I'm Really a Superstar

The lights came back on.

The doors opened.

The press conference ended and Zhang Ye walked off the stage.

But none of the reporters left!

"Teacher Zhang!"

"Teacher Zhang, please stay!"

"Please accept an interview!"

"Teacher Zhang!"

"Please wait a moment! Wait a moment!"

Numerous reporters piled forward in excitement. Several of the male reporters seated in the back rows even stepped over the chairs ahead of them to get to the front as everyone rushed forward in a frenzy!

However, Zhang Ye did not answer any questions or accept any interviews. He just turned around and left through the backstage.

Noticing this, the Department 14 staff in the back quickly went forward to hold off the reporters. They shouted, "Please go back. Everyone, please head back."

When a few of the reporters saw this jostling, they knew they would not get to interview Zhang Ye today. They were highly aware that something big was about to happen, so they immediately turned around to find their colleagues who were filming the press conference and ran outside with all their might, carrying their video cameras and cameras with them!

When some of the other reporters saw this, they came to their senses!

"Let's go!"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

"Let's return to the station!"

"Quick, contact the editor-in-chief!"

"Drive the car over here first!"

This press conference, no, to be precise, this documentary was very astonishing, so they had to return to their office immediately to seek the opinions of their bosses. For breaking news of such scale, it was impossible that it would remain a scoop. It all depended on their speed now as they competed to see who would get it published first and gain the advantage!

But even though they were fast, they would definitely not be faster than those from the Central TV News Channel. This was because they did not need to drive back to their office at all. It was just right upstairs!

As this documentary was ordered barred from broadcast by the Central TV heads a few days ago, the people of the Central TV News Channel clearly would not dare to act on their own. They quickly reported this matter to their superiors.

With that, the whole of Central TV was stunned!

Deputy Station Head Zhou pounded the table and jumped to his feet. "What? What did you say?"

Deputy Station Head Li stared and said, "C-Can you repeat that?"

The female reporter from the news channel said bitterly, "Zhang Ye has publicly released the documentary by presenting it in a live conference format! Th-This is the recording from the press conference."

They watched it as quickly as they could.

It was fast-forwarded.

And fast-forwarded again.

They took just five minutes to finish watching it!

The station heads immediately paled!

"What has gotten into Zhang Ye this time?"

"He's about to leave. Why is he still meddling?"

"This is pissing me off!"

"This is outrageous!"

"He actually had the courage to say all that with all those reporters around?"

"The documentary's footage was deleted. But he, he turned it into a live conference?"

"We cannot allow this to get broadcast!"

"This was a press conference held by Central TV! We'll be doomed if it gets broadcast!"

"Go and tell the Station Head!"

"Hurry!"

"Let the Station Head know! Tell him that something terrible has happened!"

...

Backstage.

The employees of Department 14 stood in front of Zhang Ye.

Huang Dandan looked at him. "Thank you, Director Zhang."

Zhang Ye smiled. "Since I promised you, I would've gotten it done even if the sky collapsed. There's no need to thank me for it. You must now recuperate and get ready for your surgery. I'll be waiting for you to get back and help me in the future."

"Director Zhang! I…" Tong Fu flushed.

Ha Qiqi said, "We thought that you were…"

Zhang Zuo said angrily, "Why didn't you let us know about something so important!"

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "It's just as you said. It's precisely because this is such an important matter that I knew I had to bear the responsibility on my own."

"We could have all borne it together!"

"That's right!"

"We could have all borne it together!"

"Why are you bearing this responsibility by yourself!"

"You're looking down on us, Director Zhang!"

Everyone had something to say, but they were in fact all very touched. Before the press conference, everyone had given up all hope and even entertained the thought of quitting. But when they saw Zhang Ye appear onstage and give his opening speech in such a composed manner, it set their pulses racing!

Director Zhang was still the same old Director Zhang!

He had never let them down before!

Zhang Ye looked at everyone around him. He spoke, "It's not that I'm looking down on you guys, it's just that it's not necessary to drag all of you down together with me. I've always been unpopular and have offended so many people, so I'm not really bothered by it. But all of you are different. Every one of you still has a future in the industry, so why would I let you become notorious like me and get hated on? There's no need since we're a team. Haven't our roles always been clearly defined? You guys are responsible for producing the documentary while I handle the offending!"

Ha Qiqi said, "Director Zhang, I'm sorry. Back then, I even—"

"It's me who should be sorry," interrupted Zhang Ye, "as I didn't let you guys know about my plan. Actually, when I heard everyone saying that you wanted to make this documentary public even if you had to face the music, I felt rather touched and proud, knowing that you guys didn't disgrace me."

...

At a newspaper firm.

Everyone was up to their ears in work!

A lot of them were on the phone, while many of executives and employees of the newspaper firm had surrounded a monitor, which was replaying the footage from Central TV Department 14's press conference!

They finished watching it.

A reporter who was present at the press conference said, "Chief Editor, c-c-can this be published?"

Another reporter said, "Zhang Ye has revealed the source of our air pollution to be caused by the steel mills, gas stations, vehicle exhaust emissions, corporations polluting, and even coal-fired heating. I-If this gets published, wouldn't it cause chaos?"

Everyone was very uncertain about this and waited for the chief editor to speak.

A deputy editor said, "This can't be published, right?

A different editor said, "So what if we know the source of the air pollution? Can we stop people from using heating? Can we ban all the steel mill production? Stop industrialization?"

An executive of the newspaper firm had a different view. "When did Zhang Ye say that he wanted to stop industrialization?" When did he say that he wanted to stop people from using heating? If coal-fired heating causes pollution, we can just aim to reduce the burning of coal and increase the proportion of gas heating instead! For pollution caused by steel mills, we can order the standardization of environmental protection facilities, increase crackdown efforts on offending corporations, and encourage citizens to report lawbreaking corporations! For pollution caused by vehicle exhaust emissions, we can increase the penalties. We can issue fines to all those heavy vehicles that exceed the limits! How is that called being unable to do anything about it?"

That deputy editor said, "But the citizens won't think of it that way! They will surely call for the complete eradication of steel mills! And refuse large and heavy vehicles from entering into cities! The citizen are always ignorant. If they see this documentary, then—"

"Alright, everyone, stop arguing." The chief editor finally spoke up.

Everyone looked at him.

The chief editor laughed in extreme helplessness. "Honestly, I have gained a sudden sense of admiration for Zhang Ye. At least he dares to speak up and tell the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth!" After a short silence, the chief editor gave his orders. "Just report it. We'll publish it as is! Hand the recording over to Old Hu. I will personally write the rough draft for this afternoon's edition of the paper!"

"Chief Editor!"

"Why?"

"Are we really going to publish it?"

"Ah?"

The chief editor suddenly looked at them. "Why not? Why can't we publish it? Zhang Ye, as a host and documentary director, has done for us what we media personnel could not do. These kinds of reports should have been written by us in the first place; it should've been us who exposed such news to the public. But look now, a documentary filmmaker has beaten us to it instead. Don't you guys think it disgraceful? Well, I find it disgraceful! I find it extremely disgraceful! I know the higher-ups probably won't approve of such reporting. But as journalists, we must sometimes have a backbone!"

Everyone went silent.

The chief editor said, "We should let the people know about this issue as they have the right to know!"

A female editor smiled. "The chief editor is right. I've finally understood why there are so many people who like Zhang Ye. He reminds us of our past selves every so often. There is a popular phrase going around these days: 'Stay true to yourself.' I suppose that Zhang Ye will never understand this phrase because everything he's said and done these past few years has been true to himself. He has never forgotten, but most of us have probably forgotten ourselves."

"Then let's publish it!"

"Fuck yeah, let's do it!"

"Right, you're speaking as if we're afraid of trouble!"

"I will contact Old Hu immediately and get him to publish the video in full on the newspapers' website!"

"Chief Editor, let me help you with the first draft!"

"Let's do it! Let the sky fall! Zhang Ye's there to hold it up!"

The entire newspaper firm immediately got down to work!

At the same time, the other newspaper firms and television stations were getting ready to publish the news!