"Cultivating prestige" and "building montum" are actually easier in modern society than in ancient tis. Back then, if a scholar from a humble background wanted a shortcut to success, many would choose to beco hermits in the mountains, especially on Zhongnan Mountain. That’s where the term "Zhongnan shortcut" cos from.
Even soone as brilliant as Zhuge Liang had to "live in seclusion in Nanyang" in his early days.
In modern society, you just have to make good use of the internet.
Li Xiang’s thoughts raced, a grand blueprint already taking shape in his mind.
’Hmm, this plan can’t be finished in one phase. It’ll need at least twelve, maybe even twenty-four or more. When the ti cos, all the underground shelters will be connected, forming one massive Underground City.’
’Even if the Apocalypse cos, modern society can’t function without the internet. I’ll have to find a way to set up my own local area network and then figure out how to connect with other bases.’
’Increasing my strength is also crucial. Fa and web traffic are useful in tis of peace, but when the Apocalypse truly arrives, strength will reign supre.’
However, he hadn’t used up all his Spiritual dicine yet. Li Xiang figured that by the ti spring turned to sumr, his current supply should be depleted. Then, he would go pick a Prival Forest to sweep through.
Since the Apocalypse was still a long way off, only in a Prival Forest could one find a relatively large number of "potential Mutated Creatures."
And he couldn’t consu all the Spiritual dicine at once. Eating it too quickly would lead to an unstable foundation, which would be detrintal to his future cultivation.
"Bro, can you be a little more serious? We’re rehearsing here!"
Jiang Cai’Er’s words pulled Li Xiang back to reality.
"Alright, alright, let’s continue."
"Hmph, I wonder which woman he’s thinking about all day long," Jiang Cai’Er muttered with a pout. She was secretly congratulating herself. ’Thank goodness I was "smart" enough to ruin all his blind dates. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be rehearsing at ho right now; he’d be out on a date.’
Right now, it wasn’t just Li Xiang and his group rehearsing; the entire Li Family Village had entered a feverish stage of training and dress rehearsals.
All the surrounding villages were paying close attention, especially places like Lei Family Gully, Shenjiawan, and Zhaojiaping, which had people participating in the performance. As for Li Family Village, their interest went without saying.
Li Xiang’s popularity was still quite impressive. Every ti he stread, his viewer count ranged from several thousand to tens of thousands, sotis even breaking the one hundred thousand mark. Everyone was preparing with great dedication.
Even if they didn’t beco famous by following Li Xiang, they at least couldn’t be so bad that they’d be a laughingstock, right?
The percussion section for the opera performance was especially grand. Li Xiang had managed to snag a role playing the flute. But he wouldn’t be singing in the opera; he had several other acts of his own to rehearse.
Originally, he had a lot more planned before the New Year. For instance, Li Xiang had planned to film a video on making maltose syrup the traditional way. This would include using the lted syrup with popcorn, sesa seeds, and peanuts to make various specialty "candy sheets" or "candy leaves." For example, the thin slices made with sesa were called "sesa leaves." He also wanted to make videos on pounding sticky rice cakes and steaming jujube flower buns, but he had no ti for any of it. It would all have to wait until next year.
They had already finished the tofu they made before, and now there was no ti to grind more.
The village gala was the absolute top priority. It wasn’t just about making money from the live stream and building a na for Li Family Village. More importantly, it was about strengthening the cohesion of the young people from the surrounding villages. These people would be his future core team.
When Xiang Yu raised his army, he recruited the Jiangdong Youth.
Of course, his fans were also very important. If anyone wanted to seek refuge with him in the future, he would naturally turn no one away. His foundation was the "internet," so his fans were also his "Jiangdong Youth," in a way.
All those fans who supported him—especially the ones who gave large donations, frequently bought his products, left comnts, and liked his content—didn’t he have to find a way to rescue them?
’Top Aunt’ would be one of his priority rescue targets in the future. No matter how difficult or dangerous it was, he had to save her. After all, when he was just an insignificant strear, she had been so generous, constantly spamming expensive gifts to boost his popularity. He had to rember this kindness and repay the favor.
Furthermore, publicly building an "Apocalypse Shelter The Park" had several other advantages. When the Apocalypse did co, everyone would know there was a Shelter here and would try their best to make their way to it.
It was also an indirect way of giving a heads-up to the relevant authorities. If he officially revealed his plans later and his advice wasn’t taken: ’Look, I’ve already started this massive construction project. I’ve already completed over ten major phases. Are you in or not?’
...
Jiang Jianguo and Aunt Jiang had been very happy these past few days because Jiang Cai’Er’s final exam results were out.
They were even better than before!
Previously, although Jiang Cai’Er could rank in the top twenty of her grade, her best was ninth place; she had never broken into the top five. This ti, she had unexpectedly taken the top spot all by herself, ranking first in the entire school!
Her classmates had jokingly nicknad her the "female champion scholar"!
Her horoom teacher, Teacher Huang, was naturally extrely pleased. After sending the scores and rankings to Jiang Jianguo and his wife, the couple was grinning from ear to ear.
The horoom teacher said that if she kept up the hard work and maintained this montum, not only was a 985 university a sure thing, but she could even aim for Qingbei.
Nowadays, admissions at prestigious universities tend to favor students from big cities. It was getting harder and harder for students from small cities, especially from high schools in small counties and towns. The only thing they could compete with was their college entrance exam scores.
And what about the big cities?
A student from a rural area who got into Qingbei on his own rits once said that after entering this top dostic university, the most shocking thing wasn’t the number of geniuses, nor how impressive the library, cafeteria, or faculty were. It was... that 80% of the students there apparently didn’t get in based on their college entrance exam scores. Instead, they were admitted through various other channels, such as winning top competitions, the "Strong Base Plan," other special talents, or special statuses like being the children of martyrs or outstanding retired athletes.
In other words, only about 20% got in through the college entrance exam route. They were the ones who competed on raw scores.
You fight tooth and nail just to compete for that 20% chance!
How could people from small cities get access to those channels?
Even if they knew about them, how could they compete? Could they overco the resources others had?
It had been several years since anyone from Jiang Cai’Er’s school had gotten into Qingbei. The horoom teacher had high hopes for her.
Jiang Jianguo and Aunt Jiang both knew that this was likely thanks to Li Xiang. Ever since Li Xiang had returned, their daughter went over to his house whenever she had free ti to get help with her howork.
And it had clearly yielded significant results.
They had been worried she would get distracted and just want to have fun here, but now they could be completely at ease. And those gossips could finally shut their mouths!
So people in the village wanted to ask Li Xiang to tutor their own children, but Li Xiang didn’t have the ti. So those families just thought about it and were too embarrassed to ask. They knew Li Xiang was too busy.
Well, what could they do? The Jiang Family and Li Xiang’s family were just that close.
On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, Li Xiang went to the county town with Jiang Cai’Er, his cousin Shen Wenqian, and his younger cousin Shen Zimo. Jiang Jianguo also ca along, driving the tractor.
Jiang Jianguo was mainly there to help haul the audio equipnt; the order they had placed earlier had arrived. Li Xiang took the group to the electronics store. After testing and taking inventory of the goods, he had Jiang Jianguo haul it all back and unload it in his own backyard, where it would wait for him to install later.
The shop owner was very enthusiastic—this was a major custor, after all. He even gave Li Xiang several small electronic gadgets for free. As he saw them out, he slapped his chest and guaranteed, "The quality is absolutely top-notch! If there are any problems, co to for a replacent anyti. If you run into any issues with installation or use, just give one call, and I’ll be there right away!"
Li Xiang shook his hand and thanked him.
"Brother Xiang, I have a favor to ask," the owner said, reluctant to see him go.
"Go ahead!"
The owner said, "Tomorrow night, could I also co to your place to watch the village gala live?"
"Haha, of course you can! I’d be honored!" Li Xiang naturally gave him a warm welco.
"In that case, I’ll bring so more people with . Hmm, I’ll co early tomorrow, then. I can even help with the installation and debugging of the equipnt."
"Great, great, thank you, thank you."
Afterward, Jiang Jianguo headed ho with the equipnt, while Li Xiang took Jiang Cai’Er, Shen Wenqian, and Shen Zimo to buy clothes.
He had promised his cousins he would buy them clothes and couldn’t go back on his word. The New Year was almost here; if he didn’t buy them now, it would be too late.
Besides, soone in the county town had invited him to a al. After they finished shopping, they would go grab a bite to eat.
Although the county town was small and not very prosperous, it actually had so high-end stores that catered specifically to the wealthy. After all, there were plenty of rich people in the county, and they had needs too.
Li Xiang could be considered to have achieved "clothing freedom" by now, so he took his cousins to those stores.
His cousin was stunned. ’So expensive, so expensive!’ These high-end stores were all decorated so magnificently, making his slightly introverted cousin and his young, inexperienced younger cousin very reserved.
Jiang Cai’Er, on the other hand, was playful and lively, and even helped haggle over the price.
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