The graduation ceremony began with the school leaders taking turns reading speeches.
Most of the speeches were insincere, filled with empty platitudes. The entire student body listened sleepily, with yawns erupting one after another.
Jiang Ye remembered that when he was a child and attended school, the highest-ranking officials always spoke first in such occasions, followed by others in descending order. But here, it was the opposite, with the lowest-ranking officials speaking first, and the principal making the grand finale.
The principal was a kind old lady with permed white hair, wearing a bright red sweater. She was small in stature, without a smile, and instead looked worried.
She surprisingly did not bring any notes.
"Hello, students. I am Zhou Longling, the principal of the Yongye Star branch campus of Colonial University. I have been in the education industry for fifty years, starting as the smallest teaching assistant, then becoming a lecturer, associate professor, professor, and finally serving as vice principal and principal at the Yongye Star branch campus for ten years."
"I have seen off batch after batch of students, with generations of students coming like waves and leaving like waves, layered upon each other. Some faces seem familiar, and most figures are vaguely recognized. Sometimes, in deep thought at midnight, it feels like falling into a time loop, because every batch of students is so similar."
"After each final exam, I would check the graduating students' papers, and my mood grew sadder each year."
"Among all the students present, only two are qualified: Jiang Ye and Yue Qilan. Jiang Ye swept all subjects, taking the top spot with an overwhelming victory. Yue Qilan secured the second place in 16 subjects, also performing exceptionally well. I am at ease with students like these, but what about the others?"
"According to the regulations of Colonial University, each class has three slots for failing students, and everyone else can graduate. However, when grading, it was difficult to find these three failing students because everyone kept submitting blank papers, and the answers they did write were all identical. In the end, we had to look at the word count of each person's fabricated answers, or examine the handwriting on the papers, to determine the three students who failed."
The venue was silent.
Jiang Ye's expression was serious, Yue Qilan grinned smugly, and the underachievers in the back lowered their heads, praying that the three unlucky students who failed wouldn't be them. Failing meant staying for another two weeks and trying their luck again in the next exam.
"In Teacher Lu Bao Bian's class, the last question was an open-ended one, asking for individual understanding of contemporary human society or views on the current state of humanity. Most students wrote perfunctory answers, only Jiang Ye answered thoughtfully, writing a long essay of several hundred words, which I read several times."
Jiang Ye was taken aback, not expecting this to be singled out for mention.
Yue Qilan nudged him with her leg and asked with interest, "What did you write? That even the principal read it repeatedly?"
The underachievers who had been looking down also raised their heads. They weren't being humble or studious, but rather gossipy, wanting to know what content had captured the principal's personal attention.
The principal calmly picked up a piece of paper, which was Jiang Ye's exam paper.
"Jiang Ye proposed a concept that I believe can be developed into a theory: the Interstellar Warring States Period," the principal said, putting on her reading glasses.
The audience erupted in an uproar, and the underachievers gasped.
Developed into a theory?
It was just a two-week training course, and now they were going to have a great philosopher? Was education this competitive nowadays?
Yue Qilan was also stunned for two seconds, then vigorously nudged Jiang Ye with her leg and whispered, "Amazing! Lucky you didn't give me all your answers, or I would have been exposed."
Jiang Ye himself was very shocked, looking blankly at the principal. The principal's demeanor suggested she was about to delve into a detailed explanation, launching a live lecture.
"What are the characteristics of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods? Centuries of warfare and killing, everyone wants to survive, but no one can survive. 'Oh, how angry the officials are, how bitter the women weep,' filled with fear and hysterical rage. All morality, law, ethics, and rules gave way to war, with victory sought at all costs, but the price was unbearably heavy."
"Jiang Ye pointed out that the current state of humanity shares similarities with the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and is even more brutal. Wars are happening everywhere, colonies are fighting, different planets are in conflict, and there are brutal wars with alien races. Against this backdrop, the societies of various planets have become like those of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, with the collapse of rites and music."
"The collapse of rites and music is reflected in almost all aspects. Unspoken rules have become the norm, barbarism prevails. Western thought was interrupted by the World Wars, and ancient Eastern wisdom is hardly learned by anyone. The masses on the colonies live just to survive, lost in the vast universe, increasingly lonely amidst the surging crowds."
"This collective sense of being lost, Jiang Ye pointed out several specific phenomena. I will also expand and supplement them here."
"One is the frequent occurrence of 'wandering hysteria' on many colonial planets. 'Wandering hysteria,' which first appeared in ancient Siberian peasants, is also known as Siberian hysteria. The Siberian plains are vast and boundless. Peasants plow the land day after day, working like machines for decades. Then one day, they will drop their hoes and walk madly in the direction of the setting sun until they collapse from exhaustion and die. Many colonial administrators' daily lives are also repetitive, mechanically exhausting, leading to outbreaks of the illness. Some planets have even experienced mass outbreaks, with tens of thousands dying while walking madly in the wilderness."
"Another specific phenomenon is the significant change in sexual and family concepts. People are more inclined to enjoy themselves in the moment, living for today and drinking today, rather than seeking stable, monogamous relationships. Whether on Node Star or Yongye Star, couples are seen everywhere on the streets, entertainment venues are always full, casual dating and breaking up are common, abortion pills are selling at terrifying speeds, and marriage and divorce rates fluctuate wildly. Beneath this pursuit of pleasure, however, lies a great collective anxiety and even despair."
"The root of despair lies in the fact that the entire universe is a battlefield, and every planet is at risk of annihilation at any moment. Transportation is also extremely inconvenient. Most people no longer have the patience to engage in a relationship that lasts for several years and strictly restrain themselves during that time. Many live with the subconscious attitude that today is their last day, hence a sense of madness runs deep within them."
Yue Qilan's expression became strange. She nudged Jiang Ye with her leg, "Are you writing about me?"
"No!" Jiang Ye was also bewildered. "I wrote very little, not this much. The principal expanded on it."
Yue Qilan pondered for a moment, then suddenly nodded. "The expansion makes sense, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Life is short, enjoy it while you can. If you can't get what you want, and lose what you cherish, aren't you just a beggar at a feast in the end? If you didn't bravely seize the opportunity with a handsome guy when you were young, will you regret it when you're old?"
Jiang Ye shrugged and said nothing.
The principal continued:
"Jiang Ye pointed out that the terrible aspect of this phenomenon is that humans born in the space age already hold these views and do not consider them abnormal, nor do they think about more ancient ways of life."
Yue Qilan turned to look at Jiang Ye, her eyes filled with a hint of terror. He had predicted what she was thinking, as if he were her confidant.
"The third phenomenon of the collapse of rites and music is the digitization of the living. This means treating living people as numbers, as ammunition on a war machine. This can be seen from the system of colonial administrators, where hundreds of thousands of people are airdropped onto unfamiliar planets without basic survival guarantees. If they live, they live; if they die, they die, with no one showing pity. There is also the Galactic Empire army, which fights on the front lines, with tens of thousands dying every day, yet there is no propaganda for mourning, no monuments, no names, just gone like numbers. Jiang Ye stated that in ancient times, martyrs held a very high status; their names would be verified at all costs, their ashes returned, monuments and vast mausoleums built, and memorial activities held regularly. But in the space age, all of this has disappeared. People die and are forgotten, or are forgotten even while they are still alive."
"At the end of this question, Jiang Ye pointed out his confusion, which I believe is also the collective predicament of the colonial planets."
"Jiang Ye stated that he does not know which lifestyle is correct, the space age lifestyle or the ancient lifestyle, or if there is no right or wrong, but simply because he is an ancient person, he feels pathologically disturbed by the changes of the present era."
"The biggest problem is that many colonial planets' generals try to maintain social stability through gentle means, but in the end, this always leads to widespread rebellion and unrest. They are forced to use force to carry out large-scale massacres. If the generals had more power, they could completely avoid rebellions and large-scale bloodshed. But they don't. Thus, tragedies are repeatedly staged."
"There is also the fatigue of dealing with space warfare. Most colonial planets find self-preservation difficult, and fighting a defensive war is extremely costly, easily pushing them back to a state of poverty in a short period. There is currently no foreseeable solution to this problem."
"The above is the core idea of Jiang Ye's answer and my expanded content. The Interstellar Warring States Period, where civilization no longer exists, and the law of the jungle re-emerges. Humans and aliens are both beasts, trying to find a sliver of human dignity within the pack."
The graduation ceremony concluded.
The students were informed that their bonuses and various awards would be distributed within a week of their return to their respective planets.
The principal and Jiang Ye exchanged contact information, stating that she might want to discuss academic matters with him later.
With the first prize secured and considerable gains from this trip, Jiang Ye left Yongye Star contentedly, returned to his warp ship, and two days later, successfully arrived back at his villa in the Hot Spring District.