Chapter 70 - Two Finalists
Chapter 70: Two Finalists
Perhaps because of this bet, everyone was looking more forward to the arrival of the Olympic mathematics competition.
Finally, it was the day of the competition. Mo Li sat at her seat and almost fell asleep. The questions for the IMO preliminary were not difficult and there were only 30 of them. They were too simple for Mo Li. She didn’t even have to use her draft paper. She completed all the calculations in her mind. Therefore, before the 1 hour allotted for the competition was up, Mo Li had already finished everything.
Based on the rules, she could have left already but Mo Li stayed at her seat to go over her answers to see which she could ‘un’ correct. It would be too unlike her past self if she got everything correct.
After the time was up, Ding Yi hurried over to compare his test paper with Qiao Qing.
“As I expected, geniuses think alike. For the multiple choice questions, we only answered one question differently!” Looking into Ding Yi’s smug face, Qiao Qing smiled kindly, “I don’t think I performed that well in the competition and have done many mistakes. Ding Yi, thank you for giving me this support of confidence. I’m glad to see that we have so many similar answers, it means that we have to be correct, since you’re so good at math.”
“Qiao Qing, your biggest weakness is that you’re too modest. This is something that you need to correct!”
“No, I really feel like I didn’t do well in the exam. Although I did finish the harder questions at the back… I didn’t have enough time to check my equations.”
The other students couldn’t help but clap when they heard Qiao Qing. “Qing Qing, you’re amazing! How did you manage to finish all the questions in such a short amount of time?”
“That is nearly impossible!”
“It might be impossible for some, but for Qiao Qing and Ding Yi, it should be easy as pie.”
“Qiao Qing might be our national champion this time!”
Ding Yi, who was normally so arrogant, also fell for Qiao Qing’s charm and praised her profusely.
“I’m sure everyone did better than I do. In fact, Ding Yi must have scored better. The championship is his.”
While everyone crowded around the 2 seed participants, Mo Li remained at her seat, fiddling with something.
“Compared to some people, Qiao Qing, you are so humble despite how good you are.” Ding Yi raised his voice for Mo Li to hear. However, since Mo Li did not give him any response, Ding Yi felt frustrated within.
“Ding Yi, you’re too kind. You always score first in every subject. You’re my role model. Ding Yi, I still have many things to learn from you.” Following Ding Yi’s gaze on Mo Li, Qiao Qing said to placate him. It successfully brushed his ego and he quickly added, “Nah, there is much we can learn from each other!”
Listening to the two tooting each other’s horns, Mo Li’s toes curled from secondhand embarrassment. Mo Li had met quite a few of geniuses back in her days. Most of them were like Mo Li, they were more interested in their researches than interpersonal relationship. Granted, most of them also had an air of arrogance but those were backed by knowledge and intelligence. None of them would stand around kissing each other’s asses since they would rather spend their time studying and furthering their researches.
When Lin Fei heard the competition had finished, she hurried to Mo Li’s classroom. “Miss Mo Li, do you think… the questions were difficult or not? Don’t forget about… your bet with Mr. Ding Yi… Do you think you can get into the finals?” Lin Fei asked quietly as if worried that Mo Li was might get angry at her.
Ding Yi… I almost forgot about our bet.
“Maybe.” Mo Li answered evenly.
Hearing that, Ding Yi sneered and said loudly, “For me, the questions this time are extremely simple! They are not hard at all! I’m sure I’ll get into the finals!”
“Ding Yi, you’re a math genius, so of course you’ll go to the finals.”
“That’s right, with your brilliance, how can you not be in the finals?” Ding Yi’s lips curled in satisfaction from these compliments.
He couldn’t wait for the result to be out. That Mo Li has shares to so many companies and her shares are the biggest among all the shareholders. I don’t even know which one to pick!
3 days later, the results from the preliminary came out. The old crone Sun walked into the room. She stood at the podium with blush on her face and spirit in her eyes. She announced, “Dear students, there are a total of five students from our city who have been shortlisted for the finals of Math Olympiad this time, and two of them are from our school! As your class teacher, you are my pride!”