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

The night breeze swept through the tree-lined paths of the Southeast University campus as Zhao Shuyao walked to the glass door of the No. 3 graduate dormitory building.

Pushing open the door, the motion-sensor lights on the first floor turned on.

The sound of running water came from the washroom at the end of the corridor. Hearing footsteps, two heads poked out of the washroom.

Li Bo, a classmate from the History Department, came out carrying a blue plastic basin. When he saw Zhao Shuyao, Li Bo's eyes lit up.

Zhao Shuyao observed Li Bo's expression and judged that the kid had definitely watched the video online.

"Zhao Shuyao, you've been hiding your true strength." Li Bo stepped forward, looking him up and down. "You're usually so polite and refined during group meetings, how come you suddenly unleashed such a powerful attack today, leaving people speechless?"

Zhao Shuyao stopped in his tracks.

"That's called academic discussion," Zhao Shuyao said calmly. "Everyone is presenting facts and reasoning; how can you call it insults?"

Another classmate named Liu Yu, who was wiping his hands with a towel, chimed in: "Come on, what you said was even more hurtful than directly insulting someone, but to be honest, it did feel good to hear."

"Who is Yan Chongnian? He's always praising how great the Qing Dynasty was on TV. If the school hadn't forced each class to sign in and attend classes this time, who among us would have wanted to suffer that mental torture?"

Liu Yu took a step forward: "His theory can only fool laymen and undergraduates. We history students all know about the messy affairs of the Qing Dynasty, but..."

Liu Yu sighed, his tone turning regretful: "But I heard that your recommendation for staying at the university was just taken away by the department. You acted impulsively. When something like this happens, you should hold back for now. Wait until everything is settled and the recommendation is a done deal before you start criticizing them."

Zhao Shuyao looked at Liu Yu. Liu Yu's words represented the standard survival logic of the vast majority of students and even adults: to earn a living, bow down first, then fight back.

shook his head.

"I can't take it anymore." Zhao Shuyao's tone was relaxed, without a trace of regret for losing his job. "I don't care about this position at the university. In a place like that, where seniority is everything, there are too many rules and regulations."

Zhao Shuyao turned to look at the pitch-black night outside the dormitory building.

"The world is so big," Zhao Shuyao chuckled. "I'm a grown man, I'm not going to let myself die from holding my pee, am I?"

Li Bo was stunned for a moment.

Zhao Shuyao continued, "I already have other plans for work. If things really don't work out, I can always go back home and farm. My hometown has several acres of good dry land where I can grow corn and soybeans every year. I won't starve."

Hearing this starkly contrasting self-deprecating remark, Li Bo and Liu Yu exchanged a glance and then burst into laughter.

"Okay, you have a good attitude. If it were me, I'd probably be too worried to sleep tonight." Li Bo picked up the washbasin. "I won't bother you anymore. You should go back and get some rest."

After exchanging a few jokes, everyone went back to their rooms.

Zhao Shuyao walked up the stairs to the third floor and pushed open the door to room 302.

The light was on, and Yang Wei sat alone at his desk.

Yang Wei held a ballpoint pen in his hand, his eyes fixed on the open book of civil service exam practice questions in front of him, but he didn't turn a single page.

Zhao Shuyao walked up behind Yang Wei.

He placed his hand on Yang Wei's shoulder and gave him a gentle push.

"What's wrong with you?" Zhao Shuyao pulled up his chair and sat down. "Are you stupid or what? I haven't even had such a big thing happen to me, why are you worrying about this for no reason?"

Yang Wei turned his head and looked at Zhao Shuyao's carefree appearance, speechless.

Yang Wei put his pen on the table and said helplessly, "You still have the nerve to make these sarcastic remarks? A perfectly good job at the university, just like that, gone. That's a position that so many people would kill for. Aren't you worried at all?"

Zhao Shuyao looked at Yang Wei.

Yang Wei, standing before him, had a furrowed brow, and Zhao Shuyao quickly retrieved memories from his past life.

In their past lives, Zhao Shuyao stayed at the university as a lecturer who was constantly bullied, while Yang Wei returned to his hometown after graduation. Yang Wei passed the exam to become a middle school history teacher, and later met a very beautiful girl from Northeast China through a blind date, and they quickly got married.

After marriage, his wife had a fiery temper, and Yang Wei would often come to work with bruises on his eyes. Whenever asked, Yang Wei would stubbornly say that he had bumped his head on the door frame. But the lively atmosphere that permeated their noisy life was quite a happy one.

Zhao Shuyao snapped out of his thoughts and realized that Yang Wei, this kind-hearted man, was genuinely worried about him.

Zhao Shuyao waved his hand: "It's alright, if the spot for staying at the university is gone, it's gone. If this place doesn't want me, there are plenty of other places that will. At worst, I'll go back to my hometown. The environment there is completely different from your Fengtian. No matter what, I can still make a living, right?"

Yang Wei rolled his eyes.

He turned around and faced Zhao Shuyao directly.

"What can you do back in your hometown?" Yang Wei's tone was full of disbelief. "Even if you get a master's degree in history, you'll only be able to become a substitute teacher if you don't take the civil service exam. Stop talking big. You should behave yourself for now and stop posting anything provocative online or in groups. Just focus on getting your degree safely and securely. Maybe Director Zhang can put in a good word for you."

Zhao Shuyao nodded as he looked at Yang Wei's earnest and persuasive expression.

"I know what I'm doing." Zhao Shuyao picked up the toiletries bag from the table. "Don't worry about me. Go read your book. I'm going to wash up first. I have important things to do later."

After saying that, Zhao Shuyao turned and went into the bathroom.

Turn on the tap.

Warm water flowed down the showerhead and hit Zhao Shuyao's head.

Water flowed across his cheeks and down his shoulders. Zhao Shuyao closed his eyes, feeling the relaxation brought by the water's warmth.

He let out a long breath.

The pent-up frustration from my past life that had been building up in my heart for the past two weeks was finally released after today's fluent and engaging lecture.

Steam filled the small bathroom.

Zhao Shuyao's mind raced. The official editor-in-chief of Toutiao had sent him a private message. This was a crucial information point. The platform didn't lack content; what it lacked was a viral content generator that could create controversy and generate its own traffic.

His act of opposing academic hegemony today precisely hit the sore spot of the times, where the public has long suffered from the stigma of public intellectuals and academic cliques.

Turn off the tap, dry yourself off, and change into a clean set of pajamas.

Zhao Shuyao felt as if he had been completely brought back to life.

Push open the bathroom door.

Zhao Shuyao walked to his computer desk and pressed the power button.

The screen lights up, and you enter the system desktop.

He sat down in the chair and picked up the mouse. He double-clicked to open his web browser and entered the URL for the Toutiao creator backend.

His account has grown to 80,000 followers, and his inbox is overflowing with messages from various media outlets and netizens. He has decided to embark on his formal creative journey.

Before that, he needs complete footage from the scene.

Zhao Shuyao opened QQ on his computer.

I found the internal group of the 2013 graduate students in the History Department. The group was very quiet. The usually active class officers all muted today. Everyone knew that Yan Chongnian was in the hospital. This was an extremely sensitive topic, and no one wanted to leave any evidence in the chat history at this critical moment.

Zhao Shuyao found the profile picture of the short-haired girl who had been sitting in the front row in the group member list. That girl was one of the people who had stood up to speak for him during the lecture earlier that day.

Double-click the profile picture to send a private message.

"Hi junior, I saw someone recording a video on their phone next to you during today's lecture. Could you send me a copy of the original video?"

The dialog box flashed less than 30 seconds after the message was sent.

"Hey Zhao, I have the original. My roommate recorded the whole thing. You're amazing, senior. Our whole dorm is talking about you tonight. The video file is a bit big, I'll send it to you via email."

"Thank you," Zhao Shuyao replied. "Thank you for helping me out of that situation today too."

A few minutes later, an email popped up. Zhao Shuyao clicked to download.

A high-definition MP4 file was downloaded to the local hard drive.

Zhao Shuyao opened the video player and dragged the progress bar. From the moment he stood up and interrupted Yan Chongnian to the final line, "Old thief with a gray beard," the whole process was clear and coherent.

In the video, you can also hear the suppressed gasps of the surrounding students and the final round of applause.

Zhao Shuyao watched the video, brainstorming a release strategy.

Simply posting a video in 2016 would easily result in being throttled due to insufficient information density in the algorithm recommendation mechanism. He needed to pair it with a compelling micro-article with both text and images.

He opened the document.

With my hands on the keyboard, I began to organize the core points mentioned in today's lecture: the essence of the Manchu-Mongol intermarriage, the tens of millions of taels of silver deficit caused to local finances by Emperor Kangxi's southern tours, and the damage to cultural heritage caused by literary inquisitions.

These scattered remarks were reorganized into extremely concise text.

All organized.

What's needed now is a highly engaging headline that can instantly break the information cocoon.

Zhao Shuyao looked at the screen and pondered for two seconds. Then he tapped his fingers on the keyboard.

Exclusive Online: Transcript from a Lecture at Southeast University – Exposing the True Colors of the Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty: Who is Reviving the Feudal Cancer?

To add a touch of humor and absurdity to the internet age, he added a grinning emoji to the end of the title.

Zhao Shuyao copied the prepared text and image content into the editing box in the creator's backend.

Then, I uploaded the original high-definition video of the scene.

Check the "Original Content Declaration" box.

Move your mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen and click the "Publish" button.

Zhao Shuyao had no idea what kind of shock this hardcore text, images, and video with a complete backstory would bring to the entire history of the internet on this quiet night.

After doing all this, Zhao Shuyao leaned back in his chair.

I picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip.

Scroll down the mouse wheel to start browsing the recommended news feed on the Toutiao homepage.

I just refreshed it twice.

A headline news item posted by the official account of a local evening newspaper popped up in the center of the screen.

The news headline was written in bold black font.

Breaking News: Renowned Qing Dynasty history expert Professor Yan Chongnian suffered a sudden heart attack tonight during a lecture at a university in Fengtian. He has been transferred to the intensive care unit of the city's First Hospital. According to sources, the incident stemmed from a serious academic dispute with a student.

Zhao Shuyao stared at the news.

Open the news details page and scroll down to the comments section at the very bottom.

In just over ten minutes, the number of comments under this news article had exceeded five thousand. However, what Zhao Shuyao cared about most was not the comments from casual netizens, but a reply that was pinned to the top and had a series of verified titles.

The certification information shows that the person is "a producer at a major film and television company and a famous screenwriter of historical dramas".

The account's reply was filled with a strong sense of oppression and hostility:

"Academic discussion is by no means an excuse for personal attacks. It is a tragedy for the academic community to use sophistry to offend an octogenarian scholar. The several major dramas we are preparing will not allow such a clown who distorts history to disrupt social morals. It is understood that the student has been suspended from recommending students for further studies by the school. We hope that the relevant departments can impose more severe punishment and clean up the online environment."

Zhao Shuyao looked at this comment.

Those who protected their master have fallen.