Super God-Level Top Student

"Ah, I'm furious!" A clear cry, inappropriately jolting her roommates awake from their dreams.

"Who is it?! Have some public decency."

"Who else could it be! Chengzi, have you lost it? Just because the exams are over, do you have to keep us from our beauty sleep?"

"Exactly... Chengzi, I'm so done with you. What now?! Can't you be normal for once?"

Su Mucheng didn't speak; her face had already turned red with anger, and her expression was more serious than ever.

Influenced by Qiao Ze, she would wake up on time every morning, and today was no exception.

After getting up, as usual, she planned to send a WeChat message to Qiao Ze to meet for breakfast, only to see the barrage of notifications from various apps on her phone.

It has to be said that big data is frightfully powerful.

Location, information of regular interest, preferred content, it's all recorded and submitted to the system for decision-making, then you're fed with the content you're most likely to find interesting.

Today's content indeed interested Su Mucheng, but it also infuriated her.

What are these people thinking?

Academic cliques? Really?

Weren't those papers Qiao Ze's hard work, crafted painstakingly over several days?

What are these insidious comments online?

Li, such a good man, has been made out as a villain who destroys educational fairness by these people, and they even want to report him?!

Report what?

Report that a high school student can write a paper?!

So, without paying attention to her dorm mates' complaints, Su Mucheng immediately opened WeChat and sent Qiao Ze a message.

"Ze, did you see those pop-up messages on your phone?"

"?"

"Sigh, I knew you wouldn't have seen them, I'm coming over now."

...

Ten minutes later, Su Mucheng slipped out of the dormitory amidst her little sisters' scolding and curses.

As usual, she texted Qiao Ze on the way, and when she arrived at the boys' dormitory, Qiao Ze and Chen Yiwen happened to be coming down.

Su Mucheng took out her phone and started chattering away.

"Qiao Ze, look, for some reason, last night, the whole internet..."

"Oh, Chen Yiwen just saw it too." Qiao Ze did not take Su Mucheng's phone, merely acknowledging it briefly.

"You're not angry?" Su Mucheng widened her eyes and asked Qiao Ze.

Qiao Ze, puzzled, said, "Why would I be angry?"

"Because they're saying you are plagiarizing someone else's work! Doesn't that mean they're calling you a thief?" Su Mucheng said sullenly.

"Oh, before everyone was saying I was crazy too, I didn't get angry then either," Qiao Ze said calmly.

Chen Yiwen once again pursed his lips.

In truth, he wanted to say, if you're not angry about this, is it possible you really are crazy?

But he held back.

He wasn't afraid of Qiao Ze getting angry; it was mainly because he feared Su Mucheng might fly off the handle.

Offending Qiao Ze was not frightening, but offending an emotionally unstable woman who clearly would be rich in the future was terrifying indeed.

When Chen Yiwen first saw those messages, he was somewhat upset too.

After all, he was the third author, though his name was at the end.

But seeing Qiao Ze's undisturbed demeanor, he also let it go.

If the emperor isn't in a hurry, he has no reason to be a eunuch.

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. I'm starving; let's go eat. Tan is probably still waiting for us." Seeing the two stiff in place, Chen Yiwen proactively broke the ice.

...

The three walked to the canteen in silence, with Su Mucheng unusually quiet, just pouting her lips, her face a picture of grievance.

Perhaps sensing Su Mucheng's mood, Qiao Ze, uncharacteristically, started talking: "Do you guys know about the 80/20 rule of information dissemination?"

When the top student initiated the conversation, the effect was evident.

For example, Chen Yiwen immediately perked up his ears.

"I only know about the Law of the Vital Few; the teacher mentioned it in class." Although she was still upset, Su Mucheng graciously responded since Qiao Ze brought up the topic.

"It's a similar concept. To put it simply, a social model where eighty percent of people only grasp twenty percent of effective information is the structure most conducive to stability," Qiao Ze explained softly.

"Huh? Why is that?" Su Mucheng, still annoyed, was successfully distracted by Qiao Ze.

"Because it's easier to manage that way. If you look at it through mathematical functions, you'll find that the more effective information society's individuals receive, the more variable their behavior becomes, and the stronger the unpredictability of risk," Qiao Ze continued.

"Oh, I get it! It's just like how many companies don't allow employees to inquire about each other's salaries, right?" Chen Yiwen chimed in from the side.

Qiao Ze nodded and went on, "So in the past, when networks weren't popular and information was not well developed, the media could apply the 80/20 rule through selective information dissemination. But in the age of speedy mobile internet, this method doesn't work anymore.

Therefore, they do the opposite; they cannot suppress the spread of information, so they use an almost infinite mix of information to increase the cost for society's individuals to determine the authenticity of information, indirectly achieving the 80/20 rule. And it's the same everywhere."

Su Mucheng, having a lightbulb moment, nodded and added, "That's why! No wonder the news online always seems to be flipping back and forth, back and forth. Over time, I can't even tell what's true and what's false anymore. Plus, often reposted tweets, Facebook posts that are obviously unreliable get believed by people online."

"Right, so there's no need to get upset over those messages. Such rapid dissemination surely hides certain intentions. Conveying incorrect information to achieve some purpose is unavoidable in this era. We just need to do our own work well. No matter what the underlying motives are, they will eventually reveal themselves."