"You sound unconvinced, so I want to see your son's true abilities!" Mother Song sneered.
Liu Yifeng didn't retort. No amount of words could be as convincing as Tongtong's performance.
Onstage, the host quickly recovered. Upon hearing Tongtong's answer, he chuckled, "It seems Tongtong is quite confident in his abilities!
Without further ado, let's look at the big screen." With that, he turned towards the screen.
Everyone else also turned their gaze to the big screen simultaneously. Tongtong looked up as well, but his expression was calm, showing no signs of nervousness.
Director Wang, however, grew anxious. He feared the upcoming questions wouldn't be easy and wondered if Tongtong could answer them correctly.
Inside, Yun Duo'er was secretly delighted. She knew that the company boss had bribed the TV station, agreeing to make the questions difficult for Tongtong, thus naturally eliminating him.
She couldn't believe her son could answer such questions correctly.
At the scene, many people harbored their own thoughts until the big screen lit up, and Tongtong's question appeared.
When everyone saw the pattern clearly, they were stunned.
Some thought they were seeing things and rubbed their eyes vigorously, but the big screen remained unchanged.
This led to much discussion among the crowd: "Why has the difficulty of this question suddenly increased?
Previous contestants only had six or seven hundred dots, with the maximum not exceeding eight points.
But Tongtong needs to memorize fifteen or sixteen hundred dots. Not only are there many, but the numbering is also chaotic, with numbers and characters mixed.
With so many dots, three minutes won't be enough to even look at them, let alone memorize two different sets of numbered black dots simultaneously."
"Could it be a mistake from the control room? Otherwise, the difficulty hasn't just risen a little bit."
"That shouldn't be the case. If they can make such a mistake, are the staff just there for show?"
Even the host was taken aback. Since he wasn't in charge of formulating the questions, he was unaware of these inside dealings.
Seeing the difficulty on the big screen suddenly escalate by several notches, he couldn't help but suspect it was a mistake.
But at that moment, he heard a colleague's voice in his earpiece: "The question is not wrong. These are randomly drawn questions. You just need to host!"
Since his colleague said so, he couldn't argue further and could only lament Tongtong's bad luck for encountering such a difficult question.
Even Zhao Dewang couldn't believe that by selecting Tongtong, he would face such a difficult problem.
The earlier questions were already challenging enough, but this time the difficulty had doubled. Was it Tongtong's bad luck, or was he being deliberately targeted?
Given Tongtong and Liu Yifeng's personalities, they weren't the type to pick fights. So, the TV station had no reason to target Tongtong!
Could it be that Tongtong was simply unlucky and encountered such a tough question when it was his turn to answer?
Other contestants, upon seeing the image on the big screen, also felt fortunate that it wasn't them onstage at that moment.
Otherwise, they would have failed the question. Even with the special guest privilege, the members of the support group might not have been able to answer it correctly.
Liu Yifeng already knew Tongtong was being targeted, but seeing such a complex image still made him furious.
Was it necessary to target such a young child like this?
Mother Song, seeing Liu Yifeng's ashen face, wore a smug expression: "This is the consequence of bragging. Didn't he say the earlier questions were ordinary? Now, let's give him an extraordinary one. I want to see if he can answer it."
Director Wang had a look of impending doom. He knew this would happen. Seeing the chief director's smug expression nearby, he sighed helplessly. He knew he couldn't go against the higher-ups.
Now, his only hope was that Tongtong was extraordinary and could answer the question correctly, though the possibility of this wish coming true was minuscule.
Apart from Liu Yifeng, no one believed Tongtong could answer this question.
Although they didn't know what the question was yet, they knew its difficulty would be akin to a collision between Mars and Earth.
Ignoring the murmurs from the audience, Tongtong earnestly studied the numbers on the screen and the distances between the dots.
Meanwhile, Han Han also looked at the image with a grave expression. He tried hard to memorize all the numbers, but it was futile. There were too many, and they were interspersed with twenty-six letters and English words.
His mind was overloaded. If this child chose to ask for his help later, he would have to apologize.
Soon, the three minutes passed, and the image was turned off.
The audience below couldn't even finish looking at the image, let alone memorize so many numbers. They thought Tongtong would have to use his special guest privilege.
The host, holding the microphone, said, "Tongtong's luck doesn't seem to be very good. Just as it's your turn, you've encountered such a difficult question.
Please listen carefully: Find all regular heptagons in the diagram where each side length is 1.5 centimeters! Begin!"
As he spoke, the scene erupted into an uproar. The diagram was already complex enough, and now the question was even harder than those of other contestants.
The more complex the diagram, the harder it was to find anything. Moreover, with a side length of only 1.5 centimeters, the target area was small. How could anyone find it?
It was difficult not to suspect that the program team was targeting Tongtong.
Xia Qianqian looked at Tongtong onstage, fully aware of the question's immense difficulty. She waited for Tongtong to say he would use his special guest privilege so she could ask Han Han for help.
However, Tongtong's back was always turned to her, and he didn't seem to be using his special guest privilege.
This made her incredibly anxious. Was Tongtong planning to answer it himself?
The audience below didn't believe Tongtong could answer correctly. Seeing him still pondering the answer, they repeatedly urged him to use his special guest privilege and not to be stubborn.
Yun Duo'er secretly rejoiced. The probability of even the support group members answering such a difficult question correctly was slim, so she wasn't worried about him using his special guest privilege.
At this moment, the venue was in chaos. The host quickly urged, "Please maintain quiet and do not disturb the contestant!"
Everyone quieted down. Seeing that Tongtong didn't listen to their advice and hadn't used his special guest privilege, they all shook their heads.
This child was too arrogant and wouldn't listen. The only outcome would be failure.
The chief director looked at Tongtong onstage and inwardly apologized, "Child, it's not that I'm deliberately targeting you. Don't blame me if you lose. If you have to blame someone, blame the person behind the scenes!"
Even now, he didn't know who wanted Tongtong eliminated.
In fact, Tongtong's performance yesterday had left a deep impression on him. He felt that if Tongtong continued to perform steadily, he would undoubtedly cause a sensation in the country and gain international fame.
But this was the era of capitalists. He, as just a program director, was powerless to resist. Just like Director Wang, even after hearing about this disgraceful situation, he could only pretend to be deaf and blind.
"Tongtong, go for it! Dad believes in you!" Liu Yifeng clenched his fists, watching Tongtong anxiously.
A significant portion of the time had passed. The host, seeing Tongtong's distressed look, also grew anxious for him. "This question is indeed quite difficult for Tongtong. It's okay if you can't answer it. You can still use your special guest privilege.
You're not using it now, and you might not have time later. Do you want to use your special guest privilege?"