My carefree life in space

Chapter 60 published an article questioning the issue.

Lin Shushu spent a day watching part of Lin Keke's live stream replay, and she found quite a few problems.

For example, when explaining the idiom "to burn one's boats and break one's cauldrons," she set the background to the Battle of Red Cliffs. In the live broadcast, Lin Keke spoke passionately to the camera about this battle.

"This is a famous battle in Chinese history where a smaller force defeated a larger one."

This statement piqued the audience's interest, prompting them to inquire which battle it referred to.

"In the long history of China, there is a famous battle called the Battle of Red Cliffs, which tells the story of two countries joining forces to defeat a third country."

The alliance was formed by the kingdoms of Shu and Wu, and the kingdom of Wei was defeated by them.

At that time, the State of Wei was powerful and disregarded the other two states, so it launched an attack on the State of Wu. In order to counter Wei, the States of Wu and Shu joined forces.

Even if the two countries joined forces, they might not necessarily be able to defeat Wei, but the Wei general made a mistake that ultimately led to their defeat.

Lin Keke paused at this point. The audience, who had been listening intently, noticed her pause and began asking what had happened next.

Lin Keke cleared her throat and continued:

"At that time, the State of Wei was located inland, and its soldiers were not used to traveling by boat. However, the State of Wu had many waterways, so it was inevitable that they would have to fight on the water. So the generals of Wei came up with a solution: they connected the bows and sterns of their ships together, so that people and horses could stand on the boats as if they were walking on flat ground."

"That's a good idea," people in the live stream praised, but some disagreed, arguing that since they were the losing side, this method wouldn't work.

After Lin Keke and the others discussed it, they told the rest of the story.

"In doing so, the Wei soldiers did adapt, but it created an opportunity for the other two kingdoms. Under the cover of night, while the Wei soldiers were asleep, they secretly boarded the Wei ships with axes and scuttled them. The Wei soldiers couldn't swim, and most of them drowned. In the end, Wu and Shu were victorious."

After Lin Keke finished speaking, the public chat went blank. Even the interstellar people could detect many flaws in her statement. However, seeing Lin Keke's confident smile, their positive impression of her overcame all doubts, and they all praised her for her extensive knowledge.

Lin Shushu almost couldn't listen anymore. How did "breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats" become "sinking the boats with an axe"? Besides, this idiom didn't come from the Battle of Red Cliffs!

Using an axe to chisel at a boat? How could she even think of that?! Even if the scene is accurate, the Wei soldiers were asleep, not dead. How could they not hear such a loud noise? Besides, what army doesn't have soldiers on duty at night? How could someone chisel at a boat and no one notice?

Lin Shushu was furious. Putting aside her own grudges with the Lin family, she couldn't just sit idly by because of Lin Keke's misattribution and nonsensical explanations.

Lin Shushu transformed into an online writer, registered an account called "Fake Exposing Expert," and wrote a lengthy article, which she posted on the StarNet forum with the title "The Classical Goddess is Actually All Show and No Action," listing all of Lin Keke's mistakes.

This was the peak time for traffic on the StarNet website, and coupled with Lin Keke's existing popularity, the article was quickly seen as soon as it was published.

When they first saw the title, Lin Keke's fans were furious and clamored to find the author. But they fell silent after they clicked in and read the whole article.

The article begins: "Recently, a classical goddess has emerged on the StarNet. As a lover of ancient culture, I entered her live broadcast room with great anticipation. What I saw left me speechless."

Next, the author took screenshots of the goddess's remarks and pointed out the errors one by one.

"I never expected that a classical goddess would make such a mistake, such as in the most recent live broadcast, 'The white mountains stretch to the horizon, the Yellow River flows into the river. To see a thousand miles further, climb one more story.'"

At first glance, this poem is indeed short, concise, and full of philosophy, but what is '白白'? And what is '黄河入河河'? I think anyone with a little knowledge of classical poetry would see the problem, but the goddess didn't notice it.

Even more absurd is her interpretation: "Standing on a snow-capped mountain"—where in the poem is there a snow-capped mountain? Just because of the word "white"? And then there's "climbing a higher mountain"—shouldn't it be "building"? Otherwise, how do you explain the last line of the poem?

Upon seeing this, Lin Keke's fans actually found it quite reasonable. And that's not all; later, the author points out an even bigger mistake made by the goddess.

"That's fine. Just assume that you, Goddess, saw the wrong draft of the poem. After all, not many poems have survived to this day, and many are even incomplete. It's understandable that you misunderstood it."

However, after watching the previous live streams, I found quite a few mistakes. In particular, when explaining the phrase "break the cauldrons and sink the boats," they actually linked it with the "Battle of Red Cliffs," which is unforgivable, as these are clearly two completely unrelated events.

The idiom "破釜沉舟" does not mean sinking a boat with an axe. It refers to breaking the cooking pot and sinking the ferry boat, implying leaving no way out and acting decisively.

It does indeed originate from a famous battle where a smaller force defeated a larger one, but its protagonist is Xiang Yu. He ordered "sink all the boats and break the cooking pots," meaning to scuttle the boats used for crossing the river, smash the cooking pots, and burn down the nearby houses, demonstrating his determination to advance without retreat and to seize victory.

Later generations extracted the idiom "破釜沉舟" (break the cauldrons and sink the boats) from Xiang Yu's words "all the boats were sunk and the cooking pots were broken," which is its true origin.

In the Battle of Red Cliffs, the defeated side did indeed chain their ships together, but the reason for their defeat was not that their ships were sabotaged and their soldiers drowned, but rather that they were attacked with fire.

The allied forces sent a general to feign surrender, gaining the enemy's trust. Taking advantage of the enemy's lowered guard, the general led ten small warships, loaded with firewood and oil, towards the enemy camp. Upon approaching, all the ships were set on fire simultaneously, and then, using the wind, they burned the enemy's ships that were tied together, thus defeating them.

After explaining, the author concludes:

"I know that everyone is fascinated by ancient culture, and we should indeed do our best to save and spread it. However, we cannot misattribute it to others, nor can we spread it to the public based on our own limited understanding. Doing so will only cause ancient cultural heritage to disappear faster. If that happens, we will lose the meaning of learning about ancient culture."

The article quickly spread on the StarNet. Although Lin Keke's die-hard fans were still supporting her, many more people questioned her reputation as a classical goddess.

If what the author says is true, then how can Lin Keke deserve this honor? Although it hasn't been confirmed, most people believe the author's statement to a large extent.

Overnight, Lin Keke's reputation was ruined by more than half.