Chapter 35: The School's Support (Part 1)

  "Rat-a-tat-tat! Report!"

  "Enter"

  Su Jin walked into the principal's office and saw an old man sitting at the desk drinking tea. It was a normal habit for Li Yuming, a cultural person of this generation, to drink tea.

  "Principal, you're looking for me!" Su Jin stood in front of Li Yueming and said respectfully yet calmly.

  As a student, one should still maintain basic respect for the school principal. Of course, this has a lot to do with Li Yuming being a person who is respected by Su Zhan in the first place! However, years of social experience and a series of experiences have made Su Zhan confident in front of anyone!

  "Su Jin! I've long admired your great name! It's my fault as the principal that we haven't had a chance to chat yet!" Li Yuming's expression was very kind, and his smile was also very gentle.

  Su Jian could tell that he was indeed very concerned about his own affairs, but this concern was more of a responsible principal's concern for his students' learning and life. However, as for how he viewed himself, Su Jian couldn't judge with his current experience. This made Su Jian sigh in admiration - even if he had lived two lifetimes, even if he possessed the System's abilities, when competing with these old foxes, he was still a bit out of his depth! His current achievements were essentially due to the experience from his rebirth and the System's support; if he really stood on the same starting line as these old foxes and competed with them, he would probably be at a loss for what to do! However, Su Jian didn't lose heart. Currently, his biggest shortcoming was that he lacked social experience - although his past life experiences made him far more mature than ordinary students, when it came to the things he needed to do now, he was somewhat unprepared! But this lack of experience would slowly improve with time, and could even be accelerated by experiencing more events! Su Jian believed that in the future, he wouldn't be inferior to them! On the contrary, his rebirth experiences and the System's existence were truly unique - these were the capital that would allow him to surpass others in the future!

  "The principal's words were not unreasonable, it was Su Jian who didn't often come to report his thoughts to the principal and didn't ask for guidance frequently. All of this was Su Jian's mistake!" Su Jian's face was filled with remorse, it seemed that as social experience grew, Su Jian's acting skills had also become more mature, although not yet perfect, but had a certain foundation. If Su Xingfeng saw Su Jian's expression at this time, he would probably feel very relieved and think that his son could already take on the role of a town-level cadre in terms of acting alone!

  Li Yuming opened his bright and spirited eyes, carefully sizing up Su Zhen from head to toe. After a moment, he smiled slightly and said, "Not bad! It seems that Xing Feng has a good son!"

  "Huh?" Su Jin's eyebrows rose, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes. That Li Yuming knew he was Su Xingfeng's son didn't surprise him; this could be hidden from the school teachers, but to say it could be hidden from the school principal, especially one like Li Yuming who had eyes and ears everywhere, was a bit of a joke. What surprised him was that Li Yuming seemed to address Su Xingfeng with an overly familiar tone.

  "Isn't it strange? Your dad was my student, back when I was still a middle school teacher. He followed me for three whole years! Your dad's grades were pretty good back then, never out of the top three in school. At that time, the county regulations stated that students who ranked in the top ten had to attend high school in order to take the college entrance exams later on! But your family was struggling financially, so your dad chose to attend vocational school instead, graduating early to alleviate some of the burden at home... and it was me who arranged for him to do so!" Li Yuming said with a smile.

  "Ah! This! Ah! Su Jin pays respects to Master!" Su Jin was so shocked that he didn't know what to say for a moment. Just now, Fatong said that Li Yuming had connections everywhere, and there were several students in the municipal party committee. He never thought that his own father was one of them!

  "Haha, okay, okay! Your dad is my student, and you are also my student. Let's just drop it, otherwise, with so many students in school, I don't know how many of them would be my disciples. If we really go by that, wouldn't it be chaotic?" Li Yuming laughed loudly, pointing at Su Zhen.

  "That's not okay, others don't know! Naturally, it doesn't matter, but since I know, I must discuss it, or else my dad will say I don't understand the rules! From now on, you are my Shifu!" Su Jin was also a person who would take advantage of an opportunity, seeing Li Yueming like this, he quickly followed up and solidified their relationship. With this relationship established, he believed that even if Li Yueming had some opinions about him, he wouldn't make things too difficult for himself!

  "Hehe, if you're willing, then it's up to you!" Li Yuming said with a smile, waving his hand in a gesture of resignation, as he saw Su Zhan's persistence.

  "Today I called you over, compared to you also know why!" Li Yuming said with a smile.

  "Hmm, Master Su, I've been doing a lot of things lately, and I know some of them have had a bit of an impact. I'm not sure if there's anything I did that was inappropriate, which is why you summoned me today. I do have some guesses about the purpose of your summons, but I'm not sure if they're correct. Would you care to give me some hints?"

  "Hmm!" Li Yuming's eyes flashed with a hint of amusement, and he pointed at Su Zhen before continuing: "Alright, I'll give you a little hint. What I want to talk to you about is the Writing Club making money!"

  Su Jin's face turned completely serious, and he said solemnly: "Master, before I speak, I want to know your attitude towards this matter first!"

  Li Yuming glanced at Su Jin and also restrained his smile, saying seriously: "In essence, I don't reject students making money from writing! Students practicing writing is a good thing in itself, and if the books they write can be recognized by society and earn rewards, that's even better! But the writing club's works are different. I've read your books, and from my perspective, they're immature, rough, full of fantasy, and there's nothing worth learning from them. This kind of book is bound to be looked down upon by mainstream culture, but at the same time, it has a great appeal to students in the same stage as you!"

  "Now some newspapers call your book 'electronic poison' and it's not unreasonable! This is also the reason why this incident, although triggered by the deception of some publishers, can cause a huge reaction in society. What do you have to say about this?"

  Su Jinken thought for a moment, raised his head and said lightly: "If the principal had listened to my first teaching lesson to the club members, I believe he would have known that I once gave our type of people a definition! That is 'personal aspiration fantasy'!"

  The reason why I say this is that although our works are full of fantasies and fabrications, the essence they convey to people is still a positive and sunny ideology! Now there are many on the internet, with all sorts of themes, but if the principal has made a careful count, he will find that all the works created by our school's writing club conform to several conditions.

  First, the protagonist is not necessarily a perfect person, but must be someone with a conscience and a sense of justice. Second, although the protagonist's achievements may involve some luck and coincidence, their own efforts and struggles are also a major factor. Third, the protagonist is usually an ordinary person. Fourth, while the author may occasionally express dissatisfaction with reality, most of the time they are writing about patriotism and doing what is best for the country.

  Through these, we can see that we are trying to convey a message to the readers, that is, as a person, you don't have to be a perfect good man, but you must have basic conscience and sense of justice! As an ordinary person, even if you have encountered various strange encounters, your own efforts and struggles are the most basic factors for success. We should thank our country and our nation for the life we have now, so we should love it!

  A book, as long as it has these elements, I think anyone can't say it's bad or rubbish! As for saying that our entire fantasy is not considering reality, my idea is that the most basic ability should be able to attract readers. If readers don't have the desire to read on, then even if the writing style is good, the meaning is profound, and the angle is positive, what's the point? Seeing that our book attracts people, we should consider why our book attracts people, what are the advantages of our book compared to theirs! It's just because our book attracts readers, and arbitrarily saying that our book is 'electronic poison', haha, this has a bit of a feeling of sour grapes!

  "But, in my observation, there have already appeared some descriptions of the dark side of society and even some that promote negative values on the internet. For students who are still in the stage of recognizing the world, this will undoubtedly have a negative impact on their value formation, which doesn't match your definition of 'personal inspirational fantasy'!" Li Yuming said calmly.

  "In fact, if the teacher had listened carefully to my words just now, he would have discovered that I never said all networks, but only our writing club! The times are different now, as I said in my speech, the rise of the Internet will bring about a revolution that connects the whole society. Perhaps in a few years, our daily lives will be inseparable from the network! At the same time, the rise of the Internet will make humanity enter an era of information explosion! The previous era of closed information, where newspapers, TV stations and radio stations controlled public opinion, is gone forever!"

  In this era, do you still want those students to become a group of 'two ears not hearing the outside world, one heart only reading the books of sages'? The depiction of the dark side of society is first and foremost because it exists in society, so there will be such artistic processing! Letting students truly understand this world, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Of course, if it simply depicts the dark side, or even promotes it, that's definitely unacceptable!

  "But do you think it's possible to completely ban it in the current situation? It's like Pandora's box, once opened, it can never be closed again! The only way to change this situation is to guide him! And currently, our writing club on the internet has played just such a role! This is not us being arrogant! The success of multiple books and our pioneering position have naturally given us this role! Now online, only we have this ability!" Su Jin said calmly and confidently.