Chapter 996

When Zhou Andong mentioned the Four Great Inventions, the young man’s spirit perked up and he sneered:

“Young Master Zhou, you’re proud of bringing up inventions from a thousand years ago? Don’t you find that ridiculous?”

“Do you think it’s ridiculous?” Zhou Andong looked at the young man.

“Of course it’s ridiculous,” the young man smiled smugly, as if victory were already his: “I’m talking about modern Western civilization; you’re talking about four inventions from a thousand years ago—what’s the connection?

I think you’ve run out of ideas, grasping at straws by dragging up ancient inventions. Isn’t that laughable?”

“In my eyes, you’re even more ridiculous,” Zhou Andong sneered. “Gunpowder, the compass, printing, and papermaking powerfully propelled human civilization forward.

As early as 1620, four hundred years ago, the British thinker Bacon wrote in ‘Novum Organum’ that papermaking, printing, gunpowder, and the compass transformed the entire world.

No empire, no sect, no renowned figure has ever exerted greater power or influence on human endeavors than China’s Four Great Inventions.”

Here, Zhou Andong sighed: “Zhuo Qihua’s ignorance and stupidity stem from living in a colony and receiving a Western education—he fundamentally denies he is Chinese.

Your ignorance and stupidity are the result of China’s educational failure—you don’t even know our Four Great Inventions were the primary and most crucial drivers of global civilizational progress. Tell me, aren’t you even more ridiculous—and pitiful?”

“Papermaking was a great revolution in writing. Printing was another monumental contribution to the transmission and preservation of human culture. Gunpowder, introduced to Arabia and Europe in the 13th century, transformed medieval warfare—it was a revolutionary turning point in military history.

Finally, the compass: without our compass, Europe’s Age of Exploration would have been delayed by countless years. Do you still think our ancestors’ Four Great Inventions are laughable?”

“Without papermaking and printing, Western history would have been severed; its civilization would have collapsed. Without gunpowder and the compass, we would not have suffered over a century of humiliation. Without our ancestors’ Four Great Inventions, there would be no Western civilization—the so-called advanced civilization you praise.”

Boom!

Thunderous applause erupted; the young man turned beet red, speechless.

Zhou Qianyi stood up, clapping wildly, her excited face glistening with fine sweat.

Miss He also rose, giving Zhou Andong a thumbs-up, her face filled with admiration.

Jian Qiu wore a proud smile, as if telling everyone: that man on stage belongs to me.

He Jingyuan clapped while asking Jian Zhengrong beside him: “Is Zhou Andong a Party member?”

“Probably,” Jian Zhengrong said. “He’s a college graduate; during the early restructuring of the Jiangzhou Brewery, he briefly served as deputy secretary of the factory committee—a full deputy department-level cadre.”

He Jingyuan nodded: “If the chance arises, invite him to lecture at the Party School.”

Jian Zhengrong paused, then nodded: “Alright, I’ll find an opportunity to tell him.”

Zhou Andong looked at the blushing young man: “Besides papermaking, printing, gunpowder, and the compass, we have a fifth great invention. Do you know what it is?”

The young man said nothing—first, he dared not speak anymore; second, he truly didn’t know China had a fifth great invention.

Zhou Andong smiled faintly: “Our fifth great invention is the abacus.”

He had no intention of letting the young man off so easily—daring to defend Zhuo Qihua? I’ll crush you so hard you’ll regret ever calling yourself Zhou Andong.

“Do you know why the abacus never spread to the West?”

The young man stayed silent, thinking: I’m not falling for your trap.

Zhou Andong looked out at the audience: “Anyone know?”

Everyone shook their heads. Zhou Andong smiled: “Because Westerners can’t even grasp the multiplication table. The abacus is too advanced—they simply lack the intellect to understand it.”

The crowd burst into laughter, assuming Zhou Andong was joking.

“Do you think I’m joking?”

Zhou Andong raised a finger and shook it: “If you don’t believe me, let’s make a bet. Next time you meet a foreigner, test them with multiplication and division under nine—no paper, no pen, no calculator. If three out of ten can answer correctly, I’ll buy everyone drinks.”

The audience murmured—could Zhou Andong be serious? Do foreigners really not know the multiplication table and need calculators for single-digit arithmetic?

Even the leaders below were skeptical, quietly doubting.

At that moment, Lu Qing’s secretary whispered: “Young Master Zhou is right. When I studied abroad, they really did calculate single-digit multiplication and division by hand.”

Lu Qing’s mouth opened slightly; other leaders looked stunned. Lu Qing’s secretary’s words had shattered their perception of the West.

Zhou Andong smiled: “So, Chinese intelligence is the highest in the world. Westerners? They’re barely half-civilized savages.”

“Young Master Zhou!” Another young man raised his hand—around twenty-three or twenty-four years old: “Just now you said Chinese civilization fell behind because we abandoned our traditional culture and blindly trusted Western learning.

I disagree. We didn’t abandon our traditional culture—we discarded only its dross, and learned from Western advanced civilization. Isn’t that right?”

Zhou Andong asked: “What, in your view, are the dross of our traditional culture? And what exactly is the ‘advanced Western civilization’ you want to learn?”

The young man said: “Let me give an example: our ancestral worship culture is dross. Look—when honoring ancestors, people lay out all kinds of food, sometimes even a full table of dishes. Can ancestors possibly eat them?”

“But the West is different. Their ancestral worship is civilized—they simply place flowers at the grave. Isn’t that worth learning from?”

Zhou Andong laughed: “When we lay out a full table of food for our ancestors, they can’t eat it. But when Westerners place flowers at their ancestors’ graves—do their ancestors smell the flowers?”

“Uh!”

The young man opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a word—he had no rebuttal.

Zhou Andong snorted: “I’ve noticed a pattern: some people constantly praise the West and denigrate their own country. I call them ‘anti-China elements.’

They deliberately create cognitive chaos among Chinese people, legitimizing blind admiration for the West. If this poisonous thinking isn’t corrected, it will fracture our ideology, and this internal drain will ultimately weaken the nation’s vitality.

Once hostile forces exploit this, pouncing on every crack, our nation’s fate and future could face grave problems.”