pertwk Chapter 38: The Despairing Truth
Chapter 38: The Despairing Truth
"Please do this."
Staff members wearing organizing committee badges hurriedly guided the group.
After a chaotic check-in process in the lobby, everyone finally received their room keys.
"Roommates are assigned randomly."
Whether it was fate or not, Su Hao and Pan Xun were once again assigned to the same room in London, following the winter camp.
"We're sharing a dorm room again!"
Upon seeing that his roommate was Su Hao, Pan Xun's tense nerves visibly relaxed.
"Yes, that's great."
Carrying heavy luggage, I stepped onto the wooden stairs to the second floor. The long, dimly lit corridor was densely packed with rooms on both sides.
Find room number 201, marked with brass numbers on the doorplate, and push the door open to enter.
"Wow!"
The room was much more spacious than I had expected.
Two single beds, two wooden desks, and even a small refrigerator embedded in the corner.
Looking down from the window, you can see the entire courtyard outside.
Su Hao chose a bed by the window and put down his backpack.
He unzipped his jacket and took out the little yellow duck figurines he had brought, arranging them in a row on the table as if performing some kind of solemn ceremony.
Looking at these familiar little yellow things, his heart, which had been wandering in a foreign land, finally felt a sense of familiarity, as if it had landed.
"Su Hao!"
Pan Xun suddenly acted like a thief, putting his index finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.
Listen.
If you press your ear against the wall, you can clearly hear people talking in the next room.
"Is it Japanese?" Su Hao raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm, looks like the Japanese team lives next door."
The organizing committee is probably trying to break down physical barriers of nationality and promote exchange through this forceful approach...
Therefore, the room allocation was completely random and disordered.
As I was squatting on the ground packing my luggage, a sudden uproar erupted in the quiet corridor.
"What's wrong?"
Pan Xun yanked open the door.
Students were peeking out of their rooms, greeting each other in broken or fluent language.
Blonde-haired, blue-eyed European and American students, black-haired, yellow-skinned Asians, and all sorts of young people whose nationalities are hard to discern by skin color alone gathered together, it was practically a mini United Nations.
"Hello. I am Hans."
A boy who happened to make eye contact with Su Hao greeted him warmly with a rugged smile typical of Germans.
Look at the badge on his chest; he's a German athlete.
"Nice to meet you. I am Su Hao."
Su Hao remained calm and responded in perfect English.
"Luckily, I learned some spoken English before going abroad, otherwise I'd only be able to 'abba aba' now."
Su Hao secretly rejoiced.
The other person clearly found the accent to be no obstacle to communication, smiled brightly, extended their large hand to shake hands, and then launched into a rapid-fire string of words:
"You look quite young. Is it only because you are Asian? I'm from Frankfurt, Germany. It's my first time in England, so are you? I'm worried that Asians are good at math."
(You look quite young? Is it because you're Asian? I'm from Frankfurt, Germany. This is my first time in the UK, is it for you too? I've heard Asians are really good at math, it's giving me a bit of a headache.)
Su Hao remained calm and answered fluently:
"I'm actually young, 12 years old. It's my first time in the UK, too. It's also my first time being a foreigner, so I've been looking forward to it."
(I am indeed quite young, only twelve years old. This is also my first time in the UK. Actually, this is my first time traveling abroad, so I've been really looking forward to it.)
Pan Xun stood to the side, his pupils contracting sharply.
He was startled by Su Hao's extremely fluent English, which even had a slight London accent, and he suddenly leaned closer.
"Hey! What's going on with you! Didn't you say you'd never attended a tutoring class?"
What's with this perfectly articulated English that even the German guy couldn't understand?!
"I learned it myself by reading books."
Su Hao calmly uttered this despairing truth.
A week before leaving the country, he went to a bookstore and bought two thick volumes of English conversation guides.
The textbook came with authentic English audio, which he listened to countless times with an almost obsessive focus, engraving the point of exertion for each syllable into his muscle memory.
"Learn English by reading books?! How can you possibly learn spoken English by reading books?!"
Pan Xun's worldview collapsed; his heart was screaming wildly, his voice rising eight octaves.
"If I gave you a physics book, would you be able to handcraft a rocket for me in your dorm tomorrow?!"
But no one noticed his loss of composure at that moment.
Because it was the first day, everyone was excited due to an excess of dopamine.
At first, they were a little reserved. The bookworms, who were used to being with numbers and symbols, quickly broke down the social barriers and took the initiative to approach strangers to introduce themselves.
Click.
A soft sound.
As they were chatting, the door on the other side suddenly opened.
Several students wearing matching blue uniforms walked out together.
"...?"
Su Hao was stunned, as were Pan Xun and the others.
The group of people who came out had black hair, yellow skin, and black eyes. If you didn't look at the bright American flag badge on their chests, they would look just like the second team of the Xia Kingdom!
Everyone is of Chinese descent!
This is the terrifying reality of the US IMO national team in recent years.
They are the descendants of Silicon Valley elites, or the result of top domestic talents being siphoned off to them, possessing the best genes and the best Western educational resources.
Bringing up the rear was a tall young man named Lucas Wong.
Judging from his position, he should be the team leader.
His eyes were sharp as knives, and his expression exuded a cold indifference that kept strangers at bay. He walked out with an air of superiority as he surveyed his surroundings.
At this moment, the members of the Xia Kingdom team gathered in the corridor.
Lucas keenly spotted a familiar face, a half-smile playing on his lips as he strolled toward Zhang Wei.
Immediately afterwards, speaking in slightly odd-accented Chinese, he uttered a sarcastic remark that was enough to send blood pressure soaring:
"Oh, it's you again this year? It seems your rigid, endless practice problems strategy hasn't been able to sift out any fresh talent from those billion-plus people after all?"
Extremely arrogant!
Extremely provocative!
Zhang Wei, who lost the individual gold medal at last year's IMO, had a flushed face.
To say such a sarcastic remark in fluent Chinese is more humiliating than to say it in English.
Lin Shuwan was so angry that her fingertips were trembling. Just as she was about to step forward and lash out, Zhang Wei gritted his teeth and raised his hand to stop her.
"Don't be too smug. You were just lucky last year!"
I'm telling you, this year's team championship and individual first place are definitely ours, Xia Guo team!