Chapter 41 - All Within Expectations

Su Tao sighed in the bus. His objective for this tournament was for the three of his disciples. He wished that they could test their own strength to raise their confidence.

He wasn't bothered about the Hanzhou Branch, since he did not have a good impression of Tong Mengchu. A principal that even resorted to cheating, what good achievement could he get?

The tournament was grander then he had expected. A total of fifty-three participants from the central and seven other branches. Each branch was given five nominations, while the central branch had eighteen. There were three divisions in the tournament, the group, speciality topic individual and well-rounded individual.

It was sponsored by the largest medical equipment company in Huainan Province. The province's television station had also broadcasted this under the educational channel.

Tang Nanzheng casually glanced at the tournament process and said, "All of the stages are separated into written and practical, and only three participants are allowed in the group division. I recommend Deng Ming, Di Yuan and Xiao Jingjing. As for the individual and well-rounded divisions, they would have to depend on their scores."

This was actually Su Tao and Tang Nanzheng's conversation as they presented their opinions. Tang Nanzheng trusted Su Tao and knew that the latter was an outstanding talent, thus his unreserved support for Su Tao.

Tong Mengchu butted in while nodding his head, "Deng Ming, Di Yuan and Xiao Jingjing have solid fundamentals, so it wouldn't be hard for them in the written portion. But Xiao Jingjing never experienced the practical training, will she be lacking?"

"Rest assured. I can guarantee her ability." Tang Nanzheng faintly smiled.

Tong Mengchu sighed, "Old Tang, I only agreed to Wang Peng and Zhao Jian's participation on your account. I have also seen their past scores, bad is an understatement. Especially Zhao Jian, if he didn't excel in sports, he would have to repeat a year."

How could Tang Nanzheng not know that Tong Mengchu was unhappy that Su Tao had refused to participate? He further assured, "I have seen the two students, they might be able to achieve a decent score in the individual competition."

At this moment, there's no other alternative idea except to place all the hopes on Tang Nanzheng.

Roughly half an hour later, Tong Mengchu received a message which caused his face to change.

"The University's Organising Committee received a complaint that there are two fake participants. The Yinzhou Branch called back their alumnus to participate. Two of them are disqualified, and the Principal of the branch will be subjected to disciplinary action after the tournament."

Tong Mengchu was shocked by this matter while sweating a sweat cold. In the past, there had been an unspoken rule of replacements. He never thought that this tournament would be so strict. It was also partly due to the change of management for the tournament since the young Vice-Principal, Wang Guofeng, had taken the position of leader in the organisation committee.

He never thought that something Su Tao said casually would actually happen. This caused a change in Tong Mengchu's perception of Su Tao as well as the complicated feelings in his heart.

The tournament took place at 3 p.m. after a short rest, Tang Nanzheng set up a chessboard and played with Su Tao in the room.

After a few rounds, Tang Nanzheng knitted his brows. For some reason, Su Tao's style was weird. Although he wasn't a newbie in this, his style was so unique that wasn't in any of the past records.

Ten-odd rounds later, Tang Nanzheng stared at the chessboard with a bitter smile. "I admit defeat. I never expected for you to be this skilled. I'm afraid that if you go into the chess field, you can probably be a national representative."

Su Tao smiled with modesty. "I have never played more than three rounds with a single person. The reason being that they would know the pattern after three rounds and they wouldn't fall for my trap anymore."

"Okay, let's go two more rounds!" Tang Nanzheng smiled despite knowing that Su Tao was being modest.

The two rounds swiftly ended with Tang Nanzheng holding onto his chin and pondered for a long time. In the end, he still couldn't accept his lost and demanded, "Another round!"

Su Tao waved his hand and smiled. "Let's forget about it. Let me preserve my tricks."

Tang Nanzheng understood Su Tao's character. Su Tao was confident in himself, so he didn't want Tang Nanzheng to lose too badly. Tang Nanzheng sighed, "Alright then, let's play in the future, if there's an opportunity." However, he swore in his heart that he would never play with Su Tao again.

As they talked, the doorbell rang. Su Tao opened the door and saw Tong Mengchu along with five participants returning from the competition.

"How's the written competition?" Tang Nanzheng smiled warmly.

Deng Ming slapped his chest and smiled. "Professor Tang, they are all questions that you would often talk about in class. I have answered them perfectly. If it goes as I have expected, I should be able to enter the semi-finals for all three divisions."

Di Yuan was awkward as she looked at Su Tao while reporting to Tang Nanzheng. "I'm pretty confident in the speciality topic competition."

Tang Nanzheng nodded his head as he looked at Xiao Jingjing, Wang Peng and Zhao Jian.

Xiao Jingjing revealed a grave expression as she answered, "Although this is the preliminary competition, the difficulty is high with lots of traps. I'm not confident in it."

"I just answered blindly!" Wang Peng yawned.

Zhao Jian shrugged, "I forgot what the questions were about!"

Tong Mengchu bitterly smiled since he had already expected this to occur. It looked like he could only depend on Deng Ming, Di Yuan and Xiao Jingjing in this tournament.

Tang Nanzheng wasn't bothered by those answers, but revealed a scholarly smile. "There is still some time before the results are announced. The results and rankings will be announced at 10 p.m. tonight, and the semi-finals will take place tomorrow morning. The semi-finals will be a practical competition, and it won't be too difficult. So just show what you guys have learnt."

Wang Peng cracked his hand and chuckled, "Practical is my strong point."

"The written is only a preliminary competition. If you can't pass it, don't think about joining the practical." Deng Ming smiled in disdain.

Wang Peng had already felt unhappy with Deng Ming so he stared at the latter. "Why don't we have a bet that even if I answered it blindly, I could also participate in the practical part!"

Deng Ming's face flashed with doubts. "It's fine that you're weak, but you are even boasting. I really have nothing to say about you."

"Let's not fight amongst ourselves. We must be united. You guys can rest first." Tang Nanzheng waved his hand.

After the five of them waved, Tang Nanzheng spoke when he saw the frown on Su Tao's face, "You're finally worried?"

Su Tao sighed and bitterly smiled, "It's outside of my expectations. If it's as I have expected, we will not get through the group competition semi-finals. We can only focus on the other two now."

"Xiao Jingjing failed?" Tong Mengchu was astonished.

Su Tao shook his head with a bitter smile and sighed, "You'll know when the results are out."

The results for the written portion were revealed at 9.30 p.m. and outside of everyone's expectation, Deng Ming who, felt confident, only scored 45 points in the group competition, 15 points away from being qualified. The other two were terrible so none of them qualified him for the semi-finals.

Di Yuan obtained 75 points, being qualified for medicine and acupuncture.

Wang Peng obtained 68 points with a stunning result of a perfect score for the prescription portion.

Zhao Jian obtained 63 points, being qualified for acupuncture.

On the other hand, Xiao Jingjing obtained a shocking score of 98, qualifying her for all the topics and also ranked first.

According to Xiao Jingjing's results, along with Di Yuan and Wang Peng, they're only two points away from being qualified for the group competition.

Tong Mengchu looked at Su Tao. At this moment, he finally knew what the latter was worrying about, Deng Ming was the one dragging everyone down.

Deng Ming's face had turned red as he stood in the corner.

Tong Mengchu glared at Deng Ming and sighed, "As a young man, you must have your feet firmly planted on the ground and not bite more than what you can chew."

At this instance, Tong Mengchu's opinion of Su Tao had utterly changed. After all, he was delighted that the Hanzhou Branch could obtain first place in the written competition's rankings.

Right now, Deng Ming wished he could find a hole to hide.

"45 points. Holy shit, how did you get that? My score from blindly answering them is even higher than him!" Wang Peng laughed.

Deng Ming's eyes flashed with rage. Wang Peng's words had given him a hard slap on his face. He never expected that he couldn't even beat Wang Peng and Zhao Jian!

The reason why Su Tao had expected Deng Ming's poor results was from analysing Xiao Jingjing's words. Xiao Jingjing was the unreputed top student, and even she felt that the test was difficult. That could only mean that the organising party was filtering out the students. The reason why Deng Ming felt that the test was easy was because he had fallen for their trap.

Jiangnan TCM University's Professor Building lit brightly with everyone looking exhausted after grading the papers.

Wang Guofeng knitted his brows while looking at Xiao Jingjing's script. Her handwriting was clean and tidy, with no signs of alteration. She also answered all the questions confidently.

Even the best student from the central branch only scored 92 points, and the difference in six points showed Xiao Jingjing's extraordinary strength.

Wang Guofeng frowned. His Senior Brother, Zhang Qingsong, called yesterday to let him investigate a professor of the Hanzhou Branch, Su Tao. Su Tao's disciples would be participating in the tournament, and he had already privately asked Tong Mengchu, confirming that Xiao Jingjing was Su Tao's disciple.

He only had two impressions of the Hanzhou Branch, the fossil of Hanzhou's medical field, Tang Nanzheng, and the outstanding young man that took over Tang Nanzheng's lesson.

He never thought that there would be someone as outstanding as Su Tao, completely changing his opinion of the Hanzhou Branch.

He initially intended to find a disciple for himself through this tournament. However, Xiao Jingjing was already the disciple of Su Tao, so it wouldn't be good for him to snatch.

Wang Guofeng knitted his brows and dialled Hu Xiaofeng's phone. "What do you think about Hanzhou's Xiao Jingjing in tomorrow's competition?"

Hu Xiaofeng replied, "I have already done the preparations to forbid her from participating."

Wang Guofeng figured that it must have been an order from the Medical King Valley. "I don't think that's a good idea. We must be fair and just."

Hu Xiaofeng faintly smiled. Since Wang Guofeng did not say it clearly, it meant that Wang Guofeng had expressed his own opinions. "Rest assured, I won't leave a trace behind!"

Hanging up the phone, Wang Guofeng looked at Xiao Jingjing's script again. His focus was on the last question. Although she lost two marks from that question, his eyes lit up since one wouldn't be able to answer so well without practical experience.

It was indeed a pity that he had to give up on such a talent.