"Knock knock—"

Eight o'clock in the morning.

There was a sharp knock on the door.

He Xiao woke up from his sleep, raised his head to look at his watch, and then turned over from the bed and sat up excitedly.

"It's coming!"

Today is the day of the start of the round of 64 knockout, because I was thinking about checking the ranking on the official website last night, so I slept a little late, and I encountered insomnia, and I accidentally overslept and stopped.

Fortunately, there was a little assistant Bao Yuanyuan to help watch, if she hadn't knocked on the door, He Xiao would have to sleep for at least half an hour before waking up.

Hurriedly opened the door, He Xiao turned around and went into the bathroom again to start washing, while Bao Yuanyuan stood at the door with his head down and holding his clothes, and came in without changing his shoes, just standing there quietly waiting for He Xiao to clean up.

Her task is to deliver clothes, and then help He Xiao get some things, as for styling, she doesn't need to do anything at all.

Because He Xiao knows how to design himself, he has never troubled others, and he has to do it all by himself.

In addition, he is also familiar with his own face, and he knows best where to trim and where not to trim, which saves him a lot of time.

At eight twenty, He Xiao not only finished washing, but also blew his head by the way.

"Teacher He, there are still forty minutes left to start the game, and we are running out of time. ”

Bao Yuanyuan looked at his watch and urged with some concern.

The location of the hotel is very superior, not far from the Paris Opera, it is usually a ten-minute drive, but now that the competition is open, there are often traffic jams on the road, and it is a little uncertain.

"It's okay, it's just in time, we're not the first to play. ”

He Xiao patted her little shoulder, smiled and comforted, then closed the door and walked downstairs.

Busy streets.

Shi Da Hammer honked his horn from time to time, shuttled flexibly through the crowd of traffic, and finally arrived in front of the Paris Opera House after 20 minutes.

At this time, many contestants have just entered the market, and the time is just right.

He Xiao learned to be smart this time, put on a mask, hat and sunglasses, and covered his whole person tightly, not to mention the European and American reporters who are not very familiar with him, even the paparazzi from Huaguo may not be able to recognize him.

Walking into the venue without being harassed all the way, He Xiaocai took off his disguise, sorted out his clothes, and stepped into the performance hall on the second floor.

I found my place and sat down, and suddenly there were curious eyes around me.

Today is the first day of the PK match, and the sixty-four players present are randomly matched, and everyone hopes that their opponent is a soft persimmon.

And He Xiao is ranked fourth in the official website rankings, and for many players, he is definitely one of the opponents he doesn't want to meet.

This situation also made He Xiao a little helpless, the game is like this, everyone's hostility and vigilance are mostly from those who are more powerful.

Time ticked by, and ten minutes before the start of the game, Carol was also late and sat in front of He Xiao.

The chief director of the competition finally confirmed the operation of the machine, and the host Cami also took the stage.

The audience was packed.

Ten judges sat around the piano.

The stage effect is still the same, with several incandescent lights falling from the sky and shining in the center of the stage.

Cammy was chanting the lines before the start of the event, and the makeshift screen behind him was constantly scrolling through the information of all the contestants.

"All the music lovers who watched the live broadcast around the world, here is the scene of the world's most authoritative and professional top piano competition - Isabella Cup, I am Cammy!"

"After the fierce competition in the last edition, the top 64 were born on our stage, and from today, our 64 contestants will challenge each other to determine the final winner!"

"For the sake of the fairness of the event, this knockout tournament will continue to use an anonymous matchup, each player can choose a mask and code name in our mask library, and since then it has been called by code name, except for the outer, only the champion can be uncovered!"

Cammy introduced the rules on the stage, and in the first row of the stage, under the guidance of the staff, all the contestants began to walk towards the backstage.

The camera immediately gives a panoramic shot.

He Xiao was mixed in the crowd and was also following backstage.

The rules of this anonymous game, he knows.

The aim is to ensure absolute fairness of the event.

Because human beings have weaknesses, even if it is jointly organized by ten famous universities, and the judges are all professor-level figures, they are not saints after all, and they cannot be indifferent in the face of interests.

After all, the right to advance is in the hands of the judges, which will inevitably make some contestants with power in their families think of bribery.

Therefore, after the start of the PK competition system, the organizers of the Isabella Cup will isolate the judges from the contestants, and all communication equipment will be confiscated during the period, and will not be distributed until the end of the competition.

On the contestant's side, they need to dress up in disguise before they can compete in the competition, so that the judges can't recognize who is who, which is impossible to say.

It is precisely because of such a strict and thoughtful vision of the organizers of the tournament that the fairness of the Isabella Cup is known all over the world.

He Xiao followed everyone into the backstage, and then lined up to enter a secret room.

There are thousands of masks in the secret room, and the staff will randomly select five to put in front of the contestants, and then let the contestants choose a favorite to wear.

The cameraman next to him recorded the scene in its entirety and broadcast it live to a global audience.

Of course, the picture after entering the secret room cannot be released, and no one will know the identity of the other party except the player himself.

When it was He Xiao's turn, it was already twenty minutes later.

He entered the chamber, his eyes narrowing slightly, and he looked around.

It was a renovated room of about 30 square meters, filled with shelves, with all kinds of masks on it, and there were thousands of them.

A staff member next to him appeared, took five at random, and put them in front of He Xiao.

"Mr. Ho, please choose a mask and code name that you like. ”

"Okay. ”

He Xiao nodded, his gaze swept over the five masks one by one.

Some are green goblin shapes.

Some of them are demonic shapes with hell in them.

There are also two that seem to be in a set, both monsters with horns.

Which one should you choose?

He Xiao touched the palm of his hand on it and found that there was another one under the four masks.

When I pulled it out from underneath and looked at it, my eyes lit up.

This is a Chinese-style mask, and the shape is exactly the same as the face in Peking Opera, and it is still red.

The blue-faced Dou Erdun thieves the royal horse, and the red-faced Guan Gong fights Changsha......

The red face corresponds to the black face, representing a positive image of loyalty and courage.

"That's it!"

As a Chinese, it is impossible for He Xiao to choose a goblin without a Chinese-style mask.

So without the slightest suspense, he picked up the red-faced mask.

Wipe the dust on it, He Xiao registered his code name with the staff-

Red face!