Chapter 145: The Foremost Literary Talent of Yenching University

Returning to the Chinese Department seating block, Zhang Chu had just taken his seat when he was greeted with enthusiastic applause and praise from his classmates.

Yang Ling gave him a thumbs-up. "And here we were, worrying about you, only for you to drop the ultimate ultimate move! And to think you promised not to use nuclear weapons first!"

"Just standard stuff. Somebody had to shut a few people up, right?"

Zhang Chu felt his reputation points soaring. A few thousand freshmen shouldn't possibly provide hundreds of thousands of reputation points; he didn't harbor any illusions that these alumni of his were die-hard fans.

An Mi exaggerated, "You didn't notice, but our jaws dropped open when we heard the final section of your speech. Brother Chu, can you lend me your manuscript to read? That ending made an unforgettable impression."

"Take it, take it. I was shocked too, you know. Up on the stage, the view was crystal clear, and I genuinely thought you guys were going to stand up and chase me off," Zhang Chu said with a dramatic flourish, using the moment to introduce himself to his cohort.

Perhaps because his speech was so stellar, when the next speaker—a blonde female graduate student representative from the UK—took the floor, the audience didn't react much at all, offering only polite, perfunctory applause.

At this year's opening ceremony, the name Zhang Chu was destined to be etched into the memories of thousands of PKU students alongside that passage of *A Young China*.

***

Back at the dorm, the occupants of Room 222 felt a bit too lazy to move around. An Mi was wearing headphones, browsing food videos on Bilibili, while Sun Ruiqi logged onto the Weiming BBS to see how the school's alumni were reacting to Zhang Chu's speech.

In truth, he just wanted to see the reaction of the original poster who had accused Zhang Chu of stealing a spot, harboring a fair bit of schadenfreude.

Many shared Sun Ruiqi's sentiment, and the crowd's enthusiasm seemed even higher than when they had been condemning Zhang Chu—there is no greater joy than digging up an old post to mock the original poster!

"Holy crap, this thread has already reached over two thousand replies!"

Exclaiming in amazement, Sun Ruiqi randomly clicked to a new page and began reading the colorful comments left by alumni.

Reply #1245: "You call this shady inside operations???"

Reply #1312: "I've got to hand it to Zhang Chu for this speech. I was just picking up a package downstairs in the dorm, and when I saw the campus television live stream, even the dorm manager and the delivery guy were praising him!"

Reply #1459: "Did the OP fail to read the room? This is PKU, not your local high school; they aren't going to hand out special privileges."

Reply #1684: "Is the OP okay? Why don't you post your own speech manuscript for us to see, so everyone can judge whose was better?"

Though it had nothing to do with him directly, Sun Ruiqi found it immensely satisfying. While kicking someone when they were down wasn't ideal, blowing off some steam felt fantastic.

The hottest thread on Weiming BBS was entirely about Zhang Chu. Amidst the tension of academics, having this kind of entertainment was quite nice.

"Begging for Zhang Chu's speech text! The final section gave me absolute goosebumps!"
"Zhang Chu must be the most famous freshman this year, right?"
"Campus TV footage is out. Skip to 71:13. Lei Feng reporting for duty."
"A senior here to say this speech is fantastic. The depth of meaning in the second half instantly elevated it beyond measure."
"Zhang Chu's Southern Weekly interview transcript: Turns out this funny guy has many sides!"
"His Freshman Year vs. Your Freshman Year."
"A Chinese Department senior analyzes Zhang Chu's speech, calling it redolent of the Republic of China era."

Having successfully dominated the front page, the name Zhang Chu became known to countless upperclassmen as well. Not only the freshmen, but even those busy preparing for graduate school entrance exams or taking the TOEFL and IELTS realized that a formidable talent had burst onto the scene.

***

Earlier, rumors of shady backdoor deals at the PKU opening ceremony had spread online like a scandal, and Zhang Chu, as the person at the center of it, had faced severe criticism.

Even now, a vast number of people were still following the aftermath of the ceremony, eager to seize any chance to knock Zhang Chu off his pedestal entirely.

Quite a few PKU students used Weibo, and some had simply snapped photos at the venue and uploaded them. The PKU campus TV station was open to the public; although live streaming wasn't accessible externally, videos could be downloaded or watched online.

Han Shu was an ordinary student at the Central University of Finance and Economics. Introverted in reality and keeping a low profile, he was nonetheless a self-styled justice-seeking keyboard warrior on the internet.

"Scum and waste like this student should be purged. What right does he have to stand on that stage?"

Muttering to himself, he threw the PKU campus TV video link into Xunlei for downloading, and the download speed turned out to be remarkably fast!

For P2P resources, files were uploaded even as they were downloaded. The more people downloading, the more shared seeding points became available, making multi-threaded downloading faster than single-threaded.

For a brand-new video resource, such a rapid download speed proved that the number of downloaders was certainly massive.

Once the content finished downloading in a flash, Han Shu skipped the first hour or so, dragging the progress bar with his mouse straight to the point where Zhang Chu took the stage, and put on his headphones to listen carefully.

Yet, his expectant expression grew increasingly grim. Where was the scandalous backdoor deal he had been promised?!

Even he was nearly moved by Zhang Chu's speech. The escalating rhythm of "If the youth are wise, the country is wise; if the youth are strong, the country is strong; if the youth are rich, the country is rich" step by step elevated the emotional pitch, pulling him straight into the flow.

"I've been manipulated again!" Han Shu said angrily. With a speech script like this, did they even need shady tactics?

***

Across the internet, Zhang Chu's fans finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least Zhang Chu's performance gave them firmer ground to stand on, making their counterattacks against the haters much more potent while also giving them room to tease him affectionately.

"Big Brother Zhang Chu is so thick-skinned, having the nerve to call himself a youth! Only someone like me is truly a flower and the future of the motherland."
"Youth refers to the developmental stage from ten to eighteen or nineteen years old. As far as I know, Big Brother Zhang Chu is turning nineteen soon, long past the category of youth. If the youth are strong, it's *us* who are strong; old folks, please step aside."
"I knew Big Brother Zhang Chu wouldn't let us down. Truly worthy of being PKU's top talent!"
"PKU's top talent, a title well-deserved!"
"I'm a youth all right, but I'm not rich yet—I'm holding the country back."
"So *that's* what Big Brother Zhang Chu was busy with. No wonder I hadn't seen him for days."
"Congratulations, congratulations! Big Brother Zhang Chu's super-inspiring speech is now in the top ten of Bilibili's daily rankings. Everyone go cast your coins and boost the view count!"
"Begging the gods to post the full text of the speech."

Amidst the celebrations of his fans, Zhang Chu unconsciously acquired a brand-new nickname. People stopped calling him the top scorer of the national college entrance examination or a young author; instead, they called him the Top Talent of PKU!

For him, this nickname felt more like a burden than an honor. So many brilliant minds enrolled at Peking University every year, and trying to secure such a moniker on the strength of a single speech alone would likely prove exceedingly difficult.