Harry and Ron had already surfaced and were heading back toward the Castle when the next champion finally arrived.
Yi Qianqian of Nanyang Magic School.
Yi Qianqian had not actually made particularly fast progress early on. In fact, at one point, she had ranked only in the middle of all the champions.
But as they ventured deeper into the Black Lake, the other champions had all encountered some degree of difficulty with their bearings, so apart from the Hogwarts pair, none had managed to find the right location for quite some time.
Yet after reaching a certain distance, Yi Qianqian seemed to know the way all of a sudden and swam swiftly straight in one direction. She swam with great determination, never changing course along the way, keeping to a straight line throughout.
On the Viewing Screen in the spectator stands that showed the champions' locations, the route she had covered over those few minutes was a straight line. Thanks to this sudden change, she had overtaken Krum and the Ilvermorny pair, who had originally been ahead, and reached Merpeople Village.
"Hmm, the second to arrive is Champion Yi Qianqian. Did everyone see that? A few minutes ago, Champion Yi Qianqian suddenly began behaving completely differently, heading straight toward her destination, as though she suddenly knew where it was. How did she do that? Barty, do you know?"
Bagman, who was providing commentary, clicked his tongue in wonder, then asked Crouch beside him.
Crouch shot him a glare, thoroughly disinclined to respond.
You volunteered to come and commentate, but I never wanted to do this. Still, since Bagman had already asked, Crouch could not completely embarrass a colleague.
You fraud, you can't even work that out? When your brain was developing, did all the nutrients go to your muscles instead?