I'm Really a Superstar

The next day.

On the second morning of the Spring Festival.

Having slept enough, Zhang Ye woke up naturally. He looked at his watch then pulled aside the blanket, yawned widely, and shouted into the living room, "Mom, what's for breakfast?"

His mother's voice came through the door.

"You're up?"

"Uh-huh."

"Breakfast is dumplings."

"What's the filling?"

"Chives, do you like that?"

"Hai, I'll just make do with whatever."

"What do you mean by make do with whatever? If you don't want to eat them, then don't eat!"

After squabbling for a bit, Zhang Ye put on his socks and turned on his cell phone which he turned off the night before to charge. As it had been a chaotic night, there were too many updates and calls from his friends, so Zhang Ye didn't bother keeping up with all that and simply turned it off when he went to bed. As a result, when he turned it back on, he suddenly received a flood of messages that were mostly sent to him late at night. Moreover, most of the messages sounded quite baffling to him and he couldn't understand what was going on.

Dong Shanshan's text: "That was really unexpected from you yesterday, but congratulations anyway, old classmate."

Yu Yingyi's text: "Zhang'er, congratulations in advance! I was watching the scolding battle throughout, you were awesome!"

Yao Jiancai: "Why is your phone off? Hahahaha, you were awesome. This scolding battle was really not for nothing! Your popularity really was gained through all that scolding!"

Hou Ge: "Teacher Zhang, congratulations in advance."

Fan Wenli: "Although we still don't know the exact figure, I'll congratulate you first anyway."

Chen Guang: "After the data is confirmed, our The Voice program team should get together for a meal."

Congratulations?

What are they congratulating me for?

What's this data they're talking about?

Zhang Ye did not understand and replied to them: "What do you mean by this? What are you guys talking about?"

The others probably slept late and weren't awake yet, so there was no response from them even after a long time. As Zhang Ye did not wish to disturb them by calling them, he got out of bed to brush his teeth, then went to eat breakfast.

Chenchen was playing games on her new cell phone.

Zhang Ye sat down and slapped her upside the head. "You only know how to play games!"

Chenchen did not even bother with him and just said straight in the direction of the kitchen, "Grandma, Zhang Ye hit my head."

Zhang Ye was angered into amusement. "You've even learned how to tattle on me now?"

Chenchen looked at him. "—Hur hur."

"What's going on here?" His mother immediately appeared, holding a bowl of steaming hot dumplings as she glared at him. "Don't keep hitting the child's head, or else I'll beat you up."

Zhang Ye said in a speechless manner, "She only knows to play games day in, day out."

His mother's next words left Zhang Ye with nothing to say. "That's still better than you fighting with people every other day!"

Zhang Ye: "…"

His mother snorted, "Did you get into another shouting match with the sporting world last night?"

Zhang Ye made a terse noise in acknowledgment.

Chenchen pouted. "Zhang Ye, you're really childish."

"See." His mother said, "Chenchen also knows how childish that was. You're a grown-up, yet you aren't as sensible as the child is and only know how to scold people!"

Zhang Ye quibbled, "That's part of my job requirements."

The clattering of keys opening the door jangled. It was his father who just returned from outside.

Zhang Ye looked over to the doorway. "Dad, where'd you go?"

"I went to buy the newspapers." His father was holding a thick stack of newspapers in his hands.

Zhang Ye exclaimed, "Did you go on a shopping spree?"

His father removed his shoes after stepping into the house and said, "I usually buy the newspapers that have your news in them. When I saw more than 20 newspapers with your news in them today, I bought them all at once."

Zhang Ye said, "Let me have a look."

His mother nagged, "Finish eating first, the dumplings have already gone cold!"

Taking the newspapers from his father, Zhang Ye stuffed a dumpling into his mouth and read the news as he ate. When he saw what was written, Zhang Ye was tickled and nearly spat out the dumpling in his mouth!

"Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala wins the viewership ratings championship for the first time!"

"'A Letter to Home' earns an honorable spot on the Top Chinese Music Chart!"

"Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai's crosstalk routine, 'Everything is Great,' receives rave reviews. Audience broke down in tears at the venue!"

"'Playing it Up' targets the table tennis team!"

"The largest scolding battle of the year began last night!"

"Zhang Ye engages in verbal spar with the sporting world! An earth-shattering battle!"

"Sports-related Tiebas wiped out last night!"

"Tang Dazhang's Tieba caught in 'crossfire'!"

"Zhang Ye claims: 'Aiya, my account was hacked!'"

"The 'account hacker' has once again ended up as the scapegoat!"

"No punishments have been meted out by the SARFT yet!"

All of these were the events from yesterday. The timeliness of news reporting by the traditional newspapers was not really that good. As Zhang Ye had performed his acts on Beijing Television's Spring Festival Gala at night, the daytime newspapers were already published and distributed. Only the online media outlets quickly followed up with his breaking news while the traditional newspapers had to wait until this morning to summarize yesterday's news.

When the television was switched on, the news was reporting about Zhang Ye as well.

"Last night, after being denounced by the crosstalk world last year, the sporting world has now declared war on Zhang Ye as well. Numerous sports stars and coaches, such as Liu Yifeng, Han Li, Li Qi, Tang Hechang, and several others fired off one after another at him. The scolding battle spread all over Weibo and flowed over to several dozen Tieba forums…"

Ring, ring, ring.

His cell phone rang.

It was the executive director of Beijing Television's Spring Festival Gala, Chang Xiaoliang.

He quickly swallowed the dumpling in his mouth and answered the call while mumbling: "Hi, Director Chang."

Over on the other end, Chang Xiaoliang laughed heartily, in high spirits. "Hahaha, Teacher Zhang, you're awake already?"

Zhang Ye put down his chopsticks. "Ah, yes, I'm eating breakfast right now."

Chang Xiaoliang got straight to the point. "The viewership rating for our Spring Festival Gala last night is out!"

"How did we do?" Zhang Ye actually knew already from the newspapers.

Chang Xiaoliang said: "Without a doubt, we were first. It even exceeded the viewership rating of the second place Liaoning TV Spring Festival Gala by a lot. In third place and fourth place are Mango TV and Dragon TV respectively, while Zhejiang TV was placed fifth."

Zhang Ye laughed and said: "That's great then."

Chang Xiaoliang asked: "Did you see the viewership ratings for your acts?"

"Is it out yet?" replied Zhang Ye, interested.

Chang Xiaoliang gave a sound of acknowledgment and sighed with satisfaction. "The viewership ratings of your two acts on Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala were the highest, even when compared with all the other Spring Festival Galas last night. The nationwide viewership of 'Everything is Great' was 3.77% while the nationwide viewership of 'Playing it Up' was 4.01%. They have broken all the records of the provincial stations' Spring Festival Galas over the years! You might not know this, but when many of the industry insiders saw your viewership ratings, they were all shocked for a long time and regretted not inviting you to appear on their station's Spring Festival Gala this year!"

Zhang Ye was also frightened. "That high?"

A popular show like A Bite of China could only achieve a highest rating of 2.98% in the nationwide viewership ratings, while Zhang Ye's performance on the Spring Festival Gala had actually broken 4%. But it couldn't be compared with those viewership ratings of over 10, 20, or even 30% on Central TV's Spring Festival Gala. After all, even though it was harshly criticized by a lot of people, no matter how terrible the acts were to watch, Central TV's Spring Festival Gala was still Central TV's Spring Festival Gala. This status was something that could never be shaken by anyone. But among the provincial stations' Spring Festival Gala, the viewership ratings of Zhang Ye's two acts were considered very heaven-defying, sweeping aside all the other performances without any of them coming close!

"We are the champions of the viewership ratings!" Chang Xiaoliang exclaimed: "My objectives for this year can be considered to have been completed successfully. I did not let down the station's the trust and expectations they put in me!"

Zhang Ye said: "Congratulations, Director Chang."

Chang Xiaoliang was taken aback, then laughed and said: "Why are you congratulating me? I should be the one congratulating you instead."

Zhang Ye recalled something and asked: "Oh yes, there was a group of people congratulating me in advance this morning, what were they talking about? I reread those messages over and over but I still don't get it."

"Don't you know about it yet?"

"What should I know about?"

"Have you not seen the Celebrity Rankings Index?"

"Uh, I didn't see it as I went to sleep immediately after the scolding battle last night."

"Take a look then. I believe you won't be too far off from the A-list rankings."

"Huh?"

After hanging up, Zhang Ye quickly browsed through the overall popularity scores of the Celebrity Rankings Index which was updated at midnight. The moment he looked at it, he could not find his name in the rankings at all. When he searched for his own name, a message appeared, saying, "Zhang Ye: Ranking pending."

Pending?

His ranking was not shown?

Zhang Ye was suddenly enlightened. Only then did he realize why everyone was congratulating him in advance.

The ranking system of this world was fairly advanced and professional, with the system automatically recording the discussion popularity of each celebrity, the value of their work, the awards they won, and other factors to arrive at a base score that would then be converted into an overall score to rank them accordingly. But a computer system was still a computer system after all and there would be times when it would malfunction. For example, on more than one occasion in the past, when some of the C- or D-list celebrities shot to fame overnight due to their appearance on Central TV's Spring Festival Gala, it resulted in a direct jump for them onto the B-list rankings. When that occurred, the system would have a chance of hanging due to an overly large increase of popularity scores causing the processing to peak and the system becoming unable to handle the calculations. That was why this pending status was shown in place when it happened. It would require human input the next day to assist the system to recalculate the scores to display the most accurate rankings.

Anyway, a pending status was definitely a good thing. It meant that the popularity and exposure figures generated by Zhang Ye yesterday were too great. After the manual assessment, there would definitely be a large increase!

Zhang Ye's previous B-list ranking was at fourth place, which he had just recently been promoted to, so the gap between him and third place was still very wide. In the B-list rankings, especially at the top few places, the popularity and fame required to advance to the next ranking was quite huge!

How many places would he rise with this massive increase in popularity?

To third place on the B-list rankings?

Or second place?

Or could it be first place?

Perhaps even…

Zhang Ye was extremely excited and did not dare to think any further. "Dad, Mom, I've got something to tell you. Haha, my popularity has risen again and there might even be an explosive increase this time!" He explained the situation to them.

His mother was also excited. "Is that true?"

Upon hearing this, his father said in a speechless manner, "You can even gain popularity by scolding people?"

"Did you forget?" His mother interjected, "When our son went from the C-list to the B-list rankings, didn't he do so by scolding others?"

His father: "…It seems like that was the case."

Zhang Ye nearly fainted. "I also performed in a crosstalk and skit last night that set new viewership rating records for the provincial stations' Spring Festival Galas in recent years! Why are you both insisting that I always do it by scolding people?"

Beside him, Chenchen ate a dumpling and looked up at him. "Hur hur."

His mother asked, "So when will the rankings be out?"

Zhang Ye answered, "They should be out soon. I'm sure that they'll be released during the day."

The more his mother thought about it, the happier and more excited she became. She said, "You were at fourth place on the B-list rankings. If you continue moving up further, won't you be really close to getting into the A-list?"

...

Meanwhile.

The outside world was also paying close attention to Zhang Ye's popularity ranking!

The media reporters' concentration was at their maximum!

Many of the celebrities in the entertainment industry also couldn't tear their eyes away!