Restart life

Chapter 602 [Extra] Here comes the motivation!
How could the terms "Hong Kong film goddess" and "Yang Mi" be linked together?
If it weren't for asking AI, Chen Guiliang would never have been able to come up with a solution, no matter how hard he tried.

The task is related to the golden age of Hong Kong films, which usually refers to the period from the late 70s to the early 90s. Therefore, the task targets actresses who starred in Hong Kong films before 1995.

"King of Beggars" is a Hong Kong film released in 1992, which perfectly matches the character description.

But Yang Mi was only 5 years old when she participated in the filming...

Chen Guiliang had already decided last night that he wouldn't accept any tasks he didn't want to complete. He was about to click "Reject Task" when he suddenly glanced at the task description: "A kiss."

This is a very vague term.

Hugging can be called kissing, and so can rolling around in bed.

Even a handshake would barely qualify!
worthy of study.

"Why are you just spacing out? You're not talking or eating anything," Tao Xue asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm thinking about something."

Chen Guiliang had just formed a "Confidante" bond with Tao Xue and completed a daily bond quest. He then discovered that Tao Xue's affection level towards him was 83.

Moreover, the system crashed and restarted several times, randomly rewarding +1 intelligence, and also Jay Chou's "Rice Fragrance" (lyrics, music and arrangement).

It's already 2023, what's the point of awarding "Rice Fragrance"?

After lunch, Tao Xue snuggled up in Chen Guiliang's arms and they watched a supernatural old Hong Kong movie together on the sofa.

As she looked at you, Tao Xue said, "I still feel that you are different today."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "You said it yourself, I've become even more handsome."

"cut!"

Tao Xue stopped talking, shifted her body slightly, and found a more comfortable position in Chen Guiliang's arms.

While Chen Guiliang appeared to be watching a movie with Tao Xue in his arms, he was actually checking the follow-up tasks of the main storyline.

"【Internet Celebrity】Task Description: You are already a well-known writer. In this internet age, don't just think about physical publications; you should also publish your works on online media. There is no penalty for failure in this task, and the task reward depends on the dissemination effect of your work."

Chen Guiliang opened the system store and went directly to the "Books" page.

Many books have already been published, yet they are still being sold in the online store, such as "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality" and "Lord of Mysteries." The timeline is clearly incorrect.

After all, I'm the world's richest man now, so publishing popular novels might be a bit low-class.

Chen Guiliang searched for works in philosophy, history, and pure literature, and a whole bunch of results popped up immediately.

He stared intently at Noren Geertz's *Nihilism*, a book he had read before his rebirth, but which had vanished into thin air in this timeline. Several other works had disappeared similarly, perhaps a butterfly effect resulting from Chen Guiliang's rebirth.

Chen Guiliang was lost in thought because he was thinking about himself.

His values ​​and state of mind after his rebirth were somewhat influenced by nihilism. Now, with the system's cheat code, the influence of nihilism on him is even deeper.

We must be wary of nihilism!

Chen Guiliang clicked to buy the book, and while reading it, he reflected on it and drew lessons from it in light of his own situation.

After finishing the movie, Tao Xue stretched and sat up, then ran to the bathroom to fuss over. A while later, she returned to the living room, winked at Chen Guiliang, and casually said, "The bathtub is filling up; this weather's perfect for a bath. Want to come along?"

Can I refuse this invitation?
Sigh, in order to successfully complete the task of delivering public grain, I also need to do more tasks to improve my attributes.

Otherwise, these women would have devoured him completely, leaving not even bones or scraps.

I don't know how much time passed, but the water had almost cooled down.

Tao Xue lay on him, panting heavily, her face full of ecstasy as she bit his shoulder hard, leaving a few shallow teeth marks. She said, "I'm a little cold. Carry me to take a hot shower; I'm too tired to move."

Chen Guiliang got out of the bathtub first, then picked Tao Xue up in his arms, and soon laughter echoed in the shower room again.

As school was about to let out, Chen Guiliang personally went to pick up the children and build a relationship with them.

That evening, I took Bian Guanyue out for a candlelight dinner.

The next day, after get off work, Chen Guiliang had another date with Xu Fengyin and spent the evening playing games with the children.

Aside from interacting with his family, he ignored all other tasks and refused to be led by the nose by that damn system.

Over the past few days, Bian Guanyue, Tao Xue, and Xu Fengyin's favorability towards him has all reached the current limit of 89 points. They have no idea how to break through the critical point to reach over 90.

Chen Guiliang boosted the five children's favorability towards him to over 85 points.

In the second week, he finally started doing the main quest.

Chen Guiliang logged into his long-unused Weibo account and began serializing the first chapter of "Nihilism," titled "Why Does 'Nothing Matters' Matter?"

In addition to the original content, Chen Guiliang added some new elements—comparing ancient Chinese philosophical thought in his discussions.

Has the world's richest man started using Weibo again?

And he's even serializing a new book?

This news immediately became a trending topic!
"Not a novel?"

"Wow, Old Master Chen has given up on history and gone off to study philosophy?"

"Haha, the world's richest man is discussing nihilism. How darkly humorous."

"I feel that Chen Laozu has lost his pursuit of reality, which is why he went to study nihilism."

"Have you all read it carefully? Old Master Chen is wary of and opposes nihilism!"

"Who even uses Weibo anymore? Are you trying to force me to register a new Weibo account?"

"Damn, I haven't logged in for two or three years, how come I'm following a bunch of stupid celebrities?"

"..."

Besides the serious comments, there were also a lot of low-quality comments like "My husband killed me" and "Support".

Various influential figures rushed to capitalize on the trend, and even local cultural and tourism official accounts mindlessly reposted it.

It also drew out many philosophy professors and students, and some even started making videos to explain to their fans what nihilism is.

Chen Guiliang quickly finished the second chapter: "I will be giving a live lecture on Sunday night at 8 PM. Those interested are welcome to listen..."

This Weibo post caused an even bigger sensation.

Nowadays, there are many celebrities giving online lectures; for example, Zhang Chaoyang has been teaching physics for several years.

But Chen Guiliang is the world's richest man. He can attract a lot of viewers even if he just goes live and talks nonsense, let alone give online lectures.

Before 8 PM on Sunday, the live stream chat was already flooded with comments even though the screen was black. "Hello everyone, I'm Chen Guiliang..."

This time, Chen Guiliang was doing a live broadcast from his study, but what netizens were focusing on was what books were on the bookshelf behind him.

After a few minutes of casual conversation, Chen Guiliang got down to business: "Nihilism, in English it's called nihilism, in German it's called Nihilismus..."

"Why am I researching this stuff? Because nihilism is rampant in today's society. The fact that short videos dominate people's time is also a manifestation of nihilistic intrusion..."

“Nihilism is complex; even different philosophers have different understandings of it… It has now even become a label used by different groups to attack each other…”

"In Socrates' allegory of the cave, a group of prisoners chained up since childhood mistook the swaying shadows on the wall for the real world. In his view, people in reality are the same, taking social customs and traditional ideas for granted as the truth, never truly questioning them..."

"Descartes..."

"Hume..."

“Kant…”

“Nietzsche said, God is dead! Here, God symbolizes the highest value and ultimate meaning. This is the core of nihilism: the self-degradation of the highest value. People lose their foundation of faith, lose their goals, and the entire value system collapses. All values ​​lose their meaning, even life itself becomes meaningless…”

"The highest values ​​we once held dear now seem so dubious, absurd, even laughable. In this context, nihilism arises, and people's minds become confused..."

"During the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the collapse of Han Dynasty Confucianism, scholars debated the concept of 'taking non-action as the foundation'..."

The barrage of comments in the live broadcast room exploded instantly.

"Highest value??? The world's richest person isn't afraid of having their title revoked, is they?"

"Super Admin, come quick! Someone here is talking nonsense!"

“Old Master Chen, we can’t just talk nonsense.”

"..."

Chen Guiliang ignored the comments and continued explaining the theoretical development of nihilism, then added, "Nihilism sounds depressing, but it's definitely not pessimism..."

“Pessimists are hopeless, believing there is nothing they can do to resist. Nihilists, on the other hand, want to escape this despair. They often even appear very optimistic, using optimism to mask their inner emptiness…”

“Cynicism…”

"The Zen master Linji Yixuan said: 'There's no point in striving; it's just about impermanence and inaction, defecating, urinating, dressing, eating, and sleeping when tired.' This is very similar to the view of philosopher James Tartaglia, who said that life itself is meaningless, but daily actions and interpersonal relationships are meaningful. He believed that ordinary people can live well without faith; faith isn't that important. Nihilism is at most a metaphysical truth; once you know it, you know it, but it doesn't affect your continued life—eat when you're supposed to eat, sleep when you're supposed to sleep…"

"Before the invention of the television, home decoration was different. After the advent of television, people no longer sat facing each other, but sat in a row facing the television... Now, mobile phones have replaced televisions..."

Most of the viewers in the live stream had no interest in what Chen Guiliang was saying. But that didn't stop them from staying and spamming the chat with comments to show their presence.

A few viewers became increasingly engrossed in the conversation, and in light of their own beliefs and lives, as well as the current chaos in online public opinion, they even experienced a sense of sudden enlightenment.

Chen Guiliang spoke for about an hour, then turned off the live stream to spend time with his wife and children.

But clips of his live streams spread rapidly.

In the following days, many netizens, seeing Chen Guiliang's name in the titles, eagerly rushed to watch the clips. After watching just two minutes, 90% of them were turned off—either they couldn't understand it, or they weren't interested.

Many scholars have given it high praise, and some philosophy professors have even played Chen Guiliang's live broadcast videos in class.

Online and offline media also chimed in.

Some self-media outlets even seriously analyzed Chen Guiliang's mental state, but they couldn't understand the difference between "nihilism" and the "nihilism" of Buddhism and Taoism, and even said that Chen Guiliang might have seen through the world and chosen to become a monk.

"Are you really going to become a nun?" Xu Fengyin asked with a grin.

Chen Guiliang said, "If I become a monk, won't you all be living like widows?"

Bian Guanyue said, "Being a widow is fine too, it'll be quiet and peaceful with no one bothering you."

The book is about 10 words long. Apart from the added content on ancient Chinese thought, most of it was copied directly by Chen Guiliang.

He finished serializing the last chapter and waited two more days before submitting the task.

This lousy system even knew how to distinguish between philosophy books and popular reading materials when judging task completion. Since philosophy books generally don't have a wide reach, and Chen Guiliang had attracted widespread attention, it directly gave him an SSS rating.

Rewards include +1 Intelligence, 100 Points, and one Lucky Roulette draw (guaranteed at least a B-level prize).

Chen Guiliang was too lazy to use points to increase his chances of winning the lottery, so he just randomly drew a prize.

The prizes have been announced.

"【Magnetorheological-piezoelectric ceramic composite active vibration damping mirror mount - drawing】An engineering solution that integrates cutting-edge intelligent materials and precision control concepts. Even by 2030, it is too advanced. It is not in the same technological generation as the top foreign products, and has already surpassed them in principle."

"Note: It is a component of the core optical subsystem of the ultra-high NA EUV lithography machine. It requires the following prerequisite technologies: high-performance magnetorheological materials, ultra-precision piezoelectric ceramic materials, micron-level flow channels and packaging technology, multilayer ceramic co-firing technology, nanoscale vibration sensing network, high-frequency and high-precision current driver, and multi-physics intelligent control algorithm."

Chen Guiliang had been playing the system with a playful attitude, and he had also looked at these technology-related products in the system's store.

The more advanced and cutting-edge the blueprints, the more expensive they are. Moreover, you can't just buy blueprints for advanced technology directly; you must possess all the prerequisite technologies for that technology.

Chen Guiliang went into the restroom and sat on the toilet to examine the preliminary technology blueprints.

"Why does he go to the toilet so often lately?" Tao Xue asked curiously.

Bian Guanyue shook her head: "I don't know, it might be a stomach problem. I told him to see a doctor, but he won't."

Xu Fengyin laughed and said, "I've heard that the toilet is the throne of middle-aged men."

Chen Guiliang sat on the toilet comparing prices, trying to buy one of the prerequisite technologies for this mirror base, "high-performance magnetorheological material," only to find that manufacturing this material also required a whole host of prerequisite technologies.

To build that kind of "ultra-high NA EUV lithography machine", you need to purchase a huge number of preliminary technology blueprints!

Those technical blueprints represent an entire massive supply chain and research system.

Chen Guiliang couldn't possibly hand over the blueprints to someone else to do, but if he did it all himself, who knows how many factories and laboratories he would need to build.

For the next few days, he studied the blueprints for the shopping mall.

The goal is to develop a blueprint purchasing plan that best suits the current situation—it doesn't need to be too advanced, just one that can quickly narrow the gap with foreign countries.

I don't know if I have enough points.

Damn it, the points display is full of question marks, I have no idea how many I have.

This broken system should be explored quickly, and as many tasks as possible should be completed without affecting one's life.

Yes, you could talk to Yang Mi.

That "kissing" part will probably be accomplished with just a handshake, maybe a hug at most, and the mission will be complete.

(End of this chapter)