Chapter 59: Night and Dawn (Part II)

Often enough.

During our student days, everyone had a campus crush—a prince or a princess of the school.

Good grades, decent looks, and an outgoing personality...

Such people easily became the objects of everyone's longing in those green, tender years.

And Zhang Yang in his high school days was probably just that kind of person...

"What? It's really him?"

Bai Shushu of Fudan University received a phone call in her dorm room.

After hanging up the phone, she froze.

Memories rushed out like floodgates opening.

That year...

In autumn, she was admitted to the county's key high school.

She entered high school full of longing and excitement, but a month later, she fell into a deep state of anxiety.

Her grades had only just scraped past the threshold for key high schools; they were decent back in junior high, but at that school, she seemed utterly mediocre, failing even to keep up with the class's learning pace.

Everyone was so strong, so smart!

The more she wanted to catch up and surpass others, the more exhausted she felt. The more exhausted she felt, the more anxious she became; and the more anxious she became, the harder it was to calm her mind, leading her to suspect there was something wrong with her intelligence.

Caught in this vicious cycle, she ended up near the bottom of the class in the midterm exams!

She broke down right then and there!

From childhood to adulthood, she had never hit rock bottom like this!

She even felt that the way her classmates looked at her was exactly how people looked at dead weight.

In the next few tests, her condition worsened. During classes, she would even zone out, completely unable to comprehend what the teacher was saying...

She felt she was finished!

"Classmate, do you need tutoring?"

"I'm in the top five of our grade. I think I can teach you..."

After crying until her eyes were red one day, she heard such a voice.

She looked up.

Then she saw a test paper, alongside a somewhat nervous and constrained expression.

She froze.

Then...

As if guided by some mysterious impulse, she nodded.

At that time, she could never have dreamed that the trajectory of her life would change because of this...

"Senior became a deadbeat debtor?"

"No, I don't believe it. How could someone like Senior be a deadbeat?"

"..."

Hanging up the phone, she immediately opened her laptop and saw the news online.

Her eyes instantly reddened.

Then...

She took a deep breath.

And began typing on the keyboard.

……………………………………

Public opinion on the internet remained turbulent.

Black material about Zhang Yang was still flying all over the place.

There were even plenty of malicious accusations regarding tax evasion.

It was already impossible to tell which rumors were true and which were false.

However...

Every piece of dirt seemed to pierce straight into Zhang Yang's fatal spot, aiming to completely ruin him.

Countless internet trolls had even overrun Baidu Tieba.

It was far too easy for capital to deal with a newly established company.

Zhang Yang seemed powerless to fight back.

Chen Weiwei browsed through the piles of incriminating material with a complex expression.

She was furious. She knew this was the work of Lianzhong Computer. Having lost Zhou Yang's endorsement and unable to immediately retaliate against Zhou Yang and the capital behind him, nor against their own Bluebird, they could only take it out on Zhang Yang.

"Due to certain reasons, I cannot take out a bank loan."

She still remembered what Zhang Yang had told her. When he said those words, Zhang Yang had been smiling, completely devoid of any pressure.

At the time, she hadn't paid much attention to it, thinking it was just because Zhang Yang was too young and lacked proper collateral.

But now...

After reading everything unearthed about Zhang Yang on the online forums, she finally understood.

Zhang Yang...

Was a person on the blacklist of discredited debtors!

Chen Weiwei logged into the official website of "Universe Technology".

She saw that the games *Madly Bashing Alpaca* and *Desert Cycling* had already been taken down, accompanied by a notification that they were no longer available for download.

This was probably the darkest and most grueling moment for Universe Technology...

Just as she was feeling emotional about Zhang Yang's plight, she suddenly noticed a few newly refreshed messages on the forum.

She paused, stunned.

"I am Zhang Lin, General Manager Zhang, and also Zhang Yang's former junior. My name is Bai Shushu... I am currently a sophomore at Fudan University. This is my student ID..."

"I am a junior whom Senior Zhang Yang used to tutor. My name is Zhang Meng, and I am a student at Tsinghua University. This is my student ID..."

"My name is Song Qingqing, a student in the Law Department of Peking University. This is my student ID..."

"My name is Chen Long. Unlike them, I'm not from any elite university; I'm just a student at a regular first-tier university..."

"..."

"My name is Xu Hongbin, and I am a teacher at Nanmin Key High School..."

Chen Weiwei saw that several students in the forum had posted pictures of their student IDs.

And then...

They began to recount many past events involving Zhang Yang.

Furthermore, Zhang Yang's former high school head teacher posted several of Zhang Yang's report cards...

The grade sheets clearly showed him at the very top of the rankings...

Seeing all these past events unfold, Chen Weiwei suddenly felt a heavy, painful obstruction in her chest.

Especially when Xu Hongbin, Zhang Yang's former head teacher, described the final days of Zhang Yang's second year in high school, she felt oppressed to the extreme.

"During those last few days, he seemed absent-minded. Whenever I asked him a question, he would give evasive answers..."

"In those days, he seemed terribly exhausted, coming to school every day in tattered clothes. When I asked him what was wrong, he wouldn't say a word..."

"I tried to make a home visit, but he always refused, claiming there was no one at home... His mother had passed away, his father was working out of town, and he was the only one living there..."

"Later on, I received news that he had dropped out. I heard from their senior-year head teacher that on the day senior-year students registered, he arrived early in the morning. After completing the dropout procedures, his father took him and a pile of luggage and left the school..."

"After that, I never heard any news about him again. I only heard they had moved away, sold their house, and no one knew where they went..."

"Now, after seeing what's been circulating online, I finally understand. It turned out his gambler father had racked up a huge debt from usury... and even used his ID card to pull off all sorts of chaotic stunts..."

"Such a good child, now reduced to a discredited debtor..."

"Sigh..."

"..."

When Chen Weiwei saw this, a sour, burning sensation constricted her throat.

So Zhang Yang, who had always worn a bright smile in front of everyone, harbored such a painful past that was almost too agonizing to recall.

A former proud son of heaven...

Suddenly plummeted due to family misfortune.

How infuriating and heartbreaking was this!

On the internet.

"Ah? This..."

"Oh god, after reading this, I feel so awful, truly awful. It turns out General Manager Zhang..."

"Sigh, what kind of father is that? Not only do you throw your son into the fire pit, but you even lock the door to the pit!"

"Plots that only exist in novels actually exist in raw reality?"

"Reality is even more agonizing than fiction..."

"I can't imagine the feeling of plummeting from the heights; I really can't..."

"I used to think Zhang Yang was just an opportunist, and his tactics were quite repulsive, but looking back now, he really had no choice!"

"Dealt a terrible hand by fate!"

"So heartbreaking, utterly heartbreaking. Ahhhhh, how can there be such a father? Where is my knife?"

"..."

Deep in the night.

Many netizens in the forum felt a stinging sensation in their noses after seeing this.

Especially when watching Zhang Yang's younger schoolmates step forward to testify for him, recalling every little detail of Zhang Yang during his student days, they felt both furious and helpless.

Online, public opinion was still flooded with various rumors of Zhang Yang being a deadbeat debtor, and trolls continued posting.

Though repetitive, the malice was palpable.

However, many netizens no longer let the trolls sway the narrative; instead, they began reporting these trolls en masse.

"His academic performance was always stellar. In our class, he was either first or second, never dropping out of the top five. When he dropped out, I couldn't wrap my head around it at the time..."

"Sigh, why didn't you tell us back then? If you had told us, we could have organized a fundraiser for you!"

"Zhang Lin... Are you doing well now? Why did you change your name to Zhang Yang?"

"..."

The forums for *Madly Bashing Alpaca* and *Desert Cycling* were extremely lively.

Many people suspected to be Zhang Yang's classmates had also logged into the forums immediately.

Between the lines of their posts, the reasons behind Zhang Yang becoming a discredited debtor seemed to be corroborated.

By noon the next day.

Several neighbors from Zhang Yang's former village recorded a video.

The video was published on Universe Technology's platform.

"What was said online before isn't quite how we put it. While we were sometimes influenced, mostly we felt sympathy. We never spoke of Zhang Lin—uh, I mean Zhang Yang—like that..."

"Their household was always chaotic. Every night, someone would be kicking their door!"

"I remember it was during the second year of high school; many people even came and took away everything of value from his house, not even sparing some of his clothes..."

"At the peak of the chaos, I could even hear shouting, arguing, and beating coming from inside..."

"Good clothes were torn into shreds..."

"Sigh, such a good child! Just ruined like that!"

"The house wasn't sold; it was actually mortgaged. Zhang Lin, that kid, begged us not to say anything. I still remember the expression on that child's face..."

"Clearly in despair, yet pretending to be sensible..."

"..."

In the video.

Several middle-aged women looked as though their eyes were welling up as they recalled those memories.

Through their fragmented words, netizens...

Could vividly imagine those darkest of scenes.

Those netizens who had previously followed the trolls in cursing Zhang Yang felt an overwhelming sense of guilt at this moment and began apologizing one after another...

………………………………

Zhang Yang had a dream.

Scenes of hysteria played out in the dream.

His inveterate gambler of a father seemed to have lost all humanity, hiding here and there every day, completely devoid of a conscience.

Even his mother, lying on a hospital bed and unable to afford medical treatment, finally passed away in depression...

He had never come to take a single look.

In fact, in memory, every time he returned, it was just to ask for money!

Endlessly demanding money, and even when Zhang Yang turned eighteen, instigated by certain people, his father had directly used his original ID card to mortgage and take out loans.

He was a piece of scum, through and through!

Zhang Yang opened his eyes...

He noticed a few traces of tears on his face.

However, he looked out the window.

Outside, sunlight flooded in—the midday sun was exceptionally bright...

Sometimes darkness is cold.

So oppressive that it makes it hard to breathe!

Yet, once you endure the darkness, you will eventually see the dawn.

Chewing a piece of gum, he climbed out of bed and glanced at his plan for the new game.

Then, he glanced at the text message confirming that all his loans had been repaid and the restrictions on high consumption had been lifted...

He smiled brilliantly.

"Thinking about it sometimes makes me quite angry!"

"Really angry!"

"Having traveled through time, why do I have to suffer so much grievance?"

*What kind of terrible hand of cards is this?*

"However..."

"In fact, thinking about it sometimes makes it rather interesting..."

"Without ascending to divinity from the lowest depths, how can one demonstrate the skill of turning the tides?"

"..."

Zhang Yang narrowed his eyes.

……………………………………

Time ticked away day by day.

In the blink of an eye, half a month or so had passed.

Online, the various trolls and verbal abuse directed at Zhang Yang had not entirely ceased, but compared to before, they had largely dissipated.

However!

Zhang Yang himself never responded to any questions ever again.

Occasionally, reporters came to the company for interviews, only to be turned away by the staff.

On the morning of July 21st!

The official website of "Universe Technology" suddenly published a piece of news across major forums!

Completely unannounced news!

"A game that makes children fall in love with learning! The student edition of *God of Strategy* will officially go on sale tomorrow morning, on August 1st at 8:08 AM!"

"..."

No one knew...

A storm was sweeping in!