“Who said that we were going to lose the competition?” Professor Guo gave Professor Liu a stern look. “If anything, make sure you don’t get too upset if you lose…since you have been so arrogant and all.”
All the professors sitting in the distinguished visitors’ area sighed to themselves. Based on the current situation, it was very likely that Tsinghua would claim victory again.
It seemed as if Beijing University wasn’t going to be able to claim the title as champions within the Chinese Departments.
If these four other professors didn’t believe in Professor Guo, neither would Professor Liu.
In his opinion, Professor Guo was simply clutching at straws.
As long as the competition wasn’t officially over, he would not admit defeat.
“Hee, hee, hee.” Professor Liu laughed as he took a sip from his tea. “My old friend, it’s been so long! You haven’t changed at all, have you? You still love to save face just as much as you always have.”
HMPH! Professor Guo didn’t dare to say anything more. He was worried that he might slip up and reveal something he shouldn’t.
He’ll just have to wait for the competition to be over to see the look on Professor Liu’s face. That moment would just be fantastic!
Mr. Lao, on the other hand, was struggling a bit. He felt as if his stomach was full of gas. It was true that he didn’t know Tan Mo as well as Professor Guo did.
However, since everyone else had so much confidence in her, Mr. Lao buried his suspicions and hesitations. He firmly said, “Tan Mo, you’re up.”
Tan Mo nodded and stood up. “Mr. Lao and fellow team members, please rest assured that I will not leave the stage until the very last round.”
“No, not the last round. With a total of ten team members, the competition will have to end at the tenth round if I don’t step down. There won’t be any need for an 11th round,” Tan Mo exclaimed with mighty confidence.
The competitors from Nan University sat beside those from Beijing University, while those from Tsinghua University sat to their right.
Everyone saw Tan Mo walking toward the stage, and they felt more relaxed than ever.
“It seems as if they’ve already decided to give up.”
“I mean, it is one way for them to end the competition.”
“Even if they are giving up, they should’ve sent a more decent competitor. Sending a newbie up there is just too embarrassing.”
“Senior Lin, don’t you get soft!”
The six competitors from the six different teams went on stage and took their places in front of the podiums.
Lin Zhenhui was coincidentally standing right next to Tan Mo.
He laughed and said, “I haven’t asked you, junior, what’s your name?”
Tan Mo obediently replied, “Senior, it’s Tan Mo.”
“Your team sent you as the first competitor up here. Does this mean they’ve already decided to give up in the first round?” Lin Zhenhui was brimming with self-confidence as he asked her this rude question.
The other four competitors all heard this and felt extremely uneasy.
These students from Tsinghua really were sometimes too full of themselves.
Were they really that sure that they were going to win?
Tan Mo nervously rubbed her hands together and said, “It’s not like we’re all very confident, so why not let me try my very best? It’s my first competition too, so I’d appreciate your guidance along the way.”
“What do you mean saying that? It’s a competition, there’s no way I can help you out. I, for one, am going to do my best to beat you,” Lin Zhenhui replied curtly.
Tan Mo was afraid that the others couldn’t catch his bragging words and asked him to repeat himself. “Senior, what did you say? I couldn’t hear you clearly enough, do speak up.”
Maybe it really was because of Tan Mo’s apparent innocence, but Lin Zhenhui indeed raised his voice and yelled back at her, “I said, it’s a competition, so of course I will do my very best.”
Tan Mo was smiling like the cat who had swallowed the canary.
That’s the sentence I wanted everyone to hear!
Once you lose, don’t you dare say that you were going easy on me.
With that loud of a volume, it wasn’t guaranteed that the entirety of the audience had heard him, but at least half must have.
“Please may the competitors test out their buzzers,” said the host.
All six competitors pressed on their buzzers. There was no problem with any of them.
“All right, please look at the big screen. After the ten-second countdown, the first question will appear on the screen. Once the question is shown, you all will be able to compete for the answer. Since this is the new format of the competition, there will not be a sequence where the hosts will be reading out the questions,” the host announced.
Then, with a DEET-DEET noise, the ten-second countdown appeared on the big screen.
The first question was written in a homogeneous script.
The title of it as well…
The crowd all sighed. “They just couldn’t be nicer about these questions, could they? I can’t even decipher what this question is asking.”
Those from Beijing University sighed in relief.
“Thank goodness it was Tan Mo who has represented us from the beginning.”
It seemed as if, other than Tan Mo, no one else on stage looked very happy with the question.
It was too hard of a question.
They couldn’t even recognize all the characters on the screen.
It was ridiculous to set such a difficult question for the very first one in the entire competition.
Even the ever-confident Lin Zhenhui looked uneasy.
CLANG!
After just three seconds, when no one else had even fully processed the question in its entirety, Tan Mo pushed down on the buzzer.
All eyes were on her now.
Lin Zhenhui looked at her suspiciously. This Tan Mo, does she actually know the answer, or is she just clutching at straws?
“Tan Mo, let me remind you that you can’t just press the buzzer randomly. If you’re unable to answer the question, or answer it wrong, points will be deducted.” Lin Zhenhui couldn’t stop himself from saying.
He was worried that perhaps Tan Mo didn’t understand the instructions and rules clearly.
There was no way she would’ve thought that if she pressed the buzzer first, she would take away other competitors’ chances of answering, right?
Even if she wanted to exploit loopholes, didn’t she think this through at all? Wouldn’t the judges themselves have thought of these loopholes too and countered them?
How stupid!
“Beijing University, please answer,” the host said.
Tan Mo ignored Lin Zhenhui and firmly answered, “Option A.”
“The answer is correct!” The screen lit up as the host shouted it out.
“Please answer the second question.” The host lowered his voice. Without a trace of hesitation, another CLANG!
The crowd looked. Tan Mo again.
“Option C.”
“Correct.” The host continued, “The third…”
The screen had already shown the question before the host could even finish his sentence.
The crowd had only had time to read the very first character.
CLANG!
Lin Zhenhui started to get angry. “Tan Mo, have you even finished reading the question?”
“Nope.” Tan Mo was extremely honest.
That really angered him. “If you haven’t finished reading the question, why are you in such a rush for the buzzer?”
“The rules never said that you must finish reading the question before pushing the buzzer. I press the buzzer and then read the question. As long as I answer within the given time period, then it’s fine.” She turned toward the host. “Am I wrong?”
The host was speechless and helplessly shook his head. It was indeed just as Tan Mo had said. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
“You’re so confident, aren’t you? You’re sure you can answer the question when you haven’t even read it?” Lin Zhenhui asked her sarcastically.
But ironically, it was as if Tan Mo didn’t even recognize or care about his tone. She simply nodded and said, “Yup.”
Lin Zhenhui was taken aback. He had nothing left to say.
Tan Mo’s reply to what he had said made the entire aim of his question useless.
“If senior Lin thinks that all his opportunities have been taken by me, he could follow suit and do the same as I do. Once you hit the buzzer, you can answer.” Tan Mo smiled innocently and she tilted her head.
Lin Zhenhui was left speechless.
Whatever kind of a trick was this…?
If he could have done this, he would’ve ages ago. Wasn’t he confident enough to do so? But if he hit the buzzer and got the answer wrong, points would be deducted from his score.
It’d be even worse if he ended up losing points rather than earning them.
