At this moment, Li Yang was also drenched in sweat. Ever since her position in the entertainment industry had become unshakable, it had been a long time since she had danced so freely in front of the public.
Seeing her opponent switch dance styles, a strong fighting spirit rose in her eyes.
You may have belly dancing—but I have fifty-six traditional ethnic dances!
The audience saw that just a second ago, Li Yang had been standing still with one leg raised. The next second, she seamlessly transitioned into an incredibly lively movement. Her big eyes sparkled with life, her fingers forming the shape of a bird’s crest, while her waist and hips twisted separately into a charming S-curve.
Her movements were agile, like a proud peacock princess.
When Maria saw Li Yang switch styles instantly, she intensified her own belly dance, her abdomen rolling in waves.
But on Li Yang’s side, the next move changed again.
While Maria seemed to only know how to move her abdomen, Li Yang had already overlapped her hands and begun gracefully rotating her neck.
The members of the Inda troupe, seeing this, feared that the proud Maria might faint from anger on stage. They all began persuading her in their own dialects to stop dancing.
Jiang Nianxin now looked at Li Yang the way a dog looks at a giant bone. Perhaps she really should thank her old classmate Zhao Guoqiang for bringing such a promising talent.
The girls from the cultural troupe were even more excited, cheering and jumping—it was simply too beautiful. If this had been paired with music, they couldn’t imagine how stunning it would be.
They had never thought dance could be performed like this.
But to Li Yang, this was just an ordinary medley.
Today’s performance had left a deep impression on everyone in the cultural troupe.
Zhao Guoqiang, meanwhile, felt regret. If he had known, he would have borrowed a camera from his superiors to record his niece’s outstanding performance and send it to the broadcasting station to air on television every day.
Wouldn’t that outshine those arrogant so-called big stars?
Finally, Maria stopped, as if deflated. Seeing this, Li Yang didn’t waste more energy. She slowly completed a perfect finishing pose, raised her hands, and bowed to the audience.
Seeing her grace and composure, the crowd erupted into even louder cheers.
They even felt grateful to this group of foreigners—today had truly broadened their horizons.
What Li Yang didn’t know was that from this day forward, a wave of learning and imitating her dance style would sweep through the cultural troupe and even all of Nancheng.
After steadying her breath, Li Yang looked at the bespectacled man leading the Inda troupe.
“You’ve lost again. Does anyone else want to challenge me?”
The man’s gloomy gaze swept over her. He hadn’t expected this Chinese woman to make them lose so badly.
He was unwilling to admit defeat.
In their belief, women were always dependent on men—mere vines with no privileges of their own.
The pride of Inda men would never allow them to lose to a woman.
At that moment, a man behind him stepped forward and whispered something in his ear. A strange glint flashed behind his glasses.
He nodded.
The man stepped forward and addressed Li Yang on stage, putting on a gentlemanly act as he tried to persuade her.
His curry-scented English rang out quickly.
“Honorable lady, my name is Colette. With the permission of our team leader, Mr. Yaqi, we would like to challenge you with some simple scientific calculation problems.”
He pointed to the man with glasses.
“Captain Yaqi says whether to compete depends on your consent.”
Li Yang knew they must be desperate after losing, trying to set her up.
But she wasn’t the least bit nervous.
She agreed immediately.
“Sure. I already said—you can set any questions you like. After all, I’ll be taking your money, so there’s no need to feel embarrassed.”
Seeing her agree, Colette couldn’t help but feel excited. This foolish woman really thought they would only use artistic performances to hand her points?
Had she forgotten why they came to China?
The middle-aged man with glasses—Captain Yaqi—stopped wasting words after seeing her nod.
He tried to maintain a dignified image, pretending not to be aggressive, but he had already lost the audience’s respect the moment they chose to outnumber her.
And if they still lost, it would be utterly humiliating.
But at this moment, the Inda troupe was full of confidence. No matter what, they refused to believe that a woman like Li Yang could beat their professional minds in mathematics.
Yaqi cleared his throat and deliberately spoke in Chinese so everyone present could understand the rules.
“Madam, my colleague proposes a contest of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We’ve heard that your country’s ‘nine-nine multiplication table’ is quite remarkable—it covers all such operations, and almost every Chinese person memorizes it from childhood.”
“So our best mathematician, Colette, would like to compete with you.”
“To ensure fairness, this will be our final round. What do you think?”
Hearing this, Li Yang almost laughed.
Basic arithmetic?
While it was true that Inda people were strong in mathematics, she herself had been trained in math Olympiad competitions since childhood. In her original world, even casual fans knew she was a master of mental abacus calculation.
But these fools didn’t know that.
She didn’t know whether to pity them—or really pity them.
Not a single challenge they chose could trouble her.
With a smile in her eyes, she said, “I agree. But Mr. Yaqi, let me increase the difficulty a bit—so that when Mr. Colette loses, your side won’t feel unconvinced.”
“I never bully the weak. All thirty-five of you can come at me together.”
Everyone present frowned at her seemingly boundless arrogance.
But Li Yang continued as if she hadn’t noticed.
“Let’s make it formal. Each side selects one person to set questions. Each side will prepare fifty complex arithmetic problems involving large numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.”
“Your side can send as many people as you want. As long as my error rate is higher than the person with the lowest error rate on your side, I lose. How about that?”
The math prodigies of the Inda troupe were almost laughing themselves to death at her arrogance.
But winning was their ultimate goal—they would gladly accept her making mistakes.
Since this was the final decisive round, they discussed briefly and agreed.
They sent ten people to compete against her.
Soon, paper and a blackboard were brought in, and the questions began to be written.
On the Inda side, Yaqi set the questions. On the Chinese side, Zhao Guoqiang did the same—fifty questions each, varying in difficulty.