Wu Hua and Song Xinmei both entered the hotel for a closed-door intensive training camp. The Municipal Education Commission dispatched its strongest tutoring team, which proved immensely beneficial to Wu Hua.
What he did not know was that during his time in closed-door training, the butterfly wings flapped by his essay had caused a minor tremor in the journalism world.
Because of its profound theme and novel approach, the essay was published in full by Wuhu Daily. To everyone's surprise, it caught the eye of the provincial governor, who was deeply impressed and personally called Wuhu Daily to request enhanced coverage on the matter.
Taking the issue with the utmost gravity, Wuhu Daily immediately dispatched a senior reporter to investigate the safety hazards at the Wuning Road railway crossing, dedicating the front page and ample space to the resulting news report.
The next day's edition of Wuhu Daily immediately caught the attention of sharp-nosed observers, and heavy-hitting newspapers like the Wujiang Evening News and the Jiangnan Daily soon published investigative reports on the Wuning Road railway crossing.
Wujiang TV Station also scrambled into action, producing a news investigation segment that broadcast the safety hazards of the Wuning Road railway crossing to viewers across the entire city.
This sparked a minor tremor citywide.
***
The provincial Math Olympiad began. The atmosphere this time was noticeably much more tense. Everyone participating in the Olympiad was a top student from across the province, naturally exuding the aura of academic elites.
Wu Hua was no academic elite; he was merely someone who had quietly unlocked a cheat code. Facing so many top-tier academic elites from all over the city, even a forty-year-old man like him felt quite nervous, and the atmosphere felt heavy with pressure.
When the test papers were handed out, Wu Hua instinctively scanned through them once, but this time, he froze.
Because he had done this exact set of papers before, and he had carefully studied every single question.
Back in college, through a twist of fate, Wu Hua had worked as a math Olympiad tutor, and there was once an occasion when he used this very test paper for a tutorial session, carefully explaining every single question to the student he was tutoring.
Because that was right when he had first started tutoring math Olympiad, he was still somewhat nervous back then, terrified of not doing a good job. He had studied every question meticulously before explaining it, leaving him with an exceptionally deep impression!
Now, seeing the test paper, the past seemed vivid before his eyes, as if it were only yesterday.
"This student, please hurry up and answer the questions. Stop spacing out." The proctor, seeing Wu Hua staring blankly at a blank test paper, kindly reminded him.
Wu Hua let out a soft breath, and his nervous state relaxed.
He glanced around at his competitors, who were buried in deep thought, and silently said to himself in his heart: I'm sorry, brothers, don't blame me. Your boy has really hacked the system this time...
Wu Hua began answering the questions earnestly. He worked at an extremely fast pace—even faster than during the municipal Olympiad—finishing all the questions in fifty minutes.
He put down his pen, emptied his mind, and let his brain go completely blank. After a short while, he opened his eyes and checked again to see if there were any calculation errors.
He checked five times this time, and being certain there were no issues with half an hour still remaining, Wu Hua chose to submit his paper early.
Submitting the provincial Math Olympiad paper early startled even the proctor.
Song Xinmei happened to be in the same examination room as Wu Hua this time. When Wu Hua submitted his paper, she still had the very last question left unsolved. Looking at Wu Hua's retreating back, she felt a powerful wave of psychological pressure.
She had to win this time! She lowered her head once more and struggled to concentrate...
***
With the competition exams over, the closed-door training came to an end as well. Wu Hua didn't care about the results; his first thought was to find Wuhu Daily to see if his essay had been selected for publication.
This was actually quite simple. Given the social environment at the time, all major enterprises and government agencies subscribed to newspapers, and not a single issue was ever missed.
Wu Hua ran straight to his mother's railway hospital and checked the recent days of Wuhu Daily. To his utter excitement, he actually found his essay published right there.
At this moment, he still had no idea that his essay had triggered a series of chain reactions, but he was already overjoyed.
His mother, Wang Shufen, was performing surgery, so Wu Hua did not disturb her. He simply stuffed the newspaper into his schoolbag and prepared to head home. The weather was uncooperative, and a light drizzle had begun to fall outside.
Wu Hua could not wait for the rain to stop, so he wrapped the newspaper securely in a plastic bag to prevent it from being ruined by the rain, then left the hospital and walked toward home.
Dark clouds hung low and thick across the sky, dimming the natural light and making the entire scene feel as though dusk had fallen prematurely.
Wu Hua had no patience to take the long way around via the asphalt avenue. The moment he stepped out of the hospital gates, he turned right and plunged straight into the residential area.
The continuous rainfall had caused the ground to soak up plenty of water, making the small paths in the neighborhood even more muddy.
With a single step down, his sandals sank deep into the mire, and when he struggled to pull them out, his sandals remained trapped in the mud puddle.
Wu Hua simply took off his sandals, held them in his hand, and walked barefoot. Experiencing such a sensation years later, he felt a sense of unhurried contentment in his heart.
The rain continued to patter down, and the path in the residential area was completely deserted. At this moment, Wu Hua was in no rush to get home; he slowly walked forward in the mud while savoring this rare childhood sensation.
After rounding the bend ahead, he would be able to see his family's apartment building.
Just as he turned the corner, Wu Hua spotted a girl wearing a white dress squatting by the roadside ahead. Her umbrella lay discarded to the side, facing upward, and her rain-soaked dress clung tightly to her curvaceous figure as she stood with her back to Wu Hua, rubbing her right ankle.
Wu Hua's first reaction was that the girl might have sprained her ankle. Seeing that the umbrella was not far away yet she was drenched like this, he guessed that her foot injury must be quite severe and that she could no longer walk.
Although he couldn't see her face, Wu Hua figured she must be in severe pain.
Wu Hua strode forward in a few steps, using his own umbrella to shield her from the rain. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask what happened, the girl looked up—it was actually nurse Li Yaqian. Surprised, Wu Hua asked, "Sister Yaqian, what happened to you?"
Realizing someone was there, Li Yaqian looked up and saw Wu Hua, feeling as though she had run into a savior. Her eyes instantly turned red, and she said with a choked voice, "Wu Hua, I was in a rush to get home just now, accidentally stepped on a rock, and twisted my ankle. It hurts like crazy!"
Wu Hua hurriedly comforted her: "Sister Yaqian, don't panic, I'll help you to the hospital to take a look." With that, he reached out to steady her.
Li Yaqian replied, "Wu Hua, there's no need to go to the hospital. I don't think the bone is broken, I just twisted a tendon. I'll just go home and rub some medicine on it."
"Alright, then I'll help you home." As he spoke, Wu Hua helped Li Yaqian up, but her right foot could not touch the ground at all, forcing her to stand on one leg.
Wu Hua handed the umbrella to Li Yaqian: "Sister Yaqian, hold this for a moment, I'll go get your umbrella." After helping Li Yaqian steady herself, he walked over quickly to retrieve the umbrella and closed it. When he turned back around, he froze in place!
Li Yaqian was standing on one leg, holding the umbrella with one hand. Her soaked, translucent dress clung tightly to her graceful figure. Wu Hua had been too anxious earlier to notice these details, but now he couldn't help but panic.
Realizing her disheveled state, Li Yaqian struggled to maintain her balance on one leg in her fluster. Her body tilted to the side as if she was about to fall, and she instinctively tried to steady herself with her injured foot, but the moment it touched the ground, a sharp wave of pain made her let out a scream.