Chapter 431: Five-Time Olympic Gold Medalist

Chapter 431: The Olympic Five-Gold King

After the match ended, the audience filed out, and Wu Tong became the target of pursuit by major media stationed at the venue. Not only domestic media, but foreign media also took an interest in this woman who looked like a flower fairy on the sidelines.

Especially the Japanese media, who had a strong interest in everything related to Meng Fan.

With the broadcast of this interview, Wu Tong’s search volume on Japanese networks reached a terrifying level, and the heated discussions were filled with various "sugoi" and "nani."

First, they were amazed by the beauty of Meng Fan’s girlfriend, then surprised by the love story between Meng Fan and Wu Tong, and then their story became headlines on many Japanese media and websites. Somehow, Meng Fan and Wu Tong became a CP with very high national recognition in Japan, known as the "Divine CP."

The god was the Iron God, and the immortal was the Painting Immortal.

Meng Fan led the Chinese judo team to defeat the Japanese judo team in the mixed team event, almost driving the Japanese judo team from their position as judo overlords. The damage to Japanese judo enthusiasts was absolutely immense—not just during the Olympics, but it would likely take years to recover.

If there were a list of the most hated athletes among Japanese people, Meng Fan would definitely be at the top.

But hate aside, they also liked, respected, and revered him.

If there were another list of the most favorite athletes among Japanese people, Meng Fan would certainly be at the top as well, even surpassing many well-known Japanese local athletes.

Because Meng Fan was not just a great athlete; he also had the identity of a manga artist, and the author of a manga highly acclaimed in Japan. With these two identities combined in Japan, other athletes simply couldn’t compare.

And he was damn handsome to boot!

The media competed to report, and the internet exploded. Naturally, more people became curious and went to read "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas," the manga created by Meng Fan. Of course, many also realized for the first time that the author of the manga they had read was actually an athlete—one who could sweep four gold medals across three major events at the Olympics. They were instantly thrilled!

The editor-in-charge of "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas," Takahashi Goro, a senior editor at Kodansha, was still in his office at 10 p.m., staring at the data related to the manga and the pre-order numbers for the next issue of "Weekly Shonen M."

As soon as midnight passed, seeing the latest refreshed data, Takahashi Goro jumped up from his seat. The popularity of "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas" on the internet had leaped to first place, surpassing "OP."

Of course, this referred to the "Yesterday's Popularity" ranking.

On the "This Week's Popularity" ranking, "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas" had smoothly entered the top five, with strong momentum, basically locking in the top three!

There were still manga that surpassed "OP" in daily popularity; it happened once in a while, an occasional event that was unavoidable. Weekly popularity surpassing "OP" also occurred, but very rarely—usually when a popular manga resumed serialization after a hiatus or started a new season. As for consistently surpassing "OP" over a period of time, it seemed that hadn't happened in years—not even for a month, let alone two consecutive weeks.

Could the popularity of "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas" catch up to "OP"?

This was something Takahashi Goro had never considered. Being able to take first place in daily popularity was already enough for ecstatic joy, especially under today's special circumstances.

It wasn't that "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas" was truly inferior to "OP," but rather that its serialization time was too short—only half a year—while "OP" had been serialized for 23 years!

In terms of recognition, it lagged far, far behind, and naturally, its popularity was also far, far behind.

This first place in popularity did not mean that "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas" had already caught up to "OP" in popularity; it was merely an explosion under these specific circumstances.

Of course, through this explosion, more and more people would naturally come to pay attention to "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas." Takahashi Goro firmly believed that, given the quality of the manga, it would surely retain a large number of people, who would gradually convert into the manga's popularity.

To be honest, Takahashi Goro now suddenly felt a bit "grateful" for the hijacking incident in Lion City. If it hadn't been for the hijacking, if he hadn't been taken hostage by the kidnappers, he would never have met Meng Fan. He also had to thank Shueisha for not signing the contract—if Shueisha had agreed to Meng Fan's terms and successfully signed, this manga naturally would not have fallen to Kodansha.

Most importantly, he had to thank Meng Fan!

Who could have imagined that a manga artist could perform like this at the Olympics, winning four gold medals? Before this, who could believe it?

Only a character from a manga artist's pen could accomplish such a feat!

The traffic that Meng Fan's performance at the Olympics brought to the manga was no longer a number that needed guessing; it was tangibly demonstrated on the charts.

The author's immense popularity and appeal, combined with the manga's solid quality!

Takahashi Goro could already see the prospects of "The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas"—a bright future ahead!

"Chief editor!"

Takahashi Goro, no longer caring that it was past midnight, pulled out his phone and called the chief editor: "Chief editor, I have an idea, an idea related to Meng Fan and 'The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas.' I want to talk to you about it now! Yes, right now!"

Soon it was the next day, the 12th competition day of the Tokyo Olympics. On this day, 14 gold medals would be decided. Among them, events where the Chinese team had a chance at medals included badminton mixed doubles, taekwondo women's 49kg class, taekwondo men's 58kg class, and the two events that had basically already secured gold: table tennis men's team and wrestling men's 130kg freestyle.

In taekwondo men's 58kg, Zhao Shuai competed for China, the champion of this event at the previous Olympics. It was worth noting that Chinese taekwondo had won two gold medals at the previous Olympics, and the other gold medalist was Zhao Shuai's girlfriend, Zheng Shuyin. This couple, strong in skill and high in looks, were known as the "taekwondo divine couple."

As for the men's table tennis team, needless to say, after the chubby official returned as the chairman of the Table Tennis Association, the morale of the table tennis team had been very high over the past two years. Before this, they had already won all possible championships and runner-ups. The state of the men's table tennis players was incredibly fierce, and winning this team championship was basically without obstacle.

As for Meng Fan, commentator Zhou Yingjie's commentary said it all. In the final, Meng Fan once again left Zhou Yingjie little time to introduce his opponent, finishing the match with two "OKs" right from the start.

After the match, while lamenting that his "fate" with Meng Fan at this Olympics had come to an end, Zhou Yingjie also made a self-deprecating remark about a related hot topic: "The time left for commentary is already running out!"

"Finally, let us once again congratulate Meng Fan on winning the men's 130kg freestyle wrestling championship, and also congratulate Meng Fan on becoming the first Olympic five-gold king in our country's Olympic history to win five gold medals in a single edition!"

(End of chapter)