Walk towards Hua Luogeng

Author: Duan Suoqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: After a night's sleep, in the morning, the brain is and efficiency is . Hua Luogeng developed the habit of studying early. Across the river, opposite Qianshengtai is Jin Kang Cloth Store. People in the cloth store often said that Hua Luogeng would sit at the square table in his room, reading books intently, with a pen in his hand, writing notes, while the noisy sound of boats passing on the river went unnoticed by him. The people at Jin Kang Cloth Store even thought Hua Luogeng was mentally retarded. In the behind-the-scenes gossip, the "bookworm" they referred to was Hua Luogeng. Across the river from Qianshengtai is also a tofu shop. Every time the tofu shop people got up before dawn to make tofu, they found that Hua Luogeng had already lit a oil lamp to study. On hot summer nights, he rarely went outside to cool off but instead studied in a small shop buzzing with mosquitoes. In severe winters, he often placed the inkstone on a foot warmer, grinding ink while using a brush to solve problems. The paper used for packing cotton in the shop was also covered with the characters of the problems he solved. During festivals, Hua Luogeng usually did not visit relatives' homes, and even if he did, he returned in a hurry. After returning home, he would always complain to his parents about his study time being wasted. During the day, Hua Luogeng helped his father with the business. After customers left, he would bury himself in books or solving problems again. Sometimes, he would become so engrossed that he forgot to attend to customers. Whenever such incidents occurred, Hua Luogeng's mother would earnestly advise him, "Luo Luo, we are destined to be shopkeepers (referring to the wooden counter), not scholars from a scholarly family. You should save some lamp oil and take care of eating!" Hua Laoshang, on the other hand, was both angry and anxious, cursing Hua Luogeng for being "obsessed" with studying. Hua Laoshang was determined to have Hua Luogeng run the small shop well so that he would have a secure future, and he couldn't understand his son's interests and drive at all. The conflict between father and son was escalating. Sometimes, when his father was furious, he would simply take the piles of scratch paper Hua Luogeng had been working on and tear them up, throwing them into the street. It was said that a kind girl from Hua's neighbors would collect these papers every time and secretly return them to Hua Luogeng. Sometimes, Hua Laoshang would even stuff Hua Luogeng's mathematical scratch paper into the fireplace. Whenever this happened, Hua Luogeng would desperately hold onto the mathematical papers he cherished, refusing to let his father snatch them to burn. If they were taken away, his heart would ache, and sometimes he would even faint from the stress. After he became famous, a Western mathematics magazine once published a cartoon depicting Hua Luogeng holding a few torn books, being chased around the room by his father holding a fire poker, threatening to throw his mathematical books into the fireplace. Local people also told stories that once, when a fire broke out next door to Hua's house, he desperately ran to the attic to save his mathematical scratch paper and books, causing everyone to worry: "Are you not afraid of dying?" Hua Luogeng's ambition and behavior were almost incomprehensible to others, calling him a "bookworm." Some wealthy young students from families who went to study in the provincial capital even mocked him behind his back, saying that the "foolish Luo" was looking for a "golden house" and "beauty like jade" in books. As the saying goes, the greater the resistance, the greater the motivation; the more the difficulties, the stronger the resolve to overcome them. On February 2, 1985, Hua Luogeng went to the Yellow River Tourist Area after visiting...