Lei Jun's Weibo post featured the cover of the print edition of Kuala Lumpur Affairs, along with the Xiaomi phone camera logo, of course.
"President Lei, you're a top student too?"
"Is this mutual appreciation between academic geniuses?"
"Too amazing. This miserable lab rat of a researcher saw this Weibo post in the lab and nearly cried. We're both human, so why are you such a show-off?"
"Two Nature papers as an undergraduate? Are you even human?"
"Absolutely ruthless. I finally understood what my advisor meant when he said that some people look human but are actually monkeys, while some people look human but may not actually be human."
"I used to think I was human. Now it seems that compared to real humans, I'm a monkey."
Netizens could keep the monkey-versus-human joke going for a whole year.
The Jiang City University of Science and Technology admissions staff were grinning from ear to ear. Nothing beat traffic falling from the sky like this.
Just ask yourselves whether Jiang City University of Science and Technology had this kind of traffic!
When they went to recruit students in provinces and cities across the country, their backs could stand more than twice as straight.
Kuala Lumpur Affairs had been published in the first half of the year, but its release had been rather quiet. Its biggest promotional hook had been Da Liu's recommendation printed on the cover:
"The perfect combination of science fiction and detective fiction. Both the world it creates and the schemes it designs feel remarkably real."
Once the news media linked 2477 with Chen Yuanguang and reported Chen Yuanguang's illustrious achievements, sales of Kuala Lumpur Affairs immediately began climbing rapidly.
The movie had not even been released yet. Did people still look down on books?
This was Zhihu's golden age. The big names had not yet departed, fresh blood was constantly pouring in, and Zhihu had not yet gone mad with profiteering.
The quality of the answers there was still very high.
"How should we view Chen Yuanguang? Is he manufactured hype, or a true god?"
"Thanks for the invitation. The promotion has been so intense lately that I downloaded the electronic editions of Nature and skimmed through the two Nature papers he published.
First, the conclusion: judging from the papers alone, he was unquestionably a true god. His first paper was about simulated protein evolution. He was listed as both first author and corresponding author, while the second author was Michael Levitt, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. There were no other collaborators.
His second paper was about analyzing small-scale materials data—inputting some of a material's properties and inferring its other properties. Again, he was both first author and corresponding author. The second author was Professor Bawendi from MIT, another top-tier giant in chemistry.
If this were manufactured hype, then unless he was the biological son of those two giants, why would they give him first authorship? Money alone could not move Nobel Prize winners.
I checked his Google Scholar profile. He also had a result published in a Nature subsidiary journal. If Nature subsidiary journals count as Nature, then he had already published three Nature papers.
Not second author. Not third author. Every one of them was first author.
A true god without question. As for Kuala Lumpur Affairs, I have not read it yet. Scientific achievements and writing ability are not especially related. I'll come back to fill this in after I finish the book."
About four hours later, the author of that answer returned to fill in the gap:
"Continuing from above: it was incredible. For a debut author to write at this level was truly incredible. We tend to assume that science fiction novels are defined by the science fiction, instinctively associating them with stars, seas, and spaceships. In reality, science fiction does not necessarily need those elements.
In the world he created, future technology was used to murder. How did the killer use future technology to evade artificial intelligence, and how did the detective use human wisdom to convict him? The game between humans, and the game between humans and AI—it was absolutely thrilling.
Moreover, the world he depicted was very plausible. It made me feel that the future really might reach that point. I'm really looking forward to the film adaptation!"
Zhihu was flooded with questions about Chen Yuanguang, all filled with praise.
All of China worshipped academic credentials severely. Whether on the men's-room forum Tieba or the women's-room Weibo, if you graduated from a prestigious school, everyone would look at you more favorably. Zhihu was even more obvious—the community in China with the most severe degree worship.
Once Chen Yuanguang's academic credentials had been verified as genuine, the platform was filled with nothing but praise. Kuala Lumpur Affairs might not be an enduring classic like Three-Body, but it was still a rare masterpiece in the science-fiction detective genre. No one needed to blush while praising it.
From Zhihu to Tieba and then to Weibo, a wave of public discussion quickly swept across the internet.
Jiang City University of Science and Technology was positively delighted. To them, it meant one more famous alumnus. For Science Fiction World Publishing, however, the feelings were rather mixed.
The publishing industry itself was not profitable. Even though Science Fiction World had one of the country's foremost brands and was the undisputed number one in science fiction, it still did not make money.
They had finally held a Science Fiction New Star Competition and produced a breakout hit in Kuala Lumpur Affairs. They were responsible for publishing it, and selling more than a million copies seemed no problem—but how could that compare with the money to be made from filming it?
Even if they sold a million copies, after costs, they could earn at most twenty million yuan. That was not even a fraction of the returns from a blockbuster movie.
"We keep talking about transformation, about transforming into film and television copyright adaptations. Now that a ready-made opportunity is right in front of us, we failed to seize it.
First, we missed The Wandering Earth and the screen rights to Da Liu's works. This time, we missed Kuala Lumpur Affairs as well. It isn't that we lack opportunities—we lack the ability to seize them.
If this continues, then no matter how many competitions we hold or how much talent we discover, we will not enjoy the dividends brought by any of it." The chairman of the company behind Science Fiction World flew into a rage at an internal meeting.
Goose Factory's promotional strategy, meanwhile, moved like thunder, throwing out bombshell after bombshell.
They first used Chen Yuanguang to ignite public discussion, then released the news that Guo Fan would direct Kuala Lumpur Affairs.
"Guo Fan is on board. Now I'm relieved. Kuala Lumpur Affairs shouldn't get butchered beyond recognition."
"Is Wu Jing starring in it? Can it come out sooner? It feels like ants are crawling all over me."
"Is the door closed by Shanghai Fortress finally going to open again? After this one is made, can we please not close it again?"
"I'll hold off for now. The lineup looks incredible, but Shanghai Fortress hurt me too badly. I'll decide whether to watch it after Douban gives it a score."
After Goose Factory unleashed its promotional one-two punch, Maoyan Entertainment's box-office prediction module swiftly raised its expectations for Kuala Lumpur Affairs. Its projected box office rocketed directly from 200 million yuan to 2 billion yuan—a tenfold increase.
Chen Yuanguang glanced at the Excel sheet Lin Jia had sent him. It listed his schedule after the movie's release. There was not much on it: two interviews and two in-person meet-and-greets at theaters.
Of the two offline meet-and-greets, one would be held at Meiyuan Playground at Jiang City University of Science and Technology, while the other would be at Wanda on Jianghan Road.
They had clearly taken his commute into full consideration. Compared with the other lead actors and the director, his amount of promotional work was practically nothing.
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