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

The corridor of the No. 3 boys' dormitory building was filled with the unique smell of toothpaste mixed with the aroma of instant noodles in the early morning.

Zhao Shuyao, with his hands in the pockets of his gray sweatpants, walked up the stairs to the third floor. The doors of the dorm rooms on both sides of the corridor were half open. Usually at this time, everyone would be rushing to wash up and get ready for class or the library, and the corridor would be filled with the sound of washbasins clattering.

But as soon as he stepped onto the third-floor corridor, the previously noisy sounds came to a brief halt.

Several boys holding toothbrushes stood at the entrance of the water room, their eyes all fixed on Zhao Shuyao, their gazes filled with astonishment and curiosity.

The door to dormitory 304 was pulled open from the inside, and Lao Li, the class monitor from the next class, and two other classmates who often played basketball together quickly walked out and blocked Zhao Shuyao's way.

"Old Zhao!" Old Li, still clutching half a meat bun, frowned and spoke in a low voice, "You just came back from outside, did you check your phone?"

Zhao Shuyao stopped and glanced at Lao Li's anxious face, then at the worried expressions of the other two people beside him.

The other party's actions quickly formed a clear conclusion in his mind: the influence of the Yan family's combination of tactics had substantially penetrated his real-world social circle from online virtual data.

"I just heard a bit about it on the playground." Zhao Shuyao's tone was calm, showing no extra emotional fluctuation. "What, you guys stayed up all night gossiping too?"

"What kind of time is this to be joking!" Standing next to Lao Li, Xiao Zhang stamped his feet anxiously and gestured with his hand in the air. "Those people online are all talking nonsense! They say you used a woman's money to take the postgraduate entrance exam, and that you're two-faced."

"Others may not know what kind of person you are, but we've been neighbors for almost three years, do you think we don't know? You even have to think long and hard about buying a meat dish at the second canteen, where do you get the money to live the life of a rich kid!"

Xiao Zhang took a deep breath and spoke very quickly: "Old Zhao, hurry up and post something online to prove yourself. Post your usual expense records. At worst, a few of us from the dorm, plus everyone in our class who knows the situation, will all go online and testify for you with our real names!"

Old Li nodded repeatedly, swallowed the bun in his mouth, and chimed in, "Yes, Old Zhao, you can't just let them frame you like this. All you did was say some truths about the Qing Dynasty in your lecture, and those academic cliques are resorting to such underhanded tactics. They're trying to drive you to your death. I think we should just fight them. Those with nothing to lose aren't afraid of those wearing shoes!"

Wang Yu, the room leader who hadn't said a word, quickly reached out and tugged at Lao Li's sleeve, glaring at him.

"How are you going to compete? Are you going to reason with a big influencer with millions of followers?" Wang Yu turned to Zhao Shuyao and gave a more conservative suggestion, "Old Zhao, they have too many online trolls now, and the public opinion is all on their side."

"I think it's best not to say anything. People on the internet have short memories. You should delete your account first and wait until this storm passes before talking about it. As long as you can get through your graduation defense, get your two certificates, and leave Fengtian, they won't be able to find you."

Desperately trying to prove themselves and deleting their accounts to escape.

These are two typical student coping strategies, filled with fear of authority and helpless compromise with reality.

Zhao Shuyao looked at the three classmates in front of him who were genuinely worried about him, and took his hands out of his pockets.

"Thank you all for your concern." Zhao Shuyao smiled reassuringly. "I've just gotten a general idea of ​​what's going on online, and I know what those influential figures and that article are saying."

Zhao Shuyao's gaze swept across the three men's faces one by one, and he continued, "As for posting the bill to prove myself, I probably don't plan to reply for now. If there really comes a day when I need everyone's help to testify, I will definitely not hesitate to ask the brothers directly, but not now."

"Why don't you explain now?" Old Li asked impatiently.

"They paid real money for this trending topic, and hired online trolls," Zhao Shuyao said with a hint of humor. "They spent hundreds of thousands, even millions, to set me up. If I just jumped out and ruined it, wouldn't that be disrespectful to those troll companies?"

"I think everyone should go back to class. I'd better stay out of this mess for now and see how many tricks they have up their sleeves."

Zhao Shuyao patted Lao Li on the shoulder, didn't say anything long, and walked past the three of them to push open the door to room 302.

Inside the dormitory, Yang Wei had just finished washing up and was wiping his face with a towel in his hand. Hearing the door open, Yang Wei immediately put down the towel, turned around, and his face was even more gloomy than the three outside.

Yang Wei walked up to Zhao Shuyao, carefully examined his face, and said worriedly, "How are you? I've seen what happened online. Are you really alright? Should I call the counselor to explain the situation? That article is completely fabricated. I know exactly what that woman did back then."

Zhao Shuyao walked to his desk, pulled out a chair and sat down, picking up a mineral water bottle from the table.

"What could possibly happen to me?" Zhao Shuyao waved his hand dismissively. "If I were in trouble, I wouldn't be sitting here drinking water right now; I'd be jumping into the Hun River. Don't worry, these people are hiding behind their keyboards. Aside from publishing a few stale press releases and short essays, they can't really hurt me."

Zhao Shuyao unscrewed the bottle cap, took a sip of water, and turned to look at Yang Wei: "You still have a mock interview for the provincial civil service exam this afternoon, right? Go do what you need to do, don't let this little thing affect your study progress."

Yang Wei stood there, his lips moving several times as if he wanted to say a few more words of advice, but looking at Zhao Shuyao's calm and collected face, he swallowed his words, picked up the review materials on the table, sighed softly, and left the dormitory.

The dormitory fell silent again.

Zhao Shuyao reached out and pressed the power button on the computer host.

The hum of the cooling fan came from under the table, the screen lit up, and he skillfully logged into the creator backend of Toutiao.

He didn't intend to prove himself, because his experience in his previous life told him that in the early stages of public opinion fermentation, netizens only needed an outlet for their emotions, and any rational evidence would be magnified to find so-called "flaws".

But he also doesn't intend to remain silent. Faced with the combined attack from academic cliques and capital, appropriate provocation can make the other side lose their rationality and thus invest more chips.

Place both hands on the keyboard.

My mind raced as I observed the opponent's logic and deduced that their intention was to use moral flaws to negate academic viewpoints. I decided to use a subtle approach to directly expose this coincidence.

The crisp sound of keyboard typing echoed in the dormitory as lines of text appeared in blank editing boxes.

There were no unnecessary opening remarks; they went straight to the point.

"After returning from my morning run, I found myself suddenly becoming the subject of heated online discussions as both a 'Chen Shimei' (a notorious figure in Chinese folklore known for abandoning his wife) and an 'academic fraudster.' Therefore, I am issuing this unified statement."

All the online smears against my personal life are completely false, and the events described in the articles have nothing to do with me. We are all adults, and I believe everyone should have the basic ability to distinguish right from wrong.

I offended an academic luminary yesterday by refusing several unreasonable conditions. This morning, people who hadn't been in contact with me for years suddenly started accusing me of my old papers, and various press releases are flying all over the internet.

Isn't this timing a bit too coincidental?

Zhao Shuyao continued typing at a rapid pace, adding the final paragraph.

"By the way, those rats hiding in the dark, if you really want to refute my calculations of the Ming and Qing accounts from an academic perspective, please provide historical materials."

"Using such a low-down method as hiring someone to write a long essay only proves your guilty conscience and serves no purpose for me. If your backers still have the budget, could you spend the money to come up with a new tactic?"

Click send.

The moment the statement was issued, Zhao Shuyao leaned back slightly in his chair.

Having spent his previous life in academia, he hadn't fully experienced this kind of online frenzy of cyberbullying, but he had seen too many underhanded tactics within the system. As long as you don't see it as a knife stabbing your heart, it's just an absurd comedy.

Open the comment section of yesterday's video on your account.

Yesterday's comment section was full of discussions about history, but it has been completely flooded with comments.

If it were an average student with slightly weaker psychological resilience, their blood pressure would probably spike to its peak in the face of such intense malice.

The first thing that catches the eye is a large number of uniformly formatted comments from online trolls and male netizens whose opinions have been swayed by influential figures.

"This hypocritical academic charlatan should just leave the internet and stop embarrassing himself here!"

"Historical experts have already come out and analyzed your arguments frame by frame. Your theories are all taken out of context. What face do you have left to continue defending yourselves?"

"This is the Dongda University prodigy you all used to idolize? Using women's money to support his graduate school entrance exams, he's a complete scoundrel, utterly disgusting!"

Zhao Shuyao scrolled the mouse wheel, scanning the text line by line.

He noticed that the most intense and shrewd attacks in the comments section were not about the academic authenticity, but rather a group of female netizens with various selfie avatars.

The 3,000-word essay about his ex-girlfriend released by Yan's PR team in the early hours of the morning accurately hit the most sensitive emotional point of this era, successfully inciting a large group of people who lack independent thinking ability.

Following Xiaoyu's homepage, this group of female netizens swarmed into Zhao Shuyao's comment section like a bee, each comment carrying a strong sense of hostility and judgment.

"What a scumbag! That girl suffered with you, and you just got into graduate school and you dumped your wife who stood by you through thick and thin. A man like you deserves to be a bachelor for life!"

"Thank goodness Sister Xiaoyu discovered it early and left in time, otherwise the loss would have been enormous! She wasted her precious youth feeding you, you ungrateful wretch!"

"Sisters, don't be polite with him! We can't let this bloodsucking social climber get away with this! Let's all call the academic affairs office of Northeastern University and report him to the education bureau so he won't get his diploma!"

"You're using women's hard-earned money to study your Confucian classics, and all that knowledge has gone to waste! With your character, you dare to talk about the integrity of intellectuals? It's utterly ridiculous!"

The sheer amount of hostility on the screen almost seemed to overflow from the monitor.

Zhao Shuyao continued turning the page.

Amidst this overwhelming outcry, one or two comments occasionally manage to offer a reasoned explanation.

A male netizen with the username "Rational Spectator" commented: "Can everyone please not rush to take sides? That post only presents one side of the story, and the few transfer records shown are mostly for tens of yuan, occasionally a hundred or two hundred. What can this amount of money prove when dating in college? To immediately label the man as a bloodsucker is too hasty, isn't it?"

Zhao Shuyao stopped scrolling and looked at the comment.

The comment that was being treated rationally quickly spawned over fifty replies, like a chain reaction. These were all attacks from netizens who had been angered.

"How could a girl joke about her innocence and reputation like that? Don't you have any common sense?!"

"Who would willingly expose their wounds to the entire internet unless they've suffered a tremendous injustice?

"The guy upstairs is definitely in cahoots with Zhao Shuyao. Anyone who sympathizes with such a scumbag must be a jerk in real life too. Let's all block and report him!"

Soon, this attempt to reason was completely drowned out by insults, and the poster was overwhelmed.

Zhao Shuyao looked at the disappearing rational voice on the screen and a disdainful smile appeared on his lips.

Logic is powerless against the power of collective fanaticism.