On the Internet.
It had been a rather harmonious day so far. Confessions were happening all over Weibo. In Tieba, there were mostly threads relating to Valentine's Day being posted. The general mood of the forums were reflective of the loving mood everywhere else. Perhaps because of the past few days of incidents resulting in messy topics, war of words and fighting, the general mood on today's internet environment was rather peaceful. The netizens were also getting along very well.
But this peace had only lasted for a short while.
At some time past 10AM, someone broke the news on Weibo.
"Extra, extra! Live from the venue! Zhang Ye made a surprise appearance at the International Math Olympiad held at Summer Palace Park! The Mathematics world has been scolded! And the current situation is in chaos! It's difficult to know what's going on anymore over here!"
"Ha?"
"I'm gonna faint!"
"Are you serious?"
"What? Teacher Zhang is up to something again?"
"What the f**k! I thought that Zhang Ye was writing 'Legend of Wukong' back at home and I was still waiting for the next chapter. Why did he run off to pick a fight with the Mathematics world now?"
"Pfft, I almost peed from laughing!"
"Do a live broadcast from there! What's going on right now?"
A few users immediately uploaded some pictures of the situation, as it was too difficult to describe the ongoing situation with text. Then, a park visitor, who had a rather good standard of Chinese reposted Zhang Ye's essay. Perhaps someone had noted it down when Zhang Ye was reciting, or it could be because of the simplicity of the essay, the text for "On Horses" had now appeared for the first time online.
In this world, Bo Le and the concept of thousand-li horses existed as well, but that was it and it was fated that Han Yu's "On Horses" did not exist. Therefore, this classic essay that was full of wisdom, philosophy, and reasoning had almost immediately caused a huge reaction online!
Many of those who read it felt that it was a stunning piece!
"Great essay!"
"What a classic!"
"Every word was well-written! How awesome!"
"Pfft! Teacher Zhang Ye's literary talent is always for situations that don't seem appropriate! If his talents were used in proper channels, then he would surely be a big contribution to our country, but this astonishing literary talent of Teacher Zhang has been used for scolding people instead! Hahaha! It's only been a few days ago since he started battling it out with the crosstalk world. Having wrapped that up, he's now marching towards the Mathematics world as well?"
"Ever since Zhang Ye debuted, he has always made us at a loss of whether to laugh or cry. Battling against the radio broadcast world, the television station, against the Shanghai SARFT, then the literature world followed by the crosstalk world and now? It's the Mathematics world's turn! Teacher Zhang, can I beg you to just give it a rest for a day? Just one day will do, then you can update 'Legend of Wukong' before you head back out to start more trouble! A bunch of us are waiting for the finale of your novel, but look at you! You'd rather go to battle it out at the Peak of Albatron than concentrate on proper work!"
"Teacher Zhang's troublemaking is much more interesting than reading a novel! Supporting Teacher Zhang. 'On Horses' is a really beautiful piece! That bunch of mathematicians really went too far by bullying those kids that way!"
"Teacher Zhang Ye is such a nosy person!"
"Yes, I agree, but Teacher Zhang being nosy is exactly what I like about him!"
"Sigh, are there really no thousand-li horses? Actually, they just don't know one when they see it! — This is a really good line! Every word of it touches my innermost feelings! Teacher Zhang's great! The youth participants were great too!"
The topic started getting attention and was actively being discussed!
Someone even started a poll asking if Bo Le was more important or if the thousand-li horses were more important.
......
Summer Palace Park.
In the yard at the event venue.
Under the lead of Zhang Ye's essay, all of the surrounding park visitors were booing at Chinese mathematicians, making them look bad!
Zhang Ye!
Why was that grandson doing here!
Those foreigners did not know who Zhang Ye was, since his fame was still not widespread enough. Whether it was the mathematicians or participants from the United Kingdom or French teams, everyone was suspiciously looking the youth standing there as their team translators explained the situation to them, but within the Chinese mathematicians, except for those who had dedicated all their time to maths and ignoring all other news and happenings of the real world, most of them knew who Zhang Ye was. Just the commercial for "Brain Gold" made most of them aware of who he was as it was the first thing they thought of when Zhang Ye's name was mentioned. The commercial's jingle was already causing a headache in their minds at the moment! They had all heard of Zhang Ye's reputation before! Sometimes, their circle of friends from the education world would even discuss about this person during their meals!
— A wonder of the entertainment circle!
— A thorn in the education world!
— A hooligan of the literary world!
This person's reputation was so foul that one could even smell it from their grandma's house! He had offended too many people and many organizations had been scolded by him too. He was the type of person that would use violence to solve everything!
As they've never seen him before, they did not realize how he was really like. These mathematicians had been apprehensive about believing the rumors they had heard and had thought that those who spoke badly of Zhang Ye were just exaggerating. They would have thought that no matter how low a person's emotional quotient was, they couldn't possibly go around looking for trouble and scolding people. Why would anyone want to do something like that? However, now that they had witnessed Zhang Ye's antics first hand today, all of the mathematicians and old professors nearly vomited blood! The rumors weren't true? Bullsh*t! It was totally true! Not only was it not exaggerated, they felt that those rumors had in fact been too mild! Too, too mild!!
A thorn?
He was basically a porcupine! And he had pricked everyone who was from the mathematics world!
Xin Ya immediately turned to look at Wu Zeqing. She was staring and clenching her teeth. Old Wu, your little boyfriend’s really too wicked, you had better make him stand back!
But Wu Zeqing acted like she did not see anything and just sat down leisurely.
Zhang Ye had made his way into the yard area by now as he continued walking towards the children.
With that declaration of "I want to see who dares to do that" by President Wu earlier, the security team did not do anything to hold him back. The main reason was because they did not dare to. After the incident at the Spring Festival where Zhang Ye laid his hands on Lee Anson's bodyguards, these security staff knew that if they were to get on the wrong side of this hooligan, he would definitely resort to violence! From this, it could be seen that Zhang Ye's fame was growing more and more by the day. In the past, no one could recognize him, even if he was walking on the streets, but now just his name alone was enough to get the attention of most people!
Huang Lingling looked at Zhang Ye and suddenly felt very excited.
"Sis! It's Teacher Zhang Ye!" Her brother, Huang Leilei said, almost jumping up in excitement, "That Zhang Ye who wrote 'Ode to Young China'!"
A teenager beside him said unbelievably, "Teacher Zhang Ye....is speaking up for us?"
Another teenager looked at Huang Lingling, "Leader, isn't Teacher Zhang your idol?!"
Huang Lingling started noticing Zhang Ye when he gave the "Ode to Young China" speech. She could still remember that night when she heard the sentence "My beautiful young China that is as eternal as heaven! My magnificent Chinese youth who are as bountiful as the land!", that left her so excited that she was unable to sleep. She had immediately started looking for Zhang Ye's previous works that very night and found his talk show program as well. Even his recent three crosstalk performances, Huang Lingling had repeatedly viewed them over and over again. Although a lot of people were scolding Zhang Ye and his crosstalk performances for being vulgar, Huang Lingling still liked them very much.
In this past half a year of focused math training, she had suffered a lot and felt very tired. Whenever there was time when she rested, Huang Lingling would watch Zhang Ye's works on her cellphone. Her parents had found out about this twice, while her teacher found out once, all of which had earned her a terrible scolding. Since young, she had always been very obedient, except for this, which she knew she was wilful about. She promised them that she would not watch his works anymore, but when she went to bed at night, she would continue to watch discreetly on her cellphone under her blankets. She even followed the news about Zhang Ye. When she knew that Teacher Zhang Ye had done something great, she would be cheered up. When he was scolded by everyone, she would become sad. All of her friends and classmates knew about this, that she was a hardcore fan of Zhang Ye. Huang Lingling had not expected that Zhang Ye would appear in person before her today!
As his figure slowly came nearer.
Before she knew it, Zhang Ye was already standing in front of her. He took out a napkin from his pocket and knelt down, reaching his hand out to wipe the tears off the corners of her eyes.
Huang Lingling suddenly felt at a loss of what to do, "Teacher...Teacher Zhang!"
Zhang Ye smiled, "Don't cry anymore. It's just a small matter."
"Thank you." Huang Lingling took the napkin and wiped off her tears herself, "I've always liked you a lot. All of your works, I've seen all of them." She was stuttering with her words.
Zhang Ye looked very happy, "Is that true?"
Huang Leilei quickly said, "It's true, my sis likes you the most."
Huang Lingling furiously nodded her head!
She's a fan of this bro? What good taste! Zhang Ye laughed happily, "Since I'm here now, there's nothing to be afraid of." He turned around and glanced at the mathematicians, "Ignore them. How dare they say that you all are ungifted? They want a thousand-li horse? Sure, let them touch their hearts and ask themselves first! Whether they can be a Bo Le!"
Zhang Ye has always been this way. He just said what he thought and scolded if he felt like scolding. It did not matter to him that there were many people around nor did the presence of the media affect what he wanted to say. He followed this principle in the things that he said or did. This was the reason why so many people hated him, but Zhang Ye just continued doing things the way he saw fit.
Han Henian complained angrily, "You better watch your words!"
The old professor, who was the most senior figure in the mathematics world present, said with a dark expression, "How does the way we educate our student have anything to do with you? What are you creating trouble here for?! Creating such a stir, don't you feel ashamed!" First, it was the children who attempted in vain to solve the math problem. And now, it was Zhang Ye stepping up and creating trouble. Today's International Math Olympiad was already in a big mess, by the time the media received news of this and published it, their faces as the organizers this year would probably be all lost!
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmZhang Ye did not say a word yet, but the park visitors could no longer hold themselves back!
"Pfft!"
"He's just flaunting his seniority!"
"How do you expect to educate the kids if this is how you all are! You're just destroying their futures!"
"A child needs encouragement and affirmation! Is that how you all teach others?"
"You're the ones creating trouble! A disgrace to our country!"
If Zhang Ye had not stepped forward with the essay "On Horses", these park visitors would not have likely said much. After all, the situation did not seem right for them to speak up or criticize anyone. At most, they would have felt rather uncomfortable with how things were but as Zhang Ye had stepped up and the park visitors followed his lead, all of them joined in to speak up for the children. What happened next was just a natural progression of chatter and protests. It seemed like Zhang Ye's influence in Beijing was really not too bad at all!
Those professors and teachers were being scolded terribly.
Zhang Ye did not bother about them and just looked towards the children, "Let me teach you a life lesson. If someone tries to bully you, take a step back."
Huang Lingling listened seriously.
The park visitors also quieten down and started listening.
Zhang Ye continued, "If some tries to bully you again, then you should take another step back."
Huang Leilei and the other kids all nodded at the same time.
Xin Ya, Han Henian and the others looked at them unkindly.
Zhang Ye continued saying, "If that someone still tries to bully you, you take another step back again." Then with a pause, he said, "But when you realize that you've stepped back too many times and the wall is right behind you now, and they still want to bully you, what do you next?"
A teenager raised his hand sillily, "What should we do?"
“Beat them up of course!" Zhang Ye suddenly came up with an unexpected answer!
Huang Lingling, "........"
Xin Ya, "............"
Han Henian, "........."
Many of the park visitors were totally amused by this!
In the field of educators, only Zhang Ye dared to speak in such a manner. This person was never afraid of big issues, he was only afraid that the issues were not big enough!