Chapter Forty-Two: Astonishment

“Twenty-one points for question five!” The score-reading teacher deliberately paused. “Question six is also twenty-one points — total score, one hundred and twenty-six! The first perfect score of this session has emerged!”

“My goodness, these children nowadays are incredible!”

“Unbelievable, truly incredible. This year a student faced the challenge head-on and achieved a perfect score!” All the grading teachers were astonished. Even the exam committee probably hadn’t expected that, after deliberately increasing the difficulty this year, a student could still achieve a perfect score—such excellence!

As teachers and mentors themselves, they couldn’t help but feel a surge of envy, wishing this child were their own.

“Team leader, quick, check which student this is!”

They hurriedly obtained the student’s information, rushing to send an internal message back to their schools, hoping to intercept such a prodigious talent in advance. Ah, a genius student!

Many of the teachers present were representatives from major top universities, eager to recruit the best candidates for their own institutions. Their enthusiasm was genuine and self-driven. Now, all the leading universities are desperate for talent, fiercely competing for the top students!

If the teachers from other universities still hoped for luck, the representatives from Capital University and Huqing University were locked in a determined rivalry—they were not about to let this slip away! The first perfect score in the CMO, such a stellar candidate, absolutely must not be snatched by their rivals—this is a matter of prestige!

They hastened to send this student’s information back, so their admissions office could contact them. Anyone who could achieve full marks on this year’s CMO paper has undisputed top-tier mathematical talent!

Such a student—are you saying they haven’t taken the college entrance exam? That would be a joke. Competitions are meant to select top students early; those who rank highly are already eligible for direct admission. As the most authoritative Chinese Mathematical Olympiad, scoring a perfect mark and ranking first in such a competition makes this child the undisputed number one math student among all high schoolers nationwide this year. What further selection does the college entrance exam offer?

To put it bluntly, the college entrance exam provides a fair opportunity for ordinary students; competitions are the playground for geniuses.

This student managed to get a perfect score on an exam of such unprecedented difficulty; their mastery of high school mathematics is absolute, and they’ve probably already studied college-level material as well!

Keeping such a student in high school is simply a waste of their precious time.

Letting them participate in the regular college entrance exam would be a true dimensionality reduction attack on ordinary students—like using an anti-aircraft gun to swat a mosquito, a waste of talent!

The first perfect score in the CMO automatically qualifies for the national training team, and likewise for the national team to compete in the IMO International Mathematical Olympiad. If they recruit this student early and nurture them carefully, perhaps next July at the IMO, just like last year’s outstanding candidate, they could bring home a gold medal!

The papers were all graded, and with so many eyes watching, there could be no tampering. The grading team leader was happy to oblige, “Let’s unseal the papers!”

Since the scores were tallied, it was time for the unsealing and statistics phase.

He was also curious to see which province or city produced such a prodigy!

The capital? Lu Province? Hai City? Yue Province? Or Chuan and Xiang Provinces? These are all famous competition regions! The teachers on-site whispered and speculated.

But when the grading team leader unsealed and pulled out the perfect score paper, the identity information revealed shocked everyone once more.

“Central Plains Province... Xin Cheng First High School, Wu Tong?”

They were familiar with Central Plains Province, but what school was Xin Cheng First High School?

This year’s CMO perfect score coming from Central Plains Province was already surprising — as a major province for the college entrance exam, its educational resources are stretched thin and its competition results are not particularly outstanding!

“Isn’t Central Plains Province best known for Shangdu No. 1 High, No. 7 High, and Foreign Languages? Where is Xin Cheng? Is it a newly developed school?” Teachers familiar with the region were puzzled.

But that didn’t stop the sharp teachers from immediately passing the information back to their schools, instructing them to investigate and prepare to act swiftly.

Some younger teachers quickly searched on their phones, confirming Xin Cheng’s location. When they discovered Xin Cheng was just a remote, impoverished county on the province’s edge, not a rising school in Shangdu, their astonishment grew.

It became even clearer how terrifying the math talent of this perfect score national number one was! Central Plains Province already suffers from tight educational resources; in such a resource-poor rural county, what could they possibly provide for the student’s development?

Major competitions have always favored innate talent rather than hard work alone—results here are earned by genius, not sheer effort.

This is a true dark horse rising from the bottom through their own strength. If they could recruit this student, they would be a once-in-a-lifetime mentor, and the honor this child could bring to their school would be immense!

...

At four in the afternoon, after touring the headquarters of the Boao Forum, all the candidates and accompanying teachers returned to the hotel.

Teachers from each province and city gathered their students together, mostly giving reminders. The Central Plains Province team’s coach’s room was temporarily used as a meeting space. Teacher Zhang carefully instructed, “With information technology being promoted these past two years, according to last year’s rules, you can check your scores online around six o’clock. Make sure you have your exam admission cards ready. Now I’ll teach you how to log into the CMO website—let’s start...”

Teacher Zhang operated his laptop, giving detailed guidance.

He could help check the results later, but it didn’t stop him from exemplifying good teaching—showing students how to do things themselves. If students wanted to check their own results, it was a fresh experience, and he respected their choice.

After the exam, a day and a half of relaxation followed, but as the moment of score checking approached, most candidates grew nervous.

Who doesn’t hope for an award, rather than just a sightseeing trip? If they could make the national training team, that would be true glory!

The students were all focused, learning the steps. Suddenly, two consecutive phone rings sounded—identical tones, except one was higher and one lower, making it clear they were two different phones.

Everyone looked over and realized it was Coach Zhang Ping and their team’s ‘god’.

‘God’ was the nickname the other team members secretly used for Wu Tong. When they learned Wu Tong handed in both tests three hours early, finished in an hour and a half, completed the exam and could even recite it as a model answer, the nickname became habitual, a mark of profound respect!

They spent the full four and a half hours, most unable to finish the exam, while ‘god’ completed it effortlessly and likely with a high score. Comparing human to god was simply not fair—it was more comforting for them!

When Zhang Ping and Wu Tong took out their phones, everyone noticed they both used Nokia, though one was an older blue-screen button model from a couple of years ago, and the other was a newly released large-screen version.

This phone brand had become very popular in recent years for its durability; matching brands was not unusual.

Wu Tong had turned down the volume and added vibration. Since there were rarely any calls—mostly from family—they hadn’t muted or turned off the phone.

Now, Wu Tong glanced at the caller ID—a strange number, landline starting with 010. Is it from Beijing? A sales call? Are advertisements really this rampant now?