I’m Really a Superstar

Evening.

Nearly 7 P.M.

Zhang Ye came to work under the light of the moon. According to the company, this was a classic case of working late. It was also something that the Leaders had specially approved. It wasn’t too different from a traditional television station. Usually, before a live broadcast, the hosts wouldn’t be kept too busy. They’d also usually do their preparations an hour or two before the show started, otherwise, if they were to work normal hours like everyone else, how would they be able to handle the live broadcasts at night? They wouldn’t be able to their energy levels up!

The lift doors opened just as he entered the building.

Zhang Ye quickened his footsteps so that he caught the lift just in time.

There was a man inside the lift, someone that Zhang Ye knew. It was the person who he’d met on his first day after joining the company—the one from Human Resources who’d made him fill in his form with an English name.

His name was Yang Yang. He glanced sideways at Zhang Ye with a sunken expression.

Zhang Ye didn’t pay any attention to him, and pressed the button for his level, looking relaxed.

Yang Yang didn’t attempt to speak to him either. The two of them had already argued in the past, so of course they didn’t want to speak once again!

The lift went to the basement first, where Zhang Ye walked out. He walked straight to Studio 7 for the recording. He entered by pushing the door. Damn, it had already transformed into a whirlwind of activity and staff.

“Is the signal okay?”

“It’s almost there.”

“I’ll adjust it a little more, then.”

“Lights, we need some more lights over here!”

Over a dozen people were busy climbing around and carrying equipment.

When Zhang Ye noticed the WebTV department’s second-in-command, Wang Xiong, he knew that the company had placed a lot of emphasis on this live broadcast of “Zhang Ye’s Talk Show”. The department leaders were all handling this personally, causing Zhang Ye to subconsciously feel pressured.

“Little Zhang, you’re here?” Wang Xiong said when he saw him.

Zhang Ye went forward to greet him, “Director Wang.”

Wang Xiong looked at him, laughing, “You look pretty confident. How’re your preparations? Has the script and all of the joke segments to be used been decided already?”

Zhang Ye nodded, “It’s been decided.”

Wang Xiong said with heartfelt emotions, “Your talk show’s program style is the first of its kind in the country, as well as in the world. There’s been no precedence nor experience with this sort of program. Although our company has many scriptwriters and editors, they can’t really write good material for joke segments like you can. It’s their first time handling something like this, so before they familiarize themselves with it, we’ll still depend on you to write it. When they know it better, in the future, it’ll be much easier. I’ll find a group of writers for you, in order to help with your background research and work, so that you won’t have to work so hard.”

Zhang Ye smiled. “It’s alright, Director Wang. Writing these things comes quite naturally to me.”

Wang Xiong cautioned, “Director Feng asked me to remind you that the joke segments should all be original, just like in the first episode. If you’re out of any original joke segments, you can get some from online too. However, the company will have to purchase the rights on your behalf. At least we’ll avoid any copyright issues then.”

“Don’t worry.” Zhang Ye didn’t have any such worries. He said, “You won’t find any of the joke segments from my talk show online.”

Wang Xiong said at ease, “Haha, that’s good then. Come, you should get ready. Go do your makeup and get changed first. I’ve gathered the best from each department in order to help out the situation here today. This is a historical live broadcast in WebTV history, and also a first. It’s a real milestone for us, so we’ve gotten the backstage works all ready for you. You can rest assured, and just do your best up on stage. This live broadcast isn’t only watched by our company’s top management… you should’ve seen the discussions online? There are many people in the same industry, and peers, who are watching us. We aren’t asking you for perfection, just for you to do the best that you can.”

Zhang Ye replied, “I won’t betray the leader’s trust.”

……

Backstage.

In the aisle.

Sister Four from the filming department was chatting with Dong Shanshan and Wang Bei. Ah Qian and Little Yu were present as well, but didn’t say anything.

Zhang Ye was a little stunned, “Shanshan…teacher Shanshan, aren’t you busy with your program? What’re you doing here?”

Dong Shanshan turned around and smiled at him, “My old classmate’s doing a live broadcast today, therefore I definitely have to come and support him. No matter how busy I was, I’d still have come.”

Zhang Ye said happily, “Interesting.”

Dong Shanshan added on, “The main reason is because I’m afraid that you’d use me as your topic again, so I’m here to watch you!”

Everyone laughed.

Zhang Ye looked over at Sister Four, “Sister Four, you’ve worked hard.”

Sister Four snapped her fingers, “It was nothing. The person one who’s going to have to work hard in a while will be you. If anything happens during the live broadcast, the responsibility is all on you…Pui, curse my mouth!” Then, without saying any more worrisome words, Sister Four said, “Oh right, how’d you offend that Lee Parkwoo from Korea?”

Zhang Ye held his hands up in denial, “I don’t even know him, nor have I even heard of him before this.”

Wang Bei added her share of opinions, “That person is such a grandson. He had nothing better to do, so he wanted to create trouble for you? His sense of superiority is really there. A Korean thinking that he has fans from both countries, and that he can even forget his surname? I’ve already posted a reply on Weibo to scold him. That Lee Parkwoo really is unbearable to watch. He looks all high and mighty, and with just a few words, leads those brainless Chinese fans of his to do all the dirty work for him. He even looks like he’s enjoying the entire process, which makes him that much more hateful!”

Little Yu echoed, “Yeah! He still said that Teacher Zhang was faking going off-script? Why doesn’t he just die? We all saw it clearly back then, even the audience saw it! Teacher Zhang never once referred to the script from beginning till the end. He didn’t have an earpiece prompter either. Lee Parkwoo is just blatantly accusing him. I read on the internet that many Hallyu fans believed it, and are scolding both Teacher Zhang and our company for misrepresenting it to the audience. What do we even call this?”

Zhang Ye smiled, but then sighed, “It’s just a small matter. If they wish to say so, then leave them be. I’ll go and get changed, and have my makeup done first.”

He left.

Only Sister Four, Dong Shanshan, Wang Bei, and the others were left looking at each other.

Eh. This wasn’t right. It definitely didn’t feel right. Everyone in the company knew about Zhang Ye’s terrible temper. If someone casually said something that offended him, he might even desire to grab them by the collar and scold them. What’s more, that Korean celebrity had blatantly accused him like this. This wasn’t Teacher Zhang Ye’s style at all!

Ah Qian wondered, “What’s with Teacher Zhang?”

Sister Four was also bewildered, “Just a small matter? Shouldn’t this be a big matter? He’ll let it go, just like this?”

It was still his old classmate, Dong Shanshan, who knew him the best. She smiled diligently, saying, “This is the calm before the storm. Zhang Ye is simmering his feelings right now. I think in this episode of the program today, someone’s definitely going to get scolded. And I think he’s going to be scolded really, really badly!”

……

Put on makeup.

Get changed.

The costumes were all handled and chosen by Zhang Ye himself. The makeup artist gave him some opinions, but he didn’t listen. He insisted on wearing a suit and tie. No one except Zhang Ye understood what a talk show was like. In his previous world, a suit and tie were the symbol of a talk show, therefore Zhang Ye didn’t want to change and lose that in this world. He picked a color that he felt matched, and went to the front.

A field director along with several staff members were carrying a teleprompter.

“What are you doing?” Zhang Ye went over and asked.

The director said, “Oh, Director Wang said to prepare this for you.”

Zhang Ye said with a wave of his hand, “Take it away. I don’t need something like this.”

Sister Four, who was fiddling with the cameras, looked over, “Teacher Little Zhang. This is a live broadcast, so there’s a need to be prepared. You might not need it, but it’s always better to have it prepared in case you forget a line……”

Zhang Ye was very stubborn. Smiling, he said, “Sister Four, there’s no ‘in case’. I definitely won’t forget my lines. In fact, I don’t even have a script, so what’s the teleprompter going to show?”

The director nervously said, “Ah? You don’t even have a script for a live broadcast?”

“I’ve never used a script when I did a recording or broadcast.” Zhang Ye had said this before, and he repeated it again today.

The few of them didn’t dare to make a decision. One of them ran over to Wang Xiong in order to seek his advice.

Wang Xiong frowned and looked back at Zhang Ye. Then he told the staff, “The production team is handled by Teacher Zhang Ye, just do whatever he says. There’s no need to ask me for advice!”

The staff appeared to be choked, but didn’t dare to say anything further.

Wang Xiong’s attitude towards Zhang Ye was to give him full support.

……

20 minutes until the live broadcast.

The audience had already entered the studio. Then, Feng Guiqin and a few of the company’s leaders entered through a side door. They didn’t sit in the front row, instead sitting in one of the corners. The remaining company staff also came along to watch, even though they didn’t have any tickets. He couldn’t neglect his fellow colleagues, so he arranged for them to stand to both sides near the stage. The cameras wouldn’t be able to capture them, as it was considered a section for the internal crew to watch over the set. Their fellow colleagues who’d wanted to come and watch had all arrived. Even that person, Yang Yang from Human Resources, who’d argued with Zhang Ye before, was here.

Finally.

The audience numbered around 70 to 80 people.

The company’s staff members watching numbered around 40 to 50 people, almost equal in number to the live audience numbers.

Dong Shanshan, Wang Bei, and the others had tickets for seats, so they sat in the middle and waited. Everyone was looking forward to the broadcast, but a lot of them were worried about it.

Zhang Ye looked on as the time approached. He tested the mic on stage, “Hello, I hope everyone’s doing good. The live broadcast will be starting soon. The situation today will be a little different. Because the picture and sound will be broadcast real time over the internet, I hope that everyone can minimize their movement and volumes. Thank you.”

Sister Four’s camera crew gestured to him—there was still 10 minutes left.

After the audience had been seated, they started discussions amongst themselves.

“Did you see what happened online?”

“Yeah, you’re talking about Lee Parkwoo, right?”

“Yes, those bunch of Koreans are so wicked!”

“Yeah, I already disliked them from before. They should’ve just quietly had their own developments to earn our money and gain our fans. But now they’re even scolding our hosts?”

“Korea has always been like this!”

“Right? They’re really strange people. Always claiming that everything belongs to them!”

“I came to the recording the previous time, and I know that Teacher Zhang didn’t use a script. Look, there’s no teleprompter today as well, right? This is a live broadcast, let’s see if that Korean still dares to shoot his mouth off this time!”

“But what if a situation arises?”

“Hai, indeed. There can be all sorts of incidents during a live broadcast. I hope Teacher Zhang can do well for our countryman, such that that Korean can’t mock us!”