I'm Really a Superstar

A shit stirrer?

Pfft!

Zhang Zuo, Ha Qiqi and the others nearly fainted from holding back their laughter!

"Zhang Ye, you!"

"You're so shameless!"

"You're too sarcastic!"

"Sooner or later, that mouth of yours will be your downfall!"

"Ah! I'm so mad I could explode! You've made me furious this time!"

The office was filled with angry voices as the program team staff of Traveling the World and Into the Universe were enraged and shouting loudly. Regarding Zhang Ye's metaphor of him as a stick and them as the shit, the new explanation of a "shit stirrer" left them infuriated. This was indirectly insulting people!

However, Zhang Ye could not be bothered with them and simply said to Little Wang, "Assistant Wang, see them out."

"Yes." Little Wang walked up and said, "Everyone, we still have work to do. Please leave now."

Then Zhang Ye turned to walk back into his own office.

A staff member with Chen Ye Interviews pointed at Zhang Ye's back and shouted, "Zhang Ye, if you are so capable, don't walk away!"

Zhang Ye really stopped in his tracks and turned back around. "I actually have the capability to not leave. Do you have anything for me?"

That person was stunned and turned dumb instead.

He wasn't leaving? Zhang Ye just stood there and did not move at all. So what could they do now? Fight? They couldn't beat him! Scold? They couldn't outscold him! Report him to get him fired? He was dying to leave this place! After fussing for a long time, they realized they could do nothing about Zhang Ye. He was such a fucking stubborn and unreasonable person!

"We can't just let this go!"

"Come on, let's go and look for the execs!"

"Right, I don't believe there's no place for us to seek redress!"

"This matter must be dealt with!"

After shouting those words, they had determined expressions on their faces and proceeded to leave Zhang Ye's office. Then, they went to look for the executives of Central TV Department 1 in anger.

...

Meanwhile.

While they were there, the entire Central TV also found out about the commotion. Zhang Ye had always been a "tumor" of Central TV Department 1 and there were always many pairs of eyes keeping watch on him. So when this commotion was stirred up, news of it naturally traveled very quickly. Furthermore, many of the Central TV staff had already seen the scolding battle on Weibo.

Everyone was talking nonstop in private.

"Zhang Ye has caused trouble again!"

"I heard of it too."

"Our Director Zhang really can't stay idle. He had just forfeited an international math award, and he's already back to causing trouble for his colleagues? He's really a true warrior!"

"Yeah, I heard that some of the program team staff who were insulted by him online went to seek for an explanation from him. However, I heard that all of them were scolded away by Zhang Ye. A host can already speak well to begin with. What's more, someone like Director Zhang is one of the most slick-talking hosts around, so how can the average person outscold him? Yet that group of people still went ahead despite knowing they wouldn't be able to outscold him. They must have been so free that their balls were aching. Isn't it in Zhang Ye's nature to always stir up trouble? Which associates of his did not get insulted by him before? If they saw something on Weibo, they should just pretend that they didn't see it."

"You make it sound so simple. A show represents the whole team behind it. Zhang Ye has openly criticized their shows. That's equivalent to insulting everyone from the program teams. So how can they pretend like they don't know about it? If they did that, would they still have any face left?"

"Did they go and make a complaint?"

"Yes, they went to find the director."

"Let's wait and see how the execs are going to deal with this matter. Hur, but it's obvious. How can they possibly deal with this situation?"

"That's right, how can they deal with it?"

...

Central TV Department 1.

Director's office.

It was unknown whether Jiang Naixiong and Jiang Yuan saw the Weibo posts or whether there were other matters being discussed, but when that group of people arrived here, the two main heads of Department 1 were already in the office.

"Director!"

"Director Jiang!"

"He's really taking it too far!"

"That's right, that Zhang Ye is getting too lawless!"

Everyone rushed into the office, full of pent-up anger!

Jiang Naixiong glanced at them with an expression that did not look good too good. "Yes, I saw the Weibo posts earlier as well."

That assistant director of Chen Ye Interviews said angrily, "It's not only about the random insulting of our program teams on Weibo. We just went to Zhang Ye's office to seek an explanation from him, but we were insulted back by him. His words were really, really nasty. I, I can't even bear to repeat what he said to us! Because of this matter now, every one of our program teams' staffs are feeling antagonized and it has affected their work. They aren't even in the mood to work properly now!"

"Our program team feels the same too!"

"He can't do things that way!"

"Director, if this kind of behavior is not dealt with, then it will be very difficult to appease everyone's anger. I've long heard that a lot of people in Central TV Department 1 have been complaining about Zhang Ye!"

These people knew what the executives were thinking. However, to them, the idea of freezing Zhang Ye at Central TV Department 1 for the next six months was actually not the result they were hoping to see. After this incident, they just hoped that Zhang Ye would get the hell out of Department 1. Be it a transfer or a dismissal, as long as this fellow did not stay on at Department 1 and continue stirring up trouble everywhere for them, any decision would be fine. They did not want to see that fellow anymore and wished that he would get as far away as possible from them forever. That fellow was too wicked, whether his speech or his actions, he was basically unreasonable and impossible to get along with—of course, one of the reasons for this was because someone, be it them or the program team leaders, had offended Zhang Ye previously!

The group of people complained repeatedly.

Jiang Yuan frowned after listening to what they had to say.

Jiang Naixiong glanced at them and said, "Alright, I get what's happening. Everyone, go back to your offices first. I will discuss this matter with Deputy Director Jiang and give you all an answer."

Only then were they finally willing to leave the office.

Once the door closed, Jiang Yuan said, "This Zhang Ye is getting more and more out of hand!"

Jiang Naixiong's expression darkened. "What's your opinion on this matter? How should we punish him?"

Jiang Yuan hesitated for a while. "We can't just fire him like that, right? If we did that, we'd give him exactly what he wants."

"Of course that's impossible." Jiang Naixiong sneered and then raised up his head to say, "What's this I hear about Yan Tianfei of Department 14 coming to look for you this morning?"

Jiang Yuan nodded. "He came to demand an explanation from us because of the two fresh graduates. Hur hur, he even said that he wanted to have Zhang Ye transferred over to them in return."

Jiang Naixiong exclaimed, "He actually risks accepting a hot potato like Zhang Ye? Ever since the lawsuit with Central TV Department 1 started, the execs of Central TV have been very unhappy with Zhang Ye. Furthermore, some old cases were also brought up one after another because of him winning the lawsuit. For the past few days, the legal department of Central TV has not stopped to idle for one moment. There is great pressure from the public and it has affected them very negatively, leaving our station in a very disadvantaged position. Thus, the general opinion of Zhang Ye is very bad, yet Old Yan still dares to accept such a person who has offended the entirety of Central TV? Is he not afraid of trouble?!"

Jiang Yuan said helplessly, "When has Director Yan ever cared about all these? Sometimes he does not even give face to the station heads, let alone this matter. There are two station heads whom he had a friendship with previously, and a deputy station head who even stayed with Old Yan in the same staff dormitory together, sleeping in a bunk bed when they first started working at Central TV. Therefore, there are some things with Old Yan that even the station heads cannot do anything about because of their old relationship with him." Jiang Yuan paused for a moment and then asked, "Do you intend to transfer Zhang Ye over?"

"You can't get anything over at Old Yan's department. Besides, there's also no opportunity to appear onscreen as it's not an entertainment channel. Actually, even if Zhang Ye goes over, what difference is there with staying in Central TV Department 1. It is the same as being freezed." After thinking for a while, Jiang Naixiong still shook his head. He said, "Let's forget it for now, we will talk about it again in the future."

...

An hour later.

The details of the punishment were out: Zhang Ye would have three months of his salary deducted and an internal email was circulated to the entire Central TV staff to criticize him!

Zhang Ye showed no expression after he read it. He did not even blink and just continued watching his movie.

Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the rest of his subordinates also saw the email and reacted indifferently to it. An official warning? This was not the first time it had happened anyway.

The reaction of the other Central TV staff were more or less the same.

"Official warning again?"

"Deduction of salary? Will Zhang Ye miss that little bit of money?"

"Yeah, Department 1 still hasn't fired him. Looks like they're ready to fight it out with Zhang Ye to the bitter end for the next six months!"

"Yes, if they don't fire him, the types of punishment they can dish out are really too limited in scope!"

"What's the use of issuing an official warning? If it were us, this email would definitely kill us off. Ignoring how it would affect our career developments, we would be totally embarrassed by it. But for someone like Zhang Ye? This isn't even considered a mosquito bite. As a person who dared to sue Central TV in court and forfeited an award in the international mathematics world, Zhang Ye's scandals and misdeeds were even published in the international newspapers! Would he be afraid of an internal official warning? Isn't this bullshit? If Zhang Ye cared so much about his face, he wouldn't have done so many earth-shattering things already!"

"That's right, Zhang Ye is such a shameless person. I'm quite sure that he read the email without batting an eyelid. It's pretty meaningless to him."

After the program team staff of Traveling the World, Chen Ye Interviews, and the others saw the email, they were extremely unsatisfied and felt that the action taken was not enough to sate their anger.

However, a few minutes later, Central TV Department 1's official website and Weibo flashed together with an update. It was a rarely seen punishment that was announced to the public, criticizing Zhang Ye in the announcement. This was clearly a more severe form of punishment. The executives of Central TV were probably thinking, "If Zhang Ye doesn't care about the internally circulated official warning, then he must care about his own popularity, right?" If they made his reputation bad, it would surely hurt him.

However, they never expected that after they had announced to the public Zhang Ye's punishment, it did not cause much of a reaction from the people.

"Another punishment?"

"Heh, why is his salary being deducted again?"

"Official warning? Can't they come up with something new?"

"Zhang Ye cursing people is considered news? It's only if he does not insult or fight with his peers that it should be considered news, right? If Teacher Zhang suddenly stop insulting his colleagues for one day, you people can send out the notice then. I will definitely be so shocked that I will come support you all on Weibo and gather all my relatives and friends to help to forward it as well!"

"Gifting two words—hur hur."

"Let this thread die."

"Let this thread die +1."

The scattered replies from the people made the punishment look very pathetic.

Those people of Central TV who were waiting for Zhang Ye to embarrass himself were all dumbfounded. In previous times, when Central TV gave an official warning to one of their hosts, it had caused great response and created heated discussions. But what was happening now? Why was there not even a wave of commotion stirred when it came to Zhang Ye? This was Zhang Ye who had appeared every day in the media and the newspapers! This was a scandal of a B-list celebrity! Why was no one paying any attention to all of this!?

Only now did they realize they had underestimated their initial thought of Zhang Ye's reputation being terrible. It seemed like the fellow's reputation was at least ten times more terrible than what they had expected! If not for this fellow's really terrible reputation, why would people actually smile and let it slide without a care after hearing about this scandal involving a B-list celebrity??

[1. a stubborn and unreasonable person]