Chapter 73: The Enthusiastic Audience

Earlier.

Television Station monitoring department.

Old Wang watched the curve on the monitoring screen. It was rising so frantically that he had already grown numb.

The soaring chart represented that Jiang Zhe's results. Looking at those achievements, Old Wang couldn't help but think of his own good-for-nothing son.

"Television Station online viewers: 3.5 million."

"Livestream online viewers: just broke 800,000."

"Little Jiang is about to finish. It's ten o'clock at night; shouldn't it start dropping now?"

"Why doesn't my Little Wang have this kind of talent? I should find an opportunity to discuss it with Station Manager Zhao and replace Talk Show Host Wenzhang's program with his."

"After all, my kid is in the same field as Little Jiang. He could be considered Little Jiang's [sworn brother]!"

As he thought this, the corners of his mouth couldn't stop curling upward. He figured the Station Manager Zhao would probably agree, right?

Beside him, a young staff member was incredibly envious. He was so envious of those with connections.

He also wished his own father could give him a helping hand.

The young man suddenly had a rush of blood to the head and shouted, "Dad!!"

Hearing this, Old Wang was completely bewildered. "You brat, you don't call me Master, but you call me Dad?"

The young man said awkwardly, "Dad, I want to make progress!"

Seeing the situation, Old Wang understood perfectly and remarked with a sigh, "Young man, seeking connections won't do; you still need to increase your own strength. You're twenty-four and my apprentice; that Jiang Zhe is also twenty-four, yet he can go toe-to-toe with Academicians and the Bronze-tier Professor Hua Yunfeng. Oh right, he can also handle that Ouyang. As far as I know, his name is Ouyang, full name Professor Ouyang Baili; he's a Bronze-tier Professor from Kun City, I'm aware of that."

"I don't care who he's going toe-to-toe with. I only care about this, Uncle Wang; didn't you just say you wanted your son to take over Jiang Zhe's program? I want to progress too!"

"You brat, can those two things be lumped together?"

"Why not? You're my Master!"

"1: He's my biological son."

"2: I was just thinking about it. Do you really think Station Manager Zhao would agree? You naive young lad, I'll clobber you!"

Hearing this, the young man wanted to cry but had no tears.

He was so embarrassed; he wanted to escape, but there was no way out!

Suddenly!

The number of online viewers for both the Television Station and the livestream room surged simultaneously, triggering an alarm.

Old Wang hurriedly focused his gaze.

The Television Station's online viewers broke the 4 million mark in one go.

The livestream room numbers even surpassed the 1 million mark in a single bound.

"What's the situation? Isn't the broadcast over? Why did it suddenly rise again?"

"It's because Teacher Jiang suddenly talked about [Where Do We Go After Death] at the very end, which immediately pulled the ratings back up."

"What? Where do we go after death? He's even talking about that? There's no answer for such a thing. Hasn't anyone reported him for such an exaggerated topic?"

"No one reported him. Even the third caller, Officer Su Cheng, agreed with his views. Moreover, I believe this topic of his will cause quite a stir; it will likely give hope to terminally ill patients."

"I see!"

Old Wang looked pensive, feeling as though the world was about to change.

...

In Su City, within every household.

As Jiang Zhe went offline on the television, the citizens suddenly realized it was already ten o'clock at night.

The two hours had made the public, bombarded by new scientific concepts and paradoxes, feel so refreshed that they had forgotten the time.

But!

People simply hadn't heard enough!

"How did time pass so quickly?"

"Whatever I believe in with unswerving devotion will come true..."

"Su Cheng is a policeman. I found his badge number online; it's real. This really isn't a script; it's for real!"

Because the content was so incredibly inconceivable, many citizens had thought this might be a script, just as the expert Ouyang invited by the Kun City Television Station had claimed.

After they investigated Officer Su Cheng's badge number and found it truly existed at The First Police Station, those viewers finally realized: this wasn't a script, but real content!

The lingering impact continued to rise in the hearts of many citizens and would soon explode!

Soon, Talk Show Host Wenzhang took over with the late-night talk show program.

"Today, the theme of our talk show is: Twins."

"..."

Because the impact of Jiang Zhe's theme this time was simply too great,

The citizens had no desire to see the Talk Show Host: Wenzhang.

They one after another turned off their televisions or moved to online livestream rooms to watch experts interpret Jiang Zhe's remarks.

Today's topic was undoubtedly mind-blowing for many citizens.

From the decryption of the Ship of Theseus to the shattering of Jiang Zhe's thought experiments, to the 'creating humans out of thin air' thought experiment proposed by the disruptive scholar from Kun City Television Station during the Q&A session, and the Soul world mentioned by the third caller Officer Su Cheng...

Every concept analyzed by Jiang Zhe was enough for other provincial TV stations to plagiarize for multiple programs.

However, what left the deepest impression on the people of Su City was the mental world constructed at the moment of death.

Perhaps...

This was the truth!

"If I don't understand this clearly, I can forget about sleeping tonight."

"We must call and make Jiang Zhe extend the session!"

"I've never been this studious in my life!"

"..."

Some people were so anxious that they immediately dialed the Su City Television Station, requesting the station to cancel Talk Show Host Wenzhang's program and increase Jiang Zhe's program duration.

"Please don't be agitated, viewer. You'll have to wait seven days; we will pass the message to Teacher Jiang."

"Sir, please don't act impulsively. Please don't come to burn down our station; our station is innocent..."

"Professor, you're asking me about [Out-of-body] experiments, [Quantum Tunnels], and [Quantum Information]... Sorry, let me use some foul language—holy crap, Professor, I'm just a customer service rep. I got in through connections after finishing middle school. I really don't know what you're talking about! I can't explain it. If I could explain it, I'd be a host! Don't make things difficult for me, thank youuu!"

"..."

Naturally, after the customer service reps answered the calls, they could only constantly comfort the fervent viewers and tell them to watch for next week's broadcast time.

The customer service reps didn't even report this to Wang Guosheng or Station Manager Zhao Ming.

The citizens lingered reluctantly in front of their television sets.

Later, a customer service rep who didn't believe in the hype wondered why the audience was so fervent, so they watched Jiang Zhe's replay with a judgmental gaze while slacking off.

After watching the replay, the customer service department fell silent; everyone's face was full of existential dread.

They knew Jiang Zhe was amazing, but they didn't expect him to be able to explain the world after death so convincingly.

Crucially, it seemed Teacher Jiang would continue to decode the [Soul world] in future programs.

Heavens, what kind of being are we living in the same era with?

This was the heartfelt sentiment of all the customer service reps!

...

Meanwhile, in the online livestream room.

For the sake of ratings, the backstage director had shrunk Talk Show Host Wenzhang's livestream video and placed it in the bottom right corner.

The entire screen was filled with Jiang Zhe's smiling, handsome photo.

It was precisely this screenshot that clearly slowed down the rate at which the number of people in the livestream room was dropping.

The viewers were also discussing with great interest.

"I thought he was only going to talk about the Ship of Theseus today and that it would take two hours. It turns out he finished it in the first twenty minutes. Can someone summarize for me how many other city TV stations the content he covered alone today could support?"

"His solid content is overwhelming. It's impossible to count; class rep, please step forward and let me savor today's content again. I feel like if I watch a few more episodes, I'll become a genius too!"

"The class rep says... he had too many major headings and even more minor details; it's impossible to keep track of it all."

"Mainly, he talked about the world after death at the end. For us, that's a [taboo]. I went online and only found fragments of information; I have no idea if there's any scientific basis at all. My heart is itching; I really want to know."

"Whatever. Anyway, I learned a life philosophy today: as long as I believe with unswerving devotion, even if death appears before me to threaten me, as long as I don't waver in my belief that I'll still be alive after death, I'll be satisfied."

"Exactly. As long as I believe with unswerving devotion that I'll strike it rich in the future, I will strike it rich."

"Brother upstairs, you're being a bit shallow. You might have forgotten a sentence Jiang Zhe said in previous episodes."

"Which sentence?"

"[Only the variables know they are variables; everything else is a Constant]."

"Wuwuwu, you make me sad just by saying that. I'm a Constant; even if I believe with unswerving devotion, it seems I still won't strike it rich."

"Look at how pathetic you are. I earn eighteen hundred a month and I'm happy every day!"

"..."

...

In the lecture hall of Kyoto University of Science.

After Professor Hua Yunfeng, Old Feng, and the other Professors spent a moment savoring the content Jiang Zhe had delivered, they reluctantly left the lecture hall.

You said you'd talk about the Ship of Theseus, so just talk about the Ship of Theseus!

Why did you have to talk about [Cloning], [Who Am I], and the [Soul world] afterward?

It would have been fine if you hadn't mentioned them, but how can we possibly sleep tonight?

Professor Hua Yunfeng remarked with a sigh, "I'm going to have insomnia!"

Professor Feng raised his hand: "Me too."

Many experts cursed inwardly, and even as they walked onto the campus, they looked back reluctantly at the flickering lights of the hall.

"Sigh, let's go, let's go. See you in seven days!"