Chapter 174: Targeting You Specifically
It turned out to be approximately only ten seconds in total from when Tan Mo answered the question and when the host confirmed her answer.
If they were to add the time of the countdown, then it would be a total of 20 seconds.
Thus, a CLANG would be heard every 20 seconds, so to speak.
Not only did the compet.i.tors’ heads start buzzing, those in the crowd had also started to feel it.
What a CLANG!
They couldn’t even p.r.o.nounce harder words properly anymore.
Other than Beijing University, four of the other universities were all at zero at this point.
But Tsinghua was different.
They were at -one.
Professor Liu laughed coldly. “My old friend, you really have a few tricks up your sleeve, don’t you?”
Professor Guo wasn’t being his old blunt self anymore.
“Didn’t you say that Tan Mo wouldn’t be able to handle this round as well?” Professor Liu asked coldly.
“Hee, hee, hee, hee.” Professor Guo was now relaxed, and he felt much more refreshed. “That was what my impression of her was. Who knows? Maybe she worked hard and honed her skills and brushed up on her knowledge of the content. I’m surprised too!”
Zhao Xiaoou had turned white. She was about to cry.
She bit hard on her lip.
All her hard work and effort in the past few months had been wasted.
She felt as if she had read all those books for nothing.
Tan Mo was too insulting.
Zhao Xiaoou hadn’t even had a chance to fight for the buzzer.
Tan Mo didn’t even look at the question before pus.h.i.+ng the buzzer.
Was she really that confident in her knowledge?
They were finally at the last question. Zhao Xiaoou could only push her hands down on the table.
Now she knew how Lin Zhenhui felt.
The last question was up.
If she wanted to fight for the buzzer, she could only follow what Tan Mo did and fight for it without looking at the question at all.
Not only that, she’d have to be quicker than her as well.
That would be hard.
In addition, if she was right, she’d earn a point. But if not, a point would be deducted.
If she couldn’t see the question, how would she know whether she could answer the question?
Wouldn’t this be a gamble?
Zhao Xiaoou hadn’t even finished her thought process before the countdown had already ended.
As the numbers disappeared from the screen, the tenth question appeared on the screen.
The crowd had already gotten used to the CLANG! from Tan Mo.
And, suddenly, it wasn’t heard.
The audience, the compet.i.tors, the teachers, and the six professors all looked at Tan Mo.
Why didn’t you press the buzzer?
Tan Mo was seen to be looking down at her table. No one was sure just exactly what she was investigating.
Was she thinking about whether or not she should press the buzzer?
She had already pressed all the buzzers in the past two rounds. What was there to think about?
Oh, hold on, there was that one time when Lin Zhenhui had pressed the buzzer.
Don’t mention it.
Everyone had one thought then. Will you press the buzzer?
Tan Mo seemed to pick up on the tense atmosphere from the silent crowd.
She raised her head and looked at all the other compet.i.tors from left to right.
“Isn’t anyone going to push the buzzer?” she asked.
The crowd waited with bated breath.
What on earth?
You’re waiting for someone else to press the buzzer?
We’re the ones waiting for you to push it.
Tan Mo pointed at the screen. “There’s still time. You can read the question before competing for the buzzer.”
The crowd stayed quiet.
“I’m not gonna fight for it. It’s the last question, so I’ll leave it to the seniors.” Tan Mo was worried that no one would take her seriously, so she put her hands behind her back.
Now the buzzer was far from her reach.
The crowd was stunned.
Oh, my G.o.d, just how arrogant are you?
Everyone uncontrollably sighed.
She was this arrogant.
She had already answered all 18 questions correctly. Whether or not she answered this one wasn’t an issue for her.
However, some people did suspect that maybe she didn’t know the answer to this question.
Maybe it was because of this that she didn’t fight for the buzzer.
Zhao Xiaoou thought exactly this.
Tan Mo didn’t know the answer to this question and was worried about losing face. Hence, she didn’t fight for the buzzer. Instead, she acted as if she was being nice about it.
“She definitely doesn’t know the answer to this question.” From the compet.i.tors’ stand, Huang Mingshun boldly declared. He was the arrogant boy from before.
“That’s what I think too. The last question for each round is the hardest. Very few compet.i.tors in the past years have been able to answer them correctly,” another compet.i.tor said coldly. “As senior Zhao has collated in her information sheet, the chances of you getting the tenth question in each round correct was only 10 percent.”
Tai Anjing pouted. “If Tan Mo really wanted to give others a chance, why didn’t she just do it in the first question? Why leave it to the very last one?”
“Exactly!” Lin Zhenhui grasped at straws as he shouted. Answering the last question wrong was not embarra.s.sing at all.
“Tan Mo doesn’t know the answer herself and would find it humiliating if she couldn’t answer it correctly, so she just decided to not fight for the buzzer. She even wants everyone to think that she’s so confident.” Lin Zhenhui huffed.
“Senior Lin was done wrong by Tan Mo.” Huang Mingshun was outraged.
Zhao Xiaoou didn’t want to think or talk about just exactly what the situation was surrounding Tan Mo.
If she wasn’t going to fight for it, then she’d take the chance to read the question.
This was the only question she’d had time to read.
Tan Mo could answer each question extremely quickly and move on to the next one. When Tan Mo had finished answering, Zhao Xiaoou hadn’t even properly digested the question’s contents.
That was such a pitiful feeling!
But now, after reading the question, Zhao Xiaoou realized that she couldn’t answer it for she didn’t know which was the correct answer.
There were just way too many texts.
She hadn’t read this one at all.
She didn’t even know where the question came from.
Her mouth started getting dry, and even her breathing started to become difficult.
Her hand was right above the buzzer, but she just couldn’t press it.
She looked at the remaining four contestants.
They all had uptight expressions and looked grave.
It seemed as if they were all weighing up their options and chances of getting the answer correct if they were to press the buzzer.
“There are 30 seconds left. If no one decides to answer, this round will end with the last question being waived,” the host reminded everyone.
Sounds erupted from the audience.
No one could decide on an answer. It was now even harder to concentrate with the extra noises in the background.
“Senior Zhao, won’t you try?” Tan Mo turned to look at her.
“…” Zhao Xiaoou pursed her lips and curtly replied, “Why don’t you ask the other compet.i.tors?”
Tan Mo only smiled sweetly back at her. “The others had never looked down on us from Beijing University.”
Zhao Xiaoou had nothing to say to that.
Neither did the crowd.
Ruthless!
That was way too ruthless!
Tan Mo was explicitly saying that that’s right, I’m targeting you from Tsinghua specifically.
Who asked you to be so flamboyant and arrogant before the compet.i.tion even began?
Tan Mo just wanted to prove to everyone just how much they blew their own trumpets beforehand.
Now it was her turn to be arrogant and show off during the compet.i.tion itself.
Targeting you purposefully was her main goal. Now I’m pressuring you as much as I can.
No one would argue against what Tan Mo was doing.
Who told those from Tsinghua to look down on Beijing anyway?