#212 - Opening Ceremony

Across the ocean, in the beautiful country of America, it's 8:00 AM.

The Ward's 10 Best Engines competition, a grand event for global automakers hosted by Ward's, officially begins amidst much anticipation.

After exiting the exhibition hall, Lu Haifeng saw a massive display screen at the entrance, magnifying the host's image for distant viewers.

Simultaneously, a huge stage was erected at the exhibition hall's entrance, where a gray-haired, portly old man stood, beaming at the audience.

He is Jaime Medina, the head of this year's Ward's 10 Best Engines, and the CEO of the largest media outlet in the beautiful country, "The New York Times."

The New York Times is one of the ten major media outlets behind Ward's, and each year, the CEO of one of these ten media outlets takes turns serving as the head of the Ward's 10 Best Engines event.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today marks another annual Ward's 10 Best Engines competition. Thank you for traveling from all over the world to participate in this grand event!"

"To express our gratitude, every audience member present can collect a souvenir from our staff upon departure!"

As soon as Jaime Medina finished speaking, the audience erupted in enthusiastic cheers and roars.

As the CEO of a globally renowned media outlet, Jaime Medina is very popular.

This is because the old man appears frequently in public and is known for his humor and wit.

"Let's take a look at which automakers are participating in this year's Ward's 10 Best Engines. Oh my God!"

"I have a list here: Benma, Baolai, Otto, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Nissan, oh my god, they are all our old acquaintances!"

"It's like we go excitedly to find ladies, only to discover that we know them all. How boring!!"

Poof!!

Jaime Medina's words, coupled with his round belly, were full of comedic effect, and the audience burst into laughter.

This old man is too harsh, publicly comparing those automakers to prostitutes. Although the audience laughed, the responsible parties from those automakers were so angry that their teeth itched, but there was nothing they could do about it.

It must be said that old Americans really dare to say anything. Lu Haifeng and Toyota Junko were also amused by the old man.

The responsible parties from the automakers that Jaime Medina named glared at Jaime Medina with gritted teeth.

"Although these automakers are all our old acquaintances, we should also… Huh?"

Jaime Medina, who was speaking, suddenly paused while looking at the list in his hand, seemingly very surprised.

"Mr. Jaime, what did you find? Why aren't you talking? Could it be that the list in your hand also contains prices?"

"I guess what he has in his hand is the speech, but the content below is missing."

"Oh God, that really is an unfortunate thing."

The audience members took the opportunity to express their American humor, but Lu Haifeng couldn't find any humor in it.

"Oh my God, do you know what I saw on this list? The name of a new automaker!"

"Yes, that's right, it's the name of a new automaker!"

"I take back what I just said. This year's Ward's 10 Best Engines doesn't just include those automakers we're very familiar with, but also an automaker from the Great Xia Country has joined our big family!"

"And this automaker's name is Audi Automobile. Let's cheer and applaud for the automotive brand from the Great Xia Country!!"

Jaime Medina's words stunned some of the audience members and those watching the live broadcast, as only a small number of people abroad had heard of the Audi Automobile brand.

Immediately afterward, these car enthusiasts erupted in huge applause. In previous Ward's 10 Best Engines competitions, the automakers participating were from countries such as Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea.

As the most mysterious ancient country in the East in the eyes of Europeans and Americans, no one had ever participated.

But today, this mysterious ancient country of the East suddenly has an automaker participating in Ward's 10 Best Engines, the most prestigious selection event in the automotive industry.

This surprised the audience and those watching the live broadcast online.

Great Xia Country.

Shark Live, as one of the most popular live streaming platforms in the Great Xia Country, Ward's officially signed a live streaming agreement with Shark Live, obtaining the live streaming qualification for this year's Ward's 10 Best Engines within the Great Xia Country.

Due to Ward's 10 Best Engines' influence worldwide, netizens in the Great Xia Country had long been waiting in the live broadcast room for the opening ceremony to begin.

The live broadcast hadn't officially started, but the number of viewers in the live broadcast room had already reached a terrifying five million.

"Start quickly! I'm still waiting to see Audi Automobile's new car!"

"That's right, that's right. I'm waiting to see our domestic engine beat Europe and America and ravage Japan and South Korea!"

"Audi Automobile, go!"

These viewers knew how powerful Audi Automobile's engines were, so excluding the true car enthusiasts, many viewers came to watch the live broadcast for Audi Automobile.

"Trash domestic cars, trash Audi Automobile, I'm waiting to see them get beaten by their European and American fathers!"

"An enterprise that can't recognize reality is blindly arrogant in comparing technology with foreign enterprises. It's really laughable!"

"Forgive me for speaking frankly, if Audi Automobile can win an award, I'll eat shit live!"

Of course, there are always those who admire foreign things and criticize domestic ones, and those trolls were frantically spamming the screen in the live broadcast room.

"There are trolls everywhere now!"

"Don't pay attention to these trolls upstairs. Even if Audi Automobile doesn't win an award, I will always support Audi Automobile for this courage alone!"

"That's right, Audi Automobile is the first enterprise to develop a domestic engine. As long as they are given a little time, I believe they will definitely be able to surpass the existence of Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea."

"Yes, it's already very good now. After all, foreign enterprises have been imposing various technological blockades on the Great Xia Country for so many years. Now that an enterprise has broken through the foreign technological blockade, we should be happy."

"Holy crap, it's here, it's here, it's starting!"

"It's really starting!"

Amidst the audience's anticipation, the previously dark live broadcast room screen suddenly lit up, and the Ward's 10 Best Engines competition exhibition hall directly appeared in the live broadcast room.

Then, a male host appeared and quickly said: "Hello, viewers in the live broadcast room, everyone. I am Tomato-kun, the official host of this Shark Live broadcast."

"Due to some problems with the live broadcast equipment just now, it has just been debugged. Now the opening ceremony of Ward's 10 Best Engines has already begun. I won't say much more!"

"After the opening ceremony, I will lead everyone into the exhibition hall to see the new cars of the major automakers this year!"