The competition was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Professor Micheal had promised to accompany her for support. This year’s TCM competition had a bit of an entertainment aspect—it included a quiz section on The Yellow Royal’s Classic of Medicine and even required participants to write answers with a calligraphy brush, making it quite challenging.
In the meantime, Sophia stopped going to the clinic. Instead, Halliton Waylon took over, handling routine patients and giving children massages.
—
That night, Henry called Sophia, but she didn’t answer.
The phone rang for a long time. Livinus raised his eyelids slightly. “Who is it?”
“Your nephew.”
Livinus’s body stiffened slightly, and the corners of his lips curled. “Oh? Why don’t you call him my love rival instead?”
Sophia choked for a moment and then laughed in exasperation. “I’ve never seen a man as petty as you. I didn’t even pick up the call. If I had, would you have passed out from anger?”
“I wouldn’t pass out, but I’d be so upset that you’d have to comfort me,” he said meaningfully.
Sophia rolled her eyes at him, making Livinus’s eyes fill with laughter. “What was the call about?”
“He wanted me to treat Andrea.”
“You didn’t agree?”
“If it were a genuine medical case, I run a clinic—I wouldn’t turn someone away. But he’s ridiculous—he insists that I must personally visit and lower myself to beg Andrea to accept my treatment. I can’t do that. If she wants to be treated, fine. If not, no one’s forcing her. Besides, after what she did to me back then, I haven’t even settled that score yet. Who in their right mind forgets their past suffering so quickly?”
Livinus’s thin lips curved into a smirk. “Let’s not talk about unpleasant things. How’s the preparation for the TCM competition going?”
“There’s nothing to prepare.”
“You sound pretty confident.”
“Of course! In our profession, we constantly use various knowledge. We can’t afford to look things up only when we need them. The safest approach is to memorize everything in advance.”
Livinus said nothing. He simply gazed at Sophia, wanting to tell her how beautiful she looked when she was confident.
On the day of the competition, Nancy and Chloe dramatically prepared a whole set of cheerleader uniforms and gathered a group from a beauty salon to cheer for Sophia.
But the TCM competition wasn’t some celebrity talent show—there was barely any audience. Most of the attendees were people from medical institutions or government health departments. From the expressions on their faces, it was obvious that they weren’t particularly interested in being there, but they had been given tickets by their institutions and had no choice but to attend.
As a result, the venue was eerily quiet—so quiet it was almost unsettling.
Only Sophia’s cheer squad stood out, shouting slogans in unison and making exaggerated cheering gestures, drawing everyone’s attention.
Sophia covered her face, feeling amused.
When she went on stage, she immediately saw Livinus sitting in the VIP section. As always, he was dressed in a sleek suit. With just one glance, she spotted him—he didn’t have to make any movements, yet he effortlessly captured the attention of the entire audience.
Livinus pressed his thin lips together and looked at Sophia. At that moment, a competition organizer approached him for confirmation. With a slight nod from Livinus, the competition officially began.
Sophia couldn’t help but marvel—being backed by a wealthy sponsor really had its perks.
Although she hadn’t said anything about it, her photos had already surfaced online, and the host at the venue was well aware that she was the girlfriend of the competition’s major sponsor. However, favoritism was impossible in this event because the entire competition used a live scoring system, making it highly unpredictable.
For example, the first round of the preliminary competition focused on The Yellow Royal’s Classic of Medicine , and the format was a buzzer-based quiz. Each correct answer earned one point, while a wrong answer deducted one point.
There were over 50 questions in total, covering a wide range of topics.
These questions were extremely simple for Sophia, so she answered without a second thought. Having read the book since childhood, she could recite it fluently—she had practically grown up with it as her foundational book. However, for the other contestants, it seemed far from easy. Some doctors couldn’t even answer basic questions, such as the association of pain with blue or black discoloration, revealing their unfamiliarity with the text.
Professor Micheal had accompanied her to the venue, worried that she might struggle with the text. However, as the competition unfolded, all he saw was Sophia pressing the buzzer repeatedly. The audience became intrigued—while other contestants hesitated before answering, Sophia didn’t even need to think. She responded instantly, as if she had memorized the entire book. If Professor Micheal didn’t trust her character, he might have suspected that the competition questions had been leaked in advance.
Because her victory was overwhelmingly dominant, the organizers grew concerned that people might suspect favoritism. They promptly adjusted the rules and introduced even more difficult questions—some that extended beyond.
