Restart life

Chapter 426 0416 [A Different Han Han]

The Donghu Hotel is a large garden with many pavilions and towers where you can rest.

After the lunch banquet ended, Chen Guiliang invited Han Han to have a private chat.

The two sat in a pavilion, and Han Han felt quite puzzled. Since they weren't close, was Chen Guiliang going to ask him for advice on how to pick up girls again?

“I’ve read almost every one of your blog posts over the past two years,” Chen Guiliang said. “I disagree with a few, but I really like most of them.”

Han Han laughed and said, "Then I'm quite embarrassed, I haven't read any of your articles."

Chen Guiliang threw a cigarette at him: "You're not like those public intellectuals."

"How is it different?" Han Han casually took the cigarette, lit it, and tossed the lighter to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang said, "You tell the truth in your article, but many public intellectuals don't."

Although Han Han is labeled a public intellectual, his thinking has been constantly evolving, or rather, maturing with increasing experience. Moreover, he is capable of independent thought and has not been misled by genuine public intellectuals.

The most typical example is the "Han Three Articles," which are essentially anti-public intellectuals, and they did so at the time when public intellectuals were most rampant.

The article's publication caused an uproar among public intellectuals: How could Han Han not support drastic changes, believing China should pursue moderate reforms? And claiming that drastic changes would only harm the middle and lower classes, while having no impact on the truly wealthy? And that Han Han actually said democracy and freedom are in conflict, and that true democracy inevitably restricts freedom? And that even low national quality wouldn't hinder the arrival of democracy?

This is completely going against public intellectuals!

After public intellectuals relentlessly attacked Han Han for 20 days, a recently resigned Baidu department director wrote an article questioning whether Han Han's father had ghostwritten the article. Three days later, Fang Zhouzi rolled up his sleeves and stepped in.

A large group of public intellectuals began attacking Han Han, and netizens who were unaware of the truth cheered them on.

Chen Guiliang disagreed with some parts of the "Three Articles by Han," but he wholeheartedly agreed with its main theme.

"Your thinking has changed a lot in the past two years. What happened?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Han Han said, "The racing venues are mostly in remote areas. In the past two years, I have visited many villages and towns and made many local friends. With more people and more things to see, my perspective has naturally changed."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "No wonder."

Han Han leaned against the pillar of the pavilion, a cigarette dangling from his lips: "Actually, the articles I wrote before seem really stupid when I read them now. Some of my views were naive and wrong."

Han Han later said that he was only satisfied with 60-70% of the public intellectual articles he wrote, while the remaining 30-40% were wrong.

Given the current public opinion environment, it's hard not to be affected.

"It's normal. Being able to recognize that things are right now but wrong yesterday shows that you are constantly growing," Chen Guiliang said.

Han Han asked, "Has anyone ever told you that you talk like a high school teacher?"

"Hahaha!" Chen Guiliang laughed loudly, indeed, he had a very strong fatherly vibe.

Han Han said, "As people get older, they start to think more about things. My hometown is in a rural area on the outskirts of Shanghai. The farmers there all build two or three-story houses. They live upstairs and rent out the downstairs rooms to migrant workers. The rent for each room is about two or three hundred yuan."

"Those migrant workers who rent rooms in the suburbs of Shanghai work in nearby factories. They are all heavily polluting chemical plants. I used to be very angry when I went back to my hometown. The rivers that were clear when I was a child are now all stinking ditches."

"Now I know that the local authorities dare not clean up the pollution. If they strictly control the pollution, those chemical plants will have to go out of business and will not be able to pay taxes or boost GDP."

"Moreover, with the factory closing down, those migrant workers will have no income, and they will choose to return to their hometowns or find work elsewhere. The farmers who rented houses to them will also lose a significant amount of income."

"Whether they are migrant workers or local farmers, they all need to earn money to support their families. So my anger turned into confusion: should this environmental pollution be addressed?"

Chen Guiliang said, “It’s very similar to my hometown, which was a third-tier city. In the 70s, the pollution was particularly serious. Water was pumped from the river to irrigate the rice fields, and the sewage could directly poison the seedlings. When the commune went to the chemical plant to demand an explanation, they would usually just give some compensation for the seedlings and that would be the end of it.”

"And now?" Han Han asked.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Now the mountains and rivers are beautiful, because all the factories have closed down. Haha."

Han Han asked, "How do the locals live?"

“Go work on the coast, what else can you do?” Chen Guiliang said. “Take rice farming for example. The costs of pumping water, renting oxen, fertilizer, seeds, pesticides… not counting the labor, there’s basically no profit left. Working away from home for one or two months can buy the rice that your family harvests for a whole year. If you go out to work and your family hires people to harvest the rice, you’ll end up losing money.”

Han Han said, "Sometimes I feel very frustrated, and I feel that there is no solution to life at the bottom."

Chen Guiliang said, "I partially agree. There will always be a lower class, but the living conditions of the lower class will be different at different times. I can say that ten years from now, even young people working at Foxconn will be able to afford smartphones. They will not have to worry about food and clothing, and they will be able to play with all kinds of high-tech products. But they will still be at the bottom, unable to afford houses or get married."

"Is this a bit too heavy a topic for us?" Han Han took a deep drag on his cigarette. "Ten years from now, will even migrant workers be able to afford smartphones?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Think about it, ten years ago, who could afford a mobile phone? Only the rich. Now? Even migrant workers can use mobile phones. By the way, the HarmonyOS phone is undergoing mass production verification. I'll give you one when it's officially on sale."

Han Han laughed and said, "Are you going to advertise your phone again?"

“Just give my phone a little publicity, and when you make a movie in the future, I’ll invest without hesitation,” Chen Guiliang said.

Han Han thought about it and felt that this deal was worthwhile.

"What are you talking about?" Cheng Cun suddenly shouted.

Chen Guiliang said, "We're exchanging tips on picking up girls." Cheng Cun had been taking photos with his phone the whole way and was now posting on Weibo: "The environment here is pretty nice. I've been exploring it since yesterday and haven't finished yet. Look at my Weibo followers, I already have over 6000. I'm aiming to reach 10,000 by the end of this year."

"Damn it, how many times a day do you post on Weibo?" Yu Hua complained. He particularly disliked taking walks with Cheng Cun; the old man walked too slowly with his cane.

Cheng Cun ignored him and said to Chen Guiliang, "Your senior brother Guo Xiaosi sat alone in the lounge after dinner. No one talked to him. He's left now, saying he has something to do and has to fly back to Shanghai. He asked me to apologize to you."

"Thank you for passing on my message," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Cheng Cun rolled his eyes at him: "Why learn the Beijing accent when you can't learn anything good? I find it really annoying. Yu Hua sometimes talks like that on purpose."

"What I say is none of your business!" Yu Hua immediately retorted.

After listening to their bickering for a while, Chen Guiliang went back to find Bian Guanyue.

Bian Guanyue was playing with that group of female writers, and it was unclear what they were talking about, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun.

The writers' forum will continue at 3 PM.

This time the topic was relatively light; we exchanged information about what we've been up to lately and talked about the current book market.

There was another dinner party in the evening, followed by free time.

Writers, editors, and journalists who are not in a hurry to leave can continue to stay at the East Lake Hotel; some have even organized a visit to the Yellow Crane Tower tomorrow.

Chen Guiliang will pay for the expenses of the next two days.

Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue left that night because the CJ exhibition was opening the next day.

Before leaving, he used Bian Guanyue's laptop to send his graduation thesis to Han Han.

Han Han, that guy, has been paying close attention to people's livelihood and current affairs in the past two years because of his blog posts. I guess he'll like Chen Guiliang's graduation thesis.

Sure enough, while Chen Guiliang was attending the CJ exhibition, Han Han published a new article.

On childbirth.

"I recently met a friend. Actually, I knew him before, but we hadn't met much, only occasionally communicating by phone. My impression of him is neither good nor bad; I just think he's pretty amazing, able to build a successful business from scratch..."

"I met him now, we talked about some things, and I also read his paper. Although I don't understand a lot of the technical terms, this paper has greatly inspired me. The viewpoints in it, to put it bluntly, were truly enlightening. I feel he's even more amazing now..."

"I rarely admire anyone, but this friend's paper really impressed me. So I decided to read his other articles..."

"Today I'll be discussing the issue of childbirth, and I'll be directly quoting some of his papers..."

The topic of childbirth is quite sensitive, and both public intellectuals and ordinary netizens have paid special attention to Han Han's blog post.

The comments section quickly became lively.

"I think I know who this friend is."

"Why even guess? Chen Shiyi already posted the title of his thesis, and it was written like a riddle."

"I also want to have a friend who is a boss."

"Seriously, do you really believe that even with the two-child policy, people still don't want to have children?"

"..."

Chen Guiliang and Han Han together are enough to ignite a buzz.

In fact, scholars have been discussing China's fertility and aging issues in newspapers and magazines for the past two years. But few people have paid attention.

The publication of Han Han's article, with Chen Guiliang's involvement, immediately sparked widespread discussion both online and offline.

Some scholars took the opportunity to speak out, calling for the relaxation of birth control policies, otherwise the situation in the next ten years will become increasingly severe.

Many people have long been aware of the problem, but their voices carry little weight, making it difficult to change anything.

Finally, we've gained public attention!
Chen Guiliang, however, no longer paid attention to this; Youke's web game was about to be released.

Youke is developing two web games simultaneously this year, which are essentially the same, just reskinned versions of each other. One will be released in China, and the other will be released soon in the Middle East.

Countless players, both domestic and international, are about to experience the joy of gacha games.

The domestic version was launched during the ChinaJoy expo.

Advertisements are everywhere, especially on various pirated novel websites, where the "greasy senior sister" ad in the lower left corner is impossible to close.

If you simply close the pop-up window, it's basically because you accidentally clicked on the registration page.

You've been reading pirated novels, now you're getting your comeuppance.

(End of this chapter)