I Am A Prodigy

At six-thirty in the evening.

The number of viewers in Ye Lingchen’s live stream had exceeded 200,000, and each one of them waited in anticipation.

By then, a barrage of people were already in the live stream.

[You may not believe it, but my mother forced me to come to watch it.]

[Oh, you might not believe it, but my parents are sitting next to me and waiting with me.]

[Hehe, next time there’ll be additional daily homework. I feel bitter!]

At the same time, the offices in a certain school’s history department were still lit.

Old Zhao has just finished his class and was about to go back, but he glanced across and could not help but feel stunned. “Yo, Teacher Wang, Teacher Li, and Teacher Chen, why haven’t any of you left yet? What’s up? Are you going to spend the whole night putting together a history exam?”

In that office were all the history teachers from that school. Surprisingly, all of them gathered and stared at the computer instead of going home.

“Old Zhao, we’re learning as students today. Would you like to come and listen too?” asked one of the teachers.

“Learning?” Old Zhao asked in surprise. “Learning what?”

“This is Study of the Three Kingdoms, even the Cultural Education Press singled it out for praise. We’re here to learn his lecturing skills.”

“Oh, it’s Study of the Three Kingdoms! Hahaha, I’m anxious to go back because I want to watch it!” Old Zhao immediately showed his interest once he heard it was Study of the Three Kingdoms. He decided to sit back down and join them to watch it together. “I watched Y-God talking about the Three Kingdoms yesterday. It’s really good! Even I’m excited to learn about the Three Kingdoms!”

Similar scenes occurred in many places.

Study of the Three Kingdoms excelled not only in history but culture too. Many people found it appealing and a great number tuned in due to Ye Lingchen’s lecture skills and captivating live stream. After all, it attracted a huge number of people—individuals from teachers to hosts that wanted to learn a thing or two from him.

Ye Lingchen certainly had no idea that his Study of the Three Kingdoms attracted so many viewers. Among them were teachers, hosts, TV stations, and even cultural leaders, all of whom sat in front of the computer while waiting for the live stream!

It was almost time. Ye Lingchen put on Superman Y’s mask and sat in front of the computer. Many things became much more convenient with that mask and it was only logical that he wore it.

Looking at the number of people online, he realized that it set a new high for his own live stream. The Three Kingdoms seemed to be an attractive stunt.

After starting the live stream, Ye Lingchen adjusted his state of mind and spoke in a steady tone:

“We’ll be talking about Cao Cao today. We can’t possibly talk about the Three Kingdoms without mentioning Cao Cao. The so-called Three Kingdoms are Wei, Shu, and Wu. Cao Cao is the one who founded Wei, but we will soon discover that that Cao Cao’s depiction is a complicated one. Many people don’t like Cao Cao. Su Dongbo said that in the Northern Song Dynasty, many folks talked about history, told stories, and spoke of the Three Kingdoms. When Liu Bei’s failure was mentioned, the audience burst into tears; when Cao Cao’s failure was brought up, everyone applauded. It shows us that Cao Cao was very much disliked, at least during the Northern Song Dynasty. Why was Cao Cao disliked? What unflattering things did he do? ”

It was as casual an introduction as ever, which amused many. At the same time, those people were beginning to feel curiosity growing in their hearts.

Exactly. Why was Cao Cao disliked?

They too, could not help but feel a trace of contempt in their hearts when they heard Cao Cao’s name. Compared to Liu Bei, Cao Cao’s reputation could plainly be said to be extremely poor.

“It has nothing to do with us even if Cao Cao was a traitor. We’re just spectators, and with all those troops going to war, how could he not be a traitor? Is Liu Bei not a traitor? Why do people only hate Cao Cao?”

That was another question that confounded everyone. In addition, it simultaneously made them restless, impatient, and eager to know the answer.

Many people were already firing questions.

Ye Lingchen was not going to disappoint them. He began explaining, “People were originally dissatisfied with Cao Cao because of one sentence that he said: I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me! So, a person who would rather turn his back against the world instead of letting the world turn their back against him is considered a bad person, hence the general public’s dislike of Cao Cao. ”

[Exactly! I remember it now. It’s exactly that sentence!]

[So, it was Cao Cao who said that sentence. No wonder I hate him so much!]

[Too selfish, who does he think he is? He wants to betray the entire world!]

The bullet screen was flooded with comments and the situation continued to heat up. Many were cursing madly at Cao Cao.

“But …” Ye Lingchen’s change of tone made everyone jump. The change was a bit too unexpected!

“Did Cao Cao really say this? If Cao Cao was wrongly accused of that, shouldn’t we be vindicating him?”

Vindicating him?

That… Y-God wanted to vindicate Cao Cao?

Having previously corrected Zhou Yu’s depiction, Ye Lingchen then moved on to do the same to Cao Cao. Could it be that Cao Cao never said that sentence? That did not seem too likely. Was it possible for any good person to make such a remark?

Ye Lingchen continued, “Historically, the more acceptable story is probably this: Dong Zhuo wanted to persecute Cao Cao and this led to Cao Cao escaping from the capital. Along the way, he passed by the house of an old friend whose name was Lü Boshe. Due to a misunderstanding, Cao Cao suspected that Lü Boshe’s family was going to hurt him, so he killed all of them.

“After killing them, Cao Cao realized his mistake and lamented: I would rather betray a person than let that person betray me.”

After a pause, Ye Lingchen resumed his explanations. “Let’s take a look at the context at that time. He spoke distressfully once he found out that he killed them wrongly. ‘Distress’ is the keyword here. He killed the wrong people, and then, alas, he felt sad too. He brushed it aside and said that he would rather betray others rather than let others betray him. It was a kind of self-consolation for him to make peace with himself, hence the reluctant justification for his wrong behavior.”

Many people nodded as well. They were almost able to feel Cao Cao’s state of mind at that time.

They then heard Ye Lingchen continue, “Cao Cao made that remark at the time simply by judging the events by its merits. I was wrong, I killed someone else by mistake, and I have turned my back against these people. Even so, there’s nothing I can do now. I’m at the end of my rope and I have no other alternative. I would rather turn against them than have them turn against me. But in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, his words became confident and righteous, with the use of the word ‘world’ to replace the original ‘I would rather betray someone than let that person betray me.’ This is a big difference!”

[Turns out that’s the original story. With this analysis, it seems that the later rumors added a lot of extra elements.]

[Putting yourself in his shoes, Cao Cao’s actions were not completely wrong at that time.]

[Is it really because his words were misinterpreted?]

Ye Lingchen’s analysis left many historical experts in contemplation, not only the audience.

“Cao Cao is devious and that can’t be denied, but there is also an honest side of him as well as a cute side. Let’s take a look at the contradictions in Cao Cao’s character …”

…

“That is why I believe that Cao Cao’s can be summed up in five words—an adorable yet unscrupulous careerist! Why is he an adorable yet unscrupulous careerist? Please listen to the next episode. The Enigma of The Unscrupulous Careerist.”

At the end of the live stream, many people had a look on their face that they have never had before. After listening to Ye Lingchen, they had the feeling of experiencing history from a personal perspective, benefiting a lot from it.

It was profound and interesting.

At the same time, their hearts were filled with endless admiration. Ye Lingchen’s historical research was thorough while his detailed analysis conformed to logic—an impressive feat indeed!