Chapter 215: After the Concert

Chapter 215: After the Concert

Meng Fan searched his phone with curiosity for a long time to no avail, so he switched to the smart search function of his live-streaming assistant.

He added specific keywords like CLG, basketball, Meng Fan, and world record, but the results were mostly local reports from Hangzhou or Zhejiang Province, or links to portal sites like Weibo.

While portal sites like Weibo have a wide reach, they are still regional in scope; no matter how many reports they churned out, it was useless, as the local media coverage had already been exhausted.

Finally, he found it!

On CCTV-5, the 18:00 Sports News featured a segment on Meng Fan around the seven-minute mark. The report focused on Meng Fan breaking the world record six times at the CGL Zhejiang Provincial Finals, making the tournament itself seem secondary.

Breaking a world record six times in one match—even if the arcade basketball scene was niche, CCTV-5 could not ignore such news, especially since a reporter had been on-site, allowing the story to air less than two hours after the match ended.

The report was more than twice as long as the previous one on Sports Express, and it even included a standalone fifteen-second clip of his final round, which was a rare honor.

Of course, the footage was truly spectacular: rapid-fire shots, every single one finding the net!

"I wonder if the morning Sports Express will cover it again."

Meng Fan had originally thought it highly likely, given that the show had previously mentioned they would follow his progress and even cheered him on. Now that he had delivered fresh, impressive material by breaking the world record six times, they should be eager to report it.

He hadn't expected the evening Sports News to beat them to it.

If they reported it again the next day, that would be perfect. It would justify his deliberate effort to pace himself and shatter the record repeatedly; after all, he wanted to create a big enough splash to get CCTV-5 to feature him, helping him progress his "News Figure" task.

"Hmm?"

After coming off stage at 9:00 PM following his duet with Su Qingcen, Meng Fan noticed that in addition to the 25 points of concert impact, his "News Figure" progress had increased by another point!

"Wait, what's going on?"

Meng Fan searched via his assistant and was genuinely surprised. The report wasn't from CCTV-5, but from a 20:00 segment on CCTV-13 News Channel. That program covered various news, including sports, but rarely featured sports stories. He hadn't expected the CGL match to make the cut!

Was it the "Luck +1" effect, or was breaking the world record six times truly newsworthy, even for such a niche competition?

Meng Fan didn't really understand.

Regardless, he was satisfied that his feat had earned him two national media reports.

The "News Figure" achievement offered generous rewards; including the sub-tasks and title attributes, it totaled +16 Presence and +16 Charisma.

The first sub-task was easy, but the second and third were difficult, requiring coverage from national and international media. It wasn't impossible, but it was a long-term endeavor.

Having cleared the first sub-task, Meng Fan had adopted a "go with the flow" attitude toward the second, and hadn't even considered the third.

If he couldn't complete the set and earn the title in the short term, his motivation was low, and he couldn't find any other angles to push it.

For now, he would take what he could get and not force the rest.

Did he crave Charisma?

He did, but he couldn't force this task!

The concert ended before 11:00 PM, a smooth success that felt even better than the first.

"Whew—"

Backstage, Su Qingcen let out a long sigh as she entered the lounge, collapsing onto the sofa. Her face glowed with the joy of success, but she was utterly drained.

A staff member entered to help her change, but stopped abruptly—Meng Fan was still there.

Seeing this, Meng Fan quickly stepped out.

"Boss Meng, thank you for your hard work!"

At the door, he ran into Su Qingcen’s manager, Hu Yijing, who smiled and said, "Take a rest, and make sure to come to the celebration party later."

Once outside, Meng Fan called Zhang Zhouwei to ask where they were. Just as he stepped out of the stadium, Zhang said they had all agreed to go singing.

Had they not had enough of singing along in the audience?

"Are you coming?"

"Alright, I'll be there soon."

Meng Fan had intended to call them to head back together. As for the celebration party, he’d been to one at Bai Zhi’s place before, and the drinking was brutal; this one would likely be worse with more people.

Although the idea for the Double Eleven gala live stream had come from overhearing talk at a celebration party, he couldn't expect to hear useful information every time.

Hearing they were going to sing, he figured it was better than being forced to drink, and since he’d spent so much time singing with this group to grind his "Mic Hog" task, it would be rude not to go.

Ten minutes later, the group descended upon a nearby KTV, booking a massive suite that fit the twenty of them comfortably.

Though everyone was happy to let Meng Fan dominate the mic, he only sang the "opening number," *Leaving the Surface of the Earth*, before handing the microphone to others once the atmosphere heated up.

After about ten minutes, Meng Fan realized he should probably act like a mic hog to avoid the drinking, as everyone was eyeing him—even the "maid corps" who usually protected him were taking turns. The female friends of Pao Ge were particularly ferocious drinkers; Meng Fan had witnessed this before and tried to avoid their "fire," but he couldn't dodge them when they came for him.

Midway through, Meng Fan received a call from Hu Yijing and truthfully explained that he was out with classmates who had attended the concert.

Between the laughter, drinks, and shouting, it was past 1:00 AM in the blink of an eye. By 1:30 AM, at least five of the twenty were completely wasted.

"Let's go, let's go!"

After the final song, the group stumbled out, leaning on one another.

"Hmm?"

The cold air at the entrance sobered Meng Fan up a bit. He had Da Fei and the others hail taxis first, then looked at the remaining classmates. "Where are you all going?"

At this hour, returning to campus was impossible!

Zhang Zhouwei, completely drunk and squinting while supported by Wang Yanan, didn't even open his eyes as he shouted, "I'm a good boy, I want to go back to school!"