1071 History Repeats Itself (1/2)

With Vladimir's reminder, Zhang Zian took a look at the author of the article. But even though he did so, it was useless. He didn't know this person, and he had never heard the name.

”It doesn't matter who they are. Anyone who can publish an article in a newspaper of this scale will definitely be someone with a lot of influence.” Zhang Zian shook his head. ”I think we should confirm with our editors how bad the issue is…”

”No, something's not right,” Vladimir interrupted him, insistent. ”We should check first who this person is, and what his motive was for doing something like this.”

Zhang Zian knew that Vladimir had a strategic mind, and there was no harm in checking either, so he opened the browser and entered that name.

They immediately got a shock from the results.

Zhang Zian sucked in a cold breath, muttering, ”This is the ex-principal of the Nameless Lake University, and he is currently retired. He's said to be a descendant of Zhu Xi, and his predecessors have always been scholars. He's a smart and hardworking guy and has been since he was young. He had a lot of expectations from his family from a young age, and they had even broken tradition and named him 'Ji Sheng,' meaning 'To learn the ways of the honored, and to bring peace to the world.'”

If Zhang Zian were to write his own resume, it might only be a few sentences long. But the information that you could check online about this person was at least a few thousand words long. Just his positions and responsibilities that he had held, or was currently holding, were around thirty, a dizzying amount. If you included the awards and honors that he had received too, you would lose the motivation to even be jealous and envious of him.

”Hahaha! That's hilarious!”

Zhang Zian still hadn't finished the whole list of titles, but Vladimir had already collapsed on the floor in laughter.

Pi was even more dumbfounded, even upset, thinking that Vladimir was making fun of it.

”This… Vladimir, why are you laughing? What's so hilarious?” Zhang Zian asked, hinting to him to consider Pi's feelings with his eyes.

Vladimir finally ended its maniacal laughter, standing up and saying a little hoarsely, ”He's just a scholar, and he dares pride himself on 'To learn the ways of the honoured, and to bring peace to the world'? How dare he?”

Zhang Zian didn't understand. ”Don't belittle this man,” he said. ”A person with a great reputation definitely has some skills in them. From what we've checked online, this person's definitely well-read and well-respected. He has students all around the world, within and outside of China. Many of them are working in the government, big organizations, or even the Fortune 500. He doesn't have many public speeches, but each one would cause a ripple through the world!”

Vladimir's smile gradually turned colder and colder. It raised a paw and slammed it firmly onto the tabletop to punctuate its next words. ”I only know that if you walk the wrong path, the more you know, the more they will work against you!”

Zhang Zian said nothing.

It turned to Pi. ”I respect authors because authors are engineers of the human soul,” it explained. ”But I don't like scholars because some of them only know how to twist the truth, write some weird passages that come from the depths of hell, and throw shade at people they don't like! What 'learning the ways of the honored'? These old men haven't understood that times have changed and only care about upholding tradition even if they know better!”

Both Zhang Zian and Pi had their mouths hanging open.

He recalled Vladimir's response the first time he saw Professor Wei Kang and its comment about Professor Wei Kang's strong academia vibes, and he finally understood why… It had never liked scholars much in the first place.

But Wei Kang's main focus was natural sciences, and those would never be outdated.