Chapter 18: This Is All Dr. Xiao Rong’s Sincere Heart
For a moment, the surrounding area fell deathly silent. Several villagers standing closer to Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but steal glances at him. When caught, they immediately looked away as if nothing had happened.
【Dr. Xiao Rong seems so quiet and gentle—does he really have this kind of personality in private?】
【Oh no, I just said that joke was bad. Will Doctor Rong refuse to treat my big goose now?】
【Top students really are different. Even their rhymes stand out.】
Though these people remained silent, the comments above their heads spoke volumes. Rong Ziyin opened his mouth, feeling he should offer an explanation.
But they were all so focused on acting along. After thinking for ages, Rong Ziyin couldn’t find a chance to speak.
The system burst out laughing: Hahahaha, the Village Chief is on fire! Host, you’ve finally met your match!
Rong Ziyin: I ignore it. Don’t wanna talk.
Regardless of how awkward Rong Ziyin felt, the Village Chief’s rhyme was undeniably catchy. Especially since he later felt his own delivery lacked rhythm, so he specifically sought out Xu-the Loudmouth, the village’s most booming voice.
“Just belt it out at the top of your lungs! Remember! It must be full of feeling and emotion.”
“How busy our dear Doctor Rong usually is! He wrote this amidst his hectic schedule out of concern for our village,” the village chief coaxed.
Deeply moved, Xu Dasao (Xu the Loudmouth) began reporting punctually to the village office each day, sitting in the broadcast booth to sing.
The loudspeakers played it three times daily—morning, noon, and night. Even the eighty-year-old grandpa with poor hearing, strolling through the village entrance at dawn, hummed this tune under his breath.
As this catchy rhyme exploded among the villagers, Rong Ziyin’s daily emotional harvest soared. No wonder—the village chief had specifically noted it was the wise and clever Doctor Rong’s request!
What Rong Ziyin hadn’t anticipated was that, likely impressed by their village’s campaign, several neighboring villages followed suit.
There were actually many anti-scam rhymes out there. Earlier, the government had even launched a nationwide campaign soliciting submissions for rural publicity. While those official entries were more standardized, when it came to catchiness and entertainment value, how could they possibly compete with Rong Ziyin’s village version?
So, after consulting with Rong Ziyin’s village chief, the chiefs of the surrounding villages all independently chose to adopt this particular rhyme.
This made Rong Ziyin famous throughout the surrounding villages.
At six in the evening, Rong Ziyin sat in the animal husbandry station office feeding ducks, listening to the rhythmic singing of Loudmouth Xu. His mind was filled with messages flashed by the system.
[Respect Points from Old Li of Xiao Wang Village: 200] [Confusion Points from Brother Liu of Lu Village: 100] [Regret Points from Cow Lady of Xu Village: 1000] And so on—hundreds of messages floated by. There was even one that read: [Admiration Points from MC Bad Egg of Lu Village: 1000].
Rong Ziyin: So who the hell is this MC Bad Egg?
System: I asked the Money Turtle. He says he’s the top MC in all the surrounding villages.
Rong Ziyin: …
System: Turtle says he wants to apprentice under you now.
Rong Ziyin muted the system in exasperation, craving some quiet solitude.
As the rhymes spread, Rong Ziyin’s fame reached its peak in the countryside. The rumors about him, however, were getting a bit too outlandish.
At first, they were somewhat plausible—things like “Little Doctor Rong is so knowledgeable, he cures illnesses well.” But then they morphed into “Little Doctor Rong is the reincarnation of the Literary Star, possessing fiery eyes that shoot lightning bolts and the ability to discern fraudsters with a flick of his fingers.”
The system chuckled, head bobbing. “Hahahaha, what the heck is ‘shooting lightning bolts with his eyes’!”
But after enduring this period of public scrutiny, Rong Ziyin himself had grown remarkably calm, taking it all in stride.
Even when a curious village child asked him, “Little Doctor Rong, I heard you can shoot lightning bolts with your eyes,” Rong Ziyin actually lowered his head and answered earnestly.
“Yes! Not only can I shoot lightning bolts with my eyes, but I can do other things too. Do you know the cow at Old Huang’s place by the village entrance?”
Child: “Yes.”
Rong Ziyin: “I knocked it flat with just one needle.”
Child: “???”
Rong Ziyin: “Guess why I knocked it down?”
Child: “Wh-why?”
Rong Ziyin: “Because it wasn’t doing its summer homework properly!”
“Whoa! Doctor Xiao Rong is scaring me! Run away!” Realizing Rong Ziyin was just teasing him, the boy still burst into laughter and took off running. Even from a distance, he turned back to stick out his tongue at Rong Ziyin. Yet, a string of rapidly beating little hearts popped up in the comment stream above his head, accompanied by the lively comment, “I love Little Doctor Rong the most!” This made Rong Ziyin chuckle involuntarily.
Another week passed, and finally, the reward for Rong Ziyin from the Forestry Bureau arrived. To his surprise, it was a full twenty thousand yuan.
“How could it be so much?” Rong Ziyin was startled.
The Forestry Bureau leadership quickly provided an explanation: the golden turtle was simply too precious. When it first arrived at the wildlife park, the zoo had invited experts to examine it. Unexpectedly, they discovered a passage of ancient text carved into its shell—a completely unfamiliar script.
After sending a copy to ancient script researchers for deciphering, it was identified as a secret code left by an ancient emperor. Following analysis by historians, the location specified by the code was finally located. Exploration revealed an ancient tomb hidden beneath! Moreover, based on current information, this vast tomb complex turned out to be the burial ground of an imperial dynasty never before discovered.
This was undoubtedly a monumental discovery. Now, that golden coin turtle was revered like an ancestor at the wildlife park, and Rong Ziyin received even greater rewards as a result.
Looking at it this way, it seemed the golden coin turtle had indeed brought him some fortune—not vast, but still quite good.
Rong Ziyin: Seems it’s pretty powerful after all.
System: How about you drop by the wildlife park more often to see it, Host?
[Resistance Value from Golden Money Turtle: 2000]
That turtle was clearly cultivated by immortals. The moment the System mentioned it, the turtle sensed something and immediately protested, “Don’t you dare touch me!”
Rong Ziyin mimicked the System’s previous address for the turtle and sighed: “Seems Turtle-Turtle has quite the temperament too!”
System: …
Stung into silence by Rong Ziyin’s remark, the System refused further communication. Yet Rong Ziyin began mentally calculating his coin value.
Thanks to his relentless efforts lately, the coin value in the system was now very close to six hundred thousand. Although that Zhihu post wasn’t generating as quickly as before, it was still steadily harvesting emotional value from the masses.
Recently, the broadcast lessons on fraud prevention launched in various villages had provided Rong Ziyin with a huge influx of coin value.
Combined with the coins gradually accumulating from daily life, he now needed only five or six thousand more to upgrade.
This amount wasn’t particularly large for Rong Ziyin. Coincidentally, he was precisely seeking an opportunity—and a perfect chance presented itself.
Due to the matter of submitting his thesis to a core journal, Rong Ziyin’s advisor called him back to campus.
If he were only publishing in a non-core journal, he could simply write the paper, find the correct submission address, ensure the plagiarism rate was acceptable, and it would likely be accepted.
Submitting to a university journal was a bit more complicated. Undergraduate journals typically considered the first author’s status, academic background, and professional title. But this wasn’t absolute; for instance, junior college journals never discriminated based on author status.
But publishing in a core journal requires a supervisor. While it’s unlikely for undergraduates to get into core journals, there are precedents of success. Most core journals scrutinize the first author’s academic background and professional title. Some also demand research funding or established research projects.
Therefore, to discuss the submission process, the advisor suggested Rong Ziyin return to campus.
Rong Ziyin calculated that the journey from the village to Yanjing University would take four hours. If he left early in the morning, discussed the research topic with his professor by noon, and returned after lunch at the cafeteria, he could be back in the village by afternoon. This would only take up one full day, which seemed manageable.
Thus, Rong Ziyin approached the village chief beforehand to inform him, arranged for someone to cover his duties that day, notified the villagers of his absence, and then packed his things to head back to campus.
Meanwhile, word of Rong Ziyin’s impending return had already reached those in the know at the university.
A chance to publish in a core journal! Encountering this during university was truly like manna from heaven.
Thus, some eager individuals shared the news in the class group chat. They tagged Rong Ziyin to congratulate him. Meanwhile, several classmates who often borrowed his notes couldn’t resist asking for advice.
“How did you manage to get research results this early, Genius? You’re always so busy and work part-time too! Is this the difference between a genius and a slacker?”
Seeing their earnest expressions, Rong Ziyin thought for a moment before replying, “Maybe because even without a girlfriend, I don’t stay up all night playing Honor of Kings.”
【Li Fuhui’s Frustration Level: 100】【Wang Quan’s Frustration Level: 100】【Xia Dayu’s Frustration Level: 100】…
Classmates immediately enthusiastically awarded Rong Ziyin their gold coin values.
This was fucking blatant mockery.
University nightlife was so vibrant, yet for him…
University nightlife is so vibrant, and for most male students, girlfriends and gaming are equally important pursuits.
Rong Ziyin’s words struck right at their most sensitive spot, instantly silencing the once-bustling class group chat.
Then some slow-witted fool pressed further: ” ‘Top student, what does this have to do with girlfriends and games?'”
Rong Ziyin: “Of course it’s related. Because on those nights when you hesitated, felt lonely without a girlfriend, and could only play Honor of Kings, I figured out all the problems I couldn’t solve in the lab.”
Rong Ziyin paused, then added: “And in the end, you guys didn’t even make it to Star Glory. You fell back down from Diamond rank. What a waste of time.”
Damn, what a brutally honest portrayal of college life—a raw, unadorned mockery. Everyone instantly lost all desire to talk to Rong Ziyin. With this move, Rong Ziyin successfully earned 10,000 emotion points, leaving him less than 40,000 gold coins short of the final system upgrade threshold.
System: Waaah! We can finally upgrade!
Rong Ziyin: Yeah, probably soon. Should be done by tomorrow when I get to school.
The system didn’t understand why Rong Ziyin said that, but the next day, when Rong Ziyin stepped into the teaching building and encountered that rich kid outside his advisor’s office, the system suddenly understood everything.
Yes, Rong Ziyin could indeed scrape together enough gold coins this time—after all, a big spender had appeared!
What was unexpected, though, was that the rich kid had come to the advisor’s office for the exact same reason—to discuss submitting a paper.
Even more unsettling, the rich kid’s research topic was strikingly similar to Rong Ziyin’s, both focusing on duck infectious diseases.
If they submitted to the same core journal at the same time, and with such overlapping subjects, the editors would surely have to make a choice during the acceptance process. This rich kid clearly intended to challenge Rong Ziyin head-on. Consequently, he adopted an air of superiority the moment he spotted Rong.
“You’re here?” the rich kid declared smugly.
Rong Ziyin studied him briefly, ignoring his greeting and instead delivering a pointed remark: “You know, academic fraud is illegal.”
Was Rong Ziyin declaring war? The rich kid frowned.
But he never expected Rong Ziyin’s next words: “Hold your horses. I’ve diagnosed you with Mediterranean-pattern seborrheic alopecia. I suggest you see a doctor ASAP.”
“Before you go bald at such a young age!”