Chapter 67: CH 61.2

Qin Juran smiled. When she had some free time at night, she video-called Qin Haotian. He asked her to let him know in advance when she planned on returning home during the break, promising that he would pick her up even if he was busy.

She responded that she might go home the week before the New Year holiday. She had already corresponded with the other members of the entrepreneurship team to rent out an office, so apart from the two weeks before and after the New Year, she would pretty much be spending most of her time in S District to work on their project planning.

Anyways, if Ruan Nan wasn’t going back, then she wouldn’t want to go back to A District either.

Once Qin Haotian finished speaking, he passed the phone over to Zuo Yanzhen. The entire time they were on call, Ruan Nan was sitting beside Qin Juran, and she even popped into the frame to say a quick greeting. When Qin Juran began speaking to Zuo Yanzhen, Ruan Nan suddenly stood up from the sofa, moving so fast that Qin Juran couldn’t manage to stop her.

“Ranran, where are you?” Zuo Yanzhen asked from the screen.

“I’m at Ruan Nan’s home, the friend from last time. Since the university is on break, I didn’t want to stay in my dormitory alone.”

Zuo Yanzhen paused for a moment, frowning visibly: “You’re just freeloading in someone else’s home? That’s no good! Did you run out of money for your rent? I’ll tell your father to send you some money; don’t impose on your poor classmate.”

“It’s alright, Mom, I’m not imposing. Ruan Nan is very nice, and we get along well together.”

Zuo Yanzhen sensed that Qin Juran really was very comfortable there. She frowned suspiciously, pursing her lips as she stared into the camera for a long while, not saying anything.

Seeing her expression, Qin Juran couldn’t help smiling, softening her features: “Mom, your skin is looking a little dry. Have you been using the skincare products that I sent you last time?”

Zuo Yanzhen wiped at her face, somewhat flustered: “Your Mom is already this old, there’s no need for all that. I saved them all for you, so you can take them back once you come home. Just looking at the packaging, I’m sure they were expensive.”

The woman’s smile was simple and honest, but Qin Juran couldn’t help berating her mother: “Aiya Mom, I already have some here. Don’t worry about money, just use it. I will earn enough in the future. Do you not have any faith in me?”

Zuo Yanzhen echoed her like a small child: “I do, I do, our Ranran can do anything!”

The two continued to chat for a while. Soon Qin Julai just happened to get back from school, and he quickly grabbed the phone from Zuo Yanzhen. The young boy was clearly going through his growth spurt; Qin Juran felt that he’d grown another few inches during the past few months that she hadn’t seen him.

When Qin Julai saw the luxurious-looking apartment in the backdrop of his sister’s view, he couldn’t resist asking: “Woah, Sis, where are you?”

“Older Sister Ruan Nan’s apartment.”

“Ruan Nan…..the pretty older sister who came to our house last time?”

“Mhm, that’s right. What about it?”

Qin Julai laughed foolishly: “Nothing really, just that Sister Ruan Nan is very beautiful, and her home is also very beautiful.”

“You’re turning into almost as much of a sweet-talker as your sister.”

After another while of talking, Qin Julai asked her whether there was anything else in addition to her entrepreneurship project that she was busy with, sensing that she seemed uneasy about something. After a moment of hesitation, Qin Juran explained, “At 8 p.m. on January 10th, I will be representing my university in that team academic competition. The entire competition will be broadcasted on Star TV, so tune in if you’re free.”

“You’re going to be in an academic competition? And on TV?” Qin Julai’s voice nearly rose an octave out of excitement.

The original protagonist had definitely attended the competition last year as well, so Qin Juran was a little confused: “You didn’t know about it last year?”

“You even participated last year too? Sis, you always assumed that Mom and Dad didn’t understand these types of things and that I was a little brat, so there’s no way you would’ve told us about this stuff.”

……

As Qin Juran explained it in further detail to him, she saw the young boy get more and more eager. She coughed softly: “Qin Julai, I can’t promise that I’ll be able to win the championship.”

“Woah Sis, you’re aiming to win? Forget the championship, as long as you get a question right and show your face on television, you will bring honor to the entire Qin family! Okay, I have to go tell Mom and Dad about this, I’ll talk to you later.”

“……”

Qin Juran turned off her phone, her eyes landing upon the thick stack of study guides lying on the coffee table before her. Suddenly, everything became clear to her, and her lips couldn’t help twitching into a smile. All of her fears and worries until now, all stemmed from her fear of failing to live up to the expectations of the people that she cared about.

But just now, she finally realized that despite whatever the outcome is, you were already the most important thing –

Ten days of preparation flew by, and it was soon January 9th. Qin Juran was arranged a room at a hotel with the other team members, and each contest also had two VIP tickets to give out. Qin Juran gave them both to Ruan Nan, and Ruan Nan kept one for herself and gave the other to Lin Wei, who was eager to participate in this experience for the first time. The two of them booked a hotel room in the hotel across from Qin Juran’s and set off.

On January 10th afternoon, contestants from universities all around were transported by a bus to the recording venue to get their makeup done. Many reporters were already swarming to cover the event, and some had intercepted the contestants on the way for brief interviews.

The news of S University’s stellar results in the provincial competition had traveled far and wide, and they had immediately become a rival of which all the other teams were wary. Some of the teams tried to secretly inquire about their strengths, or curse them out in private. There was another team from D University that was this year’s black horse; they were nearly disqualified from the preliminaries, but soon rose in the ranks to obtain first place in their provincial competition. They were definitely a force to be reckoned with.

At 6 p.m., after the contestants ate their dinner, they began to conduct the final round of pre-competition interviews. Although the reporters kept shooting questions at them, they were all variations of the same nature: “Are you nervous?”, “How confident are you?”, “Is there anything you’d like to say to the family and friends who are watching from home?”

When it was Qin Juran’s turn, there was a personalized question for her: “Good evening, student Qin Juran. Compared to your performance last year, which areas do you think went through the most improvement or change this year?”

When the microphone was passed to Qin Juran, she looked directly into the large, dark video camera lens before her and grinned: “Every area.”

By 8 p.m., all of the seats below the stage were already filled with speculators. After the host provided a brief introduction, the spotlights began lighting up the stage, and the teams waiting backstage all huddled together to chant one last cheer of encouragement.

After the introduction, each universities’ team walked onto the stage and got into their respective seats. There were six teams at the start of the finals, with a total of 30 students on the stage. The camera panned over each and every one of them, showing a close-up of each team’s captain, focusing an extra few seconds on S University’s Qin Juran.

Qin Juran was wearing a blue and white cheongsam. Rather than a very elegant style, the dress exuded an air of classical charm fitting for a top student.

“Dad, hurry and come look!”

Qin Julai pointed to his phone screen, and the family of three all huddled eagerly around his small smartphone.

Qin Juran effortlessly introduced her team and herself. She didn’t show any semblance of nerves in front of the camera, and her confidence was already unmatched amongst all of the other contestants on the stage. Qin Haotian was so excited that he was nearly moved to tears as he kept gushing about how incredible his daughter was.

When the sixth team finished their introductions, Qin Juran finally had a chance to glance down at the audience. Since she had VIP tickets with great seats, she could easily spot Ruan Nan and Lin Wei from where they sat in the front rows.

Sitting beside Ruan Nan was…..

Qin Juran did a double take, thinking that she was seeing things. But no, sitting right next to Ruan Nan was Chi Ying, out of all people. It wasn’t surprising that Chi Ying also had front seats, but as chance had it, they just happened to be right together.

The surprise on Qin Juran’s face in that second was all captured by a close-up from the camera, and her astounded face soon appeared on the big screen.

Most of the audience assumed that she was expressing confusion at one of the competition questions, however, Chi Ying let out an audible snicker from where she sat.

Ruan Nan’s fingers brushed against the armrest of her seat.

The competition officially began. Although the first round of questions was very standard, they helped to stir interest in the topics and to ramp up the competitive atmosphere. The first round ended with no eliminations yet.

For the second round, each team member had to take turns running to the podium, where they then had to answer a question. The difficulty of this round had increased significantly; the pressure to get the answers right was already nerve-wracking enough, but with the added demand of physical exertion, the students who weren’t as mentally strong took a hit. Some of them either didn’t run fast enough and blamed themselves, or they sprinted to the podium only to blank out when it was time to answer the question.

This round eliminated a whopping three teams. Just when everyone thought it was about to end, S University’s team, who was in the lead up until now, faltered.

Zhang Ying’s shoes weren’t non-slip, and she ended up tripping and falling on her turn to run. Although the people nearby immediately went to help her up, the S University team ended up missing a chance to answer a question.

Meanwhile, D University hadn’t missed a single one.

The two teams were currently tied.

This sudden accident caused a burst of commotion on the stage, and the sudden score reversal also made the show more heated. Qin Julai could barely speak as he stared nervously at his smartphone.

For the casual viewers, the whole thing was simply entertainment. However, for the respective universities that each team was representing, their very honor was on the line.

And for each of the contestants on the stage, each forty-second countdown was representative of all the hard work that they had put in for the past few years.

After each period of pondering an answer to a question, hearing the declaration of the verdict “Correct” was a moment of relief for each contestant.

The competition carried on. By the end of the third round, a total of four teams had already been eliminated, and the only remaining teams were D University and S University.

The final showdown between these two teams was practically anticipated by all of the spectators, but who was the most likely victor, no one could say for sure. With Qin Juran’s skill, S University’s team was able to make up for their lost points in the third round and was now in the lead by one point.

For the final round, the organizers had abandoned all of the sense of fun and creativity in the previous rounds, instead opting for the most rudimental of all tests: a lightning round of 100 questions.

The questions ranged from 1 point, 2 points, and 3 points. The contestants could choose the score denomination of the question, but not the topic. The higher the point value, the more difficult the question. After the question was delivered, there would be 30 seconds to answer, and if someone answered incorrectly, they would be eliminated. Each team had one chance for a revival and one chance to phone-a-friend from the audience.

The lights dimmed and focused on the stage, and a suspenseful drumbeat played in the background. During a brief rest period, S University and D University teams both began to discuss tactics in a huddle. Although this type of game was nothing new, there was little room for error.

Especially when the score was so close.

There was another drumroll, signaling the start of the final round. Every contestant on the stage wore a solemn expression on their face, bordering ferocity. Especially Qin Juran.

The team adopted the strategy of sacrificing their weakest links first, so soon, the chubby boy student was knocked out with a two-point question.

At that point, D University gained a two-point lead.

The game continued. From then, D University began to stick with a conservative strategy: as long as they maintained their two-point, they didn’t have to take the risk of choosing the three-point questions. From the previous questions asked, it was apparent that the difficulty of the three-point questions was way too great for any sense of safety.

“3 points.” After two rounds, Qin Juran voluntarily opted for the first three-pointer.

After the question was announced, following the minute allotted for solving the problem, the voice of the judge rang out loud and clear: “That is correct.”

A round of applause filled the room.

The male team captain from D University stared steadily at Qin Juran, and likewise, selected another three-point question.

And likewise, he answered correctly.

Eventually, Tao Wei, the only team member from S University left standing asides from Qin Juran, was also eliminated. As Qin Juran’s finger hovered over the “Revive a member” button for a long while, Tao Wei shook his head furiously from the sidelines.

In the end, Qin Juran didn’t press the button.

The game resumed once again. There were only two questions left, and only Qin Juran and D University’s team captain were left standing.

D University’s leader chose the two-point question and answered correctly. They were still in the lead by two points, although they had used up both of their special privileges.

Qin Juran chose the final three-point question.

She didn’t have any other choice. Her refined face appeared rather pale underneath the bright strobe lights.

The next 30 seconds felt excruciatingly long.

When Qin Juran declared her answer, the announcer’s brows frowned nearly imperceptibly. There was a brief pause, in which the entire audience held their breaths.

“Student Qin Juran, your answer is –”

“Incorrect.”

“Whaaa—” A wave of gasps filled the room.

The light shining upon Qin Juran flicked off and then on again, implying that she had used the chance to save her own life. However, she couldn’t answer the question again, so the only thing left was the chance to phone-a-friend.

If even the team captain who had been studying so hard failed to answer the question, who else in the audience could possibly solve this three-point question? As the competition approached the end, many of the spectators who had been secretly rooting for S University had already begun to lose hope.

Qin Juran’s gaze swept over the entirety of the audience. When D University used their chance to phone-a-friend earlier, they had failed. Most of the students sitting in S University’s designated area all kept their heads lowered, none of them wanting to shoulder such a big responsibility.

Among the entire audience, only Chi Ying and Ruan Nan had their heads raised.

From the side, Lin Wei was eagerly tugging on Ruan Nan’s sleeve, while Secretary Yan was continuously mouthing Chi Ying’s name.

Chi Ying.

Chi Ying.

It seemed that Chi Ying, who had studied and prepared with them throughout, was the team’s best chance at victory.

Qin Juran slowly lifted her gaze. The video camera zoomed in on her face, then slowly followed her gaze and panned over the audience. In the instant when the camera landed upon her, Ruan Nan stood up from where she sat in the audience.

She appeared to say something, but her small voice from within the large auditorium was practically incomprehensible.

A microphone was quickly passed through row-by-row to make it over to her, and a close-up of her face appeared on the screen. She squeezed the microphone tightly, looking at Qin Juran as she asked softly: “Qin Juran, do you believe in me?”

The audience was focused on the two girls’ faces, and the room was filled with a looming sense of tension and anticipation.

After a brief moment of silence, Qin Juran raised her head, staring directly at Ruan Nan as her fingers pressed the button. The microphone amplified her next words: “Ah-Ruan, I will always believe in you.”