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

Zhao Shuyao held the mouse and pressed the left button.

The folder named "Backup and Counterattack" on the desktop then unfolded, revealing rows of neatly arranged high-definition screenshot thumbnails in the shared screen of the live stream.

Reporter Wang, who was in the live chat window, pushed up his glasses, leaned forward, and stared intently at the screen. The tens of thousands of online viewers in the live chat room, including the trolls who were frantically copying and pasting, were all distracted by this sudden action, and the speed of the comments on the public screen visibly stopped.

"Let's go back two and a half years, to September 2013." Zhao Shuyao said calmly, hovering the mouse cursor over an image named "001 Start," which he double-clicked to enlarge.

A full screenshot of the WeChat chat interface appeared in the center of the screen, with the green chat bubble from the old version of WeChat being particularly eye-catching.

Zhao Shuyao leaned back in his chair, his gaze shifting from the screen to the light sensor on the camera: "Let's take a look at this text that Xiaoyu, who accused me of leeching off her in a cheap rental apartment, sent me just two months into our relationship."

She picked up the water glass on the table, took a sip, and then began to read the contents of the screenshot in a clear and resonant voice: "Shuyao, my roommates all give their living expenses to their partners to plan together. This forces them not to spend money recklessly, and they can save up to buy big items in the future. From now on, transfer your living expenses and part-time salary to me, and I will help you manage your finances."

Below the long bubble from the woman was Zhao Shuyao's reply from back then: "Okay, whatever you say. This month's living expenses are 1500, plus the 800 I earn from teaching high school history on weekends, for a total of 2300. I'm transferring it to you."

This was immediately followed by a system notification indicating a full transfer.

On the right side of the live stream screen, the scrolling of comments completely stopped for two seconds.

The standardized rhetoric of online trolls suddenly disappeared, replaced by genuine netizens frantically typing away on their keyboards to vent their frustrations.

"Holy crap, we have to hand over the entire amount right from the start?"

"He earns 2300 a month, and gives it all to others. Is that what you call a leech from a poor background?"

"I get it! Those few dozen yuan transfers he posted in his essay, could they be screenshots of Mr. Zhao asking the woman for money when he eats out?"

Faced with the intense reaction from the comments, Zhao Shuyao did not rush to move forward. He put the water glass back on the table, crossed his hands under his chin, and showed a self-deprecating smile.

"Friends," Zhao Shuyao shook his head, "I was also misled by her at the time. Young people can't understand the complexity of human nature. They always think that once two people establish a relationship, sharing resources means being honest with each other."

"On payday, I didn't keep a single penny and transferred the whole amount. Looking back at those words now, I realize how simple and honest I was back then."

A premium-looking comment with a gold border swept across the center of the screen. A user with the username "A Manly Man Doesn't Cry" posted: "Teacher Zhao, you're really amazing, much more amazing than I thought. You're such a good man. Brothers, don't be so rigid about gender. Do you think I can do it? I want to manage money too."

This comment instantly ignited the atmosphere in the live stream, with thousands of "hahahaha" comments filling the entire screen. The originally dull and hostile online courtroom immediately transformed into a stand-up comedy show full of absurdity.

Upon seeing this comment, Zhao Shuyao stopped explaining, leaned back, and a smile spread across his eyes.

"This guy called 'Hunky Man'," Zhao Shuyao nodded slightly at the camera, his tone revealing a serious humor, "Sorry, I'm neither one nor zero. If you really have a strong need in this area, you can buy a plane ticket to Chengdu. The living environment there is relatively tolerant, and it should be easy to satisfy you."

This sophisticated counterattack and banter immediately pushed the live stream's popularity past 10,000. Reporter Wang in the chat window couldn't control his expression and burst out laughing, quickly grabbing his thermos to tactfully drink water to cover it up.

Humor is the most contagious emotional weapon. At this moment, the audience has completely detached themselves from judging Zhao Shuyao's private morality and has completely sided with this young scholar who speaks wittily, has rigorous logic, and is composed.

Zhao Shuyao suppressed his smile, pressed the space bar on the keyboard with his left hand, and the screen switched to the next screenshot.

The image is dated 1:30 PM, several months later.

On the screen, Zhao Shuyao's green bubble looked somewhat humble: "Baby, I was looking up historical materials at the library at noon and forgot the time, so I didn't go to the cafeteria. Transfer me twenty yuan to buy a chicken cutlet rice."

There was no reply.

The time stamp on the chat interface jumped to 4:10 PM, a three-hour gap.

The woman's white bubble finally burst out: "All you ever think about is food! I just saw that Lingling from the next dorm had a boyfriend who bought her a new lipstick set. Couldn't you have saved up a little money and bought me one? What can you do with twenty yuan? Little by little, you know?"

Immediately following was a notification of a bank transfer received, amount: 10 yuan, transfer message: Eat less for your stomach, only vegetarian noodles are allowed.

Zhao Shuyao looked at the screen, his fingers tapping out a steady rhythm on the table.

"Everyone, look carefully," Zhao Shuyao said calmly. "This isn't called custodial care; it's called one-sided exploitation. 1,500 yuan of my living expenses went into someone else's account, and I'm starving and trying to get back 20 yuan for food."

"I had to wait three hours and endure a hundred-word moral blackmail, and the ten yuan I finally got back was the ironclad evidence in yesterday's article accusing me of 'leeching'."

The live stream room was now in complete chaos, with countless male viewers gasping in astonishment.

Room 304, male dormitory, at a university in Southwest China.

Li Qiang, a third-year college student, sat on the edge of the lower bunk, clutching his phone with its cracked screen tightly in his hand. His gaze was fixed on the chat screenshot in the live stream, and his breathing gradually became rapid.

Li Qiang's eyes reddened, and his mind automatically flashed back to his life at the end of last month. The two thousand yuan living allowance he received had just been deposited into his account when his girlfriend took one thousand eight hundred yuan of it under the guise of a "future planning fund".

With only two hundred yuan left, he couldn't make it past the first day of the month, so for three consecutive days he ate only steamed buns with free tomato and egg soup.

The wooden planks on the upper bunk made a sound, and roommate Zhang Wei leaned halfway out, took out an opened box of Hongtashan cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and threw it down.

The cigarette landed precisely on Li Qiang's thigh.

"Take it and smoke it." Zhang Wei looked at Li Qiang's pale face. "How come this situation is exactly the same as what happened to you a couple of days ago?"

Li Qiang picked up a cigarette, took out a lighter, lit it, took a deep drag, and the smoke dissipated in the air.

"She just sent me a WeChat message this morning." Li Qiang's voice was tense. "She told me that a certain big brand had released a new shade and asked me if I loved her. I said I only had thirty yuan left on my meal card, and she said I wasn't hardworking enough, that I had no ambition, and that I was even making excuses for buying a lipstick."

Wang Pangzi, the roommate who was playing a ranked match in front of the computer on the opposite bunk, took off his headphones, turned around, and locked his eyes on Li Qiang.

"Old Li, explain yourself clearly." Fatty Wang pointed at the cigarette in Li Qiang's hand, "The cigarette you're smoking was bought by Zhang Wei, and the braised chicken you ate last night was paid for by me using Alipay."

Liu Bo, the dorm leader who slept in the bunk below Fatty Wang, sat up straight and joined the conversation: "Fatty's right, brothers, let's get this straight. What kind of situation is this?"

Liu Bo held up four fingers and broke them off one by one: "In our dorm, there are four of us. You gave up all your living expenses to provide emotional support to that girl, and as a result, you had no food to eat. The three of us chipped in to pay for your food."

Zhang Wei chimed in, "This is equivalent to the three of us men scrimping and saving with our own living expenses to support your girlfriend who isn't related to us by blood, and then having to listen to her comparing us to other guys in terms of material possessions. Are we doing targeted poverty alleviation or becoming the biggest victims? From any perspective, the three of us are losing out big time."

This in-depth analysis of economics caused Li Qiang's fingers, which were holding a cigarette, to tremble violently.

The cigarette was mostly burned.

Li Qiang raised his head, his eyes revealing a deep struggle: "I understand the logic. But..."

Li Qiang gritted his teeth. "From freshman year until now, I've spent tens of thousands of yuan on her, including red envelopes during holidays and regular transfers. If I break up with her now, won't all that money go down the drain?"

Li Qiang stubbed out his cigarette in the can: "Maybe after she graduates and starts working next year, when no one is spending their family's money anymore, she'll realize how hard it is to earn money, and once she's more mature, she'll change her ways?"

The same struggle wasn't limited to Li Qiang's dormitory.

On the live stream's public chat screen, similar confusion was spreading rapidly, with the original anger and condemnation turning into requests for help and bewilderment.

"Teacher Zhao, I've invested three years in her, it would be such a loss to quit now."

"Do girls become more sensible once they start working?"

"I even paid for her postgraduate entrance exam registration fee. Now that it's all cut off, what about all the effort I put in?"

"Teacher Zhao, what should I do if I'm not satisfied?"

Countless bullet comments converged into a massive information flow, reflecting the most fundamental psychological weaknesses of modern young people when faced with unreasonable demands.

In dormitory room 302 at Southeast University.

Zhao Shuyao sat in front of the computer, his eyes scanning the densely popping text. His brain's information processing unit quickly summarized and extracted the core of these statements.

"I reckon some friends will ask this question after listening to these recordings." Zhao Shuyao leaned forward slightly, his gaze fixed on the camera, his deep eyes seeming to pierce through the screen and see directly into the hearts of those lost souls hundreds of kilometers away.

The numbers in the live stream were still ticking, with 12,000 people online, but the chat had miraculously quieted down considerably, as everyone waited for the third-year history graduate student's answer.