I'm Really a Superstar

Several days later.

The Olympics successfully came to an end.

Zhang Ye was also finished with his commentator role after completing his job successfully. On the way back, he was even stopped by several people a few times.

The first one was at a traffic junction. The moment he got there, he was stopped by a female traffic cop.

The female traffic cop kept looking at him. "Teacher Zhang."

Zhang Ye said rather nervously, "Officer, did I violate any traffic rules?"

The female traffic cop said, "Please show me your driving license."

"Here." Zhang Ye quickly took it out and added, "I didn't drink any alcohol."

The female traffic cop held him there for a long time as she spoke to him.

Zhang Ye kept trying to explain, "I really didn't run the red light. If you don't believe me, you can check the traffic cameras. I really didn't do anything wrong."

The female traffic cop was starting to feel a little embarrassed. "I know that. I just recognized your car from a distance and was hoping to get an autograph from you." To someone who managed the traffic as part of their work, Zhang Ye's license plate and car model was clearly not a secret.

Zhang Ye was both floored and amused. "Hai, you should have just said so. You gave me such a fright." Then he happily signed an autograph for her without hesitation.

The female traffic cop was delighted. After Zhang Ye left, she started bragging about it over the police radio.

"I got an autograph from Zhang Ye!"

"Ah? Where?"

"At the junction of Zixin Road."

"Going where?"

"South."

As a result, Zhang Ye was soon stopped again, at the third junction as he went by another female traffic cop who had sped over quickly on her motorbike.

Was it another traffic violation?

Zhang Ye panicked a little as he frantically pulled to the side.

The female traffic cop got off her motorbike and knocked excitedly on the BMW's window.

Zhang Ye rolled down the car window.

The female traffic cop said, "Teacher Zhang, can I have an autograph?"

Zhang Ye was speechless.

This was the scariest way of asking him for an autograph that Zhang Ye had ever come across.

Finally, he was stopped when he arrived at Old Rao's neighborhood.

Before Zhang Ye became famous, he had lived here for some time. Later, his work studio was established here. Many of the neighbors here knew him well.

"Ah, Teacher Zhang!"

"Zhang Ye is back!"

"Little Zhang, are you done with being a commentator?"

"We watched all of the events that you commentated."

"Yeah, it was so damn funny."

"You got even more famous."

"The commentary for the closing ceremony was really good too!"

Zhang Ye gave them a fist and palm salute and said with a smile, "It was all thanks to everyone's support."

Everyone had something to say.

"Of course we'd support you."

"Who else would we support if not you?"

"You're the most well-known person to come from our neighborhood."

"Yeah, you were born as one of us, so you'll die as one of…eh, that doesn't sound right."

With that, everyone laughed happily.

…

Upstairs.

Rao Aimin was not home today and had probably brought Chenchen out somewhere.

Yang Shu wasn't in either and had probably gone off somewhere to distribute pamphlets to spread the name of Taiji Fist.

Thus, Zhang Ye made his way back to the studio where he received a chart depicting the growth of his popularity score both domestically and overseas during the Olympics period. He nodded approvingly as he went through the statistics.

Zhang Zuo said, "This is for the domestic market."

Zhang Ye said, "OK."

Zhang Zuo said, "These are the statistics for Asia."

Zhang Ye said, "Umm, it's quite good."

Ha Qiqi said, "And an indication chart of how well your reputation is right now. All of the statistics have shown a positive growth."

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Alright, thanks for all the hard work in the past few days."

Ha Qiqi smiled and said, "We didn't do much. All of it was mainly down to your good performance as a commentator."

Zhang Zuo said, "Right, the viewers really approve of it. Even the media and officials have acknowledged your breakthrough contribution to the commentary field. With your social relations in the industry, to have so many people publicly acknowledging it is a very strong affirmation of your work. Anyway, this role of yours as an Olympic commentator has brought a large increase to your popularity. Although you're still quite a distance away from reaching the domestic S-list rankings, the difference is no longer as great as before."

Zhang Ye said in satisfaction, "Let's take it slowly then. We should always learn to walk before we run."

His goal was definitely to aim for a spot on the Chinese S-list celebrity rankings this year. However, Zhang Ye did not expect that he could surmount this obstacle by just relying on the Olympic commentary that he did. That would be wishful thinking on his part.

An Olympic theme song.

An Olympic promotional song.

An Olympic commentary role.

The few jobs he took turned out to be quite good as the results he gained from them were rather impactful. He was quite satisfied with the way things were. As for the remainder of his journey, he would have to take it step by step.

Ha Qiqi asked, "What plans do you have next?"

"What do you guys suggest?" Zhang Ye sought their opinions.

Everyone chipped in with their ideas.

Take an acting project?

Produce a television show?

Film a commercial?

Release a new song?

It was all the same old things.

Zhang Ye thought for a moment, and then said, "Why don't we release a single first? A music video single."

Little Wang clapped her hands in agreement. "Yes, yes, you've never filmed a music video or released a single before."

Zhang Ye was now more keen to try out activities that he had never done before. Doing something different often helped him increase his popularity much faster, and he had benefited from doing it many times in the past. Like for commercials, he had filmed or produced too many of those. If he were to continue doing the same thing, the results it would bring would definitely not be as good as before. This applied to other activities as well. For example, acting in a movie. If you acted well as a daughter-in-law in one, two, or three films, you would probably be more popular than anyone else for such a role and no one would be able to play it better than you. But then, you'd be typecast soon after and your popularity would eventually plateau. This was not what Zhang Ye wanted. What he needed to have was a well-rounded development that could bring him to greater heights. So it was more important for him to keep pushing out new activities that would bring greater novelty and surprise to the audience. If that happened, his popularity would rise faster.

But there weren't any big projects to take on at the moment. And as a singer, he had not even released an album or music video single of his own, so that really did feel rather unacceptable.

Since he would have to release one sooner or later, why not do it now?

Ha Qiqi asked, "What do you need us to do?"

"Which publisher should we work with?" Wu Yi asked.

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Let's talk about that later. Having worked hard for so many days, let's all take a few days' break and get some good rest. This will also be a good time for me to think about the music video single, but there's no rush for now."

Zhang Zuo said in amusement, "Aren't you able to compose a song as and when you want? Do you even need to think about it?"

Zhang Ye said helplessly, "This will be my first single, so I definitely have to plan carefully and not be too casual about it. Let me give it some thought."

To other celebrities, all they probably wanted was a good song for themselves. They would only need to find a good production team or invite some celebrities to make a guest appearance in their music videos, and then with some packaging and publicity, get their single ready for release and make an attempt on the ranking charts. But Zhang Ye's aim was clearly higher than that. He did not lack any good songs. What he lacked was a medium to project a feeling across to the audience. Besides, a song and a music video were two entirely different concepts. A music video would require the visuals to match the song. This was even more difficult than producing just the song. Whenever he did something, Zhang Ye's character would always dictate that he do it to the best of his abilities. Otherwise, he wouldn't do it at all. At the very least, he would have to be satisfied with his efforts.

What song should he choose?

How should he sing it?

Who would they invite?

All of these had to be planned properly.

Zhang Ye swept his hand out. "Alright then, everyone. Go ahead on your few days of break."

"OK."

"We'll wait for your news then."

"Are you serious about giving us a few days' break?"

"Thank you, Director Zhang."

"I'll stay here and put in overtime then. We cannot leave the office unmanned."

"Alright, Old Wu. Thanks for the hard work."

"Heh, I'm just doing my part for everyone."

Although the studio was recently established, everyone had been old colleagues for many years. All of them had weathered the storm and fought on the same side. So the esprit de corps in the office was very good, and everyone behaved like they were friends.

Zhang Ye walked to the bar and poured himself a glass of wine as he gave some thought to the music video.

At this moment, Dong Shanshan called.

Zhang Ye picked the phone up with a smile and affected: "Hello, Teacher Shanshan."

"Hello, Teacher Zhang." Dong Shanshan laughed and said: "Are you done with your work?"

Zhang Ye said: "Yeah, now that the Olympics have ended, I have nothing left to do. What's the matter? I'm at my studio. Do you want to call Yingyi and the others over for a drink?"

Dong Shanshan said: "Why would you want to drink so early in the morning? I'm calling to check whether you'll be free the day after tomorrow."

"Yes, why?" Zhang Ye asked.

Dong Shanshan smiled. "School will be reopening soon. Many of our classmates talked about wanting to go back to campus to visit the teachers and have a look at the place where we fought our battles and lived our lives."

Zhang Ye immediately said, "I agree with them. It'll be good to do that."

Dong Shanshan said: "We've graduated for several years but have not been back before this because we were too embarrassed that we hadn't found our success yet. But everyone has been working hard for the past two years and have more or less gained some achievements by now. So we came up with the idea of having this class reunion and hopefully gather the people from our class."

"Can you contact everyone?"

"I can only try, although most them have already been notified."

"Alright, I definitely don't have any problems attending the reunion."

"Then it's settled. I'll go and contact the rest now."

"Sure, I'm starting to miss everyone too."

After hanging up, Zhang Ye gulped down the entire glass of wine.

Going back to his alma mater?

Reuniting with his old classmates?

Suddenly, he was quite looking forward to it!