CHAPTER 393: CHAPTER 136 CONQUEST OF AUSTRALIA_6

Qiao Yu: "Why should I feel embarrassed to go? Just a heads up, the IMO requirements are that any high school student under twenty can go."

Gong Jiatao: "But you’ve already given a top-level report at a world-class mathematics conference! Is it appropriate for you to compete with us for a gold medal?"

Yu Yongjun: "Well, bro, while I completely support you competing, it does feel a bit like using a cannon to kill a mosquito."

Qiao Yu: "I’m not a cannon, and I won’t let you call yourself a mosquito!"

Yu Wei: "Qiao Yu, have you considered the embarrassment if you mess up at the IMO and don’t even get a bronze medal?"

Qiao Yu: "Do you think that’s possible? And even if I didn’t get a bronze medal, who would dare to question my level? The judges on site?"

...

Directly facing three at once...

While leaving his peers speechless, Qiao Yu also felt a bit uninterested.

He didn’t expect that even his own people would think it unnecessary for him to compete.

However, Qiao Yu thought this probably meant he hadn’t cast enough of a psychological shadow over his peers. He had to step up his game.

After all, if everyone feared him, they shouldn’t dare to oppose any of his decisions.

But there’s no rush.

He’d wait until this IMO was over, and his teammates came to Yanbei before taking further action.

He couldn’t really let them mentally break down before such a world-class competition. Otherwise, Leader Zhou might take a knife to him.

But no matter what, Qiao Yu thought he should still do his utmost to participate in the IMO. Even if he was complained about, he would argue his case.

The IMO application was long submitted and approved before he attended the world Algebraic Geometry conference, so why shouldn’t he participate?

After all, everyone needs a farewell to childhood innocence as a gift in their growth journey. Qiao Yu thought an IMO gold medal would be quite fitting.

Besides, it could be considered an explanation for the good guy.

This was a path the good guy helped plan for him!

...

Unlike the trip to France, this time going to Australia was much more convenient with an electronic visa.

However, this trip to Australia’s Gold Coast was different from the last journey. Not only did it require a transfer, but a long leg wasn’t on a wide-body plane either.

Even though it was first class, it wasn’t as comfortable as last time. But fortunately, this time everyone around him was of the same age.

Experience proved Qiao Yu had a wealth of experience dealing with people of any age.

Although during the last training, the impression he left on everyone wasn’t that good, and he often clashed with people in the friend group,

but after the IMO reunion, meeting everyone offline, Qiao Yu actually didn’t have any airs. He quickly became friendly with everyone, just like when he was in Class Thirteen.

Qiao Yu always felt students were the easiest group to get along with. Even someone with a quirky personality like Yu Wei was no exception.

People need to experience things to grow; intelligence makes no difference. Children protected under wings often remain naive.

Qiao Yu felt the same about himself.

Looking back now, he realizes he oversimplified many things when he was younger.

Moreover, this time meeting again, what comforted Qiao Yu the most was that everyone was quite convinced by him.

He didn’t need to think of ways to curb the arrogance of these guys anymore; everyone listened to him well. In many cases, his words were more effective than Leader Zhou’s.

In short, everything went smoothly before arriving at this IMO’s venue at the Gold Coast.

But after arriving at the competition site and meeting up with Leader Zhou, the thing Qiao Yu most worried about happened as expected.

For the competitors, their IMO journey started on July 18th, but in reality, the IMO board and those leading this IMO arrived on the 14th.

And they began presiding over the jury’s work.

The jury’s preliminary work mainly involved selecting the final competition questions from the question banks submitted by various countries and translating these questions into multiple languages.

As well as establishing unified grading standards before the official exam, to ensure consistency in scoring standards across different countries.

This is where the problem arose.

Although the jury didn’t handle the qualifications review of participating students, as this was supposed to be managed by each country’s or region’s selection and organizing institutions,

Qiao Yu’s reputation was indeed too prominent. When other countries’ team leaders saw Qiao Yu in the Huaxia team’s participant list, they indeed expressed some incredulous feelings to this year’s board members.

Thus, having just arrived with the Huaxia team and barely having any rest, Leader Zhou Liang and Qiao Yu were invited to attend a closed-door meeting of this IMO’s board.

This probably counted as extremely high treatment.

...

When he received the notification, Qiao Yu had a bad premonition. Sure enough, once he and Zhou Liang entered the conference room and saw a few familiar faces, he knew Professor Delini’s words had come true.

They had just met not long ago at the Algebraic Geometry conference in Paris, and Qiao Yu even remembered receiving one of their business cards.

"Hi, Qiao Yu, is it really you? I didn’t expect to see you again here after just two months."

"Yes, Professor Smith, I didn’t expect that either. Are you also a board member?"

"Board member? No, no, no, I should say the advisory committee. The IMO advisory committee’s selection mechanism involves selecting additional representatives for three terms after the previous one. Last year it happened to be held in the United Kingdom, so you just happened to see me."

Qiao Yu’s acquaintance explained with a smile.

Nearby, Zhou Liang was also greeting the others.

A Huaxia professor was also on this IMO’s advisory committee because next year’s IMO would be held in Huaxia, so Zhou Liang was also a committee member.

"Alright, the issue for discussion this time is whether Qiao Yu should participate in this competition."

The IMO secretary-general from Denmark, Kristen, briefly explained.

Alright, directly to the point.

So Qiao Yu curiously asked: "Then may I ask, why do you think I shouldn’t participate in this competition? I haven’t broken any rules, have I?"