After making his threats, Cheng Che, Qin Lie, and Chen Wei slipped away from the other side of Federation Square.
Back at the hotel, Qin Lie closed the door, looked at Cheng Che, and had a complicated expression.
Do you know what the consequences will be for what you just said?
"I know." Cheng Che sat on the bed and turned to the first page of the book he had just bought. "It'll be trending on social media."
Qin Lie took a deep breath, wanting to say something, but ultimately didn't.
He took out his phone, glanced at it, and then fell silent.
It's already trending on social media.
And it wasn't a slow climb; it was a direct parachute jump to first place.
#Winning the Championship#
People who clicked on this trending topic were initially confused.
The World Cup? It hasn't started yet.
The Olympic Games? They weren't held.
The Asian Games? They weren't held either.
What kind of competition is it?
Then they saw Cheng Che's words.
"I came here with only one goal: to win the championship."
Melbourne. Australian Open. Tennis.
The comment section was silent for a moment, then exploded.
I thought the Chinese national football team had won the championship; my hands were shaking with fear.
What competition is it... Oh, tennis. Wait, tennis???
I thought it was ping-pong and was about to send congratulations when I saw it was tennis. I was stunned.
[ Cheng Che? Isn't he a tennis player? Oh right, he does play tennis.]
So, the reason he's trending at number one is because he made a harsh statement?
[Hilarious! Others get trending for their work or scandals, Cheng Che gets trending for just one sentence.]
This guy really doesn't play by the rules.
Some passersby found it baffling, but many more people disagreed.
Don't you know how strong he is? He won the Magic City Masters and beat world number four Medvedev.
He also won the Tokyo Open, having fought his way through the qualifying rounds.
He's really good at playing on hard courts, and the Australian Open is a hard court. He's not exaggerating when he says he'll win the title.
[Go look up his Master final score, 6-1, 6-2, against Zverev.]
[He beat the world's top three players like that, so what if he won the Australian Open?]
[After so many years, Xia Country Guonan has finally produced someone who can win a Grand Slam.]
[To be honest, in the past, when Xia Country players went abroad to compete, they would say "I'll learn from the best," but now Cheng Che directly says "I'm here to win the championship." I really like this kind of confidence.]
[With a stronger nation, people are more confident and no longer need to hide their strength.]
There were also haters trying to stir things up.
[He's never even played a Grand Slam, and he's already talking about winning? That's too arrogant!]
Young people are unreliable and inexperienced; let's see if they'll still be laughing after they lose.
[Don't the Xia Country men's tennis team know their own level? Winning the championship? They'd be lucky to even reach the third round.]
These comments were quickly flooded by Cheng Che's fans.
[He's arrogant? He has the right to be arrogant. If you're so capable, you do it!]
[ Master Champion doesn't deserve to talk about winning? Then does your brother deserve it?]
So what if he lost? Making it to a Grand Slam main draw at eighteen is already historic.
Some people can't stand up after kneeling for so long, and they feel uncomfortable seeing others confident.
[You say he's no good? Then find someone who is.]
The argument lasted for three hours, and it remained at the top of the trending topics list.
Moreover, Cheng Che's fan page is gaining followers.
The number of people checking in is increasing.
The number of new followers appears as a steep straight line in the backend data.
The effects of the title "[ Barrier Breaker ]" continue to grow.
This title allows his works and topics to attract attention across different circles, while the " Bearing of a Top Star " label makes everyone who clicks in stay a few more seconds, take a second look, and pay more attention.
His hashtag has garnered over eight million followers, and the number of people checking in has remained stable at over six hundred thousand.
This data has already surpassed Yi Yangfan's.
Among the four top celebrities, Yi Yangfan's number of sign-ins hovers around 400,000, while Cheng Che's is nearly twice that number.
Moreover, the fans are extremely loyal.
An 18-year-old boy, the top Zhuangyuan, Peking University student at Peking University, a tennis Champion, a music composer, and a rising star in variety shows.
Any one of these things could be something to brag about for a lifetime, and he has them all.
While other celebrities' fans idolize their idols with the sentiment "My idol works very hard," Cheng Che's fans idolize his idol with the sentiment "My idol has accomplished everything."
Meanwhile, the celebrities who finally managed to get on the trending topics were furious.
A female celebrity was finally caught on camera with a new relationship. The photos were edited for three days, the caption was revised five times, and the PR team chose the best time to release them.
It did indeed trend on social media, ranking third.
Then Cheng Che's words "Win the championship" suddenly propelled him to first place.
Her relationship topic was pushed down to fourth place on the trending searches.
A male celebrity released a new song, and his fans spent three days promoting it, making it the second most searched song on social media.
As a result of Cheng Che's arrival, he was pushed to fifth place.
The studio's group chat exploded.
"How come he's trending again? Isn't he in Melbourne?"
"Just because he said something harsh? Is that acceptable?"
"How long has it been since his last work? ' Walking the Flower Road Together ' has been over for a week, and he only has one line of dialogue left?"
"The problem is that this trending topic went up naturally, it wasn't bought. What do you have to compete with that?"
No one answered.
Cheng Che himself remained quite calm.
He didn't leave the house for the next few days.
It wasn't that he didn't want to watch the qualifiers; it was that after going once, he never dared to go again.
That day, he was bundled up tightly, wearing a mask and a hat, and sat in the last row of the stands to watch a qualifying match.
Less than ten minutes into the game, a Xia Country student next to him recognized him and screamed. Then the entire stands turned to look.
He had no choice but to get up and leave.
From then on, he stayed obediently in the hotel.
I practice at the training ground during the day and watch videos of my opponents in my room at night.
I occasionally flip through the algebraic geometry textbook I bought at the bookstore, and occasionally reply to Professor Liu's email.
The Australian Open's pre-tournament press conference is scheduled for two days before the tournament.
Qin Lie told him to prepare his speech carefully these next few days, lest he blurt out something that would cause an uproar.
Cheng Che nodded and agreed.
At Incheon International Airport in South Korea, Pei Jingshu- sook was standing in the waiting hall, dragging her suitcase.
She wore a beige trench coat, her hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore light makeup.
Jin Zhixiu, standing next to her, was dragging another suitcase, looking somewhat helpless.
"Are you really going?" Jin Zhixiu asked.
"The tickets are already bought."
"Aren't you going to intern at SM Entertainment?"
I took leave.
Jin Zhixiu sighed, "You skipped class to go to Magic City last time, and this time you took leave to go to Melbourne. Didn't your professor scold you?"
Pei Jingshu ignored her and glanced down at her phone.
The screen showed a screenshot of Cheng Che saying "Win the championship" in Federation Square.
She looked at the screenshot and a smile curved her lips.
"He said he's going to win the championship," Pei Jingshu said. "I want to go see him."
Jin Zhixiu looked at her and sighed again.
She had known Pei Jingshu for three years and knew that once this person made up her mind, no one could stop her.
"Alright," she said, "Let's go then."
The two people dragged their suitcases toward the boarding gate.
Destination: Melbourne.