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

The roaring sound from the receiver gradually faded away, indicating that the mother had moved to a sheltered corner of the construction site.

"But..." The mother's voice was low, tinged with a cautious probing, "That's a university professor, Shuyao. Tell me honestly, is there some kind of pre-arranged quota at your school? Did you pull strings with the school's leadership?"

Zhao Shuyao held his phone, his fingers silently tapping twice on the table. He thought to himself that, according to the simple logic of his mother's generation, if someone didn't want a secure job that fell from the sky, it must be because they had been replaced by someone with connections.

If I told her at that moment that I had a heated argument with an 80-year-old academic giant online, that I had angered him to the point of hospitalization, and that I had refused the principal's compensation, she would definitely buy a standing ticket overnight and come to Fengtian with a steel pipe.

"Really, no." Zhao Shuyao slowed his speech, his tone carrying a just-right mix of helplessness and relief. "Mom, you're overestimating your son's competitors. My academic transcript is hanging right in the courtyard; who dares to challenge me?"

"Then why?" the mother asked anxiously, her words quickening. "Are you upset that the family isn't helping? If you really need to make connections, just say so. Your father and I have saved up a little money over the years. We can treat people to meals and give gifts when necessary. Working is a lifelong endeavor."

"Although university teachers don't earn much at the beginning, you once told us that university teaching is easy, you don't have to work in the sun and wind, and you have winter and summer vacations."

Zhao Shuyao didn't speak immediately, but listened quietly. A gentle breeze could be heard from the other end of the receiver, making a rustling sound as the helmet strap rubbed against the ear.

Seeing that there was no response, the mother assumed that Zhao Shuyao was worried about the pressure of life in the future, and continued to speak according to her own logic, her voice revealing an undisguised confidence.

"As for the high cost of buying a house in Fengtian, you don't need to worry about that now," the mother said earnestly. "Your father and I only have you as our child. We spent a bit of money on your education over the years, but we still have some savings."

"If you find a girlfriend in school and want to settle down in Fengtian, we can give you 300,000 yuan for a down payment, no problem at all."

Zhao Shuyao's Adam's apple bobbed. Tying steel bars on construction sites in the south, he earned two or three hundred yuan a day. This 300,000 yuan was hard-earned money, painstakingly accumulated over the years, from each steel bar to each drop of sweat.

"As for the mortgage, you don't need to worry about it at all." The mother's voice became more firm. "Your father and I are not that old, not even sixty, and we are in very good health."

"We work on construction sites. It's hard labor, but we get paid immediately. Together, we make over ten thousand yuan a month. We can definitely earn enough to help you pay your mortgage. If our family of several people works hard, can't we afford to pay off a house?"

Hearing his mother speak so casually about the family's financial planning for the next ten years or so, Zhao Shuyao felt a pang of sadness, but his expression remained absolutely calm.

He knew very well that the highest support that lower-class parents could give their children was to sacrifice their own lives in exchange for their children's stable upward mobility.

He couldn't dwell on the sadness of this topic; that's for artsy types. He's a pragmatist.

After his mother finished speaking and her breathing calmed down, Zhao Shuyao spoke again.

"Mom, you can keep the 300,000 yuan for your retirement. You really don't need to worry about the down payment for the house." Zhao Shuyao smiled, his voice regaining its confident composure.

"What I just said is true. I really don't want to do a job like teaching, which is too rigid. It involves clocking in every day, having to read people's faces, and arguing with a bunch of old men until we're red in the face over a few tens of thousands of yuan in research funding."

"I'm only twenty-five this year." Zhao Shuyao put forward a very practical idea on the phone, "I don't want to start today and see what I'll be like when I retire at sixty. Times have changed, Mom."

"Oh dear, isn't that how everyone lives their life? A stable life is better than anything else." The mother's tone still betrayed her reluctance to give up the job, but hearing her son's resolute words, she ultimately didn't force him. "If you don't want to be a teacher, what do you plan to do after graduation? Work for a company?"

Zhao Shuyao leaned back in his chair and began to construct his current situation in language that his parents could understand.

"Mom, I've found a better way out, and I'm already doing it, and it's working very well."

"What kind of work?" The mother's voice immediately became alert. Her first question wasn't about the pay, but rather, "Is it tiring? Is it indoors or outdoors, doing sales?"

The question, "Aren't you tired?" struck Zhao Shuyao squarely in the heart. Outsiders saw him as a strategist who overthrew the academic clique, but only the people from his hometown were concerned about whether he was suffering.

"Not tiring." Zhao Shuyao's lips curled up slightly as he patiently explained, "It's just sitting in the office, enjoying the air conditioning, doing some things within my profession, like writing articles about history, organizing some materials, and collaborating with platforms to produce some programs. If they think the articles are good, they'll pay me for them."

To increase his persuasiveness, Zhao Shuyao directly presented the most compelling data.

"Anyway, it's no worse than being a teacher, and the income is much higher. In just the last few days, I've already earned over ten thousand yuan. How about I go to the bank and transfer some to your account so you can have better meals at the construction site?"

"More than ten thousand?" The mother was clearly startled by the number, and then immediately refused, "Keep it for yourself. You need money to start anything. Your father and I don't want your money."

The mother paused for two seconds, then shifted her attention back to the work itself: "But, is writing articles... stable? Can you write like that for a lifetime? What if people don't want your articles anymore?"

"Mom, don't worry, this job is great, I really like it, and the pay is good too. Just let me try it out." Zhao Shuyao began to half-jokingly paint a rosy picture.

"Maybe if I do well, I can become famous and make a lot of money to buy a house in Nanjing outright. Then you and Dad can retire and come over to help me take care of the kids and enjoy our retirement."

"Your father and I don't expect to enjoy a life of luxury with you," your mother said with a laugh on the other end of the phone, her tone finally relaxing completely. "You're a grown man now, and you've read so many books, you definitely know more than we do. As long as it's a legitimate path, as long as you can make a good living, we can manage back home."

"Okay, be careful on the construction site. Remember to wear your hard hats when it's windy. I'll call you back this weekend."

"Okay, eat more meat at school and don't stay up late."

The phone hangs up.

The screen returned to the main interface. Zhao Shuyao let out a long breath and casually tossed his phone onto the table. Dealing with the academic tyrant only required his intelligence, but dealing with his parents required him to use every brain cell in order to weave goodwill.

A wave of fatigue washed over him. The intense information warfare and nerve-wracking of the past few days had left his body demanding rest after he confirmed that everything was back on track.

Without taking off her clothes, she rolled onto the bed, covered herself with the blanket, and closed her eyes.

I don't know how long I slept.

"Buzzing—"

The cell phone on the desk vibrated violently, its default ringtone echoing through the quiet dormitory.

Zhao Shuyao opened his eyes and glanced out the window. The sky was just beginning to lighten, indicating that he had slept from yesterday afternoon until evening.

I got up, grabbed my phone, and saw the name of my college roommate, Liu Lei, on the screen.

Slide to answer.

"Holy shit, Lao Zhao!" Liu Lei's deafening voice blasted from the receiver, completely bypassing speakerphone. "Are you still sleeping? Are you crazy or is the school crazy? Turn on your computer right now, get online, hurry up!"

Zhao Shuyao moved his phone a little further away and rubbed his temples.

"Are you wailing?" Zhao Shuyao asked lazily. "Can't you wait until I get up to talk about it? Which old expert did I anger and send to the hospital this time?"

"Stop getting angry! You've truly become a legend!" Liu Lei's voice cracked with excitement, his words coming out at breakneck speed. "Just half an hour ago, the official account of Dongda University released a complete surveillance video through its official Weibo account and other platforms!"

Zhao Shuyao stopped moving, the laziness in his eyes vanished instantly, and his mind cleared up immediately.

"What surveillance?"

"It's the CCTV footage of you having tea with Dean Xu and that vice-principal in the conference room of your administration building this morning!" Liu Lei repeated loudly on the other end of the phone. "The whole internet is going crazy. That part where you were sitting on the sofa, pointing to your chest and saying you didn't want to be hired, has already been shared over 100,000 times online!"

Zhao Shuyao walked to his desk and turned on the computer. He had actually guessed that the school would take some reassurance measures, but he did not expect that the vice principal with gold-rimmed glasses would be so bold as to use this conversation as a public relations weapon.

"Old Zhao, I give up." Liu Lei stammered on the phone. "That vice principal personally handed you the spot to stay on campus, and you actually pushed it back! Your line, 'I can't wear this while using public resources for personal gain,' has now become the signature of young people all over the internet!"

The computer screen lights up.

Zhao Shuyao opened his browser, and before he could even type in any URL, the browser's homepage news feed had already popped up.

The headline in bright red reads: "Dongguan University Students Refusal to Use Backdoors: Even If It Means Going Back to Farm, They Won't Set a Bad Example of Using Cyberbullying to Force the System to Take Advantage!"

Subtitle: "The Responsibility of a Century-Old Prestigious University: Southeast University Publicly Monitors Conversations to Support Zhao Shuyao, a Truth-Seeking Student."

Zhao Shuyao hung up the phone and clicked on the video link that had the official blue V verification from Southeast University.

The video quality is very clear, showing the perspective from inside the small conference room, and the progress bar has reached its climax.

In the video, Zhao Shuyao sits on the sofa and pushes the red-headed folder back to Director Liu. His voice, processed by the noise reduction of the surveillance camera, sounds spacious yet extremely firm.

"...The public will only see the result, which is that a student, by inciting emotions online, not only escaped punishment but also forced the century-old university to bow its head and provide him with a job."

"If this trend takes hold... people will stop using proper channels and just start live streaming and writing long essays whenever something happens, and then social order will be completely destroyed."

On the screen, a dense barrage of comments covered the entire image like a blizzard, completely obscuring the video content.

"Everyone stand up!"

"A tribute to true scholars!"

"This level of vision and these values ​​completely utterly surpasses that of Yan Jianhui, who called me a peasant!"

"I thought he was debating historical materials with people on the first level, but it turns out he was teaching capitalists how to behave in the atmosphere!"

"The school really has guts; they released him without any cuts. That's the true spirit of a century-old prestigious university!"

"Those haters who say Teacher Zhao is only in it for the money and the job offer, come out and show yourselves, and he'll just push the job away!"

As Zhao Shuyao watched the scrolling text on the screen, a faint smile appeared on his lips. The vice principal had played his hand extremely skillfully.

The university not only shed the negative label of administrative misconduct, but also used its performance to elevate the reputation of the University of Tokyo to a new level.

This is called a win-win situation.

Moreover, in the comment section of official videos, major national media outlets have already started organizing team-building activities.

[**News**] The official account commented: "Upholding the bottom line and rejecting the pursuit of traffic above all else, young people should have such clarity and integrity. We look forward to a face-to-face exchange with Zhao."

This comment, imbued with national significance, instantly garnered likes from netizens and rose to the top spot.

Zhao Shuyao knew that with the release of this video and the public endorsement from [**News], his golden image in the public sphere had been completely solidified.

The academic circle of Manchurian heritage scholars, woven by Yan Chongnian and others, is now facing extremely rigorous scrutiny, not only regarding any trouble they might cause him, but also regarding the funding and approval of their own projects.

Because in the face of this video, any action taken against Zhao Shuyao would be seen as a provocation against the fairness of the system and the bottom line of a century-old prestigious university.