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墨書 Inktalez
Since elementary school, I often participated in various competitions. However, after entering high school, everything revolved around the college entrance examination, and the frequency of competitions organized by the school decreased significantly. Teachers also discouraged students from participating, and gradually it seemed that competitions had nothing to do with us anymore.
In late May, our Physics Teacher, Deng Lianhua, suddenly informed everyone that the National Education Commission was holding the "Hope Cup" Physics Competition for high school students nationwide. It was said that they were looking to select a group of talented individuals to participate in international competitions. If one performed well, they could be exempted from the college entrance examination and directly enter prestigious universities. My grades in physics were at best average; I wasn't among the top students in my class, so I didn't pay much attention to it.
About a week later, Teacher Deng quietly approached me and said, "Biaosong, each class can only send three students to participate in the preliminary round in the county. After my efforts, I've managed to get you a spot. Don't tell anyone else. Tomorrow afternoon, take a bus to Dongkou; the day after tomorrow, you'll compete at No. 1 High School."
Later I learned that Teacher Deng lived next door to us, and his wife also had the surname Long; her family was from New House. In terms of family ties, she was a distant aunt. At the same time, another Physics Teacher at First Grade, Long Yuejun, was my cousin. The two teachers discussed this opportunity and decided to let me "take a shortcut" to participate in the competition.
The next afternoon, after finishing my sixth class, I hurried to Gaosha Bus Station and squeezed onto the last bus heading to Dongkou. The road from Gaosha directly to Dongkou was under construction; less than 100 meters after leaving the station, the bus turned right towards Zhukou. We passed through a section of road I had jogged on that morning for about two or three kilometers before entering unfamiliar territory filled with twists and turns and hills that left me no time to admire the scenery or notice my fellow passengers.
About ten kilometers into the journey, the bus suddenly slowed down. Amidst the passengers' gasps of surprise, I saw wooden planks floating in a pond on the left side of the road and a large truck lying on Field Ridge by the pond. There had been an accident. Instinctively standing up for a better view, I bumped my head against the luggage rack with a loud thud. Rubbing my head and grinning sheepishly, I noticed Huang Dongxiu sitting a few rows ahead—another student heading to the competition. She nodded slightly at me as the bus resumed its journey.
After an hour of bumpy travel, we finally arrived at Dongkou County Town. As we passed by No. 1 High School in Dongkou, night had already fallen. Once we reached the station and the bus came to a stop, I hurriedly jumped off without even saying goodbye to my classmates on board and dashed towards Fourth Uncle's house. Fourth Uncle Long Shiyan was a physics instructor at the county's educational guidance center and lived not far from the station within the education committee compound. Going there would provide me with a place to rest as well as an opportunity for some last-minute preparation for the competition; it was already dark out, so I needed to hurry.
When I arrived at Fourth Uncle's house, he seemed to know I was coming and had saved me a bowl of dinner from the cafeteria. He told me to eat quickly but didn’t say much about tomorrow’s competition other than reminding me to be serious and meticulous. After a while, Fourth Uncle took me upstairs to find my Uncle-in-law Long Dexiang (my aunt is my mother's cousin; she is Jin Ju, daughter of my great-grandfather). He thought Uncle-in-law might have more space since he had been around longer and could possibly offer me a place to stay for the night. Walking into Uncle-in-law's house was quite coincidental—Huang Dongxiu was also there! It turned out she was actually my distant cousin.
The next morning, I got up early, hastily ate something, and prepared to walk to No. 1 High School for the competition. Upon exiting the education committee compound's gate, I realized Huang Dongxiu hadn’t stayed there last night but had gone to her aunt’s house instead. I walked all the way to No. 1 High School and found the competition venue; it seemed there were quite a few participants as all four classrooms on the first floor were filled with seats.
When we received our exam papers, I picked mine up and saw that the first major question was fill-in-the-blank—it shouldn’t be too difficult… but upon closer inspection, I was dumbfounded. The first four or five small questions were either topics I hadn’t encountered or concepts I hadn’t fully grasped; I felt uncertain about every single one of them. As I continued reading downwards, my heart sank further—the questions appeared simpler (fewer words), yet their content grew increasingly profound; almost half of it covered material that our teacher had never taught us. It seemed they didn’t want us guessing blindly—there wasn’t a single multiple-choice question on the entire exam! What should I do?
I sat there stunned for about ten minutes before snapping back to reality—was I really going to submit a blank paper? I refused to accept that! But what could I do? Having not put in effort during regular studies now left me feeling helpless!
After pondering for a while longer, I finally picked up my pen and began writing down every piece of physics knowledge I could recall—numbers, formulas, calculations—filling every blank space on that paper as best as I could… even if it didn’t make sense together!
The end bell rang for the competition more abruptly than any exam I'd ever experienced; reluctantly putting down my pen while still battling with my paper made me realize that even if given several more hours, I wouldn’t be able to produce anything worthwhile—so I submitted it just like that.
Afterward, feeling dejected, I returned alone to Gaosha without discussing answers with classmates like usual or saying goodbye to Fourth Uncle or Uncle-in-law; I didn’t even want to inquire about how well I'd done.
In the end, however, news of my results reached me: total score 12 points—a record low for all my exams!
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