After finding the location of Wangling Elementary School, Shen Qingqing and the others took their seats in turn.
Right next to it is Yanqi Elementary School. This time, only one person from their school made it to the city-level finals. Of the five people who came out of the preliminary rounds, only Shen Qingqing and this student from Yanqi Elementary School made it here together.
The two little girls sat together, smiled at each other, and then stopped talking.
At 2:30 p.m., all the participating schools had arrived. The host from the competition committee quickly walked to the podium and began the first item on the agenda for the summary meeting.
But it's nothing more than having some influential members of the competition committee take the stage to speak about why the competition is being held and how it was successfully organized under their careful planning.
As Shen Qingqing listened, her eyes became unfocused; she was drifting off during the meeting, a common and incurable ailment.
The little girl sitting next to her was also resting her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands, and her eyelids were starting to flutter.
When Shen Qingqing came to her senses and saw this, she laughed and gave herself something to do: she started counting how many times the girl's eyelids opened and closed.
Suddenly, the microphone exploded with a piercing bang, startling the little girl so much that she almost hit her head on the table.
Fortunately, Shen Qingqing helped her up in time.
Although she's called a little girl, according to her biological age, Shen Qingqing should call her "older sister," since she's already eleven years old.
Ye Ziqi smiled gratefully at Shen Qingqing and whispered to her, "Thank you, little sister!"
Shen Qingqing is really too young; you can tell at a glance that she is not very old.
Shen Qingqing smiled, her eyes crinkling into crescents, shook her head, and said softly, "You're welcome."
"I've been curious about you for a while now, because my teacher told me that Wangling Elementary School has produced a little genius who's even more amazing than me, named Shen Qingqing. In the competitions where I got a perfect score, you also got a perfect score, and in the competitions where I didn't get a perfect score, you still got a perfect score. This is my second year participating in this kind of competition. Last year I won second prize in the provincial competition, and this year I want to aim for first prize. What about you?" Ye Ziqi seemed to have opened a floodgate of words, speaking to her quietly.
Shen Qingqing rubbed her forehead helplessly, then shook her head and whispered to Ye Ziqi, "I'm not some little genius."
Then, after a pause, he quietly asked her, "So, how much prize money did you win in the competition last year?"
Ye Ziqi thought for a moment and then gave a disgusted look: "The city's prize money for the first round is the same as this year, but last year's sponsor was too stingy. The first prize was not much, and the second prize was less than the city's first place prize!"
Shen Qingqing suddenly realized that the prize money for the provincial competition was determined by the financial strength of the sponsors.
"The prize money for the first prize in this year's provincial competition is more than the prize money I won for passing all three rounds last year. So I must win the first prize in the provincial competition this year!" Ye Ziqi revealed a determined expression.
Shen Qingqing was filled with respect and raised her little fist towards Ye Ziqi to cheer her on: "You can definitely do it!"
"And what about you? You're so amazing, winning first prize must be a piece of cake!" Seeing her lack of fighting spirit, Ye Ziqi couldn't help but feel a sense of awe for this genius little sister.
—How come they made it all the way to the finals with such a lack of fighting spirit?
The elimination rate in the city-level finals is very high, almost on par with the elimination rate in the provincial preliminary rounds. However, the provincial preliminary rounds are much more complex because there are many cities across the province and a large number of participants. To ensure that no lucky audience members slip in before the final rounds, the rules for advancing in the provincial preliminary rounds are extremely lengthy.
The city-level competition doesn't have as many advancement rules; it relies purely on difficulty to eliminate so many contestants.
Knowing that the first prize winner would be barred from participating for two years, and considering that she might skip a grade, Shen Qingqing, with the mindset of not missing out on any opportunity to win, said, "I have no interest in the first prize."
Ye Ziqi looked at her intently, raised her hand and patted her on the shoulder: "Qingqing, don't underestimate yourself! It's already amazing that you made it to the city finals, and your previous results were so outstanding. You can definitely compete for the first prize!"
Shen Qingqing knew immediately that she had misunderstood, but she didn't explain: "I will try my best!"
The two girls were whispering amongst themselves downstairs, while the speech process upstairs finally came to an end, moving on to the most important agenda item of the summary meeting—announcing the list of those who advanced to the provincial competition.
"Next, I will announce the results of the Chaozhou City-level final of the GD Province Primary School Entrance Examination Chinese Language Knowledge Competition, as well as the top five who have advanced to the provincial competition!"
"The contestants who did not qualify will be listed on the screen according to their respective scores. When the top five are announced, I will announce them one by one. At that time, please come up to the stage if your name is called!"
With a soft "snap," a list of names in a PowerPoint presentation was projected onto the stage from behind.
"The above is a list of students who scored below 80."
Shen Qingqing looked over and saw that everyone's name started with their elementary school name, followed by the name of the student participating in the competition, and ended with their competition score.
After she heard the list being announced, a soft, comforting sound came from behind her.
Ten seconds later, "snap," a new card appeared.
"The above is the list of students who scored below 90."
This time, there were a few more words of comfort.
Ten seconds later, another one appeared.
"The above is the list of students ranked sixth and below!"
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com