Chapter 32 - Tie! What A Dramatic Situation! (2/2)
This Fall Cup was held just like other previous Fall Cups, which were never this dramatic.
The organizing committee started to work out a solution. In the meantime, Hades had to bite the bullet and continue to host the show.
After all, it was live on Iowa TV and the internet.
It was impossible to stay as awkward as they were now and neglect the audience.
“Everyone, please calm down! The organizing committee of the competition is currently in the midst of some emergency planning. I believe that they will definitely come up with a proper solution. Before that, we just need to remain patient. Actually, all the judges have expressed their views just now, but I haven’t said my piece yet. These two works chose Chinese burial culture as the topic and used tomb-robbers as the main characters. The authors of these books participated in the same Fall Cup and even obtained the exact same number of votes in the final selection. This feels like fate! There were even rumors online that the two works were actually written by the same author. I’d like to say that it’s extremely unlikely that ‘Candle in the Tomb’ and ‘The Lost Tomb’ were written by the same author.”
“Why do you say that?”
“First of all, the writing style of the two works is completely different. One is experienced and worldly, while the other is amiable. Secondly, the focus of these two works is completely different. One is about exploration, while the other is actually about character growth. Lastly, it’s the technical difficulty. You should know that the Fall Cup Creative Writing Competition is held in the form of a workshop. In other words, all authors need to create their works on-site within a limited amount of time. Think about it. In just two short weeks, the author would have to come up with two stories with similar themes but with completely different focuses. They would have to complete two books totaling about 200,000 words. This is just amazing talent and efficiency! If there really is such a genius in the world…I’m willing to be his student! In my opinion, these works each have their own pros and cons, so I can’t make a judgment.”
Hades talked for a long time, but in the end, all he said was nonsense.
He could not come up with a conclusion from his analysis.
Thus, it was impossible to determine the final winner of the competition.
However, his analysis had indeed attracted many people’s attention and diverted everyone’s focus from the tie to other places.
It had also given the organizing committee enough time to find a solution that everyone was satisfied with.
At this moment, a young man came up from behind and whispered a few words into Hades’ ear.
Hades nodded repeatedly. “Alright.”
Then, Hades turned to the audience and said, “The result of the discussion by the organizing committee just now was that since the reader and expert votes for the two works are the same, it means that the quality of the works is about the same. Or, at the very least, they each have their own strengths. Behind such excellent works are excellent authors who have completed such ingenious stories. Therefore, the organizing committee has decided to continue as scheduled and reveal the true identity of both anonymous authors. Please welcome the author of ‘Candle in the Tomb’ and the author of ‘The Lost Tomb’ to the front of the stage to share their creative perspective and the process of completing this work. In the end, we will give the two authors a score based on that and a winner will be decided!”