Over the past few days, Bai Yu has had a very fulfilling time, spending his days eating and drinking, wandering around the venue, and occasionally running a few laps on the track to get some exercise.
What Bai Yu found most boring was the rehearsal for the opening ceremony; that was rather tedious.
To be honest, this rehearsal was basically just walking around the venue in order, there wasn't much to see, just chatting with some teammates next to me.
It wasn't until the 23rd, the day the Olympics officially opened, that Bai Yu finally started to feel a little interested.
The main thing is that the competitions held inside the venue before the official opening have nothing to do with us.
For example, the opening match of a football game is right before the opening ceremony, but no one from our country participates in this event. Our national football team knows that unless we are the host country, the national football team basically cannot qualify.
But things change after the opening ceremony. Once the opening ceremony is over, it means that the Olympic Games have officially begun, and there will be more competitions in our country.
In this situation, even if Bai Yu's track and field event starts in the second half of the Olympics, he won't be bored. At least he can cheer for other events.
On the 23rd, Bai Yu put on some simple makeup and then waited for the opening ceremony to begin.
Bai Yu originally didn't plan to wear makeup, since his natural features were quite good, although not as good as those viewers on screen.
However, compared to those young heartthrobs, he himself is full of masculinity, a true tough guy.
However, Bai Yu's opinion didn't count, and in the end, he was forced to simplify his makeup and then blend into the crowd.
It's worth mentioning that Bai Yu was positioned quite close to the front of our contingent at the opening ceremony, in the first few rows.
As is well known, in such a high-profile competition, there are specific requirements for the order of the participants in the marching formations. To stand at the forefront of a formation, one needs a certain level of strength and contribution.
In terms of contributions, Bai Yu did not make many. This was his first time participating in the Olympics. Apart from having a few world records and the potential to win three gold medals, he did not make any other contributions.
Even so, Bai Yu's position was very close to the front, two rows behind the flag bearer, and on the outer circle.
Needless to say, the flag bearers are Sister Ting and the handsome guy. One of them has made great contributions to volleyball, and the other to taekwondo.
Behind these two were Long Ge and a group of world champions and Olympic champions, with Bai Yu standing right behind Long Ge.
This alone is enough to show how much the team values him and truly hopes that he can win glory for the country in this Olympics.
As the time came to the afternoon of the 23rd, the opening ceremony officially began at 9:00 PM.
Bai Yu, also a member of the delegation, followed the flow of people into the venue.
The moment our team entered the stadium, Bai Yu heard cheers that filled the sky. Even though they were in the stadium of the Japanese Academy of Sciences, the cheers we received were still deafening!
At that moment, Bai Yu's heart was surging with emotion. As a Chinese, a sense of pride instantly filled his entire body. He waved the national flag in his hand, showing his enthusiasm to everyone around him.
Unfortunately, the venue was quite large, and all he could see when he looked around were fluttering national flags; he couldn't see what he wanted to see.
You should know that Bai Yu brought his whole family, along with his company employees and the hundred travel vouchers he had given out, to participate in the competition here at Xiaobenzi.
Putting everything else aside, just the support group that Bai Yu himself knows of has at least two hundred people.
There's a reason why Bai Yu couldn't see the support group he wanted: he had no audience at this opening ceremony.
As for the cheers Bai Yu heard, those were sound effects played by the official Japanese media, and the national flags were also arranged in advance.
After all, in 2021, the pandemic was still raging. Our country was able to avoid a major impact because of its strong capabilities and effective control measures.
However, for Japan, an island nation, which is small and densely populated with relatively scarce resources, if all restrictions were lifted during the Olympics, the epidemic might get out of control.
Therefore, there were no spectators at this opening ceremony; only nearly a thousand staff members from various countries attended. The cheers and national flags were all arranged in advance.
It is said that the opening ceremony will be broadcast live globally, and during the broadcast, special effects will be used to fill the audience seats with people.
So under these circumstances, even if Bai Yu used his eyes to look, or even if he used an eight-times scope to aim at the stands, he wouldn't be able to find a single employee or fan from their company.
Soon, after sensing it for a while, Bai Yu also noticed something was wrong, and then he asked Brother Long in front of him:
"Brother Long, have you noticed something's off about the audience? It feels like there's hardly anyone in the stands."
"Huh? You didn't know? There were no audience members for our opening ceremony this time. Not only were there no audience members for the opening ceremony, but there were also no audience members for the closing ceremony."
"Huh? No spectators? What about the later matches? I didn't expect there wouldn't be any spectators for the later matches either. I brought quite a few people to watch and cheer me on. If there are no spectators, then all my money has been wasted!"
At that moment, Bai Yu realized that he had overlooked a problem: the pandemic.
Because of the relatively good control measures in China, the epidemic situation in our country is relatively peaceful. However, there is a huge gap between the situation abroad and our country. Their control measures are not as strong as ours.
This resulted in the situation where there were no spectators at the opening ceremony. The key point is that he also organized employees and fans to watch the game at his company. If there were no spectators during the game, he would suffer a huge loss.
"Huh? You even brought your own cheering squad? Is it expensive? If it's not too expensive, I'll spend some money next time to hire some online trolls to cheer me on at the venue."
"Brother Long, please stop joking with me. The people I brought here are all my company's employees and my fans. They are not paid trolls; they are all people I won through a lottery on Douyin."
Besides, with your popularity, do you even need to hire online trolls? Among all the sports in our country, your table tennis team has the most fans; you don't need to hire any.
Bai Yu rolled her eyes silently at what Ma Long said, and then said to him.
In fact, as Bai Yu said, the answer to which sport has the most fans in China is obvious: table tennis.
Even though Bai Yu now has tens of millions of fans, his fans are still far less than those of the table tennis team. That's because the table tennis team's fans are fandom fans, while his fans are all normal track and field enthusiasts. The two are not the same.
"Hahaha, I was just saying that casually. But you don't need to worry about no one watching the later matches. There will still be spectators during the matches, just not as many as before, at most about one-tenth of the full capacity."
"That's good. As long as there's an audience, then my money won't have been wasted. I'll bring them all in and have them cheer for you, Brother Long."
"That's great! My first match is tomorrow. Remember to bring them to cheer me on!"
The opening ceremony proceeded to its designated location amidst Bai Yu and Brother Long's conversation, and then the proceedings continued, with Bai Yu and Brother Long continuing their chat.
For Bai Yu, the moment he learned that there were no audience members present, his initial enthusiasm and ambition immediately diminished, and he began to feel bored.
Rather than watching the other teams enter, Bai Yu preferred chatting with Brother Long. Although Brother Long was nine years older than him, Bai Yu felt that he and Brother Long had more in common.
Moreover, during the preparation period of these few days, he would play a couple of rounds with Brother Long almost every day, and occasionally he would also play a few rounds with Brother Xin.
Although he couldn't beat those two, he got along quite well with the table tennis team players, and the atmosphere was very relaxed.
As time passed, Bai Yu didn't even glance at the second half of the cultural performance; she simply followed Brother Long and left.
The latter is because there is a match the next day, and leaving now is to go back and rest early to adjust one's condition.
Bai Yu left so early simply because she wasn't interested in Xiao Benzi's artistic performance. She had seen Xiao Benzi's rehearsal before, and the result was, well, completely incomprehensible!
Not only can he not understand it, but he also cannot comprehend it. In that case, there is no point in watching the performance.
After Bai Yu left the venue, he also went back to the Olympic Village with Brother Long and the others, but he didn't come back to rest; he came back to find food.
He didn't eat dinner for today's opening ceremony, just in case he got an upset stomach during the ceremony and made a fool of himself.
Now that the opening ceremony is basically over, Bai Yu naturally wants to have a good meal. Not only does he eat, but he also invites Brother Long, Brother Xin, Little Fatty and others who are preparing to go back to their rooms to rest, to go find the chef to cook together.
And this chef was none other than Bai Yu's father.
Bai Yu originally intended for his father to come to Xiaobenzi's place as a spectator to watch the game, but before that, one of the chefs in their national team's culinary team returned to China for some reason, leaving a vacancy.
After Bai's father arrived, Bai Yu applied to the higher-ups to have him take over the chef's position, though only for a few days.
Although Bai's father only has a Level 3 chef's certificate, his previous experience as a head chef in a star-rated hotel still enabled him to successfully enter the Olympic Village.
Bai's father got into the Olympic Village and even became a chef in the logistics team, which was undoubtedly a great thing for Bai Yu, as he could now cook for him.
No sooner had the opening ceremony ended than Bai Yu led a group of athletes to Bai's father, asking him to make them a late-night snack, as they were starving.
After learning that the person who cooked for them was Bai Yu's father, Little Fatty Dong looked at Bai Yu with envy.
"Xiaoyu, I didn't expect that your dad is a chef. And he's even joined the logistics team here. Does that mean that during the Olympics, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, without any problem?"
I'm so envious! I'm genuinely envious! I wish I had that kind of treatment—having food anytime, anywhere, and being able to eat whatever I want!
Dong Ge and Bai Yu are the same age, but the former is a few months older than the latter, so it's perfectly fine for him to call Bai Yu "Little Yu".
In addition, Dong Ge has another well-known hobby, which is listening to other people's food stories; he is definitely a foodie.
"Hey, Dong-ge, my dad is just here to help out. Once our team has a full complement of cooks, he won't be working in logistics anymore."
As for Bai's father helping with logistics, that was a special favor Bai Yu had arranged for herself, and since there was a good opportunity, she let Bai's father take over.
Later, when the logistics department no longer needs people, Bai's father will naturally have to leave, and Bai Yu's private tutoring will also have to stop.
But not now. At least tonight, they can have a good meal, get a good night's sleep, and wait for their respective matches to begin.
...............
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