Chapter 236

Chapter 236

That one unremarkable glance, followed by the sudden alert sound from the screen behind, was the stuff of shadowy nightmares.

Although shows like "Science Gate" are backed by authoritative institutions, for the sake of drama and tension, simple assessments naturally couldn't satisfy their needs—especially for events with scores and rankings. They'd crank the alert sound up especially loud, making all contestants take notice, and they'd also broadcast the country name.

This kind of pressure easily got to contestants, leading to more mistakes.

In the past, other countries often used similar tactics to target Country Z, like it was some unspoken agreement between them—regardless of which country it was, they'd use every trick in the book against Country Z's contestants.

Having all your plans thrown off while every team ganged up on you—that was a rough spot to be in, and they'd hit the mark too well, which is exactly how they'd ended up in this mess.

But now, someone had shown them the way out.

The M-country first team, who knew the question types better, just needed to solve faster.

So, after the announcement of "First place—Country Z" rang out, the Country Z contestants actually relaxed instead. A few looked up and caught the name hanging high on the big screen.

But they quickly ducked their heads back down and got back to work.

Bai Nuo didn't really care about the stares. When the camera zoomed in, he instinctively glanced over and tilted his head with a smile.

The background audio hit with another announcement: "Second place—Country Z."

Bai Nuo turned and locked eyes with Yu Chuyan next to him.

Yu Chuyan raised an eyebrow, the message loud and clear—just wait, next time I might beat you.

The two of them had pulled this "who's faster" bit all the time back at Sheng'ang University.

Bai Nuo caught the hint and his eyes crinkled into a smile.

Over by the international contestants, things were getting rowdy. Someone muttered a curse under their breath, and the answering system immediately flagged them and told them to keep quiet.

...

Back in the lounge of Country Z's talent development department.

The live broadcast was playing on the big screen.

After watching the two of them take a commanding lead back-to-back, a lot of people in the room finally breathed easy.

Then they had to laugh at themselves—what were they even nervous for? Was it just muscle memory from all those disappointing results lately? They'd actually been doubting Bai Nuo and Yu Chuyan?

Those two were literally about to start their PhDs.

Then they heard Ye Jiu clap his hands and laugh: "See? I told you! Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut! Jiang Liang couldn't beat Bai Nuo back in the contest days, and he sure as hell can't beat him now in a different arena! Let's see what excuse Jiang Liang cooks up this time to cover his loss, or what he tries to pin on us!"

"Exactly!"

"Well said! Last time we pushed back, they blamed Country Z's education system for his loss! Now let's see what he has to say!"

"These troublemakers who love picking fights never listen to reason. You talk to them nice and they don't get it. You gotta hit 'em where it hurts before they'll listen."

"They're out, all of them, and quick too. I told you the prospects we picked were solid!"

...

A few more minutes passed, and it was time for the contestants to start slamming their answer buttons in rapid fire.

Contestants from all over finished up one after another, with the occasional penalty buzz cutting through the success announcements.

The Country Z contestants had all wrapped up and looked up.

Their overall scores had shot way up.

Even guys like Jiang Mu and Zhao Yifeng had muscled their way into the top tier, just a hair behind the veterans who usually cleaned up in the smaller events. Jiang Liang, sitting in fourth, stared at the results and gritted his teeth.

One minute forty-nine seconds against four minutes thirty.

That wasn't just double—it was more than double. You couldn't chalk that up to luck or any other excuse anymore. It could only be sheer ability.

It could only mean the other side's skill had left them in the dust, not even on the same playing field—like a 60kg fighter being thrown in against an 80kg one—just hopeless.

Once the mini-test wrapped, the standings had shifted. The team that took first in the mini-test got the right to pick who'd compete in the next sub-event, and teams near the top of the overall leaderboard had perks they could use too.

And for the first time, Country Z had that privilege locked down.

Jiang Liang caught the chatter around him: "These new guys Country Z brought in—are they all just cracked at logical analysis?"

"Probably? Looks like we gotta push them into areas they're weak in. The next sub-event is a memory test. Use the privilege to pull that first-place guy out. And move the second-place one too—have him try spatial reasoning. No rush—we'll find their weak spots eventually."

"Damn, they've even got a read on the question types. Are they monsters?"

"Jiang Liang? Do you want to go for the first event?"

Jiang Liang's hands and feet had gone ice-cold, and he still hadn't snapped out of it, but when he heard that, he instinctively started shaking his head.

"No, I'll go for another event..."

He didn't want to face Bai Nuo again. That guy was a waking nightmare!

Jiang Liang was certain that if he got hit by another round of Bai Nuo's crushing performance, he might never dare to get back up again.

"Hey, friend, no need to be that scared, right?"

Seeming to notice his panic, a teammate patted him on the shoulder.

"Sure, it looks like they've given us a show of force, but they're newcomers, and Country Z's last-minute replacements at that. It's normal for them to be strong in their strong suits right off the bat."

Jiang Liang's brows were tightly furrowed. Ever since Bai Nuo appeared, he'd had a bad feeling.

As he thought about it, he couldn't help but glance toward the backstage area.

His grandmother and Colin were both watching from over there.

Jiang Liang's demeanor was clearly growing restless and anxious.

"Even though I initially thought Country Z had sent a pair of young lovers to stir up buzz, I have to admit those two do have some real skill."

"The rules for the first sub-event are out. Should we raise the sign and use the privilege now?"

"Let's do it. Give it a try. Contestants who focus on logic usually don't enjoy repetitive memory work, and we're very confident about the next match—we have the third-place finisher from the World Memory Masters Championship two years ago on our team. We should win this one without any problem."

While they were discussing, the official Country Z livestream room was filled with cheers.

The trolls who had been stirring things up earlier had been cleared out. This kind of short test, which measured answering speed and accuracy, had people unconsciously holding their breath.

'Haha, those foreigners are panicking. Not just M-country—F-country and Y-country are all huddled together whispering and scheming.'

‘Probably figuring out how to deal with us.’

‘No need to guess—they’d love nothing more than to step on us to prop up their own claims of racial and institutional superiority.’

‘Hell yeah! Not bad, not bad—the genius couple, I’m all for it, I can ship it, sell it, sell it all you want, I’ll even take it if they force-feed it to me! As long as they keep this momentum going!’

‘I don’t think it’s forced, though? Didn’t anyone catch that glance they exchanged after they finished? That “well, darling, I knew you’d be right behind me” feeling—so sweet.’

‘The geniuses’ little dynamic, I’m so here for it!’

‘Look at that gap, hahaha—where are those foreigners who VPN’d in earlier to mock the livestream? Speak up now!’

‘Probably got banned, right? And don’t talk about their personal lives.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Not sure if I’m being too sensitive, but I noticed comments and danmaku about the genius couple are being mass-deleted.’

‘Is it like some national protection deal?’

‘That shouldn’t be the case—they’re only eighteen…’

‘Good thing they won so convincingly. I saw someone out there stirring trouble earlier, saying they checked the last five years of Sheng’ang University’s gifted youth program list and couldn’t find either of their names.’

‘They graduated from that program years ago—you won’t find them even if you go back two more years. I’d suggest searching their names in pinyin on academic paper databases; you’ll find a surprise.’

‘You’re an insider?’

‘…Holy shit!’

‘What? What’s going on?’

‘Don’t ask, just look it up.’

‘Holy shit! You mean the authors on those top-tier journals are these two?’

‘Ahh, the first subject is about to start—it’s memory? Country M pulled strings and forced God Bai into this one.’

‘Damn it, they’re already teaming up with the neighboring groups to box us in.’

‘Same old trick—look, they even put God Yu into the spatial imagination subject! They’re systematically probing our weak spots.’

‘I’m so nervous—the real competition is about to begin. How good is his memory, exactly?’

‘Huh? Country Z pulled strings to put Jiang Liang in the memory subject too? Looks like the rookies are going to teach that traitor a lesson.’

‘Comparing memory with the senior? All I can say is, he’s in for a rude awakening.’

‘?’

On the program’s big screen, the subject assignments were already up.

When Jiang Liang saw his name lined up right next to Bai Nuo’s, he was so nervous he couldn’t help but dry-heave.

Meanwhile, Bai Nuo, after seeing where they’d put him, turned back to look at Yu Chuyan.

Yu Chuyan looked back at him—his usual deadpan expression—and spoke first: “I held it together.”

So much for “targeting”—they sent Nuonuo to the event he’s best at. See, I didn’t even laugh out loud.

Bai Nuo had been holding it in, but at Yu Chuyan’s words, he instinctively grabbed his clothes and finally burst out laughing. Once the laugh escaped, he stifled it, pushed it back down, and scrubbed his face with one hand until the smile finally faded. Then he complained, “Dude, don’t make me laugh.”

Yu Chuyan felt unfairly accused.

“I didn’t—I literally only said four words.”

Bai Nuo kept staring at Yu Chuyan, then edged closer to him in the lull before the match.

“I can’t deal, dude. I think I’ve caught a disease where seeing you makes me want to laugh.”

“It’s terminal—don’t treat it. Laugh all you want. Anyone who has a problem, I’ve got big fists—I’ll knock them out.”

Yu Chuyan subtly blocked the surrounding stares and said it on purpose.

When it came to agility, Yu Chuyan knew he couldn’t match Bai Nuo, but when it came to fighting, he was miles ahead in their four-man group.

Bai Nuo snuck in another quiet laugh, hiding it, afraid someone might think he was being disrespectful.

Just before they went on stage, Bai Nuo couldn’t help but say, “Dude, the way you reacted just now was so cute.”

That expressionless face saying such odd things—like he was completely serious about it.

Watching Bai Nuo head to the prep room with the teammates assigned to him, Yu Chuyan still couldn’t wrap his head around it—who was the cute one, really?

Someone behind him called him over to sit down in a friendly tone.

Yu Chuyan snapped out of it and raised a hand to touch his cheek.

It was scorching.

Is this even normal?

Yu Chuyan wanted to ask someone—his brother, or Xie Qing, that guy who was always off in his own head—but he felt something off, like his pheromones were barely contained, stirring restlessly.

As the people around him involuntarily shrank back, suppressed by the 3S-level pheromones, Yu Chuyan finally snapped out of it and reined in his suddenly sweet, creamy vanilla-and-herb scent, reining it back in completely.

He curled his fingers, found a seat, and sat down to think.

Innocent childhood friends… maybe something really was off.

He followed that train of thought and imagined if Bai Nuo ever found a partner…

Who? Who could it be? Who’s worthy? They’d have to step over my dead body first.

The contestant nearest to Yu Chuyan saw him sit down but didn’t dare start a conversation.

And he couldn’t tell if it was just his imagination—how could the vibe swing from warm to ominous so fast?

The contestant closest to Yu Chuyan rubbed his forearms.

Is the AC even on?

…

The next mini-event wouldn’t be one of those quick ones.

It was normal for an event to take two or three hours.

Take this small project, for instance.

All the answer sheets featured similar pencil sketches of various portraits, ten in total. After a set memorization period, these images could no longer be viewed. Then the portraits would be folded multiple times, and only a section of the folded image would be used for the question, mixed in with many irrelevant distractors. You had to rely on your memory to deduce which numbered image that section came from, and find your target among nearly a hundred answers.

Memory-type questions were extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. For instance, the initial image observation phase gave you up to an hour, and you could end the memorization early, but some people memorized in finer detail and couldn't finish memorizing all ten images' features even in an hour, let alone remember everything and answer.

Moreover, with these smaller subjects, there was a real possibility of failure. Each number allowed up to three attempts, and if you didn't get it right within those three tries, it counted as a wrong answer. It all came down to your memory speed and accuracy.

Bai Nuo had indeed never tackled such a complex memory task. He looked around the preparation room, exchanged a few words with his teammates, and then went on stage to begin memorizing.

Meanwhile, Jiang Liang, who desperately wanted to avoid Bai Nuo but had been forcibly paired with him by Country Z, looked deathly pale.

He didn't understand Bai Nuo, nor did he know what Bai Nuo was good at these days. He hadn't paid any attention to Bai Nuo since the last time he'd seen him on foreign news.

His expression grew tight and strained, and he looked like he was in rough shape.

However, many people following the competition who knew what Bai Nuo excelled at felt pretty reassured.

At that moment, over at the Farrell Castle estate in Country M.

"Well done, that's my brother!"

Leon sank into the sofa, chin raised, letting out a smug laugh.

Norton walked over from behind him, holding a tray. He bent down, set the black tea from the tray on the table, used tongs to drop a sugar cube into the tea, and then looked at Leon with mild exasperation.

"Young master."

Had he forgotten which country he belonged to?

But Norton decided not to say it out loud.

After all, his young master had once said he could be patriotic too—toward Country Z, of all places.

Leon was too lazy to get up and just reached out his hand.

Norton sighed, stirred the sugar cube in the cup with a spoon, and handed the teacup to Leon.

It was nighttime in Country M at that moment.

Leon had just finished work. He'd heard Bai Nuo was participating in this "Science Gate" thing and had compressed his workload ahead of time, essentially pulling an all-nighter.

He was understandably exhausted.

The only thing that kept him from being both tired and annoyed was that the live broadcast on TV didn't show bullet comments.

So neither he nor the other Bai family members gathered to watch had noticed the comments about "young couple" and stuff like that.

"The live broadcast time is terrible for Country M. I suggest you watch the edited version afterward."

To control runtime, the edited version usually cut out the tedious preparation time and was more organized.

"What do you know about it."

Leon yawned sleepily, took a sip from his teacup, looking like a pampered, regal cat curled up somewhere.

"Once my little sweetheart finishes, if he wants to share his feelings with his big brother, and I can't answer a single question, that would be so awkward."

As his cousin, he naturally had to represent the Farrell family and stay fully tuned in.

Norton knew he couldn't talk him out of it. The air conditioning was set very low, so Norton draped a thin blanket over Leon.

He also fetched the teapot, topped off Leon's tea, and then spoke.

"Young master, the Farrell Family received an application from the Bai family, and it also involves Country Z."

"Hmm?"

Leon glanced up.

"Who?"

"Bai Ye."

"That guy?"

Leon held the teacup casually, took another sip, frowned slightly, then sat up and added another sugar cube from the jar to his cup.

"I remember he joined Country Z's National Security Department, right? Haven't heard from him in a while. He used to have a hefty bounty on his head overseas, but now that everyone knows Country Z backs him, no one dares to make a move."

Leon let out a mocking laugh, arrogant and smug.

"What does he want?"

"The Bai family has been investigating the remnants of the Saviors Organization. Bai Ye insists that K had a secret child who once visited the research institute—he saw it with his own eyes. He's been searching for that kid all along, and of course, we've cooperated over the years."

Norton bent down and spoke softly.

Though it was just Bai Ye's claim, and neither the materials found within the Saviors Organization nor other related intelligence could confirm the existence of this secret child, he knew how much hardship the young master had endured at the research institute, so he naturally took it seriously.

"So?"

"He's investigated every angle over the years, and finally traced it to our sponsorship of many war orphans. The ages seem to match. He wants the list of records to cross-check and verify whether that secret child is still alive."

For other matters, they could cooperate as needed, but for something like this, Norton had to get Leon's approval.

"He's currently in the ruins of that country's city, digging for clues."

It's become an obsession.

Leon frowned slightly.

"Is he sure? Even though the Saviors' headquarters is in Country M, wasn't the research institute where Nuonuo was born originally in Country Z? The place where that war happened is far from both Country M and Country Z—no connection at all."

Norton shrugged.

"Of course, my young master, I have no idea what he's thinking."

"...Fine, give it to him."

Leon took another big gulp of hot tea before looking up, a hint of menace in his eyes.

"Cooperate with whatever needs cooperating. I don't want anyone among those working for me to have bullied Nuonuo."

Leon finished speaking, rubbed his head, and closed his eyes to think after hearing Norton's response.

"Also, arrange a flight to Country Z for ten days from now."

"Understood, to celebrate the young master's birthday, right?"

Leon laughed.

"My little brother's turning eighteen—his coming-of-age ceremony—of course I gotta show up."

He was clearly pumped.

"Norton, what do you think about me giving Nuonuo that eastern garden estate? It's got that old Farrell family building on it—he's gonna love it."

Norton looked at the young master who had basically turned his cousin into a "fake brother" in his own mind.

He said honestly, "Something that valuable, the young master probably won't take it."

Leon: ...

Leon clicked his tongue, waved Norton off—he needed to rethink what gift could one-up those actual "fake brothers."

He and Nuonuo were real brothers.

Real!

He refused to admit those other guys were also real brothers!

Then a notification sound from the screen caught Leon's attention.

He saw that Bai Nuo on the screen had already finished observing and started answering questions.

Bai Nuo was always careful—he'd usually review things multiple times to be thorough.

But—wait, wait, wait. It hadn't even been twenty minutes since he started memorizing, had it?

Two minutes per image—how could anyone remember the details clearly in that time?

Even Leon, who knew Bai Nuo well, was taken aback—let alone everyone else on stage who heard Bai Nuo was done memorizing.

Last time they hadn't been so obvious about watching, but now, even his teammates, everyone turned in shock, staring at Bai Nuo, who hadn't even looked up from the screen.

They watched Bai Nuo start swiping through the options one by one.

Some people thought:

Is this a distraction?

Well, Bai Nuo definitely pulled that off.

Interrupting everyone's thoughts, throwing them off—the features they'd just memorized were starting to blur.

Even the contestant who'd placed top three at the World Memory Masters Championship couldn't help getting nervous, glancing down at what he needed to memorize, then up at Bai Nuo, clearly losing focus.

Then he saw Bai Nuo flipping faster and faster, barely glancing at each option before moving on, all the way to the end without filling in a single answer.

Was it purely a distraction? A tactic from someone who'd scored points in the prelims and figured he wouldn't be eliminated? Or had he just failed to understand the rules—only looked at one image, panicked about forgetting it, and rushed to find the answer?

Would he ask why he couldn't go back later? But there was no denying that Bai Nuo on stage was enough to rattle anyone.

He muttered under his breath: "Despicable Z-country bastard."

Then, a few minutes later, Bai Nuo seemed to have flipped through the entire answer bank and started over from number 001.

Before they could look away in relief...

A crisp sound rang out in everyone's ears.

"Ding—"

"Z country contestant 07, correct answer. Score: one."

No one looked up then.

Found it? In that short a time—impressive, but that should be it, right?

But Yu Chuyan offstage knew Bai Nuo's moves well. Nuonuo loved picking out his favorite bites, piling them in his bowl, and stuffing them in big mouthfuls.

Super, super, super... adorable.

The system's robotic voice blasted across the inner and outer arenas.

"Ding—"

"Z country contestant 07, correct answer. Score: two."

"Ding—"

"Z country contestant 07..."

The barrage of dings left everyone's heads spinning, and they finally looked up again in shock and disbelief.

Bai Nuo was still calmly swiping through, finding the answers he needed and filling in the numbers. Each correct answer triggered the system's confirmation tone, and he kept going.

The show's answer device seemed to be at an uncomfortable height for him.

Used to the custom lab equipment from the academy, Bai Nuo leaned over the answer device, his delicate face expressionless. Compared to his earlier easy smile, he now looked sharper. As the camera zoomed in, you could see his curled lashes and steady, unreadable gaze.

It was like he'd flipped through the material once and already knew where every answer was—relaxed and lazy about it.

He'd inherited the Bai family's essence—seven or eight parts of it, especially from his old man.

Giving off the impression that he was just playing a game.

And if it weren't for this show, these contestants wouldn't even have gotten close enough to meet him, let alone compete against him on the same stage.