Jules was pretty nearsighted but hated wearing sses, so he always squinted when looking at people.


    He nced at Flora and grinned, "The University of Maple Grove performed really well today. Both female contestants did a great job."


    In the entire team, there were only two girls: Flora and Brianna.


    Brianna immediately felt that Jules wasplimenting her.


    Jules wasn''t the type to be impressed by trivial skills. Throughout thepetition, Brianna answered the most questions and had the highest uracy rate. Flora, on the other hand, was just quick with her hands,cking any real skill. If Jules was praising anyone, it had to be her.


    Being praised by her idol made Brianna''s heart race.


    "Mr. Jules! Don''t worry! I''ll work even harder in the next two matches!" she promised earnestly, bowing deeply, her usual bravado nowhere in sight.


    "Hmm... Keep it up," Jules chuckled, not wanting to dampen the young girl''s spirits.


    In reality, he had intended topliment Flora, but he just mentioned her in passing...


    "The organizers have arranged for a cafeteria where everyone can eat for free. If you don''t feel like eating there, there''s a good restaurant nearby, Smith''s Diner," Jules said with a smile. "If there''s nothing else, I''ll go check on the other teams now."


    "Take care."


    Mr. Jurado saw him out, feeling somewhat puzzled.


    He had overseen severalpetitions before but had never seen Jules this enthusiastic and attentive, personally checking in on the contestants...


    Brianna, still basking in the joy of speaking with Jules up close, saw Flora about to leave the locker room and snorted arrogantly, "I remember someone bragging about knowing Jules personally, but just now, Jules didn''t even nce at you! How embarrassing!"


    Ignoring the sarcastic remarks, Flora walked straight out of the locker room.


    As she reached the corridor, she saw Julesing out from the side.


    "Captain!"


    "Hmm," Flora respondedzily.


    "The fashion designpetition at Louie''s should also be wrapping up this afternoon. After it''s over, shall we go out together?"


    "We''ll see."Content is property ? N?velDrama.Org.


    Jules clicked his tongue. "We''ll see?" That probably meant it was unlikely.


    Raul and Henrik were waiting outside to have lunch with Flora. After exchanging a few words with Jules, she left.


    Jules also started walking away from the corridor.


    Aisha emerged from behind the door, phone in hand, watching them.


    A gleam shed in her eyes. She hadn''t caught their conversation, but it was clear from their interaction that they were old acquaintances.


    No wonder Jules spoke in favor of Flora. It seemed their rtionship was quite good.


    Interesting.


    ...


    After dining with Raul and the others, Flora returned to the locker room.


    Thepetition resumed at 2 p.m. The second round was a written test.


    Questions were randomly generated by aputer. There were a total of twenty questions.


    Unlike the first round''s multiple-choice and true-or-false questions, this round focused on applied programming problems.


    Applied programming problems were notoriously difficult and time-consuming, requiring four to five minutes per question, and even fifteen minutes for the tougher ones.


    With only thirty minutes to tackle twenty such problems, the task was daunting for the five contestants.


    Just like the previous round, four teamspeted simultaneously, and the one with the highest score would advance to the next round.


    This time, the University of Maple Grove was unlucky to be matched against Imperial Tech.