Why it never ends

Chapter 1244

A) Organic matter in rainwater is directly absorbed by the root system.

B) Neighboring trees share with each other underground through a shared mycorrhizal network.

C) Absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and converts it into sugar.
D) Absorbing surface sugars through lichens
During the thirty-second wait, only Stella was diligently using the process of elimination to find the correct answer.

First, eliminate A, because if rainwater can provide the necessary carbon, then sunlight would not be so important for plants;
Then eliminate C. This sentence describes photosynthesis itself. How can a sapling convert carbon dioxide into sugar when it doesn't even have sunlight?
The children were very excited, shouting to each other, "What to choose? What to choose?" and shouting A, B, C, D all around. The host on stage also wanted to make the atmosphere even more exciting, so he started loudly announcing the countdown when there were only fifteen seconds left.

Stella's gaze darted back and forth between B and D, and finally, with five or six seconds left, she pressed B.

—Although she was unfamiliar with neither of the two options, she had seen lichens, which are something that looks like grass but is not grass, and are unlikely to be connected to tree roots.

The correct answer is displayed on the screen: B
"Yeah!" Stella punched the air. "That's right!"

She looked at the three people beside her: "How is it?"

The three of them turned to look at her at the same time, and gave the same answer in calm but not in unison.

"Oh, right." "Yes, right." "I chose B."

Stella looked at the three of them with some suspicion, then looked back at the screen—this wasn't an obvious freebie, was it?

Just then, the host operated the computer, and the screen displayed the distribution of answers to the question. Out of forty-six people, only nine people chose the correct option.

"Great! Congratulations to these nine students!" The host clapped his hands happily. "Now, does anyone still have any questions about how to operate the answering machine? — Okay! Let's begin!"

Once the quiz activity started, the children were completely engaged, with everyone staring intently at the screen, unwilling to miss a single piece of information.

Before the final question was revealed, the host solemnly told everyone that this question was worth five times more points than the previous questions, so everyone should be careful, as whether they would take the lead or fall behind depended on this one question.

Half a minute passed quickly, the question-and-answer section was over, the results screen appeared, and exciting music played from the speakers.

"It's quite difficult," Victoria exclaimed.

“Yes,” Tie Xi nodded, “it’s not easy.”

Hershta remained silent, sharing the same sentiment, because she was only confident about nearly half of the twenty multiple-choice questions, and had to guess for the rest.

"Now, let's move on to the awards ceremony," the host announced in an enthusiastic voice. "The top three students will all receive a gift. First up, the third place winner!"

As some kind of march music played, a number appeared on the screen, and several girls in the left front cheered. A girl who looked very shy stood up from among them, ran quickly towards the host, took the gift, and immediately ran back.

"Great job! She got sixteen out of twenty questions right! That's incredible!" The host applauded. "Okay, let's look at the second place—number 34!"

Hershta immediately recognized it as Victoria's number.

Almost simultaneously, everyone gasped in surprise, except for the host, who frowned again.

—Because number 34 answered 20 questions correctly, which means that the second place answered all the questions correctly!
"You got everything right, how come you're only second?" a child in the front row shouted.

“Hmm…that’s possible,” the host said, glancing at the audience with a complicated expression. “Rankings are based on the number of correct answers first. If the number of correct answers is equal, the time taken to answer the questions will be considered. The shorter the time taken to answer the questions, the higher the ranking.”

"Wow! That's first place and all the answers are correct!" The children immediately looked around, wanting to see who this amazing person was who could answer all the questions correctly, but no one stood up.

"Okay, another bye." The host shrugged. "Then first place... number 6!"

—The number of tin.

Hershta raised his eyebrows slightly.

These two people...

The children cheered again, but amidst the excitement, no one stepped forward to claim the prize.

"Uh, no one's in the top two... It's probably a system malfunction. There was a perfect score in the previous rounds too," the host frowned, banging on the keyboard. "Let's move two places to the next person—where's that student from before? Come up again! You're number one!"

Another round of cheers erupted from all around. The child who had already received an award stood up again, pursed her lips, covered her face with her hands tucked into her sleeves, and went on stage to exchange her gift.

The fourth and fifth place winners were also two girls. One of them was very lively. She held up the commemorative T-shirt that the host had given her and asked if she could exchange it for a notebook. The host happily agreed.

“We’ve had four rounds here, and out of twelve children, only one isn’t a girl,” Stella said with a knowing smile. “I’m not surprised at all.”

The four of them went forward to return the quiz device and waited for the next round of the game to begin. Stella planned to go out and buy a coffee, and Hester went along to lend a hand.

While the young people were getting up and running to the next activity location, Victoria pulled up an empty chair and sat down next to Tess.

"I remember you...you lived over by the farm, near the horse ranch. What did you do?"

"Equestrian therapy".

"Was it the same back in District 3?"

"How do you know I used to be in District 3?" Tess looked at her. "Stella talked to you about me?"

“No,” Victoria said, “but the aura of the Third District on you surpasses that of the Fourteenth District.”

Tiexi did not respond to this assessment, but simply extended his hand towards Victoria: "Tiexi."

"Your real name?" Victoria squeezed the fist tightly. "My name is Victoria, and I'm a researcher at AHgAs."

"I can tell, you're also in combat, aren't you?"

Victoria nodded. "Many details can't be accessed unless you're on the front lines."

"...Compared to the mercury needle, you look more like a tall, ordinary person."

"Really? I'll take that as a compliment."

“Of course it’s a compliment.” Tie Xi looked at her. “You must really like it here. My friends who do life science research are all obsessed with District 12. They say it has everything…”

“It’s easy to die,” Victoria added.

The two burst into laughter at the same time. Victoria looked at Tess with some curiosity: "It could be my personal prejudice, but... you don't really look like a therapist?"