Chapter 437: Closing Ceremony

Chapter 437: The Closing Ceremony

Inside the Neon Budokan, aside from a crowd of manga fans waiting to take photos, another group of people was waiting as well.

After Meng Fan completed his signing session for the very last person, the heavy thud of footsteps echoed from the backstage lounge area. Soon, Meng Fan and the fans beheld a flock of burly Neon men emerging, all clad neatly in traditional Neon martial arts uniforms.

Among them were judo athletes, wrestlers, and practitioners of various other combat sports—in short, they represented the upper echelon of the Neon martial arts community.

"What is going on here?"

The manga fans were startled. This pack of hulking men numbered at least two hundred, and with their uniform attire and synchronized strides, they exuded an aura that an ordinary person could hardly withstand, looking for all the world as if they were looking for a fight.

Well—had it not been for the fact that each of them held a copy of a manga tankobon, one really would have thought a brawl was imminent. After all, Meng Fan was among the most unpopular athletes in Neon, considering he had once led the Huaxia judo team to utterly upend the Neon judo establishment.

"Meng Fan-kun!"

A man slightly shorter than the rest of the athletes came jogging over. He had crossed paths with Meng Fan numerous times; if nothing else, they had frequently seen each other during competitions in this very arena, as he was the leader of the Neon judo team. He had also met him previously at the Flower City Judo Masters, where he had brought athletes from the Neon combat sports world to the venue with little notebooks to study and learn.

The team leader spoke up, "We belong to the Neon martial arts community, and we are also your manga fans. We were wondering if you could spare just a bit more of your time to give us your autographs."

Meng Fan glanced at the waiting fans, then turned back and nodded. Though the official signing session had concluded, it was not an unreasonable request to refuse. After all, this was their home turf, and they were being so polite, it was just that...

Meng Fan resumed his seat and swiftly completed the signings for the two hundred-odd people. Afterward, the group lined up in rows to take a group photo with Meng Fan, before stomping away once more with their perfectly synchronized strides.

Yes, they simply left just like that.

This left Meng Fan utterly bewildered as to what exactly this crowd had been after.

He had initially assumed that by coming over in such a large group, they would surely make some demands, or at the very least offer some invitations. He had never expected them to come and go in such a frantic rush.

Had they come here merely to make their presence felt and curry favor?

Or had they simply been utterly captivated by his charm?

Hmm—Meng Fan stroked his chin, reasoning that the latter possibility was likely a bit more plausible.

After this little interlude involving the two hundred-odd people, Meng Fan went over to finish taking photos with his manga fans, which brought today's signing event to a complete and final close.

Once the fans had all departed, Meng Fan naturally hosted a late-night supper for all the staff members. During the meal, he also caught wind of the news that the women's volleyball team had successfully defended their title.

According to the regulations, Meng Fan returned to the Olympic Village before midnight. Having just stepped out of the shower, he heard his phone ringing incessantly. Picking it up, he was greeted by the ecstatic voice of Takahashi Goro, informing him that the first-day sales of the manga had surpassed 390,000 copies!

In other words, the initial print run of 200,000 copies, plus two subsequent reprints of 100,000, were essentially sold out. More than 85% of the physical brick-and-mortar stores were completely out of stock, and tomorrow another 200,000 copies would be printed and dispatched across the nation.

A first-day sales figure nearing 400,000 was a truly stupendous number, even in a manga kingdom like Neon. Looking at the manga sales for the past six months of this year, this figure could easily rank in the top five on the first-day sales charts, and on the first-day sales chart for a debut volume, it was indisputably number one—not just for this year, but even counting the three preceding years!

In other words, "The Wonders of Mountains and Seas" was the best-performing new Neon manga series in terms of sales over the past three years. From the current outlook, it was also the new series most likely to achieve a single-volume sales milestone of one million copies. Neon had not seen a single volume of a new manga series break the one-million mark in several years.

Takahashi Goro's emotions were running exceptionally high. He had known that the performance of "The Wonders of Mountains and Seas" would certainly not be poor, but he truly had not anticipated it would be this magnificent—selling nearly 400,000 copies on the first day of the first volume, and that too under the premise of a steadily declining print publishing market. Even with the auspicious wind of the Olympics blowing, Takahashi Goro remained thoroughly astounded.

As for Meng Fan, he was rather composed, because the sales of the first volume back in Huaxia had long since breached the million mark—although the first-day sales of the first volume there could not compare to this side, seeing too many numbers had made him immune—and the first-day sales of the fourth volume in Huaxia had reached as high as 500,000 copies.

After chatting for a few moments, he hung up the phone. Before hanging up, Takahashi Goro invited Meng Fan to visit Kodansha when he had time, and Meng Fan could only promise to go whenever he found a free moment. Tomorrow was the final day of the Olympic Games, and he would surely be accompanying his family to watch the events. The day after tomorrow would be the closing ceremony; just as he returned from outside moments ago, Director Xiong had already tracked him down to deliver the notification that he would serve as the flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

The flag bearer for the closing ceremony had, from the very beginning, usually been concurrently served by the flag bearer of the opening ceremony. Later on, it gradually became the exclusive privilege of the athlete who performed the most brilliantly or achieved a monumental breakthrough in a specific field during the current Olympics. For instance, Zhang Ning in 2008, the first to defend an Olympic singles title in badminton; Xu Lijia in 2012, who made a massive breakthrough in sailing; and Ding Ning in 2016, the Grand Slam table tennis winner who swept the women's singles and team events—all three consecutive sessions had featured female athletes.

This time around, Meng Fan's performance was simply a magnificent spectacle. Although there was still one day of competition left in the Olympic schedule, it was already one hundred percent certain that Meng Fan was the athlete with the most gold medals in this Olympics, and the sole individual to secure five golds—the athlete with the second-most in this edition held three golds, with no one holding four.

Furthermore, there were indeed several female Huaxia athletes who had performed outstandingly in this edition. Originally, though the delegation prioritized Meng Fan, they had still been considering other female athletes. Vacillating among these several sportswomen, they ultimately settled directly on Meng Fan. Relatively speaking, Meng Fan was also the athlete who carried the least controversy and most deserved this honor.

Consequently, after a hiatus spanning three Olympic Games, the opening and closing ceremony flag bearer of the Huaxia delegation would once again be embodied by the exact same person.

The closing ceremony was bound to be far more liberal than the opening ceremony. Having already undergone training for the opening ceremony, Meng Fan naturally required no further instruction; a simple notification was essentially all it took.

In the blink of an eye, the final day of the Olympic competitions arrived. On this day, Meng Fan accompanied his family to watch the men's basketball finals, the gold medal for which was also the very last gold medal to be decided in this edition of the Olympics.

Of the two sides in the finals, one was still the basketball powerhouse, the United States, while the other was rather contrary to the expectations of the spectators. It was neither the European powerhouses Spain and France, nor the silver medalists of the previous Olympics, Serbia, nor even the rapidly progressing Australia, but rather the land of the maple leaf.

Canada had not previously achieved any particularly stellar results on the international stage, but their reservoir of talent had always been present. This time, coupled with an element of luck, they erupted completely. Led by the likes of Wiggins and Murray, they continued to pose considerable trouble for the United States even in the finals. Though they ultimately failed to triumph over the Americans, they delivered a thoroughly spectacular final to the audience.

To the Meng and Wu families, even though the Huaxia team was not participating in this match, they still watched it with great relish. After all, even if they did not follow basketball much, they could still recognize some of the players on the court.

To add a brief aside, since the State General Administration of Sports thoroughly implemented the principle of "letting professional people handle professional matters" by appointing many professional athletes as center directors or association presidents, the results were manifested with extreme clarity in this edition.

The fat man who allegedly didn't understand ping pong had become the president of the Table Tennis Association, and this time they swept every single event in the Olympic table tennis program. This might not evoke a particularly grand sentiment from ordinary folk, since sweeps had often been the norm in the past anyway, but after Big Yao assumed the presidency of the Basketball Association, the effects were visible even to the average observer.

In the basketball competitions of this Olympics, the performance of the Huaxia representative team was remarkably good. Compared to their bleak departure in 2012 and 2016 after losing all five matches, this time they could practically be described as valiant!

First, they fought their way out of the group stage in third place, equaling their best historical performance. Subsequently, in the quarterfinals, they faced the veteran European powerhouse, the French team. Although they ultimately failed to secure victory and establish a new historical record, they nonetheless delivered an exceptionally brilliant match, drawing even and even overtaking the score several times. Even in the final quarter, they bit down hard on the score, maintaining the suspense until the final three minutes, which earned them the cheers, applause, and respect of their opponents.

With the conclusion of the men's basketball finals, the competitions of the Kyoto Olympics also drew to a complete close, entering into the final anticipation of the closing ceremony.

The closing ceremony was held once again at the New National Stadium. The order of entry for the flag bearers was identical to that of the opening ceremony, with the difference being that the flag bearers marched in a single file, while the other athletes entered together regardless of nationality. Compared to the opening ceremony, it was far more liberated and joyous. Of course, the number of athletes participating in the closing ceremony would also be much fewer, as many had already returned to their home countries.

The proceedings of the closing ceremony were straightforward: the International Olympic Committee and the host organizing committee took the stage to deliver speeches, followed by the raising of flags—first the flag of Greece, then the flag of the host nation, and finally the flag of the next host nation—along with the handover of the Olympic flag, and the indispensable artistic performances.

The closing ceremony performances were as splendid as ever; in Meng Fan's estimation, they were even more spectacular than the opening ceremony, even though he did not catch much of the entire process, because the number of people seeking to take photos with him throughout the event was simply a bit too overwhelming.

Finally, there was the "Paris Eight Minutes." The next Olympic Games would be hosted in Paris, France, marking exactly one hundred years since Paris last hosted the Olympics. It was said that the Grand Palais and the Palace of Versailles would both serve as competition venues.

As the closing ceremony concluded, the remaining members of the Huaxia delegation naturally settled their itineraries for returning home. Meng Fan would fly back to Huaxia with the team the following afternoon; consequently, there would be no time to visit Kodansha.

The Meng and Wu families would also return to their home country the following day, though naturally not on the same flight as Meng Fan. As for Zhang Zhouwei and the others, they had already returned home the day after Meng Fan secured his fifth gold medal. Among his friends, only Kun Ye had concocted an excuse to break his writing update streak just to stay behind and watch the closing ceremony.

(End of chapter)