I'm Really a Superstar

The next day.

On Weibo.

In the forums.

Tieba.

On the music sites.

"I Feel So Drained" kept getting played!

"So what now, Boss? (hahahahahahahahaha)

"So what now, Boss? (hahahahahahahahaha)

"So what now, Boss? (I bet you're happy now!)

"I really have to pick my old man up!

"You'll be on my blacklist once I quit!

"Who needs to sleep? It's such a waste of time!

"Who needs to eat? When PowerPoint is life!

"Please no overtime!

"Please no overtime!

"Please no overtime!"

On the Top Chinese Music Chart, the performance of "I Feel So Drained" was very strong. On the day of the broadcast, it charted in the top ten. By the next morning, it went up to second place on the daily "Most Listened" chart. Its momentum was really strong, and it wasn't likely there would be a change to its ranking today. Even the songs performed by Zhang Xia, Chen Guang, Xiaodong, and the others during the seventh episode did not rank higher than this song. This astonished countless industry insiders!

Because this song Zhang Ye performed did not do well on the show.

During the rankings announcement segment on yesterday's episode of I Am a Singer, Chen Guang performed as expected and took first place, with Zhang Xia coming in second, and Xiaodong in third place. Meanwhile, Zhang Ye only took fifth place and was considered to be in the lower tier of the rankings. However, that ranking was totally disconnected with the popularity of the song. The song that was ranked fifth on the show was now crushing all the other contestants' songs on the Top Chinese Music Chart. This was also something that had never happened before on the stage of I Am a Singer.

The netizens were very happy about this.

"This song is such a joy."

"The lyrics reflect the feelings of the people!"

"This is the first time I've heard Zhang Ye write a song like that!"

"My heart aches for Zhang Ye. He really is going to get drained!"

"Well, an able man is always busy."

"You can feel the sadness behind the humor. It's a really good song that mirrors the thoughts of the middle class!"

"I feel that Zhang Ye should have gotten first place!"

"Yeah, the audience was too unsupportive. If it were me, I definitely would've voted for him."

"The crucial thing is that this song has all the characteristics of a viral song. It's not something that one would perform for a singing competition."

"Yeah, 'I Feel So Drained' wouldn't get a good ranking on that type of platform, so it's already great that it came in at fifth place. After all, Zhang Ye's popularity is still a factor. If not, it might not have even gotten fifth place. In the end, I Am a Singer is a stage where singers are assessed by their singing techniques and depth of skills. Previously, be it Zhang Xia or Chen Guang, they instilled such a mindset into the audience. So there's no hope for such songs of getting first place. However, I must say that this is the song that I like the most!"

"Me too!"

"You don't need to analyze good songs!"

"Supporting Zhang Ye!"

"Sing properly for the next episode, and you'll definitely place well."

"Yeah, if Zhang Ye chooses to get serious, even Chen Guang and Zhang Xia will have to be careful of him!"

"Teacher Zhang, we're cheering you on! We love you to death!"

The viewers were all very accepting of his performance and recognized his skill.

Reviews appeared in the media.

"Zhang Ye appears as a strong replacement singer!"

"The executive director saves the day but is burdened with multiple roles!"

"The debut of a divine tune and its spread across the country!"

"Zhang Ye's spirit of humor!"

"Chen Guang takes first place!"

"Zhang Ye's rank is not ideal. Will he face elimination in the next episode?"

"I Am a Singer's viewership ratings take top spot again!"

"I Am a Singer takes nationwide number one with viewership rating of 3.36%!"

"Zhang Ye's new show to hit 4% in viewership?"

"Viewership ratings of Sing! suddenly plummet!"

"Sing!'s latest viewership ratings: 1.02%!"

"Central TV Suffers Badly!"

"Sing!'s continued slump drags down Central TV Department 1!"

"Beijing TV confirms: I Am a Singer's grand finals to be broadcast live. A real possibility viewership could hit 'ceiling' of 4%!"

News of this was everywhere in newspapers, on television, and in news reports.

But the man at the center of all this had only just woken up.

At home.

In his bedroom.

The moment Zhang Ye opened his eyes, he ached all over and his head felt swollen and huge. This was unavoidable. He hadn't slept much the past two days as he needed to get his song ready for competition and practice it with the choir. After that, he had to oversee the recording of the show, perform onstage, and oversee the vote counting. And if you thought that he would be free immediately after the show finished recording? No! Post-recording, Zhang Ye needed to personally edit the footage. Along with other related work, he hadn't caught a wink of sleep in days. When he finally got home yesterday, he instantly fell asleep.

He really was dog-tired!

Still though, he needed to scan the news to see what they had written about him and see the viewers' reactions to his performance.

So Zhang Ye lazed in bed as he picked up his cell phone to browse the news. This song was an especially famous divine tune from Zhang Ye's previous world. It was called "I Feel So Drained" and was performed by the Shanghai-based Rainbow Chamber Singers. This song was originally a chorale, so Zhang Ye had to make some changes to it for the competition. The choral parts were either reduced or changed to a backing part while he took the role of the main vocalist for it. It seemed like reactions to it were quite good?

That's good then.

As long as everyone likes it, it's good enough for me.

Zhang Ye gave a bitter laugh as he thought to himself that at least this was not a wasted effort.

Di di.

Di di.

The chat app on his cell phone wouldn't stop beeping.

Zhang Ye opened the app and saw that someone had mentioned him.

Goof Group.

Ning Lan has invited Zhang Xia.

Zhang Xia: "Hello, everyone?"

Xiaodong: "Hello, Grandma Zhang."

Amy: "A warm welcome to Grandma Zhang!"

Everyone came out.

Zhang Xia: "@ZhangYe where are you?"

Chen Guang: "Haha, he's probably dead tired in bed."

Zhang Xia: "It's been tough on Little Zhang."

Ning Lan: "The song Zhang Ye sang left me in stitches!"

Huo Dongfang: "@ZhangYe I burst out laughing too yesterday."

Director Li Ke: "Director Zhang really knows how to be funny!"

Fan Wenli: "Old Chen and the others are probably under a lot of pressure now. With Director Zhang as the replacement singer, it's truly a nightmare."

Chen Guang: "Haha, I'm not afraid of him. At most, let's have a sing-off to decide things."

Xiaodong: "Although I don't wish to face him, I actually look forward to 1v1ing Director Zhang once."

Zhang Xia: "He didn't sing properly in this episode, so his ranking wasn't that good. It probably won't be so for the next episode."

After reading all of that, Zhang Ye chose not to appear in the chat, just smiling to himself.

Sing properly?

He shook his head lightly.

There were some things he couldn't say.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Ye called Wu Zeqing. As he had been too busy over the past two days, he didn't have time to update Wu Zeqing on how things were progressing for him.

Du du.

The call connected.

"Old Wu, what are you doing?"

"Hur hur, I'm at the office."

"Did you watch yesterday's episode?"

"I did, you sang very well. I rather liked it."

"All's good as long as you like it. Have you been busy these couple days?"

"A little."

"Whoa! You always used to answer that it was manageable whenever I asked if you were busy. Now that you're saying it's a little busy, does that mean you're very busy?"

"Yes, I do have something that I'm handling at the moment."

"What is it? Do you need my help?"

"No, I can handle it."

"Does it have something to do with me?"

"You'll find out in a few days."

"A few days? Alright then, you're making it sound so mysterious."

At this moment, another voice came from the other end of the line.

It sounded like Secretary Bai. "Chief Wu, they're fighting back!"

Fighting back?

What fighting back?

What happened?

Zhang Ye was startled. "Old Wu, what's the matter?"

Wu Zeqing gently said: "It's nothing, I'll go and handle it. I have to hang up now. Oh yes, my parents asked you to eat with them when you're free, don't forget."

"OK, I won't."

The call ended.

Zhang Ye thought of all kinds of scenarios but could not figure out what she was trying to do. Old Wu was too high in the organization, so Zhang Ye could help her out with her problems. As an average person, he wouldn't understand these political matters. Therefore, he'd rather not think too much about it and just trust Old Wu to properly handle her own matters.

Wu Zeqing had never made him worry about her.

And neither would she need him to worry about her.

The door opened.

His parents probably heard him talking on the phone from outside.

His mother came into the room. "Yo, you're finally awake?"

Zhang Ye got off the bed and grabbed his belly. "I'm starving. Mom, can I have something to eat?"

"Of course, let me make something for you." His mother knew that he had been working really hard in recent days, so she didn't bicker with him and quickly went out to the kitchen to make lunch.

Then a call came.

It was from Hu Fei.

Zhang Ye answered in annoyance: "Brother Hu?"

Hu Fei said: "Director Zhang, it's time to work overtime!"

"…Are you doing that on purpose?"

"There's really overtime to put in. We've sold the exclusive online broadcast rights, but someone has been reporting the past few episodes that we've recorded. The authorities have notified us to rectify the previous six episodes with Xiaodong as the host. If we can't do that, we'll have to delete all of them. So please come back quickly. If we can't appeal it, you'll have to make up for six episodes of recording."

Zhang Ye's face darkened. "They're even attacking the online videos?"

"Yeah," Hu Fei said: "Central TV is too ruthless!"

Fuck!

Are they purposely causing trouble for us?

Zhang Ye immediately said: "I'll go back immediately! We definitely can't delete the videos. The exclusive online broadcast rights were sold for 10 million RMB, so how can we possibly let the online video hosting site take such a huge loss. If nothing else works, I'll rerecord them myself. Episode by episode, I'll edit and replace them all. Just wait for me to get back!"

"OK!" Hu Fei then stayed silent for a while before suddenly saying: "It's been hard on you."

Zhang Ye laughed bitterly. "Just serving the people."

He went out to the living room.

His mother had already started cooking.

Zhang Ye called out to her, "Mom."

His mother said, "The food will be ready soon."

"I'm won't be eating anymore. Something has cropped up at the office, so I have to go back immediately," Zhang Ye said.

His father frowned and said, "Go back after you've eaten."

But Zhang Ye was already putting on his clothes. "There's no time, it's really urgent. Oh right, I probably won't be coming home for the next two nights. There's too much to do, I'll be off now!"

Bang!

The door closed.

Their son disappeared from their sight.

His parents looked at each other as their hearts ached for their son.

Before their son became famous, they kept hoping that he could become famous and earn his own keep so that he would do well in life. When he really became a celebrity, they were truly happy for him, and for themselves too. As his parents, they would also look good and have something to be proud of. But as their son became busier and busier, even to the point of risking his life for his work when working two days and nights in a row became the norm, they suddenly felt quite bad. "I Feel So Drained" had touched them deeply. It was supposed to be a funny song, but when they heard it for the second or third time, their eyes reddened. No one knew what Zhang Ye was sacrificing so much for. Only his parents understood why!

He never cooked for them.

He rarely did the chores.

He hardly had any time to accompany his family.

He didn't even spend every day together with his fiancée.

Perhaps he had fallen short in his duty toward his parents, his girlfriend, his friends, and many others. But his parents both knew that their son has never fallen short in his duty toward the audience. He could skip sleep, work overtime every day, and get arrested and be placed in jail. He would do all kinds of things just to get a laugh from the audience!

This was who their son was.

Angering them at times!

Making them feel like giving him a beating at times!

Causing their hearts to ache for him at times!

But also, making them proud!