The Scorned Heiress's Hidden Empire (by Jade Quinn) novel Chapter 196

Chapter 196

But she didn’t let on She just that polite smile on her face and kept walking

There were some things you just can’t talk about. That was one of the survival rules she’d picked up after all these

showbiz

The library wasn’t far, just a five–minute walk away

On the way. Verena kept the conversation going, making sure things stayed upbeat, while Jason chimed in every no

then.

Out front of the library, there was a little blue table set up on the square. On it sat a Sudoku board, a 9×9 grid with a dozen numbers already filled in, leaving the rest of the squares waiting for someone to fill in.

Next to the table stood a timer, its red numbers flickering even though it hadn’t started counting down yet, but the p was already in the air

A staff member was standing by the table, holding a task card. When they saw Jason and Verena approaching, they h over to greet them.

‘Mr. Mitchell, Ms. Torres, your challenge for this round is Sudoku. You have five minutes to finish the board and eart first map piece,” the staff member explained.

Then they turned to Natalie. “Since you’re joining in, you’ll need to help solve it too.”

Natalie nodded, keeping quiet.

The three of them walked up to the Sudoku board, and the staff member started the timer. The red numbers began counting down.

05:00, 04:59, 04:58…

ason stared at the grid for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly.

He’d played Sudoku before, but not often, and these quick–thinking puzzles were definitely not his strong suit

He picked up the pen, filled in a few squares in the first row, then paused, thought for a second, and put the pen des as

Verena stood off to the side, staring at all those numbers, her head totally spinning.

Math had never been her thing, and Sudoku was basically rocket science to her She clutch the pen, hovering over the i for what felt like forever, but didn’t write down a single number

04:30

Jason’s lips tightened in frustration. He took a deep breath forced humselt to chill out and went back to square one

The first row was missing number He checked the row, then the column, running through the possibilities in his mind unul he finally landed on the answer it had to be 5

By then, anginer ten seconds had already ricked by

He was just about to write when suddenly a hand darted in front of him

Natalie picked up the pen wrote a in the first empty square then barely pausing, moved on and billed as an 8 in the next

1/4

52 am PPPP

Chapter 196

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Hey pen flew sergas the grid. This kind of Sudoku was a breeze for her. Her mind was so quick, she didn’t even nee to think, the answers just flowed straight from her brain to the page.

Jason was dumbfounded, his en hanging in mid–air as he stared in disbelief.

Verena was stunned too, her eyes locked on Natalie’s hand, her jaw dropping further and further as she watched N. in the numbers at lightning speed.

The staff member stood there, completely dumbfounded.

The difficulty was set at a level they could handle, but the timer was tight. If you didn’t finish in time, you’d get hit v penalty. All to spice things up for the show.

He’d seen people go fast before, but never anything like this.

And she wasn’t just throwing in random numbers, every single digit was dead accurate,

He glanced at the answer sheet in his hand, then back at the Sudoku board Natalie was working on. Every number li perfectly, not a single error in sight.

3:56.

Natalie finished the last number, put the pen down, and stepped back.

She looked at the staff, cool as ever. “It’s done. Go ahead and check.”

03:50.

The timer kept running, but they’d already finished the task.

The staff member froze for a second, then quickly slammed the stop button.

Done! You finished in one minute and ten seconds!”

His voice was tinged with disbelief.

Jason stared at the fully completed Sudoku board, and when he heard the time, he was stunned by Sow insan

own sister was

He couldn’t stop grinning. His sister was amazing!

If they weren’t filming right now, he’d have already run over hugged her and bragged on the

This was the hardest he’d ever had to hold back arosad his sister

Verena stood nearby watching Natalie with a mix of admiration and wines her ches

No wonder she the gene from Neshvale Univerny she lost lives up to the top Vie

You’re crazy good Everca i spend the whole day I still loves blurted

Jason couldn’t be up but added For the VAI quern th

Natal jual sided saying hung

Cquare the stuck

Lead the red

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7:52 am PPPP

Chapter 1’the-

Jook at what was happening inside

Some were filming the Sudoku board with their phones, whispering among themselves

Did you see how fast Natalle solved that Sudoku Her hands were moving so quick, I couldn’t even keep up”

Does she even need to think? She just looks and writes, looks and writes. It’s like she’s got a cheat code or something

“This Sudoku isn’t super hard, but it’d still take me three or four minutes.”

“Seriously, if you count from when Natalie grabbed the pen, she finished in less than forty seconds!”

“She’s the SAT queen. Sudoku’s a joke for her. Didn’t you see her at the opening ceremony? She tackled the toughest problem right there, and that was way harder than this.”

“The production team totally made the right call. Without Natalie. Jason and Verena would still be stuck, scratching t heads. They’d be facing the penalty for sure.”

The staff member handed Jason the map piece, and he took it. “Thanks.”

Natalie glanced at the time. “What are the other four task cards?”

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