Chapter 58: People's Daily sets the tone [Happy New Year's Eve!]

Coincidentally, Xiao Long thought the same.

How to play with that loser next, the men decide!

After going back, he called all the little brothers and sisters he was closest to together and held a mobilization meeting.

At the meeting, Director Long briefly stated three points—

"Everyone knows Young Master Fang’s situation. That uncle of his is really not a thing. Damn, he’s eating his own nephew’s inheritance. Many people in Nong'an have wanted to mess him up for a long time, but they just haven't found the opportunity."

"Now, Young Master Fang has handed such a big thing to us to handle, I only have three requirements—"

"Mess him up!"

"Mess up his wife!"

"Mess up his son!"

"Mess up his whole family!"

Tiger Girl No. 1 curled her lips: "Damn idiot, that’s clearly four points!"

After scolding, she raised her arms and shouted: "Right, mess up his whole family!"

Successfully activating everyone’s work enthusiasm, Director Long was very satisfied and pressed his hand down—obviously learning from our Brother Fang, but for some reason, not many people paid him any mind.

Finally, he had to raise his volume: "Messing him up is not the goal, solving the problem for Young Master Fang is! Brothers and sisters, Young Master Fang’s meaning is not to take action, but to make them stop blabbering to outside reporters. What ideas do you have?"

"Keep an eye on his whole family!"

"Beat up his son!"

"Splash big dung on his door!"

"Damn, why are you so disgusting? You go dig the dung!"

"Damn, don't think about beautiful things. It's not our turn to splash dung; his neighbors have already splashed it several times."

Director Long and the Tiger Girl were both stunned: "When did that happen? Is the masses' enthusiasm so high?"

"Just after Young Master Fang accepted the interview with *Beijing Youth Daily*."

Red-haired Forward-spike rolled his eyes and tried hard to recall: "Didn't the second article of that interview mention that Young Master Fang had no guardian? Although it didn't explicitly write how disgusting Wang Deli was, everyone in our county knows. The next day, Wang Deli’s door was splashed with dung..."

"Terrible!"

Director Long slapped his thigh in annoyance.

"Called this grandson to evolve resistance in advance!"

"Pfft!"

The little language he organized made several people spray with laughter on the spot.

"Then how do we mess with him?"

"Simply don't pull those empty things. We'll just bring a barbecue grill, go to his courtyard and have a bonfire party, drink happily at night, and sleep in his room during the day. I want to see if he dares to call the police to drive us away!"

"Calling the police is definitely useless!"

A short girl jumped up fiercely: "My uncle is from the station office, they hate Wang Deli to death!"

This was true. Ever since Fang Xinghe became famous, leading to Wang Deli’s rotten affairs being known to everyone, now all the people in the county looked down on him.

Why had Fang Xinghe been famous for so long, and that family still hadn't made a move?

Fear was one aspect, and the other was that they were too busy to care for themselves.

"If the police drive us away, we'll just lie on the wall at his neighbor's house!"

"Right, right, his neighbor must hate him to death, almost got roasted with Fang Xinghe, definitely willing to help us!"

A group of eighteen or nineteen-year-old young men and women whispered, and damaging tricks emerged one after another.

Even Fang Xinghe, who ordered them to do things, didn't expect that once people’s enthusiasm was up, it could really activate infinite imagination and execution.

Just like that, without Fang Xinghe knowing anything about it, Wang Deli’s family was in big trouble.

Wang Yali and Zhao Chunhua were worried to death.

However, after being on tenterhooks for two days, there was no movement at all. *Nandu* finally didn't publish the article, forcibly holding back the fart.

"How did you do it?"

Wang Yali couldn't keep things in her heart and asked directly.

The street guy replied nonchalantly: "What could I do? Maybe they discovered their conscience."

Feelings are feelings, things that shouldn't be publicized are best kept in one's own heart, don't be a big mouth everywhere.

As soon as Wang Yali heard it, she knew she couldn't ask anything, so she continued to pay close attention to the movement in the market.

As a result...

Only *Southern Daily* published a small black article "Fang Xinghe Ignores Family Affection" that didn't hurt or itch.

*Nandu* looked down on that material and passed it to a brother unit...

A small black article, even if it was black, it couldn't hit the point. It was clearly disgusting to Fang Xinghe but couldn't kill him, so it had to grind its teeth and have some fun.

The dark circles and the bald forehead carried the "slacking off" business to a high level.

Wandering around the small county town, they had no heart for interviews, but once people from other newspapers came, they were sure to crowd around.

Relying on *Nandu*’s fame, they became brothers and formed gangs with those reporters who had just arrived, calling it helping each other and sharing news.

Heizi and Du Yu were not convenient to follow anymore, so they came back to ask the boss. Fang Xinghe waved his hand with a smile: "Don't worry about them, they don't have any crooked thoughts."

Accompanying for two days, that meaning is enough. Is it possible to really go to someone's house to recognize the door?

The money was given, no need.

Of course, it was also because when they met last night, the white light on their bodies was becoming more and more stable and rich.

A high fan level doesn't necessarily mean a good person, but it's highly likely they won't do bad things to Fang Xinghe without major interests.

Since that's the case, let them play as they please.

Back to the bald forehead and the dark circles, normally it's impossible for anyone to be willing to share secret information with them.

However, because they couldn't interview the main person, and the students at the Third Middle School would talk about small things but shut up about big things, everyone came for nothing and could only pour out their bitterness to each other.

"Hey, there's really nothing of value to dig here, it's like being in jail..."

The dark circles' sentence instantly aroused everyone’s resonance.

"Isn't it!"

"The little things that can be asked are all known, and the things that can't be asked are all in the hearts of those kids. Dealing with them is really annoying, annoying to death!"

"Mainly because Fang Xinghe refuses interviews. This kid is really strange... is that how you say it in Northeast dialect?"

"A madman and a loner, I see..." The bald forehead suddenly sighed crazily. "No matter how long you spend here, there's no play. He's not the kind of person who can be changed by the outside world."

"What about his uncle?"

"We went, no use." The dark circles lied without changing his face. "When Fang Xinghe’s mother was sick, his uncle was afraid of being involved and took the initiative to cut off contact. Now he doesn't know anything, can only repeat some dog-shit things from childhood to cheat us out of interview fees."

"Forget it, came for nothing."

A young reporter was really provoked: "Damn, anyway, I'm not guarding!"

The bald forehead immediately chimed in: "We also plan to withdraw. Even *People's Daily* was pushed back, waiting is just a waste of time."

"That's the truth, let's go, shall we go back together?"

"That's good, we can chat and play cards on the way."

"Done, then let's withdraw!"

Just like that, under the instigation of the dark circles and the bald forehead, the scattered reporters gathered and returned in a group.

Blowing cowhide and farting on the way, smoking and playing cards, how happy.

Good guy, such a big thing as lighting someone’s house, clearly leaked a little wind, but it was operated by Fang Xinghe, and there was no follow-up!

The absurdity of this result in the hearts of Wang Yali and others exceeded that semi-final article. This was because they didn't know the process. If they figured out the details... wouldn't a few go crazy?

As a result, the "anti-defense" system basically went out.

Targeting Fang Xinghe himself, couldn't target.

If they continued to nag about the nonsense that "exam-oriented education cannot cultivate high-end talent," they wouldn't even need Fang Xinghe to return, the readers would slap them down.

Although the "anti-defense" system had been chiseling the wall for decades, their ability to observe words and colors was very strong. They basically didn't attack hard, mostly secretly fanning the flames from behind.

Since there was no opportunity now, they could only hibernate and wait for the next opportunity.

Thus, the figures of several backbone writers suddenly disappeared from the print media.

And those writers, educators, and social commentators who helped wave the flag or were genuinely dissatisfied with the expansion policy were still spraying Fang Xinghe in full swing.

It's normal, in this era, everything has a delay, the criticism cycle is originally very long, and it's not strange for this crooked wind to blow for another two months.

Just at this time, *People's Daily*, which was still waiting for Fang Xinghe’s interview permission, finally poked out an article and ate at this hot table.

*People's Daily*’s voice could almost be called "together with Comrade Xiao Fang," completely changing the historical process of the previous life.

Who is hugging whose thigh, let's not mention it for now, anyway, the curative effect was immediate.

Many public intellectuals were still racking their brains writing manifestos criticizing Fang Xinghe the day before, but when they woke up the next day, the sky had fallen.

Song Zude, who was hiding in his hometown, had just bitten a fried dough stick, and before the first bite was broken, he saw the headline on the third page of *People's Daily*, and his head buzzed.

"Talk about education topics through Fang Xinghe’s two new articles"

The title was very ordinary, so ordinary that it didn't deserve to be in this position at all.

What kind of media is *People's Daily*?

No need to explain, the people of the country all understand.

*People's Daily* only had four pages in total. Today was also a coincidence. The front page headline carried the name of a big figure, the second page headline carried the name of another big figure, and the fourth page headline carried the name of the American President.

Then, the three characters [Fang Xinghe] were gorgeously sandwiched between the three pages...

Just say if it's scary or not?

Anyway, Song Zude was shocked and shivered all over, the fried dough stick in his mouth trembling, as if that thing had grown on his face.

But at this moment, he couldn't care about his image, but was full of grievances—*Little bastard, what virtue and ability do you have? How are you worthy of being in this position? Which stinking xx wrote the draft?*

Looking down angrily, the author was Yi Ning.

Song Zude was silent for a long while, his throat inexplicably painful.

Objectively and fairly speaking, Teacher Yi Ning’s achievements in literature were not very high, but she was gentle, introverted, meticulous, and patient. Therefore, after the current Writers Association Chairman Ba Jin was seriously ill and bedridden, she had actually been acting as chairman.

Now, as long as anyone in the literary circle knows, the next term is likely to be Sister Yi.

So, if you ask Song Zude to scold Fang Xinghe, he dares to scold as dirty as he wants, but if you ask him to openly oppose Teacher Yi... don't mess around, brother is a poet.

Sighing heavily, Zude held the last ten-thousandth of a chance and looked at the article carefully.

In general, the article was still Teacher Yi’s consistent style, praising Fang Xinghe a lot, taking the opportunity to criticize the impetuous chaos in the public opinion circle recently. The wording was not intense, and no one was named.

In other words, the attack power was not enough, just the symbolic significance was extremely strong.

However, this was enough to make people like Song Zude uncomfortable. All the stupid dogs like Chang Ping, Cheng Yizhong, Xiao Chuan, Yan Lieshan... who were chasing and scolding Fang Xinghe collectively broke their defenses, didn't eat breakfast, but almost chewed the newspaper.

Teacher Yi had a paragraph written like this—

"Town test-taker, a Fang Xinghe-style summary full of childlike fun and full of whimsy."

"Fang Xinghe is particularly good at summarizing. It's not that I'm flattering him; this is recognized by everyone."

"Chen Sihe of Fudan praised his writing style as full of vitality. If you ask me, it's this child himself who is full of vitality. Town test-taker, hey, how vigorous!"

"When doing New Concept, several old editors didn't trust him, feeling that this child was too eccentric. I trusted him. I said this child is very honest, not what you think."

"Now look again, how sincere and loyal he is to himself?"

"I was born in a town, I am not willing to grow old and rot here, I want to go out and see, cities, mountains, rivers, the vast unknown world... I want to go, so I tell it truthfully and work hard for it."

"This is a huge upward force, isn't this good? This is too good!"

"Teenagers get encouragement from it, learn to be honest, learn to open their eyes to see the world, learn to strive for what they want. How many usable talents will we have in the future because of this?"

"The most rare thing is that he is not inferior, and the thoughts he conveys are full of high-spirited fighting spirit."

"What's wrong with being born in a town?"

"I can still win awards and take first place, and write beautiful articles."

"In fact, we all come from the vast countryside. Being born low is not worth being inferior. Just work hard to get rid of the predicament in front of you—just like what Fang Xinghe wrote, smash this fate, arrogance is the young man."

"Looking at his three public articles, wildness and unwillingness to admit defeat are things engraved in his bones. How good, we especially need more such children."

"Of course, this doesn't mean he lacks wisdom. He has it, and all our judges can see it clearly."

"In another article 'The Added Value of Reading,' the mention of added value is particularly good."

"The economic principles contained in the words themselves are one aspect. More importantly, when Fang Xinghe discusses the term added value, this act itself powerfully proves how huge the added value that learning brings to his talent is."

"Without learning, without reading, it is not enough to have such profound exposition."

"The mention of empowerment is even better. I have never seen this word in any book. For this reason, I specifically consulted an economics professor at Tsinghua, and he hadn't heard of it either."

"He was particularly shocked and full of praise."

"So this is the crystallization of Fang Xinghe’s personal wisdom, his practice of the 'reading empowerment' thought of knowing and doing as one. He shows a greater honesty in learning, not as impetuous as many people mock."

"The word impetuous is a great slander against him."

"On the contrary, his thinking is very profound, setting an example, showing all the public how to superimpose value on himself."

"Cleverness and handsomeness are his natural qualities. On this basis, he practices martial arts all year round to brutalize his physique; loves learning to civilize his spirit; insists on thinking to precipitate his wisdom; and writes tirelessly to enrich his literary talent."

"Fang Xinghe has superimposed a lot of added value on himself, so not only do my children like him, I am also full of expectations, respect, and reverence for him."

"Things in the world, knowing is not easy, doing is even harder."

"Fang Xinghe can win the first prize in the first New Concept Essay Competition, can take the first place in the Jilin Province high school entrance examination, can become the current teenage idol, natural endowment accounts for a very, very small proportion. Without arduous efforts, an orphan would definitely not be so powerful."

"He is an object worthy of learning for all of us, not just middle school students, adults should also take Fang Xinghe as a standard, actively fight against the injustice of fate, know but not follow, change from hating everything to loving everything, change from disdaining everything to respecting everything, and finally find the light in the bottom of the heart."

Teacher Yi Ning’s little essay, the last paragraph, merged four of Fang Xinghe’s works.

Fighting fate is an interview quote, knowing but not following is a semi-final essay, hate and love come from "Town Test-taker," light in the bottom of the heart comes from "Added Value."

Merged naturally, as if these sentences were born as one.

Not only does it look uplifting, but it is also full of positive energy.

Of course, the core is because our President Fang’s foundation is straight~~~

In short, the article full of righteousness published in the newspaper full of righteousness is truly complementary, and it brushed a big wave of prestige for him.

With this article, the literary world turned quickly.

The Writers Association today is naturally much worse than twenty years ago, but compared to twenty years later, the influence is still considerable.

So when Teacher Yi Ning suddenly showed an attitude of supporting Fang Xinghe, coupled with the endorsement of *People's Daily*, some writers who lived by the Writers Association immediately stopped and shrank to watch the wind direction.

If it were in the past, in fact, it wouldn't matter whether they shrank or not, because the main forces like Yan Lieshan, Xiong Muyun, Cheng Yizhong could carry it, they didn't care about this pressure.

However, now these goods themselves shrank first, leaving only the puppet army to top the front line, so the chain reaction brought about was disastrous.

The new editorial directly pulled out the last spine of the public intellectual faction, finally scattering their arrogant spirit.

Once these goods were cowardly, fearful, and soft, then the huge offline voices of Fang Xinghe’s supporters began to launch the final general attack on the violent arguments.

Then, it was like a hot knife through butter, sweeping everything clean very quickly.

How many people were scolded because of this? Can't count at all!

Among them, the most miserable one was Song Zude again... unlucky, it had already developed to the point where little girls wrote directly to the newspaper office, scolding him as a pure-bred beast.

He definitely deserved it, but the point is not him, but the way this big debate ended.

It started vigorously, and ended with scolding all over the sky. The positive side outputted violently at the clowns, and after venting their emotions, they suddenly didn't care about this debate anymore.

And the extinguishing of the public intellectual faction also made the topic have no place to stand.

Thus, after the heat reached its peak, it fell back off a cliff and soon returned to complete calm.

You can no longer see various experts discussing whether reading is useful in the newspaper.

This result, no one could have predicted.

Except for Fang Xinghe.

He was the only one with the ability to control the market and continue the sky-high heat.

Publish a new article, scold someone by name, default to *Nandu* taking away his black material, take the initiative to accept an interview... there are too many ways.

But he decided, let it end here.

Criticism, debate, reflection, comparison of exam-oriented education, until trust is established, is not a simple matter that can be accomplished in one battle.

Any overly optimistic idea is frivolous.

The dregs will inevitably rise again in the future, until we live out our second spring and the offense and defense are completely changed.

"But that grand narrative starting from a historical perspective should not be initiated by me, let alone concluded by me. My task has been completed."

Fang Xinghe was still sober, still rational, still firm.

He didn't know how many young children in his previous life chose to drop out of school to work between '99 and '05 because of such a small thing, and he didn't know how long it took for those children to turn their high spirits into resentment and regret when they stepped into the world... he had no relevant data.

He just saw such words from time to time in various groups: if only... how good it would be.

Looking back, half a life wasted.

But this is not looking back, just reviewing, nothing can be changed.

And as the only person who clearly saw the historical ending, Fang Xinghe chose to withdraw, shut up, and hide his merit and fame in the peak of the heat.

"I have greatly changed this historical process and saved quite a few little idiots who dropped out of school."

"I have fulfilled my responsibility, it is time to retire."

"Success does not have to be in me, but success must have me. This state is the most comfortable..."

Actively shrinking, letting what should be silent be silent, is a kind of wisdom.

What should be silent?

Wrong, inaccurate, more harmful than beneficial heat.

The subtlety is hard to describe, existing only in Fang Xinghe’s heart.

However, even though his movements were so decisive and fast, he still didn't escape the "backlash" that followed.

Public opinion suddenly put a whole set of labels on him: loves learning, has righteousness, has lofty ambitions, is a pillar of talent for the future.

*People's Daily*’s setting of the tone was the main reason, but a more unexpected important change was the sudden jump of the "anti-defense" faction.

Yan Lieshan publicly changed his words in the new issue of *Southern Weekly*—

"After arguing back and forth for a while, criticizing and scolding, I actually have a few points of admiration for Fang Xinghe now."

"How many points exactly?"

"Measured by a ruler, it's over half."

"At his age, with his endowment, being able to persist in learning and being loyal to what he thinks in his heart is indeed too difficult."

"After thinking from another perspective, I shamefully found that I couldn't do it."

"As a media person with conscience and sufficient fairness and objectivity, one is one, two is two, bad things must be scolded, good things must also be praised..."

The article didn't mention education in a single word, focusing on praising Fang Xinghe personally, portraying him as a "leader-type genius writer who does not have reference significance," with thoughts, height, and persistence. Although temporarily immature, he will definitely be brilliant in the future.

The top brass of the "anti-defense" faction collectively turned, praised him highly, and thus formed a broad public consensus.

Most adults don't carefully understand Xiao Fang. As soon as they see him waving the flag and charging for reading, they feel good and default him to the "new youth, new hope" set by many parties.

In the short term, this is a good thing, which can significantly reduce the difficulty of attracting fans.

—However, in a few days, the basically stagnant floating fans increased by more than 1 million.

But not to mention that they are all useless middle-aged floating fans, the real trouble is that once the time is stretched, the future Fang Xinghe makes behaviors that do not conform to their stereotypes, then the backlash of public opinion...

"Even more exciting!"

Fang Xinghe licked his lips, a kind of evil, bad smile full of expectation and restlessness flowing from the corners of his mouth.

Having a clear conscience about the era, he now only wants to focus on his own destiny.

When being a water army, the most afraid is not having a rhythm.

Repeatedly washing fans and abusing fans, the most afraid is not having a legitimate reason.

The most dangerous thing about the flashy tactics of "black-red" marketing is having eyes higher than your hands—failing to control the intensity.

However, once all conditions are fully met, then the chaos, turmoil, black tide, cyberbullying, and even the pointing of thousands of people and the abandonment of the masses that ordinary people fear, for Fang Xinghe, is just an extreme challenge unrelated to life and death.

Killing by praise?

You can praise, but can you kill?

Some people firmly believe in this, and some people are secretly laying out the battlefield, brewing a counterattack.

Chen Chun is far away, next year is bright, brothers and sisters, Happy New Year's Eve, good luck playing with snakes!