I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 170 - 166: Semifinals 2

Chapter 170: Chapter 166: Semifinals 2

Qingran’s performance faltered at the critical moment, leaving not only Old Wu anxious but also the fat professor sitting among the judges even more so.

The young girl had employed an unconventional problem-solving approach that he hadn’t seen in many years. Since the last time he witnessed it, he had been somewhat obsessed, always hoping to see it again during the rematch.

Lin Zhou was hailed as a math prodigy during his school days, when the laudatory term ’divine talent’ had not yet been coined, and ’genius’ was the highest praise he could receive.

Back then, Lin Zhou’s problem-solving was characterized by his penchant for unconventional approaches; he could always solve problems in the fastest time and in ways others could not even fathom. Not only did the fat professor admire this talented seedling, but other students also held Lin Zhou in high regard.

Later on, it was unclear by what means the school managed to persuade Lin Zhou to stay at F University after his graduation.

At that time, even the fat professor believed Lin Zhou was capable of greater achievements, yet he chose to go with the flow.

It was also since Lin Zhou became an associate professor at F University that he began to solve problems using standard methods, never again employing the unconventional techniques of before.

"What... what’s wrong with this child?" the fat professor pointed at Qingran, his finger hovering over the microphone switch, wondering whether to call out to remind her.

Lin Zhou held down the hand the fat professor had on the microphone, his youthful eyes devoid of emotion: "Don’t bother, it’s her own problem."

Tsk! How indifferent, the fat professor thought.

He eventually withdrew his hand.

In just two short minutes, Old Wu had become so anxious that he had circled the corridor more than a dozen times.

Li Qingran’s performance had been top-notch as a junior, and the school had given her class considerable praise, leading Old Wu to believe that three of his students from class one had a 90% chance of making it through the rematch.

This was a modest estimate, as deep down, he was certain that all three students from class one would definitely pass the rematch.

Teacher Sun was also anxious, but she knew there was nothing they could do about it; those below were not allowed to give any hint to those above in any way. Any form of reminder would be considered cheating.

Cheating meant disqualification from the competition, and immediate elimination.

Even the seniors and juniors from F University behind them could sense that something was off.

A few senior sisters who were there for the last competition huddled together, whispering, "Hey, I have a strong impression of this junior sister. Our little Professor Lin had questioned her last time..."

"Yes, that’s right." The girl beside her agreed, "Our fat professor even said her problem-solving approach was very similar to Professor Lin’s from before."

"Oh my!" A girl who hadn’t come with them last time was somewhat surprised, "Really?"

They were somewhat skeptical, "Similar to Professor Lin’s genius phase? That must be quite the compliment!"

"No matter how great the compliment is, it’s useless!" A girl who had always been rather antagonistic towards them said with sarcasm, "Isn’t she just bombing out in the competition regardless?"

"I don’t think that girl is suffering from stage fright..." Another senior sister, who had been observing Qingran, touched her chin and adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose, "No matter how I look at it, it seems like she’s preoccupied with her own thoughts."

"Give me a break!"

Sighs erupted around her, even her good friend was somewhat incredulous, "In such an important setting, who would be so distracted by their own thoughts that they forget to answer the question?"

...

Xie Ying’an was the first to notice something was off with Qingran’s emotions, but there was a barrier between them to prevent cheating, made of opaque glass that covered most of their bodies, and they were forbidden from speaking while standing on the stage during the exam.

Speaking would be considered cheating.

Xie Ying’an didn’t know how to alert Qingran.

The young man stopped his pen, and it took a while before he came up with an idea.

Snap!

The clipboard with the answer sheet fell to the ground, making a crisp sound.

Qingran, who had been immersed in her own world, was jolted awake by the slight noise.

She almost looked up at the big screen displaying the question immediately, and sure enough, the screen had already presented the question at some point.

The time on the side had already passed 3:21 seconds.

She had less than 17 minutes left to solve the problem, and at this moment, she hadn’t even looked at the question.

Qingran steadied her breathing, knowing that she absolutely must not get nervous at this time; the moment she does, she’d definitely be too late.

She grabbed the pen and answer board beside her, stopped looking at the continuously diminishing time, and started focusing on the question.

Xie Ying’an saw Qingran finally snap back to reality, and then he bent over to pick up the answer board he dropped.

Dropping the answer board simply wasted their own time; it wasn’t against the rules. The teacher supervising them didn’t say anything either.

The fat professor let out a chuckle when he saw this.

Sitting next to him, Lin Zhou looked expressionlessly at the fat professor and asked, "What’s funny?"

The fat professor shook his head, wearing an I-alone-am-sober-while-others-drunk expression, and sighed, "Ah, youth!"

Who hasn’t been young before?

It seemed Lin Zhou understood something; he stopped talking and turned his head back to continue watching the stage.

Thanks to the time Teacher Qin relentlessly trained them to speed up their problem-solving, Qingran soon had an approach for the first question in her mind.

Strictly speaking, except for having less seniority than Professor Yan, Teacher Qin had much more experience participating in various competitions. After all, the two were not from the same era, and in Professor Yan’s time, there weren’t as many resources and energy to host these events.

Teacher Qin particularly cared about the time they took to read and answer questions. He believed that since they couldn’t reduce the time spent writing, they definitely shouldn’t waste more time reading the questions.

After a period of leading by example from Teacher Qin, honestly, the speed at which the four of them read and solved questions improved considerably.

In under a minute of reading the question, Qingran had an idea for solving it and rapidly started to write the answer on the answer board.

Down below, Old Wu, who had broken out in a nervous sweat, finally relaxed, and while sitting and wiping his sweat he muttered: "This kid... scared me to death..."

A girl sitting next to Bai Wenxing watched the brow-furrowed Qingran on stage and mumbled to herself, "In such a short time, did she even read the question clearly? She couldn’t be guessing, could she?"

Bai Wenxing glanced at her and said indifferently, "Don’t judge others by your own standards."

The senior sisters from F University watching Teacher Qingran answer questions also got excited.

"It’s starting, it’s starting, our Junior Sister is making her move!"

"But... the three or four minutes she just lost, won’t that affect her?"

"I don’t know, man, those three questions are too complicated. I feel like, let alone twenty minutes, even two hours wouldn’t be enough for me to solve them."

"Whether I can solve the question isn’t really what I’m concerned about, I’m wondering why our Junior Sister’s skin is so good? Envious-ing..."

"Is it just good skin? Don’t you think that our Junior Sister’s features are even more refined than our department’s beauty?"

"You’re not the only one!"

"Yes! I’m tired of saying the word ’envious’!"

"Hey, hey, hey! While paying attention to our Junior Sister, did you not notice the loyal male junior behind her?"

"Ah! I noticed him long ago, did he deliberately let his answer board drop to remind our Junior Sister?"

"Impossible, right? There’s already not enough time to fight for every second, who would waste time for someone else’s sake?"

"I also think it’s unlikely. It must’ve slipped from his hand and dropped accidentally."

...