I'm Really a Superstar

Chapter 832: Lei Feng’s famous quote!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

At night.

The new episode of A Bite of China started broadcasting.

At the same time, the National Television Awards ceremony was also convened. The most prestigious awards ceremony for television shows was not as grand as those awards ceremonies held for movies and music and it wasn’t usually broadcast live either, nor would it be broadcast at all. Therefore, even if the invited guests did dress up for the ceremony, they would not come in full formal dress.

Yan Tianfei arrived together with Zhang Ye, accompanied by Assistant Directors Ha Qiqi and Zhang Zuo. They were all here to represent A Bite of China’s production team.

“Old Yan!”

“Hey, Old Yang.”

“Your Department 14 has gotten really popular this time!”

“No way, how can we possibly be more popular than your Jiangsu Television?”

“Teacher Zhang Ye, it’s been a while. Have you prepared your acceptance speech for the award?”

“Hai, the award is not even confirmed yet.”

“Oh, come on. Your show stands the highest chance of winning.”

Yan Tianfei started chatting with his old friend.

Zhang Ye was also exchanging a few words with some acquaintances he knew. When he spotted Dong Shanshan and Hu Fei, he went over to talk with them. He said with a smile, “Do You Remember has been nominated too?”

Hu Fei laughed. “It’s just a nomination.”

Dong Shanshan also smiled and replied, “For us, we’re just here to have fun. This is the most prestigious awards ceremony in the TV industry, so it’s good enough to just be nominated for the most popular television show award.”

Zhang Ye then eyed Xu Yipeng and Chen Ye. The executives of Central TV Department 1, such as Jiang Yuan and the others, did not attend the ceremony. Only the people in charge of the Rise to the Dance program team were in attendance. At this year’s awards ceremony, Rise to the Dance was still quite an opponent even though A Bite of China had outshone it. However, as A Bite of China was not a variety show, they did not have to worry that it would compete against them in their award category.

The guests and nominees gradually arrived.

There were people from Central TV and other provincial satellite television stations. This included numerous hosts, directors, and producers. A total of 300-odd people filled up the entire venue.

Everyone got seated.

The opening speech was made.

Following, the ceremony advanced to the announcement of the awards.

The ceremony’s host announced with a smile, “Before the awards ceremony begins, let me first introduce our very important guest presenter for today.” Referring to the cue cards, the host said, “Let us welcome the Deputy Chief of the SARFT…Madam Wu Zeqing! Welcome, Chief Wu!”

Wu Zeqing?

Old Wu was here?

Zhang Ye could not help but let out a laugh. Heh, this Old Wu did not even tell me that she was attending today’s ceremony as the guest presenter!

The audience immediately broke out into enthusiastic applause!

As the applause continued, Wu Zeqing stepped onstage with a smile, in a light-colored long qipao and high heels. She did not move too quickly or too slowly, but just walked at an appropriate pace. Wu Zeqing was naturally not afraid of being on stage. Instead, it was the ceremony host who felt a little nervous at the sight of Wu Zeqing. After all, this was not a supervisor like the others who did not have anything to do with him. This was the SARFT’s head, the person who was in charge of all the organizations, associations, and departments in the whole entertainment industry, covering news publishing, movies and TV show approvals, celebrity management, etc. The SARFT had the power to make decisions on any matters covering all those areas!

The audience started to chatter.

“Chief Wu came personally to attend the ceremony?”

“What a high-level guest presenter.”

“Yeah, we’ve never had someone like that in the past ceremonies. At most a division head would be invited.”

“This is the first time I’m seeing this Chief Wu in person.”

Everyone had the same thought when they saw her: How beautiful she is. She was even more beautiful than those female celebrities who depended on their looks for a living. However, they only thought this way but did not dare say it aloud. If they were to praise a celebrity for being pretty, that would just be praise and would be considered a compliment. But if they were to praise a leader of their overseeing agency, then it wouldn’t just be praise anymore. It would inevitably be called out as frivolity. So on an occasion like this where anything could be gossiped about, no one dared to say the wrong things. With Chief Wu’s status, it was also not something they should remark about so casually.

Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “Then I will be announcing the results for the first award.”

Someone came up from offstage and handed her an envelope.

Wu Zeqing read from it. “The 35th National Television Awards, winner of the Most Outstanding Contribution Award: Let the Wild Flowers Bloom!”

This was a television show that broadcast on a provincial satellite station. Although its viewership ratings were only average, in terms of its artistic standards and influence, this show did very well. The key was that this show had broadcast for four full years and only ended its run in the middle of this year. Therefore, the most outstanding contribution award being given to them was no surprise to anyone.

In the audience, a group of people were high-fiving each other and celebrating. One of them represented the group and went onstage to receive the award. “Thank you, thank you leads, thank you Chief Wu, thank you everyone!”

Following that were the next awards.

One…

Two…

Three…

In this world, the awards for television shows and television dramas were separately held. There were many awards ceremonies held for television shows, like the Morning Light Awards and Huahe Awards. Some of them were held annually, while others were not held regularly. However, the awards ceremony that Zhang Ye was attending today was one of the most prestigious awards ceremonies in the industry and also one of the most authoritative. In this prestigious awards ceremony, the awards given out at the beginning were of course not the most important ones. For example, the Most Outstanding Contribution Award was actually just a consolation prize. In the National Television Awards, the most important and coveted awards were only given out closer to the end of the ceremony.

The first coveted award was announced.

Wu Zeqing declared, “And the Best Interview Show winner is—Little He Says!”

A lot of people were surprised at this result.

Meanwhile, the program team of Little He Says was shrieking!

“It’s us?”

“It’s really us?”

“Ah!”

“Teacher He, quickly get on stage!”

“Congratulations, Teacher He!”

This was a show from Shanxi Television. In the aspect of viewership ratings, Shanxi Television was not particularly strong and could be counted as one of the lowest performing stations in the entire country. Therefore, when they were announced as the winner of the first coveted award of the National Television Awards, the program team of Little He Says was in total disbelief!

Xu Yipeng looked at Chen Ye and said a few words to him.

Chen Ye forced a smile, but appeared to be rather calm yet a little regretful. Before Chen Ye joined Rise to the Dance, he had been involved in an interview show too. This time, Chen Ye actually stood a very good chance of winning the award too, but unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

At this moment, a lot of people were starting to feel very nervous, especially those program teams who had received a nomination. They were beginning to feel unsettled even though they knew beforehand that their shows would definitely not win an award.

Then, the next award was announced!

Wu Zeqing declared, “And the Best Children’s Show winner is—It’s the Holidays!”

Somewhere in the audience, another wave of cheers rang out.

“It’s us!”

“This is so great!”

However, this group did not sound as excited as the previous group, probably because in the children’s show category, It’s the Holidays had done remarkably well this year and had no others who could compete with them for the award.

Finally, it was time for the highlights of the night!

Wu Zeqing announced, “The next award is Best Documentary.”

Yan Tianfei raised his head.

Nervous, Ha Qiqi was clenching her fists.

And heard Wu Zeqing declaring with a smile, “And the winner is—A Bite of China!”

Zhang Zuo got excited at that moment. “We’ve won it!”

Although Ha Qiqi already knew that this award was in the bag, when she heard Chief Wu announce the results, her eyes still turned red and teary. She sniffed hard and huddled together with Zhang Ye and Zhang Zuo. This was the most prestigious award in the television industry and they had won it. Whether it was the viewership ratings or the award, they were now firmly at the top!

Everyone around them was also applauding and congratulating them. In actual fact, only the group of Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, Zhang Ye, and Yan Tianfei had any worries that this award was safely going to be theirs. Everyone else did not seem to be surprised since this was a documentary that had beaten all the variety shows of the country in the viewership ratings. If you all didn’t fucking win the award, then who would? All of the country’s TV shows were left kneeling, so you guys basically did not have any competitors, OK?

The host laughed and reminded, “Please come up onstage to receive the award.”

Zhang Ye politely said, “Director Yan, please go on our behalf.”

Yan Tianfei waved it off and said, “Teacher Zhang, you go, you go.”

After several refusals, Zhang Ye still ended up going onstage. When he received the award from Wu Zeqing, he glanced at Old Wu and said, “Thank you, Chief Wu.”

Wu Zeqing smiled back politely and said, “You’re welcome.”

They gave each other a look, but only they themselves knew what it meant.

Zhang Ye carried the trophy and walked over to the microphone. “Thank you to my director, thank you to Central TV Department 14, thank you to my team, and thanks to myself.” Some of the event staff suddenly tensed up when he was about to open his mouth again. Zhang Ye just gave them a sort of a smile and waved his hands at them. “Don’t worry, I’m done speaking.”

He left the stage and returned to his seat.

A roar of laughter reverberated through the venue!

The host was also amused at this. Everyone knew what had just happened.

A year ago at the Silver Microphone Awards, Zhang Ye had used “Dead Water” to scold his leaders to no end. Then at the Shanghai SARFT’s press conference, Zhang Ye stood out with “The Answer.” There were many other similar situations like that in which whenever there was a camera or he was at an awards ceremony, Zhang Ye would always stir up some incident. He certainly had a far-reaching reputation and was very infamous for his antics, so when the organizers and its staff saw Zhang Ye going on stage, they were prepared for the worse. Everyone was on alert as they feared that this guy would start something again. That was the reason for what had just taken place and why Zhang Ye said those words earlier.

After this minor incident, another two coveted awards were announced.

Surprisingly, Rise to the Dance did not actually win this year’s Best Variety Show award. It was pipped to the award by another entertainment show that was more popular than theirs but worse in the viewership ratings; for these types of coveted awards, the viewership ratings were not always everything. What mattered just as much was the artistry of the show.

Afterwards, the final award was announced!

Wu Zeqing opened the final envelope and smiled when she saw the result. Then, she slowly proclaimed the winner word by word, “This year’s National Television Awards Most Popular Television Show Award goes to—The Voice of China!” Among all the coveted awards, this award was of the highest value. This was the award that comprehensively affirmed a show!

Zhang Zuo slapped his thigh and stood up to embrace Zhang Ye. “This is great, Director Zhang!”

“It’s us again!” Ha Qiqi could no longer hold back her grinning!

With two nominations, they had secured two awards. Without a doubt, Zhang Ye and his team were today’s big winners! Some people had predicted that they might only get one award, but as it turned out, they actually won two!

Logically, this most important award of the night should have been Central TV Department 1’s glory, as after all, Central TV Department 1 was the platform that it was broadcast on. However, with the issue between Zhang Ye and Central TV Department 1, their conflict was already at a state where everyone knew about it. No matter how thick-skinned Central TV Department 1’s people were, they wouldn’t dare to go onstage to receive the award for the show.

It was still left to Zhang Ye to go onstage.

Wu Zeqing handed him the trophy. “Give a longer speech this time.”

Zhang Ye laughed, “I don’t want to say too much. Didn’t you see how everyone was wary of me?”

The organizer’s staff were amused by this.

When the organizer’s manager—a middle-aged man—heard this, he also laughed and just waved it off.

The host chuckled and stated, “As the executive director and overall planner of the two shows A Bite of China and The Voice, you’ve already won two of the most coveted awards. Based on what I understand, this is a first in our awards history, so don’t worry about it Teacher Zhang. You should really make a longer acceptance speech this time. We trust you.”

Zhang Ye replied, “The problem here is that I don’t even trust myself.”

The crowd laughed!

“Alright, I’ll speak some then.” Zhang Ye looked at the trophy in his hands then at the audience. He spoke, “These two awards were not earned easily. Behind them were a lot of ups and downs that nobody else knows about. However, me and my bosses as well as my team all know very clearly that during the production phase, we all put in overtime, but not your standard definition of overtime. We literally lived at the office and in the wilderness, giving it our all every day for 24 hours.”

Many people knew about this, but it was the first time that Zhang Ye had talked about it publicly.

A lot of them were silent at this.

Zhang Ye said, “We even had colleagues who rushed to make progress even when they were sick, holding out for entire days without rest, and then finally fainting when they could no longer take it. They had to be carried away on a stretcher and taken to the hospital by an ambulance. I also know a few female colleagues who went trekking with us into the mountains and ended up with swollen feet so painful that they quietly shed a few tears. They did not complain to me about any of these and did not drop from the team. At that time, I felt that I had to give them some answers; I had to be deserving of the trust they put in me.” He waved the trophy in his hand and looked at the few people from his team. “Are you all satisfied with this answer?”

Yan Tianfei laughed.

Ha Qiqi quietly dried her eyes but was unable to stop herself from crying.

Zhang Zuo excitedly put up his hands and gave a thumbs up over his head!

Satisfied. Of course they were satisfied! Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the rest have never regretted their decisions. Now, they felt even more fortunate that they had decided to follow Zhang Ye to Department 14 back then. Other than Zhang Ye, who else could lead them to continuously become the top-rated television show in viewership twice in a row? No one else could it!

Applause was ringing out.

Hu Fei was clapping.

Dong Shanshan was clapping.

How well said. When Zhang Ye was serious, he really could speak well.

The host asked, “Teacher Zhang, you’ve already reached the peak of perfection when it comes to making shows. I believe no one would disagree if I used that to describe you. Just how did you manage to do it? Do you have a secret? Like how you handle things? Or is it your philosophy as a person? Why don’t you share that secret with everyone here?”

Zhang Ye did not even have to think before answering, “Well, the philosophy by which I conduct myself is: We should treat our comrades as warm as the spring, our work with the passion of the summer, individualism like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and the enemy…as cruel as the bitter winter!”

This was a famous quote by Comrade Lei Feng which did not exist in this world, but Zhang Ye had casually brought it up here!

Everyone had a shocked expression.

Treat the enemy as cruel as the bitter winter?

Some people looked at Xu Yipeng.

Some people looked at Chen Ye.

Slowly, more and more people started looking at the two of them.

Xu Yipeng nearly cursed aloud at someone’s mother. Chen Ye also nearly vomited blood. Fuck! Why are you all looking at me! Why are you looking at us?

These two bros could even get shot while lying prone!