Chapter 557: Gold Medal Tour Guide Takes You Out to Play

Chapter 557: A Gold Medal Tour Guide Takes You on a Ride

Meng Fan plunged into the water with a splash, but quickly surfaced again, climbing back onto the man’s boat with some embarrassment.

The reason was simple: the lake was not open for swimming. It wasn’t that someone would necessarily stop him, but rather that Meng Fan’s celebrity status was too strong, and he feared causing a bad influence.

The moment he dove in, tomorrow—no, just an hour later—many would surely imitate him, polluting the water source, which would be bad. If any accident occurred, it would all be blamed on Meng Fan.

“Reckless, reckless—you can’t swim here! As for the Ironman Double Event, next time for sure.”

Meng Fan got back on the boat and continued his livestream, the wind whistling past, feeling quite invigorating.

Before long, the small boat docked at a private pier on Lotus Island. After stepping ashore, the man named Zhang Ming, along with his family and neighbors, gave Meng Fan a brief but grand welcome ceremony. A large bouquet of freshly picked flowers was handed over, and Meng Fan felt a bit embarrassed.

After taking a shower at the man’s house and changing into a dry set of his clothes, Meng Fan was greeted by a table full of delicious lake delicacies. The hairy crabs went without saying—a huge platter, at least a hundred of them—along with other fish, shellfish, homegrown vegetables, and home-raised chickens and ducks, all incredibly fresh. The main dish was crab roe fried rice, but Meng Fan’s personal favorite was the drunken crab.

In terms of hospitality standards on Lotus Island, this was the pinnacle.

“Thank you, thank you!”

“Don’t be polite. Being able to treat you to a meal is absolutely our honor!”

“Yeah, yeah, eat up. The crab roe fried rice won’t taste good once it’s cold.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Meng Fan ate heartily, and the viewers in the livestream room all grew hungry.

“Can’t see swimming, but we can see eating.”

“A food broadcast may be late, but it never misses!”

“These hairy crabs are really huge!”

“This crab roe is way too intense!”

“I stand against poison and gambling!”

“That white fish looks so fresh, feels like it could jump up and kiss Iron God!”

“So there are shrimp in Yangcheng Lake too!”

“Oh no, these hairy crabs were already expensive. With Meng Fan eating them like this, the price is bound to go up!”

“Better grab some before the price hike!”

“I’ve got all my crab-eating tools ready. Who’s sending me some hairy crabs?”

“Mid-Autumn Festival is near. Our company of 3,000 people has a 3 million budget to buy mooncakes and hairy crabs as employee benefits. We’ve already found a mooncake supplier, but we still need hairy crabs. Interested parties can send me ten jin of hairy crabs for a quality test. Serious inquiries only! Thanks!”

“Damn, Mid-Autumn Festival is already over! I’m planning to give hairy crabs as gifts to the village elders for the Double Ninth Festival. You can send them to me. Address: ¥%……￥##%”

…

An hour later, Meng Fan was full. He couldn’t help patting his belly and let out an ungraceful burp. The livestream room instantly filled with comments like “Now we know why he runs so hard but never loses weight, right?”

Full and satisfied, Meng Fan took the livestream viewers to watch Brother Zhang Ming and his crew harvest and tie crabs. He even had Brother Zhang Ming teach him how to tie them, but then the livestream viewers led him astray, and various binding techniques soon came up.

During this, Meng Fan suggested Brother Zhang Ming put up a link. Zhang Ming waved his hand and said no—inviting Meng Fan to dinner was purely because he wanted to treat him. If he put up a link, wouldn’t that be “kidnapping”?

Of course, it also had to do with the fact that their hairy crabs were never short of buyers.

Seeing this, Meng Fan could only buy some hairy crabs with his own money and had Zhang Ming ship them directly to friends in Hangzhou and elsewhere.

That night, Meng Fan slept at Brother Zhang Ming’s house.

The next morning, as he was pondering the day’s hundred-kilometer route, he heard a commotion outside. He went out to see—it was the two people who had fallen into the water yesterday, holding a pennant.

…

Meng Fan ran around Yangcheng Lake for another two days, each time completing a hundred kilometers in one go, with similar times.

Of course, as good as the hairy crabs were, Meng Fan didn’t dare overindulge. Over the next two days, he ate very few of them, though he didn’t skimp on the fish and shrimp.

On the eleventh day of the hundred-kilometer challenge, Meng Fan left Yangcheng Lake and headed west. This time, his destination was Taihu Lake.

Taihu Lake was much larger than Yangcheng Lake—the third largest freshwater lake in China, with a shoreline of nearly 400 kilometers. The running route would exceed 500 kilometers. Meng Fan planned to spend five days here, running a hundred kilometers a day to circle the lake.

Taihu Lake had beautiful scenery. Meng Fan ran and played, and with his aesthetic sense, he always found beauty in the landscape. The viewers enjoyed it too.

Through Meng Fan’s run, many people saw scenery they had never witnessed before—it was like traveling with tens of millions of netizens.

Meng Fan, as a “tour guide,” was eloquent and truly a “gold medal” guide in every sense.

After five days, Meng Fan completed the challenge and then headed north to Gaoyou Lake. After running there for a day, he went northwest to Hongze Lake, one of the five largest freshwater lakes. Two days later, he headed southwest to Chao Lake, the youngest of the five. Two days after that, Meng Fan went to find the eldest, Poyang Lake.

…

“From West Lake to Thousand Island Lake to Jinji Lake, Yangcheng Lake… running all this way, I finally get why Meng Fan keeps going after lakes—he just wants to eat freshwater seafood!”

“After finishing Poyang Lake, if he goes to Dongting Lake, he’ll have collected all five largest freshwater lakes. Does Iron God have a collecting obsession?”

“After the five freshwater lakes, I hope Iron God runs some saltwater lakes—the scenery there is even more beautiful!”

“Saltwater lakes are all in high-altitude areas, right? Better not! Besides, the food there is probably all beef and mutton. I’m really afraid that after running thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers, he won’t have lost any weight but will have gained some!”

“Haha, hit 1 if you support Iron God taking us on a tour of the entire Yangtze River!”

…

By the time he reached Poyang Lake, Meng Fan had been running for 20 consecutive days.

A hundred kilometers every day for 20 straight days—this was undoubtedly the greatest running volume in 20 days since video or event records began.

Not only were domestic people extremely interested in Meng Fan’s ultra-long-distance run, but people worldwide also cast astonished glances. There were numerous reports on the matter.

On top of the title “World’s Toughest Man,” Meng Fan was also crowned “World’s Most Enduring Man.”

A life science research institute expressed great interest in Meng Fan’s body structure, while a paranormal research organization wanted to conduct supernatural studies on his body…

The shoreline of Poyang Lake was extremely long—fully 1,200 kilometers. After planning the route, circling it would require at least 1,400 kilometers.

Meng Fan didn’t need to complete a full circle of Poyang Lake to finish the achievement task [Divine Runner]. Seeing the task nearing its end, Meng Fan was very happy, and his body still showed no discomfort.

But… what about Dongting Lake? Was he not going?

He had run four of the five largest freshwater lakes—Dongting Lake would be unhappy!

This geography review wasn’t thorough enough.

He’d finish running here first, then fly over to Dongting Lake. He couldn’t let Dongting Lake be upset, nor could he let the fish and shrimp in Dongting Lake be too happy. The fish and shrimp in the other four lakes had seen a recent surge in sales—Dongting Lake shouldn’t be left out.

(End of chapter)