360: Chapter 360: He swept the New Year's rankings to second place!

New Year's Eve, 10:00 PM.

The online world was even livelier than reality.

After several hours of fermentation, the trending search lists on major social platforms were quickly occupied by Jiang Zhe giving remedial lessons to the professors.

The Xia Kingdom's official New Year's greeting, which was originally at the top of the list—a convention and a matter of prestige that had never been shaken since the inception of the internet—had been surpassed.

Today, the entry regarding Jiang Zhe's remedial lessons, which had been ranked second, directly climbed to the top.

It even pushed the official New Year trending list down to second place.

Even the default search terms appearing in many search boxes were: Jiang Zhe, not "New Year"!

[25-year-old god-tier genius gives live remedial lessons to professors from all over the world!]

[Read count: 4.7 billion]

[Discussion count: 49 million]

"F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!"

"For the first time in my life, someone has pulled the official number one off its pedestal!"

"Holy sh*t, Brother is awesome. Brother, you are my god!"

"Brothers, a staff member backstage at the Spring Festival Gala made a chart for Brother Jiang Zhe; in this phenomenal live broadcast, the growth rate of the livestream's curve actually exceeded that of the Spring Festival Gala. After all, everyone has a mobile phone, which means—out of every 10 people, one is watching Brother's livestream. As for the Spring Festival Gala, that's not necessarily true; everyone just leaves the TV on to waste electricity, but no one is actually watching."

"Hiss~ This is too f*cking exaggerated. Is Brother really the most popular streamer globally since the turn of the century?"

"Not necessarily the most popular. If he goes to develop the overseas market and includes the whole world, he will definitely become the hottest super scientist of the 21st century. Besides, Academician Zhang just returned to the hotel and stated: [He could completely sweep multiple Nobel prizes!]"

"Oh my god, so exciting, so shocking. Brother is simply breathtakingly talented!"

This was number one, the official list was second, and from three to ten, six spots were dominated by topics about Jiang Zhe.

Each one was a point worth highlighting from his remedial lessons.

This included hypotheses and concepts like the Mirage and the Language Prison.

Meanwhile, in a third-tier city in the north, inside an old residential building.

The TV was on, the Spring Festival Gala was lively, and the sketch comedians were working hard on stage to deliver punchlines.

However, on the sofa, a teenager wearing a black sweater was looking down at his phone with earphones in his ears.

The screen showed a segment of Jiang Zhe's lecture from the afternoon, still the one secretly filmed by a certain expert in the living room earlier. The angle was a bit crooked, and there were occasional sounds of footsteps, but the teenager was mesmerized, not even blinking an eye.

His slightly chubby father walked over with a fruit platter, frowning, "It's New Year's, why aren't you watching the Spring Festival Gala? What are you looking at on your phone?"

The teenager didn't even look up: "Watching Brother give remedial lessons."

"Remedial lessons? What kind of lessons are you taking on New Year's Eve? Watch the TV properly!"

The teenager finally looked up and shoved the phone screen in front of his father: "Dad, what do you know?"

"Do you know that before I watched the livestream, I only scored thirty-something on my physics exams? After watching for a month, I scored eighty-three on my final exam this time. It's all thanks to Brother!"

Upon hearing this, the father realized it did seem to be the case; his child's studies had been very poor before.

For some inexplicable reason, he had a breakthrough one day, and his exam scores improved by leaps and bounds. So it was because of watching the livestream!

"What kind of livestream is it that improves grades so quickly?"

As soon as the teenager heard his father discussing Brother, he immediately paused the video and began to talk incessantly about it.

About twenty minutes later, the somewhat stern-looking father was listening in stunned silence,

"He gives remedial lessons to Xiao Yu every night, and the content he lectures on gets written into papers by professors from prestigious universities, and it has even subtly driven the technological fields of certain departments in our country?"

"That's right, that's Brother!" Speaking of this, the teenager pointed at the sketch nearing its end on the big TV screen and complained: "Dad, if you don't believe me, watch. After the sketch ends, they will definitely say [Let's make dumplings together]!"

As he finished speaking, the program entered its finale.

The sketch actor was indeed smiling and shouting that classic line: "Let's all make! Dump! Lings~"

The father glanced at the TV, then at Jiang Zhe and the room full of refined professors on his son's phone screen, hesitating to speak.

Looking at the TV again, his face was full of disgust, "Make your f*cking dumplings!"

"Dad, that's a swear word!"

"I'm wrong, I'm wrong, Dad will watch the recorded stream with you!"

This scene was playing out simultaneously in countless families across the country.

Some students, while still finishing their New Year's Eve dinner, were pulling their professor parents or teacher parents, and others were personally asking relatives with academic backgrounds to verify everything Jiang Zhe had said.

When those elders were introduced to the videos of Jiang Zhe's livestream, many of them showed expressions of surprise, astonishment, and sudden realization.

It was unbelievable that a 25-year-old super genius could achieve such a level!

This was not the arrogance and immaturity of an 18-year-old genius, nor the posturing of a 70-year-old veteran genius.

This was a 25-year-old possessing cutting-edge vision, experience, and even knowledge that spanned across disciplines.

Even some elder masters who knew how to tell fortunes were stunned on the spot after taking one look at Jiang Zhe, all unanimously showing expressions of surprise, or joy, or mystery, and then, under the persistent questioning of their younger generation, they were forced to tell them, "He is not a mortal; he is a deity descended to earth!"

As time passed, it was 11:00 PM.

The videos from two major influencers on Weibo also began to ferment.

The first was a physics popularization influencer: Schrödinger's Panda.

He had 12 million followers and posted a fifteen-minute video.

The title was: [I spent thirty years studying physics, Jiang Zhe spent one afternoon making me a student again].

In the video.

A dead panda lying on the left side of the screen and a live panda spinning in circles on the right occupied the screen.

Then, the blogger's voice came through.

"Everyone, I watched Jiang Zhe's entire livestream this afternoon. The Observer Debt Hypothesis he proposed is, on the surface, an extension of Quantum Mechanics, but in reality, it is a brand-new worldview."

"He defines the act of observation as energy consumption, consciousness as an account, and dark energy as interest; if this framework holds, then physics, biology, and neuroscience will all have to be rewritten."

After talking for over ten minutes, he finally reached the concluding remarks:

"In the physics circle, for thirty years, this is the first time I've felt like a student."

"I can empathize with the thoughts of the seniors and peers at the scene; not being able to go—will surely be my lifelong regret!"

Not long after this video was posted, the view count exceeded ten million.

In just over ten minutes, he explained all of Jiang Zhe's essential content, from the Mirage to the Observer Hypothesis, analyzing it in a very logical and convincing way.

Even some difficult and complex points were analyzed with his professional language to the extent that even elementary school students could understand them, and thus it quickly climbed up the trending explanation list.

"This explanation is too professional; he dismantled Brother's hypothesis clearly!"

"I study physics, and I didn't fully digest it after watching for the whole afternoon. It's not that I didn't digest it, but that the disciplines Brother spanned are too many and need time to digest. After watching the explanation, I also had a sudden enlightenment."

"Begging Panda-bro to connect with Brother, I want to see gods fighting!"

"Connecting? You're overthinking it. Brother doesn't even fear Academicians; even if Panda-bro went, he'd just be standing in the back row listening to the lecture."

"I also regret it, regret not going to camp out at Jingan Manor."

"To the person above, you wouldn't be able to get in even if you camped out. The outside of the villa is full of plainclothes officers, and they aren't ordinary plainclothes officers."

"Wuwuwu~"

The second major influencer was in the field of psychology: Apes Attract, she had nine million followers, and she posted a two-minute video.

[The Language Prison that Jiang Zhe spoke of made me rethink myself]

She appeared on camera, wearing silver-rimmed glasses, looking quite mature.

"The most shocking moment for me this afternoon was that question Jiang Zhe asked Zhao Mingyuan: can you imagine an emotion that makes people feel joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, sorrow, fear, and shock all at the same time?"

"I tried it in front of the screen at the time, and I got stuck; I was really stuck."

"I really couldn't imagine that kind of sound, that kind of image, that kind of emotion, that kind of everything."

"It wasn't until I looked up the information that I realized—[consciousness can truly experience these emotions, colors, and even sounds exclusive to consciousness under electrical stimulation]. Only then did I suddenly realize that language can be abandoned!"

"Then he gave the examples of dragons and unicorns; our language is entirely a combination of old parts."

"At that moment, I realized that I have lived for over thirty years, and all my originality has just been a permutation and combination of language."

"I thought I was thinking, but actually, I have always been translating."

"Language is a wall; true thinking is outside the wall, including the entire universe—a worldview with a physical body cannot peek at the truth!!!"

"I can only say, the things outside the wall, we humans cannot even imagine!"

In the comment section, many people were discussing the blogger's appearance.

"I tried it too, my brain got stuck."

"I used to think of sister as very calm, but today her expression seems a bit off, like her worldview has developed cracks."

"Anyone would have a crack in their worldview. For the first time in so many years, someone in our world has said [Language is useless]. This is simply breathtaking, okay?"

"It's so unbearable; I envy those who watched the whole livestream. Now you can't even find the recording online."

"@Xiao Yu, hurry up and edit the video, can't wait anymore!"

"@Steel Rain, quickly serve up the delicious food!"

Less than half an hour after the two videos were posted, Schrödinger's Panda and Apes Attract rushed into the top twenty trending searches.

Meanwhile, some big shots in the entertainment industry were also paying attention to Jiang Zhe.

Seeing Jiang Zhe slaughter the Weibo trending list that was exclusively theirs, they were drooling with envy.

In a certain group chat for celebrity peers, many actors and singers were sending red envelopes to each other and wishing each other a Happy New Year one by one.

Until a twenty-year-old popular star Liu XX sent a message, causing the group chat to go completely quiet.

[Is no one discussing Jiang Zhe? He slaughtered the New Year list to second place. It seems the official number one can also be shaken!]

As soon as these words were said, the over one hundred household-name stars in the group immediately stopped talking.

At this moment, far away in all parts of the country, whether in high-rise buildings or in the countryside for the New Year, they couldn't help but tremble, swallowing their saliva one after another, their brows furrowed tight.

This was not jealousy, but fear!

That was a god-like person who could slaughter the New Year list to second place; was this something that could be discussed?

Moreover, the leaders of the Ministry of Culture had long since issued an ultimatum: if anyone in the entertainment industry dared to speak ill of Jiang Zhe, they would randomly trigger certain political correctness buffs someday.

Who among them dared to discuss it?

"Stop, discussing him is prohibited; @Kun Kun, let's talk about your new song, Ji Tai Mei!"

"..."