I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 234 - 226: The Finals 2

Chapter 234: Chapter 226: The Finals 2

In the brief fifteen minutes, the first round of the competition: a complete wipe out!

The three students on stage all failed to solve the three problems within the allotted time, not to mention the third question, the fastest one among them didn’t even finish the second question.

There was a collective sigh from the audience, clearly, the difficulty of the questions far exceeded everyone’s expectations present.

Several professors sat expressionless in their seats, waiting for the next round.

Survival of the fittest, they had long been accustomed to such scenes.

The dean of instruction sitting in front of Qingran took out a handkerchief from his pocket and began to wipe the sweat from his forehead, his movements somewhat shaky.

Even Qing Mo sitting behind Qingran exclaimed "holy shit" several times in surprise.

Qingran shifted her gaze away from the big screen on stage, looking down at the results she had calculated on seven pages of sticky notes, with different answers written on the second, fourth, and seventh pages respectively, and the time she spent was exactly fifteen minutes.

It was these fifteen minutes that she relied on her strength in taking notes; it was understandable why those students on stage couldn’t complete the problems.

Beside her, Bai Wenxing’s voice came again, "Li Qingran, shall we compare answers?"

Qingran glanced sideways at him, the refined and handsome youth was smiling warmly, holding his draft paper filled with densely packed formulas.

Clearly, when the problems were displayed on the stage screen, Bai Wenxing was solving them as well.

Qingran silently shook her head at him; the answers would be announced in less than two minutes, and she truly had no desire to waste that time comparing answers with him.

A hint of disappointment flashed across Bai Wenxing’s face.

"Fine," he said softly, "the answers will be displayed soon anyway."

As soon as Bai Wenxing’s voice fell, the answers were displayed on the big screen.

Among those three students, one of them got the first question wrong.

Another who barely managed to work through the second question didn’t do any better, as he made a mistake halfway through the formula for the second question.

A complete wipe out was indeed embarrassing; their teachers sat with heads hung low, sighing silently in their seats.

Qingran flipped to the second page to check the answers; the solution on the second page was correct, and she then checked the fourth and seventh pages—the remaining two answers were also correct.

This meant she had completed the task of solving three problems within 15 minutes.

Bai Wenxing, not giving up, asked Qingran again, "Your answers are all correct, right?"

Qingran nodded, although she guessed that Bai Wenxing’s answers might be correct as well, she still counter-asked, "What about you?"

Bai Wenxing smiled, his expression radiant, and behind the reflection on his glasses, there was the confident glow of a young man’s eyes: "The same."

After all, he was an opponent who could contend with Qingran and Xie Ying’an.

His answers were correct as well.

Xie Ying’an at this moment just glanced indifferently at Bai Wenxing, then reached out to turn Qingran’s head toward himself, closed his eyes, and continued to lean on Qingran’s shoulder, pretending to nap.

Qingran: "..."

What’s the meaning?

When the second round started on stage, the atmosphere in the entire arena was very subdued; everyone in the audience was nervous for the participants.

Each competition featured a different set of problems.

When the problems for the second round appeared on the big screen, Qingran didn’t rack her brains to calculate; she was afraid of wasting too much energy, leaving her with not enough when it came time to face the actual problem-solving.

Bai Wenxing had flipped to a new page of scratch paper before the start of the second question and was still solving problems along with the students on stage.

The teachers from City No.1 High School looked at Bai Wenxing, who was absorbed in his calculations, with eyes filled with satisfaction. Then, turning to look at F High’s side, they saw the female student who had just been following along with the first round of problems and noticed that she had now started to rest with her eyes closed, not solving problems anymore. Their smiles were somewhat cryptic.

Old Wu was still anxiously rooting for the students on stage, torn between hoping they would succeed and hoping they wouldn’t, so his students would have fewer competitors. With such conflicting feelings, he had no time to pay attention to the teachers from City No.1 High School.

Even if he had noticed them, it wouldn’t have made any difference. As long as it didn’t affect the performance of the students who were about to go on stage, he would rather have them rest and gather their strength.

As expected, all four students in the second round were wiped out!

One student had actually managed to solve the last problem, but the bell rang just as he was writing the last digit. His answer didn’t count.

After days of hard work, it was all in vain. The student couldn’t help but take off his glasses and wipe away his tears, and his teacher in the audience, as if in sympathy, couldn’t help but dab at their own eyes.

The fat professor sitting next to Lin Zhou couldn’t stand to watch any longer. He picked up the microphone and consoled the student, which helped improve the student’s mood a bit.

It was only when Bai Wenxing stopped writing that he realized Li Qingran hadn’t been following the second round at all. He pursed his lips, and after checking the second round’s answers, which were all correct, he put away his scratch paper and didn’t continue with the third round.

Finally, at the end of the third round, one student passed.

The student’s success was a close call. The professors from Q University and B University did not compete for him; only the fat professor from F University asked if he was willing to come to their university.

The student looked at the professors from Q University and B University several times. Seeing that they had no intention of speaking up, he nodded gently at the fat professor.

"Eh?" Li Qingmo was puzzled and called out from the back, "Old Wu? Old Wu?"

Although he deliberately kept his voice low, Old Wu, who was seated a row in front of him, still heard.

Old Wu looked back uncertainly: "Is someone calling me?"

Li Qingran pointed backwards toward her brother.

Old Wu pretended not to see Xie Ying’an, who was leaning on Qingran’s shoulder, and looked straight past them towards Li Qingmo.

Seeing that it was that troublemaker, Old Wu’s head started to ache: "What’s the matter?"

"Didn’t you say there were only five reserved spots for this competition?" Li Qingmo spread his hands, expressing the question in the minds of all the students present: "If five students pass in the early rounds, won’t the reserved spots be all taken?"

"Oh, right," Old Wu put on the appearance of suddenly realizing: "My bad for not explaining it clearly. Q University, B University, and F University each have five reserved spots."

Li Qingmo rolled his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and grumbled: "Such an important matter and you can’t even explain it clearly..."

What use are you?

They had completely forgotten that the phrase "there are five reserved spots" they heard in the car earlier had been said by the director of studies.

Seeing that the fourth round had started, Qingran patted Xie Ying’an’s arm to wake him up.

Xie Ying’an remained unresponsive with his eyes closed.

Qingran turned her head and looked over. The boy leaning on her shoulder had his eyes closed, possibly because his fever had been burning for too long, his face had turned from pale to a flushed red...

Since she could remember, Qingran had never seen Xie Ying’an’s face this red before, so red it made her want to pinch it to see if it felt as good as it looked.

She couldn’t really pinch him, but she also couldn’t just not wake him up.

After a while, Qingran still couldn’t resist and gently patted Xie Ying’an’s face twice.

Tsk! The touch was indeed nice.

The next moment, Xie Ying’an suddenly opened his eyes. The clear brightness in the boy’s dark eyes didn’t show the slightest sign of illness.