Brain Syndrome
Ou Liyao had no classes the next day and slept until noon. She picked up her phone and immediately saw the 800-word essay Zheng Ruoqian had written for her.
She had just opened the article and started reading it word by word, before she had even finished reading the short essay, when Zhang Yuning started making a series of urgent phone calls.
After answering the call, he said there was nothing particularly important.
She asked, "Can I kill him with one punch?"
As she listened to him continue, she learned that he was participating in a brain-training variety show called "Smart People, Raise Your Hands." He had a few tickets for the inner audience and wanted to invite her and Xu Changjia to go watch the show together. He had left the tickets for them at the security office at her school gate and asked her to come and pick them up.
She verbally agreed, but showed no excitement whatsoever, and didn't even seem to want to get out of bed.
The person on the other end of the phone immediately urged her on upon hearing her lazy tone:
"Hurry up and get ready. We'll start recording at 6 p.m. sharp. We're waiting for you two to cheer us on. Wenxue is going to host his show 'Don't Step on the Legal Red Line!' so he can't come. It's just the two of you. I'll reimburse your travel expenses and give you a meal."
"Okay, okay, thank you so much, Professor Zhang, I'm coming right now." As soon as she heard that food was included, she perked up, threw off the covers, and prepared to get out of bed.
Sitting in the car, Zhang Yuning continued, "I texted Xu Changjia but she hasn't replied. She's probably still at the library. Senior Liberal Arts said she doesn't have class today, so remember to pick her up."
"Okay, Professor Zhang, can I get up first? I promise I'll be there by 6 PM."
Having gotten the result he wanted, Zhang Yuning hung up the phone with satisfaction and stepped into the control room of "Smart People, Please Raise Your Hands".
After hanging up the phone, Ou Liyao did not immediately contact Xu Changjia, but instead continued reading the short essay she had not finished reading earlier.
Zheng Ruoqian started by analyzing whether her singing was good or not. He spoke very objectively and sincerely. He also mentioned that the thing that gave her the most confidence was that she had a very stable stage presence when she was on stage, and that her lively and cheerful personality would definitely be a plus for her.
It made her almost believe that as long as she worked hard, she would definitely be selected for the talent show and debut.
I was so excited I almost jumped three feet high and bumped my head on the wall. I grabbed my laptop, randomly opened a talent show, downloaded the application form, and submitted it.
Before submitting, she was worried that the form she filled out was not good enough, so she sent it to Xu Changjia and asked her to help her see if there was anything that needed to be adjusted. Then she received a call from Xu Changjia.
Somewhat surprised, yet it seemed to make sense, "Yaoyao, are you going to participate in this talent show called 'Youth Dream Factory'?"
The voice on the other end of the phone was very low, and she guessed that the person must be in the library. She invited the person to her school first, and they could talk in detail when they met.
Upon meeting her, she first told her about going to Zhang Yuning's brain training program that evening, and then mentioned that she was somewhat interested in talent shows.
Holding the ticket in her hand, Xu Changjia smiled as if it were worthless; anyone who didn't know better would think she was a super die-hard fan of Zhang Yuning.
Finally, all of her friends have started their careers in the entertainment industry, which is a great start!
Immediately afterwards, she took the application form for "Youth Dream Factory" from Ou Liyao and looked at it. It was no different from the resume she filled out when looking for a job in her previous life.
It's just that the direction might lean more towards singing and dancing, so I really need to put some thought into writing it.
"Yaoyao, does this show require you to record any singing or dancing videos?"
She leaned closer affectionately, her eyes sparkling, "Yes, Jiajia, can you do this too?"
"I don't know how to do that, but if you teach me how to use your camera, I can record for you." She smiled and shook her head, but her mind was already on something much more distant.
The two of them discussed everything from the registration form to what songs to sing, what dances to do, and whether or not to wear makeup. They talked for a whole afternoon in the small garden near the school gate.
His throat was dry from talking, and Xu Changjia glanced at his watch and saw that there was very little time left before Zhang Yuning's brain-training variety show started.
We quickly grabbed the person and ran towards the school gate, but several taxis were full.
If they were really late, not only would it distract Zhang Yuning, but the two of them would also scold themselves for missing their good friend's glorious moment.
Fortunately, when they got on their seventh taxi, a young couple got off hand in hand.
The driver noticed that the two were in a great hurry. The speedometer reading never dropped below 100, and the scenery outside the window was very blurry. It felt like they were about to crash through the guardrails on both sides of the road at any moment.
At 5:55 PM, they entered the studio for "Smart People, Raise Your Hands" with their tickets and sat in the second row.
The recording is said to last five or six hours, bringing together smart people from all over the world to compete in various dimensions such as knowledge, observation, and logical thinking.
Ou Liyao quietly counted the contestants below. There were a total of fifty contestants, and ten people had already been eliminated in just the first round, which tested their observation skills.
"Jiajia, out of all those bowls of ice, how do you think Zhang Yuning managed to spot the difference in less than thirty seconds?"
"You're asking me?" She pointed a finger at herself, her face clearly saying, "Are you serious?"
Seeing her nonchalant attitude, Xu Changjia's face showed a half-smile, and he leaned close to her ear and said, "Sister, I'm a liberal arts student, how would I understand these physics and chemistry concepts?"
She looked into her eyes, and after less than three seconds of seriousness, she burst out laughing. The two of them stopped talking and continued watching the next few rounds of competition on stage.
The competition then reached a fever pitch, with the academic geniuses battling fiercely. After experiencing logic and reasoning, language and word games, and psychological warfare, the twelve remaining contestants on stage entered the final round of the day.
They faced a challenge that tested both their mental and physical abilities. The host's task was to translate a one-minute English passage from an audio file into Chinese while jumping rope.
As soon as the competition rules were announced, the audience sitting next to them sighed and couldn't help but complain: We came to watch the brain-teasing competition of academic geniuses, not to watch shamans perform dances!
The voices that kept rising from the sidelines were: "That's right, that's right, is the production team out of their minds? Why do they have to send a bunch of academic geniuses to perform shamanistic rituals on stage?"
Isn't this supposed to be a brain-training competition? How did it turn into a "Fun Sports Meet"?
Xu Changjia and Ou Liyao exchanged a silent glance and couldn't help but give each other a thumbs up.
On stage, the host continued to chat and laugh, pretending not to hear the noise from the audience. The twelve contestants changed into sneakers and went up to the stage one by one to stand behind the host. The staff responsible for swinging the rope and the props were also in place.
Zhang Yuning was in the middle, wearing the number 6. As she watched the people in front of her go up on stage one by one, she couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Those one or two top students with black-rimmed glasses, who looked strong and healthy, died several times after only a few jump rope attempts.
During the few interruptions, the audience below made tsk...tsk...tsk... sounds, making it really hard not to be distracted.
When the host handed him the microphone and asked him to repeat himself, all he heard was a female voice saying, "Hello," followed by a long, endless silence.
The number 5 represents a petite girl who was incredibly lucky to be on the verge of elimination in the previous rounds. As soon as the one-minute countdown began, she unleashed an amazing burst of energy.
Each pause was perfectly timed, even causing the two staff members swinging the rope to silently slow down and repeat the audio playing off-screen.
The host could tell that this little girl was almost certain to win, so when she fluently translated the one-minute audio clip, he pulled her aside to praise her a few more times and gave her more screen time.
She was also generous in sharing her experience, sharing her methods for adjusting her breathing, eliminating distractions, and focusing on repeating the audio with the contestants below.
As soon as Zhang Yuning stepped onto the stage, the two people in the audience held hands tightly, worried for him.
He adopted the method of contestant number 5, repeating the audio aloud while keeping his feet at the same frequency. Although he stepped on the rope once, the audio stopped at that point, so it was a close call.
As the three of them sat eating near the TV station, Xu Changjia and Ou Liyao were still staring at him. He pushed the beef skewers in front of them, saying, "Haven't you had enough? You've been watching all night."
"No, Zhang, you genius, what's wrong with your brain? Jiajia and I were listening down there too, and the way you put your words was actually worse than ours."
"I'm fine with it, but you actually spoke better than Jiajia, who's a liberal arts student, especially with that 'encounter' at the end. Wouldn't 'encounter' be better?"
He chuckled softly, offering no further explanation, but simply urging them to eat the meat quickly, as it wouldn't taste good if it got cold.
As soon as today's recording ended, the production team called the ten contestants for the next round to the conference room, briefly explained the time of the next recording and some precautions, and then let them leave.
However, the next recording won't be like today. It's said that it will be filmed on location in other cities, and there won't be any tickets available for the two of them to watch.
Hsu Chang-chia was genuinely happy for him. He wondered how many fans he would gain if a brain-training variety show like "Smart People, Raise Your Hands" were released, and whether he would have any thoughts about entering the entertainment industry.
I naturally wouldn't voice my wildest thoughts, but I kept ordering him two extra servings of pig brains. He'd overused his brain today, so he needed to eat some to replenish it.
However, before the airing of the brain-training variety show, Zheng Ruoqian received some good news that had been quiet for a long time: with the arrival of spring, they reunited as promised.
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