The pandemic has exploded, how much have countries like the UK, Australia, and the US been affected by the pandemic in terms of reducing Chinese international students, how much is the estimated annual income loss from international students, how much is the annual study cost for each Chinese international student, which ordinary families cannot afford, and some are turning to Japan and South Korea.

The identity of being a returnee is seen by some as a monster while for others it becomes a golden key to success?

Sister Dong expressed her anguish at the shareholders' meeting: "I would rather mistakenly kill a thousand than hire returnees!" It seems that every international student has a listening device hidden in their suitcase. But look at Dong Xiying's resume—undergraduate in economics from Columbia University, transitioning to a medical doctorate, completing in four years what takes others fourteen years in medical training, with residency training reduced to one year, and a thesis advisor spanning metallurgy to orthopedics. This is no ordinary returnee; she is clearly a 'heavenly dragon person' who bounced into the pinnacle of the pyramid on a privileged springboard.

At the Gree recruitment fair, it is a "risk item" that needs vigilance; but in the Union Medical College's "4+4" elite channel, it becomes a "pass" that breaks conventions. Just like a trump card in a deck, it is a worthless piece of paper in the hands of ordinary people, while it can transform into a whole deck of tricks in the hands of privileged players.

When Dong Mingzhu publicly rejects returnees, the public does not see the returnee executives in her company enjoying subsidies from the "Peacock Plan"; when Dong Xiying was exposed for academic misconduct, her academic mentors collectively remained silent. This sense of tearing is like watching a magic show—out front, they make you focus on the guise of anti-espionage, while behind the scenes, they have already established the real channels for transporting resources. Ordinary returnees become the squeezed middle layer, having to bear the stigma of being "spies" while unable to enter the gilded club of the privileged class.

The original intention of the Union Medical College's "4+4" program was to cultivate composite talents, but it has instead become a VIP channel for the children of the powerful. When Dong Xiying and others skip exams with recommendation letters and obtain their doctoral degrees with a 30-page thesis, those medical students who are burning the midnight oil in laboratories are still worrying about their residency salaries. Even more frightening is that this kind of "legal cheating" is replicating in education, healthcare, and other fields, quietly transforming the channels for social mobility into private helipads.

When Dong Mingzhu shouts through a loudspeaker, "Prevent fire, theft, and returnees," what she truly wants to prevent may not be spies, but those "true returnees" who are unwilling to cooperate with the rules of the interest groups; and when the children of the privileged class easily pass through with the halo of returnees, the children of humble backgrounds are even denied the qualification to question it, branded with the label of "sour grapes mentality."

The weight of one's background has long surpassed the gold content of academic credentials.