Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

Chapter 112 Self-actualization is awesome

After waiting for a while, He Shuyao still hadn't sent a message to Li Zhao.

But Li Zhao noticed that her signature had changed from blank and inexplicable to "The weather is so nice today!"

She's still fixing it.

A thought struck Li Zhao, and he clicked into her QQ space again, only to find that the questions had changed. "Hmm?"

What the hell is this answer?!

He could almost imagine He Shuyao's inner thoughts: Logging into QQ, she mistakenly thought someone had added her as a friend, and oh my god, it was Li Zhao!

Oh no, this nickname won't work, I have to change it. I also need to change my profile picture and signature—wait, how did he visit my QQ space? I need to change the question immediately.

What has he seen? Will he think I'm childish? What should I do—how should I bring it up?

Li Zhao was imagining He Shuyao's thoughts when she suddenly sent a message:

Is it Li Zhao?

[yes]

Have you bought a computer yet?

[right]

[With the money you earned before?]

It should be referring to the matter of borrowing He Shuyao's pocket money and then giving her double the return.

[My dad bought it for me]

[Oh, good grades mean your parents treat you better now!]

[This is one way to understand it]

Feed me — we don't seem to know each other very well.

He Shuyao activated her feigned ignorance skill, pretending that nothing had happened.

[Your QQ space is empty]

[This is my first time logging in]

This is unfair.

Li Zhao was stunned. She wasn't pretending to be stupid!

[Hmm?] Then Li Zhao will pretend to be stupid.

[You've viewed my profile, but there's nothing there.]

[There will be more later]

[You've overlooked something; this answer is indeed easy to guess.]

Li Zhao smiled and replied: [I should have waited for you to come online to ask you about my question.]

[It's nothing, QQ Space is for people to see. If you answer correctly, you can see it.]

You're quite open-minded, young lady. So what's with all this drastic modification?

"Actually, the name 'Emperor' is quite interesting. Your signature is also quite interesting. If you want to change it yourself, then change it. If you're worried that I might misunderstand, I don't think it's necessary to change it."

There was a long silence on the other end.

Li Zhao became a little nervous after a while, thinking he had made the mistake of "the self-righteous sincerity of an adult".

Please change my contact name to "Emperor Shuyao".

They came up with a very compromise solution.

Where did you get this "Emperor" title from?

[novel]

Do you like it?

[Very domineering]

Li Zhao glanced at the nickname he had set—"Zhao".

That seems quite boring.

[I'm just logging in quietly, I need to go study. You can find me even if I'm not online, bye-bye!]

The profile picture immediately went gray after I finished speaking.

Li Zhao closed the chat window, feeling inexplicably melancholy.

It's really hard to know how to chat online. If we could see each other's expressions and reactions face-to-face, Li Zhao could use his life experience to deal with it.

However, when separated by an internet cable and only text can be read, the influence of this experience drops drastically. In addition, Li Zhao is already used to formal and business-like conversations, so he doesn't know how to start a casual chat.

It looks rather boring.

There was no other way; most of his conversations in his previous life started like this: "Leo Design Li Zhao (phone number)".

This meant that subsequent chat content could only be something like this: "Mr. X, I talked to Mr. Jiang yesterday, and we'll still call a coordination meeting tomorrow—"

"Xiao Zhao, get the first draft of the plan done first. Completeness is more important than quality. Submit it first, then we'll talk about it later."

Just then, He Shuyao suddenly logged back on, sent Li Zhao a link and a thumbs-up, and then logged off at lightning speed.

Upon clicking, it was revealed to be a commentary on "Four Knives" by the South China Weekly.

Huh? The South China Weekly would actually write a review targeting an author?

The title immediately stunned Li Zhao—"A thousand pounds of weight under the pen, the common people on paper."

A tingling sensation suddenly surged from his tailbone, climbed up his back, and finally reached the back of his head.

Oh dear, I can't bear it, I can't bear it.

"A strange and quiet pen name has made a resounding impact several times in the magazine's commentary section."

"This author, who goes by the pseudonym 'Four Knives,' continues to redefine our understanding of the quality of reader submissions with his rare depth of thought and solid professional skills."

That's true. Given the size of South China Weekly, under normal circumstances, the professional commentaries published are all pre-selected articles, and the authors are basically well-known experts in the industry.

Submissions from readers, delivered through normal channels, are either literary or about people's lives.

Literature enthusiasts needless to say, but when it comes to matters of people's livelihood, their expertise and perspective are certainly far inferior to those of professional commentators.

The article first praised the professionalism of Li Zhao's previous articles, affirming their influence from multiple dimensions, including internal assessments, professional evaluations, and public opinion.

Then, the discussion turned to the specific point of earthquake resistance, emphasizing the foresight of Li Zhao's article on earthquake resistance. There were a few sentences that Li Zhao particularly liked: "We have no intention of attributing any professional article to so-called prophecy."

"This is a thinker with profound professional knowledge and keen awareness of reality who expressed the right viewpoint at the right time."

great.

For a weekly magazine of this size to be willing to make such a characterization and guarantee for an author whose background they themselves don't even know, is more than enough in terms of guiding public opinion.

Li Zhao's favorability towards South China Weekly is rising.

"We extend an invitation to all readers and professionals who care about the fate of the city and the public good: the commentary section of South China Weekly will always reserve space for well-reasoned and timely independent insights."

Great, we've reached a higher altitude.

"Who is Sikoudao? Is he a retired planner, a university scholar, or an unnamed chief engineer from a design institute? These speculations may eventually come to light, or they may remain a mystery forever."

All three guessed positions were placed quite high.

These days, retired urban planners are all at a very high level.

In the early days, there were only a handful of people in the country who could do urban planning, and everyone there was a master of carrying heavy loads.

Actually, he's a sixth-grade elementary school student.

"Sikoudao has made us realize the power of words once again. May more people like him step out of silence and into this vast land on paper."

comfortable.

After reading the entire article, Li Zhao felt another wave of tingling sensation.

Seriously, it felt amazing.

The thought that it was sent by He Shuyao made me even happier.

What is the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Happiness +3, total 35.

Moreover, the South China Weekly is indeed very sophisticated. The entire article talks about Si Kou Dao, but it doesn't actually engage in dialogue with Si Kou Dao or express this intention. This clearly shows respect for Si Kou Dao's personal desire to keep a low profile.

The article was posted on the official website on Friday, and it should be published in the newspaper next week or the week after.

The existence of this article indicates that the influence of Four Knives has likely reached a certain level.

Li Zhao began gathering information.

Let alone the four knives, the comment account "Linjiang Guancheng" alone has been forwarded a whopping 1062 times.

In an era when social media was not yet fully developed, this was a remarkable achievement.

After collecting data for a while, Li Zhao let out a long sigh, closed the laptop screen, and lay down on the bed to stretch his body.

My eyes are so tired, and my head feels so hot.

The influence of the Four Knives was far more exaggerated than imagined.

First, the attention garnered by earthquake relief efforts was off the charts. After all, it's a matter of national concern, and even the most trivial news stories generated an astonishing level of discussion, let alone articles with tangible results.

Secondly, the discussion about the identity of the Four Knives had a gossipy nature, becoming a topic that, while not very large in scale, was discussed in great depth, thus maintaining the vitality of the "Four Knives" topic.

For example, the question "What exactly is the background of 'Four Knives'?" sparked a lot of discussion within the planning industry. Some said that no one in the Linjiang planning system recognized him, and he didn't even acknowledge being invited to a symposium by Dean Cao, suggesting he might be a big shot from another province. Others believed that "Four Knives" was a team, a collective pen name for a planning institute or university research institute, and that it was impossible for one person to have in-depth insights into so many sub-fields such as livability, disaster prevention, integrated planning and land use, and stock renewal. Still others, including a "veteran planner," boasted, "There are probably no more than ten people in the whole country who can write something like this. There's a reason he doesn't show his face. We should just read the articles carefully."

Their self-righteous discussion made Li Zhao slightly unhappy, but their boasting made up for it.

This even brought Li Zhao a bit of pleasure.

Li Zhao had anticipated both of these points.

Similarly, the official response to these two impacts was in line with Li Zhao's expectations—a cold, detached approach.

We should explicitly deny the mystical view that the Four-Knife Swordsman "came from another time," shift the focus to "professionalism," and then move beyond the individual influence of the Four-Knife Swordsman to all knowledgeable people.

Just like the article in the South China Weekly.

But it is precisely because of this that "professionalism" has gained unprecedented power, winning the respect of the people, the support of the government, and making experts in all walks of life extremely happy.

Especially in urban planning, a large number of practitioners on the forum regarded Li Zhao as a hero and worshipped him.

"It turns out that truly excellent and professional content can indeed provide guidance!"

This is their most common sentiment.

Li Zhao was quite helpless. This viewpoint has always existed, but there has always been a lack of sufficient examples for people to understand it.

It's difficult to say whether it's the expertise that provides guidance, or the instructor's guidance.

The four knives gave intellectuals a strong sense of confidence and even sparked a wave of academic analysis.

The Haijiao community, which is usually dominated by gossip and entertainment, has seven or eight out of ten posts on its homepage that are professional analyses of various social phenomena. Although many of them are immature and full of errors, Li Zhaozhen almost thought she had entered some niche forum.

However, drawing these conclusions would not have made Li Zhao so tired.

The main content consists of various posts, which are quite informative. In addition, the Linjiang Guancheng account contains many inquiries, all of which are substantial.

Li Zhao wanted to completely ignore it, yet he couldn't suppress his desire to communicate.

Many people are now speculating, based on the posting times of Linjiang Guancheng, that this account has a way to contact Sikoudao, and some of the highly-rated comments have moved Li Zhao.

People from Sichuan hope the blogger can help express their gratitude to Sikoudao; urban and rural planning students who have just started their internships are seeking advice; and residents of New Taipei City are expressing concerns about old city redevelopment.

Very sincere.

Li Zhao hesitated before replying. With his knowledge, he could certainly reply directly, but he needed to consider the current historical context.

When Li Changlin and Zhou Xiaoyun returned home, they found their son sleeping in bed and two incomprehensible academic papers on the computer screen.

"Well," Zhou Xiaoyun said, both amused and exasperated, "neither of us guessed right."

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