Proclamation and Cyberpunk

The three of them returned to the dorm.

Only Liu Zhihong and Yang Hao were in the room, playing chess.

Xie Yang shoved the broken suitcase under the bed and asked his two roommates who were playing chess, "Where are the other three?"

"They went to the classroom to review," Liu Zhihong said, slamming a chess piece down. "Cannon behind the horse, check!"

Yang Hao scratched his head in frustration.

Liu Zhihong sat on the edge of the bed, picking at his feet, and said smugly, " obediently give me your chariot to eat."

Chen Guiliang stood by, observing the two of them.

In his impression, Liu Zhihong and Yang Hao were like missing persons, completely disappearing after high school graduation.

After watching for a while, Chen Guiliang grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower. He felt sticky all over.

This dilapidated dorm building didn't have private bathrooms. Each floor shared one toilet and one bathroom (which also served as a laundry room).

Naturally, there were no water heaters or bath heaters. Students had to go to the boiler room to get hot water.

Chen Guiliang didn't even bother getting hot water. He had taken cold showers for three years in high school.

Even in the snowy depths of winter, it was the same.

Because hot water cost 2 mao per kettle, Chen Guiliang felt it was too wasteful.

At this moment, someone was doing laundry in the bathroom and greeted him proactively, "Chen Daxia is taking a shower!"

"How did you do on the exam today?" Chen Guiliang had forgotten who this person was, so he could only say some meaningless words.

The person rubbed soap on their clothes and scrubbed for a while. "It went okay."

Chen Guiliang placed his bucket on the laundry sink and casually turned on the faucet.

While filling the bucket with cold water, he took off his clothes and pants, and shook his impressive "big bird".

The student doing laundry happened to turn around and see, immediately feeling inferior.

After filling the bucket halfway, Chen Guiliang poured the water over his head.

Hiss!

Tomorrow was "Lidong" (Start of Winter). Having cold water suddenly poured over his head was truly an exhilarating experience.

He hadn't done this in nearly twenty years, and Chen Guiliang found it quite interesting.

He didn't even buy shampoo, just rubbed soap on his head. After scrubbing his hair for a while, the second bucket of cold water was already full.

Chen Guiliang shivered. This time, he was too lazy to use the bucket and just stuck his head under the faucet to rinse directly.

After finishing his shower, he was trembling all over.

It didn't matter if he caught a cold or a fever from the cold. He could tough it out without taking medicine.

Left-behind children from the countryside had cheap lives but also tough lives. Like weeds growing in cracks in rocks, sunlight and water were luxuries, but a tiny chance was enough for them to survive.

Stuffing his changed clothes into the bucket, Chen Guiliang shuffled back to the dorm in his slippers.

There was no hairdryer.

His wet hair was left to air dry naturally.

Xie Yang was currently lying on his bed reading Purple River, and Xu Haibo was reviewing for the comprehensive liberal arts exam tomorrow.

Chen Guiliang took out paper and a pen, planning to write his submission for the competition.

Chen Guiliang was quite good at writing articles.

He majored in journalism in college and interned at a major newspaper in the south while still in school. After graduation, he covered social news and even worked as an undercover reporter for two years.

Because his articles were maliciously edited by the editor to stir up social conflict, he angrily chose to resign and was introduced by a friend to work as an editor at a magazine.

Then, the traditional media industry fell into decline. After only half a year as an editor, the magazine closed down.

Next, Chen Guiliang joined a portal website.

But that portal website also gradually declined. Out of necessity, Chen Guiliang jumped ship to a gaming company.

In the gaming industry back then, it was a time of rapid growth, and promotions were fast if you did well. He first worked in the marketing department, then transferred to the operations department, and became deputy director of operations in three years.

The operations department of a gaming company seemed to have great power on the surface, but in reality, they couldn't make decisions about anything. And once a problem arose, they had to take the blame for the R&D and marketing departments!

Chen Guiliang, who had grown into a seasoned scapegoat, was finally fired by his boss because of a major issue.

Middle-aged, unemployed, and divorced – a double blow.

Chen Guiliang, who had given up on himself, took his marital assets and partnered with three friends to start a gaming company.

Full of ambition.

Lost everything!

Just when they were at their wits' end, a friend who was a middle manager at Shanda asked if they needed the official authorization for Legend.

By paying Shanda 150,000 yuan per month, they could freely modify it into a web game or mobile game. They could even legally open private servers, as long as the version wasn't ahead of the official one.

Because they entered the Legend mobile game market relatively early, this broken game actually made them a fortune.

Next, they got into reskinning web and mobile games, specifically for the Middle Eastern tycoon market—the kind like Sultan's XX.

Including Chen Guiliang, all four shareholders achieved financial freedom.

With success came internal strife.

There was a heap of messy, trivial matters that infuriated Chen Guiliang to the point of giving up, cultivating his character, and picking up his literary dream again. He even went to Qidian and wrote two books that flopped.

So, what should he write for the competition submission?

The initial screening for the preliminary round was handled by the editors of Sprout.

They had too many manuscripts to read through, so the article had to grab attention right from the beginning.

Chen Guiliang sat at his desk, thinking carefully. His gaze suddenly fell upon the contents of a newspaper. It was an old newspaper from half a year ago, spread out on the table by the window, serving as a tablecloth.

Headline: The US Invades Iraq!

Inspiration struck instantly.

Xu Haibo was sitting on the other side of the table, originally reviewing for tomorrow's exam. Suddenly hearing Chen Guiliang writing non-stop, he curiously got up and walked over to see.

The more he read, the more surprised he became, even dumbfounded.

But he didn't dare to disturb Chen Guiliang's creative process. Only after the article was finished did Xu Haibo suddenly shout loudly, "Come quickly, everyone! Chen Daxia's article is amazing!"

"What the hell are you making a fuss about?"

Xie Yang, who was happily reading a novel, first cursed at Xu Haibo, then slowly sauntered over and began to read aloud:

"A Call to Arms Against American Aggression in Iraq. George W. Bush, the ruler of the United States, is inherently cruel and his actions are truly tyrannical. In the past, he relied on strength to bully the weak; now, he fabricates disasters to harm the people. He harbors the malicious intent of seizing oil and secretly manipulates global power. Outwardly, he claims freedom, but inwardly, he harbors gluttonous desires..."

"As for Iraq, it is an ancient land of two rivers, a former nation of the Fertile Crescent... Yet the scoundrels in the White House fabricated false evidence of biological weapons and spread baseless claims of uranium bombs... Ten thousand lives became new ghosts, and a thousand years of civilization plunged into the abyss..."

"In the past, King Zhou of Shang was tyrannical, and the army at Muye turned against him; the Nazis were rampant, and Berlin surrendered. Today, the tyranny of the American Empire far surpasses that of Jie and Zhou, and its cunning exceeds even the Axis powers..."

"All those with blood and spirit are not without indignation. How can those with a conscience sit idly by... Blood-stained dollars will eventually backfire; a crown woven of lies will surely fall into the dirt. The sunset over the White House already shows the remnants of an empire; the falling Stars and Stripes await the manifestation of justice! This call to arms is spread throughout the world, so that all may know."

This kind of article was not uncommon.

Anyone with a decent foundation in classical Chinese could write it.

But in the eyes of a group of high school students, it was a masterpiece of astonishing talent.

After finishing reading the article, Xie Yang actually forgot to toss his hair and act cool. He was stunned for a few seconds before saying, "Damn it, how did you write something so awesome?"

Liu Zhihong snatched the article and reread it, reading it twice before saying, "Son of a gun, no wonder you always get full marks on essays."

Yang Hao's personality was more introverted. He racked his brains for a long time, then gave Chen Guiliang a thumbs-up and said, "Chen Daxia wrote it so well, he'll definitely get first prize. He's simply the second Guo Xiaosi of our school!"

The second Guo Xiaosi...

Chen Guiliang felt very awkward hearing that, as if he had been insulted.

"I want to copy this article down!" Xu Haibo looked full of admiration, wishing he could take the article and publicize it throughout the school.

High school students were still relatively simple. As long as you truly had ability, you could win them over completely.

Chen Guiliang ignored his roommates' compliments and sat there, beginning to conceive his second submission.

He had bought four copies of Sprout, and he could cut out the submission pages and submit four different articles.

It was best not to touch miscellaneous essays, especially those that went against the mainstream ideology.

Who knew what kind of people were among the editors?

Even the famous writers who were judges in the final round were more or less influenced by neoliberalism.

It wasn't that they were all traitors, but they had long been subtly influenced; the limitations of the era were there. Didn't Yu Xiaogou exclaim how amazing Mo Sang's Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out was after reading it back then?

Chen Guiliang had no interest in engaging in a war of words with them. He just wanted to get into a prestigious university through the New Concept Competition.

A war of words was useless, just a waste of ink.

Chen Guiliang had worked in the Southern media for a few years and knew too well what those people were like. He himself had been one of them and only realized the truth after his manuscripts were maliciously altered, prompting him to quickly jump out of that cesspool.

When China's economy took off and the West also became weak, most people would naturally change their views.

Those who remained stubborn could be considered traitors and kicked a couple of times.

Chen Guiliang glanced at Xie Yang, who was trying to quit the internet, and picked up his pen to write his second submission: My Cyber Home.

This was a cyberpunk short story, only about 5000 characters long, which could be expanded into a full-length novel at any time.

(Organizing a petition against the school makes people excited, while carrying a load of bamboo shoots into the city to sell makes people feel ashamed. There is still a big difference between the two, and these are all Old Wang's personal experiences. It's a pity that when old classmates reunited more than ten years later and brought up the matter of the petition for computer fees back then, most of the classmates no longer remembered it.)

(Many of the first hundred thousand characters of this book are based on Old Wang's personal experiences, with the timeline deliberately moved forward by two or three years. Some parts were exaggerated during writing. Some were deliberately weakened because reality was too outrageous to pass censorship.)

(Thanks to the great lords Zhexian Qitian and Xuanyuan Qinghuan for their Alliance Leader rewards.)