Even after everyone finished lunch, there was still no news about the results of the competition.
The weather was too hot in the afternoon. Without the shade of the rain forest, the ground was steaming like an oven.
Ancient Earth was unlike the capital planet. There were no energy channels laid here, and it was impossible to raise a protective shield out of thin air. Everyone could only use the most primitive sheds for shade.
...Even the shed is a simple one.
"If there's still no news in half an hour, I'm going to arrest those experts!"
Everyone raised their hands in support: "Count me in!"
Fortunately, less than half an hour later, the host Meng Shaoyuan finally arrived.
He was holding a pile of bowls and chopsticks in his hands, all clean, without even a grain of rice left.
Fortunately, he was not here to return these things.
"Everyone, thank you for your patience. The final result of this match has been basically determined and will be officially announced in twenty minutes."
The contestants had already waited for too long and finally saw a glimmer of hope. When they heard that they had to wait even longer, many of them started to clamor in dissatisfaction.
"Wait another ten minutes? Then what are you doing here now? Watching a show?"
"Please, if I donate money to the show, can you replace them with a host who can finish his words in one sitting?"
"Wait until noon in the morning, and then wait until afternoon. What? Are you worried about congestion on the way back during the day and wasting energy on the starship?"
“…”
Jiang Ran didn't join in the fun, but just glanced at Meng Shaoyuan a few more times, feeling a little strange.
Although he had become the center of everyone's complaints, he did not look unhappy at all. He even looked happier than when he came to ask for food before.
Besides, as a host who has been in the industry for many years, would he really make such a low-level mistake?
Jiang Ran also noticed that Meng Shaoyuan glanced at her several times out of the corner of his eye.
I don't know if this is my illusion...
After everyone argued for a while, their expectations and anger levels reached their peak, and Meng Shaoyuan nodded secretly in his heart.
He walked over to everyone with a smile: "There are too many contestants and the data is too huge. It's not easy for the expert team specially hired by the program team to sort it out, but..."
"But what?"
Meng Shaoyuan: "Everyone is waiting so anxiously. As the host of the show, I feel very embarrassed."
He said, "So I can reveal a little bit about what you will be most interested in."
Most interested?
Everyone is most interested in different things. What does he mean?
Everyone looked at him, confused and expectant.
Meng Shaoyuan didn't keep them waiting too long and quickly revealed the answer: "I think everyone's most interested in who will win the championship, right?"
As soon as the word "champion" came out, everyone sat up straight, even Jiang Ran became fully alert.
"But it's against the rules to directly announce the answer," Meng Shaoyuan said with a smile. "I can only give three characteristics, and everyone is free to guess."
"Features are fine, but hurry up and tell me!" Even Ji Fang was getting impatient. "Can you please stop dawdling?"
"The first characteristic...she is a woman."
As soon as the words fell, countless cheers rang out!
Everyone thought Meng Shaoyuan would continue to keep the secret, but no one expected him to be so straightforward this time and drop some bombshell news right at the start.
You know, there are not too many female contestants participating in this program. There are only nine people who have not been eliminated so far. This time, more than half of them have been eliminated.
Everyone looked at Jiang Ran, and some impatient people like Fu Bo even called out Jiang Ran's name.
Only Jiang Ran herself felt a little uneasy. She looked at Meng Shaoyuan's expression and felt that things would not go so smoothly.
"The second characteristic is...she once organized everyone to build a tree house during a competition."
Now Fu Bo was not the only one shouting Jiang Ran's name.
Almost everyone in the audience was shouting: "Jiang Ran! Jiang Ran! Jiang Ran..."
"The third characteristic, which is also the characteristic of the final champion..."
Meng Shaoyuan gave a subtle smile: "She is good at mechanical engineering and has the ability to independently manufacture mechas."
The cheers in the audience suddenly stopped.
Everyone's smile froze on their face.
"Okay, with all this information it should be easy to guess, right?"
Meng Shaoyuan said, "In a few minutes, all the results of the games should be out. Now everyone can digest this news."
Digest the news?
How to digest?
The last characteristic was too unexpected, and all those who were confident that Jiang Ran would definitely be the champion were slapped in the face.
The most embarrassed person was Zeng Pei. She had her arm around Jiang Ran's shoulder a few seconds ago, asking him to treat her to a nice meal to celebrate after returning to the capital star. In the blink of an eye, the championship fell on her head.
This is more embarrassing than if the championship went to someone else.
Zeng Pei didn't know for a moment... whether he should take his hand off Jiang Ran's shoulder.
On the contrary, Jiang Ran had a better attitude. She had long expected that things would not be that simple.
Since someone was able to secretly destroy her life-saving bag and supply package and use some means to prevent her from winning the championship, it was inevitable. Moreover, her popularity was originally too low, so it was reasonable that she could not compete.
Jiang Ran brushed Zeng Pei's hand off, and before she could say anything, he hooked his arm around her neck and said, "First place, you have to treat everyone to a good meal when you get back, right?"
Zeng Pei finally felt relieved when he saw that she looked normal. He grinned and said, "Of course. I'll treat you to the largest hotel in the capital!"
The person next to him asked, "Does anyone who sees it get a share?"
"Of course! We all come from the same base!"
Zeng Pei glanced at them with disdain: "...That's fine."
Seeing that the atmosphere was getting better again, Jiang Ran couldn't help but feel relieved.
But the bet contract with the economic company is still on me, and I don’t know how to deal with it when I get back.
Jiang Ran was thinking about the next countermeasures and was distracted for a while.
When he came to his senses again, Zeng Pei pulled his arm and said, "Look, what happened to them?"
Jiang Ran looked around and saw a dozen or so scholarly-looking people in their thirties or fifties talking to Meng Shaoyuan. They all looked very bad, as if they were having an argument.
The quarrel lasted for several minutes. Finally, Meng Shaoyuan was pulled back by the staff next to him. After whispering a few words, he left angrily.
"Those should be the experts invited by the program team, right?" Zeng Pei's face was full of interest. "Guess what they are talking about?"
"No need to guess," Jiang Ran said, "we'll know soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, the leading expert walked towards the crowd.
His face was still grim. "Because this match had so many unexpected complications, our team discussed it for a whole day and just finalized the result."
"I just didn't expect some people's professional ethics..." He paused, still not finishing his words, and said, "I will now announce the official results of the competition."
The unfinished words obviously had a hidden meaning, and one could tell it was talking about Meng Shaoyuan.
Fortunately, he has left, otherwise he would probably jump onto the stage in anger.
But that doesn't matter now.
The expert held a piece of letter paper in his hand and read out the names of the existing contestants in order from back to front.
Academics are much more serious than entertainment hosts like Meng Shaoyuan. They don't do those things that keep people in suspense. The top ten are announced in just a few minutes.
Everyone listened attentively.
"...Fifth place, Ren Xiayang."
"…Third place, Bai Zhiyong."
Only the top two are left.
At this time, the only ones whose names had not been called were Zeng Pei and Jiang Ran.
Only then did Jiang Ran realize that he had won second place.
Come to think of it, it's not bad. Although I missed the championship, at least I proved my strength and got some confidence to negotiate with the agency.
"Second place, Zeng Pei."
The whole audience was in an uproar.
Isn’t Zeng Pei number one?
Jiang Ran's eyes widened involuntarily, and there were even sweat stains on his tightly clenched fists.
Instead, Zeng Pei breathed a sigh of relief, patted her on the back, and listened happily to the moment the championship result was announced.
"First place—"
At this point, even serious experts couldn't help but keep the secret.
Although everyone now knows that the last person whose name has not been called is the champion.
"Jiang Ran!"
Suddenly the whole audience burst into cheers, and the noise was so loud that it almost blew the roof of the shed off!
The experts ceremoniously led the applause: "Congratulations!"
The other contestants immediately followed suit, and some even beat their palms red.
Fu Bo came up to Jiang Ran and said, "You have to thank me this time, right?"
Jiang Ran: "Oh? What does this have to do with you?"
Fu Bo looked disappointed: "You don't understand this? Why did the expert group suddenly change their opinion? Think about it carefully."
Zeng Pei couldn't stand it any longer: "Just say what you want to say."
"Tsk!" Fu Bo said, "Winning the championship must be the result of our food temptation plan! If I were to ask you, those experts were simply impressed by your cooking skills!"
Ren Xiayang agreed deeply and nodded vigorously: "Of course! No one can escape the magic of Jiang Ran's food." As he said that, he secretly grabbed the sweet potato and took a bite.
"Hey!" Zeng Pei said, "They won the championship based on their strength. What are you thinking about?"
Jiang Ran said with a smile: "I just took your first place, why are you defending me more than anyone else now?"
"I didn't want this first place in the first place. I would feel guilty if I didn't deserve the position. Now I am just returning it to its rightful owner."
The experts looked at the contestants below, who were excitedly chatting about the results of the competition with smiles on their faces, not showing any sign of dissatisfaction.
He thought that it was worth it to spend so much time and effort to carefully evaluate the final result that everyone was satisfied with.
"Okay, quiet down for a moment," the expert said. "Due to some special circumstances, many people mistakenly believe Zeng Pei should be the champion. I need to explain this."
"In fact, according to the original rules of the program, based on popularity and performance points, Jiang Ran was indeed second place, and Zeng Pei was originally first."
"However, in this competition, Jiang Ran's performance truly exceeded our expectations. Her ability to avoid danger, deal with enemies, and survive was incredibly strong and perfect."
"At the same time, she also helped many people survive in such a harsh environment. This kind of teamwork is far more commendable than survival ability, and it cannot be summarized by individual performance points alone."
"So, after intense discussion, we decided to add a new scoring element: the rescue score. It's worth 10 points, which doesn't account for a large portion of the total score, and Jiang Ran received full marks for this."
"Finally, considering all these scores, Jiang Ran truly became the first place winner. It wasn't due to any manipulation," the expert said, giving Fu Bo a sly look. "She won based on her actual strength."
There was another round of sincere applause.
Zeng Pei put his arm around Jiang Ran's neck and said, "You truly deserve the title of Jiangtou. Don't forget the feast!"
Jiang Ran nodded repeatedly: "Of course, of course."
Fu Bo was given the cold shoulder, but he didn't seem unhappy at all.
Ren Xiayang's mouth was full of the juice of the roasted sweet potato. He raised his head and said vaguely: "Congratulations, congratulations, don't forget me when you have something delicious in the future!"
Bai Zhi said in a condescending tone, "I allow you to be Xiao Lanhua's second friend besides me."
Jiang Ran couldn't help but be deeply moved when he saw this scene.
She thought about it for a while, and was thinking about how to reward her friends when she suddenly heard someone talking next to her.
"The game is over, so it's time to close our bet, right?"
"That's right! Let me see if I win or lose!"
Jiang Ran asked curiously, "What bet?"
Fu Bo replied, "They were betting on who was the one who set the trap and framed everyone on the first day of the competition."
Jiang Ran lowered his eyes guiltily.
Fu Bo: "I've been curious for a long time! If I knew who did it, I would skin him alive!"
Jiang Ran: “…”
The author has something to say:
I'll be posting the clip tomorrow, so the update will be delayed until 11pm on the 28th. I'll make up for it by posting three updates at that time~
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