I'm Really a Superstar

The next day.

Sunday.

At his parents' house, Zhang Ye slept all the way until 10 in the morning.

After he had sent his parents home from the competition venue last night, he headed straight to bed and dozed off immediately for a full 11 hours of sleep. Over these past few days, he had become incredibly tired. It was much too tiring having to do the production, choose his songs, arrange music, practice his singing, record the show, and attend the live broadcast. He was just like a warrior who did not know what fatigue meant. Throughout the duration of the competition, he even experienced staying up for two days and nights in a row, as well as not succumbing to a fever of 40°C! It had been two months, and now the competition was finally over. When the tension he had been experiencing was released, he was immediately overcome with a heavy sense of fatigue that made him sleep until now.

His cell phone had run out of battery.

He rolled over and plugged it into the charger before turning his phone on, all without stepping out of his bed.

There were quite a few notifications of missed calls and messages received on his cell phone's display.

His old colleague, Ha Qiqi: "Director Zhang! Me, Zhang Zuo, Little Wang, and everyone else all saw the moment you got crowned champion onstage. Great job! Congratulations!"

Central TV Department 14's Director Yan Tianfei: "Teacher Zhang, you're really not being a bro here. Why didn't you let me know about such an important thing? Haha, I couldn't get through to you, so I'm sending you this message to congratulate you. I thought that you'd really stopped doing things after getting banned and were really going to behave yourself from now on, hur hur. But seeing that you're back now, I'm relieved! You're still the same old Teacher Little Zhang that I knew, always going around and stirring up trouble every other day!

His university classmate, Yu Yingyi: "Old classmate, you're really on fire now! In the entire entertainment industry, you're the most popular one of all! When are you going to treat us to a meal? Quickly set a date! I can't wait!"

His old colleague, Tian Bin: "Old Zhang, do you intend to ascend to the Heavens!"

A-list movie star, Ning Lan: "Did you have to make such a big splash?"

His friends and colleagues all came to congratulate him and express their shock at the same time!

Zhang Ye was lying in bed and smiling as he read the messages, replying to them one by one.

For the entire morning, the Internet, newspapers, and news broadcasts were all reporting about The Clown and Zhang Ye, as well as King of Masked Singers. Admittedly, Zhang Ye's position was slightly more awkward since he was currently soft banned without any official statement or clarification from the authorities. Any news reports regarding him were also greatly controlled. However, yesterday's live broadcast had caused such a big stir that there was no one who did not know about it anymore. So the media couldn't possibly avoid not mentioning Zhang Ye's name and not report about it even if they wanted to!

"Curtains fall on King of Masked Singers: The Clown crowned champion!"

"Inconceivable! King of Masked Singers' The Clown's true identity!"

"The Clown turns out to be Zhang Ye!"

"The Clown's 'I Am What I Am' send shockwaves through audience!"

"Zhang Ye performs another astonishing crossover!"

"A layman sweeps away the music industry!?"

"King of Masked Singers to hold live concert next week. Zhang Ye's appearance still unknown!"

"Our reporter inquires over the phone; authorities yet to make statement!"

"Zhang Ye—entertainment industry's professional 'shit stirrer'!"

"Watch out, music industry musicians! Here comes Zhang Ye!"

People throughout the country were still in a state of shock!

Fan Wenli had also taken her mask off yesterday, as did Li Xiaoxian. But as their identities had long since been speculated by the netizens, there didn't exist an element of surprise. However, no one had been able to guess The Clown's real identity all this time. Then there was also the fact that the name of Zhang Ye itself had always been a focal point, and his status was unlike Fan Wenli and Li Xiaoxian's, who were professional singers. A host, director, mathematician, and someone who meddled in the Chinese language had been crowned the grand champion of King of Masked Singers by taking down a series of professional singers like Fan Wenli, Li Xiaoxian, Zhao Qiquan, and many others. This made many of the industry insiders want to vomit blood! This was too unreasonable! Zhang Ye, did you intend to blast off from Earth?

Any topic related to Zhang Ye had always been this hotly debated!

He was truly the most wondrous person in show business. No one could predict what he would do next. Ever since his debut, everything he did would always shock a group of people!

Just look!

It was no exception this time!

...

Outside, the door opened.

His parents came home in a laughing mood.

Zhang Ye quickly got out of bed and strolled into the living room. "Dad, Mom, where did you go?"

"You just woke up?" His mother was grinning from ear to ear. She placed the plastic bags in her hands down. "Your dad and I went grocery shopping. I must cook some good dishes for you in the afternoon to celebrate!"

His father glanced at his wife and said, "What grocery shopping? Your mom went out early this morning to brag. She reached the market at 8 AM and started bragging the moment we bumped into every neighbor we saw. Look at the time now. It's already 11 AM."

His mother was having none of it. "What's wrong with me bragging about my son!"

His father threw his hands up and said, "Alright, alright, I didn't say that it was wrong."

His mother harrumphed. "My son is so popular. Why am I not allowed to tell others about it?"

His father pursed his lips at Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Mom, just go ahead and tell anyone you like; no one will stop you. Let's quickly eat lunch. I'm getting hungry already. I haven't had anything much to eat at all."

His mother immediately said, "Wait a bit, wait a bit. It'll be ready soon!" Just before stepping into the kitchen, she suddenly turned around and asked, "By the way, son, what's your popularity score now? Where are you ranked?"

Zhang Ye was taken aback. "Oh, I would have forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it."

His mother urged, "Quickly go and check! You were at the last two places on the A-list rankings last time, but it should have changed by now! Go check and see how many spots you've advanced!"

Zhang Ye nodded. "Alright."

In recent days, his popularity score had been at a standstill while the celebrities behind him had kept increasing their popularity and were catching up to him. Like Li Yu, who had exposed his own identity on King of Masked Singers. He was close to returning to the A-list Celebrity Rankings once again. Meanwhile, Zhang Ye, who hadn't been appearing much onscreen and had few new works, had dropped to the last two spots on the A-list rankings. He was in a very precarious position. Yesterday's unmasking was a turning point for him as he finally did not need to worry about dropping back down to the B-list rankings. He would definitely advance in the rankings although he did not know by how many positions he would advance.

He quickly went back to his room and powered on his computer.

Zhang Ye typed in the address to the official website of the Celebrity Rankings Index and loaded the page.

But the page could not load.

"Please try again."

This notification was all that was on the page.

Zhang Ye refreshed the page.

The page was still unable to load!

What was happening?

Why couldn't he access the site?

He immediately went onto Weibo to check. Be it the netizens or the industry insiders, everyone was confused about what was going on.

"The Celebrity Rankings website is not loading?"

"I'm experiencing the same thing. Is there something wrong with my connection?"

"It's not your connection. The site has been inaccessible since midnight."

"Eh?"

"But that's not possible."

"This is the official website! Nothing like this has ever happened before!"

"Yeah, what's going on?"

"This has never happened in the past!"

"What's their technical team doing? We're at a crucial point in time right now!"

"I was hoping to check out Fan Wenli's popularity ranking!"

"I was waiting to see Zhang Ye's! He was about to drop off the A-list rankings the last time I checked!"

A lot of those in the entertainment industry were also waiting. The influence of King of Masked Singers was so widespread. Its songs dominated the Top Chinese Music Chart, and the popularity score gain it gave was also astonishing. Those involved in the show would always check their own rankings the following day to see if there were any changes in their rankings and how much their popularity scores had increased by. Even the celebrities and people from the talent agencies who did not have anything to do with the show would also check. They wanted to know if those who were on the show would have any changes in their ranking and whether they would be overtaken by them in the rankings!

Popularity was the lifeblood of a celebrity!

And this Celebrity Rankings Index was the lifechart of the entertainment industry!

...

This issue was also being discussed in the Goof Group.

Ning Lan: "It's still not out yet? It's still not loading?"

Huo Dongfang: "I don't know, perhaps something happened."

Chen Guang sent a sweating emoji. "On my lovely wife's request, I've been waiting up all night in the hopes of checking the rankings. I can wait no longer, so it's time to sleep."

Xiaodong appeared. "Hahaha, Brother Chen. You're truly a model husband!"

Amy: "I'm waiting for our Xiaoxian's ranking to come out. Hurry, hurry!"

A male star said: "This has never happened before in the many years it's existed, so what's going on today?"

...

Noon.

12 o'clock sharp.

There was finally an official announcement!

It was an announcement that dumbfounded the entire entertainment industry and the public!

The announcement was as follows:

Explanation regarding the temporary inaccessibility of the Celebrity Rankings Index Website:

Due to the rising influence of a certain variety show in recent times, the data statistics of the Rankings Index have been affected to a certain extent. In addition, the popularity score of a certain celebrity has seen fluctuation on too wide of a scale. The amount of data collected has exceeded more than what our systems can handle and this caused a temporary outage to our system. At the moment, our technical team is stepping in to rectify it as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for inconveniencing everyone. We will be making another announcement when the Rankings Index is updated and returns to service.

A certain variety show?

Wouldn't that be King of Masked Singers?!

A certain celebrity?

Wouldn't that be Zhang Ye?!

When this announcement was made, everyone was dumbfounded!

On Weibo.

"What?"

"Zhang Ye's popularity score has greatly fluctuated? And it even crippled their systems?"

"Pfft, are they serious?"

"Why is it that everything that goes wrong has to do with Zhang Ye, hahaha!"

"Holy cow, just how much did Teacher Zhang's popularity score increase by! It even fucking crippled their systems?"

"That's nothing strange with that. When The Clown took his mask off yesterday, that was an instantaneous moment. Because of that, the system would have to transfer all of The Clown's popularity score from the previous month or so to Zhang Ye. Perhaps the data for that really did overflow! Pfft, Teacher Zhang is really great. He even brought down the Celebrity Rankings Index that had been operating fine for so long!"

"I'm cramping up from laughing!"

"Teacher Zhang is so mighty!"

"Teacher Zhang is so impressive!"

Suddenly, someone posted the poem that Zhang Ye recited at last night's grand finals!

"Life Fantasia."

Especially those last few lines. No matter how you looked at it, it was got the blood going!

Many of the netizens hadn't read Zhang Ye's poems in a long time, but it was still as domineering, earthshaking, and moving as ever.

I want to sing

a human song

that ages from now

will chorus through the universe.

The netizens started posting in the comments below.

"I like Zhang Ye so much!"

"His poems are always so awesome!"

"His songs as well!"

"Earth no longer has a place that can contain Zhang Ye!"

"Congratulations, Teacher Zhang. You're already blasting out into the universe!"

"The Celebrity Rankings Index website could even get crippled? I really have to take my hat off to Zhang Ye!"

The people in the industry didn't know how to react!

The website crashed?

It was Zhang Ye's fault?

Damn, just how much did your popularity score go up by this time!