Why it never ends

Chapter 1247 Heat Engine
With the competition more than halfway through and nearing its end, Gahodore's anxiety only increased. When there were only four or five questions left, she couldn't even calm down to read the questions. She could only hold her breath and force her eyes to stay on the screen.

"Hey!" Eleven's voice suddenly rang out, startling Jiahedore into breaking out in a cold sweat. She looked down and saw Eleven's eyes filled with intense doubt. "You—speak?"

"What?" Gahodorei tried her best to hide her panic.

"Eleven, do you have any clue?" Xia Ying said quickly in the Third District language, "about this problem..."

Gabrielle then turned her attention back to the screen. This time she read the whole sentence carefully. However, even though she recognized most of the words, she didn't know what the sentence was about, and she couldn't understand any of the options.

“I…uh, I…” Gahodorei felt a ringing in her ears.

"What the hell is this guy doing here!" Eleven said angrily to Qiqi. "He hasn't said a word since he came on stage. The teacher even said that the two of us are too young to perform, so they sent an older guy to help us out—what is he trying to do?!"

It was only then that Kiki noticed the expression on Gabrielle's face, and she understood Gabrielle's panic and pain almost instantly.

"Don't say that, she definitely—"

"Useless thing!" Eleven cursed, his back to Gahodorei.

"Eleven!" Qiqi suddenly got angry, and this loud name startled Eleven.

Gabrielle felt her tinnitus getting worse. She couldn't understand what Eleven had just said, but she could tell from the tone that the seemingly arrogant little girl had probably said something nasty.

Guilt arrived before anger. Gabrielle sat stiffly in place—she turned to look at the large screen, trying to appear thoughtful in order to avoid everyone's gaze.

“You…” Kiki looked at Gahodore and spoke in District 3, “A? Or D? Guess one—we!”

Gabrielle looked at Kiki, and in a way she seemed to understand what the other was doing—the little girl didn't want to see her sitting idly to the side, so she offered an olive branch to draw her closer.

"Don't feel pressured," Xia Ying said gently. "Nobody knows what to choose for this question, so just guess."

"...D?"

With a serious expression, Shiyi quickly wrote the letters on the blackboard. As soon as the host announced the end of the time, she immediately raised the blackboard high in her hand.

Gabrielle looked at the blackboard opposite her; the girls had chosen A.

At that very moment, Gahodorei felt a fear akin to falling into water and drowning.

The host announced loudly: "The correct answer is—A!"

The girls across from them let out a surprised scream, and they huddled together, hugging each other excitedly. At the same time, Eleven slammed the blackboard he was holding onto the table and deliberately dragged his chair closer to Qiqi.

Kiki didn't want to play anymore.

She knew that Eleven had been calculating the score, and she had been too. That was the third to last question. After answering it wrong, they were three points behind the other team. Even if they got all the questions right and the other team got all the questions wrong, they still couldn't win.

But Kiki never thought about winning. Being able to compete with her opponent on equal terms was already an unexpected joy for her. She suddenly felt angry at Eleven's competitive spirit—especially Eleven's cold face towards Gahodore, which made Kiki feel a sharp pain.

Soon, the host posed the next question, and Shiyi once again entered that inexplicable state of excitement. She patiently listened as Xia Ying translated the question into District 14 language, and then immediately looked at Qiqi: "What should we choose this time?"

"...I don't know." Qiqi's face also fell. She stared calmly at her fingernails, neither looking at the screen nor at Eleven. Time passed by, and Eleven angrily drew a C on the blackboard—as expected, wrong.

"It's the last question, kids." Xia Ying also felt the sudden chill in the air. She whispered, "Did you hear that? The host just said that this last question is worth five points...we still have a chance to win."

Eleven suddenly raised his head.

"So, are you ready?" The host smiled and pressed the screen controller. "Please name the model in the picture!"

All eyes were on the large screen. It was a very beautiful metal device with a golden body and a wooden base, looking exquisite and ingenious.

On the right side of the device is a metal disc, which is connected to the crankshaft on the left side by a rod. A sealed, horizontally placed glass test tube is fixed on the crankshaft, and the flame of an alcohol lamp is located at the end of the test tube.

Several small square mirrors are arranged in a semicircle around the left side of the device, with each mirror aligned with the end of the horizontally placed glass tube, suggesting an alternative heating method besides the alcohol lamp.

Victoria, standing at the back of the crowd, shook her head: "Are you crazy! Giving children questions like this—how could they possibly answer them?"

"What is this?" Stella asked curiously.

“This is…” Victoria was about to speak when Gahodore in the front row suddenly stood up. She braced herself on the table with both hands, and her suddenly straightened legs knocked the stool behind her to the ground.

"It's a Stirling engine—"

Gabrielle practically roared out the answer.

The entire small meeting room was completely silent.

For a moment, Hershta and Victoria's gazes both fell sharply on Gahodorei.

Gabrielle's expression was somewhat ferocious, her jaw trembling as she looked at the host.

“A Stirling engine,” Gahodore’s eyes widened, her eyes slightly red, and her voice carried a fierce undertone, “This is a Stirling engine…it’s a Stirling engine!”

“…Correct answer.” The host looked at Gahodore with some surprise, clearly caught off guard by Gahodore’s sudden outburst of anger. “However…however, this isn’t a quiz competition—”

“It’s okay,” a girl sitting opposite quickly said. “None of the three of us know what this is… Haha, even if she told us the answer, we still wouldn’t know what it is—we can’t answer this question, so they win.”

After saying that, she took the lead in standing up and clapping, and the other two also stood up and clapped to congratulate her.

Amid the applause, Gahodore suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of injustice that was hard to digest. She reached up and pressed her eyes, then abruptly turned around, lightly stepped over several empty chairs, and ran out of the small hall without looking back.

Before Shiyi could even feel happy, she was completely bewildered by Gahodore's escape. Pointing at Gahodore's retreating figure, she exclaimed, "That person is so strange! Why did she—"

Qiqi grabbed Eleven's hand and, without saying a word, pulled her outside.

"Huh?" Shi called out as he ran, "Qiqi? Where are you going?"

Go apologize!