I'm Really a Superstar

In the recording studio.

The audience members who had already entered the venue were seething with excitement!

“Quick, go and take a look!”

“Quickly look at Zhang Ye’s Weibo!”

“Oh my God! Teacher Zhang is still not afraid of offending other people!”

Ha Qiqi’s hand holding her cell phone was trembling as well!

Zhang Zuo and Wu Yi also turned around and looked at Zhang Ye with stunned expressions!

……

This poem was going viral!

Right after it appeared on Weibo, numerous netizens got goosebumps!

“F**k!”

“Where’s the interpretation? There’s no interpretation?”

“This poem is way too elegant!”

“The first few lines were still fine, but that last line really took the cake!”

“That’s our Zhang Ye!”

“That’s right, that’s the Zhang Ye I know!”

“Awesome!”

“It’s fine if Teacher Zhang doesn’t make a move, but when does, it’s always earth shattering! This is as good as trampling on all his peers’ shows! This is declaring war on the entire variety show industry!”

“In the entire entertainment circle, only Zhang Ye would dare say such things!”

“When Teacher Zhang disappeared from Weibo for such a long time, I thought that his character had changed for the better. But when I saw this poem today, hahaha, Zhang Ye is still the same Zhang Ye I knew from before!”

After reading this poem, many of the netizens felt quite shocked. Zhang Ye had not written a poem in a long time, but now that he unexpectedly came out with one, it immediately shook the literary circle. Everyone was familiar with Zhang Ye’s poems, having seen his love poems with deep emotion and his sharp and sarcastic poems. But for old-style poems like this one, people had hardly ever seen Zhang Ye writing them. Today was indeed another eye-opener for many of them since they got a chance to witness it. Zhang Ye really could write any kind of poem!

Zhang Ye was never a person who did things by the book. The more people felt he would do something a certain way, the more he would not. Give an explanation of the situation to you all? Clarify the reason to you all? There was no need for something like that! But most of them did not see much of this style of ancient poem written by Zhang Ye. This was a very famous poem set: Admiring the Mountains by Du Fu from Zhang Ye’s previous world. It was comprised of three ancient poems in total. Zhang Ye took one of them, the one that was the most well-known and famous to everyone in his previous world. This poem of Du Fu’s was probably trying to express a different meaning, but in this moment and situation Zhang Ye used it, it delivered yet another meaning!

It was the air of defiance and domination!

Just this passage of the poem was enough to surpass thousands of words. What Zhang Ye wanted to say and express were all in the poem. Whether you all are collectively boycotting or denouncing me, my new program and I are destined to reach to the highest peak in the variety world from where we can look down on all of you!

Someday I shall ascend your highest heights!

To see other summits dwarfed, and savor the scene!

“Very powerful!”

“Brilliantly said!”

“Teacher Zhang, we’re cheering you on!”

“Zhang Ye! You have our support!”

“A bunch of buffoons. Haha, Teacher Zhang basically did not think of them as a threat to him!”

Zhang Ye’s fans had all been jolted out!

Similarly, those peers who were calling for a boycott of Zhang Ye exploded with rage. They thought that Zhang Ye would issue a clarification or just remain silent all the while, but who could have expected that he would directly throw out such a defiant old-style poem, not showing a shred of respect for his peers!

“‘To see other summits dwarfed, and savor the scene’? Zhang Ye! Your words are too arrogant!”

“You all should be content if your new program can achieve at least 0.6% viewership. Such an abruptly broadcast program is likely to be full of mistakes, so there might not even be a 0.5% viewer rating. Yet you still want to reach the top of the variety world? And you even want to look down on all the other variety shows? Are you still dreaming or what? Can’t you have just a tiny bit of objective judgment toward your own show? A simple analysis easily shows that The Voice of China is only going to be a cult TV show that the majority of the citizens won’t be able to accept!”

“Zhang Ye, don’t be too conceited!”

“That’s a bold claim! Ha! Let’s see what you’re going to do after today’s broadcast!”

“I admit that your previous shows were very special and the viewership ratings were also very high, but The Voice will absolutely be your worst failure. You want to ascend to the highest heights? Alright, since you don’t believe me, just wait and see. I want to see for myself just what kind of viewership rating this show you’re so confident of can get!”

“Huh, let’s see if The Voice’s viewership ratings can surpass my show first!”

“Director Zhao, your show’s viewership rating is 0.75%! How the heck could he surpass that? He is only good at talking! And spouting empty talk!”

“I feel very amused that he’s now being so fearless. We’re veterans who have spent many years in the variety circle. The more experienced we are, the more we should be in awe and know our own weaknesses and limitations. Zhang Ye is not considered a newcomer anymore but why is he still so overconfident, thinking he can ascend to the highest heights? As the host of a singing show, your job is only to make announcements and present the advertising slogans, so what heights are there for you to ascend to!”

“This bastard is really annoying!”

“Don’t just talk! Use your viewership ratings to show us what you’ve got!”

“Right! Aren’t you thinking of looking down on all variety shows? Then let’s compare our viewership ratings!”

Zhang Ye’s peers were initiating waves of accusations and criticisms at him. After reading the poem, some of those who had not participated in the boycott of Zhang Ye previously became so angry that they came out to boycott him as well!

The “flames of war” were spreading fast!

Zhang Ye had poked on a hornet’s nest!

……

At a different place.

Little Wang said indignantly, “Director Zhang, this poem is just too impressive!”

Zhang Ye laughed. “It’s passable.”

Chen Guang who was testing his microphone on the coach’s chair also saw the poem on Weibo. He raised his head, looked at Zhang Ye from afar, and gave him a thumbs up.

From backstage, Coach Fan Wenli came out. “Director Zhang, you wrote another poem?”

Zhang Ye responded, “You saw it?”

“I saw it when I was having my makeup applied. The more I read the last line of the poem, the more I like it. Your literary talent is definitely in the country’s top ten!” Fan Wenli commented, “If not for your young age and the many literature masters still alive, no one would say otherwise if we proclaimed you as the country’s best in literature!”

In the poetry and couplet domains, and among those authors and poets who were still alive, if Zhang Ye said he was number two, probably no one would dare say they were number one. However, since literature was still dependent on the accolades that you had, not only did you need to have qualifications, your own works, and have received a prize at some point, you also needed to have an authority to back you. Zhang Ye indeed did not have much to show for in his prose, since Ghost Blows Out the Light and Legend of Wukong were just web novels. Having only just debuted as well, he had not received any prizes yet, so his qualifications were naturally considered little. Fan Wenli rating him in the country’s top ten was already great praise for him.

Zhang Ye waved it off. “I don’t deserve that praise.”

However, Ha Qiqi had an expression of immense concern. When she saw those fellow peers slandering The Voice and demanding their program be suspended from broadcast, she felt very angry and wanted to join in the scolding as well. Although she was angry, she did not expect Zhang Ye to compose such a poem on the spot. This was no longer just a retaliation; instead it was a declaration of war against all variety shows. “Director Zhang, if you say that, don’t you think we will offend too many people?”

“Would it?” Zhang Ye didn’t seem to care.

Ha Qiqi: “…”

Zhang Zuo: “…”

Would it? What do you think!

Their program team of The Voice was essentially taking the stance of offending everyone in the industry with this poem! This was the stance of belittling all the “heroes” in the industry! If it were just those programs with low viewership ratings, it wouldn’t be so bad. They were, after all, Central TV Department 1, and if faced with those programs on provincial channels or those satellite channels’ shows with less investment and lower viewership, they definitely would have something to show for. However, Zhang Ye’s carpet bombing was aimed at all variety shows. This included those outstanding shows with 0.8% to 0.9% viewership ratings, And even the very popular programs with up to 1.0% or 1.1% viewership ratings! Uttering those lofty claims like “To see other summits dwarfed, and savor the scene”—would that really be OK? Would that really not be a problem? And this was also including all the variety shows on Central TV’s channels, no?

However, Zhang Ye thought nothing of it. Such a small matter like this might be considered serious to others, but to him, he had already gotten used to it. The infighting was not something new at all. When he was in radio broadcasting, he fought against the radio broadcasting world. When he was in the literary world, he fought against the literary world. When he was in the crosstalk world, he fought against the crosstalk world. So now that he had joined the variety show world, if he did not fight them, it simply wouldn’t be Zhang Ye’s style!

Zhang Zuo hurriedly said, “Aren’t we…making overly bold claims?”

Zhang Ye smiled. “Why? Don’t have any confidence?”

“It’s not that I don’t have confidence, I’m just afraid those people will use your poem to find trouble with us and attack us.” Zhang Zuo said, “When the viewership ratings are out, even if our viewership ratings are quite high, there will be surely some other variety shows in the same time slot getting higher viewership ratings than us. This is like gifting them something to criticize us with, and they will certainly go around yelling, ‘Didn’t you guys want to belittle all the heroes in the world? Why are the viewership ratings of your program not higher than X-program then?’ How are we going to answer that?”

Ha Qiqi nodded as she also had the same concerns.

But Zhang Ye blinked a few times in quick succession and rebutted, “Why must there always be shows in the same time slot with higher viewership ratings than us?”

Zhang Zuo was stunned. “Ah?”

Ha Qiqi was also stunned. “Why does there need to be a reason for that? There will surely be some shows that can get higher viewership ratings than us, such as the reality TV show whose rights were purchased from overseas. It has been broadcasting since the beginning of the year and the average viewership ratings are 1.4%. Then there’s another foreign copyrighted program which got a similar viewership rating of 1.3%!”

Zhang Ye asked again, “Why you all think that their viewership ratings will be higher than ours?”

Upon hearing that, Zhang Zuo said astonished, “Are you really thinking that The Voice of China can surpass all those variety shows broadcasting in the same time slot?”

When those words came out of his mouth, many of the surrounding staff from the program team looked over with shocked expressions.

Zhang Ye smiled and corrected him, “It’s not that I think we can, but that I’m certain it can be done!”

Wu Yi gawked. “Don’t tease us like this anymore, we’re really scared!”

Her voice cracking, Little Wang said, “Teacher Zhang, are you serious?”

A female editor was stunned. She said, “Didn’t we set a targeted viewership rating of 0.7%? Why did it change again?”

“0.7% is the station’s target for us.” Zhang Ye said calmly, “But it wasn’t set by me. My expectations are much higher than this target by a lot!”

Everyone was speechless!

0.7% was still low? How many of the current variety shows broadcasting in the country had ever exceeded 0.7% in viewership?! There should only be a dozen or so of them, right? But your expectations were higher? And even much higher at that? Could we stop joking around, Director Zhang! This was a program that a majority of the people were pessimistic about! If we could accomplish the station’s target of 0.7% viewership, we would already be satisfied! That would already be enough to create a legend!

Everyone could not understand why Zhang Ye felt so confident.

Zhang Ye did not get angry when he noticed their doubts. He said to them, “I know that everyone has doubt, but that’s because you all have not seen the entire, actual process of the program’s recording yet. There are some details I did not tell all of you beforehand and that aren’t stated on the program proposal.” He smiled. “For instance, my segment as the host.”

Ha Qiqi asked confused, “The host’s segment?”

Little Wang said, “Aren’t you just going to read the advertising messages?”

Zhang Zuo said, “You want to add some lines to the host’s script at the last minute? Haven’t you already decided on the lines? If you change it now, will there be enough time?”

Everyone had read Zhang Ye’s script for the host before, as it had been written out by him long ago, but no one found it to be anything special. What sort of tricks could even be added to it?

Zhang Ye grinned. “The monologue hasn’t been changed.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Then why are you saying…”

Zhang Ye said, “You’ll all find out soon.”