Chapter 894 - 896 - Not Convinced? Fight!_1
All the judges and the contestants’ gazes fell on Bai Ruozhu, making her smile and stand up from her chair.
"I said last time during the Calligraphy Competition, didn’t I? My memory is very good." She suddenly said this, causing everyone who heard it to recall the scene of the Calligraphy Competition, especially the man who asked her the question; his complexion grew even worse, and he couldn’t help but shudder.
Bai Ruozhu seemed to not notice these reactions at all and continued speaking: "I once met an old man who said that this is a sign of a nimble mind, so I calculate many Arithmetic problems directly in my head, and for the more difficult ones, I just need to jot down a few marks on paper. So this is my own issue, everyone please don’t blame the organizing committee."
The listeners all displayed looks of disbelief. No use of an Abacus, just calculating in her head? This was astonishingly impressive.
In this timeline, there weren’t methods like the Ninety-nine Multiplication Table for arithmetic, and since the people of Danliang Country didn’t value Arithmetic much, even their methods of using the Abacus were much clumsier; thus, they found two-digit multiplication and division quite challenging.
Yet here was Bai Ruozhu, speaking as if having a too-good-for-her-own-use brain was a problem, making many in the audience want to rush up and give her a good beating, then ask the heavens why such good fortune hadn’t fallen upon them.
"If anyone still doesn’t believe what I said, after the Competition ends, a few people from the audience can come up and give me problems to solve. I’ll answer them on the spot, and then everyone will see whether I calculate fast or if I got the answers in advance. As for now, let’s not disrupt the normal proceedings of the Competition," Bai Ruozhu added.
The judges all nodded, thinking that Bai Ruozhu’s idea was good. The Competition would proceed as normal, and afterward, the audience would pose questions to her. If she couldn’t prove her competence, the organizing committee would just annul her ranking.
"Bai Ruozhu makes sense," a judge declared loudly. "Let the Competition continue, and those with doubts can pose their questions afterward."
Though not completely convinced by Bai Ruozhu’s words, the audience didn’t want to disrespect the organizing committee, so they refrained from saying anything more. They were only preoccupied with how to challenge Bai Ruozhu later and had lost much interest in the ongoing Competition, hoping it would end soon.
In the spectator stands, quite a few old-school aristocrats from Jiangnan, who didn’t like Bai Ruozhu, were present. Most of them usually had close ties with the Xu Family, and some young ladies were good friends with Xu Panrui and her companions. The Calligraphy Competition incident made them feel that Bai Ruozhu had not only slapped the Xu and Sun Families in the face but had also severely damaged the pride of the Jiangnan aristocracy.
Why didn’t they resent Jiang Yichun, who had brought two hundred elite soldiers charging into the event? The reason was simple: they were truly intimidated and didn’t dare bear a grudge against the fierce and domineering Jiang Yichun, so they could only pick on the easier target.
Afterward, the Competition continued, with the questions becoming progressively more difficult, but the hardest were just three-digit arithmetic operations, nothing Bai Ruozhu hadn’t learned in her previous life, not even necessitating equations. She only scribbled on paper twice before easily answering all of the questions.
The other contestants grew increasingly sullen. It was supposed to be a quick-response battle, but they couldn’t get a single answer in; wasn’t that equivalent to scoring zero?
There was also some soft murmuring among the judges. If things continued as they were, it would be impossible to determine the rankings after second place. No one had expected such a turn of events, and Bai Ruozhu was just too formidable.
Bai Ruozhu inwardly curled her lip. She hadn’t wanted it to be like this either; who knew she would be questioned after just one quick answer? She had to admit to mental arithmetic, but now she couldn’t play ’Concealed Clumsy’ and let others have a chance—it was these very people who had doubted her, leaving her no choice but to diligently work out the answers.
Finally, the judges beckoned a referee and whispered a few words to him. Soon after, the referee announced loudly, "There’s a change in the rules of the Competition. For the subsequent questions, contestants should not call out their answers but instead write them on paper and submit them. The first five with the right answers will each receive one point."
With this change, speed in calculation was no longer such an obvious advantage, but since Bai Ruozhu had already earned so many points, the remaining questions hardly mattered to her.
The Competition continued, and Bai Ruozhu still was the first to submit her answers. Other contestants finally had the chance to solve the questions, but many appeared distraught, clearly affected by Bai Ruozhu’s performance.
At the end of the competition, Bai Ruozhu unsurprisingly scored the highest. The runner-up was that yellow-faced man who had asked questions earlier. No wonder he was dissatisfied; it turned out he was the most outstanding in arithmetic and had aimed for first place from the start.
The third place went to a student from Chang’an Academy, and the fourth to one from Tianfu Academy. Bai Ruozhu was surprised by the fifth-place winner—today it was Jin Junfeng from the delegation, who had earlier participated in the horseback archery competition. Bai Ruozhu had not expected his arithmetic skills to be so formidable.
The audience didn’t care much about the ranking of the competition and was itching to get involved. An impatient young nobleman shouted, "Can we start posing questions to Bai Ruozhu now?"
The judges nodded their heads, as they too wanted to use the subsequent questioning to prove the organizing committee’s integrity. The referee looked at Bai Ruozhu, as if asking whether she was ready to begin.
Bai Ruozhu stepped forward a few paces to get closer to the audience and smiled at the crowd, "We can begin. Those who doubt me are welcome to pose questions, but let me state plainly that those asking the questions should at least know the answers themselves. How else can we prove whether my answers are correct or not?"
This kind of simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with two- or three-digit numbers was easy for her, but it wouldn’t do for someone to pose a nonsensical question, such as how many stars there are in the sky, expecting her to respond like Aesop claiming it’s as many as the hairs on your head, would it?
Some of those who had been eager to pose questions suddenly lost their enthusiasm upon hearing this.
"We’re not arithmetic experts, how could we possibly know all the answers? Bai Ruozhu, you’re not scared, are you?" a well-dressed woman inquired.
Bai Ruozhu smiled at her, "Do I have anything to fear? If you don’t agree, come and challenge me. I’m simply stating a fact—if nobody knows the answers, how can it be confirmed whether my calculations are right or wrong?"
"Then let those people behind calculate it, and the judges can too. Could you still doubt whether you’re right or wrong then?" the woman retorted.
Bai Ruozhu replied composedly, "I dare not trouble the judges and fellow contestants with that; this is not my concern."
The woman looked toward the judges’ stand, and the judges, after looking at each other, could only nod in agreement that they would work with those present to determine the correctness of Bai Ruozhu’s answers.
The woman stood up, and seeing this, the others who wanted to pose questions sat back down. Bai Ruozhu discreetly took note, suspecting the woman’s identity was no ordinary one.
"I once saw a Sudoku-like puzzle that I found very interesting, yet as foolish as I am, I never managed to solve it. I wonder if Bai Ruozhu has the skill to do so," the woman said.
Bai Ruozhu nodded, "Please continue."
"How can you arrange the numbers one to nine in a Sudoku-like grid so that each of the three horizontal rows, the three vertical columns, and the two main diagonals add up to the same number?"
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This puzzle might seem familiar; many may have encountered it in elementary Mathematical Olympiad classes, right? Continue the battle tomorrow, and don’t forget to cast your monthly vote for Mouka~