Chapter Forty: Silence Across the Whole Arena

The true test had arrived!

Yuan Xiong watched Wang Mo's every movement, his face grave. At this moment, the number of viewers in the livestream had soared beyond seventy thousand, soon to breach eighty thousand. This was a staggering figure; even across the entire Douyin platform, few broadcasts ever reached such heights.

The stream’s barrage of comments had noticeably diminished.

“It’s starting!”
“We’ll soon see if Xilou is just a fame-seeker.”
“I’ve been criticizing Xilou, but his words earlier shocked me. Was I mistaken?”
“Who knows? If Xilou proves his talent, it’s never too late to apologize.”
“My complaints were about Wang Mo, not Xilou.”
“...”

Amid the viewers’ discussion, Silvermoon cleared his throat and began, “Then I'll start. Rest assured, all the questions I’ll ask are basic knowledge from everyday life, nothing too specialized or obscure.”

“No problem,” Wang Mo replied, implying Silvermoon could ask as he pleased.

Naturally, Silvermoon didn’t grasp Wang Mo’s true intention. He gave a subtle signal, and an assistant handed over a sheet of prepared questions.

Backstage, Yuan Xiong witnessed this and cursed aloud, “Damn it, the questions were all prepped—they’re clearly targeting us. Xiao Chen, find out which company is behind this—my guess, it’s either Qiming Entertainment or Canxing Culture.”

In the live broadcast, Silvermoon glanced at the paper and announced, “First question: Who was the first emperor of China?”

Wang Mo answered, “Ying Zheng.”

The question was almost insultingly simple—who were they trying to belittle?

Silvermoon continued, “Second question: How many years did Ying Zheng reign?”

Wang Mo replied, “He reigned for thirty-seven years, ascending the throne in 246 BC and passing away in 210 BC. However, he unified the empire in 221 BC, so although he ruled for thirty-seven years, he was emperor for only eleven.”

Brilliant!

Even Silvermoon was visibly surprised by Wang Mo’s answer.

The viewers in the streaming room were equally stunned.

He had answered!

Xilou had effortlessly solved both questions.

If the first was easy, the second was hard enough to make ninety percent falter. Yet Xilou not only answered smoothly but gave a detailed explanation.

This was not what they had expected.

“Wait—is he really knowledgeable?”
“Did we really misjudge him?”
“The questions are too easy—give us something challenging!”

“Hey, isn’t China’s first emperor the First Emperor of Qin? Why did he say Ying Zheng?”
“Keep your distance from me!”

Silvermoon took a deep breath.

Calm. Calm.

After those two questions and especially after Xilou’s earlier astonishing remark, Silvermoon’s initial judgment that Xilou lacked culture was beginning to waver.

But he couldn’t back down now. Steeling himself, he posed the third question: “Mount Everest is the world’s highest peak; what is the seventh highest?”

This was more tricky. Most knew the highest, perhaps even the second highest. But the seventh? Few did.

Yet Wang Mo answered without hesitation, “Dhaulagiri.”

Strange, almost uncanny.

Silvermoon could hardly sit still. He glanced at Wang Mo’s calm expression and drew a deep breath. “Fourth question: How many songs are collected in the Book of Songs?”

Wang Mo replied, “Three hundred and five.”

Silvermoon continued, “Fifth question: Liu Bei was a descendant of whom?”

Wang Mo answered, “Liu Bei descended from Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan in the Western Han.”

Silvermoon pressed on, “Sixth question: Was the Analects written by Confucius?”

Wang Mo replied, “No. Many believe the Analects was authored by Confucius, but in fact it was compiled by his disciples and their successors, based on the words and deeds of Confucius and his students.”

Silvermoon asked, “Seventh question: What are the Six Arts?”

Wang Mo replied, “Rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, mathematics.”

Silvermoon: “Eighth question: …”
Wang Mo: “…”

Silvermoon: “Ninth question: …”
Wang Mo: “…”

Silvermoon: “Tenth question: …”
Wang Mo: “…”

After ten questions, Silvermoon’s breathing grew uneven. His gaze toward Wang Mo shifted from suspicion to profound astonishment.

If the first few questions could be answered by most who’d attended school in China, the later ones—he was certain—less than one in a thousand could answer them all correctly.

Even most college students had no idea what the Six Arts were.

Yet before them, “Xilou” answered each with effortless ease, without the slightest hesitation, as if it were child’s play.

“This…”

Silvermoon felt his breath catch, momentarily lost in disbelief.

He had initially suspected Wang Mo of searching for answers online. But Wang Mo’s response speed was simply too fast—even someone with lightning reflexes couldn’t look up answers so quickly.

This meant Silvermoon could be certain: the streamer “Xilou” relied on genuine knowledge!

And in the streaming room, watching Wang Mo’s unruffled answers, the viewers’ eyes nearly popped out.

“Whoa, is this real?”
“Incredible!”
“Well, I admit I was a bit loud earlier.”
“With this level of knowledge, you dare say Xilou is uncultured?”
“I could barely answer the first few, but the Six Arts… I truly didn’t know.”
“My God, so casual, so fluent. With this literary foundation, none of the idiots in my college dorm could do it.”
“Give your roommate a break, bro.”

By now, even a fool could see that this streamer named “Xilou” was not just cultured—his knowledge was astonishingly vast.

The fiercer the viewers had cursed earlier, the more embarrassed they now felt.

Uncultured?

A fraud?

If someone like this were “uncultured,” then everyone else must be illiterate!

Of course, while viewers could only express their shock through comments, the reaction among the staff at Wang Mo’s live broadcast was far more pronounced.

The entire room was silent.

Everyone’s pupils seemed to quake.

This was Wang Mo?

Was this the young idol they’d thought useless?

Was this the top star they believed had nothing but good looks and no talent?

Everyone present was a graduate from a top-tier university, at worst from a prestigious institution. Yet even they, faced with Silvermoon’s questions, could only answer five or six correctly.

Only one could answer all ten.

But to answer, as Wang Mo did, calmly and without a moment’s pause, accurately and even offering detailed explanations for some questions—none of them could do that. Not a single one.

Suddenly, a nameless rage surged within Liu Zhengwen, and he shouted at Yuan Xiong, “Look at what you’ve done! You’ve turned such a promising talent into this!”

Yuan Xiong was speechless.

How was this his fault?!