CSGM - Chapter 136
Chapter 136: Stay Calm and Win
At the island nation's contestant station sat three men and one woman, all dressed in neat, smart business attire. Their hands rested on their laps, their hawk-like gazes captured by the camera.
The island nation's captain, thirty years old, the Speed Memory Emperor—Matsushita Hiroaki.
The second contestant, a female, thirteen years old, a brainpower prodigy—Kotani Rinne.
The third contestant, a male, twenty years old, the Hawkeye Ninja—Hiramae Ryogo.
The fourth contestant, a male, nineteen years old, the King of Numbers—Yatani Ken.
All were powerhouses in the island nation's mental athletics scene. It seemed the island nation had come well-prepared this year, hoping to continue last year's glory and secure another consecutive victory in the international Brain King competition!
With every member of the opposing team being a formidable force, the Chinese team had naturally also dispatched powerful contestants to face the island nation this year!
The audience's eager gazes turned to our side's contestant station!
The Chinese captain, twenty-nine years old, the Coding Champion King—Yun Feng.
The second contestant, a male, eighteen years old, the Wolf-Gaze Weirdo—Liu Mingzong.
The third contestant, a female, sixteen years old, the Card Control Dream Master—Qiao Yufeng.
The fourth female contestant…
The fourth female contestant—
The fourth female contestant??!
When the camera panned to the contestant station and the chair turned around, both the live audience and the viewers in front of their screens were, almost in unison, stunned for a second!
Because behind the fourth female contestant on our country's side, the personal introduction on the LED screen was unexpectedly displaying a surprising photo and name—
Twenty-six years old, crossover actress—Chu Xi.
The audience: "?!"
Were they seeing things? Or did the production team make a mistake?
What about the contestants selected in the previous episodes? Why did a Chu Xi suddenly drop in out of nowhere?!
And an actress, at that.
The bullet comments on the live streaming platform immediately erupted with questions.
【???????????】
【What the hell, who is this???】
【Is there something wrong with the expert panel? You didn't pick any of the professional contestants from the last few episodes, and instead you call an actress to compete in an international match???!】
【Damn, why is it her?】
【I admit she's got some brains for someone in the entertainment industry, but she wants a piece of a professional mental athletics competition too? Who gave her the courage? That bunch of Nine-Year Education Leaky Fish from the entertainment circle??】
【Hey sister, you should go back. This isn't the entertainment industry, it's not a place where you can show off………………】
【Is the production team doing this on purpose? Isn't this for-show effect a bit too much?? Please, this is against the island nation. If you want to promote someone, can't you pick another match?!】
However, that wasn't what people found most outrageous.
The most outrageous thing was—
【Damn it, she's still sleeping!】
That's right, Chu Xi was currently catching up on sleep.
She was using the disposable blue mask the production team had given her, having lifted it up to cover her eyes, making do with it as a makeshift eye mask to block out the light.
She looked quite content, resting against the soft leather back of the chair.
The expert panel member who had asked the staff to get her the mask was speechless: "…"
If they had known Chu Xi was going to use it for sleeping, they wouldn't have given it to her!
Compared to the other three members of the Chinese team, who were sitting upright with sharp eyes, subconsciously adjusting their breathing, Chu Xi seemed to be in a completely different atmosphere from her teammates.
Chu Xi alone seemed to be in a very sleepy atmosphere…
The audience was floored. Was this a joke?
Was the plan to have three people carry one? Were the other three so confident they could win all their matches against the island nation?
An international competition was no child's play, and a showdown with the island nation was even less so!
Why were they promoting a celebrity at such a critical moment? The production team must be insane!
The live audience's equally baffled expressions were captured on camera, and the online viewers realized everyone was a victim of the production team's sudden stunt.
They couldn't help but curse.
【I really don't want to see us get embarrassed in front of the island nation.】
【Why was the competing team member suddenly switched to Chu Xi? The production team should give an explanation, right?】
【Look at her, does she even feel like she's here to compete? She's not treating this like a reality show, is she??】
Sigh!
The audience was anxious on behalf of the Chinese team!
They had no idea why the production team pulled this stunt. Did the so-called experts on the panel get their heads slammed in a door?!
It wasn't just the viewers watching through a screen; the contestants on the battlefield were even more nervous!
The pressure on them was invisible, and a psychological suggestion kept echoing in their minds—
The expert panel had set a Tian Ji's horse racing strategy for them today, pitting Chu Xi against the island nation team's strongest member, Matsushita Hiroaki. That match was certainly a lost cause.
Therefore, to defeat the island nation overall, each of their individual matches was crucial!
Losing just one might mean losing all hope of victory.
This was a do-or-die battle.
The other three clenched their fists by their legs, their palms sweating.
Looking over at the adjacent contestant station, the four members of the island nation team were also tense.
These islanders' gazes would frequently dart over to our contestants' state, secretly sizing them up, equally filled with a desire to win the upcoming competition.
And Chu Xi's attitude left the four islanders somewhat puzzled.
—That Chinese contestant is different from the others. Is she a true master in disguise, or has she already given up and doesn't care?
After the island nation's contestants did a quick search on Chu Xi, they felt a bit more at ease, their thoughts leaning toward the latter.
—Haha, she's just an amateur who has never even participated in a national-level competition. She doesn't have a single championship honor. It seems her skills are second-rate, nothing to fear.
—The Chinese people are truly a cunning nation. Knowing they can't win the showdown, they use their actors and celebrities to make an appearance, actually trying to crush us with their beauty in a mental competition!
—Mm, indeed. Compared to China's professional celebrities, we competition contestants are indeed lacking in looks and charisma…
Chu Xi paid no mind to what the other seven people were overthinking, nor to the Chinese judges on the panel who were sweating profusely, their hearts pounding as they watched her nonchalant demeanor.
The Chinese judges and the experts backstage were only afraid that Chu Xi's loss would be too humiliating!
While Chu Xi's eyes were resting, her ears were working online, listening to the host announce the competition's progress.
In the first match, the Chinese team's captain, "Coding Champion King" Yun Feng, led the charge against the island nation's "King of Numbers," Yatani Ken.
This strategy was presumably to boost morale right from the start.
The first event was "Instant-Kill Number Tower." Chu Xi listened to the rules with her eyes closed for a moment.
"225 numbers from 1 to 9 will flash randomly in a grid. Each number will flash only once, for 5 seconds each time. Contestants must match and memorize the numbers with their corresponding coordinates. An international judge will randomly select a coordinate, and the contestants will hit their buzzers to answer with the corresponding number. A correct answer earns one point; an incorrect answer gives the point to the opponent."
After hearing that, she remained silent.
Might as well keep sleeping with the eye mask on. It was too amateurish to watch.
Meanwhile, the judges on the panel were still explaining the difficulty of this event.
"Because this event flashes the numbers in a random order, there's no pattern to the memorization. Plus, each number is only displayed for a very short time, with only one chance…"
Was that so?
Perhaps it was a bit difficult for an ordinary person.
But for these contestants who had trained for half a month and specialized in memory, Chu Xi thought this event could only serve as a warm-up.
If they couldn't even answer this, they should just go work in a factory screwing bolts instead of playing at mental competitions.
She felt this event was even simpler than the one her little disciple Zhang Yuxue faced against the UK captain last time.
Chu Xi had no interest in watching. While she was dozing, she heard the host's joyous announcement, followed by applause and cheers from the entire venue.
"'Coding Champion King' Yun Feng is victorious! The Chinese team gets one point!"
But the results of the second and third matches were not so satisfactory.
Oh dear, it was just as the line from "The Debate of Cao Gui" said—charge with the first drum, falter with the second, and fail with the third.
In the second match, our team's "Wolf-Gaze Weirdo" Liu Mingzong lost to the island nation team's "Hawkeye Ninja" Hiramae Ryogo.
By the third match, Qiao Yufeng took the stage under immense psychological pressure, facing the island nation's thirteen-year-old "brainpower prodigy," Kotani Rinne.
One was sixteen, the other thirteen. Both were young, around high school and middle school age.
The bullet comments were filled with envy:
【When I was thirteen, I was still watching Pleasant Goat.】
【At sixteen, I couldn't even solve my math problems. Now I'm twenty-six, and I'm even worse than I was at sixteen.】
【Compared to them, I'm too embarrassed to even recall what I was doing at thirteen and sixteen.】
Of course, there were also many discussions about the island nation's contestant, Kotani Rinne:
【Is this girl some kind of mutant? She's too incredible.】
【She's the only true prodigy from the island nation I acknowledge.】
【Last year's contestant lost miserably to her… I still remember she even went easy on him out of embarrassment.】
【Go, Fengfeng!! All our hopes are on you.】
Last year, a twelve-year-old Kotani Rinne participated in the Brain King international competition and utterly humiliated the Chinese team's contestant in the same event.
Her memory and retrieval speed were said to be the true teachings she learned from her master, the Speed Memory Emperor Matsushita Hiroaki.
That comparison showed the entire online audience the gap between an expert among geniuses and an ordinary genius!
Last year's Chinese contestant was admittedly very skilled, but in the showdown with Kotani Rinne, the gap was as wide as a chasm!
The host even asked Qiao Yufeng if she was nervous for this match.
"I am a little nervous, but my goal this year is to win back the points our contestant lost to her last year. I'm confident."
Confidence was a good thing!
The audience below immediately gave her a round of encouraging applause.
The event for the third match was "Pixel Wars." After hearing the rules, Chu Xi sat up a little straighter and took the mask off her eyes.
"There are 100 cartoon pixel images, each composed of 600 pixel squares, for a total of 60,000 color blocks. The two contestants will have forty minutes to memorize the pixels and corresponding serial numbers of the 100 images. The international judge will randomly select a target image on the spot and display its effective pixel squares one by one, randomly. As the scattered pixel squares appear, the two contestants will buzz in to state the corresponding image's serial number. A correct answer earns one point, an incorrect answer deducts one point. The first to reach five points wins."
Having rested enough, she opened her eyes for the first time and looked at the stage.
Because this event sounded a bit more interesting, and more exciting.
Unfortunately, during the competition, the skill gap between the Chinese team's contestant, Qiao Yufeng, and the prodigy from the island nation was indeed quite obvious.
After just four pixels appeared, Kotani Rinne had already hit the buzzer, while Qiao Yufeng was still dazed.
She even turned her head to look at her opponent in shock.
She was probably in disbelief at how fast her opponent was.
Chu Xi shook her head.
By the time Kotani Rinne had won three points in a row, our contestant was in an awkward position. Kotani Rinne deliberately went easy on her again, not answering even after seeing more than a dozen pixels appear.
Only after Qiao Yufeng had seen over twenty pixels did she finally hit the buzzer.
Chu Xi heard the relieved applause from the audience.
"…"
If she were that bad, she would definitely be too embarrassed to let the audience applaud for her.
The opponent figured it out with four dots, while our side needed twenty-eight. How could they even compare?
By the time Kotani Rinne scored five points and won a decisive victory, Qiao Yufeng's score was only two points.
In a competition, some are strong and some are weak. Isn't it the weak who serve to highlight the strong?
Chu Xi watched with calm indifference, took a candy from her pocket, and unwrapped an orange-flavored one to eat.
On stage, Qiao Yufeng's eyes were red and filled with tears, feeling guilty for not performing well and letting everyone down.
It was a normal reaction for a girl of high school age.
Her opponent, Kotani Rinne, stood proudly with her hands at her sides.
After the two middle matches, the score, which was originally 1-0 in favor of the Chinese team against the island nation team, had now become 1-2.
Going from an advantage to a deficit, the entire Chinese team—contestants, audience, judges, and the expert panel backstage—was dealt a heavy blow!
The atmosphere instantly became somber.
What happened to turning the tables and getting revenge on the island nation this year? How could they lose so badly?
Although Qiao Yufeng's teammates comforted her when she returned, the dejection in their voices was impossible to hide.
"It's okay, Fengfeng, you already did very well."
"It's fine, it's fine. Losing isn't just your fault. I embarrassed us in the last round too."
"You're still young, you have a lot of room for improvement in the future…"
But in their hearts, everyone couldn't help but foresee the upcoming scenario—
The opposing team still had Kotani Rinne's master, Matsushita Hiroaki, who hadn't competed yet. The next match was against the island nation's strongest contestant, making the chances of victory even slimmer.
The thought that this year's competition would end with a 1-3 score made the light that was in the three Chinese contestants' eyes three hours ago completely vanish.
In contrast, the four contestants from the island nation were all beaming with smiles.
They were already discussing in their native language where in their country they would pop champagne tonight or tomorrow.
After all, their most certain ace for victory was their captain—Matsushita Hiroaki.
Captain Hiroaki's strength was more than enough to face any of China's contestants.
What they found even more amusing was how clumsy the Chinese team's strategy was, sending an actress to compete. Against such an amateur contestant, their Mr. Matsushita Hiroaki would face absolutely no pressure at all!
In the audience, the Chinese spectators, some with national flag stickers still on their faces, had ugly expressions.
Seeing the first two contestants lose to the island nation team, they couldn't help but feel resentful and harbor some negative emotions!
—How could those two be so bad?
—If they had sent XX, XX, or XXX, would they have lost?
—How on earth did they perform today?!
The audience members frowned. Some slumped back in their chairs, staring at the ceiling and letting out desperate breaths.
They were like a defeated army.
The camera operators were too embarrassed to even pan in their direction.
The international judge was an academician from the UK, his expression relatively objective, just watching the competition with a slight smile.
But the expressions of the judges from the two competing sides were a bit more subtle.
China's Director Zhang and Professor Wei—one was forcing a smile, the other had dropped the pretense entirely, his legs crossed and his expression grim.
They were probably reflecting on why their contestants, who had trained in advance and achieved good results during practice, would perform so poorly on stage.
Losing two matches in a row was a result that even China's expert panel hadn't anticipated!
Meanwhile, the judge from the island nation sat in his seat, the corners of his lips turned high up, his gaze directed at the contestant station on the high platform with encouragement and applause.
He could no longer contain his smug, gloating expression.
His eyes seemed to be telling the island nation's contestants: You did beautifully!
【What's the point of watching this? Just turn off the live stream!】
【Promise me, if you're still this bad next year, don't host an international competition, okay? You're embarrassing us all the way to the island nation.】
【The islanders are going to laugh their heads off when they see that the last one to compete is our noble actress from the entertainment industry.】
【Did you so-called experts predict it would turn out this shitty, so you invited Chu Xi to just throw in the towel??】
【1-3 last year, 1-3 again this year. Are you addicted to losing?】
【Damn it, you tricked me into thinking this was a revenge match. Revenge my ass!!!】
【You can't even beat Matsushita Hiroaki's student, how are you going to beat Matsushita Hiroaki? I'm truly in despair…】
The bullet comments on the live stream were filled with anger, despair, and speechlessness at the expert panel's arrangement!
All sorts of emotions erupted, and for a moment, a torrent of negative comments flooded China's expert panel and the Brain King production team.
To be honest, if they had lost to another country's team, the audience might not have been so furious.
But to lose by a large margin to the island nation team again this year… they thought it would be better for I Am the Brain King to change its name to I Am the Brain-Dead overnight!
Across China, some viewers watching the live broadcast on their TVs were losing their cool.
Someone wanted to punch their television.
"Damn it, why is watching this as infuriating as watching the national football team?"
The late-night snacks and beer someone had ordered for the show suddenly lost their appeal.
Their delightful mood was completely shattered.
Someone else grabbed their phone from the sofa and vented on their social media feed:
【Giao! We've been disgraced in front of the islanders! Why did you invite an actress? I just want to know, what's the use of inviting an actress? For aesthetic purposes?! Don't tell me you're actually counting on her to lead the Chinese team to a comeback?! /[Angry]】
Chu Xi ate two candies during the break and was in a great mood.
Seeing that Qiao Yufeng, who had just lost, was still crying and wiping her tears, she found it unbearable. But then she remembered this person seemed to be friends with Zhang Yuxue, and they appeared to have a good relationship before. So, she patiently called out to Qiao Yufeng.
"Stop crying. Tell me, what happens if it's 2-2 later?"
Qiao Yufeng looked up at her, her eyes moist.
"If the score is tied, there will be an overtime round…"
After saying that, Qiao Yufeng felt she had said too much—
Why was she telling Chu Xi this? It was impossible for it to be 2-2, so it was useless to say it.
So she lowered her head again, silently blaming herself.
Chu Xi muttered, "Then what are you crying for? We can still win, can't we?"
However, besides the sound of crying, it was quiet around her.
After she spoke, she looked at the three people in front of her. No one paid her any attention.
"…"
Fine, forget it. She wouldn't bother with them.
She beckoned to a staff member with her finger.
"Could you please get me a glass of water?"
She'd had too much candy, and her mouth was a bit dry.
Chu Xi took a few small sips of mineral water. The stage was already set for the next event, and the host began calling for both sides to take their positions.
Matsushita Hiroaki stood up from his seat with a smile, his back straight.
As he walked down from the contestant station, he didn't forget to give Chu Xi a triumphant smile.
Unlike the three Chinese contestants who couldn't muster a smile, the four contestants from the island nation were now all beaming.
The posture of the three who had already competed, now watching from the contestant station, seemed to be one of comfortable certainty of victory.
At this moment, the islanders were much more cheerful than they had been at the start of the international competition.
Because they could already see the fruits of victory.
Defeating the Chinese team for the second year in a row—the taste was so sweet!
Chu Xi glanced at them and walked to the center of the stage.
As per tradition, the host asked if the two had anything to say to each other.
After Matsushita Hiroaki spoke, his translator said:
"Although my opponent is an artist, an actress, I will not hold back because of my opponent's strength or weakness. I give my all in every competition, as I believe that is true respect for my opponent. To be honest, my previous opponents have all been world-class contestants or professional prodigies… Competing against an actress for the first time, I must say, feels quite novel."
Interesting. On the surface, he spoke of respecting his opponent, but in reality, he was openly and covertly mocking her, implying that Chu Xi was just an amateur, not even worth mentioning in his eyes.
Chu Xi smiled and nodded.
The audience was speechless, truly doubting if she even understood that he was insulting her!
What was she smiling about? Did she think he was actually praising her for being an actress?
The host maintained his composure and asked, "Chu Xi, do you have anything to say to Mr. Matsushita Hiroaki?"
Chu Xi smiled slowly. "Just now, I saw all four of you contestants smiling at the station. I think you're right to do so."
As soon as she said this, an uproar broke out in the audience.
Damn it, she…
But in the next second, Chu Xi continued:
"Because once I'm done competing, you won't be laughing anymore."
Everyone, who had just pulled out their forty-meter-long blades to cut down the traitor, immediately stopped.
Al-alright then.
So it was trash talk. They would forgive her for that.
But… could she really back up those words?
Seeing Chu Xi's relaxed expression as she made her bold claim, the regular viewers of the show thought back to past examples—
Often, a contestant's trash talk had no correlation with their actual ability.
That is to say, no matter how fierce you talk before the match, if you can't win, you can't win!
Sigh… let's just hope for the best.
The audience's confidence was almost gone. Even after hearing Chu Xi's words, their excitement was only momentary.
They then returned to watching this hopeless battle with uncertainty.
As the show announced the content and rules for the final match, many people on the Brain King international competition's real-time Weibo topic and the live stream's bullet comments were providing information about the island nation's final contestant, their captain—Matsushita Hiroaki.
A world-class memory grandmaster. At twenty-four, he defeated Asia's number one memory expert to claim the title of Speed Memory Emperor. In international mental athletics championships, he has set 24 personal records and holds 3 world records. His record for speed memorizing numbers is 1213 in 30 minutes, and he is the reigning Asian champion in image information memory…
Matsushita Hiroaki's titles were simply too numerous to count. However, for the audience of Brain King, the most tangible proof of his strength was his student!
The student he taught, the island nation's prodigy Kotani Rinne, had already crushed China's contestants twice.
One could hardly imagine how many levels higher this master's skills were!
Suffice it to say, last year the island nation's captain was Kotani Rinne. This year, with Matsushita Hiroaki coming out of retirement, the captaincy naturally fell to him!
The camera panned to the contestant station, where the island nation's contestants were laughing and discussing nonstop:
"With Captain Hiroaki competing, I have absolute confidence in him. Our captain will definitely bring back the victory."
"Ah… sending the captain out this time seems like a bit of an overkill. Doesn't China have an old saying, 'Don't use a butcher's knife to kill a chicken'? Haha…"
Chu Xi rubbed her chin, quite curious about what the islanders at the station were laughing about.
Unfortunately, she didn't speak their language and couldn't call for a translator right now.
She'd just have to watch the replay later to find out.
I wonder what Baby is doing? Is she watching the live stream? Does she know it's my turn now?
At this thought, Chu Xi put everything else aside and first gave the camera a sunny smile.
The audience, who had been watching nervously, was suddenly stunned by this "smile that could make flowers bloom."
…
Putting other things aside, they had to admire Chu Xi's mentality!
The fourth competition event—The Fan Face Mystery.
"Today, we have 300 folding fans with similar patterns, and 300 corresponding duplicate fans. Their patterns are taken from two famous paintings, Along the River During the Qingming Festival and Prosperous Suzhou. A dance troupe composed of dancers from our two countries will perform a dance while holding these 300 fans. During the performance, the contestants will observe and memorize the fans. After the performance, the international judge will randomly select three of the duplicate folding fans. The fans will remain closed, not opened at all. The contestants must identify the identical fans by observing the information on the fan folds. The winner will be determined by accuracy first; if the accuracy is the same, the one who uses less time wins."
A dance troupe of dozens of people gracefully took the stage. They were all young, beautiful women wearing sleeveless short dresses that revealed their fair legs. With charming smiles, each held two fans.
The international judge glanced at the number of people and spoke in English, "There aren't three hundred fans here?"
"The three hundred fans will be fully displayed during the dance. They will appear in a staggered, rotating sequence, not all at once," the host explained.
The international judge nodded with a "wow," a look of "this is interesting" on his face.
This made the task of observation and memorization much more difficult, as they would appear in batches and out of order.
A professor from the Chinese expert panel also explained how this would be a challenge for the contestants' memory.
The international judge chuckled and joked, "Are these really different fans? They all look the same to me."
The island nation's contestants at their station were commenting, "Wow, they look like they were born from the same mother. This is truly a challenge worthy of Captain Hiroaki!"
On the judges' panel, Professor Wei nodded. "Yes, they are different. Because they are all taken from the same two paintings, the art style is similar, and the color palette is the same, so they don't look very different. This will really test our contestants' powers of observation and differentiation."
After saying this, Professor Wei sighed internally.
He was starting to regret it. Should they have set the difficulty of the event lower? How was Chu Xi supposed to handle this?
If she couldn't find a single fan, it would be a huge embarrassment for her.
And not just for her personally; the Chinese team would also be greatly disgraced!
Sigh… this was so sudden. Why hadn't they considered this in their emergency planning?
Professor Wei and some of the experts backstage couldn't help but feel regretful after explaining the rules.
Chu Xi understood the rules and nodded on the stage.
When the host announced that the fan dance was about to begin and asked the challengers to find a good position to observe, she suddenly turned around and walked toward the challenger's chair that had been used in the previous round to face away from the stage.
The entire venue stared in stunned silence at her sudden departure from the center stage.
Was this a last-minute retreat…? Ah, no, Chu Xi hadn't left the stage.
But why was she suddenly sitting in the challenger's seat?
Everyone watched as Chu Xi sat down, picked up her headset, and spoke:
"I forfeit observation for this round."
The words, combined with her action of sitting down with her arms crossed, sent the entire venue into an uproar!
The international judge: "What?!"
The island nation's contestants, after hearing the translation at their station: "Nani?!"
Professor Wei's jaw dropped in shock. He only managed to ask her after recovering.
"Chu Xi, are you, are you sure? You want to forfeit observation? Why?"
Did voluntarily forfeiting require so many questions?
Chu Xi had no choice but to patiently answer their questions.
"First, the dancers' skirts are too short. It's not appropriate for me to watch."
What if Baby got angry?
One should not look at what is improper. She wasn't interested in watching others show off their beautiful legs and fragrant shoulders anyway.
It wasn't appropriate for her to be interested, right? When out and about, she felt her eyes should behave themselves.
However, the more important point was an idea that had popped into her head as soon as she heard the rules.
"Second, I don't think there's any need for prior observation in this event."
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