Obsessive Tycoon and His Swan Girl
Chapter 201 - 201 201 Jiang Zhes Ranking Pending

Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Jiang Zhe’s Ranking Pending Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Jiang Zhe’s Ranking Pending Cousin asked, “Is your Q&A session for the exchange prepared?”

“It’s ready,” Meng Yirou nodded immediately.

Today’s competition consisted of two parts, a speech and a Q&A session, with equal weight assigned to each in terms of scoring.

The speech part was manageable, as everyone could prepare a fixed script, and teachers were available to help revise and polish. It was just a matter of memorization. Anyone who made it to the event today would not be weak in this area, so there wasn’t much room for a gap in scores.

But the Q&A session involved a lot of randomness.

Judges and reporters present at the event could ask questions of the contestants, testing their ability to think on their feet and communicate effectively on the spot.

As a reporter, Meng Yirou’s cousin had the right to question the contestants, so Meng Yirou had all her answers prepared.

The questions and answers were all collected from online resources and organized by her. She had memorized them completely.

By making use of her advantage, she had already positioned herself ahead of the others.

She and Teacher Huang hurried to their seats, sat down to rest for a moment and calm their agitated emotions from rushing.

Meng Yirou looked up and saw Jiang Zhe and Lou Qiaoyin sitting in the row in front of her, appearing relaxed and at ease, holding water cups and engaged in a quiet conversation. Lou Qiaoyin’s tone was lighthearted, showing no sign of anxiety.

She was both puzzled and shocked. She had left earlier than Jiang Zhe, even taking a shortcut, and thought that she had rushed so much that Jiang Zhe might not have arrived on time, but unexpectedly…

Meng Yirou’s fingers tightened slightly.

The speech and communication competition officially started.

The speech part indeed did not create much of a difference in scores.

The students selected from various high schools had no problems with their themes or spoken language.

Then came the individual Q&A sessions.

Meng Yirou herself was quite proficient in English and, since she had organized all the materials herself, she responded with ease when her cousin posed questions to her.

Other reporters and judges occasionally asked some questions, but they were all within the scope of her preparations, allowing her to handle them very smoothly, performing even better than the other students.

Teacher Huang was quite pleased.

Her cousin squeezed in beside them, bringing a friend to introduce to Meng Yirou.

“Yirou, this is a boss from a local New Energy Company. He’s asking about your plans for studying abroad or working locally in the future…” her cousin whispered.

Meng Yirou was overjoyed. She hadn’t thought about something so far in the future. She would have been satisfied just to do well in the competition and achieve a good result; she hadn’t considered anything beyond that.

But since her cousin had introduced her and the man was a local boss, having more opportunities meant having more pathways open to her, and Meng Yirou was not averse to them.

She immediately started a low-voiced conversation with the boss, who was well over fifty.

Teacher Huang’s attention was no longer on the other students’ exchanges; she joined in on their conversation.

It was the sound of applause nearby that jolted Meng Yirou back to the moment.

She had to temporarily halt her private conversation and look towards the stage.

Standing on the stage was Jiang Zhe.

Different from the other students wearing proper formal attire, Jiang Zhe was still in his school uniform, standing on the stage with a cool gaze.

There were exceptionally many people questioning him, more than Meng Yirou had anticipated.

It might have been because she had been distracted by other matters just now, but Meng Yirou realized that she couldn’t understand the questions being asked!

Although they were speaking English, it seemed the topics being questioned were very different from those she had meticulously prepared for.

She remembered how she had meticulously gone over all the material during her preparation, except for the particularly professional content, she could recite the common topics verbatim.

However, the questions she was now being asked were all beyond her anticipation and preparation.

She felt somewhat dizzy, thankfully she had decided to have her cousin safeguard her.

With such questions, how could Jiang Zhe answer?

Those topics she had never prepared for or noted down would certainly challenge Jiang Zhe.

It could only be said that Jiang Zhe was unlucky to encounter such tricky questions.

But what she didn’t know was that, while she was distracted, Jiang Zhe had already answered some standard questions, and suddenly someone asked a highly specialized question. Jiang Zhe’s flawless answer sparked the interest of the others, prompting them to select even tougher questions to pose to him.

As Jiang Zhe responded, he fuelled the questioner’s enthusiasm, leading to a continuous escalation of questions being thrown at him.

Jiang Zhe maintained a calm demeanor throughout, his eyes even hinted at nonchalance, “As for that gentleman’s earlier question, my thoughts are like this…”

Meng Yirou found that although she could understand Jiang Zhe’s answers at first, they gradually incorporated many professional terms, far beyond her understanding—she could not keep up at all!

She inadvertently caught the look on Teacher Huang’s face, which was just like her own.

Meng Yirou immediately felt uneasy.

When Jiang Zhe stepped down, she heard applause all around, as if it were a revelation.

It’s over.

Meng Yirou clenched her fists tightly, knowing that she was far weaker compared to Jiang Zhe, the key point being, she didn’t understand how all this had happened.

Having settled into his seat, Lou Qiaoyin opened her mouth to speak, “Jiang Zhe, you…”

“Yes, I’ve completed the competition,” Jiang Zhe replied.

Lou Qiaoyin actually wanted to discuss something else. The abilities Jiang Zhe had demonstrated were far beyond her own. Previously, Jiang Zhe had sincerely asked her out for coffee to seek advice.

Originally, she thought she had been of some help to Jiang Zhe, but now it seemed that what she taught was just the barest of essentials, clearly nothing significant.

The competition’s award ceremony involved immediate dissemination of scores followed by direct presentation of awards.

Meng Yirou’s mood was nowhere near as buoyant as when she had arrived, deeply somber instead.

With her head bowed, Teacher Huang also felt that first place was completely out of reach.

Third and second places along with the Excellence Awards had already been handed out. The host on stage was announcing the first-place winner, “First place, Dragon Emperor Country, Jincheng Second Middle School, Meng Yirou!”

Meng Yirou was in disbelief until both Teacher Huang and her cousin nudged her.

Only then did she walk toward the stage, dazed, unable to believe it, yet truly holding the first-place trophy.

So, does this mean that Jiang Zhe’s earlier performance was merely an illusion?

Those professional terms she mentioned were just for show, right? Otherwise, how could this be?

Meng Yirou’s spirits lifted considerably with the heavy trophy in hand, her heart unexpectedly feeling relaxed.

As she stepped down, both her cousin and Teacher Huang were visibly as relieved as she was—the earlier anxiety had completely vanished.

“Congratulations,” they both said.

The host on stage also began, “As for the contestant Jiang Zhe…”

Meng Yirou immediately listened intently, curious what they would say about Jiang Zhe.