Although Mr. Yu had said ‘Please answer’, he didn’t read the question out loud immediately; instead, he squinted his eyes with a smile. "The first question is always pretty simple, no need to be nervous."
"Did I say I’m nervous? History is my strength," said Feng Bujue calmly.
"Okay, your question is… Di Ren Jie (1)…" after the last three words came out from Mr. Yu’s mouth, Feng Bujue exhaled in relief. He was worrying that the other would give him a question regarding the virtual world, just like questions about Li Yuan Fang (2) or something. Lucky him, that fat guy spit out a real historical figure. His knowledge could be useful then.
"Each of us knows about him, Di Ren Jie, the Grand Councilor in the age of Wu Zhou. I heard that he got good tricks in investigating." Fatty Yu only made half way before he turned around to babble again.
"Please finish your question!" Feng Bujue shouted at him.
"Ha, ha, my bad, my bad," Mr. Yu continued, "your question is, what is Di Ren Ji’s Chinese Zodiac sign?"
"Wut?" Feng Bujue was dumbstruck.
Little Tan and the others originally wanted to give him a hand, but after they had heard the question, they were all puzzled.
"Your 45 seconds countdown begins!" Mr. Yu said, and simultaneously, all the speakers in the studio played the ticking countdown sound.
"What kind of historical question is that… it’s more like testing my skills in math!" Feng Bujue muttered, "Well, fortunately, that Di Ren Jie’s years of birth and death are all integers. Easy to remember though. The year 630 and 700. 2055 is the year of the pig…"
"30 seconds left," Mr. Yu reminded, his face looking pretty tender.
"The year of the tiger!" Feng Bujue remained unmoved; he didn’t hesitate to give the answer.
"Correct answer," said Mr. Yu.
The audience responded with applause. Mr. Yu raised his hand, and the card which had the first question instantly got burned as it vanished into thin air.
"The second question," Mr. Yu turned to Little Tan, "Player number two looks so nervous."
"Excuse me… that first question is really the easiest question?" Little Tan paled.
"Ha, ha…of course," Mr. Yu slightly laughed, "good, pay attention to your question, please. This is a question regarding… sports." He looked at the card and whispered, "list the name of three random athletes who have won the UK Snooker Championship (3)." He looked up and eyed Little Tan. "Countdown time for your answer starts!"
"Must list the full names?" asked Little Tan.
"Yes," Mr. Yu answered, "Keep in mind that you can’t give a wrong name. One wrong name given can be considered a wrong answer. And, please seize the time."
"Ugh... Joe Davis," First, Little Tan said the name he was most certain about.
"Correct, one," said Mr. Yu.
"Stephen Hendry."
"Correct, two," Mr. Yu reminded, "30 seconds left."
"Ding Jun Hui!" Little Tan promptly answered.
"Yeah," Mr. Yu mused for the whole two seconds, "absolutely correct."
"Phew..." Little Tan lay on his control panel.
The encouraging applause echoed.
"Ha, ha... That’s why I said no need to be nervous. That question was quite easy, right?" Mr. Yu said, "Almost all are general knowledge." He took out the microphone, cleared his throat and called Like Rain. "Player number three, please listen to the third question."
After he had burnt the second card, Mr. Yu looked at the third card and spoke to Like Rain. "This is a question regarding… a riddle."
Like Rain didn’t express anything on her face while Feng Bujue, who was sitting opposite to her, was wearing a face that said ‘this is a bonus’.
"Your question is, putting a chicken and a goose in a fridge. The chicken is then frozen to death, and the goose is still alive. Why is that?" Mr. Yu said, "Your time starts!"
"Because it was excited?" Like Rain immediately answered. [1]
"Unfortunately, wrong answer," Mr. Yu said, "the correct answer is, it’s a penguin." [2]
The audience immediately released sighs in unison. The screen on Like Rain’s control panel instantly displayed -10. Mr. Yu turned to the camera and commented. "Player number three seemed to give the answer from her 'cold jokes' (4). Too bad it’s a riddle."
"Tsk… So the answer is one of your kind." Like Rain coldly snapped.
The audience burst out laughing like crazy. Mr. Yu took his handkerchief, embarrassingly wiped his sweat and turned away from her as he called Dispirited with the fourth card. "Good then. Player number four, please listen to the fourth question."
"A...~ such difficult level… small case, just ask. Ask me!" Dispirited was excited.
"This is a question, regarding… games," Mr. Yu said, "your question is, who are the ‘Demacia Trio’? Time starts!" (5)
"What?" Dispirited opened her eyes wider while wearing a dull expression on her face.
Like Rain couldn’t help her in this case, but Feng Bujue and Little Tan were trying hard to wink. They swung their arms and legs to signal her from the opposite side. They were mouthing the names of that trio, too.
"Ha, ha, you are not allowed to hint the answer," Mr. Yu said, "if you tell her the answer, she will be considered giving a wrong answer."
"Ah! I knew it! The Trio!" One second ago, Dispirited was still pouting her lips, but then she laughed all of a sudden.
Unexpectedly, her answer was, "They are Luffy, Ace, and Sabo!" (6)
Bang —— Bang ——
Those were the sound that echoed when Jue-Ge and Little Tan banged their heads on the control board.
Many audiences had their glasses slipped and fell to the ground.
"Wrong answer," Mr. Yu said, "anyway, this kind of question is the blind spot of female players."
So, now Dispirited’s score was also -10.
"Excellent! We’ve finished the first four questions. Let’s check their scores!" Mr. Yu said, "The scores of the two gentlemen here are 10, and our ladies got -10." He lifted his head, "Our distinguished guests, please share your thoughts with us."
The spotlight and the camera shifted to the row where the distinguished guests were sitting. Queen Superbia tilted her head and arrogantly snorted. Her posture showed that she had completely disdained talking to Mr. Yu.
Young Master Pestilence gave a dry cough then said, "I think that if we exchange the questions between the female and male players, they will all have a chance to earn more points."
Hephaestus grunted, "Put the Cyclops into the fridge then talk…"
The spotlight returned to Mr. Yu. He reluctantly spread his arms and continued, "Alright, thanks for your comments. Next—" he turned to Feng Bujue again—"the difficulty level will be slightly increased then."
"Why do I have a feeling that my question is the hardest one in the first round…" Feng Bujue joked with his unchanged face.
Mr. Yu ignored him. "From this question, I will not mention the area of the question. Please listen to your question." He grabbed the card and read aloud. "Your question is, the number Pi, what is the ninth decimal digit of Pi? Your time starts!"
"3." Feng Bujue gave the answer within one second.
"Did you just guess it?" asked Mr. Yu.
"Nope," Feng Bujue answered.
"Excellent, correct!" Mr. Yu said.
Applause reverberated from the audience as Feng Bujue’ score was now 20.
"Normal people could only remember upto the seventh decimal digit. However, it seems that players like Feng can remember more than that," said Mr. Yu.
"Kind of," Feng Bujue was just humble. In fact, he could remember up to the two-hundredth decimal digit as he had made π his source of passwords. He could always choose six or eight digits among those 200 digits to use as his passwords with a trace to remember.
"Seems player number one is getting farther and farther from the Arena." Mr. Yu looked at Little Tan maliciously. "Player number two, please listen to your question."
Currently, when Little Tan heard that the difficulty of the questions would be increased, he had become more anxious, just like primary students getting in line to receive injections of vaccination.
"Your question is…‘the marriageable age’ refers to which age for women? Your time starts!" After Mr. Yu had read the question, he immediately cocked his head to Feng Bujue and said, "You shouldn't try to gesture or mouth the answer. If not, player Wang will get his score deducted."
"Too bad… I don’t know…" Little Tan looked at Feng Bujue while the other obviously threw him a despising look. He thought to himself, "What? It’s normal if I don’t know this stuff… what is that ‘this is just general knowledge’ look about!"
"30 seconds left," Mr. Yu reminded.
Little Tan felt that he could never come up with the correct answer, thus he just gave a random one. "18 years old!"
"Wrong answer!" Fatty Yu announced with a smiley face. "Your score is now zero."
The next question was for Like Rain. Mr. Yu wiped his sweat while looking at the card. "Phew… Player number three, how are you doing? Nervous?"
Like Rain didn’t answer him. Instead, she imitated Superbia’s posture as she slowly turned her head aside and gave him a cold snort.
Fatty Yu got hit again; he couldn’t do anything but continue, "Alright, the seventh question. Your question is, how many strings does a typical guzheng (7) has? Your time begins."
"21," Like Rain answered quickly.
"Correct," said Mr. Yu. However, he didn't dare to comment further to prevent getting stabbed again.
The audience gave her applause. Then, there came question number eight, also the last question in the second turn.
"Player number four, please listen to your question," said Mr. Yu, "your question is, ‘Geen hills break into Zhangzhou’, what is the next verse? Your time—"
"Eighty-nine hillocks from the western Copper Bird Pavilion," Dispirited gave the answer even before he had finished reading the question.
Although the host hadn’t announced the result, the audience had already given her an applause. Apparently, she got the correct answer. It seemed that Feng Bujue wasn’t the only one good at literature and poetry.
"Yes, correct." Mr. Yu burned the card and smiled. "Our players are very excellent in this round." He beamed a smile that contained deep meaning. "But, someone must enter the Arena anyway. Ho, ho, ho…"
And, he didn’t let the distinguished guests comment at this round, as he immediately jumped into the ninth question, which was specified for Feng Bujue. "Player number one, please listen to your question." He looked at the card. "Ah, this is a special question. If you can answer it, you will gain 20 points more. But if you give a wrong answer, your score will be deducted by 20 points. Be careful!"
------------------------------
Di Ren Jie: (630-700), Tang Dynasty politician, chancellor under Wu Zetian, subsequently hero of legends, aka Chinese Sherlock Homes, in novel Three Murder cases solved by Judge Dee translated by Dutch sinologist R.H. van Gulik.
Li Yuan Fang: a fictional character, appears as Di Ren Jie’s right-hand man.
UK Championship: The UK Championship, known as the Betway UK Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's ranking snooker tournament. It is the second biggest-ranking tournament, after the World Championship and is one of the Triple Crown events. Mark Selby is the reigning champion (2016).
Cold Joke: In China, a joke that funny by virtue of being not actually funny at all. The name comes from the fact that when one hears a cold joke, he shivers in terror instead of laughing because the joke is so bad. From Mandarin Chinese, "leng xiao hua."
Demacia Trio: three characters Garen, Xin Zhao and Poppy from League of Legends.
Characters from the famous manga One Piêc
(7) Guzheng: The guzheng (Chinese: 古箏), also known as the Chinese zither, is a Chinese plucked string instrument with a more than 2,500-year history. It has 16 (or more) strings and movable bridges. The modern guzheng usually has 21 strings and is 64 inches (1,600 mm) long. It has a large, resonant cavity made from wutong wood. Other components are often made from other woods for structural or decorative reasons. Guzheng players often wear finger picks, made from materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell, resin or hard plastic, on one or both hands.
Although Mr. Yu had said ‘Please answer’, he didn’t read the question out loud immediately; instead, he squinted his eyes with a smile. "The first question is always pretty simple, no need to be nervous."
"Did I say I’m nervous? History is my strength," said Feng Bujue calmly.
"Okay, your question is… Di Ren Jie (1)…" after the last three words came out from Mr. Yu’s mouth, Feng Bujue exhaled in relief. He was worrying that the other would give him a question regarding the virtual world, just like questions about Li Yuan Fang (2) or something. Lucky him, that fat guy spit out a real historical figure. His knowledge could be useful then.
"Each of us knows about him, Di Ren Jie, the Grand Councilor in the age of Wu Zhou. I heard that he got good tricks in investigating." Fatty Yu only made half way before he turned around to babble again.
"Please finish your question!" Feng Bujue shouted at him.
"Ha, ha, my bad, my bad," Mr. Yu continued, "your question is, what is Di Ren Ji’s Chinese Zodiac sign?"
"Wut?" Feng Bujue was dumbstruck.
Little Tan and the others originally wanted to give him a hand, but after they had heard the question, they were all puzzled.
"Your 45 seconds countdown begins!" Mr. Yu said, and simultaneously, all the speakers in the studio played the ticking countdown sound.
"What kind of historical question is that… it’s more like testing my skills in math!" Feng Bujue muttered, "Well, fortunately, that Di Ren Jie’s years of birth and death are all integers. Easy to remember though. The year 630 and 700. 2055 is the year of the pig…"
"30 seconds left," Mr. Yu reminded, his face looking pretty tender.
"The year of the tiger!" Feng Bujue remained unmoved; he didn’t hesitate to give the answer.
"Correct answer," said Mr. Yu.
The audience responded with applause. Mr. Yu raised his hand, and the card which had the first question instantly got burned as it vanished into thin air.
"The second question," Mr. Yu turned to Little Tan, "Player number two looks so nervous."
"Excuse me… that first question is really the easiest question?" Little Tan paled.
"Ha, ha…of course," Mr. Yu slightly laughed, "good, pay attention to your question, please. This is a question regarding… sports." He looked at the card and whispered, "list the name of three random athletes who have won the UK Snooker Championship (3)." He looked up and eyed Little Tan. "Countdown time for your answer starts!"
"Must list the full names?" asked Little Tan.
"Yes," Mr. Yu answered, "Keep in mind that you can’t give a wrong name. One wrong name given can be considered a wrong answer. And, please seize the time."
"Ugh... Joe Davis," First, Little Tan said the name he was most certain about.
"Correct, one," said Mr. Yu.
"Stephen Hendry."
"Correct, two," Mr. Yu reminded, "30 seconds left."
"Ding Jun Hui!" Little Tan promptly answered.
"Yeah," Mr. Yu mused for the whole two seconds, "absolutely correct."
"Phew..." Little Tan lay on his control panel.
The encouraging applause echoed.
"Ha, ha... That’s why I said no need to be nervous. That question was quite easy, right?" Mr. Yu said, "Almost all are general knowledge." He took out the microphone, cleared his throat and called Like Rain. "Player number three, please listen to the third question."
After he had burnt the second card, Mr. Yu looked at the third card and spoke to Like Rain. "This is a question regarding… a riddle."
Like Rain didn’t express anything on her face while Feng Bujue, who was sitting opposite to her, was wearing a face that said ‘this is a bonus’.
"Your question is, putting a chicken and a goose in a fridge. The chicken is then frozen to death, and the goose is still alive. Why is that?" Mr. Yu said, "Your time starts!"
"Because it was excited?" Like Rain immediately answered. [1]
"Unfortunately, wrong answer," Mr. Yu said, "the correct answer is, it’s a penguin." [2]
The audience immediately released sighs in unison. The screen on Like Rain’s control panel instantly displayed -10. Mr. Yu turned to the camera and commented. "Player number three seemed to give the answer from her 'cold jokes' (4). Too bad it’s a riddle."
"Tsk… So the answer is one of your kind." Like Rain coldly snapped.
The audience burst out laughing like crazy. Mr. Yu took his handkerchief, embarrassingly wiped his sweat and turned away from her as he called Dispirited with the fourth card. "Good then. Player number four, please listen to the fourth question."
"A...~ such difficult level… small case, just ask. Ask me!" Dispirited was excited.
"This is a question, regarding… games," Mr. Yu said, "your question is, who are the ‘Demacia Trio’? Time starts!" (5)
"What?" Dispirited opened her eyes wider while wearing a dull expression on her face.
Like Rain couldn’t help her in this case, but Feng Bujue and Little Tan were trying hard to wink. They swung their arms and legs to signal her from the opposite side. They were mouthing the names of that trio, too.
"Ha, ha, you are not allowed to hint the answer," Mr. Yu said, "if you tell her the answer, she will be considered giving a wrong answer."
"Ah! I knew it! The Trio!" One second ago, Dispirited was still pouting her lips, but then she laughed all of a sudden.
Unexpectedly, her answer was, "They are Luffy, Ace, and Sabo!" (6)
Bang —— Bang ——
Those were the sound that echoed when Jue-Ge and Little Tan banged their heads on the control board.
Many audiences had their glasses slipped and fell to the ground.
"Wrong answer," Mr. Yu said, "anyway, this kind of question is the blind spot of female players."
So, now Dispirited’s score was also -10.
"Excellent! We’ve finished the first four questions. Let’s check their scores!" Mr. Yu said, "The scores of the two gentlemen here are 10, and our ladies got -10." He lifted his head, "Our distinguished guests, please share your thoughts with us."
The spotlight and the camera shifted to the row where the distinguished guests were sitting. Queen Superbia tilted her head and arrogantly snorted. Her posture showed that she had completely disdained talking to Mr. Yu.
Young Master Pestilence gave a dry cough then said, "I think that if we exchange the questions between the female and male players, they will all have a chance to earn more points."
Hephaestus grunted, "Put the Cyclops into the fridge then talk…"
The spotlight returned to Mr. Yu. He reluctantly spread his arms and continued, "Alright, thanks for your comments. Next—" he turned to Feng Bujue again—"the difficulty level will be slightly increased then."
"Why do I have a feeling that my question is the hardest one in the first round…" Feng Bujue joked with his unchanged face.
Mr. Yu ignored him. "From this question, I will not mention the area of the question. Please listen to your question." He grabbed the card and read aloud. "Your question is, the number Pi, what is the ninth decimal digit of Pi? Your time starts!"
"3." Feng Bujue gave the answer within one second.
"Did you just guess it?" asked Mr. Yu.
"Nope," Feng Bujue answered.
"Excellent, correct!" Mr. Yu said.
Applause reverberated from the audience as Feng Bujue’ score was now 20.
"Normal people could only remember upto the seventh decimal digit. However, it seems that players like Feng can remember more than that," said Mr. Yu.
"Kind of," Feng Bujue was just humble. In fact, he could remember up to the two-hundredth decimal digit as he had made π his source of passwords. He could always choose six or eight digits among those 200 digits to use as his passwords with a trace to remember.
"Seems player number one is getting farther and farther from the Arena." Mr. Yu looked at Little Tan maliciously. "Player number two, please listen to your question."
Currently, when Little Tan heard that the difficulty of the questions would be increased, he had become more anxious, just like primary students getting in line to receive injections of vaccination.
"Your question is…‘the marriageable age’ refers to which age for women? Your time starts!" After Mr. Yu had read the question, he immediately cocked his head to Feng Bujue and said, "You shouldn't try to gesture or mouth the answer. If not, player Wang will get his score deducted."
"Too bad… I don’t know…" Little Tan looked at Feng Bujue while the other obviously threw him a despising look. He thought to himself, "What? It’s normal if I don’t know this stuff… what is that ‘this is just general knowledge’ look about!"
"30 seconds left," Mr. Yu reminded.
Little Tan felt that he could never come up with the correct answer, thus he just gave a random one. "18 years old!"
"Wrong answer!" Fatty Yu announced with a smiley face. "Your score is now zero."
The next question was for Like Rain. Mr. Yu wiped his sweat while looking at the card. "Phew… Player number three, how are you doing? Nervous?"
Like Rain didn’t answer him. Instead, she imitated Superbia’s posture as she slowly turned her head aside and gave him a cold snort.
Fatty Yu got hit again; he couldn’t do anything but continue, "Alright, the seventh question. Your question is, how many strings does a typical guzheng (7) has? Your time begins."
"21," Like Rain answered quickly.
"Correct," said Mr. Yu. However, he didn't dare to comment further to prevent getting stabbed again.
The audience gave her applause. Then, there came question number eight, also the last question in the second turn.
"Player number four, please listen to your question," said Mr. Yu, "your question is, ‘Geen hills break into Zhangzhou’, what is the next verse? Your time—"
"Eighty-nine hillocks from the western Copper Bird Pavilion," Dispirited gave the answer even before he had finished reading the question.
Although the host hadn’t announced the result, the audience had already given her an applause. Apparently, she got the correct answer. It seemed that Feng Bujue wasn’t the only one good at literature and poetry.
"Yes, correct." Mr. Yu burned the card and smiled. "Our players are very excellent in this round." He beamed a smile that contained deep meaning. "But, someone must enter the Arena anyway. Ho, ho, ho…"
And, he didn’t let the distinguished guests comment at this round, as he immediately jumped into the ninth question, which was specified for Feng Bujue. "Player number one, please listen to your question." He looked at the card. "Ah, this is a special question. If you can answer it, you will gain 20 points more. But if you give a wrong answer, your score will be deducted by 20 points. Be careful!"
------------------------------
Di Ren Jie: (630-700), Tang Dynasty politician, chancellor under Wu Zetian, subsequently hero of legends, aka Chinese Sherlock Homes, in novel Three Murder cases solved by Judge Dee translated by Dutch sinologist R.H. van Gulik.
Li Yuan Fang: a fictional character, appears as Di Ren Jie’s right-hand man.
UK Championship: The UK Championship, known as the Betway UK Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's ranking snooker tournament. It is the second biggest-ranking tournament, after the World Championship and is one of the Triple Crown events. Mark Selby is the reigning champion (2016).
Cold Joke: In China, a joke that funny by virtue of being not actually funny at all. The name comes from the fact that when one hears a cold joke, he shivers in terror instead of laughing because the joke is so bad. From Mandarin Chinese, "leng xiao hua."
Demacia Trio: three characters Garen, Xin Zhao and Poppy from League of Legends.
Characters from the famous manga One Piêc
(7) Guzheng: The guzheng (Chinese: 古箏), also known as the Chinese zither, is a Chinese plucked string instrument with a more than 2,500-year history. It has 16 (or more) strings and movable bridges. The modern guzheng usually has 21 strings and is 64 inches (1,600 mm) long. It has a large, resonant cavity made from wutong wood. Other components are often made from other woods for structural or decorative reasons. Guzheng players often wear finger picks, made from materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell, resin or hard plastic, on one or both hands.
