I'm Really a Superstar

Monday.

Zhang Ye woke up early.

Zhang Ye browsed the latest Celebrity Rankings Index and saw that his popularity had dropped a little again. Actually, it was not considered a drop as the popularity scores still rose. However, if it rose too slowly or remained constant, then with the other celebrities' overall popularity scores rising, it caused his popularity to appear like it had dropped. Although King of Masked Singers was created by Zhang Ye single-handedly, he was not credited as the show's executive director nor was the host. He did not even appear onscreen. As a result, even though King of Masked Singers became popular throughout the country, the popularity it gave to Zhang Ye was limited. On this point, he was not surprised and even felt that it was expected, so he did not treat it as something serious at all. As long as he did not go down in the rankings, things would be fine.

Zhang Ye turned his attention to the other celebrities.

Amy's popularity had soared.

Yao Jiancai's popularity had soared.

And it was the same for Chen Guang as well.

The judges who were part of the guessing panel on King of Masked Singers all experienced an increase in their popularities due to the show's vast exposure and viewership. This was the most prominent for Dong Shanshan. As the show's solitary host, her position was a special one. Although she did not have many lines in the entirety of the show, she gained the greatest increase in her popularity score!

It was the same for the contestants who had revealed their identities.

After "King of Oddity" was eliminated in the first episode, his popularity kept rising and there were constant inquiries for him to take on commercial appearances. There was even talk about how his value had increased by 50%. "Yesterday's Daylily," who revealed himself two days ago, also saw a surge in his popularity. In today's morning news, it was revealed that he was going to hold a nationwide concert tour, and his talent agency was already promoting it heavily. Before this, Yesterday's Daylily's popularity would at most enable him to hold a medium-sized concert in a first-tier city like Beijing. But now, he was talking about holding a nationwide concert, though the attendance numbers were still in question.

What about The Clown?

Petal Shower?

Sunset Glow?

As far as they were concerned, everyone knew that once these people took off their masks to reveal themselves, there would definitely be an explosion in their popularity. It would assuredly be much more than all the contestants whose identities were already revealed put together. And their popularity was still accumulating right now. As for who the final winner would be, it all depended on the latter part of the competition to see who could remain until the end and be crowned as the grand champion of King of Masked Singers in the grand finals!

In any case, the show had made a lot of people even more popular than they used to be.

Of course, there was also an exception, Sunflower Under The Starlight—Li Yu.

Li Yu also gained an increase in his popularity, although it was not enough for him to get back onto the A-list Celebrity Rankings. Based on Sunflower's popularity and momentum before this episode, if Li Yu had revealed his identity onstage, his popularity should logically have experienced the greatest increase. But no one could have expected the factors of the competition to change so unpredictably. Who could have thought that Li Yu would lose so badly after Petal Shower and The Clown worked together to "team kill" him? The Clown was even the most vicious of all, kicking him while he was down, then repeatedly "kicking" his face so badly to the point that Li Yu wouldn't even remove his mask and just left the stage quietly. His Weibo had remained inactive ever since. This incident affected his popularity greatly and had paid the price twice over. Not only did his popularity not increase by much, his reputation was tarnished as well. He was now getting farther and farther from the A-list rankings and was unlikely to make a comeback anytime soon.

That about summed it all up.

Zhang Ye was still in a good mood and was humming a tune in bed.

Di di.

The chat app notification on his cell phone sounded.

Someone had mentioned him in the Goof Group.

Ning Lan: "Boss Zhang, are you still unemployed?"

Zhang Ye sent a smiley face. "I've been sitting idle at home."

When he looked at the chat history, he saw that a lot of messages had accumulated. Although this group consisted of the Heavenly Kings and Queens, as well as A and B-listers, it was always very active with the chat members constantly shooting the breeze. As Zhang Ye was not much of a chatty Cathy, he had muted the group some time ago.

Ning Lan: "Sister Zhang was looking for you."

Zhang Ye wondered: "Hm? What's the matter?"

Zhang Yuanqi popped out. "I'd like to ask you about someone."

Zhang Ye typed: "Ask away."

Zhang Yuanqi: "Who's The Clown?"

Zhang Ye got anxious for a moment and lied: "I don't know either."

Ning Lan: "Aren't you on the program team?"

Zhang Ye: "I was only in charge of pre-production. I didn't take part in the production itself."

Zhang Yuanqi: "@ChenGuang What about you, Old Chen? Do you know?"

Chen Guang also appeared. "I'm just a judge. If Director Zhang doesn't know, all the more I wouldn't know. I've also been trying to guess who The Clown is. Actually, the entire music scene is trying to guess who he is!"

Fan Wenli showed up. "Does anyone have any idea at all? I'm also curious."

Spring Garden's Xiaodong: "Hehe, Sister Fan. Tell us the truth, did you go on King of Masked Singers?"

Fan Wenli: "I didn't."

Ning Lan harrumphed. "Liar!"

Fan Wenli: "…"

Chen Guang tried to change the subject. "Xiaodong, did Li Xiaoxian from your group go on the show?"

Xiaodong: "How would I know?"

Chen Guang: "You don't even know about your team member?"

Xiaodong: "And you don't even know about your wife."

Chen Guang: "Pfft!"

Ning Lan: "Boss Zhang, did you write those songs for The Clown?"

Zhang Ye blinked several times. "No."

Ning Lan: "Is that so? @HuoDongfang Was it your company's Old He who wrote the songs?"

Huo Dongfang appeared as well. "I don't think so? Old He rarely writes songs for people he doesn't know."

Zhang Yuanqi: "What if it's someone he knows? All of The Clown's songs were each better than the last. It's impossible for them to have come from nowhere, right? Quick, please tell me if any of you know who The Clown is."

Chen Guang: "Tell me too. I'm already planning to work with him!"

Ning Lan: "Old Huo, are you The Clown?"

Huo Dongfang: "Ah? What are you talking about!"

Xiaodong: "Eh, why do I get the feeling that Sect Leader Huo is guilty? Could it really be you?"

Huo Dongfang: "…"

There were all sorts of guesses and random accusations.

Then, a big shot actor said: "Stop talking about The Clown. Old Li is still in this group, so let's leave some face for him, hur hur."

"Hai, Old Li sure was unlucky."

"Forget it. Let's not talk of it."

Everyone stopped speaking about it. Although a lot of them felt that Li Yu had indeed handled the situation improperly, they would still leave some face for him. However, they knew that Petal Shower and The Clown were not to blame for getting mad over the issue either.

"Eh? There's a poll on Weibo again?"

"Oh, it's that!"

"Haha, it's time for that poll again?"

"What poll?"

"There's a link posted. See for yourself."

Zhang Ye tapped it in curiosity. Weibo's front page popped up onscreen with a headline that was extremely eye-catching. It turned out to be a celebrity attractiveness rankings poll held by Weibo, similar to the annual Most Popular and Unpopular Celebrity Awards poll that was also organized by Weibo around the Chinese New Year period.

There was always a lot of attention on these two polls each year.

At 12 noon, the domestic celebrity attractiveness rankings poll officially began!

The chat messages in the Goof Group were flooding in.

Xiaodong: "Who participated in this poll last year?"

Huo Dongfang: "Ning Lan was last year's champion, with Sister Zhang coming third while I was ranked eleventh? Or was it twelfth?"

Ning Lan was a little embarrassed. "My company helped to boost my votes to create hype back then as I had an upcoming movie. Please don't mention it anymore."

Zhang Ye asked naively: "You can even do that?"

Ning Lan: "What did you think?"

Zhang Ye: "This industry is a real mess."

Xiaodong: "Pfft! Teacher Zhang, you're also part of the industry, alright!"

Chen Guang reminded everyone: "Hur hur, how can Director Zhang possibly be in the same industry as us? Have you ever seen a person as carefree as him in the entertainment industry?"

Ning Lan: "I'm not going for it this year. Old Chen, why don't you help your wife contend for it? It would do her popularity good."

Chen Guang: "She has no chance. I think I have a better chance."

Ning Lan: "Dream on! I think you're better off contending for the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings."

Chen Guang: "…"

Zhang Ye asked: "There's even an ugliest category?"

Ning Lan: "Of course there is, Boss Zhang. You really don't pay much attention to the entertainment industry's affairs, do you? Although it's not an official ranking, there's always been a great deal of interest in it. The winner's sure to make a few headlines."

Zhang Ye mocked himself. "I've been busy fighting people at all times since I've entered the entertainment industry. Where would I have the time to pay attention to any of these things?"

At this, everyone cramped up with laughter!

"Hahahaha!"

"That's true!"

"In the entertainment industry, the only person I'll submit to is Zhang Ye!"

"Yeah, when'll you change that temper of yours!"

...

In the afternoon.

His parents had made lunch.

Zhang Ye was browsing Weibo while eating at the same time.

His mother asked, "Can't you eat normally? What are you so distracted with?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I heard that there's a ranking poll that's quite the talking point, something about a 'Beautifulest Celebrities Rankings' poll that ranks celebrity by their looks. I wanna see if I'm in the rankings."

His mother rolled her eyes. "Why don't you eat instead."

His father was speechless for a second. "What looks do you have?"

When Zhang Ye finally found the poll, he saw that he was indeed not in the rankings. There hadn't been much attention on him recently, and he had barely had any public exposure as well, so his topicality naturally decreased.

On the Beautifulest Celebrities Rankings poll.

First: Zhang Yuanqi (720,000 votes)

Second: Hu Xue (650,000 votes)

Third: Petal Shower (610,000 votes)

A Heavenly King was fourth.

And Huo Dongfang was seventh.

Dong Shanshan had actually gotten into the rankings as well and was ranked 17th.

Hu Xue was a female C-list celebrity who looked very pretty, but she wasn't considered very popular. Obtaining such a spot in her first appearance in the rankings was probably the result of getting outside help like what Ning Lan had done last year. What surprised Zhang Ye was that Dong Shanshan and Petal Shower had also appeared in the rankings. Dong Shanshan being in the standings was understandable since she was quite beautiful and was currently the host of the highly popular King of Masked Singers. But what about the third place Petal Shower? She had not even shown her face yet, so how could the audience know whether she was good‑looking? Could it be that everyone had already guessed who Petal Shower was? But that wasn't possible!

Then, Zhang Ye moved his hand and tapped on the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll to browse through it.

As of 12:30 PM.

The rankings were as followed:

First: The Clown (990,000 votes)

Second: Zhang Ye (710,000 votes)

When Zhang Ye saw the rankings, he slammed his chopsticks onto the table and nearly cursed out loud!

His mother was shocked. "What's the matter? You're in the rankings?"

Zhang Ye went green with anger!

"Let me see." His mother took his cell phone and looked. She chuckled. "The Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll? You're in second place? Pfft! This isn't too bad. It shows that the people's attention is still on you. Although you don't have a job right now, your fans are still thinking of you."

Zhang Ye fumed, "What's the use of this kind of attention!"

His mother pointed at the screen. "Alright, alright, you're merely in second place. Isn't there someone who's preventing you from becoming first?"

At the mention of this, Zhang Ye almost burst into tears!

Your sister!

First place is also me!