When someone succeeded, it drew cheers from the crowd. When someone failed, everyone just let out a sigh of "Aw," and then encouraged them, saying they would definitely get it next time. And so, one by one, it was soon Flandre's turn.
After seeing Flandre standing at the front, many people recognized her. Everyone clapped to encourage Flandre for participating. Seeing this, Flandre decided she had to show off a little. She picked up three stones and threw them out one by one. Accompanied by three splashes, she successfully hit three palm-sized ice chunks more than ten meters away.
All at once, the surrounding children cheered even louder. She also received the highest honors of praise from the children: [Awesome] and [I'll give it to you, you're good]. Some were curious about how she did it and flocked to her to ask for advice.
Flandre expressed that as long as your eyes are sharp and your hands are steady, plus playing plenty of Danmaku, it's easy to do. Hearing her words, others began to experiment by mimicking her movements; surprisingly, their hit rates actually increased by a notch. This also completely established her image as a "helpful teacher."
They played in the park until not a single piece of ice could be seen on the surface of the small pond, and only then did everyone disperse to find other fun things to do. Flandre checked the time and prepared to visit Dropper at the hospital; after that, she could go home.
While on her way to the hospital, she received a call from Ch'en Huijie. After a period of silence on the other end, Ch'en said that if she encountered a situation like today's in Lungmen again, she should prioritize controlling the scene and try to ensure no innocent people die because of it.
Flandre agreed, but after hanging up, she scratched her head; after all, no innocent people died today. Moreover, given the timing, if that person had gone mad and started slashing at bystanders, she definitely would have stopped him. After all, Flandre always believed that every debt has its debtor. It was precisely because of this that she had silently watched the man carry out his series of actions.
Upon arriving at the hospital, she saw Dropper doing rehabilitation exercises in the hallway. The external injuries on his body were mostly healed. His biggest problem now was the muscle tears in his legs caused by the long trek through the ice and snow. This could only be healed through rest, yet he couldn't remain completely immobile, so he took walks in the hallway every day.
Seeing Flandre arrive, Dropper greeted her with a smile, and they slowly strolled back to the ward together.
"You're okay to go out on your own now!" During her visits over the past few days, there had always been a nurse looking after him, but today he could walk alone; Flandre was quite pleasantly surprised.
"That's right, my body is recovering every day. At this rate, I'll be fully recovered in half a month at most." Dropper was very happy. Flandre took a handful of candies from her pocket; Lin Yuxia had stuffed them there when they were at the candy shop earlier.
"Then recover well. Later, I'll help you contact that side to ask about the next plan."
Dropper looked at the candy with a somewhat conflicted expression... After a few seconds, he still didn't say anything other than, "Then thank you, little Flandre."
Flandre reached into her satchel and pulled out a book. "While reading this book introducing Oripathy these past few days, I found that some of the content conflicts with the materials from Mr. Blood I read before. Do you know what's going on?"
Hearing Flandre's words, Dropper took the book, flipped to the page she mentioned, and after reading the whole thing, said with an indignant face, "This is simply nonsense. The early stages of Oripathy infection..."
As a professional Oripathy doctor, Dropper naturally had a very deep understanding of the disease. Not only were the introductions to Oripathy in the book seriously erroneous, but parts of it were also suspected of being excessively exaggerated. Then he looked at the title and discovered it was actually a middle school textbook.
Think about it: if a textbook, which should be the most rigorous, is stigmatizing Oripathy, how can the people here truly realize that Oripathy isn't some terminal illness to be terrified of? So, seeing the baseless claims in this book, he was so angry he started cursing. He said this book was simply leading the younger generation astray. In a fit of anger, he slapped his own thigh, hit the wound, and his expression contorted in pain.
Flandre, seeing his state, took the book back from his hand and said, "I think so too, so I'm planning to go to Governor Wei later to report this matter. However, my understanding of Oripathy isn't that deep, so I hope you, as an Oripathy doctor, can write down the correct information regarding the errors and omissions in here."
Hearing Flandre's words, Dropper immediately stated that there was no problem at all. He then pulled out a blank sheet of paper from nearby, opened the book again, and began to critique the content word by word. This task wasn't massive, but it wasn't something that could be finished in a short time, so seeing his attention completely drawn to it, Flandre bid him farewell and left the hospital.
After returning home, she took an unfinished reference book from the cabinet, sat down, and began to study it. The following afternoon, when Flandre went to the hospital again, Dropper handed her several pages covered in dense writing, stating that he had gone through the entire book and listed everything he considered unreasonable or incorrect.
Then, Flandre happily trotted over to the Governor's Mansion with those pages in hand.
"What has little Flandre come to see me for? Have you run into some trouble again?" Wei Yenwu heard that Flandre had come to see him, put down the work in his hands, and had someone invite her in.
Flandre brought the densely written pages before him and then stated her reason for coming. It turned out that two days ago, she had casually flipped through a teaching book currently used in Lungmen's middle schools and found that the content had a serious discrepancy with her own knowledge. So she consulted a 'professional' regarding the content, and the other party provided a detailed answer to those errors.
Wei Yenwu took the papers and looked them over; the content was basically all related to Oripathy. After finishing, he looked back at Flandre. "This is the work of that Mr. Dropper, isn't it?"
Flandre nodded. "That's right."
"What's written here is very good. There's some content I only have a general understanding of, and I don't know it as clearly as he does." Wei Yenwu sighed with emotion.
"So you knew the content of the book had problems?" Flandre immediately caught the key point.
Wei Yenwu didn't answer but instead looked at Flandre. "Do you know what the most terrifying thing for a teenager is?"
"The most terrifying thing... I don't know!" Flandre didn't quite understand the meaning of Wei Yenwu's question. She looked at Wei Yenwu curiously, hoping for an answer.
"The most terrifying thing for a teenager is that courage to face anything without knowing the danger, and the determination not to turn back until they hit a dead end. Decades ago, the teaching plans in these books were indeed like the correct answers you've provided; they aimed to tell everyone that Oripathy wasn't some dangerous thing, and that those Infected with Oripathy weren't dangerous lifeforms."
"But do you know what proportion of the Infected back then were teenagers who were Infected by accident? Forty percent. It's a good thing for young people to be fearless and dare to explore, but the danger of Originium is not something that can be suppressed by courage alone. Back then, many young people rashly came into contact with Originium because they trusted the explanations in the books, but they weren't sufficiently prepared, leading to Oripathy infection."
"After that, these teaching plans were revised and compiled anew. By exaggerating the dangers and threats of Originium, from then on, not only did the number of people accidentally Infected decrease, but the proportion of teenagers among them dropped to ten percent. Adhering to the truth would lead to a large number of teenagers being Infected with Oripathy, while a well-intentioned deception allows children to stay away from Originium out of fear and dread, thereby lowering the infection rate. That is why, even though we know the content is wrong—especially with the considerable exaggeration regarding Oripathy—we have kept it..."
Wei Yenwu explained in a very slow tone and in great detail to Flandre why there was a large amount of exaggerated and false content regarding Oripathy in primary and secondary school textbooks.
"If a student can successfully make it to university, then they will come into contact with true knowledge. Because university students already have independent thinking and the ability to discern danger. As for those who don't go to university... although this content is indeed incorrect, making ordinary people subconsciously stay away from anything related to Originium is the best protection for them."
After Wei Yenwu finished speaking, Flandre nodded half-understandingly. "So, these things are useless?" Flandre asked with a look of disappointment.
"Of course they aren't useless, it's just that Yan currently cannot afford the price of informing the general public of the truth. However, this land is changing with each passing day; one day, Oripathy will be completely cured. When that time comes, these truths will appear in the books."
Seeing that Flandre's mood was a bit down, Wei Yenwu reached out and rubbed her head. "Go to the backyard; Fumizuki has warmed up some bowl-milk for you."
As soon as Flandre heard 'bowl-milk,' her mood instantly brightened. She happily ran to the backyard. Sure enough, she saw Fumizuki waving at her. After she went over, the table held not only the bowl-milk but also small cakes and her favorite pudding. Watching little Flandre bury her head in the food, Fumizuki sat opposite her with a smile, watching her eat.
"There's a New Year's Eve concert on the afternoon of the 30th. Does little Flandre want to go see it?"
"Shouldn't a New Year's Eve concert be at night? What kind of New Year is being celebrated in the afternoon?" Flandre asked curiously after letting out a milky burp.
"Because these programs need to be broadcast at night. So the performances have to be finished in the afternoon to confirm that there won't be any prohibited content in them." Fumizuki answered.
"Is that how it works?" Flandre expressed great shock.
"Of course. Although live broadcasting is a great gimmick, the uncertainty is too high, and problems can easily occur. With a recorded broadcast, even if an accident happens, other methods can be used to adjust and compensate for it."