TWWMABMTBH Chapter 37

Chapter 37: The Upswing After a Deliberate Downturn

In the following days, these academic elites finally experienced the horror of having their social circles dominated by a WeChat business.

To be fair, Rong Ziyan didn’t post on his social feed too frequently. However, he was so ruthless!

He never posted during meal times. Instead, he always timed his late-night food posts to coincide with when people started craving midnight snacks.

In just one night, almost every academic who received Rong Ziyan’s messages provided him with a stunned value, totaling over five thousand.

However, compared to the emotional value provided by netizens online, it was a far cry.

It turned out that the production team had aired the footage of their visit to Rong Ziyan. Rong Ziyan’s typically ruthless response had stunned almost all the viewers in front of their screens.

“Holy crap! I feel like I’m back in high school being crushed by the top students in my class.”

“Me too. Seriously, the questions were hard enough already, and I wanted to comfort them after they were done, but then I looked down at my failing papers and all I could think was that I don’t deserve it.”

“Stop it, we all experience the same suffering.”

At the same time, the production team also released the trailer for the three students from the agricultural university. The entire thing lasted about half an hour, and everyone who watched it was shocked.

Because the trailer not only introduced the agricultural university but also revealed the resumes of Rong Ziyan and his two teammates.

Contrary to their assumptions of a “rural university” where students spent their days farming and were practically villagers, the actual agricultural university, like other prestigious universities, not only had a long history but also cultivated a group of very outstanding students.

Yao Lele, the beautiful senior from the landscape architecture department, was the youngest designer in China to be nominated for the World Landscape Design Awards. Not only was she nominated for the first prize, but one of the judges was so impressed by her entry that they bought the design for a high price.

Xu Chuanzhi, the seemingly honest academic from the mechanical engineering department, was equally impressive. He was a three-time consecutive winner of the China University Student Mechanical Modeling Competition and had also participated in international competitions as a reserve member of the national team. He seemed unassuming, but his home was filled with trophies.

As for Rong Ziyan, he was the most mysterious of the three.

Due to the unique nature of the veterinary medicine department, Rong Ziyan didn’t have as many competitive experiences as the other two. However, he was just as formidable.

Rong Ziyan was exceptionally brought into the research group by his mentor in his second year, and for the following two years, Rong Ziyan’s name was the third author on every paper published by his mentor, showing Rong Ziyan’s position in the research group.

And Rong Ziyan’s mentor was indeed one of the most prominent figures in the research community of his generation, proving Rong Ziyan’s excellence.

So these were all genuine academic elites!

With this revelation, all the netizens who had previously claimed that Rong Ziyan was either guessing or had inside information about the program were completely dumbfounded.

What followed was a chorus of complaints about how terrible the production team was!

They thought to themselves, such amazing students should have been revealed earlier, why hide it? Were they out of their minds?

However, they could never know that this was part of the production team’s strategy. Although it was a common face-slapping routine, they played the “low before high” tactic so well and created the desired show effect.

As expected, because of the trailer, the production team once again grabbed a free trending search topic. As for the viewers who had been “face-slapped” by Rong Ziyan, they were surprisingly not very resistant to him and instead became very excited for him.

After all, Rong Ziyan was the first special person to bring his “children” onto the show. The production team had gone to great lengths to get him to participate, even bringing his geese into the garden.

And Rong Ziyan’s line from the interview, “My geese have grown up,” also quickly became a new internet meme, even spawning into a series of emojis.

However, the system, which had been paying close attention to the internet, was furious. It thought the production team was trash. If Rong Ziyan didn’t have real skills, this wave would have caused netizens to criticize him severely.

But the truth was, Rong Ziyan hadn’t even wanted to participate in the show. It was clearly the production team who had begged him to join.

The system couldn’t help but “spit” in disgust.

Rong Ziyan didn’t care, “Isn’t this great? Look, a million gold coins, that’s the empire we’ve built in the past two days.”

“That’s because you got scolded!” The system felt sorry for Rong Ziyan, thinking that it was not worth it.

Rong Ziyan, seeing this, suggested, “Hey, don’t think about it, how about we do a lottery draw to cheer ourselves up?”

The system became even more upset, “Are you worried that you don’t have enough salted duck eggs to sell?”

Rong Ziyan: “Don’t talk nonsense, I’m just trying to set a good mood.”

As he spoke, Rong Ziyan did a ten-pull in the lottery.

As expected, it was a row of ninety salted duck eggs and a guaranteed goose egg at the end.

The system silently watched Rong Ziyan neatly place the salted duck eggs in his suitcase, filling in the gaps left from the sales to the youth class, and instantly shut down.

Rong Ziyan, however, slowly opened his phone, sent out new emojis and advertising copy, and began a new round of sales.

[We have no words, It’s all because you have money]

When it came to WeChat business, Rong Ziyan was definitely a professional.

As a result, in just two days, Rong Ziyan’s salted duck eggs had quickly spread to every corner of the production team. Even Rong Ziyan’s producer became a loyal customer.

As for the academic elites, just seeing them secretly take out salted duck eggs from their pockets to eat with their porridge in the morning was proof that none of them had escaped Rong Ziyan’s clutches.

Even the marketing team gave Rong Ziyan a title: “The Little Tyrant of Sales in Beijing,” thinking that all the companies that had gone bankrupt due to unsold products just needed someone like Rong Ziyan.

To have Rong Ziyan was to have the world, he was even more miraculous than Zhuge Liang, the Crouching Dragon of the Three Kingdoms.

However, even though his WeChat business was going so smoothly, Rong Ziyan and his team were still there to compete.

Early on the third day, the production team announced the list of the next contestants and the scope of the competition.

As everyone had guessed, the main theme of the next competition was “Humanity and Nature.”

Simply put, everything related to humanities, geographical environment, and ecology was included in this scope.

As soon as the topic was announced, almost everyone was stunned and subconsciously looked at Rong Ziyan and his teammates.

As everyone knew, after the mock exam, Rong Ziyan had taken the lead, ranking first and suppressing the academic expert in geography and humanities. He had also accepted their challenge. Back then, many people had been skeptical of Rong Ziyan.

The mock exam only tested the general knowledge range of the contestants, but real competitions relied on the depth of their respective specialties.

With just the three of them on Rong Ziyan’s team, even if Rong Ziyan was incredibly talented, the other two wouldn’t stand a chance.

Now that the full scope had been released, it was obvious that Rong Ziyan’s team would surely lose.

“Senior, the remaining members of their team are studying environmental protection.” The team leader of the youth class, who lived next door, couldn’t help but whisper a warning to Rong Ziyan.

He spoke softly, but the surrounding area was too quiet.

The faces of Yao Lele and Xu Chuanzhi, the other two members of Rong Ziyan’s team, immediately turned ugly and they subconsciously looked at Rong Ziyan.

System: Damn it, this production team is really toxic! Isn’t this topic blatantly biased towards the humanities and geography department?

Rong Ziyan: Yes, they’re doing this on purpose, for the hype.

According to the production team’s rules, even if they failed this challenge, they wouldn’t immediately lose their chance. They could come back later.

Clearly, this was for a “low before high” show effect. But in reality, Rong Ziyan’s team couldn’t afford this “low” point at all.

Because they represented the agricultural university, and on their shoulders were the glory of tens of thousands of students from their school!

If they couldn’t make a name for themselves in the first competition, even if they could make excuses about their non-major backgrounds, they would still cast a shadow on the agricultural university’s reputation.

They were all from key universities, how could they possibly allow themselves to be inferior to others?

It was clear that Yao Lele and Xu Chuanzhi also realized the production team’s little trick, and their emotions were almost out of control.

After the meeting ended, the three of them sat in Rong Ziyan’s room. Yao Lele was the first to explode.

“F*ck this garbage production team, I’m not recording!” She had been pushed to her limit. Even someone as soft-spoken as Yao Lele couldn’t help but swear.

Xu Chuanzhi tried clumsily to persuade her, but the more he tried, the angrier Yao Lele became. In the end, he could only turn to Rong Ziyan for help.

But then he saw Rong Ziyan was holding a pen and seemed to be writing something on paper.

“Hey, hey, I’m saying, Rong Bro, you should try to talk her out of it!” Because the three of them had gotten closer lately, after Xu Chuanzhi found out that Rong Ziyan was actually a month older than him, he subconsciously started calling him Rong Bro.

Yao Lele also noticed this detail and looked over. She found that Rong Ziyan was actually writing down book titles on the paper.

“Don’t talk,” Rong Ziyan interrupted their conversation, closed his eyes as if he was thinking, and then quickly wrote down another series of book titles.

What was he doing? Yao Lele and Xu Chuanzhi looked at each other, both seeing confusion in each other’s eyes.

But only the system knew that Rong Ziyan was reviewing. He was reviewing the scope of the previous mock exam questions, trying to find the source of the questions for this round.

System: But host, how can you be sure the questions come from these books?

Rong Ziyan: The production team has limited funds, and the real big shots in the research community wouldn’t come to them every round to write the test questions. So they must be taken from some books. Haven’t you noticed, all the questions in this show are fill-in-the-blanks and multiple-choice questions with unique answers?

System: But are you sure they are from these books?

Rong Ziyan: I can only roughly confirm that the answers are in these books. I worked at the Beijing Library before, and I’ve read through almost all of the humanities and social sciences books.

So, even after more than two years, Rong Ziyan still remembered? Goodness, what kind of host did it bind to?!

After another ten minutes, Rong Ziyan finally finished organizing the related books, and at the same time placed the list in front of Yao Lele and Xu Chuanzhi.

“Is this question prediction?” Yao Lele was taken aback.

Rong Ziyan nodded, “Yes! Now, we can only bet on our luck.”

“But how are you so sure they’re from these books!” Yao Lele was also very knowledgeable and immediately realized that Rong Ziyan’s question prediction method was based on the previous mock exam questions.

But many books in humanities and social sciences had similar content. What if Rong Ziyan made the wrong prediction?

They only had limited time, if they chose the wrong books, it would be over!

Xu Chuanzhi was even more distraught than the other two, because he had not read any of the more than thirty books that Rong Ziyan had listed. He was a science major!

“So are we going to give up?” Rong Ziyan asked bluntly.

The two of them fell silent.

“We must take on this challenge.”

“Then why did you accept that person’s challenge? They have three people! All three of them are in the same major as the competition! Are you crazy?!” Yao Lele’s suppressed emotions were about to get out of control again.

Rong Ziyan asked her again, “If we’re going to lose anyway, do you think it’s better to lose to a stronger opponent or to be completely crushed into the dirt?”

“…” Yao Lele lowered her head and fell silent. She understood that Rong Ziyan was right.

This competition, with the production team’s hidden manipulation, they were bound to lose. Rong Ziyan’s choice was the most correct one.

But even so, she was not willing to accept this. Where was the fairness that they were promised? Why had they decided on their failure before even starting?

And if they could accept this, could the agricultural university accept this? Screw this “low before high” tactic, if they really wanted to get popular fast, with her and Rong Ziyan’s looks, wouldn’t participating in a talent show to debut based on looks be faster? Why stay in the laboratory for years?

Thinking about the expectations of her classmates in the forum these past few days, Yao Lele’s eyes suddenly turned red.

Xu Chuanzhi felt even more powerless.

Rong Ziyan, however, remained calm. It was only after their emotions had cooled down that he put the book list in front of them again. “Let’s take a gamble, we might have a fighting chance.”

“Is it going to work?” Xu Chuanzhi lowered his head, feeling like the pressure had crushed his shoulders.

Rong Ziyan: “Before you were scrambling to finish your papers, did you think you would be able to finish them?”

“…No.”

“But you all still finished them on time!”

“One week, and forty books.”

“How do we know it’s impossible without trying?”

“Or are we really just going to give up and cry in front of the cameras during the live broadcast, apologizing to the agricultural university?”

“Absolutely not!” Yao Lele and Xu Chuanzhi immediately retorted.

Rong Ziyan smiled, “Then let’s start now! If I’m not mistaken, these books should all be available in the dormitory library.”

“How do you know?” Xu Chuanzhi found it very strange.

“I went there to check it out on the first day I arrived, and I even borrowed two books to read.”

“Really? When was that?” Xu Chuanzhi and Yao Lele were both shocked, “Weren’t you always busy with your WeChat business?”

“I was doing the WeChat business!” Rong Ziyan pointed to the two books he had borrowed on his desk: “The Success of WeChat Business” and “How to Better Develop Your Social Circle.”