I'm Really a Superstar

In the evening newspapers, on the radio and TV, every media outlet was reporting about A Bite of China.

"A Bite of China clinches top spot!"

"Zhang Ye creates a miracle yet again!"

"An insane comeback from the documentaries!"

"Central TV Department 14 fires the starting pistol to signal the comeback of documentaries!"

"A Bite of China makes Rise to the Dance always the bridesmaid!"

"A Bite of China is expected to break the record of the highest viewership rated TV show in the last five years!"

"Spring has arrived for documentaries!"

"An impossible comeback! A day of madness!"

"A calligraphy of 'Spring in Qin Garden: Snow' shocks the entire nation!"

"Zhang Ye has carved his name into the annals of the documentary industry!"

On the same day in the office, there were many people who had come to offer their congratulations. The previously unloved and uncared for Department 14 suddenly became the center of attention. Yan Tianfei and the people of Department 14 were unable to close their mouths for the entire day as they spent most of their time responding to the congratulations and smiling.

"Old Yan, how amazing!" a deputy director of another channel said.

Yan Tianfei laughed heartily. "It's not too bad I guess."

Another channel's director said, "Even the most outstanding Department 1 of Central TV was slaughtered by you guys. You're exceptionally capable!"

Yan Tianfei laughed and said, "That was just luck, just luck!"

At the end of the day when it was almost time to head out, Yan Tianfei was even called over to the office of Central TV's Deputy Station Head Zhou.

"Old Zhou, you're looking for me?" Yan Tianfei asked.

Deputy Station Head Zhou's mouth twitched slightly as he stated, "You guys have done quite well this time, extremely well, in fact. The station head even complimented you guys in the meeting earlier." Pausing, he then continued, "Previously, regarding the money that Central TV Department 1 loaned from your department, I've already talked to them about it. You just need to look for Finance to let them know. The money will be returned to you before the end of the day. As for other matters, is there anything that your channel would like to request for? If there's anything, just bring it up to the station. Oh right, do you have enough manpower?"

Yan Tianfei understood him clearly, but did not really say much. "We have enough."

Deputy Station Head Zhou asked, "What about the department facilities and equipment? If it's not enough, just mention it to us at any time. I'll arrange something for you."

Yan Tianfei replied, "Everything is in good shape."

Deputy Station Head Zhou's attitude towards Department 14 was clearly different from before. Right now, no one could look down and ignore them anymore!

At night.

On the Internet, some media personnel and industry insiders were analyzing the reasons behind A Bite of China's success.

"How does a documentary get so popular like that?"

"This is something that's totally unprecedented and unheard of!"

"The HD video cameras played a very key role here. Those scenes were extremely fine and detailed, thus the foods and the cuisine's features seemingly gave off a refreshing aura. With the presentation done in an entirely new way, it was something the audience had never seen before in a documentary, so they all have approved of it!"

"Not only that, even the subject that Zhang Ye covered in the documentary was very well chosen. What makes me admire Zhang Ye all this while is his vision and ability to understand the market. He's so professional and has never imitated others before. Moreover, he also brought out the unique traits of China in the filming of this documentary. He has managed to present our country's character and qualities through food, and that was the key reason for A Bite of China's success! Looking at those scenes and how it shows the diet and culture of the people, we can all feel the sincerity of Zhang Ye and his team's efforts. If such a documentary does not get popular, then what would get popular?"

"The subject is really great stuff!"

"Did you guys realize yet? Many of the other documentary are based on science and educational subjects, while A Bite of China isn't. A Bite of China is only documenting a story, using the simplest of ways to present it to the audience. It's really well grounded. That's why it resonates so well with the audience and can evoke memories of their most primitive desires of taste!"

"This documentary is such a classic!"

"As a TV show, this is definitely at a world-class level. Then as a documentary, A Bite of China is undoubtedly the best in our country's history of documentaries! There is no dispute about that!"

A Bite of China's reputation was exceedingly good. It was so good that even a senior citizen at 90 years old or a nine-year-old child liked watching it. It was so good that even a few industry insiders whose relationship with Zhang Ye hadn't been good, and had even gotten to the point where they verbally sparred over the Internet, were publicly expressing their admiration for A Bite of China!

As for Zhang Ye himself, he also spent some time analyzing the reasons why A Bite of China could succeed. In his previous world, A Bite of China only got popular after a while. Its average viewership rating was also not comparable to that of The Voice's. But in this world, many things had changed. For example, the downturn of the market environment in which The Voice did not manage to earn viewership ratings comparable to that of Zhang Ye's previous world. Whether it was the average viewership rating or the highest viewership rating, it was largely discounted when compared to his previous world. This was caused by a lot of objective factors, such as online broadcasting which had cannibalized a large audience base here. It's not like there was a drop in the audience numbers of those who watched The Voice, just that a part of the viewership ratings were shared by the online broadcast. A lot of these audiences did not watch The Voice on television but online instead, so the viewership ratings naturally became lower. While for A Bite of China, because of Zhang Ye's affiliation with the show and the promotions done for it, factored in with the lack of culture within this world's domestic documentary industry, that had allowed the documentary to be "powered up" in advance!

These were all reasons for its success.

...

8 PM at night.

On Central TV Channel 14, A Bite of China started broadcasting.

It was the fourth episode, "The Taste of Time."

"For food, time is both a friend and an enemy."

"Though there are many modern techniques for preserving food, the classical methods of salting, air-drying, stewing and smoking can produce a unique flavor very different from and even better than when the flavor is fresh. Even to this day, Chinese people are still particularly fond of foods preserved with traditional methods."

"In the autumn morning, the ancient Hulan River runs through the wilderness…"

...

Guangzhou.

At an apartment building.

A family of three were currently tuned to Channel 14. Their child was only nine years old.

"Mom, it's such a nice show to watch."

"Yes, it's really good, isn't it?"

"I feel like eating ham!"

"Alright, Mom will order some for you online."

"I want to eat it now."

"But the markets are already closed right now."

...

Tianjin.

At a restaurant.

"What program is this?"

"It's A Bite of China. Don't you know about it?"

"It's really quite good. My appetite has increased just from watching it!"

"I've already followed it for the past three episodes!"

"Zhang Ye's narration sounds really steady and mature. It's nice to listen to!"

...

Beijing.

"The soccer match is beginning!"

"What are you still watching soccer for! Let's watch A Bite of China instead!"

"Damn, don't do that. You can catch up on it online later!"

"That won't do. It won't be the same feeling! This sort of a documentary should be watched on the TV to gain the maximum emotional impact. Besides, the online broadcast will only be shown tomorrow, and I can't wait a moment longer to watch it! You'll know what I mean when you watch it. It's particularly addicting! You won't want to stop watching!"

"Are you serious?"

"Wow, the episode today is also very interesting. Let's watch it quickly!"

...

The next day.

Sunday.

Zhang Ye had just left his house when he got a call from Fan Wenli.

"Director Zhang, are you going to work today?"

"I've just come out and will be on my way to work."

"I'm at the Guangwai area right now. My car broke down and I'm in a rush to get to the studio recording. Do you think you can give me a lift?"

"Sure, send me your location."

Around ten minutes later, Zhang Ye arrived to pick up Fan Wenli. Her assistant stayed behind to wait for the tow truck to arrive while Fan Wenli hopped into Zhang Ye's BMW. After she got in, she took off her face mask and sunglasses.

Zhang Ye laughed. "Why were you so unlucky?"

Fan Wenli said helplessly, "It's been this way for the past few day already."

"What happened?" Zhang Ye asked.

Fan Wenli didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she replied, "You have totally done me in this time. When we were recording Rise to the Dance, we all felt so confident about the show and even thought that we could sweep away at all the other shows. But then you came along with A Bite of China and forced us down into the supporting role."

Zhang Ye said, "Oh come on, your show is also doing quite well in the viewership ratings."

"It can't be compared to you guys." Fan Wenli shook her head and stated, "We can't even be considered the supporting role anymore now. It's like we don't really exist anymore."

Zhang Ye did not know how to answer her, so he just remarked, "Anyway, you've already received your joining fee. Besides, a viewership rating of one-point-something percent is surely going to help you increase your popularity as well. Isn't that still a very good outcome? If my documentary had a place for guests, I would definitely have invited you to join."

Fan Wenli looked at him and laughed, "Remember to contact me the next time you have a new project. You might not know about the situation in the Rise to the Dance program team now, but it's really in a state of turmoil. A lot of people have been dealt a big blow because of you, and some of them are even hoping for the fourth episode of your documentary to suffer a drop in the viewership ratings!"

Zhang Ye was all smiles at that. "Who knows? It might really drop."

"I don't think so," Fan Wenli replied.

...

At Central TV.

Department 14.

The staff had come very early to work today even though it was not forced overtime. Everyone turned up in full attendance and earlier than they would have on a usual working day.

When Zhang Ye arrived, he immediately heard everyone guessing about the viewership rating for the fourth episode.

Zhang Ye was waiting to find out.

Yan Tianfei was waiting to find out.

The media was waiting to find out.

The people at Rise to the Dance were also waiting to find out.

This was after all a documentary program and the accomplishments by it up until now was history in the making by Zhang Ye. However, it was also an unknown development and no one could predict how it would turn out.

At Central TV Department 1, Xu Yipeng, Chen Ye, and the others had evil intentions as they hoped for A Bite of China to suddenly wilt in its performance. They were all anticipating for the fourth episode to not match up to its heaven-defying performance of the third episode. This was also the only chance in which Rise to the Dance could make a comeback, because they knew that they had already given the show their all and there was no way to further bring the viewership ratings to next level. Therefore, the only hope they had was to wish for A Bite of China to falter!

However, things did not develop the way they'd hoped!

At 9:30 AM, the nationwide viewership ratings for the previous day were released!

Department 14 was full of cheers!

"Ahhh!"

"This is too awesome!"

"We've gotten number 1 again! It's us again!"

"Heavens, we-we've outdone The Voice?"

"Yes, we've gone beyond that! We've really gone beyond that!"

"It's only the fourth episode! This is just the fourth episode!"

A Bite of China was ranked number 1 nationwide!

Its viewership rating was—2.46%!

With this news, the industry was once again in an uproar!

Not only was it due to A Bite of China not slipping up in the viewership ratings or that it was consistently popular, but because the fourth episode's viewership rating had surpassed The Voice's season finale highest viewership rating of 2.45%, which also happened to be the highest viewership rating in the five most recent years. Although it had only surpassed it by 0.01%, it was still a new record. This result had created a totally new legend!

A Bite of China had strongly ascended to the top!

Zhang Ye had broken the record and legend that he had set previously!

The Internet was abuzz with commotion!

The media also blew up!

"The heaven defying Zhang Ye!"

"Those who gain Zhang Ye can rule the world!"

"After learning about the viewership rating for the third episode, I no longer had any doubts that A Bite of China would surpass The Voice. I thought it was just a matter of time, but I did not expect it to do so by the fourth episode! This is too fast! This is way too fast!"

"Cheering for A Bite of China! Cheering for Zhang Ye!"

"As a hardcore fan of Teacher Zhang Ye, I only wish to fucking shout out—anyone else!?"

In an instant, all of Zhang Ye's fans appeared!

Big Saber Bro: "Anyone else?"

ZhangYeNumber1Fan: "Anyone else?"

ZhangYeNumber108Fan: "Anyone else?"

Xu Yipeng was silenced.

Chen Ye's Weibo was devoid of any activity for two days now.

Central TV Department 1 was terrified into silence.

A lot of them were still asking that same question from yesterday which they likely had no answer for!

Why?

Just why did it turn out this way?

...

Similarly, the Saturday variety shows were equally close to tears.

Hebei Television.

"Leader, our viewership rating has dropped significantly!"

"By how much?"

"Yesterday's viewership rating was only 0.33%!"

"This was all caused by A Bite of China! They have stolen our viewers away! We're also at the 8 PM broadcast slot, so we were greatly affected by it! If it goes on like this, our show won't be far from getting canceled!"

"A Bite of China is out of control!"

"I'm numb. Why did they choose to broadcast on Saturday as well! Isn't it good enough to just stay as a back-to-back broadcast on Friday? Why did they have to go crazy and broadcast during the Saturday slot as well? Ah? Aren't they ripping us off this way!"

...

Zhejiang Television.

At a newly formed program team office.

"Little Tong, is the recording for the show done yet?"

"It's finished, boss."

"OK, the broadcast slot that you guys have asked for previously has been arranged. It'll be broadcast on Saturday at 8 PM starting from the week after next. I have high hopes for you all."

"Boss, about that…about the broadcast schedule…"

"What's the matter?"

"We would like to ask if there are still other available broadcast slots on Sunday for our station?"

...

Hubei Television.

"Director, why did you reschedule our show to 8 PM on Saturday?"

"Because that slot was empty and no one wants to take it."

"Damn, then we don't want to take it either!"

"You guys have to believe in yourselves and have confidence!"

"B-But we don't have any confidence! The opponent is A Bite of China! To broadcast at the same time as them, how would we be able to get any viewership? Director, you can't send us to our deaths like that!"

...

A lot of people were cursing!

A lot of people were in tears!

No one wanted to broadcast at the same time as A Bite of China.

Or rather, no one dared to broadcast at the same time as A Bite of China.

This scene was playing out at many of the other television stations. Some program teams actively applied to delay their premiere episodes, while some television stations also reluctantly changed the broadcast schedule in order to protect their blockbuster shows. They had to purposely avoid the broadcast time of A Bite of China!

Everyone was avoiding it!

Everyone's expressions changed the moment this was mentioned!

Since when did a documentary which no one had ever placed any importance on become a TV show that could sweep the entire nation with a commanding presence. They were basically invincible!