I'm Really a Superstar

At another place.

In the program team office of The Voice.

Executive Producer Fu Sihong was not around but everyone else had already returned to the office from the main recording studio. Without definitive knowledge of the current situation, some were anxious, some were angry and some were feeling depressed. Everyone was talking about the news they heard about from the station as they waited for Zhang Ye to return from the leader’s office.

“Is the rumor true?”

“I’m afraid it is!”

“Yeah, the news has already reported on it. Old Zhao’s photos have also been released.”

“So what are we going to do now? How are we supposed to handle this!”

“It’s impossible to bring the broadcast up to next Thursday!”

“Yeah, we won’t even be able to get it ready in time for broadcast in two weeks, let alone next week!”

“Ai, Director Zhang is back, he’s back!”

With that heads up, everyone did not wait for Zhang Ye to step into the office and headed straight for the door instead, surrounding Zhang Ye as he was about to come into the office.

Ha Qiqi anxiously asked, “Director Zhang, what did the leader say?”

Zhang Zuo, who was sweating in anxiety, asked, “They can’t really be asking us to rush the broadcast out by next week, can they?”

“Director Zhang, you have to speak with the leader.” Little Wang was also getting very anxious.

Zhang Ye looked at everyone. “Let me go inside first. And close the door, we’ll discuss this among ourselves.”

Outside, there were already quite a number of staff from the other program teams of Central TV Department 1 looking at them, clearly having heard about the news of The Voice being brought forward for an early broadcast.

Inside.

The office door closed.

Zhang Ye caught his breath before telling everyone, “I’ve just returned from Director Jiang’s office. The station’s meaning is for us to bring our broadcast forward to next Thursday and they have already decided. There’s no chance of changing their decision at all, but there’s a reason for this of course. Right now, we’re the only ones who can fill the slot. We have no choice other than to do as we’re told!”

‘Ha Qiqi said, “But…”

Zhang Ye interrupted, “The station will also compensate us with an additional 75 seconds of promotional airtime, together with additional personnel to make up for the manpower our team lacks. We will also get a free pass to do anything we want and everything will be given the green light, giving us the advantage of convenience now. I understand that everyone is quite opposed to this, me included. I also wish that they would give us another month or two to work on this program that we have been preparing for half a month to perfection, but there’s no one or two months anymore. Right now, time is not on our side and the circumstances are placed before us, so no matter how opposed to it we are, it won’t help the situation at all!”

Everyone was silent. Ai, yes, the situation has been set in stone, so what else could they do about it? Could they possibly refuse to adhere to the orders? That was surely out of the question!

Zhang Ye said, “Just now, I expressed my stand to the boss. Regarding this situation and the mission we’ve been given, we must complete it. Not only that, we must also complete it beautifully! Doesn’t everyone else think we can’t do it? Then we must surely do it to prove to them what we’re capable of! Show them the fighting spirit of The Voice’s program team!”

Zhang Zuo asked, “But how should we do it?”

Wu Yi said, “There’s definitely no enough time.”

Zhang Ye spat out two words, “…Work overtime!”

Everyone looked at each other.

Only to hear Zhang Ye add, “I will take the lead on this. From today until next Thursday, I will live in the office. No matter what happens on set, I will be the first to get there to give instructions. I will also share a load of the work that everyone of you have on hand, so please look for me at any time!”

Ah?

You want to live here? For six days?

Everyone was stunned.

Seeing this, Ha Qiqi also bit the bullet and expressed her stand as well. If the executive director was willing to go this far, then what reason did she have to to grumble? She said, “Since Director Zhang has already put it this way, then I have no reason to not fight alongside with him. I don’t know whether the program will be produced and made ready for broadcast on time, but at least I’ll know that I tried my best to make it work. Since I don’t have much to do at home for the next few days, I don’t mind going home late. I will come to the office early and work until 11 PM at night. Other than sleep, I will be spending most my time in the office! Everyone, let’s do this together!”

Seeing the situation, Zhang Zuo also said, “I have no problems with that, even if I have to work till midnight, I should be able to take it.”

Little Wang said, “I—I can work until 9 PM.”

Wu Yi said, “I am fine with working until 11 PM!”

A female editor said, “I won’t be able to work overtime at night, but I can come in early at 5 AM every day. It’s only for six days anyway, so let’s do this!”

“Count me in!”

“And me too!”

“Me three! It’s just overtime anyway!”

“We’ve already poured so much sweat and blood into this program, we can’t just let it go to waste like that!”

“Right, it’s not like we’ve never worked overtime before in the past. Let’s do it!”

With someone leading the way, everyone responded!

Seeing that, Zhang Ye felt very pleased. He said, “Thank you, everyone. I promise all of you that our efforts will not go to waste. When the program starts broadcasting, the market and the audience will certainly give us their approval. Our difficult situation now is the last hurdle as we sprint towards success; it’s the final obstacle between us and the fruits of victory. As soon as we can get over it, victory will belong to us! By that time, the harvest we’ll reap and our growth of experience will definitely be many more times than before! But right now, we need to finish this task that looks insurmountable to everyone else! We mustn’t lose faith before we even begin giving our all!”

“Right!”

“Director Zhang is correct! We will surely get it done!”

“That’s right! Who says that we won’t be able to do it?”

“We have Director Zhang leading us! So we’ll surely be able to create a miracle!”

“Well said!”

Everyone responded loudly in turn, their morale boosted by Zhang Ye’s words!

Zhang Ye did not let up and said, “Beginning now, I will start with the stage setup job. Sister Qi, you’ll have to arrange for the clips of the contestants to be recorded today. Shoot a few more angles and interviews, especially for those seeded contestants. Keep me updated on this as we go along. I will also be following up with you on the progress and helping out as necessary. The deadline for that will be two days later. As for the contestants, I want to go through every one of them once more. If there’s not enough manpower, tell me. Let me know what people and how many you need, then I will go and request them from the station!”

Ha Qiqi replied immediately, “Understood!”

Zhang Ye said, “Brother Zhang.”

Zhang Zuo said, “Please give me your instructions.”

Zhang Ye looked at him and said, “We cannot afford to delay anymore on the stage construction. Get them to work on it through the night. Give the workers more money, but I want it done before Monday! The equipment testing also has to be completed before Tuesday!”

Zhang Zuo drew in a deep breath. “The stage can be finished if we work overtime on it, but for the equipment, as they are all the highest end available in the industry and many of our staff are using it for just the first time, we’re still learning about it. There’s even two sets of equipment that we have not finished adjusting and are getting outside advice on how to deal with them. Regarding that, I really am unable to do much or guarantee anything. If it’s fast, maybe we need just three to four days, but if there’s a delay, it might even take up to a week without getting fixed, that…”

Zhang Ye said, “I want it settled Wednesday by the latest!”

When Ha Qiqi heard that, she asked in surprise, “Then when will we start studio recording? The broadcast is slated for Thursday night, don’t you know!”

Everyone did not expect that Zhang Ye would push for everything to be ready by Wednesday, because then, how would the studio recording be done?

Actually, Zhang Ye had already thought of it. This was also one of the boldest decisions he had ever made. To give them all the longest duration to finish with their preparation work, he surprised everyone when he explained, “The program…we will record it on Thursday itself! We will finish the recording before 6 PM, then edit and do the post production, adding captions and getting it approved. Then at 9 PM sharp, we will go ahead with our broadcast! We can definitely meet that deadline!”

That caused an uproar!

Record it on the day of?

Broadcasting almost immediately after recording?

That was way too hasty. If they did it that way, then wasn’t it basically no different from a live broadcast? What if a situation occurred during the recording? What if a problem happened during the editing and post-production stage? If anything even went wrong at any stage, they would not be able to meet the evening deadline for the broadcast! This was as good as tempting fate!

At this moment, they all knew just how bold Zhang Ye could get!

Everyone was at a loss of words at this, yet they had no choice but to admit that having been forced into a corner, if they wanted to rush the program out for broadcast, this was the only way left!