I'm Really a Superstar

On the day of the grand finals.

A tense atmosphere had built up!

The phenomenal variety show I Am a Singer was no longer watched just by those who liked it. It had long become the subject of heated discussions by people all over the nation!

In the streets.

In the neighborhoods.

In the offices.

In the schools.

Everyone was talking about who would end up as the grand champion!

Those who were initially scheduled for overtime at work even asked for time off in advance to go home to catch the live broadcast.

"Brothers, remember to cast your votes for Grandma Zhang!"

"Right, it hasn't been easy for an old comrade like her!"

"Where are Grandma Zhang's fans at?"

"Where are Chen Guang's fans at? Form up!"

"Who has tickets to tonight's live broadcast venue? I'll buy them for 2,000 RMB each!"

"The LED boards for Sister Dong are ready. Everyone, take a look and see if they're OK."

"Everyone, please get others to vote for Amy. Please support her!"

"Vote for He Huan! It wasn't easy for him having to come through by the revival round!"

"Tonight's voting will be done through our cell phones. The grand finals are really too close to call. But it's very important, so can everyone please give your votes to Teacher Huang Cheng? I'd appreciate it if you can."

The fan groups of the singers were already teaming up to campaign for votes. The early statistics of the online poll's support were also published. The usual suspects of Chen Guang and Zhang Xia were still the favorites to win the championship. Both their support numbers kept increasing as it became a two-horse race where their stats constantly overtook each other's. Sometimes, Old Chen was in the lead. But at other times, Grandma Zhang was in first place. Coming in behind them were He Huan, Xiaodong, Huang Cheng, Amy, and Zhang Ye, respectively. He Huan, the Prince of Love Songs, had performed exceedingly well during the revival round to take his place in the grand finals today. His support numbers were also extremely high as he surpassed Xiaodong in the poll. Although this poll was only a Weibo statistic, it clearly showed the problem. For the singers the viewers were optimistic about, their rankings were generally not too bad.

Only Zhang's fan club kept on the down low throughout. There was almost no one helping Zhang Ye get votes. This was the most direct cause of Zhang Ye's low rankings on the stage of I Am a Singer.

…

Zhang Ye's parents' house.

After lunch.

His mother asked, "Son, when are you setting off for the TV station?"

"I'm just about to leave." Zhang Ye checked his watch. "Everyone's waiting for me."

His mother complained, "Why are they hurrying you. The live broadcast is at night, so why can't they let you rest a bit more?"

"That I can stay home for lunch today is already a break for me," Zhang Ye said with a smile.

His father said, "There's quite a lot of prep work to handle before a live broadcast. Our son is the executive director, so of course he has to go earlier. A heap of people are waiting for his instructions."

His mother harrumphed and said, "In the future, stop taking roles like the executive director. It's bad enough that you're working so hard, but look at how many people are scolding you online."

Zhang Ye nodded. "Alright."

Wu Zeqing was on her day off today and had come over as well.

Wu Zeqing said, "Go over there, I'll help you with your makeup."

Zhang Ye exclaimed, "Aiya, there are professional makeup artists at the station."

"I'd be worried if they put your makeup on." Wu Zeqing insisted on doing it for him.

Zhang Ye could only say, "Well, alright."

They went into his room.

Old Wu immediately started to meticulously apply his makeup.

His eyebrows.

His nose.

His lips.

Zhang Ye suddenly looked at her in the mirror and said, "Old Wu, I might not be able to get a good place for this round, so don't bother watching tonight."

Wu Zeqing said, "I'll definitely watch."

Zhang Ye said firmly, "I only want you to see me when I'm winning."

Wu Zeqing laughed. "I'll still watch it."

Zhang Ye said, "But…"

Wu Zeqing combed his hair for him. "I understand."

"I—" Zhang Ye hesitated a little before going on, "I can't allow myself to sing well."

Wu Zeqing nodded, then said with a smile, "I knew that you'd already made your decision when you went up onstage for the first time. You were only doing it to save the show, to accompany them on this journey. But none of them could see that you'd never planned on winning in the first place. The show was made by you, the rules were set by you, you're the host, the vote counter, and everything related to the show is overseen by you, including the compilation of the voting numbers. Everyone in the program team are your subordinates, so anyone can win, except you. Only you are not allowed to win. They're all so stupid to not see that. This decision must not have been easy for you. The others might not know, but how could I not know? You're someone who never likes to admit defeat. The stage is your life, so if you're standing on it, you must want to win. No one knows how much you've sacrificed until now. No one knows how much you've endured. But I know, I understand, and I will support your decision."

In the end, only Old Wu knew him!

In the end, only Old Wu understood!

Yes. Anyone could win, except Zhang Ye!

Zhang Ye sighed. "I was just afraid that you'd be disappointed."

Wu Zeqing smiled. "I'm not disappointed. I know what kind of person you are. My fiancé is a valiant man who no one can compare to." With a pause, she started filling in Zhang Ye's eyebrows and said, "Therefore, even if you came in last place, I would still watch the live episode tonight."

…

Later that afternoon.

It was getting busy at Beijing Television.

Everyone was putting in their best effort for the live episode that was going to happen in a few hours. As they worked, some of the staff were also excitedly discussing tonight's grand finals.

"I like Zhang Xia."

"Old Chen is quite good too."

"Yup, the grand champion has to be one of them."

"But I still prefer Director Zhang."

"Director Zhang is out of the running."

"The Director Zhang of the past was really awesome, but…"

"Has Director Zhang really lost his touch?"

"Everyone's saying that he's dropped to a level comparable to that of a karaoke singer. But as for why? Who knows? Talent has never been easy to assess since it's intangible. When you have it, you can even control the weather. But without it, you can't even write a good song. But what can you do about that? Haven't there been a lot of famous songwriters who have completely disappeared from the scene? They couldn't keep up with the times, so they got filtered out."

"Hai."

"Hey, Director Zhang is here!"

The few of them immediately shut their mouths.

Zhang Ye came over. His ears were sharp, so he actually picked up on a bit of their conversation. However, he did not say anything.

Hu Fei soon came looking for him. "Where's Director Zhang? Has he arrived yet?"

Zhang Ye looked at him. "What's the matter?"

"We have to add another host. Shanshan can't handle it alone," Hu Fei said with a frown.

But Zhang Ye said, "She'll be fine."

Hu Fei immediately said, "I wouldn't be worried at all if you were the one hosting. I wouldn't raise an objection at all. Even if you dismantled the entire stage, I wouldn't be worried that things would go wrong. You've seen all kinds of major events and your adaptability is great. Besides, you've also done many live broadcasts. However, Shanshan hasn't. For a huge stage that's broadcasting live to the entire country, all of the hosting, stage control, and atmosphere has to be handled by Shanshan alone? I'm not saying that she doesn't have the ability. Shanshan was also brought up by me, so of course I want the best for her. But this jump is too big and too risky for her. It's fine if you can't host the grand finals since you have to sing. But why can't we arrange for another one or two hosts to support her?"

Zhang Ye asked, "Did Shanshan request this herself?"

"I'm just worried," Hu Fei said.

Zhang Ye waved it off. "Then there's nothing to talk about. We won't be discussing this anymore."

Hu Fei said in a speechless manner, "Little Zhang!"

"If she could host King of Masked Singers, why couldn't she handle this?"

"The hosting lines for King of Masked Singers were only announcements, and there was only a page of it. But it's different today with there being more than 10 pages of hosting lines and a need for spontaneous additions during the entire broadcast!"

Seeing the two heads of the program team arguing, the people around them were all too scared to speak out.

Finally, Dong Shanshan came over when she found out. "Zhang'er, why don't you assign me another—"

Before she could finish speaking, Zhang Ye said decisively, "Stop bringing up things that have already been decided. We're going ahead with what we planned. Teacher Shanshan will go onstage alone. If anything goes wrong, I'll be responsible for it!"

Hou Ge said anxiously, "But a station head said this morning…"

Zhang Ye pointed at himself. "Which station head? Get him to come look for me!"

Hou Ge coughed.

There was nothing that Hu Fei could do about it either.

Xiao Lu blinked and said, "I also think that Teacher Shanshan alone is enough to get the job done."

In fact, Zhang Ye and Hu Fei often had differences in opinion over work matters, but it did not affect their personal relationship. After the issue passed, they would be back on friendly terms. Any disagreements were just over work. Zhang Ye had not considered any other person for the role of the host. When Dong Shanshan lowered her status to take the host-manager role, Zhang Ye said that he would leave the best position for her. And it was precisely this hosting role for the live broadcast of the grand finals that was the best position. He knew that many of the Beijing Television hosts were eyeing this role as anyone could understand that whoever managed to take it would surely become the big brother or sister of Beijing TV. That would definitely cement their future status in the industry. As such, who wouldn't be tempted? So when they heard that Zhang Ye would not be hosting the grand finals, a lot of people started having thoughts about it. But unfortunately for them, they could not get past him!

Other than Dong Shanshan, no one would be allowed to do it!

Zhang Ye was sometimes just this unreasonable!