BXBX NOVEL Chapter 20 - 20, Round 3!
You have to give it to Huang Xiaolong, he really knows how to squeeze in. Against all odds, he managed to push his way through the crowd and onto the stage. Some female comrades even lost their bras in the shuffle, but didn’t manage to make it up!
“Everyone please calm down, no more pushing, or someone’s going to get pregnant…hahahaha…Our prize event will be ongoing for several hours. Every friend present has a chance to get on stage and win a prize…” The male host maintained order on the stage.
There were already fifty people gathered on the stage, a group of burly security guards blocked the crowd from squeezing up any further.
Some staff instructed the people on stage to line up orderly.
Then, they handed out a pen and a question board to each person.
“OK! We have recruited fifty friends from the audience. The first round of our memory challenge will now begin. Please listen carefully to the rules—” The male host pointed seriously to a LED screen on the stage and announced, “Take a look at the screen—In a moment, you will see 10 images. After one minute, these images will flip over, which is to say, you need to memorize and correctly record these 10 images onto your question boards in the given minute. Does everyone understand?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a timer first appeared on the LED screen, the time displayed was 60 seconds, which is one minute.
“Prepare—start!”
As the male host gave the command, the countdown began, and sure enough, 10 images appeared on the LED screen!
The stage was silent. Those who didn’t make it onto the stage were staring at the images on the LED screen, quietly memorizing.
The first round’s 10 images were very simple, one would even say they had zero difficulty.
The moon, the sun, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, a Pekingese…
Huang Xiaolong glanced at them, then quickly started to write on his question board with a marker.
“Hehe, the so-called ‘first round’ is always the easiest. Even kids can remember this. Accordingly, the prize will be crap…” Cui Feiyan smirked beneath the stage. She’d always been a good student. Being smart and having an excellent memory, she committed the order of the first round’s 10 images to memory within seconds.
The 60-second countdown ended.
The images flipped over like a deck of cards.
“OK, time’s up for the first round. Please write your answers on your question boards as soon as possible.” The male host smiled.
No flattery, no sarcasm, this round really was a cakewalk. The faces of most people on the stage were beaming with delight.
Three minutes later, they revealed their question boards.
The staff started to check in order.
As a result, out of the fifty participants in the first round of the memory challenge, only one person was eliminated, the rest all succeeded!
“Eh…you’re kidding? How can someone get this wrong? It’s so simple…” Huang Xiaolong was extremely curious about the eliminated participant. He was a bespectacled young man who appeared to be a student. Full of regret, he was led off the stage by the staff.
“Ah! Now I get it. This must be what people in the city often talk about—those addicts who can’t stop jerking off, leading to memory loss due to long-term addiction, and causing them to see things differently.” Huang Xiaolong nodded sagely in understanding.
The prize for the first round was handed out on the spot!
A bag of Tide detergent, 500 grams!
A box of Nescafé instant coffee!
A bottle of Nongfu Spring mineral water!
A bag of Lay’s potato chips!
A bag of Liangpin Puzi’s nuts!
A small bottle of Liuwei Dihuang Teapills!
A bag of Qiaqia sunflower seeds!
“Wow–so many prizes! And the legendary Nescafé, which I’ve never tasted back in my village!”
When Huang Xiaolong held the myriad prizes in his hands, he was so delighted!
The male host called up another person from the audience, maintaining the count of the participants at fifty.
“Please get ready, the second round is about to start!”
Huang Xiaolong quickly held the prizes with both hands, ran to the edge of the stage, where Cui Feiyan was conveniently standing below.
“Feiyan, could you help me hold these…” Huang Xiaolong grinned as he handed over all the prizes to Cui Feiyan below the stage.
Cui Feiyan took them in a wooden way, feeling resigned. “I’m warning you, stop messing around! Do you think I have all the time in the world?”
“Calm down, Feiyan. As soon as I collect all the prizes, I’ll stop.” Huang Xiaolong smiled at Cui Feiyan, then quickly returned to the line.
“All the prizes?!” Cui Feiyan was shocked and confused.
The second round of the Memory Challenge!
The countdown time displayed on the LED screen was still 60 seconds. However, the number of images was now 20.
And, compared to the 10 images in the first round, these 20 images were considerably more difficult.
The Eiffel Tower, the Potala Palace, the King of Spades, a portrait of Mr. Lu
Xun…
As a result, in the second round, out of the fifty participants on stage, at least half of them had stiff faces and furrowed brows when trying to memorise these images. Some even broke out into a sweat.
Cui Feiyan in the audience was also remembering. She managed to memorize the pattern sequence correctly in about twenty seconds.
Huang Xiaolong only took a quick glance before starting to write on the board.
The 60-second countdown ended.
The pattern flipped to the back.
The boards were revealed after three minutes.
In round two, of the fifty participants, thirty-eight were eliminated. Only twelve passed.
Huang Xiaolong breezed through. The staff issued the prizes on the spot— A nine-yang soy milk machine!
A box of imported ultra-thin Okamoto TT!
A Meidi rice cooker!
A set of deluxe versions of Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance!
A beautiful vase!
A four-piece set of Rolai bedding!
A Citizen wrist watch!
The prizes for the second round were significantly richer than the first.
When Huang Xiaolong held these prizes, he felt sheer bliss, as if floating on a cloud.
He once again came to the edge of the stage holding the prizes, handed them over to Cui Feiyan to keep. “Feiyan, hold these for me.”
“Your memory is not bad.” This time, even Cui Feiyan looked somewhat impressed.
In her view, the second round of this memory challenge was so difficult that it couldn’t be handled by ordinary people.
Of course, she was merely impressed. Huang Xiaolong’s performance was not yet enough to make Cui Feiyan admire or stun him, and she believed Huang Xiaolong would have a hard time passing the third round as the difficulty increased.
After supplementing thirty-eight people from below the stage, the third round of the Memory Challenge began vigorously!
As Cui Feiyan expected, the difficulty of the third round increased by several times!
On the LED big screen, thirty patterns appeared!
There were license plate numbers, stock codes, a line from a poem from the Tang Dynasty, and even English words…
The countdown time, still no extension, just 60 seconds.
As soon as these patterns appeared, more than half of the participants on stage instantly chose to give up.
The remaining people were desperately memorizing, their expressions grave. Some even turned pale, with facial muscles twitching, sweat pouring, and dry heaves—a state of brain hypoxia due to excessive mental exertion.
Even the normally good-at-memory Cui Feiyan was now struggling. Often, while remembering the patterns at the end, she would forget the content of the patterns at the beginning. Given five minutes, she was confident she would make it. But one minute was too short.
Simply put, this was a height that the mental power of people who hadn’t undergone formal memory training could not reach.
Simply put, in a short minute, not to mention memorizing, even scanning these thirty patterns might take up all the time.
The Countdown ended!
Of the fifty on stage, forty-six gave up altogether and disillusionedly left the scene.
Only four were left, recalling, and recording on the board at the same time.
Huang Xiaolong was among them, his face calm and composed as ever. His eyes were as serene as a gentle breeze, the corners of his mouth were curved up in a delighted grin, and he was writing quickly on the board.
Show the board!
The staff carefully checked. The three people ahead of Huang Xiaolong all made major mistakes. Some barely remembered part of the patterns, others were all wrong, just blindly guessing.
Some got the sequence upside down, and even fancifully added nonexistent elements.
Only Huang Xiaolong was left in the end!
“This friend…you seem quite confident…” The male host walked in front of Huang Xiaolong, “Are you preparing to surprise us?”
“Surprise? There’s nothing surprising… The third round is straightforward too.” Huang Xiaolong said jovially.
“Straightforward?” The male host paused, then the corners of his mouth curved into a cold, sarcastic smile, ‘Seriously, this country bumpkin thinks he’s hot shit here… even our elite students from Golden Charm Memory Training Institute might not pass this round…
Downstage, Cui Feiyan’s attention was completely concentrated on Huang Xiaolong. Huang Xiaolong was the only remaining participant on stage.
‘Is he bragging, or… Not really? The third round is so difficult that I can’t even catch up. How could he…how could he possibly pass?’ Cui Feiyan wore an incredulous expression on her face.
Huang Xiaolong showed his board!