After Chen Zi'ang's competition, it was Lin Zhuoqun's turn. Lin Zhuoqun is definitely a genius among geniuses. He has shown extraordinary talent in mathematics since he was a child. He has won many awards since the day he came into contact with mathematics, including many international awards. However, among the many mathematics competitions, he is best at Sudoku.

Sudoku is a mathematical game originated in Switzerland in the 18th century. Players need to infer the numbers on the 9×9 board from the numbers on the other spaces, so that each row, column, and grid contains nine numbers from 1 to 9, but no repetition is allowed. This requires strong logical thinking and reasoning skills, and is a very brain-intensive game.

Lin Zhuoqun has been very interested in Sudoku since he was a child, because it is a mathematical project that combines both games and learning. He has won many major awards in Sudoku and can be said to be unrivaled in Sudoku. However, his opponent Kyle is no ordinary person either.

Kyle is 17 years old, 6 years older than Lin Zhuoqun. He is from the Department of Mathematics at Harvard University in the United States and is a world-class Sudoku genius. He has won the gold medal in the International Sudoku Competition and is now ranked eighth in the world Sudoku rankings.

The two people's competition today is Sudoku. There are nine glass walls in front of each of them, and on each glass wall is a Sudoku board. The reason why the Sudoku boards are made of glass is that when the two people are answering the questions, the audience can also clearly see the numbers written by the two people on the back of the wall. There is no time limit for their competition. Whatever team completes nine Sudoku puzzles first will have the other team's Sudoku puzzles exploded immediately by a device inside. At that time, the glass wall will break, preventing the slower team from continuing to answer questions.

Winning or losing Sudoku is very simple. As long as the logical reasoning is in place, you can connect the numbers and fill in the empty squares. There is no problem of verifying whether the answer is correct. Therefore, time is the only criterion for winning this game. Whoever finishes first is the winner.

This competition, which combines games and intellectual confrontation, is very interesting and the audience enjoys watching it with gusto. However, Lin Zhuoqun fell behind from the beginning of the game. It might be because of the huge age difference between him and his opponent, or it might be because of the pressure from his opponent's lofty status as sixth in the world. He seemed very nervous and in poor condition at the beginning, and was suppressed by the opponent's momentum.

Bang-bang-bang-bang

When Kyle finished filling in the blanks on the nine Sudoku puzzle boards in front of him, Lin Zhuoqun's remaining three Sudoku puzzle boards all burst into pieces.

He put down the hand holding the pen dejectedly and burst into tears on the spot. He was only an 11-year-old boy, and only then did he truly reveal the childishness and fragility that he should have at his age. He had achieved success at a young age and had always been successful. This might be the first failure he had experienced in his life.

His opponent Kyle showed the grace of a strong man. He looked at Lin Zhuoqun who was crying silently, and quickly walked up to him to give him an encouraging hug. He said to him in broken Chinese: "Lin, don't cry, you performed very well! I still remember that when I was 11 years old, my strength was only one tenth of yours now. Your future is limitless. I believe that after a while, you will definitely surpass me. I'm waiting for you!"

Everyone present was moved by them. At that moment, there were no national boundaries, no racial segregation, only academic exchanges and resonance of knowledge!

Everyone gave the two of them their warmest applause.

Clap, clap, clap - the applause was like thunder and lasted for a long time.

Lin Zhuoqun stepped off the stage and came backstage, crying and apologizing to Qiao Chu: "Sister Qiao, I'm sorry, I lost..."

You can see that he was really sad. His face was covered with tear marks, and even the sleeves of his clothes were wet from wiping his tears. However, his sadness was definitely not because he could not accept his own failure. He just felt that he had brought shame to the country. Failure in such an important link would most likely cause the entire Chinese team to lose in this competition.

Now the score between the Chinese team and the American team is 1:1, which is a tie. The next step is to watch the third game.

Qiao Chu wiped Lin Zhuoqun's tears with a tissue and said gently, "Qun Qun, failure is normal. It is impossible to have no failure in life. Sometimes failure is a good thing. It will motivate you to become a better self."

With her comfort, Lin Zhuoqun finally stopped crying, but he was still worried, "I didn't get a single point, I'm afraid of what's going to happen next..."

Qiao Chu shook her head, her eyes full of determination, and promised solemnly: "Qun Qun, don't worry, Sister Qiao promises you that our Chinese team will definitely win the final victory!"

After a while, Qiao Chu's game finally began. Her game was the last one in this international competition and it also determined the final outcome of this international competition.

Qiao Chu came on stage amid the applause of the crowd. She was dressed very fresh today, wearing a modified school uniform, which is the legendary sailor suit. This dress made her look particularly fresh and refined, as if the most beautiful school beauty in the two-dimensional world had walked out of the dimension and into reality. She was so beautiful as a dream, especially the pair of snow-white and slender long legs exposed under her school uniform skirt. Under the illumination of the stage lights, they were as white as snow and exuded a charming luster.

The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became very heated. Fu Zhen, who had been somewhat absent-minded, sat up straight and stared at his girlfriend on the stage with concentration, without even blinking.

Qiao Li, who had been paying attention to Fu Zhen, of course also noticed his changes. She clenched her hands tightly on her thighs, and the blue veins on the back of her hands were faintly visible. She clenched her teeth and tried to keep smiling, but bubbles of jealousy kept bubbling up from the bottom of her heart.

She looked at Qiao Chu standing on the stage with a smile on her face and felt it was glaring. Such a smug and high-spirited smile should not appear on Qiao Chu's face. She was obviously an ugly duckling from childhood to adulthood, so why did she suddenly become a white swan?

She is obviously the white swan! Qiao Chu is just an ugly duckling who can't show himself to others! Always! The huge gap was unacceptable to Qiao Li. She began to feel restless. If Fu Zhen had not been right next to her, she would have wanted to spend more time with him and would have gotten up and left long ago. For her to watch Qiao Chu being so glorious in front of others would be more painful than killing her!

Qiao Li tried to endure it, and began to curse Qiao Chu in her heart to get temporary pleasure——

Let her embarrass herself!

Let the ceiling light fall and kill her!

Let her lose the game!

Let her... disappear!

These vicious curses calmed Qiao Li down temporarily, allowing her to sit in her seat and continue watching the game.

However, these curses did not materialize, nor did they affect Qiao Chu on the stage. She still stood on the stage with a smile, answering questions from the host Yu Yongjian.

"Student Qiao, this is your second time standing here, right? Your performance last time is still fresh in our memory. After so many days, have you made any progress? Will you bring us new surprises this time?"

Qiao Chu reached out and pushed the hair that had flown to the front behind her ears, revealing the pearl clip on the side of her hair. Her skin was as delicate as porcelain, even whiter than the pearls on her head. She smiled sweetly: "There must be progress. After all, everyone is making progress. If I am still standing still, I will be left behind. As for the surprise, please wait and see."

Yu Yongjian smiled and then asked, "Your opponent this time is the famous Ivan. Do you feel any pressure? Do you think you can beat him?"

It is definitely not an exaggeration to describe Ivan as a famous person. He is a student from Harvard University in the United States. He is 19 years old this year. Although he is young, he has achieved a lot. He is one of the “Top Ten Harvard Students” and is a god-like figure who is looked up to even at Harvard University. He is also a world memory master, having won the individual championship in the 19th “World Brain Championship” and broken four world records. His memory ability now ranks fifth in the world. He also published several books on memory that quickly became bestsellers. The president of Harvard University once publicly said that Ivan was one of the most outstanding alumni since the founding of the school, which shows how outstanding he is.

Such a powerful figure is exactly Qiao Chu's opponent today.

Facing a strong opponent, Qiao Chu did not show any nervousness. She calmly replied: "There will definitely be pressure. No matter what competition I participate in or what opponent I face, I will feel pressure. However, no matter what competition I participate in or what opponent I face, I will go all out!"

"Well said!" Yu Yongjian praised loudly. In fact, he also hoped that Qiao Chu would win. After all, Qiao Chu represented the Chinese side and they were one of them. However, as the host of this game, he absolutely could not show any partiality. After interviewing Qiao Chu, he walked to Ivan with the microphone and asked with a smile: "Ivan, your opponent today is not to be underestimated. Do you think you can beat her?"

Ivan is a tall and handsome young man. Foreigners' features are deeper than those of us Asians, and his face is more angular and exudes a sexy vibe, much like a Hollywood star. He smiled warmly, looking very sunny, and said, "Well... Actually, I didn't expect my opponent to be such a beautiful girl. She is the most beautiful Chinese girl I have ever seen. When I saw her, I thought I saw a goddess. I think she is like the legendary goddess Athena who represents wisdom and beauty. I feel very honored to compete with the goddess. As for winning or losing, I think as long as the competition is exciting enough, winning or losing is not that important."

Ivan looked at Qiao Chu with shining eyes and expressed high praise for her in his words. His praise was just right, neither making people feel excessive nor causing others to be disgusted. The audience immediately burst into good-natured laughter, and they all expressed their deep agreement with his words. As Chinese like Qiao Chu, everyone also felt proud. However, this "everyone" did not include Fu Zhen. He frowned his handsome eyebrows and stared at Ivan with a bad face. He always felt that this pretty boy seemed to have some intentions towards his girlfriend. His face was full of lust, which was very annoying.

Yu Yongjian also laughed after hearing what Ivan said. He joked, "Haha, Ivan, you are right. Our classmate Qiao is indeed both beautiful and intelligent. However, I still want to remind you that you should not only see her beauty. Her wisdom is even more amazing than her beauty."

Then, Yu Yongjian turned his gaze to the judges and asked, "I would like to interview a few judges. The two contestants standing on the stage are both so outstanding. Who do you think will win?"

Ren Yuanyuan spoke first: "I vote for Qiao, come on Qiao!"

After she finished speaking, she playfully made a cheering gesture to Qiao Chu.

Liang Zhongqiu continued, "I think Qiao will definitely win! Qiao really shocked me last time. In my eyes, no matter what the problem is, she can handle it. Come on!"

Liang Zhongqiu is almost becoming a fan of Qiao Chu. Even if Qiao Chu's opponent is a god now, he will vote for Qiao Chu without hesitation.

Yu Yongjian finally looked at Anderson, the only foreign judge, and said, "Professor Anderson, as the leader of the American team, you must think Ivan will win, right?"

Anderson nodded first, but then he shook his head. "I think Ivan will definitely win, but not because he is my teammate, but because of his ability. Ivan is the best student in our school. He has participated in countless competitions and he has never let us down. I think this time will be the same."

Anderson had great confidence in Ivan because he had never tasted failure in a competition.

"It seems that both of our challengers have their own supporters. Everyone has great confidence in you two. I wish you good results! I won't waste any more words. I believe everyone here is very curious about what kind of challenge they will take on next. Let me reveal it to you! The project that Qiao Chu and Ivan will challenge is called - Hang the Big Red Lantern High!"

As soon as Yu Yongjian finished speaking, the large circular screen on the stage suddenly lit up. Countless red lanterns appeared on the screen, illuminating the entire studio in red, as if it was on fire.

Yu Yongjian's face also turned red. "Everyone sees it, right? This is the big red lantern I mentioned. However, this is not part of the competition. It's just a reward later. Everyone, look at the screen behind me."

He pointed to the only large screen behind him where no lanterns appeared, and a landscape photo appeared on that screen. The photo showed a crystal clear lake with a mermaid statue next to it. "Copenhagen" was written below the photo. He pointed at the big screen and began to introduce the rules of the competition to everyone: "The lake in the landscape photo on the big screen is called Mermaid Lake. It is located in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Maybe you have never seen it because it is not an iconic landscape and is not very famous. In a while, such landscape photos will continue to appear on the big screen. They are all unknown landscapes or buildings from all over the world. Their locations will appear at the bottom of the photos at the same time. The two challengers have to remember these landscapes and their locations. Afterwards, we will randomly select these landscape photos and ask the two challengers to say their corresponding locations. Whoever answers more accurately will be the winner!"

Hualalalal——

There were exclamations from the audience. This challenge was very difficult. Not only did we have to remember the scenery or buildings, but we also had to remember their corresponding locations. You know, scenery and buildings are not so easy to remember. They have all kinds of details, such as: the size of the lake, the type of trees, whether the statues are people or graphics, how many floors the building has, the style of the building, the type of flowers...

You must ensure that you remember more details to improve your accuracy, otherwise it will be easy to confuse it with other scenery and buildings. This is definitely not an easy task.

This is... too difficult, right?

Yu Yongjian looked at Qiao Chu and Ivan on the stage, and seeing that their expressions didn't change, he then dropped another bombshell: "It's not over yet, I haven't told them how many photos they have to remember?" He walked around the stage, and seeing that everyone's appetite was whetted, he announced: "There are a total of 10,000 photos! The two challengers have to remember 10,000 landscape photos and their corresponding locations!"

"Wow—crazy?"

"Exciting! So exciting——"

"It's simply a fantasy!"

"It seems like I'm dreaming..."

The audience was excited!

Yu Yongjian still felt that it was not enough, so he added: "This is not over yet! We only give them 0.5 seconds to memorize each photo! While memorizing, we also want to invite the audience to listen to the symphony!"

“…”

The audience was silent. If the camera wasn't filming, they would have wanted to swear. This was simply leaving no room for people to survive. They only gave half a second to remember each photo, and they had to play a symphony to disturb people...

Program crew, please be human!

Ren Yuanyuan was amused. She laughed out loud: "Hahahaha - Teacher Yu, you are not kidding, are you? I think this is so funny! The production team is so playful. Quickly announce the proper rules of the competition and stop wasting everyone's time!"

Yu Yongjian shook his head and said to her seriously: "Yuanyuan, I am seriously announcing the serious rules of the competition. It is the one I just said. I am not joking."

"..." Ren Yuanyuan was silent for a while, "Have you ever done it when the program team gave you the questions?"

"I did, but... I failed..."

Ren Yuanyuan widened her beautiful eyes and said in disbelief: "You still use it as a competition item after you failed?"

Yu Yongjian said with a matter-of-fact smile, "Because they are not geniuses, they failed. Now we have to put our hopes on our classmates Qiao and Yifan. I hope they can succeed."

"That's right!" Liang Zhongqiu agreed, "I have great confidence in Qiao, I believe she will create a miracle!"

Anderson next to him was not to be outdone: "I believe in Ivan too. This challenge is no problem for him at all!"

Yu Yongjian looked at Qiao Chu and Yifan who remained calm on the stage and asked, "Now that you have heard the rules of the competition, what do you think? Do you think you can complete it?"

Qiao Chu smiled slightly: "You can give it a try."

Ivan was confident: "No problem!"

"Okay! Then I wish you both success! In addition, I have a few points to add. You will have a total of 84 minutes to memorize 10,000 landscape photos. On average, each photo will appear on the big screen for half a second. Please manage your time well. In addition, after 84 minutes, the big screen will randomly select from the 10,000 photos. Each time, two people will be required to answer. For each photo that appears on the big screen, the two challengers can immediately say which place it corresponds to. Whoever says it first and correctly will get one point. For each point the challenger gets, a red lantern will light up on the big screen behind him. The challenger who leads the other by 100 points will win the game! Do you understand?"

Qiao Chu and Ivan nodded: "I understand."

"Well, both of you start getting ready. When I announce the start, the big screen will scroll with pictures of the scenery and the corresponding locations. Both of you please face the big screen."

Qiao Chu and Ivan turned their bodies towards the big screen, waiting for Yu Yongjian to announce the start.

Seeing that everything was ready, Yu Yongjian announced loudly: "I declare that this game officially begins!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the timer started counting down from 84 minutes, and a high-pitched symphony began to play on the scene, which sounded very shocking.

Qiao Chu and Ivan stared intently at the screen in front of them. The photos on it were scrolling so fast that it was dizzying.

Everyone was looking at the two of them and discussing casually below. They were not worried about disturbing Qiao Chu and Ivan on the stage because their voices could not be louder than the symphony.

Time passed by minute by minute, and the eyes of the audience friends who were watching the screen were sore, but Qiao Chu and Ivan still stared at the screen, trying hard to memorize, motionless, like two statues standing on the stage.

Finally, the long 84 minutes passed for the audience, but for Qiao Chu and his partner who had to memorize 10,000 photos, it seemed like just a moment. Anyway, the timer stopped, the picture on the screen disappeared, and it became blank.

"Okay, the time is up! Please take your positions, both challengers!"

Qiao Chu and Ivan respectively came to the positions arranged for them by the program team and stood on both sides of the stage. There was a large screen behind each of them, which was the screen where the red lanterns would appear later. In the center of the stage, facing the audience, there was another large screen, which was where the questions would be asked later.

Seeing that the two had already stood still, Yu Yongjian finally asked, "Excuse me, are you two ready?"

“Ready!”

"Then please look at the big screen. The questions will appear soon. Start answering them!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a landscape photo appeared on the big screen, and the area below the photo where the location should have been was mosaicked.

As soon as the photo appeared, Qiao Chu blurted out: "Sapporo."

Then, the mosaic under the photo disappeared, and the word "Sapporo" appeared. A red lantern then lit up on the big screen behind Qiao Chu, indicating that she had successfully scored a point.

The audience burst into thunderous applause——

However, the game had just begun when another landscape photo appeared on the big screen. This time, Ivan reacted faster and replied, "Rio de Janeiro." A red lantern also lit up behind him successfully, and the two were tied.

Next, the two players fought back and forth, neither giving in, the game entered a stalemate, and the score remained the same.

In the blink of an eye, the two people had answered thousands of questions, and the red lanterns behind them had lit up, leaving the audience stunned. Although a long time had passed, everyone had been sitting there without feeling tired or hungry. They were all attracted by the exciting competition and felt that this was a truly eye-opening experience.

Three hours passed like this, and Qiao Chu and Ivan also stood for three hours. At this time, Ivan began to fall behind. After all, he was just a mortal and had no plug-ins, while Qiao Chu had the skill of photographic memory.

Finally, after another hour, Qiao Chu was finally 100 points ahead, and she won!

Before Yu Yongjian announced the result of the match, all the audience stood up. They cheered, shouted, waved their arms, jumped, yelled, made noise, and some even cried loudly. Everyone was very emotional, and the scene was as lively as the World Cup.

Victory in this game was so hard to come by! It was such a difficult question, and the battle lasted for more than four hours. The opponent was so strong, but Qiao Chu, a sixteen-year-old girl, actually won!

They were all proud of her, cheering and moved...

Fu Zhen cheered for Qiao Chu with everyone in the crowd. It was rare for him to show his emotions so openly. He looked at his girlfriend on the stage affectionately, and his inner pride was incomparable.

The applause and cheers at this moment all belonged to Qiao Chu. She was so outstanding and so shocking. Everyone admired her and looked up to her, and she... belonged to him!

The scene got out of control again, but fortunately, the program crew learned from the lessons of the last challenge. More than 30 security guards were waiting outside the door and quickly controlled the chaotic scene. It took only more than 10 minutes to restore normal order.

After everyone quieted down again, Yu Yongjian announced loudly: "I declare that the winner of this game is Qiao Chu! The winner of this international competition is the Chinese team!"

Qiao Chu smiled, and all the contestants from the Chinese team in the audience also smiled. They finally won honor for the country, and Qiao Chu was the biggest contributor! They all blew loud whistles and signaled to Qiao Chu on the stage.

Qiao Chu waved to everyone with a pure and beautiful smile on her face. The lanterns behind her were like a red ocean, making her whole body radiant. Her beauty shocked everyone present.

Today, they all firmly remembered this extremely beautiful and intelligent girl. Perhaps Ivan was right. She was really like the legendary Athena, a goddess who could only appear in dreams...