Chapter 31: Criticism and Rift

In fact, the articles criticizing Fang Xinghe were far more than one or two.

Because he had violated the ultimate taboo of this era—threatening journalists.

Children who never experienced the 1990s find it hard to imagine how arrogant the Fourth Estate was in the era of print media; they simultaneously held the rights of reporting, distribution, and dissemination, ultimately forming the power of characterization.

Characterizing everything that happened and everyone involved, thereby forming an authoritative interpretation, taking "me" as the standard.

Ordinary people had no channels to learn the truth, nor the energy to verify details; they could only passively receive indoctrination, then pay profound reverence to the writers holding the pens.

This forged their noble and lofty status, and also bred a temperament that claimed "a sense of mission" but was in fact extremely stubborn.

Now, a mere Fang Xinghe actually dares to challenge our authority?

He has rebelled against heaven!

Xu Renjie ranked nowhere among all the attackers; he merely became another piece of evidence for "Fang Xinghe is unpopular" due to his special identity.

Besides Nandu, over 20 other national newspapers, including Yangzi and Yangcheng, followed suit.

They mobilized immense influence, interviewing celebrity after celebrity; the media, education, and literary circles were all thrown into an uproar over this matter.

However, a very strange situation was occurring—

A huge rift had appeared between the real world and the world depicted in the media's writings.

If you are an adult who reads newspapers every day, you will discover that at least 70% of society's voices are criticizing Fang Xinghe, viewing him as a representative of a rebellious, rude, rule-breaking, and extreme-tempered bad child.

Under such immense volume of voices, those willing to explain for him, such as Zhao Chunhua, Wang Yali, and Chen Danya, were suppressed and found it hard to respond.

If you are someone who does not read newspapers, then the years are peaceful, and the world is serene.

Little Swallow is truly cute; wages are becoming insufficient for spending; Nokia's Chinese character-display mobile phones are so fashionable...

A teenage writer? Not interested.

And if you are a middle school student who already knew Fang Xinghe before, you would suddenly discover that Brother Fang was radiating a deadly attraction.

He was that kind of awesome unimaginable in 1999.

Originally, only girls liked to talk about Fang Xinghe; boys mostly used disdain to mask their envy, but after the catalyst of "Who is still under 14," that fragile resentment suddenly became precarious.

Thus, looking at the suddenly skyrocketing Starlight Value again, Director Fang smiled with delight.

Half a month ago, the Starlight Value was over 18 million.

Then, as the criticism and counter-criticism intensified, the Starlight Value grew steadily to 30 million, then fell into decline.

But now, once the Nandu report was issued, the Starlight Value surged by ten million in two days!

If this trend continues, before the high school entrance exam, won't the little treasury hopefully touch nine figures?

But he couldn't wait; he wanted to cash in on it massively right now.

【Attribute Panel】

Appearance: Looks 99, Body 75

Constitution: Strength 69, Speed 80, Endurance 70, Agility 75, Flexibility 73

Hidden: Coordination 72, Perception 69, Recovery 74, Immunity 69, Health 75

Arts: Writing 79

After a period of unremitting exercise, his Endurance grew by 1 point and Health by 2 points; apart from that, the attributes had not moved at all.

For attributes between 70-79, raising 1 point requires 1 million Starlight Value; for 80-89, it is 10 million per point.

According to the original plan, Fang Xinghe raised the Endurance attribute to 80 points, consuming a full 19 million Starlight Value.

Sigh, it hurts.

Silently sensing it, there was no particularly big change; it just felt like energy was slightly more abundant.

Until evening, when finishing the last set of math problems according to his usual habit, the youth finally experienced the might of 80 Endurance.

At a time when he should have been very sleepy, now he was not only not sleepy, but even more alert.

Then do two more sets?

Fang Xinghe did problems until 12 o'clock before going to sleep, then woke up at 6 o'clock the next day as usual, full of energy.

Endurance, indeed, was not just physical toughness; it also increased mental durability.

Unfortunately, anything above 80 points was simply too expensive; he could not afford to add more for now.

Fang Xinghe gave up the plan to add more Endurance; according to the original plan, he raised Coordination to 80 points as well, spending 17 million Starlight Value, leaving the little treasury empty again.

But the effect of Coordination manifested immediately; when he picked up the Craft Sword and thrust the first strike, he felt it was incredibly smooth.

It wasn't that he suddenly became much stronger, but rather an inexplicable feeling—power generation was smoother, control over force was more precise, movements were agile and fluid, practicing felt comfortable and watching felt even more comfortable.

After morning exercise, he opened the panel and glanced at the skill proficiency again; sure enough, all kung fu skills had increased a bit.

Although not much, the improvement in efficiency was visible to the naked eye; continuing like this, sooner or later he could train his kung fu to max level on his own.

"With more Starlight Value, raise all main attributes to 79 points, then focus entirely on improving Coordination!"

Fang Xinghe happily made the decision and went to school with a bright spirit.

Nothing new today; the Nandu report remained the focus, only that more people had joined in to bite along.

The most jumping and arrogant among them was a "colleague" from Fang Xinghe's past life, Song Zude.

He fired fiercely in the "Southern Daily": "I look down on Fang Xinghe! A so-called genius packaged and hyped up, a piece of nonsense middle school student essay, a head of red hair thinking itself handsome; actually, he is just a thug! Besides teaching bad habits to children, what other use does he have? If I were chosen as a judge, such a thing would never happen; I would have thrown that piece of nonsense article into the trash long ago!"

At the same time, his brother Liu Xinda and several literary critics also issued "manifestos" in different newspapers, where abuse outweighed criticism.

Auntie Chen, fearing Fang Xinghe couldn't hold on, specially sought him out for a heart-to-heart, but actually... just so so.

Fang Xinghe felt no anger at all; he didn't even want to mention such trash, only curious about the Southern faction: What exactly is the Southern faction's stance now?

As an industry insider, Auntie Chen understood this deeply.

"Southern was initially founded with support from the reformist faction within the system; its level was very high, always at the forefront of social hotspots, taking criticism as its duty, good at digging out the 'truth of things,' penetrating the social essence through the surface of hotspots.

Their several newspapers and publications each have different focuses; you must be careful; this matter is clearly not over."

Fang Xinghe pondered carefully for a while, still half-understanding and half-confused.

So which side are they actually standing on now?

Are they jumping back and forth?

Before he could truly figure it out, Aunt Chen's words proved prophetic.

In the latest issue of "Southern Weekly" on Thursday, editor Yan Lieshan wrote an article titled "Viewing the Failure of Traditional Education Through Fang Xinghe."

"Fang Xinghe is not wrong; he is even a victor. It is our traditional education that is wrong, that has failed, that has become incompetent..."

The spear pointed directly at the education system, boldly claiming "there is no education below the county level," and criticizing certain departments for dereliction of duty.

However, regarding Fang Xinghe himself, the tone was extremely gentle, not lacking encouragement, and full of hope.

Good lord, playing this game with me?

You really are wielding a great axe on Guan Gong's head, and driving a black car in front of the bread shop...

The funny, sly Shan made our General Fang laugh out loud.

This article needs to be pondered from two aspects.

Regarding Fang Xinghe, Yan Lieshan's attitude is clearly PUA—Nandu scolds, Nan Zhou praises; one suppresses, one lifts, plainly intending to rub him back and forth, grind down his rebelliousness, and finally take him in as a dog.

Tsk tsk, if you want to talk about playing fancy tricks, it has to be you bunch of black-hearted literati...

Of course, this is merely a side effect; the true core of the article is naturally to bitterly criticize the education system from the stance of a "citizen."

Fang Xinghe didn't even need to see the final direction; just a few sentences were enough for him to understand.

The water army is not a large circle; they can vaguely sense each other, and General Fang is exceptionally good at peeling back layers through intent.

In his framework, professional water soldiers fall into exactly four types.

The first type: timid or principled, only scraping a living in the entertainment circle; blackening or praising anyone is just for fun.

The second type: as long as the profit is sufficient, they dare to take any order and eat any blood-stained bun; they have no personal likes or dislikes in their hearts, believing in money above all else with the motto "the bigger the storm, the more valuable the fish," called Greed.

The third type: given one yuan of dog food, they do ten yuan's worth of work, sincerely believing their country is not good enough for them; they are truly damn stupid.

The fourth type: receiving ten yuan in funding, they pass eight yuan out for idiots to do the work, carefully hiding themselves, never showing their heads unless there is a good opportunity; they know very clearly what the truth is and what they must do; they are purely evil.

The representative figure of the first type is naturally Fang Xinghe himself.

The second type? It's Song Zude.

The third type? Luo Taijun.

The fourth type? There are plenty in the cultural circle, such as that head who was sentenced for the toxic textbooks.

Under normal circumstances, the second, third, and fourth types are clearly distinct, but occasionally there are composite talents who are stupid, evil, and greedy all at once.

It is inconvenient to name such supreme specimens; everyone has their own judgment.

Right now, their level is high, while the information the public can receive is limited and their ability to distinguish is weak, so their space for survival is extremely vast.

By the time of the era when Fang Xinghe is active, this bunch will either die outside, wander and scavenge for trash, or shrink into the country to become rats crossing the street, with their lives and beliefs completely collapsing.

Dealing with them is purely giving them face.

With this mindset, Fang Xinghe decided to spend the final period before the exam in quiet study, ignoring external affairs.

Wait until he is truly free later, then he will go find them one by one; the black-hearted wolves have plenty of backhands to return to them.

As a result, he didn't need to move at all; Mengya, furious because sales were affected, took the initiative to unleash its hidden ultimate move.