Proud Goddess Falls in Love with Me
Chapter 24 - 24 24 I've got this first place secured

24: Chapter 24 I’ve got this first place secured 24: Chapter 24 I’ve got this first place secured Lu Chuan’s complexion darkened, “Uncle really thinks too little of people!”

Chu Shanhe sneered, “I had someone look into your background yesterday.

A mediocre non-achiever, drifting through life, why should anyone respect you?”

He turned to the side, “You’re trying to get close to Mengyao merely to seize an opportunity for social climbing, hoping to ride on her status for your own success.

But I advise you to drop the idea.

Mengyao is already engaged to Young Master Long.

If you continue to deceive Mengyao, you can’t escape a fate that spells ‘death’.

I’m saving you!”

“As for today’s competition, you should stop wasting your time.

A man who can’t even deliver takeout properly claims to know medicine – don’t you find it laughable?”

Lu Chuan clenched his fists tightly but soon relaxed them.

He lifted his head high with confidence on his face, “The past does not determine the future.

I will prove you wrong with facts!”

Chu Shanhe’s expression darkened, deeming this kid ignorant and beyond help.

Just then, a refined young man around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, wearing glasses, approached and respectfully called out, “Uncle!”

Chu Shanhe gave a slight nod, “Zihang, you’re here.

Have you signed up?”

Du Zihang smiled and nodded, “I’ve already signed up.

Uncle, don’t worry.

You came especially to be the judge for me, and I will certainly secure first place to make you proud!”

He glanced at Lu Chuan and asked, “Uncle, who is this?”

Chu Shanhe was about to say ‘a jumping clown’, but after a moment’s hesitation, he spoke with a frosty face, “Your cousin’s friend.”

Du Zihang asked, “Is he also here to participate in today’s competition?”

“Mhm.”

Chu Shanhe’s eyes flickered, seeing an opportunity to knock Lu Chuan down a peg.

Therefore, he turned to Lu Chuan and said, “Zihang is a Ph.D.

from the nationally famous Traditional Medicine University, specializing in the field of medicinal material research and has won many international awards.

He is a true expert in this area.”

“And he is just one of my many nephews whose accomplishments are ordinary.

Mengyao is among the cream of the crop in their circle.

So, do you see the gap between you and Mengyao now?”

Lu Chuan cracked a smile, “No, I don’t.

All I know is that today’s first place is mine for the taking!”

Having said that, he turned and walked towards the competition venue.

Chu Shanhe gnashed his molars, his eyes growing grim.

“Arrogant and ignorant, bound to fail!”

Du Zihang curiously asked, “Uncle, don’t tell me that this fellow is intending to pursue my cousin?”

Chu Shanhe curled his lip, “He has no background, no education, an utter lowlife – what merits does he have to pursue your sister?”

“Zihang, you must show your strength in the competition later on, let him and others like him understand just how vast the gap is between them and the descendants of great families!”

Du Zihang responded with full confidence, “Don’t worry, Uncle, I don’t take even the old traditional doctors seriously, let alone him!”

Chu Shanhe nodded and walked towards the judges’ seats.

It wasn’t long before a middle-aged man in a traditional jacket appeared with a microphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the competition is about to begin.

Please have the contestants enter the arena in order.”

On the competition ground, rows of tables were neatly arranged with numbers written on them, and contestants took their positions in front of the corresponding tables.

Once everyone was in place, the middle-aged man continued, “The rules of this medicinal material identification competition are simple.

In a moment, staff will bring each of you a checkerboard.

There are one hundred squares on the board, and each square contains the residue of a medicinal material.”

“Your task is to observe and, within an hour, write down the names and years of these one hundred medicinal materials.

Rankings will be determined by the number of correct judgments.”

“Enough talk, let’s begin the competition!”

A group of staff brought out the prepared checkerboards to the contestants one by one.

After receiving his checkerboard, Lu Chuan glanced at it and noticed that many of the materials were reduced to a bit of powder, making it impossible to discern what they were, thus greatly increasing the difficulty of identification.

However, Lu Chuan wasn’t worried at all.

Even if the powders looked exactly the same, he could tell the difference with just a light sniff.

Once all the contestants had their checkerboards, the staff started the timer, and the middle-aged man loudly declared, “The competition begins!”

The contestants immediately began to distinguish the materials with great care.

They sniffed, tasted, or used magnifying glasses for observation.

Each medicinal material had to be repeatedly confirmed with careful deliberation to ascertain what it was.

Determining the year was even harder; some people ate all the residues and still couldn’t figure out the year of origin.

In contrast, Lu Chuan merely picked up each medicinal material, sniffed it lightly in front of his nose, and immediately wrote the name and year of the material on the paper.

In just fifteen minutes, he had identified all one hundred medicinal materials and handed the completed paper to the judges’ seats.

Spectators watching the commotion were surprised to see Lu Chuan submit his paper so soon, but even more were scoffing.

“This guy gave up so quickly.

What a waste of the five hundred yuan registration fee.”

“I saw he only sniffed them, didn’t do anything else—probably a half-baked practitioner thinking he was quite powerful, but he can’t identify a single medicinal material and had to give up.”

“But the paper he submitted is filled with writing.

Could it all be wild guesses?”

…

Du Zihang gave Lu Chuan a disdainful sniff, his facial expression revealing scorn.

Like everyone else, he thought that Lu Chuan had failed to identify anything and therefore simply gave up.

Without further thought, he seized the time to continue identifying the herbs.

The judges on the panel saw Lu Chuan submit his paper so quickly, all of them shook their heads in silence.

Based on their past experience, those who finished the competition in just ten or so minutes were usually just messing around.

“It’s normal for young people to join in the fun,” Chief Judge Zhou Siming muttered to himself.

He was a well-known old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in Cloud City and considered a prominent authority in the field of Chinese medicine, with an exceedingly high status.

When Lu Chuan handed in his paper, Chu Shanhe even asked, “Is this what you call confidence?”

Lu Chuan just smiled faintly without paying him any attention and went to the resting area to wait.

The judges showed little interest in the paper Lu Chuan submitted, knowing that even if they looked at it, there probably wouldn’t be many correct identifications, so no one wanted to waste their time.

Chu Shanhe, being an honorary judge invited to the event, knew nothing about medicinal herbs and couldn’t make head or tail of them.

The reason he sat there was because he sponsored the competition.

Only Zhou Siming, a bit bored, took the paper Lu Chuan had submitted.

Seeing this, Chu Shanhe said, “Old Zhou, there’s no need to look at it.

I know that kid, he just came to make up the numbers.

He can’t identify many herbs.”

Zhou Siming laughed, “He’s written his answers in great detail, I’m just curious to see how outrageous they could be.”

Then his gaze fell upon the answers written by Lu Chuan, and after looking over a few of them, his expression froze.

He straightened up in disbelief, put on his reading glasses, and began to carefully examine Lu Chuan’s answers.

Soon, he had finished checking all one hundred answers, his face showing a look of disbelief.

The other judges, seeing Zhou Siming’s reaction, became curious.

“Old Zhou, what’s wrong?” one of them asked.

Chu Shanhe said, “Could it be that the kid’s answers are so preposterous that they’ve angered Zhou?”

But they heard Zhou Siming slowly say, “He correctly identified all one hundred types of herbs!”

Everyone’s faces were filled with shock, and they quickly took Lu Chuan’s “answer sheet” to look over it carefully.

Chu Shanhe’s eyebrows slowly knitted together as he glanced over at Lu Chuan, his mood turning sour, “Perhaps Old Zhou is mistaken, there’s no way he is that skilled.”

The judges collectively compared Lu Chuan’s answers and ultimately reached a unanimous confirmation that Lu Chuan had indeed identified each of the one hundred types of herbs without a single mistake, and all the ages were spot on without the slightest error.

“A genius, this person is absolutely a genius!

Among the herbs we set, many are extremely difficult to identify.

Being able to identify eighty percent would have easily put someone in the top five, yet he identified them all correctly without a single mistake.

This truly happens only once in a hundred years!” one of them exclaimed.

Zhou Siming said with a smile, “And he only took fifteen minutes.”

“It seems that the first place of this competition undoubtedly belongs to him.”

All the judges nodded their heads in agreement.

Chu Shanhe’s expression, however, turned extremely dark, and he muttered through clenched teeth, “Gentlemen, the competition is not over yet, choosing the first place winner now seems a bit hasty.”

The judges just smiled and did not reply.

Chu Shanhe was an amateur and did not understand what it meant to identify all one hundred types of herbs correctly.

One hour later.

The competition ended, and the staff collected everyone’s answers.

The judges quickly commenced their evaluations.

Chu Shanhe sat on the side with a dark face, as if waiting for something.

Full of confidence, Du Zihang walked up to Lu Chuan and said with a smile, “Why haven’t you left?

When the results are announced, aren’t you afraid of being laughed at?”

Lu Chuan laughed and said, “If I had left, they wouldn’t be able to present the award for first place.”

Du Zihang, speechless, thought this guy was too full of himself and immediately lost the desire to engage with him.

At the judges’ table, the judges had finished evaluating all the answers and recorded the scores.

Zhou Siming said with a smile, “Who would have thought that this time we’d actually have someone who identified them all correctly.

That’s truly rare.”

Chu Shanhe immediately perked up and asked eagerly, “Is that person named Du Zihang?”

Zhou Siming nodded, “Yes.”

Chu Shanhe let out a sigh of relief, his face revealing a pleased smile, “He’s my nephew.

He hasn’t let me down this time.”

Zhou Siming said with a smile, “Congratulations to the Family Head of the Chu family, then.

He came in second this time; there shouldn’t be any problem with that.”

Chu Shanhe frowned, “Second place?

Didn’t he identify them all correctly?

Why only second?”

Zhou Siming explained, “Though Du Zihang identified them all, for the age of one herb, he wrote ‘eight to ten years,’ giving a range, while Lu Chuan clearly stated that the age of the herb was eight years, and the answer indeed was eight years.

From this perspective, Lu Chuan edges out slightly, plus it only took him fifteen minutes to write all the answers.”

Chu Shanhe’s eyes narrowed, and after pondering for a moment, he said coldly, “This won’t do.”