math teacher from the school's competition team who was quite concerned about the difficulty of this year's math competition.
Wu Hua then recounted every single problem along with his own problem-solving approaches.
This left the supervising teacher utterly astonished, because all of Wu Hua's problem-solving methods were entirely correct. There were two obscure problems that he hadn't even been able to come up with a solution for in his head at the time, yet this student before him had reeled them off as naturally as drinking water.
This time around in the municipal global selection trials for the math competition, their Wujiang University stood a real chance!
Delighted, the supervising teacher dug into his own pocket and bought Wu Hua an ice cream.
When Song Xinmei came out, she saw Wu Hua standing under the shade of a tree, chatting and laughing with the supervising teachers while eating an ice cream. Instantly, fury flared up inside her.
This Wu Hua was simply too arrogant! He actually dared to hand in his paper early! He clearly wasn't taking their bet seriously at all! As for herself, she had checked her answers three whole times!
Aside from the last two questions, which were so difficult she didn't know if she had done them right, she felt pretty confident about the rest of the problems.
This was the best performance of her life, and she possessed boundless confidence in herself.
Song Xinmei refused to speak to Wu Hua, instead putting on the airs of a lofty, proud swan.
Wu Hua found it amusing inside, but said nothing. Strength was the only thing that mattered.
The results came out very quickly. At noon the next day, those participating in the municipal math competition's global selection trials were called into the office to have their scores announced.
Song Xinmei felt her heart beating rapidly. She had never been so nervous before; it felt as though her heart was a little deer leaping about incessantly, almost ready to jump right out of her chest.
The supervising teacher was very excited. As soon as he saw them, he smiled and said, "Congratulations! Out of the five students our school sent to the competition this year, three have qualified for the provincial math competition selection."
"Wu Hua, Song Xinmei, Tao Li!" the supervising teacher Shi Yinan said with a smile. "Congratulations to the three of you."
Song Xinmei quickly pressed, "Teacher, how did we do?"
"Haha, these exam scores are the best in Wujiang University's history! What's astonishing is that student Wu Hua scored 98 points, taking first place in the entire city! Student Song Xinmei scored 87 points, taking fourth place in the city! Student Tao Li scored 81 points, taking eleventh place in the city! There were only 12 contest spots in total, and our Wujiang University secured three of them!"
Song Xinmei felt as though she had been struck by lightning. She stood there dumbfounded, her expression rigid.
Wu Hua took first place in the entire city! This was something she had never even dreamed of. How could this be possible?!
In truth, this was also Song Xinmei's personal best score, and fourth place in the city was already quite remarkable. Yet inside, she felt not a shred of joy—only shock and resentment!
This guy with his wicked smile had managed to outdo her yet again!
Wu Hua's face still wore a calm and breezy expression, as if taking first place in the city was no big deal at all!
This made Song Xinmei grit her teeth in vexation.
The provincial math competition was just a week away, leaving a rather tight schedule. The supervising teacher notified the three qualifiers to go home and prepare, because the Wujiang Municipal Education Commission attached great importance to this competition and was arranging a closed-door intensive training camp for the twelve contestants.
The hotel had already been booked, and they were told to go back, pack their daily necessities, say goodbye to their parents, and then gather back at the school.
On the way out of the office, Wu Hua deliberately slowed his pace; he knew Song Xinmei would definitely come looking for him.
Just past the corner of the hallway, Song Xinmei was already waiting for him.
Seeing that there was no one else around, Song Xinmei glared fiercely at Wu Hua, her pretty face flushed red, yet she couldn't spit out a single word.
Wu Hua smiled relaxed and said, "Shall we make another bet on the provincial competition?"
"You're on!" Song Xinmei forced the words out through clenched teeth.
"What are we betting on?" Wu Hua began teasing the campus belle once more.
"You tell me what we're betting on! I'm warning you, I won't agree to anything going too far!" Song Xinmei said.
"How could that be? I'm no hooligan!" Wu Hua said. "I heard Auntie Chen call you Meier. How about this: if my score is better than yours in the provincial competition, I'll be allowed to call you Meier in private from then on."
Wu Hua hadn't proposed anything outrageous, but mutual forms of address were a very significant signal in a relationship between a man and a woman.
"Fine!" Song Xinmei readily agreed this time as well. She said fiercely, "If I win, you aren't allowed to call me Xinmei or Meier anymore. You can only address me as Student Song Xinmei! Furthermore, I won't go on dates with you!"
"No problem," Wu Hua replied with a lingering smile.
Song Xinmei bit her petal-soft lips, stamped her foot, and then turned and walked away, leaving behind a beautiful silhouette.
"Hehe, a little campus belle—totally in the palm of my hand," Wu Hua muttered quietly to himself, using a piece of internet slang from later generations.