Chapter 121 Monday, December 12th

Pei Qian slept until 11 AM at the hotel, checked out, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed straight for the high-speed rail station to return to Jingzhou.

Wu Yue and Manager Lu wanted to host a lunch banquet, but Pei Qian declined.

The past two days of competition had been a nightmare for Pei Qian, and now he just wanted to leave Modu, return to Jingzhou, and curl up at home with a small blanket to play games.

On the high-speed rail back to Jingzhou, Pei Qian adjusted his mindset before taking out his phone to check the evaluations of the sand sculpture netizens on various forums regarding yesterday's competition.

After watching the game last night, it was almost 12 o'clock, and Pei Qian went straight to bed when he returned to the hotel, and hadn't checked the online comments until now.

Opening the forum, Pei Qian immediately saw the most popular post, which had already been bumped up thousands of floors and was very popular.

The title of the post was simple: "World Famous Painting."

Seeing this title, Pei Qian felt a little puzzled.

Was this an old post that had been dug up again?

So far, there were three so-called "world famous paintings," all of which were back-view photos taken by sand sculpture netizens, which were respectively named "Boss Pei at Moyu Internet Cafe," "Boss Pei at Moyu Delivery," and "Boss Pei at Work."

The first one was taken when Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 had just opened, the second was taken when eating at a Moyu Delivery store while a reporter happened to be interviewing, and the third was taken when organizing a mind map at Moyu Internet Cafe near Handong University.

But wasn't this topic already in the past?

The incident of drawing a mind map at Moyu Internet Cafe did cause a heated discussion on the internet, but netizens had the memory of a fish and should have forgotten it long ago, so why were they discussing it again?

Pei Qian glanced at the posting time.

That's not right, this seemed to be a post from last night?

It had only been one night, and it had been bumped up thousands of floors?

Pei Qian faintly felt something was wrong and quickly clicked in to check.

He saw a photo at the top of the post, which was the send-off ceremony for yesterday evening's IOI qualifier. The upper half of the picture was very normal, with the players standing neatly. The five members of the FV team stood in the center, ready to represent IOI in the World Championship. But the lower half of the picture was outrageous. The empty front row of the audience had only one audience member!

Pei Qian took a closer look. Wasn't that himself?

"When was this taken?!"

Pei Qian felt confused. He recalled it carefully before realizing that it must have been taken during the period when the audience was finally leaving. Coincidentally, many people had left the front row, and Pei Qian was too lazy to squeeze through the crowd, so he just found a seat and sat down, resulting in such a composition.

In fact, the person who captured this composition was very cunning. What he photographed was not the whole truth.

The truth was that many people had just left before the photo was taken. Pei Qian was indeed the last to leave among the front-row audience, after all, he lived the closest and was in no hurry.

But it wasn't as if all the audience had left early, and only Boss Pei saw the end.

Moreover, many of the audience in the back rows were waiting in their seats, just like Pei Qian, and were not in a hurry to leave.

But the photographer deliberately only photographed the first three or four rows, and none of the audience who were still in the venue in the back were photographed, so by mistake, it created a feeling of "only Boss Pei was left in the empty venue."

Looking at the main text of the post below the picture.

The original poster just posted this photo and didn't make too many descriptions, nor did he need to make too many descriptions.

Anyone could see that the stage had fifteen players, and the back view below was Boss Pei.

On the surface, it seemed that there wasn't much to discuss, but it had to be said that the wisdom of netizens was infinite. The highest-rated hot comments below were written jointly by several netizens, and they actually managed to create a "masterpiece appreciation"!

...

"World Famous Painting: 'The Last Audience.'"

"This is the latest painting in Boss Pei's collection of world-famous paintings, and it is about to become the most famous work. Among many similar works, this painting is considered an unprecedented masterpiece, especially for its ingenious conception, excellent layout, realistic details, and rich connotation."

"In the picture, the FV club members' ecstasy, the foil of the other two clubs, and the empty auditorium all present a perfect contrast to the back view in the center of the picture and convey rich psychological content. It is a rare masterpiece that will be passed down through the generations."

...

"Story introduction:"

"'The Last Audience' tells the scene of Boss Pei traveling to Modu alone in the winter month of Xinmao year." (Note: Xinmao year is a year in the Chinese Sexagenary cycle.)

"In the Gengzi month of Xinmao year, the international consortium, Dajake, and Longyu Group jointly organized the qualifiers in Modu, intending to use the World Championship to boost their reputation and suppress Tenda. Eight esports clubs responded and gathered in Modu. For a time, banners were unfurled and soldiers gathered, vaguely overshadowing Tenda's momentum."

"Moreover, demons and villains bewitched the people, and rumors spread."

"At this juncture, the situation was urgent, and the generals of Tenda were uneasy. They asked Boss Pei for advice, 'The enemy is powerful, what should we do?'"

"Boss Pei smiled calmly, 'A rabble is nothing but chickens and dogs, mere scarecrows. What is there to fear? Within three days, the enemy will collapse without a fight.'"

"The generals heard this and were skeptical."

"On the Jihai day of Gengzi month, it was auspicious for travel."

"Boss Pei traveled to Modu alone, single-handedly attending the meeting. The generals of Tenda were shocked, how could the commander of the three armies take risks in person? However, Boss Pei had already secretly sent undercover agents to lurk in the qualifiers. These five people were all elites in the army, and the combined strength of the five could withstand the bravery of ten thousand men. The enemy was powerful, but they did not know the situation in Modu, which was already under Boss Pei's control."

"The next day, the five warriors fought wheel battles with the clubs. From dawn to dusk, the battle was fierce, with millions of corpses and blood flowing like rivers. Boss Pei supervised the battle at the front line, his expression as usual in the midst of the army, calm and composed, and the five warriors fought more and more bravely. In the midst of laughter, the masts and oars were wiped out."

"After this battle, the fame of the five warriors spread far and wide in the qualifiers. The demons and villains fled at the mere sight of them, and the rabble collapsed without a fight. Boss Pei went to the meeting alone and penetrated the enemy's lair. From then on, the Modu clubs were terrified, and children dared not cry at night upon hearing Boss Pei's name."

"Later generations praised him in a poem:"

"Boss Pei's wisdom is rare in the world, daring to deceive in a single-handed meeting; A leaf-like boat travels thousands of miles, and a million soldiers are relieved of their armor."

...

"Appreciation of the painting:"

"This painting adopts a symmetrical design and can be roughly divided into three parts in composition: the upper center, the upper sides, and the lower part."

"The upper center is composed of five members of the FV club. They have just fought ten rounds and won the championship of the qualifiers, winning the first seed of the IOI World Championship. They are high-spirited and occupy the main position of the picture;"

"The upper sides are the other two teams that won the World Championship spots. They are ranked second and third, and their expressions are calmer, serving as a foil for the FV club members in the center;"

"The lower part is the empty auditorium and Boss Pei's back view in the very front row."

"The empty auditorium creates a desolate and cold atmosphere, which has two meanings: one is that the Longyu Group's competition arrangement is unreasonable, the audience is not satisfied with the competition process, and everyone has left before the competition is officially over; the other is that the pre-game momentum was huge, but after the game, it was a mess. The rabble was defeated by Boss Pei alone, and their halberds were broken and sunk."

"Although Boss Pei in the center only has a back view, from his relaxed and confident posture, one can roughly feel his state of mind at the moment."

"On the one hand, he and the five members of the FV club on the stage look at each other from afar, indicating that Boss Pei takes the lead and loves his soldiers like his own children; on the other hand, the venue is already empty, but Boss Pei still stays until the end, indicating that Boss Pei respects the game, the stage, and the opponent; in addition, Boss Pei's composure is enough to show that everything is under control."

"The fifteen people in the picture have slight differences in expression due to their different personalities and identities, giving a slightly scattered feeling. However, Boss Pei's back view connects the expressions of these fifteen people, echoing each other and connecting with each other, so that the emotions of the characters in this masterpiece are no longer isolated."

"On stage, off stage, front face, back view, one bright, one dark, one moving, one still, form a sharp contrast, with profound meaning and ingenious layout, worthy of being a masterpiece!"

...

After reading these top-rated hot comments in this post, Pei Qian fell into a daze.

What the hell was this!

Who took the photo? Why did you take a picture of me when you have nothing else to do?

And these hot comments below are even more outrageous. Where did all this come from?

How did it become a world-famous painting?

They even came up with a passage of construction site classical Chinese? And even wrote a poem!

The most outrageous thing was that some people were completely relying on their imagination to make up the artistic value of this photo and the inner world of each person in the picture!

These sand sculpture netizens are all old brain-补怪 (bǔ guài - monsters that fill gaps/plot holes)!

Obviously, the netizens' interpretation of Pei Qian's trip to Modu had completely gone astray.

Pei Qian didn't think too much about it originally. He just didn't want to watch the GPL, and thought of going to Modu to watch FV lose the game to relax. He came alone wearing a mask, and originally planned to keep a low profile.

As a result, he didn't expect the organizer to recognize him somehow, and they had to give him close-up shots while the game was going well, and kept stirring up trouble on the internet.

Now it was great, the whole world knew that Boss Pei was present at the IOI qualifier!

Originally, it would have been fine if the FV club had lost. The popularity would have been taken away by IOI, but he never expected the FV club's bladder to be so strong, and they actually fought ten rounds, fighting more and more bravely, stabbing Pei Qian's heart with every cut.

Pei Qian himself knew what was going on, but the melon-eating masses didn't!

From the perspective of the melon-eating masses, Boss Pei has always been strategizing, right?

The FV club was invested in and reorganized by Boss Pei, right?

Boss Pei was present to supervise the battle and watched the game until the end, right?

Anyway, in the end, the popularity was all taken away by the FV club and the GPL league.

On the one hand, everyone felt that the IOI competition was not formal. If you want to watch a formal competition, you have to watch the GPL. On the other hand, when it comes to the strongest IOI team in China, most people's first reaction is the FV team.

Although this club has no brand value, it has star players, strength, results, and topicality, making it a top-tier IOI traffic.

Analyze the cause and analyze the result.

What role did Boss Pei play in it? Isn't this self-evident?

Is there anything wrong with saying that Boss Pei was the only one carrying the entire IOI qualifier and the FV club's championship?

Who can refute it? Who dares to refute it?

Since that's the case, it's reasonable to add a little bit of embellishment to this story, increase its artistic and dramatic color, and deeply analyze the internal causes, right?

After all, legendary stories mostly have boasting elements. The more outrageous the boasting, the wider the spread, and the more the melon-eating masses love to hear it.

So, after a night of collective effort, the online writers embellished and beautified the story of "Boss Pei's Solo Trip to Modu" into the current version.

Especially the poem, "A leaf-like boat travels thousands of miles, and a million soldiers are relieved of their armor," infinitely elevated the level.

The meaning of this poem is that Tenda had a million soldiers, who were originally going to march to Modu and confront the Longyu Group, but Boss Pei came to Modu alone on a small boat, and the enemy army immediately collapsed. The million soldiers on Tenda's side didn't even need to go on an expedition and took off their battle robes.

Boss Pei alone is worth a million soldiers!

Boss Pei is not only strategizing and unparalleled in wisdom, but also has a rare courage in the world!

The whole story is becoming more and more outrageous.