He fiercely criticized the Manchu scholar clique and the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty.

"collapse?"

The guy with microphone number three didn't respond immediately. A short, sharp sound of a ceramic teacup hitting the table came through the earpiece. He seemed to be pondering the weight of those two words. A few seconds later, his voice, filled with the stubbornness of old-fashioned empiricism, finally broke into a conversation.

"Teacher Zhao, what you're saying is too far-fetched. I've run a factory for over ten years, watching the news every day. Those big TV stations, those famous old newspapers, their office buildings are all so grand, are you saying they collapsed?"

"That's right, Teacher Zhao," the man with a Beijing accent on microphone number one chimed in, his tone full of inquiry, "I see those GG brands on the street, the companies that should be investing are still investing. Isn't the barrier to entry in the media industry still firmly stuck there? We have nothing, are we supposed to crawl through a crack in the wall?"

Zhao Shuyao didn't speak, nor did he adjust his posture. His gaze slowly swept across the scrolling comment section at the bottom of the screen.

The blank characters above are undergoing a highly rhythmic differentiation, from the initial blind conformity to the emergence of a few word combinations that, though few in number, are perfectly on point.

"It seems that in this discussion room with dozens of people, there are not only onlookers, but also experts who have already figured out the direction of the situation."

Zhao Shuyao pushed the stainless steel thermos cup next to the keyboard, stretched out his right index finger, and gently tapped the desktop: "I've already seen it. There are friends on the screen who typed the same prefix at almost the same second—'Internet'."

"No, to be more precise," Zhao Shuyao adjusted the microphone, his deep voice carrying clearly in the quiet dormitory, "It's mobile internet."

The entire voice chat room fell silent for a second.

"Today in 2016, as we sit here chatting, each of you is no longer holding a brick-like phone that could only make calls and send text messages like it did ten years ago. Instead, you are holding individual terminals."

Zhao Shuyao raised his left hand, making a viewfinder gesture. His eyes, which always exuded extreme calmness, now held a touch of the gentleness and sharpness characteristic of a scholar.

"Please observe the changes in your lives carefully. As smartphone screens get bigger and bigger, as 4G networks cover every county, and then there are all sorts of news and video apps that you can't help but open first thing every morning when you wake up... Haven't you really noticed the changes here yet?"

He slowed his speech, enunciating each word as clearly as jade: "Now, every ordinary person who has access to a mobile phone and the ability to express themselves through words and images has essentially become an independent small media outlet."

A very faint gasp came from microphone number five.

The girl from the county town who had just been crying over a diploma seemed to have had a dormant nerve awakened by these words.

Zhao Shuyao pointed his thumb in the opposite direction to his chest, a signature gentle smile with a hint of self-deconstruction on his lips: "Take your eyes off those grand theories and look at me, look at me right now, wearing pajamas, sitting at the table under the bed."

"Wasn't the situation I faced half a month ago more perilous than yours today? Under our original evaluation system, I offended top-level scholars, and my position as a faculty member was revoked with a single notice."

"If we followed the old framework, I should have stayed in my dorm, written an 8,000-word self-criticism, and waited to be assigned a post-graduation destination that I could only leave to fate."

Zhao Shuyao picked up his cup and took a big gulp.

"But what was my solution to break the deadlock? I didn't camp out outside traditional magazine offices, nor did I beg any editor-in-chief to reserve a page for me."

"What I did was write my words, retrieve the real archives left by our ancestors in the county annals, and then press the 'publish' button on those information flow software."

Zhao Shuyao's voice was steady yet highly penetrating: "For example, Toutiao, WeChat official accounts, and the video community we are in now—these are microphones that this era has given you, allowing you to speak on stage without needing professional qualifications."

He leaned his body back towards the camera, his eyes precisely aimed at microphone number five.

"Young lady, let's put our logic together now. You worked as a 'resource provider' at that company for three months, handling so much copywriting, editing, and planning on your own. Aren't these skills precisely the core competencies that decentralized new media urgently needs today?"

Zhao Shuyao's tone softened slightly: "Why are you standing at the door of the old system, begging others to open a door for you based on your associate's degree? What you should be doing now is using the skills you've acquired for free over these three months to find suitable jobs in the market while running your own 'news and general news station' on these new platforms."

"I... I can work in the media?" The girl in microphone number five's voice trembled, not with fear, but with a sense of astonishment at being opened up to a new perspective.

"As long as you have thoughts and the ability to express them, why can't you?"

Zhao Shuyao smiled and shook his head. As if to completely relax the atmosphere, he suddenly changed his tone: "Of course, after we've settled the big picture of our ideals, we can't be careless about the small details of daily life."

"I was so focused on analyzing the industry that I overlooked a very real detail—after you completed your resignation process, did the company settle all the promised compensation with you? Did they offer you reasonable financial compensation for this irregular dismissal?"

The microphone indicator light came on. The girl sniffed, her voice as weak as a damp match: "They paid me... They transferred my three months' internship base salary to me, but there was no extra compensation. I don't know anything about labor laws. I'm just doing a part-time internship, so I probably don't have the right to argue about this."

"That's because they took advantage of your lack of knowledge in this field." Zhao Shuyao's smile didn't fade, but his eyes held a calm rationality. "The distinction between internship and actual employment is clearly defined in current legal principles. You completed the workload of a full-time employee, and their unilateral termination of the procedure without cause is not a compliant action."

Holding up two fingers: "I can find a bunch of complete claim application processes for you online right now, but as your fellow traveler, I have to make both sides clear. This path is extremely energy-consuming; it's a tug-of-war of willpower and patience, and it may take even longer."

The girl remained silent for a long time; the sound of her fingertips rubbing against the phone's casing could even be heard through the receiver as she gently gripped the phone.

"Teacher Zhao, let's forget about it."

When he finally spoke, the unpleasant sobbing tone was gone, replaced by a cool and decisive one: "I don't want to waste my energy on this argument over a hundred or so dollars."

"You just said something that really woke me up. Now that I've acquired enough skills from there, I'll use those skills to fight for another piece of land. Those few bosses aren't worth me spending these last few months of spring dealing with their ugly behavior."

"pretty."

Zhao Shuyao slapped lightly, not hard, and made a crisp "slap" sound when his palms came together.

"This is a decision that shows both backbone and wisdom." Zhao Shuyao nodded slightly to the camera, his eyes revealing sincere appreciation. "Don't wallow in meaningless quagmire. Now that we've let go, let's venture into a broader arena."

He began to break down the truly feasible tactical paths for the other party, every word precisely timed to coincide with the eve of 2016, the year when the benefits of graphic and textual content were about to fully explode.

"We come from a small town, so let's tell the stories of our small town. You can open an account right away and follow the rules you use to write copy in the backend. You can't write grand analyses, but you can write about the unique local customs and products."

Zhao Shuyao tapped the screen with his finger: "Write about how ordinary people celebrate the Second Day of the Second Lunar Month, and film the artisans who have been working on the old streets of your county for decades. The current algorithm recommendation doesn't discriminate based on education level; it only looks at the sincerity you present and the value of the content."

"With the skills you've honed over these three months, as long as you dedicate yourself to studying the patterns, the profits you gain will be enough to allow you to establish yourself in that city."

The white text in the comments section isn't just scrolling; it's pouring out.

"Holy crap, that's giving me the creeps!"

"Is this what it means for an educated and knowledgeable person to help others with calculations? Not just dry advice, but a practical and effective solution!"

"Is it too late for me to re-register my account now, Teacher Zhao? Please speak slowly, I'm taking notes!"

Amidst the fervent excitement, Brother Mai's weathered voice rang out once more. This time, there was no doubt in it, but rather a hint of humility and urgency that seemed to come from nowhere.

"Comrade Zhao Shuyao, you've solved the problem of the female comrade. But you haven't finished answering yet—besides young people like her who are good with writing and computers, where exactly should we ordinary people find our way in the situations and opportunities you just mentioned?"

The live stream suddenly fell silent again. All the viewers stopped watching, and there wasn't a single comment on the screen. They all seemed to be watching this graduate student majoring in history, waiting to hear how he would use the wisdom of his ancestors to calculate the current situation.

Zhao Shuyao slowly moved his back off the cheap old swivel chair, gently rested the index fingers of both hands together in front of his chin, and looked like a bottomless well.

"This is actually the thing that I've thought about the most before."

His tone was unhurried, like a clear spring flowing gently through a pine forest.

"For a long time, faced with increasingly complete modern architecture, I also held that view. I believed that those bottom-up approaches that could break through to the top in one go had been slowly closed with the end of the era of large-scale construction."

His eyes swept over the few avatars in the live chat area that were flashing with faint light.

"But in the past two years, especially watching how the mobile network signal seeped from several major cities into the muddy villages of the south and the snow-covered mountain valleys of the north like a stream... my preconceived notion has been completely overturned by the facts."

Zhao Shuyao's voice was steady, yet it carried a power that could shatter a person's heavy heart.

"I won't play riddles with you. Our era, this vast land, has never ceased to show kindness to ordinary people and to leave us with a path."

He leaned forward slightly. "Our opportunity has always been here. It wasn't taken away or sealed away by anyone. It's right here on the street, in the fields, behind that tiny glass screen that you and I turn on every day..."

"It's just because of our prejudice and blindness that we treat it as an ordinary game and trivial matters. We ourselves have not firmly held onto the ticket to our own life."

On the other end of the receiver, the young man from the south, who was studying engineering at a second-tier university, let out a heavy breath.

"Teacher Zhao!" The boy's words were almost incoherent. "So, you're saying there's... a broader path than just creating content? Don't stop there, tell me more. What kind of opportunity is this? How can ordinary people like us even reach for it?"