Outrage!
Questions!
Mockery!
All rose and fell in waves!
Like a raging storm!
Originally, the top trending hashtag:
#Pre-MatchSwap
had become:
#AllRoundReserveAthleteLinFeng
In just one minute,
the views had surpassed ten million!
The number of forwards was well over five million!
This kind of heat,
was terrifyingly intense!
The reason was simple,
Lin Feng's identity,
the subject matter for discussion,
were simply too strong!
Even those who didn't usually pay attention to sports,
all knew,
what an All-Round Reserve Athlete was!
Mascot!
To put it plainly,
just a mascot!
Just there for a walk-on,
to get some fame.
In the future,
when they're out in the world,
they can say,
that they were once an athlete in the Bari Olympics,
that they once brought glory to the nation on the international stage!
This type of situation,
mostly about honor,
not about strength!
So –
While the entire internet was astonished,
there was even more mockery and doubt!
Sending a player like this to compete,
did the Chinese national team really have any national honor left?
Moreover,
it wasn't just the netizens,
domestic media,
and marketing accounts,
all sprung into action:
《What is the True Level of an All-Round Reserve Athlete!》
《A Look Back at the Mascots from Every Chinese Olympic Team!》
《Should Mascots be Allowed to Compete?》
…
These were still the more reasonable ones,
others were:
《What Is the Chinese National Team Doing!》
《Does the Chinese National Team Have Any National Honor Left!》
《How Did a Mascot Get Onto the Competition Stage!》
《Has the Chinese National Team Leader Lost His Mind!》
《The Money and Power Dealings Behind the Chinese National Team!》
…
All kinds of questions,
all kinds of criticism!
Not only that,
there were also some public intellectuals,
and those platform big V's,
who felt the same way,
expressing their discontent with Lin Feng's participation,
and predicting,
that Lin Feng would definitely drag down the Chinese national men's singles lowest record!
First Round Out!
He'll definitely be out in the first round!
Among them,
one in particular,
a professor named Xu Xianchun from Huaqing University,
publicly published an article titled 《Dare I Ask, Where Is the Path of the Chinese National Team?》：
“What a foolish decision to let a completely inexperienced reserve player compete!”
“What a blind choice, putting hope in such a mascot!”
“What a pitiful situation, the Chinese national team has fallen to such a state!”
“What a desperate moment, watching the Chinese national team self-destruct!”
“What a helpless reality, the former glory is gone, now only absurdity remains!”
“Dare I ask…”
“Where is the path of the Chinese National Team, after all?！！！”
…
The article wasn't long,
but once it was published,
it immediately gained,
tens of millions of views,
millions of forwards!
In an instant, it exploded,
across countless people's WeChat Moments!
“Lin Feng!”
“Chinese National Team!”
“Men’s Singles!”
“All-Round Reserve!”
“The Mascot of the Chinese Team!”
…
These words,
in less than three hours after the news broke out,
became the hottest words on the entire internet!
WeChat groups!
QQ groups!
Xiaohongshu!
Weibo!
Douyin!
Kuaishou!
…
Discussions everywhere!
Questions everywhere!
Mockery everywhere!
Almost…
The entire nation,
no one thought,
that this change, putting Lin Feng in,
was correct!
The reason was still the same,
can a mascot bring glory to the nation?
It’s probably just dragging China down to face humiliation!
Especially,
when one piece of gossip came out,
related discussions were unprecedented!
You see –
A marketing account that regularly releases gossip about celebrities,
《Entertainment Frontline》,
posted a Weibo saying:
“According to our understanding, this athlete named Lin Feng, before joining the national team, did not participate in any national-level or above large-scale sports events!”
“Not only that, there are no records for even some provincial and city-level competitions!”
“You could say, his sports career is completely blank!”
“However, through our relevant tracking reports, we discovered that, although this athlete named Lin Feng has no sports record, he has countless assets in his name!”
“He owns multiple luxury villas in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, each worth tens of millions!”
“And in the garages of these villas, there are limited edition supercars parked, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, McLarens… all of them are there!”
“And upon further investigation –”
“The places he frequents are all top-notch private clubs, with consumption levels that are jaw-dropping!”
“The watches he wears are all world-famous brands, the price of one watch is enough for an ordinary person to work their whole life!”
“Not only that, the major players we know, Da Mi Group, Gou Dong Group, Ali Mama, Meituan, SF Express…”
“It seems like he has a hand in them all!”
“And the reason why he’s so rich, it seems, is because not long ago, his parents had an unexpected accident, and as a result, he inherited a fortune of hundreds of billions!”
“After even more thorough investigation, we went deep into the Bari Chinese National Team’s accommodation area to conduct interviews, and we learned some shocking news!”
“This athlete named Lin Feng, he paid his way into the team!”
“Everyone knows that the living conditions in the Bari Olympics are not very good, our country sent air conditioners, brought chefs, and sent water...”
“But in fact, all of that was sponsored by this athlete named Lin Feng!”
“And it was precisely because of these sponsorships that he became the All-Round Reserve Athlete!”
“He had the chance to step onto the Olympic stage!”
“Of course –”
“If you ask me about his level in sports, or in badminton, to be precise!”
“Then I can only say, look back at the four big characters I said at the beginning…”
“Completely Blank!!!!”
…
…