NOVEL NEXT Chapter 36: The Favorite to Win the Championship
As the audience below discussed, Wang Ye also found something strange about the situation. The Fang Family, why would they add such a rule at this time?
This time, the person in charge of the treasure appraisal conference from the Fang Family was Fang Feifei. So this decision must have been made by Fang Feifei. Wang Ye thought that this might be a deliberate decision made by Fang Feifei for herself.
After all, the person who had performed the best in gem gambling was himself. He had appraised the Imperial Green yesterday, worth four hundred million. If he followed today's decision, then he could earn two hundred million.
Moreover, he had promised Su Wanqing three hundred million in cash for the dowry. With these two hundred million, the goal of three hundred million was not far off.
Not only did Wang Ye think this way, but others also came to this realization.
"Do you guys think that the Fang Family's decision was made for Wang Ye?"
"Hey, don't say it, it's really possible. Wang Ye's strength in gem gambling is the strongest."
"Really? But why would the Fang Family do this, what for? The competition is hosted by the Fang Family, and the raw stones are also provided by them, to just let someone make so much money?"
"What do you know, the Fang Family wants fame. Plus, I guess the Fang Family wants to win over Wang Ye. Just think about it, having such a gem gambling expert, wouldn't the Fang Family's gem gambling business go to the next level?"
Wang Ye was in the audience below, and he heard these words very clearly.
The possibility of the Fang Family wanting to win him over was there. Moreover, Fang Feifei had already made it clear yesterday.
It seemed that what Fang Feifei did was to convince him to help her investigate Patriarch Fang's matter.
"So contestants, you all must try your best in today's competition!"
"Alright, no more idle talk, let's please have the referee announce the rules for the finals."
The host left the stage, and the referee went up. Then, he began to announce the rules.
The finals today were divided into three events.
The first event was to appraise ancient paintings. Organizers specified six paintings, and each contestant had to appraise them. Then, they were to write down each painting's dynasty, author, and value.
Dynasty and author, if correctly identified, did not add points. If wrong, it would deduct a point. As for the painting's valuation, the closer it was to the expert group's valuation, the higher the score obtained. The contestant closest would receive six points, and so on down the rankings. Each painting was assessed separately.
The second event was to appraise jewelry and jade, almost the same rules as the antique painting appraisal.
The third event was gem gambling. The rules for the gem gambling event weren't much different from previous gem gambling competitions. The point rules were based on the net profit earned from the raw stones after cutting, and each contestant had three chances to cut a raw stone, selecting the highest profit one for scoring.
Because the gem gambling event was the most valued in the treasure appraisal conference, the points obtained in this third event would be six times those of the previous two rounds.
After hearing these rules, the people understood somewhat but found the rules a bit complex.
However, everyone grasped the key point, that the competition today focused on gem gambling. Not only were there many points to be had, but it was also a chance to make a fortune. Thus, the first two rounds were unlikely to attract much attention.
"I understood, these competition rules, they were specifically made for Wang Ye."
"I think so too, Wang Ye's advantage in the third gem gambling item is too great!"
"Who says that, I don't think so. Everyone who made it to the finals did so through their skill. In my opinion, Wang Ye doesn't have an absolute advantage."
While the audience was discussing, Fang Junxiang in the corner was even more delighted.
With such a condition given by Fang Feifei, Fang Junxiang's plans would be even more convenient.
Because everyone thought that this condition was specifically made for Wang Ye. Wouldn't it be easier to convince people that Wang Ye and Fang Feifei were colluding at this time?
Onstage, after the referee announced the rules, the six finalists went up on stage.
Among the six contestants, Wang Ye and Su Wanqing were the most eye-catching. Su Wanqing's dazzle was due to her beauty. After all, among all the contestants, only she was beautiful and skilled like this. Wang Ye's dazzle came from his skill.
As for the other contestants, almost no one paid attention to them. Regardless of their final results, they wouldn't be given much importance.
After the contestants made their appearance on stage, the competition truly began.
The first round of competition was to appraise ancient paintings. This time, each person had one hour to appraise six ancient paintings.
However, this first round was a bit difficult for Wang Ye.
Because Wang Ye only knew how to identify the dynasty and author of ancient paintings, but as for the valuation, Wang Ye wasn't very knowledgeable.
After all, having just left the mountain not long ago, Wang Ye's concept of money was still not well developed. As for the market value of antiques, Wang Ye was completely clueless.
But Wang Ye was clever; he thought about it and took the Momentum Dynasty authentic piece valued at sixty million, chosen by Su Wanqing yesterday, and his own Ming Dynasty authentic piece, valued much lower, as his references.
Using these two valuations as a reference, Wang Ye quickly came up with a valuation standard in his mind.
Half an hour later, Wang Ye had completed the appraisal of all six paintings. However, since this round of competition was important, Wang Ye looked over them again and recalculated.
By the time the hour of competition ended, all contestants had turned in their appraisal booklets.
This time, no judges appeared. The information about the six paintings was already placed on stage beforehand. All the valuations were already available. After the referee got the booklets from the contestants, he compared them directly with the prepared data on site.
It took only a few minutes to calculate the points for the first round.
The best performer was Su Wanqing. In this round, she scored twenty-three points.
Behind her was Wang Ye, who scored eighteen points.
The other contestants all scored below ten points. Because they had made mistakes on several paintings, failing to identify even the dynasty and the original authors.
"I told you, my favorite is Wang Ye. His performance this round, as expected, was not bad."
"Give it a rest, this round, it's clearly Su Wanqing who did the best; I think she will definitely take the championship."
"I think Wang Ye can win the championship."
Below the stage, people were already guessing who the champion would be.
Onstage, Wang Ye and Su Wanqing exchanged glances. Right now, they were each other's biggest competitors.
"The results of the first round have been announced, now please, contestants, take a short break, the second round will start shortly."
After the host announced this, the contestants walked off the stage together.
Wang Ye and Su Wanqing happened to walk shoulder to shoulder.
It was then that Su Wanqing said to Wang Ye, "Wang Ye, are you already confident about winning the championship?"