Chapter 116 - A Situation During the Finals! (2/2)

“Why is the atmosphere so tense?”

“What has happened? It’s a live broadcast, too. Why aren’t they beginning the finals?”

The camera quickly moved away, but the audience present could see it clearly. They began to discuss about it.

The male host was quick to react, “This compet.i.tion sure is highly antic.i.p.ated. I wonder who will be this year’s champion. Last year’s champion, Professor w.a.n.g, unfortunately could not come due to his old age. This year, I’m placing my bets on last year’s first runner-up, Teacher Big Thunder. What about you?”

The female host smiled and said, “I’m placing my bets on Teacher Zhang Ye.”

“Why?” From the male host’s expression, he clearly did not know who Zhang Ye was. But since his partner had said so, he had to pretend like he knew.

The female host blinked, “It’s nothing much. It’s only because I’m Teacher Zhang Ye’s fan. I have memorized every poem of his except ‘The Song of the Stormy Petrel’.”

The male host was amused, “But this is a couplet compet.i.tion.”

“So what? It can’t prevent me from wors.h.i.+ping my idol!” the female host said matter-of-factly.

“I only just realized you chase idols!” The male host was at a loss of whether to laugh or to cry.

The two of them exchanged words as they dragged the time out to change the subject.

Offstage, Xiao Lu was smiling with glee, “Look at our Teacher Zhang’s popularity! He has fans all over Beijing!”

“That’s right. That female host is your fan.” Hou Ge prodded Zhang Ye with his elbow. “Teacher Zhang, are you sure that you aren’t partic.i.p.ating? This will disappoint your fan!”

Zhang Ye was actually thinking about how much he wanted to go up onto the stage.

Five minutes pa.s.sed and the audience was already becoming impatient.

The hosts could no longer drag it out any further. Looking offstage, a host said, “Teacher Judges, can we begin?”

An employee with a blue pa.s.s offstage noticed the situation and quickly went onstage, and took over the microphone, “Sorry, but we have a situation. Just now, someone reported that a contestant had violated the rules by cheating. So please wait patiently. We are still discussing the situation.”

“Cheat?”

“Who?”

“What cheating?”

The audience began to chatter.

The Beijing Writers’ a.s.sociation’s employee said quickly, “The person that was reported is Zhang Ye.”

A few judges were looking very harsh, especially Elder Qian. He stared coldly at the Writers’ a.s.sociation employee who had went up onstage to speak without their agreement. The outcome was not settled, so who allowed you to announce the name of the contestant that was reported? Who let you say it?

The female host was also stunned. She had previously mentioned that she had her bets on Teacher Zhang Ye.

The Writers’ a.s.sociation employee pretended that he did not see the fierce stares from the Couplet Organization’s Leaders and the few judges. He carried on speaking casually, “This is because during the preliminaries, Zhang Ye was discussing the questions with his surrounding friends. Someone even heard one of his friends suggesting to plan a strategy for him to solve the question. After receiving the report, we checked the video footage and realized that it did happen!”

Elder Qian was enraged, “Get him down! What the heck!”

The faces of the few people from the Couplet Organization turned ugly. A Leader from the Couplet Organization said to a Leader from the Writers’ a.s.sociation, “Things aren’t even confirmed. Who let you say that? Eh?”

The Writers’ a.s.sociation’s Leader threw up his hands, “I didn’t instruct him to do it.”

The woman from the Couplet Organization who was responsible for receiving Zhang Ye said, “Get him the f**k down!” Even vulgarities came out!

The Beijing Writers’ a.s.sociation’s Leader frowned, but he got his employee down. But since the words had been said, it was useless to think of turning the situation around by having his employee removed!

The words were shocking. This matter immediately blew up!

Whether it was the audience or the people watching the live webcast, everyone heard it!

“Zhang Ye?”

“Zhang Ye cheated?”

“His friends helped him match it during the preliminary round?”

“Hai, I already said it. How can a person manage to match the second half of such a miraculous couplet in such a short time? He must have gotten somebody’s help!”

“This kind of person even partic.i.p.ated?”

“Right, quickly revoke Zhang Ye’s finals qualification!”

“I was even amazed at that Zhang Ye. Who knew that he relied on others to enter the finals!”

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