sinovels Chapter 24 The End of the China Daily: A Bunch of Clowns
Chapter 24 The End of the China Daily: A Bunch of Clowns
Meanwhile, in the conference room on the top floor of the administration building at Hong Kong City University, the atmosphere was so heavy it was almost palpable.
Principal Lin Zheng tapped his knuckles on the mahogany tabletop, producing a dull sound.
The ashtray in front of him was already piled high with extinguished cigarette butts.
"How's the situation?" Lin Zheng asked, his voice laced with suppressed anger.
The head of the publicity department sitting opposite him pushed up his glasses, his face full of exhaustion and helplessness.
"It's not optimistic. The other side is organized and has a clear division of labor. We just released a clarification statement, and within five minutes it was flooded with a massive amount of spam comments, and then reported and deleted."
"We contacted the platform and requested the removal of those malicious and rumor-mongering comments, but the speed at which posts were deleted could not keep up with the speed at which they were posted."
Another vice principal added, "I just spoke with several media friends, and they all said that this is a very complicated situation, with more than one company behind it, and even the shadow of foreign capital."
Lin Zheng stopped tapping his fingers, looked up, and glanced around at the worried-looking people in the conference room.
"You guys keep figuring out the publicity stuff. I only have one thing on my mind right now."
He stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the brightly lit campus.
"How is that student named Lu Feng feeling? Has anyone tried to comfort him?"
The propaganda minister paused for a moment, then quickly replied, "Professor Li Hongde and his counselor have already contacted him, and the feedback is that the student himself is in a stable mood and does not seem to have been greatly affected."
"That's good." Lin Zheng's voice softened a bit. "Our University of Hong Kong can forgo this opportunity for publicity, but we must not discourage a genius."
He turned around and said, enunciating each word clearly, "Tell the PR team to temporarily set aside all counterattacks and focus all their efforts on protecting the student's information. He absolutely cannot be affected by online harassment. This is a direct order!"
"Even if the sky falls, the school will hold it up for him!"
Just as the senior management of Hong Kong City University was struggling to cope with this sudden media storm.
In a heavily guarded military compound in Beijing, a thousand miles away.
An elderly man with gray hair was sitting in his study, watching a video playing repeatedly on the screen.
In the video, the silver-gray exoskeleton gleams with a metallic sheen under the lights, and the closing of each joint and the transmission of power are so captivating.
"Interesting." The old man picked up his teacup and gently blew on the tea leaves floating on the surface of the water.
Behind him, a middle-aged man in military uniform stood respectfully, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead.
"Sir, according to our preliminary analysis, the nonlinear shock absorption system and human-machine collaborative algorithm of this exoskeleton are at least three to five years ahead of our current research projects."
"In particular, his approach to dynamic modeling completely breaks out of our existing framework and has extremely high practical value."
The old man didn't speak, but watched the scene again, showing his arm remaining completely still after Lu Feng fired the cannon.
"Have you found out anything? What's this young man's background?"
"I've found out." The middle-aged man immediately handed over a document. "Lu Feng is nineteen years old, a freshman in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Gangcheng University. His family background is very ordinary; his parents are both ordinary workers with nothing special about them."
"Ordinary?" The old man put down his teacup and chuckled softly.
"To be able to create something like this by hand in one's freshman year of college is anything but ordinary."
He stood up, walked to his desk, picked up a red pencil, and drew a heavy circle around Lu Feng's name.
"Such talent shouldn't be ruined by those messy things."
He turned his head, looked at the people behind him, and gave a short but forceful order.
"Use all available resources to protect him."
"yes!"
The middle-aged man straightened his body, gave a standard military salute, and turned to leave quickly.
Almost at the same time that the order was issued, in the conference room of Hong Kong University.
Just as the propaganda minister was preparing to report on the latest public opinion trends, the meeting room door was suddenly pushed open, and a young public relations staff member rushed in, panting, holding a tablet computer in his hand.
"Principal Lin... Principal Lin!"
Lin Zheng frowned, about to reprimand him for his rudeness, but then he saw an incredulous look on the other man's face.
"What's wrong? Tell me slowly, the sky isn't falling down."
"It collapsed! No! It's... it's gone!" The young employee stammered, rushing to the conference table and placing the tablet in front of Lin Zheng.
"Look! All those posts on Weibo that were attacking us are gone!"
"What?" Lin Zheng and everyone present crowded around.
On the screen, the trending topics list on Weibo was refreshed, and the several topics that were previously on the list, such as "HKU's publicity stunt" and "exoskeleton fraud", disappeared without a trace.
The propaganda minister quickly typed keywords into the search box, but the result was blank.
"It's not gone, it's been wiped clean!" He gasped. "My people were just following up, and just five minutes ago, all related negative topics and posts were instantly erased from the entire internet!"
"Who did this? Our people don't have the ability, and the platform couldn't possibly cooperate so thoroughly!" a vice principal exclaimed.
The young employee's fingers trembled as he swiped to open another page.
At the very top of the page was a verified account with a gold V badge. The account's name made the air in the entire conference room freeze instantly.
China Daily.
This media outlet, representing the highest mouthpiece of the state, not only reposted Lu Feng's match video but also added a concise commentary.
A strong youth makes a strong nation. Daring to innovate and courageous in practice—this is the spirit of contemporary youth. We applaud Lu Feng and look forward to his future works.
Lin Zheng gasped.
No wonder... no wonder the online discussion suddenly disappeared.
The Internet is not a place outside the law.
That night, the entire Chinese internet landscape underwent a magical reversal.
Those "science popularization influencers" who had previously been jumping around and making vehement arguments about "conservation of energy" deleted all their Weibo posts overnight and disappeared without a trace.
Those accounts that claimed "it already exists overseas" were found by netizens to have their IP addresses located overseas.
The comments section took a completely different turn.
"Hahaha! The clowns are dumbfounded, aren't they? See? The China Daily has personally joined in!"
"Where's that traitorous dog who's been jumping around like a dog? Come out and show yourself! Why are you quiet now?"
"I knew it! Such an awesome design couldn't possibly be fake! Support Lufeng! Bring glory to the nation!"
On foreign forums, those foreigners who were originally waiting to see the joke were completely shocked after the article from China Daily was translated and sent to them.
"Oh my God! It's real? The state media confirmed it!"
"A first-year college student? Building an exoskeleton in his dorm? This is insane!"