I'm Really a Superstar

Beijing Television had very high efficiency!

While the Spring Festival Gala was still broadcasting, "A Letter to Home" was posted onto the official website without any edits. Subsequently, someone from a music hosting site likely contacted Beijing Television to seek cooperation. Soon after that, "A Letter to Home" appeared on many of the major music hosting sites. Some music hosting sites even placed advertisements on their front page: "The concluding song of Beijing Television's Spring Festival Gala crosstalk 'Everything is Great' lands on HeeHee Music's platform. Would you like to listen? Please give me your strongest support!"

The netizens were pleasantly surprised!

"Go and look!"

"Holy shit, it's been released!"

"It's Zhang Ye's song!"

"The title is 'A Letter to Home'? I can finally listen to it again!"

"It's true, I can listen to it!"

"It's so good!"

"Dammit, I'm crying again!"

"I feel like crying whenever I listen to it! How can there be such a deeply touching song like this?!"

"This song is really well written!"

"Keep pushing it up!"

"I love this song!"

"Pleading for Zhang Ye to release a single of it! A studio version!"

"No, it'll feel different if it's recorded in the studio! It's the live version that's the best! These real emotions are just what I want to listen to! What a good song to listen to!"

The netizens flooded over like crazy!

...

Shanghai.

At an upscale hotel.

A Korean singer, Park Jaehee, and his mainland China team were holding a meeting in a hotel room to discuss the upcoming concert and promotions for the new songs.

"This is Jaehee's first year in China, so we must make it a successful year!"

"The new song is great to listen to. The Chinese audience will definitely approve of it!"

"Yea, Jaehee is picking up Mandarin very quickly and the song's quality is very good too!"

"What position did it get on this month's Top Chinese Music Chart?"

"Let me check.

"Oh! We're 10th! We're in the top 10!"

"This is great!"

"It's worth a celebration!"

Everyone was rather excited as they felt pretty satisfied with the result!

The Top Chinese Music Chart was an aggregated chart of the entire domestic music industry. In this era where physical media distribution was more or less phased out, digital distribution over the Internet was about the only way to go and was the standard model to follow. The Top Chinese Music Chart was the largest and most authoritative chart with no other coming close!

Zhang Yuanqi's new song would vie for a spot on this chart!

Fan Wenli's new song would vie for a spot on this chart!

Even an established singer like Chen Guang would also vie for a spot on this chart!

This was a kind of publicity, honor, and affirmation for them. Every singer took this chart's listing very seriously. It was a stage for them to fight it out in. An unknown amount of blood had already been shed!

Zhang Yuanqi's new song that was #1 last month had dropped to #2 this month.

A new single released by Fan Wenli did not do as well and only placed 13th. If she was a newcomer, that would no doubt be a surprising result. But with Fan Wenli's status in the music industry, this result was really somewhat lacking and not good enough.

Meanwhile, Chen Guang was still as good as ever. Four of the songs from his new album had made it onto the top 20. One of them was placed third while the remaining songs placed ninth, 11th, and 19th respectively!

The competition was very intense!

However, on the second to none, most authoritative music chart of the domestic music industry, an uninvited guest suddenly appeared. In seemingly the blink of an eye, a song that wasn't known by anyone had suddenly appeared on the chart!

#100!

#53!

#21!

#10!

In the bat of an eye, it had squeezed past Park Jaehee's new song!

Park Jaehee's team was just celebrating happily for getting into the top 10 when their joyful expressions suddenly crumbled a few seconds later!

"What is this?"

"What's going on?"

"Is there a problem with the stats?"

"'A Letter to Home'? What sort of song is this?"

"Why is it right at tenth place?"

"The singer is Zhang Ye? Who is that? Is there such a person in the music industry?"

Everyone was dumbfounded. The…the ranking was rising too quickly!

And it still didn't end as the song's rank kept rising!

#9!

It beat Chen Guang's song!

Then it went to #8, then #7, then #6, looking invincible as it made its way up!

Park Jaehee asked in shock, "Who is this person?"

His manager said anxiously, "I don't know that person! There's no singer named Zhang Ye in the mainland! There's only a host called Zhang Ye!"

One of the team's staff exclaimed, "Why is this song so popular?"

Someone cursed, "Fuck, this song is on fucking drugs!"

A slightly older person in the team was more composed. "To perform so well, it must be excellent in its own way. Since it has taken over our spot, we can't really do anything about it. Let's just have a listen and see if we can learn from it."

Park Jaehee nodded earnestly and said, "Yes. I haven't been in the mainland for long and don't understand the domestic music scene very well yet, so I would like to learn from it."

The song was played.

Park Jaehee perked up his ears, wanting to learn why the song was so popular and hoping it would help him in his development in mainland China in the future. As the saying goes: Only the capable can be teachers.

"To my dear Mom and Dad."

"Oh…oh…"

"How are you two?"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Have you been busy working?"

"Busy!"

"Are you healthy?"

"Yes!"

"Hahaha!"

A chaotic mixture of noise and chatter!

Dogshit singing!

And there were even screams that sounded out of nowhere!

The team members were dumbfounded!

Park Jaehee was also stunned!

This…this is the singing style of China's outstanding pop songs? This is what China's current most popular pop music sounded like? Hearing all that noise in his ears, Park Jaehee suddenly burst into tears! The music here was way too unpredictable! Am I supposed to stay in such a country in the future to fulfill my dreams of being a musician?

Mom!

I wanna go home!

...

Not only Park Jaehee, even many of the other music companies and singers were startled!

A rookie Hong Kong singer stared at the Top Chinese Music Chart with his mouth agape. "What the fuck! Where did this bastard pop out from?"

A female singer who was also paying close attention to the Top Chinese Music Chart nearly fainted. "'A Letter to Home'? Who sang this song? Why does it sound like he's slaughtering a pig?! A lousy song like that can even get on the fucking chart? I'm not well-educated, so please don't try to fool me!"

The music industry was shocked!

The singing world was stunned!

Many of the singers who had listened to this song were all crying out loudly in their minds: "From where did this lousy song emerge?!"

...

However, the netizens of mainland China were laughing madly!

"Hahahaha!"

"I'm dying of laughter! Zhang Ye's song has gotten onto the Top Chinese Music Chart!"

"Aiyo, what the heck! He's #5 now!"

"Awesome! This is so awesome!"

"A lot of people in the music industry still don't know what's going on! Hahahaha!"

"That's because they didn't watch Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala! If they don't know about the buildup from the crosstalk routine and don't understand Zhang Ye as a person, then they obviously wouldn't feel anything just by listening to this song!"

"How amusing, Teacher Zhang has even barged into the Top Chinese Music Chart!"

"When those people who don't know the story behind it hear Zhang Ye's ragged singing, their jaws are definitely going to drop! Hahahaha!"

"Zhang Ye has added yet another profession to his resume—singer! And it's even as a popular singer who has placed at the top of the Top Chinese Music Chart!"

"I'm feeling an inexplicable sense of joy!"

"Teacher Zhang has gone on to disturb the music industry again!"

"The music industry is probably in a state of shock right now!"

"Hahahahaha!"

All of a sudden, Zhang Xia appeared online.

Zhang Xia gave a Like to "A Letter to Home" on Weibo and gave it high praise. "This is a ballad. Normally, a ballad is light and calm without too many ups and downs in pitch. But the emotions in this song kept surging forward like a torrential tide, especially when those narrative lines were spoken. It actually managed to present an image of all the emotions behind the song for me. Without a doubt, this is the most touching song that I've heard in recent years! But to touch on something off-topic, Little Zhang, about you ridiculing me in your crosstalk routine, I will remember it clearly and have a chat with you someday, hur hur."

"Whoa, Grandma Zhang!"

"Your evaluation is too high!"

"This is the evaluation of a professional!"

"Awesome!"

"That was really well said!"

"Grandma Zhang has also been touched by the song?"

Suddenly, Chen Guang also appeared!

Chen Guang posted on Weibo: "@ZhangYe, you've gotten onto the Top Chinese Music Chart! You even pushed my song down the rankings! So tell me, how should this be settled?"

Fan Wenli who had just ended her performance on Hunan Television's Spring Festival Gala also posted on Weibo: "Director Zhang sang so poorly. You'll know that he's an amateur just from hearing him sing. From the sound of it, you'd know that he can't sing at all. The handling of his pitch, the way he articulates and the variations of his tone were all very amateurish! Yet this song actually made me cry just from listening to it! Even now, I don't know why it can do that!"

The netizens agreed.

"Yeah!"

"I cried too!"

"It was so obvious that it was sung badly, yet…yet why was it so good to listen to?"

A few minutes later.

No one could have expected that the Heavenly Queen would actually answer this question!

In the music industry, Zhang Yuanqi had debuted much earlier than Fan Wenli and Chen Guang. She explained: "A lot of friends in the music industry must still be confused, right? Take a look at the crosstalk routine 'Everything is Great' on Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala and you'll understand what is going on. I've watched the crosstalk routine. This is the first time I've witnessed someone daring to sing like that on the stage of a live broadcast for a provincial station's Spring Festival Gala. After listening to it, I was astonished and pondered for a long time. I found that the message conveyed by the music might be much simpler than what everyone is thinking. It's just pure and sincere emotion. It doesn't matter how the singing is, whether it has any technique and whether it is out of tune or if the voice cracks. Because of the sincerity and emotions in the singing, all the other factors have become unimportant. Zhang Ye's 'A Letter to Home' is exactly that kind of a song! You may say that Zhang Ye sang it very amateurishly, and may say that his vocalization is poor, out of tune, he doesn't how to vary his pitch or use breathing techniques, and doesn't have all the foundations that a singer should possess, but you definitely cannot deny that he sang this song…very well! His emotions helped him disregard all the technicalities of singing by ripping away everyone's masks and defenses, singing straight to the heart!"

"How awesome!"

"Even the Heavenly Queen has listened to it?"

"Wow! The Heavenly Queen is praising it too!"

"The Heavenly Queen even listened to the crosstalk?"

"That's right. This song is deeply touching!"

Following that, a few more musicians gave their evaluations.

A famous lyricist and composer: "The lyrics of 'A Letter to Home' might seem straightforward and sound just like a normal letter without any technical details. But that is where it truly is of the highest caliber!"

A rookie singer: "We already know of Teacher Zhang's talent in writing lyrics and composing music just from 'Wishing We Last Forever' and 'Woman Flower,' but today, 'A Letter to Home' has renewed my understanding of Teacher Zhang. The emotions I felt in this song were indescribable!"

A-list movie star, Ning Lan: "This is the best song I've heard this year! Strongly recommending this song. Those who have not listened to it should listen to it! But it's best if you can watch the crosstalk routine all the way through!"

Member of a popular domestic female group, Xiaodong: "After listening to it, I kept crying and suddenly had the thought of covering this song. But thinking about it, with Teacher Zhang's version on Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala, I doubt that it will be possible to surpass the original version, which is deeply emotional. The more professional the singer is, the harder it will be for them to express this song well!"

"A Letter to Home" had become very popular!

A song sung haphazardly by a crosstalk comedian had actually stormed into the Top Chinese Music Chart and reached such a high position. When many musicians and singers in the music industry learned about the truth, they didn't know how to react!

What the hell is this?

Surely it can't be done this way, right?