“What? Even if it were possible, you don’t actually want to let Tan Mo single-handedly handle the competition all by herself, do you?” Ying Siyuan kicked him in the shin. “You certainly have your head up in the clouds!”
PFFT! Shen Hongshan cleared his throat. “But remember, we can’t win like she does… It’s not as if we have an option…”
Ying Siyuan didn’t have any reply for that.
“Even though winning like that would still be a win for us, it would also be a bit embarrassing for us, wouldn’t it?” Ying Siyuan rubbed her chin as she thought about it.
“If worse comes to worst, I’ll just pull an all-nighter and force myself to be prepared,” said Ling Zimu as she clenched her fists.
“Also, that would mean that you all wouldn’t get the chance to shine. Don’t you care about that?” asked Wang Yuemu. “Siyuan and I have already entered competitions before, so it doesn’t matter too much to us. But you all should have a chance to display your abilities and also see just exactly what rewards you could reap after all your hard work. In addition, if Tan Mo were to win the competition for us single-handedly, aren’t you all afraid that we’ll become a laughingstock?”
Chen Shihua shrugged his shoulders. “That doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather get treated as a joke in school than by the majority of the public. It’s better to win any way we can.”
Pu Xinyan nodded; as did Guan Ruyue. “You have to understand that it’s not that we lack confidence in ourselves. But if we do go onstage, there will definitely be questions that we can’t answer. But Tan Mo is different from us. She knows the answer to all the questions. The only thing she’ll need to worry about is how fast she can get to the buzzer. She really is our best chance at winning the competition.”
“If that’s what you all agree on, we can try it,” said Wang Yuemu. “There aren’t any strict rules on which competitors to send onstage. It’s just that most professors wish to send all their competitors onstage so that they can gauge their abilities. It’d be a shame not to do this.
“To be honest, I don’t think the other professors are necessarily like this. But to Professor Guo, winning or losing doesn’t really matter all that much. His main aim is to experience this competition and learn from it.” Wang Yuemu laughed. “Of course, this year it is different. With the provocations he’s taken from Professor Liu, Professor Guo is really very much worried about losing face. If we do let Tan Mo make a clean sweep of a win, it would definitely shame the other opponents. Professor Guo’d be delighted at that.
“But then, after that fleeting moment of happiness, he’d be scolding you all too.”
The crowd shut up at that.
Whatever… No matter… They’d thought this through already.
It was just that they felt they were useless compared to Tan Mo. And they realized if they wanted to win the competition, they’d have to let Tan Mo single-handedly win the competition for them. As seniors, they weren’t ashamed either.
“No worries, we can take the scolding.” Ying Siyuan clenched her teeth. “As your seniors, we deserve the scolding for letting Tan Mo win the competition for us since we’re so incompetent. It’s just as Zimu said, after this tremendous win, we’ll just force ourselves to work even harder. Harder than ever!”
Pu Xinyan raised her hand and said, “Do any of you realize that our gap with Tsinghua University isn’t actually that big? They think we’re weak and have their eyes set on the first prize. But we’re strong too. As long as Tan Mo goes onstage, we can steal a win.”
“It’s not a matter of could, it’s a definite win for us if Tan Mo goes on stage,” Wang Yuemu declared.
Pu Xinyan nodded as well. “I think so too.”
If the students from Tsinghua could have heard this conversation, they would’ve definitely lost their minds.
“We’ll just have to take a look at this year’s rules book. If it’s similar to last year, which said that we don’t have to switch out people in every round, then we’ll leave it all up to Tan Mo,” Ying Siyuan said determinedly.
“Hold on,” said their teacher, Mr. Lao, helplessly. “I’m still here, you know. You’re really making this decision right in front of me without consulting me?”
They all looked directly at Mr. Lao. “Do you want to win the competition?”
He nodded his head. “Of course.”
“If we want to guarantee this victory, we must follow through with this plan,” said Wang Yuemu.
Mr. Lao had nothing left to say. It seemed as if he was now a mere figurehead with no say in the matter.
These students really didn’t take him seriously.
Professor Guo, who was at the canteen, had no idea that these students had already settled on the competition’s formation.
A few students saw that time was almost up so they finished their stroll around the school gardens. Then they walked toward the canteens, asking locals for the better canteens.
Soon after they’d grabbed lunch and sat down, five others sat down at the table next to them. They placed their water bottles to occupy the space and went to order their food.
Not long after, they came back and started talking among themselves.
“If Beijing University loses again, that will be so embarrassing.”
“Agreed. I really think that the number one spot will just always belong to us here at Tsinghua University. They just can’t compete with us at all.”
“I heard that our team for this competition is one of the strongest for the past few years.”
“Yeah, Zhang and Lin won the competitions last year and the year before. I also heard that teacher Zhao brought out all the questions from the past three years and had them recite them thoroughly until they made zero mistakes.”
“We’ve also got Wang. He organized all questions from the past five years into different categories and researched all the rules for those categories. After that, he split the team up into these categories. Different people would be assigned different categories. They might not have a full straight streak of scoring perfectly, but they’ll get at least 90 percent right.”
“With us being this prepared, there’s no way we won’t win.”
“We’re really about to put on a show for Beijing University, aren’t we?”
“That’s right. It used to be a close call in these competitions. But it seems that things are different this year, for our seniors really were determined to win solidly and bring pride to our school.”
Mr. Lao had initially wanted to reject the plan of sending Tan Mo as the single competitor to defeat the rest of the teams.
But now, as he heard these students gossiping, he put on a wooden face and whispered, “Tan Mo, this competition is entirely in your hands. Make sure you pull out a good win for us and let them have a taste of our abilities. Give them a good show and make sure they suffer as they watch us claim victory. We have to let them know that the first place will always belong to us, those from Beijing University!
“The other departments don’t matter, but at least for the Chinese Department, Beijing University will always be the best,” Mr. Lao whispered. “Let them know that our previous losses weren’t because we weren’t good enough, but because we hadn’t sent out our best of the best.”
The crowd around him was silent.
Mr. Lao, maybe your attitude is a bit too straightforward and blunt.
Shen Hongshan couldn’t control himself and blurted out, “Mr. Lao, were our previous losses really because we didn’t send out the best of the best?”
“Was it because they were too lazy and stayed at school to focus on research?” Wu Jiazhen eagerly asked.
“…” Mr. Lao looked at them with a shocked expression. “What are you all thinking? Professor Guo is very proud. There’s no way he wouldn’t send out the elites. Especially if it was against Professor Liu. Professor Guo has never taken this matter lightly.”
Once again, the crowd around him was silent.
They now understood.
Their previous losses had been real losses.
They just hadn’t been good enough. They just weren’t at the same level as Tan Mo.
“But didn’t Professor Guo tell Professor Liu that he hadn’t sent out all of his elite competitors? Everyone was busy doing research and hadn’t put in their all during the competition?” Chen Shihua, who understood the situation quite well, took this chance to ask a question of Mr. Lao, who couldn’t be too harsh since Professor Guo wasn’t around at this time.
