Chapter 52: The Eve of the Debate: Completely Divergent Preparations!
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After days of ferment, the news of the Debate of the Century had long since ceased to be an internal discussion within academic circles, evolving instead into a nationwide public event. Its popularity even overshadowed the combined total of all entertainment headlines that night.
The night before the debate.
The state television's official media account launched an unprecedented late-night surprise live stream, focusing its camera on Yenching University.
When the image stabilized, viewers saw a brightly lit teaching building. The camera passed through the solemn and respectful corridor and finally stopped in front of a giant conference room door.
The door was pushed open silently.
An air mixed with the bitter aroma of strong coffee, the dusty scent of old books, and the sweat of high tension rushed toward them.
The huge circular conference table was submerged in an ocean of literature. Stacks of educational history materials, sociological reports, and psychological analysis documents higher than a person partitioned the space into isolated islands.
The elderly professor surnamed Sun, who was about to go into battle tomorrow, sat upright in the primary seat. His gray hair was combed meticulously, and his eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses were bloodshot, yet they still flashed with the unquestionable sharpness belonging to a scholar.
Beside him were more than ten young doctors and associate professors drawn from various colleges of Yenching University.
This was the strongest writing powerhouse team that Yenching University could possibly muster.
At this moment, there was no conversation in the conference room, only two kinds of sounds.
One was the "clack, clack" sound of fingers frantically pounding on keyboards, as dense as a torrential rain.
The other was the "swish, swish" sound of pen tips striving across paper, carrying an unquestionable determination.
Everyone's expression was tight, their jawlines rigid. Some unconsciously gnawed on their fingernails, while others chugged iced Americanos cup after cup, trying to dispel the bone-deep exhaustion with caffeine.
They were forging a weapon.
A perfect debate manuscript forged from thousands of years of human educational philosophy, sociological theory, and historical allusions.
Every single word and punctuation mark on the draft had undergone at least ten rounds of deliberation and rebuttal. Each argument was equipped with more than three backup pieces of evidence, enough to cope with any possible on-site questioning.
This was the most awe-inspiring posture of the traditional academic school.
They did not believe in improvisational performance; they only believed in absolute preparation. They intended to use the depth of knowledge and the rigor of logic to construct an indestructible fortress of authority. In their world, truth could be perfectly designed and presented.
The live stream's imagery was solemn, rigorous, and filled with a suffocating sense of oppression.
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[Is this the heritage of a top institution? Too terrifying, it feels like every word is glowing.]
[Professor Sun and the others are about to write a paper for the ages! They aren't debating at all; they're defining the truth!]
[I pity President He. This kind of preparation is simply a dimensionality-reduction strike.]
Just as the entire internet was shocked by Yenching University's battle-ready stance, tens of millions of sharp-nosed netizens flooded into another live stream.
He Yu's personal live stream.
They eagerly wanted to know what kind of nervous, all-night-long battle preparation Longhai University was undergoing in the face of such a terrifying opponent.
However, when the live stream lit up, everyone collectively turned to stone.
The brightly lit conference room they had anticipated did not appear.
There was not even a shadow of the mountains of piled-up data and manuscripts.
The location in the broadcast was the construction site of the "Valley of Hope."
Under the night sky, a huge bonfire was burning brightly, crackling and casting a rosy glow on everyone's faces nearby.
He Yu, Academician Qian Liqun, Chief Engineer Li Weimin... all these big shots regarded by the outside world as Longhai University's "core decision-making layer" were unexpectedly sitting unformally around the bonfire.
Each of them held a skewer of dripping, sizzling roasted meat, with iced beer and drinks placed beside them.
Opposite them sat Old Liu and a group of worker masters who had just gotten off work, covered in dust.
A group of top-tier experts and a group of frontline laborers were sitting together without any barriers, eating barbecue heartily, chatting cheerfully, and occasionally bursting into hearty laughter.
The bullet comments in the live stream, after enduring a ten-second dead silence, instantly exploded.
[?????]
[Did I enter the wrong live stream? What are you guys doing, President? The Debate of the Century is tomorrow!]
[I'm shattered, I'm truly shattered! The professors at Yenching University next door are writing drafts all night until they're almost bald, and you guys are skewering meat all night here?!]
[This mindset... should I admire you or curse you, dammit?! My heart condition is about to act up!]
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[It's over, completely barbecued. Has the President completely given up treatment and decided to let it rot?]
The bullet comments filling the screen almost overwhelmed the imagery, every single word brimming with anxiety, incomprehension, and frenzy.
Faced with all this, He Yu merely smiled.
He picked up a skewer of freshly roasted mutton, still dusted with cumin and chili powder, and waved it in front of the camera, the grease gleaming with an enticing luster under the firelight.
"Don't worry, everyone. We are also preparing for the battle."
His voice came through the microphone, calm and powerful, instantly overpowering the noise at the scene.
He pointed to Old Liu, who was grinning broadly beside him, and then pointed with his skewer to the architectural skeleton behind them that had risen from the ground in the night like a majestic iron beast.
"The best education is solving real problems."
"The best debate is demonstrating a real future."
There was not a trace of tension in his tone; instead, it carried a heartfelt joy and certainty.
"We don't need a manuscript."
He Yu took a large bite of the mutton skewer, the charred aroma of the meat instantly bursting in his mouth. He chewed with satisfaction, his eyes flashing with a confident and fervent light.
"Because we ourselves are standing above the future."
On one side was the ivory tower, treating the battle like an existential crisis while searching for the perfect theory in piles of old paper.
On the other side was the construction site, strolling leisurely while touching the scorching future in the real world.
These two completely contrasting postures formed an intensely strong and sharp contrast through the live stream.
The suspense and anticipation of this Debate of the Century were instantly pushed to the absolute limit at this moment.
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