The #1 KOL Zhang Xuefeng Dead at 41: $100M Fortune, The Shot or the Dark Twist?

A man who earned tens of millions of yuan simply by talking, teaching an entire society how to avoid life's mistakes, suddenly collapsed and died at 41, right on a treadmill. Zhang Shifeng, the national teacher, the man who turned choosing a college major into a kind of survival game, had just reached the peak of his fame when he fell. His death has sent shockwaves across Chinese social media in recent days, fueled by puzzling and hard-to-explain questions. Was it sudden cardiac death? A vaccine? Stress? Or did the very system he once navigated and benefited from ultimately consume him? And perhaps the most unsettling question is of what he died from. But whether many people in China are walking the same path he did, could he have been hiding some kind of secret? Who is Zhang Shifeng? Zhang Shifeng, 41, was a well-known education KOL in China, a postgraduate exam coach who owned 11 companies under his name and was the founder of Feng Shui Wei Lai in Suzhou. He earned enormous wealth through consulting students on choosing college majors. His net worth was estimated at around 800 million yuan, and for years his bank accounts reportedly held no less than 200 million yuan. He had even mapped out his daughter's future. She would become a bank employee, serving her father, At the peak of his life and career, like the midday sun, he suddenly collapsed on a treadmill at his company in Suzhou at 12.26 p.m. on March 24. It was reported as sudden cardiac death with dilated pupils. After three hours of intensive emergency treatment, he was pronounced dead at 3.50 p.m. In one of his live streams, he had once boldly said he hoped that one day the phrase Zhang Shifeng has died would trend at the top of search rankings, preferably sooner rather than later. No one expected those words to come true. Today, Zhang Shifeng has died sits at number one in trending searches, flooding the entire Internet. Was it just a coincidence, or is there something more behind it? The making of a viral KOL that took China by storm. Why did he explode into such a viral KOL? Zhang Shifeng came from a poor rural family in Qiqihar. His real name was Zhang Zibiao, born in 1984. He graduated in Water Supply and Drainage Engineering from Zhengzhou University. In 2016, a video titled 7 Minutes on 34 Project 985 Universities made him famous overnight across the Internet. From there, he founded the education company Feng Shui Wei Lai, and his Douyin account quickly surpassed 10 million followers. He made money with his mouth, fully capitalizing on the education industry. He wasn't a traditional teacher, but rather a master of pragmatism, mapping out the harshest survival strategies for ordinary parents and students, which majors are dead ends, which schools lead straight to unemployment, and how to choose a path that gets a job quickly and maximizes income. Why did he resonate so widely? Because he pinpointed one of the biggest anxieties in Chinese society, choosing a university major. In China, the college entrance exam is often seen as the only chance for people from lower social classes to change their fate. It has even become a life-or-death dividing line determining whether one can continue to live well. Choosing a major matters because it directly shapes your fate in a bleak job market after graduation. Each year, China produces over 10 million graduates, while youth unemployment remains persistently high. Competition is so intense that even graduates from elite 9-85 universities end up delivering food, selling insurance, or working in factories tightening screws. Many majors that seem good are actually traps, like biology, chemistry, environmental science, and material science, low pay, limited mobility, and even fiercer competition at higher levels. Meanwhile, fields like journalism, media, and the humanities often lead straight to unemployment. For women, the situation can be even harsher. Either entertain clients to secure deals, or return home and lie flat. Zhang Shifeng used an extremely blunt, pragmatic lens to expose these information gaps. He once said that a science track student scoring 5 in 90 who chooses journalism is heading for collapse. If his own child insisted on studying journalism, he joked he would knock them out and force them to pick another major. He also claimed that humanities fields are essentially service industries, boiling it down to a single word, flattery. His crude, often uncomfortable statements moved millions of struggling parents to tears, because he wasn't selling lofty ideals, but laying out the brutal rules of survival. In such a broken labor market, choosing the wrong major can make the entire college entrance exam feel meaningless. Parents sell off everything to send their children to college, only for them to graduate into unemployment, earning 3,000 yuan a month while still working 996. Who can tolerate that? Zhang Shifeng tapped directly into this pain point. Choosing a major isn't about following your interests, it's about securing your livelihood. He used the most direct, even abrasive language to strip away the illusions surrounding universities and expose the harsh realities of the job market, allowing ordinary people to see the truth for the first time. That's why whenever he went live, parents rushed to watch. His dream card consultations, priced at 20,000 yuan, sold out within three hours. Every year, he made hundreds of millions. Imagine a rural parent whose child scores 600 on the exam, but knows nothing about different majors, relying only on glossy admissions brochures. Zhang Shifeng could lay bare the employment realities of 34 elite 985 universities in just seven minutes, which majors lead to jobs at top companies, which end up on construction sites, and which force women into client entertainment just to secure deals. His tone was so blunt, it drew collective criticism from university professors who called him extremely utilitarian. But parents embraced it because the job market in China really is that unforgiving. Economic slowdown, failed transitions, jobs displaced by AI and automation, and graduates without connections left to fight desperately with only their qualifications. He put it starkly, choosing the wrong major is like digging your own grave. One wrong step, and you may never recover. He didn't teach people how to live with idealism or dignity. He taught them how to survive in the mud. And that, more than anything, is why he became a viral phenomenon. Zhang Shifeng, a good man or a little pink loyalist? Some people say Zhang Shifeng treated his employees with a level of generosity that made others envious. A four-day work week with three days off for two straight years, 18 days off during Lunar New Year, sick leave subsidies, and a company culture that felt like a warm family. Many employees said he was the first person to make them feel genuine human warmth inside a Chinese workplace. But if he helped so many people, why did he also attract so much dislike? According to commentator Wei Yu, there are two main reasons. First, his language was often crude to the point of being offensive, paired with an arrogant attitude that seemed to dismiss everyone else. He frequently used profanity and harsh expressions like sounding more like someone ranting in a street market than an educator, something that repelled many intellectuals. Second, he projected a Yet paradoxically, some people were drawn to exactly that style, even willing to accept being scolded by him. In such a harsh environment, his bluntness felt oddly fitting, What truly made him a controversial figure, however, were his remarks about Taiwan. During the September 3, 2025 military parade, he organized hundreds of employees to watch the live stream and declared that China's weapons were not meant to intimidate, but to achieve national reunification. He even said that on the day reunification comes, when the first shots are fired, he would donate at least 50 million yuan. These remarks sparked intense backlash. To many, this wasn't patriotism, but a call for war. Critics argued that he profited from the hard-earned money of parents, yet loudly proclaimed he would donate tens of millions if war broke out. State media reportedly criticized such statements as For people in Taiwan, the comments felt even more offensive. Still, others interpreted his stance differently, suggesting he was pretending to be ultra-patriotic, while actually not believing the government would ever launch such a war. And this wasn't an isolated incident. He had made similar remarks before. For example, when his account was first verified on Weibo, he once posted He even went as far as saying that if Japan did not return the Diaoyu Islands, So how should these statements be understood? Is he truly a little pink, a nationalist supporter, or is he performing loyalty to the system? According to commentator Wen Zhao, he may indeed be a nationalist, but at the same time, he is also a highly shrewd traffic hunter, using provocative rhetoric as a strategy to gain algorithmic promotion and expand his influence. It's a common tactic in today's media landscape. A man who planned life paths for countless others was ultimately unable to chart a safe path for himself. In 2023, he was once hospitalized due to overwork. He experienced chest tightness, a racing heart, and even had to disable comments. During live streams, viewers repeatedly warned him. He laughed it off while eating corn. He chuckled after saying it. And yet, what happened in the end? Right after running, his heart suddenly stopped. Some speculate that Zhang Shifeng's death was related to vaccine after-effects. He had publicly received three doses of the inactivated Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine vaccine. In 2025, when Sinovac distributed 54 billion yuan in dividends, he even joked that he was smart for choosing it. Search data reportedly shows he received a total of seven doses, with the seventh being a vaccine produced by Wiscon. To some, this feels deeply ironic. A man who studied education so deeply yet didn't fully understand vaccines. Over the past two to three years, reports of sudden deaths have seemed to spread like an avalanche. Young and middle-aged individuals collapsing one or two years after vaccination, especially during intense physical activity. Recently, a female KOL reportedly suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage during a live stream, crying out to her followers for help before dying within minutes. Is this coincidence or just the visible tip of a much larger iceberg of vaccine after-effects? Myocarditis? Heart attacks? Blood clots? The authorities remain silent, yet anecdotal cases appear endless. Zhang Shifeng collapsed while running, right in what some call a danger zone of intense exercise after vaccination. Was this a personal tragedy or a broader societal risk? There are also other theories. Some claim he was silenced, like Li Keqiang. But sudden cardiac death is more commonly associated with high-ranking officials, and Zhang Shifeng likely wasn't at a level that would attract such attention. Even his remarks about Taiwan, though provocative, did not directly cross lines that would typically result in severe consequences. Others, like Li Yi, have made even more direct criticisms without facing punishment, making this theory less convincing. Another rumor suggests personal issues, that he may have been betrayed in his marriage, leading to emotional shock. While impossible to verify, it's true that someone with underlying heart problems could suffer a fatal episode under extreme stress. Some also point out that he owned multiple companies and had assets worth hundreds of millions, meaning the biggest beneficiary after his death would be his wife. At present, Chinese social media seems to lean most heavily toward the vaccine-related theory. But what do you think is the most likely explanation? Feel free to share your thoughts.