Seeing his son's pale face, Duanmu Yuan was worried that his confidence would be completely destroyed by the direct blow. After thinking for a moment, he comforted him, "But you don't need to think too much. It's not that Dad doesn't believe in you. It's just that the winner of this knowledge competition will largely determine the position of president of the academic association. Dad and your uncles are just doing this as a precaution."

He tapped the stack of answer sheets and said calmly, "What you see now is that Qin Sheng got all the questions she answered right, but from another perspective, she might just not have enough time, so she simply focused all her time and energy on the multiple-choice questions to ensure her score on that section."

"After all, as you know, to get points on fill-in-the-blank questions, you have to actually calculate the result, which is much harder than multiple-choice questions."

That's the logic.

But Duanmu Zicheng asked himself honestly, even if it were him, even if he put all his time and energy into multiple-choice questions, it would be difficult to guarantee a 100% accuracy rate on 600 multiple-choice questions.

Even if he could do it, just to be on the safe side, he would definitely set aside some time to do some fill-in-the-blank questions, otherwise, if he got even one question wrong, he would be eliminated immediately.

Qin Sheng did this entirely out of absolute confidence in his own abilities.

And the facts have proven that she does indeed have the capital to be confident.

Thinking this, Duanmu Zicheng's face paled even more.

Duanmu Yuan saw this and his face darkened.

"I've said everything I needed to say, and you know everything you needed to know." He pulled a stack of documents from his desk drawer and placed them on the table, saying, "These are materials that the association's two vice presidents and senior members compiled for you last night. There's still one day until tomorrow's exam, so go back and prepare well."

"Dad has calculated it for you. With your current score, as long as you can get 783 points or higher in the final round, even if Qin Sheng really defies the heavens and gets a perfect score of 1,000, he still won't be able to beat you and win the championship."

He gave Duanmu Zicheng a deep look and said, "Dad knows that defeating Qin Sheng has been your lifelong dream. Now the opportunity is right in front of you. It's up to you to seize it."

But this kind of victory is not what I wanted!

Duanmu Zicheng roared inwardly.

But when faced with Duanmu Yuan's deep and serious gaze, all his anger and sadness turned into a pale, cold smile at the corner of his lips.

What else is there to say?

He never cared what he thought; all he ever wanted was an academic association and the glory of the Duanmu family.

He was merely a handy and useful tool in his hands.

Duanmu Zicheng left the study in a daze, and then spent most of the day reading in a daze, not even knowing when he fell asleep.

The next morning, he suddenly shivered and woke up abruptly.

But then a figure dressed in a silver-gray robe and wearing a mask appeared in the room.

If Qin Zheng were here, he would definitely recognize that this was the Second Elder of the Black Prison who had just visited him not long ago.

At this moment, he was looking at Duanmu Zicheng with a scrutinizing gaze.

Duanmu Zicheng felt a surge of annoyance and asked sternly, "Who are you? What are you doing in my room?!"

The masked man chuckled and said, "Who I am is not important. What is important is that I can help you fulfill your long-cherished wish."

He clearly had no intention of beating around the bush. He reached for a document on the desk beside him and continued, "Don't you want to defeat Qin Sheng? I can help you."

Duanmu Zicheng's expression changed, his eyes filled with wariness: "What exactly do you want?"

The masked man gently rested his chin on one hand, a mocking smile flashing across his only exposed eye: "No need to be so nervous. I just saw that she was living too comfortably and had no ambition, so I wanted to give her some fun and give her a good thrashing."

The masked man casually tossed the materials back onto the desk: "These are the original exam questions for today. It's 6:52 now, so you have at least four hours to review them. With your abilities, after those extra four hours, you should be able to score 783 points without much trouble, right?"

"Then you have defeated Qin Sheng."

The masked man's voice was ageless, slightly deep yet clear, seemingly possessing a bewitching power.

Duanmu Zicheng felt the words "defeat Qin Sheng" echoing in his mind. When he came to his senses, the masked man was nowhere to be seen in the room.

His expression changed drastically.

His gaze fell on the desk not far away, where a stack of documents lay right in front of him, yet seemed a thousand miles away.

After a long while, so long that his gaze was almost out of focus, he slowly got up, walked to the desk, and slowly reached out to pick up the documents.

Suddenly, Duanmu Zicheng's gaze sharpened.

With a crisp "rip" sound, the thick stack of documents in his hand was torn in half, thrown to the ground, and stomped on hard!

His eyes hardened, and his voice grew even harsher: "Whether I win or not is my own business. If you want to control me, if you want to use me, get out! All of you, get out!"

The anger that had been building up since childhood poured out at this moment. Duanmu Zicheng vented all his resentment and bitterness on the document book under his feet, crushing it to pieces before collapsing onto the edge of the bed, exhausted.

He couldn't help but breathe heavily a few times.

Finally snapping out of his daze, his gaze shifted for a moment, and then, gritting his teeth, he pulled his phone from the bed and made a call.

Do you have Qin Sheng's contact information?

"I need to see her."

"Just tell me if you have it or not. If you do, send it to me. If not, then forget it."

He hung up the phone as soon as he finished speaking.

About ten seconds later, my phone chimed, and a WeChat message popped up—a string of numbers.

Duanmu Zicheng's gaze shifted again, and in his struggle, he pressed the dial button.

The call was not answered.

Duanmu Zicheng then stopped pressing the issue and continued hitting him.

After thinking for a moment, he quickly edited a message. Just as he was hesitating whether to reveal his identity, he heard a faint, familiar chuckle in his ear. The next moment, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck.

Duanmu Zicheng's consciousness quickly faded into darkness.

In his last moments before losing consciousness, all he could do was press send to send the text message he had prepared.

Ding dong, sent successfully.

The masked man looked at the still-lit screen, then glanced at the tattered file folder on the desk, its original form no longer recognizable.

A glint of interest flashed in his eyes.

He paused, then reached for Duanmu Zicheng's phone and edited the message again.

I've taken this kid who hates you so much yet foolishly tries to stick to his principles. Do you want to come and rescue him?

Wait until midnight, otherwise all that'll be left is a corpse.