CHAPTER 398: CHAPTER 137: TRIUMPHANT RETURN_5

After all, the competition was the next morning.

However, when the contestants returned to the hotel, the second round of the game + mental math contest began.

This time, more people gathered. Soon, Qiao Yu once again became the defender of the arena, defeating all challengers.

Zhou Liang took advantage of the fun atmosphere to let the Huaxia Team members rest in batches, avoiding too much excitement. He, however, didn’t miss a moment.

One has to say Qiao Yu’s gaming skills are indeed impressive.

Several times, as soon as the opponent showed up, Qiao Yu took them down with a few shots. As for doing mental math during the game, Zhou Liang didn’t pay much attention to it.

For someone who can solve Olympic Competition problems while playing games, Zhou Liang considered it basic skill.

But the effect was quite good. By nighttime, many people started taking it seriously and got anxious.

Unfortunately, the team leaders and coaches from various countries were present, and they took any child whose mindset seemed off.

By around eight in the evening, the game session ended. Nonetheless, Zhou Liang thought this was normal.

They couldn’t be underestimated, anyway. He didn’t expect any miraculous effect from this; it was better than nothing.

The competition results ultimately depended on how much these kids could perform.

From the recent training, Zhou Liang felt these kids shouldn’t have any problems.

...

The facts seemed to agree.

After the first day of exams, Zhou Liang found Qiao Yu and asked, "How was it? What did you think of the difficulty of the questions this time?"

"Hmm, a bit tricky. I have to consider which method of solving will be recognized by the judges. After all, as you previously mentioned, the judges have a set of standard answers and marking steps."

Qiao Yu responded seriously.

Zhou Liang replied half-jokingly, "All the questions have already been analyzed. As long as the solutions are correct and don’t involve university-level content, they will score points."

"Then there’s no problem. I’m sure it’s all correct."

After the two chatted, the other Huaxia Team members came out and started comparing answers with Qiao Yu.

Zhou Liang initially wanted to stop them, but then decided against it. He was relieved when he saw how happy everyone was after matching answers.

This at least indicated that everyone solved the three questions on the first day. Regardless of the process, the results should be pretty good.

The second day’s situation was similar.

However, Zhou Liang, as the team leader, had to get busy coordinating the grading of papers with leaders from other countries.

Assistant leader Zhang Zhuowei asked Qiao Yu to write down the solution process for all six questions and then let Qiao Yu go play games in the hall on the eighth floor.

This year, the IMO did not require organization; whenever there was free time, someone would surely be battling on the eighth floor.

It was said that some team members were even betting privately...

Others could see that Qiao Yu was here at the IMO just to relax, at least he had become addicted to the games, enjoying them thoroughly every day.

Others stayed behind to estimate their scores based on Qiao Yu’s answers.

The scores everyone came up with delighted Zhang Zhuowei greatly. If no one made any mistakes, the total score this year would be high, reaching over 245 points.

Among them, Yu Wei, Gong Jiatao, and Zhang Yi all estimated they achieved perfect scores. Together with Qiao Yu, that made four people with perfect scores.

The other two were worried they might lose points in the process. Yu Yongjun estimated a score of 40 for himself, and another estimated 38.9 points.

Most likely, all six passed the gold medal line.

Of course, these were just estimated scores. Nonetheless, compared to last year’s 190 points, the score was sure to have improved significantly.

This put everyone in a good mood.

So, with a wave of his hand, Zhang Zhuowei sent everyone to the eighth floor to play games, even Yu Wei, who usually didn’t like excitement, was dragged out by Yu Yongjun and Gong Jiatao.

In the past days, the leaders did not allow internal battles to avoid affecting their mindset; today, they were not worried about that.

Yet at this time, Zhang Zhuowei felt a bit regretful.

So close, they nearly achieved a record of all six getting perfect gold medals again.

The first time the record for full marks at the IMO was set by the American team, that was a thing of the past century.

However, Huaxia also achieved a full gold medal record at the 63rd IMO, tying the record.

If they could score 252 points this time, it would surpass the record.

...

After three days of grading, coordination, and the final jury meeting, the closing ceremony began on the afternoon of July 25th, and results were directly announced.

This year’s gold medal line was 34 points, with a total of 52 people receiving gold medals. The silver line was 27 points, with a total of 92 people, and the bronze line was 19 points, with 175 people.

The Huaxia Team’s actual scores were even better than expected, achieving five perfect scores and one with 38 points, totaling 248 to win the team first place.

Surprisingly, the second place this year went to Romania, with a total team score of 228. The United States ranked third with 222 points.

Actually, the American team performed quite well this time, with four perfect scores and one gold medal with 37 points. However, unfortunately, one member only scored 17 points...

Missing the bronze medal by two points.

During the awards ceremony, Zhou Liang could sense that this time Professor Andre, leading the American team, was giving him odd looks.

After all, the look of someone who wants to stab you was hard to hide.

Zhou Liang only then realized that the one who scored only 17 points was the same young man who clashed with Qiao Yu in the game the other day.

Apparently, he tried to challenge again the next day but still couldn’t win and lost even more miserably.

As for the boy’s specific name, Zhou Liang had forgotten...

He seemed to have heard Qiao Yu mention it.

But it didn’t matter, they were returning home the next day. It should be considered a lesson, and cultivating a child’s psychological endurance is important.

If a game could break their mindset, how would they handle difficult math problems in the future?

As for Qiao Yu, he cared even less about such things.

He truly enjoyed this trip to the IMO, having totally relaxed after six months of intense pressure.

The only pity was that the time was a bit too short. If it could be extended by two or three days, it would have been perfect.

After all, some international friends seemed unconvinced by him...

Fortunately, the overall outcome was still satisfying for everyone involved,

especially for his alma mater, which should be very pleased.

So after the awards, facing the press, Qiao Yu shyly said, "I’m very happy to achieve this result because it helped my alma mater, Star City Railway First Middle School, reach a breakthrough."

He certainly had a reason to be modest.

When the news reached back home, Qiao Yu’s name was usually listed last among perfect scorers, almost described with the word "wait."

Perhaps many media thought that for a guy who was on the seven o’clock news last month, getting an IMO full score gold medal wasn’t worth celebrating.

But Star City Railway First Middle School clearly didn’t see it that way.

As soon as the news returned home, familiar bridge-shaped red balloons popped up again at the school gate, full of festive cheer!