I'm Really a Superstar

They looked at each other.

Bumping into and also knowing one another, it would be awkward to not say anything at all.

Yao Jiancai greeted, "Master Xu."

Xu Wenxiang looked at him, "Oh, Little Yao."

"You still remember me?" Yao Jiancai asked, "How's your health been lately?"

Xu Wenxiang nodded, "It's just as it is. I can't compare to young people like you."

Yao Jiancai laughed, "I've already past forty, how can I still be considered young?"

Xu Wenxiang spoke with hidden meanings, "From your crosstalk performance. I wouldn’t have guessed your age. The work was like that of a child's, speaking however you wanted. That doesn't reflect well on your teacher, don't you think?"

Yao Jiancai did not answer that as this old man was fellow disciples with his late teacher. They had both learned under an old master in crosstalks before, so it wasn't appropriate for him to say too much. He could only change the topic as he turned to Zhang Ye to introduce him, "Old bro, let me him introduce to you. This is Master Xu Wenxiang, the Mount Tai and the Big Dipper of the crosstalk world."

Zhang Ye replied without pressure, "How are you doing, Master?"

"This is......" Yao Jiancai was about to introduce Zhang Ye.

But Xu Wenxiang gave a wave of his hands and spoke directly, "You don't need to introduce us, I know him. The two of you have really caused a ruckus this time. It's time to take a step back."

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "We, a ruckus?"

You must be kidding!

You people are causing a ruckus even more than us!

Xu Wenxiang looked at him, "Crosstalk isn't as you said it is. What you're doing will not glorify crosstalk, but destroy it. Crosstalk is a heritage that must be carried forward one generation after another. If crosstalk is as you said it is, then what difference does it have from a punk on the streets? For crosstalk to get to where it is today hasn't been easy. After passing it down for so many generations, it has to be conserved and have some meaning to it."

Yao Jiancai said, "Little Zhang and I are both doing this very seriously. We feel that crosstalk has many ways to it and doesn’t only have to have an educational aspect to it....."

"Do you know better or do I?" Xu Wenxiang interrupted.

Yao Jiancai was beginning to dislike what he heard. Heh.

Xu Wenxiang glanced at them as an artist and said, "Stop speaking with less tawdriness and add more content that would let others reflect on after listening. You should put more positive energy into in it rather than scolding this or that. What's the use of that? Even if you scold, you won't be able to scold the folk arts world. Every job has its rules, so since you're in the folk arts circle now, you'd have to follow the rules here. You can't just go about doing anything you wanted."

Zhang Ye started to speak up, "I can't pretend I never heard what you just said."

"Little Zhang." Yao Jiancai made a pass at him to signal to him to stop.

But Zhang Ye did not listen and instead spoke to Xu Wenxiang as an equal, "We're just two small time actors who like to do crosstalk, talking about topics that we like and doing the things we feel are right. That has nothing to do with the folk arts world at all, so whether the people up there recognize us as crosstalk actors or not, it does not matter to us. We do not need their recognition. I know very well whether or not I know how to do crosstalk, and so does the audience. We do not need others to waste their energy to validate us. Master Xu, I respect you as an elder, as a veteran of crosstalking, and your contributions to the crosstalk world, but the issue here is that all of you should not have stepped on me first. Why is it that anyone that sees me must step on me once or twice? They just gather everyone together to scold me for no reason? I won't take that lying down! If they want to step on me, then I will step back on them! If they scold me? Then I will scold them back as well! I don't give a damn about anything! This is my temper!"

"OK, you're great!" Xu Wenxiang was clearly irritated by this, "Who is your teacher?"

Was this an interrogation?

He was going to use seniority to pressure me?

Zhang Ye smiled, "I don't have a teacher. I'm a self taught master myself. Master Xu, don't try to scare me. My guts are really small."

Xu Wenxiang saw that he was not giving him any face at all and was even getting disrespectful, so his anger also rose. He took a breather and nodded, "OK, since you've said that, the two of you may do whatever you want. Don't look down on the crosstalk world. If they want to fix the two of you, they'd find a way for sure."

Zhang Ye said, "Yo, then I would like to find out for myself what they can do."

Xu Wenxiang made a gesture with his hand and turned to leave, "There will be a conference for the crosstalk world members tonight in which they would discuss this matter." As he said that, he disappeared into the walkway. Then, a loud 'pu tong' was heard followed by Xu Wenxiang furiously scolding, "Who threw that banana peel!"

Yao Jiancai, "........."

Zhang Ye knew that it was the Difficulty Adjustment Die helping him out once again.

"There's going to be a conference for the crosstalk world members again?" Yao Jiancai said, "And it's to discuss about how to handle us?"

Zhang Ye said, "Surely they did not have to go that far for us? Are the two of us really so influential?"

Yao Jiancai replied, "That may be somewhat true. The two of us have really caused a big ruckus today and offended a majority of them."

On their way out, they heard many people exchanging whispers. They overheard some of them and through it, they found out that the crosstalk conference was organized some time ago and would be attended, not only by the heavyweights of the crosstalk world, but also some of the rookies who were participating in the crosstalk competition were invited, except for Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai. Clearly, even if the conference was not about denouncing them, they would still allocate a fair amount of time to discuss about how to 'kill' Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai.

Regarding this, Zhang Ye only laughed it off.

As for Yao Jiancai, he also took it as it was. There was no other choice since he had already boarded Zhang Ye's pirate ship. Having already reached this stage, there was no point in holding back!

Just scold on!

Let's see who can scold better!

......

That night.

At Zhang Ye's parents place.

The door opened to reveal Zhang Ye's mom smiling, "You're back, son?

Yo, isn't that Teacher Yao? Little Ye, why didn't you inform us beforehand that you were bringing a guest home!"

"He's not an outsider anyway." Zhang Ye said.

Yao Jiancai greeted, "Big Sis."

His mother said, "Come in quickly."

HIs father also came out when he heard the commotion, "This is....Teacher Yao?"

"Big Bro and Big Sis, please don't address me as Teacher. You can just call me Old Yao or something." Yao Jiancai had brought some gifts along and placed them on the table.

"You're so courteous to have bought something." His mother was very happy as she said to Yao Jiancai, "Little Ye's father and I both always watch the dramas that you act in. You're really good in them. When we found out that you and Little Ye knew each other since some time ago, we've always told him to invite you over for a meal, but this rascal kept ignoring us."

Yao Jiancai laughed and said, "I've been wanting to visit you all for some time now. I've always been curious who brought up such a talented person like my old bro."

His mother grinned from ear to ear, obviously liking what she had heard, "We didn't do much. We've always just let him be since he was young. I guess it's just Little Ye having that talent all along."

Ring, ring, ring.

Zhang Ye's cellphone rang. It was from his eldest young sister.

"Brother, where are you at? I'm with Tongtong and Mengmeng outside now, why don't you give us a treat?" Cao Dan said, "It's been some time since we saw you."

Zhang Ye laughed, "I'm at my parents' place. Do you all want to come over?"

"Ah? Sure, we'll go over!" said Cao Dan.

After a while, the 3 sisters arrived at the house in excitement.

"Bro!”

“Idol! You're truly our idol!" The second sister shouted as she came into the house.

The third sister also said loudly, "Bro, you were really too suave on today's live broadcast! Hahaha! It was scolded in such a gratifying manner! That 'I will reject the Three Vulgarities' is just godly!"

The eldest sister laughed, "The key moments were when two of the judges were chased off by your scolding. I think only our brother has such an ability! You have such a glib tongue!"

Zhang Ye laughed along, "I guess it was OK."

The third sister suddenly noticed someone seated on the sofa and shouted, "Aiya, Old Yao!"

Zhang Ye's mother slapped her on her head and said, "Is Old Yao a name for you to call?"

"Hehe, that's what everyone calls him these days. It's more endearing anyway." The 3 sisters gathered around Yao Jiancai and started asking him about all sorts of questions.

The house had gotten quite lively.

When dinner started, the three sisters did not stop their chattering.

Zhang Ye's father asked, "Little Ye, will you two be alright after scolding them so harshly?"

Zhang Ye proudly said, "How big of a matter can it be? If they can scold me, then can't I scold them back? Those bunch of grandsons are exactly who I am scolding!"

Yao Jiancai said, "Right!"

At this moment, the third sister, who was browsing the news on her cellphone exclaimed, "Ah, the crosstalk world is having a conference? Look at this, look at this, they're saying that it's a discussion about the state of mess that the crosstalk world is in right now and how the art of crosstalk should be developing instead. They are also talking about how to resist those vulgar performance works and actors. Damn, aren't they basically referring to our brother! Did they even have to organize such a large conference of a few hundred people just to come up with a plan to take care of my brother? What the heck are they planning!"

Zhang Ye laughed it off, "Just let them do what they want."

The eldest sister said, "This is exactly a case of successful people having their haters. Those bunch of people have been performing crosstalk for so many years and even some of the older ones have been doing for several decades now, but they could only go so far in it and the audiences aren't that impressed at all, but when my brother, who has had no experience in crosstalk showed what he was capable of and attracted so much interest with his works, they became unhappy and jealous. Ah, really, those bunch of people really do not have the bearings of an artist at all!"

Following that, at 7:30PM.

The SARFT's official Weibo posted: "Control against the rise of vulgar culture. All television stations, sectors, and institutions have been cooperating closely to control the rise of vulgar works, but in recent times, some of these vulgar works have surfaced again. The control against such works of vulgar, base, and philistine tendencies must be tightened as to ensure that the positive energy of works can come through successfully......" It was an essay littered with hundreds of words in it.

The second sister's face changed, "They're targeting our brother again?"

Yao Jiancai had not expected the SARFT to reiterate the message with a post, "That is a warning for us."

Of course, it was not purely targeted at Zhang Ye. He did not have that much of an influence to command such attention. It was more likely due to the many new works that had overstepped the line and maybe also some of the other not so mainstream groups of crosstalk actors that made the authorities issue this warning.

Ring, ring, ring.

An unfamiliar number appeared on Zhang Ye's caller ID.

The other party introduced himself as the person-in-charge of the National Crosstalk and Skit competition. He said in a direct manner to Zhang Ye, "If your performance work tomorrow still involves any vulgar segments or satire, the competition will disqualify your team. There is no room for discussion on this!"

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