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

The number in the lower right corner of the computer screen jumped from 11:54 to 11:55.

Zhao Shuyao's index finger landed on the left mouse button. He pressed it.

The green light in the system background turned on, and the live streaming channel of Toutiao was officially completed. The live view of the camera popped up in the center of the monitor.

In the picture, Zhao Shuyao is wearing a sweatshirt and sitting upright at his desk, with a solid wood bookshelf filled with yellowed county chronicles behind him.

The online user count started fluctuating. 0 became 45, then 112, and finally 389.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Zhao Shuyao leaned forward slightly, looking straight ahead at the camera's sensor. "Can you hear me clearly? Please type your feedback in the chat about the background noise and whether there's any video delay."

As soon as the words were spoken, the interactive area on the right scrolled upwards.

"The sound is very clear."

"No background noise, smooth video, hello Teacher Zhao."

"Alive, really alive! Front row seats reserved for the biggest juicy gossip!"

Dozens of feedback messages scrolled by quickly. Zhao Shuyao nodded, pulled back his leaning body, and adjusted to a relaxed sitting posture.

With three minutes to go until the agreed-upon 12 o'clock, the number of online users climbed to over 400, and the questions on the right side of the screen began to become dense and sharp, with the vast majority of people still looking at the screen with scrutiny.

Zhao Shuyao's eyes quickly scanned the scrolling text and locked onto a user's comment marked with a gold badge.

"Some netizens asked, since you've shown such integrity today, what's your opinion on that paper you wrote during your first year of graduate school praising the Qing Dynasty's territorial expansion? Is it because you lost your chance to stay at the university that you became angry and switched sides?"

After reading the question, Zhao Shuyao smiled.

"This friend has hit the nail on the head." Zhao Shuyao picked up the ceramic cup beside him, took a sip of water to moisten his throat, and said, "I don't deny my past statements. I typed the words and published the articles. However, everyone must acknowledge the objective laws governing the development of human cognition."

Put down the cup and place your hands crossed on the table.

"People always have to grow, don't they? During my first year of graduate school, most of the historical materials I could access came from publicly available 'general textbooks' that had been carefully revised by some senior scholars. It was reasonable to draw such conclusions by following the underlying logic of those textbooks."

Zhao Shuyao spread his hands, speaking in a calm and casual tone: "Later, I went into the archives and looked through the unedited local county gazetteers, the imperial genealogy of the Imperial Clan Court, and even the population and tax records from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. The data was there, and numbers don't lie. The preconceived notions in my mind naturally collapsed."

The barrage of comments refreshed faster, and many netizens were processing the amount of information in this passage.

The gold-level user then asked, "Isn't there a personal emotional factor involved in having one's spot canceled?"

"It's not time yet. After midnight, I will give a clear response to all the controversies online against me. Everyone here is an adult with independent thinking ability. After reading the materials I have provided, you will naturally make your own judgment."

Zhao Shuyao waved his hand to cut off the topic, then looked at the time in the lower right corner again.

11: 59.

The notification bar lit up, and the official account of Southern Media Group initiated a connection request.

Zhao Shuyao clicked "accept," and a small window appeared in the lower left corner of the screen, showing reporter Wang's face against the backdrop of the newspaper's live news studio.

The system time jumps to exactly 12:00.

The number of viewers in the live stream instantly exceeded three thousand, and it is still increasing at a rate of hundreds per second.

"The time has come, let's begin." Zhao Shuyao's casual expression vanished, his gaze cleared, and his tone became extremely solemn. "First of all, let me make one thing clear: I, Zhao Shuyao, will take full legal responsibility for every word I say and every document I present in this live broadcast room today. Everyone is welcome to record."

There was a brief pause in the comment section; this decisive opening immediately elevated the atmosphere to the level of court testimony.

Zhao Shuyao looked at the camera and began the first phase of tracing the origins of the incident.

"Many new friends may not fully understand the cause of this incident. Let me briefly recount the situation of last week's lecture, which was also the trigger for all the events."

"As everyone knows, my main research area is the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Last week, Mr. Yan Chongnian, a leading figure in the field of Qing history, came to our Southeast University to give a lecture. During the lecture, he put forward a point of view."

Zhao Shuyao held up one finger.

He said that among the more than two thousand years of feudal dynasties, the greatest monarch of the first thousand years was Emperor Taizong of Tang, and the greatest monarch of the second thousand years was Emperor Kangxi. He even believed that the average comprehensive quality of the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty far surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhao Shuyao lowered his finger and shook his head.

"As a history student, I find it completely unacceptable from an academic perspective to hear such remarks that are driven by extreme selfishness and violate basic economic common sense."

"The deficit of tens of millions of taels of silver caused by the six trips to the south during the Kangxi era, as well as the class division caused by land enclosure and tax exemption in order to maintain the livelihood of the Eight Banners, are all accounts in black and white."

"So, I used these historical materials to raise questions to the old gentleman on the spot." Zhao Shuyao sighed, his tone revealing a touch of humor and innocence unique to intellectuals. "I must reiterate that everything that happened between us was merely a clash of academic logic, and there was no insult on the level of private morality."

"Unfortunately, the old gentleman was old and his emotions fluctuated when his logical loop was broken, which triggered an overreaction in his physiological functions, which is what people call 'getting so angry that he ended up in the hospital'."

The reporter in the lower left corner, Wang, pushed up his glasses as he listened to these words. This was a complete academic attempt to package the act of "making the old man faint" into a silent, overwhelming victory.

Zhao Shuyao continues to advance the plot.

"After the incident, the day before yesterday afternoon, Mr. Yan Chongnian's son, Mr. Yan Jianhui, had an indirect communication with me through the department."

The viewers in the live chat were immediately drawn to this behind-the-scenes detail.

"They put forward three conditions." Zhao Shuyao held up three fingers and bent them one by one. "First, delete all videos on the internet that refute his father's views; second, issue a public apology statement, and in the statement, he must retract all my negative statements about the history of the Qing Dynasty; third, cover the old man's hospitalization medical expenses."

Someone immediately typed in the chat: "These conditions sound pretty standard, considering the person was hospitalized because of you."

Zhao Shuyao looked at the comment and responded calmly.

"I gave a clear refusal on the spot."

"First, once an academic viewpoint is based on authentic historical materials, there is no possibility of retraction; to do so would be a betrayal of knowledge. Second, regarding compensation for medical expenses..."

Legally speaking, the elevated blood pressure caused by academic debate is not considered physical injury. If you want me to pay compensation, you need a clear causal relationship assessment from an authoritative institution and to complete the legal judgment process. I will not accept any private coercion or compromise.

Zhao Shuyao narrowed his eyes slightly.

"On the very night that the negotiations completely broke down, less than ten hours later, in the early hours of the morning, my ex-girlfriend's tearful accusations, a compilation of old papers, and even the unified analysis from major self-media influencers suddenly went viral online."

At this point, Zhao Shuyao spread his hands and a mocking smile appeared on his lips.

"Friends, anyone familiar with the laws of internet communication knows that for an article to get tens of thousands of reposts at 3 a.m., it requires an extremely large amount of funding for promotion. How could I, a poor student who hasn't even graduated yet, possibly have my name trending on so many platforms in the middle of the night?"

There was a three-second silence in the comment section of the live stream. Then, comments from ordinary netizens quickly flooded in.

"Holy crap, this timeline is amazing!"

"That's terrifying to think about. Does Teacher Zhao mean that because you won't back down, they'll hire online trolls to destroy you?"

"Isn't this just the slut-shaming tactic that capitalists always use? If they can't discredit your theories, they'll smear your character!"

Reporter Wang nodded in the corner of the screen; the logical chain was now fully connected.

However, at this crucial juncture when netizens' emotions began to shift...

The number of viewers in the live stream suddenly jumped from over three thousand to ten thousand.

As the number of participants surged, the public chat on the right side of the screen instantly changed color. The previously varied discussion comments disappeared, replaced by highly uniform and neat four-character short sentences.

"His words and actions don't match!"

"A hypocrite!"

"What a trashy scumbag!"

"Quit the service and get your money back!"

This kind of screen-filling is extremely fast, skipping hundreds of words with the same format every second, completely burying the comments of all normal netizens.

The reporter sitting opposite Wang's expression changed slightly. Having worked in journalism for so many years, he could tell at a glance that this was an extremely professional online water army matrix carrying out real-time attack and control of public opinion.

They wanted to use group psychology to create a false sense of prosperity in the live stream, a feeling of "universal contempt," directly undermining the atmosphere of Zhao Shuyao's speech.

Ordinary netizens have never seen such a scene before.

"What's going on with these comments? Why are they all just these few sentences?"

"Is it stuck?"

"Why are so many people criticizing?"

Zhao Shuyao didn't operate the computer to turn off the bullet comments, and didn't even frown.

He raised his right hand and used his index finger to draw a circle on the rapidly scrolling area of ​​negative comments at the top of the screen.

"Everyone, look at the public chat now," Zhao Shuyao said in a calm tone. "Take a look at these comments that are flooding the screen at high speed."

In the footage, Zhao Shuyao's expression conveys a focused concentration as if he were researching academic subjects, and a coldness akin to dissecting a specimen.

"This is what we call an organized network matrix," Zhao Shuyao pointed out the essence incisively. "No living netizen would enter a live broadcast room and, without even listening to the premise, immediately repeat the exact same four-character punctuation mark."

Zhao Shuyao lowered his hand.

"Everyone was just asking if someone was smearing me behind my back. Actually, the answer has already been delivered to our door. What could possibly cause tens of thousands of virtual accounts to simultaneously enter my live stream and perform copy-paste tasks? I don't need to explain the motive behind this anymore."

This unvarnished accusation directly transformed the online attacks into the best irrefutable evidence to prove the Yan family's shady dealings.

Ordinary netizens have finally come to their senses.

"How disgusting! Does having money mean you can do whatever you want?!"

"I support Teacher Zhao! Present all the evidence and let them see who the real clown is!"

Zhao Shuyao looked at the supportive comments that were being covered up by online trolls but were still stubbornly speaking out in the gaps. He moved the mouse and clicked on the encrypted folder on the desktop called "Backup and Counterattack".

"Since they're so eager to accuse me of moral depravity," Zhao Shuyao said sharply, "let's start by talking about that 3,000-word emotional essay from yesterday, and let everyone see who's really maintaining their dignity by sucking my blood."