I'm Really a Superstar

Chapter 740: Director Zhang flies into a rage!

Translator: Legge Editor: – –

Later that afternoon.

News started spreading internally at Central TV.

A group of people were heatedly discussing it in private, talking about Zhang Ye.

“Hey, did you hear about it?”

“What?”

“Zhang Ye and a Central TV Department 1’s deputy director were arguing with each other!”

“Ah? When did that happen? What’s the state of affairs?”

“I heard that a leader from Central TV Department 1 wanted to renegotiate with Zhang Ye over his contract. They wanted him to give up his ownership of the copyright to The Voice and any upcoming shows to Central TV, but Zhang Ye did not agree and they clashed over it.”

“Changing the contract?”

“If it were me, I wouldn’t have agreed either!”

“Right, based on what can they ask to change the contract?”

“It seems like the overseas copyright fee that Central TV Department 1 has negotiated for is rather high. It’s somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 million RMB, so if such a large sum of money doesn’t go into Central TV Department 1’s account, it wouldn’t look good for them. Moreover, this is also a sort of political achievement for Central TV Department 1 since it would be the first time that a domestically produced variety show has ever had its copyright sold overseas. That in itself would already be a huge achievement, but if it were sold under Zhang Ye’s name, Central TV Department 1 would end up being embarrassed. It wouldn’t look good, so the leaders at Department 1 came up with the scheme of changing the contract terms. I guess they were left with no choice after all.”

“But still, they can’t force people to resign it.”

“Yes, of course they can’t, but they can let him waste away. Don’t forget that Zhang Ye still has a one-year contract with Central TV Department 1. If Central TV Department 1 decides to freeze Zhang Ye for the remainder of his contract duration and not release him, Zhang Ye can’t do anything about that either. Remember our Central TV News Channel’s Old Zhu from a few years back? Didn’t he get frozen for three whole years after offending someone? In the end, when his contract expired, Old Zhu lost all his popularity together with it. Do you still see him around on television these days? I don’t even know what he’s up to anymore these days. This is what Zhang Ye will have to face as well. Even though he’s very popular right now, in the entertainment industry, once you don’t have any exposure or publicity, you’re as good as dead. No matter how much fame you had previously, it will all go to waste. Zhang Ye couldn’t afford such circumstances.”

“That’s right!”

“That Zhang Ye’s temper is really too quick. I’ve heard that he often argues with his leaders, but thought that it was just a rumor. Who knew that he actually turned out to be that way!”

“This problem can’t be easy to handle.”

“Let’s just see how Zhang Ye will handle it then.”

“Hai, such things in the professional setting have always made it difficult to distinguish who’s right and who’s wrong. Furthermore, it involves the leaders’ vested interest. We can only wait and see how they resolve it. Teacher Zhang is really unlucky to get involved in such an uncalled-for situation. The media has always reported on how Zhang Ye always gets into trouble at every place that he goes to, but it seems to me that it’s just a case of the popular attracting trouble. If Zhang Ye weren’t so capable and the show’s viewership ratings were just average, the copyright wouldn’t have attracted any interest, and there simply wouldn’t have been any issues. However, it’s precisely because he’s so capable that even if he does not look for trouble, trouble comes looking for him!”

“Yeah, there’s no way out of this.”

The entire Central TV network was made up of many other departments other than Central TV Department 1. It could be described as a large network, but also be seen as a small corporation, since they were all housed in the same building. Besides, as someone had witnessed the argument between Zhang Ye and Jiang Yuan, news of it spread very quickly internally and couldn’t be kept under wraps.

……

In The Voice’s program team office.

When the program team staff heard about it, they were all shocked!

“This…”

“Why would they try to change the contract?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense whatsoever. Isn’t this pushing it a little too far?”

“Aiyo, why did Director Zhang argue with the leader? Will the new show be affected by this?”

“It definitely will. If it isn’t handled well, Central TV Department 1 might even give the show to someone else to do! A show with a budget of 80 million, do you know how many hosts would vie for that!?”

“Then what should we do?”

“Director Jiang is being too insincere about this!”

“Shh, keep it down. It’s not our place to discuss this.”

“Keep it down, my ass. Director Zhang has always been good to us! If we don’t speak up for Director Zhang at this time, then who should we speak up for? This is all happening because those leaders from Central TV Department 1 are being too money-grubbing!”

“How did it become like this just when our new show was about to start!”

Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the rest also started speaking up. Everyone was very worried about Zhang Ye’s situation. Some of them came to a conclusion that Director Zhang would be frozen by Central TV Department 1 over the matter. Just thinking about this outcome made everyone’s expression change. Speaking from the heart, they would of course prefer to work with Zhang Ye, even if it meant working harder. Zhang Ye also called for a higher standard of work from them, but they were all willing to put in the effort for him. From a motley crew of a program team, they had now become the best program team in the country. It was truly an honor for them! How great of an honor was this? It was so great that they wouldn’t exchange it for anything else!

“Surely they won’t freeze him, right?”

“That’s unlikely. I don’t think it calls for such drastic measures yet!”

“Right, it’s not such a big conflict anyway. I’m sure they can still come to an agreement somehow. Let’s see how Director Zhang will handle this now. But I wonder, with Director Zhang’s temper…this is really difficult to say!”

No one was in the mood to work anymore.

At this moment, Zhang Ye pushed open the door and walked into the office.

Ha Qiqi quickly said, “Director Zhang!”

Zhang Zuo immediately said, “Just let us know if there’s anything we can help you with!”

Zhang Ye smiled and waved a hand. “It’s nothing, just go on and keep working.”

Seeing how Zhang Ye was still able to keep his smile in such a situation, everyone admired him from the bottom of their hearts. He was indeed worthy of his label as the jinx of the entertainment circle, and had been through all sorts of difficulties in this industry before.

Zhang Ye had actually prepared for the worst-case scenario, but he still carried on doing whatever he needed to do as of now. He did not let the problem affect his rhythm at all.

Zhang Ye asked, “Is the proposal written up yet?”

Ha Qiqi said, “We came up with two simple concepts. You can take a look at them first.”

Zhang Ye said, “Mmm, it looks fine.”

After chatting a little about the new show, Zhang Ye shared some of his views and ideas about it before ending the meeting. All they needed to do now was wait for the funding to come in so that they could start implementing their plans and realize a general development direction for the show. Zhang Ye already had several concepts as well, but he still needed to refine them a little further.

Di di.

Ha Qiqi’s cell phone rang.

Di di.

The cell phones of everyone else in the office also went off at about the same time.

“Wah, our salary has been paid!” Little Wang said happily.

Zhang Zuo took a look and immediately exclaimed, “Whoa, 80,000?”

Ha Qiqi also said, “Me too, 87,000 to be exact.”

Wu Yi was shocked. “I got 69,000!”

Little Wang also held her cell phone with her mouth agape. “Mine is above 50,000 too! Aiyo, why did we get so much this month? The bonus is 47,000?”

Ha Qiqi suddenly said, “We have Director Zhang to thank for this. He applied for the bonus on our behalf. This payment should be for the work done in the month before last. There should still be another bonus in next month’s salary.”

Little Wang was overjoyed. “Thank you, Director Zhang!” She offhandedly asked, “Director Zhang, how much did you get? It’s definitely many times more than ours, right? Will you be treating us later?”

Everyone laughed.

When Zhang Ye finally took out his cell phone to check, he found no messages on it. “Oh, I haven’t received mine yet.”

Ha Qiqi stared blankly at him. “That can’t be.”

Zhang Zuo was also stunned. “Isn’t Central TV using an automated payroll system?”

Within the Central TV network, the bank details of every department were different. Some of the newer departments had their bank accounts tied to the Postal Savings Bank of China, while the older departments used China Construction Bank. So when the employees of Central TV Department 1 were paid by the same bank, it was unlikely that there would be a delay since the salaries should all be received at the same time. Even if there were some slight delays for some people, it couldn’t be that Zhang Ye alone did not receive the notification, right?

Little Wang said, “Did you activate the salary payment alert?”

Zhang Ye did not answer her and just smiled. “Looks like you guys will have to treat me to dinner instead?”

However, this smile from Zhang Ye made Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the others feel a sense of unease. It felt like it was the prelude to Director Zhang flying off the handle!

What happened at the Finance Department?

Why did everyone receive their salaries except for Director Zhang?

Without Director Zhang, there would not have been The Voice. After Director Zhang had earned so much money for Central TV Department 1, as well as garnered so much reputation for them, why did he deserve such treatment from you? Is this the way to treat your most exemplary employee? Is this how you treat someone who saved the viewership ratings of Central TV Department 1??

Ha Qiqi stood up and said, “I’ll go check for you with the Finance Department! What’re they doing!?”

Zhang Ye understood what was going on. The anger he had accumulated within him had reached the limit. Do you all really think that I, Zhang Ye, am afraid of you people at Central TV Department 1??

No joining fee!

No bonuses!

The show I created!

The show I produced!

The title sponsorship I pulled in!

Yet now, not only do you not intend to leave the overseas copyright for me, you’re even withholding my salary of only 8,000 RMB?

Ha!

Why don’t you tell me just what you’re trying to play at!?