I am Really a Superstar

A call arrived.

It was from Heavenly Queen Xu Meilan.

“Sister Lan.”

“Teacher Zhang, just wait it out for now.”

“OK.”

“These kinds of restrictions never go on for too long.”

“It’s fine.”

“How can you call this fine? Well, true, you’re already used to it.”

…

Zhang Xia.

“Grandma Zhang.”

“Look, you’ve gotten into trouble, haven’t you?”

“Ha, how am I supposed to increase my popularity if there’s no trouble?”

“You sure are great. How can you laugh when this has happened?”

“Why can’t I laugh?”

“Your mental fortitude is really great, huh? If this happened to anyone else, they’d have already broken down!”

“Haha, I’ve been through many battles, after all.”

…

The Asian Red Cross Society.

“Teacher Zhang, we’re currently sending letters to the Japanese and Korean authorities to communicate our stand. For now, it won’t look like that it’ll help much. But don’t worry, this issue is definitely not over yet. We will definitely make them answer for it! Each day they don’t lift the restrictions on you, we will keep looking for them until they do! We will keep doing so until they lift the restrictions!”

“Thank you, but it’s fine.”

“That won’t do. If they don’t fully explain it, we won’t let it rest. The leaders have already held two meetings to discuss this and set the tone for us to fight them til the end!”

“Alright.”

“What plans do you have?”

“Me? I’ll fight them to the end!”

“Great!”

…

The outside world was in an uproar!

The news was overwhelming!

“Japan and Korea announce ‘Zhang’ restrictions!”

“Zhang Ye hit by three restrictions from Japan and Korea!”

“First-ever celebrity restriction order in history!”

“Zhang Ye gets on the nerves of Japan and Korea!”

“Zhang Ye’s path to the summit of Asia gets cut off!”

“What will become of Zhang Ye’s advancement in Asia?”

“Zhang Ye’s career development gets restricted to the Chinese market!”

The Japanese media.

The Korean media.

The Indian media.

And so on and so forth. All of the media outlets in Asia were reporting a flurry of news!

The news of this unprecedented two-country restriction order instantly made rounds across Asia!

Some people were angered!

Some people were disappointed.

Some people were delighted.

Some people were waiting to see Zhang Ye fall off the altar.

…

At the epicenter.

Zhang Ye’s Studio.

The telephone at the studio was exploding with calls from people from everywhere.

Only Zhang Ye was unaffected by this as he went upstairs to his office and called Wu Zeqing. The two of them spoke for over 20 minutes.

Downstairs.

Everyone was looking for him.

“Eh, where’s Director Zhang?”

“I don’t know?”

“I saw Director Zhang going upstairs to make a call.”

“Director Zhang is still holding up so well?”

“When has Director Zhang ever not held up well!?”

“Let’s just see how Director Zhang will handle this.”

With such a big incident happening, they didn’t have a clue how to handle it. Even the Chinese media and industry insiders were in a state of confusion right now, to say nothing of them. The main issue was that there had never been a case of Japan and Korea banning someone like this before. Therefore, they could only wait for Zhang Ye to decide on how to handle it.

Shortly after, Zhang Ye came down.

Everyone finally noticed that Zhang Ye, who had just gotten off the phone, had become even calmer.

Ha Qiqi’s heart skipped a beat.

Little Wang gave a look to Zhang Zuo.

Zhang Zuo was wiping his sweat off.

Wu Yi cautiously gazed at Zhang Ye.

Tong Fu was a little rattled.

Others might not understand Zhang Ye, but could they not know what he might be thinking? Every time Director Zhang wore such an expression, it fucking meant that something big was going to happen. What terrible idea had Director Zhang come up with this time? And who in Japan and Korea was going to be down on their luck because of this?

…

At night.

At a dinner party in the crosstalk world.

Quite a few veteran crosstalk comedians came together and drank toast after toast.

“Come on, cheers!”

“Yeah, let’s all raise a glass!”

“We have to celebrate this!”

“What a happy day it is today!”

“Yeah, that fellow has finally been stifled!”

“There’s no one in China who can get him, but people abroad are still capable of it. Look at what happened this time, just look at it. He has offended too many people, and his past misdeeds together with the troubles caused by this ‘Rivers Ren Red’ are too much for him to handle. This fellow is finally going to drop in the Asian popularity rankings!”

“He stands no chance of reaching the summit in Asia.”

“Right, let’s toast to that!”

“Cheers!”

In China.

Overseas.

Zhang Ye had truly offended too many people over the years. Right now, a lot of people felt the same as the crosstalk world’s people, celebrating with drinks as though they were celebrating the new year.

But right at midnight.

The Asian Celebrity Rankings Index was updated again!

When the rankings were revealed, countless people nearly spat out a mouthful of blood!

It rose again!

Zhang Ye’s popularity had actually grown yet again!

The crosstalk world’s people nearly went crazy.

“What?”

“What’s happening?”

“How did it increase again?”

“That fucking bastard!”

“He has already been placed on the restriction list in Japan and Korea. Zhang Ye’s reputation has gone down the drain, so how did his popularity still grow?”

“Damn! Is there any justice in this world!”

“Based on what!”

That’s right!

Based on what?!

Many of Zhang Ye’s foes in China were hopping mad. All of them had worked so hard to grow their popularity and reputations, not daring to make any mistakes or say a wrong word. Everyone had always been on their best behavior in the public eye, but in the end? They could not even garner more popularity than Zhang Ye had received for scolding other people? Based on what could he behave so lawlessly and scold whoever he wanted, yet his popularity still grew higher and higher by the day?

…

Japan.

“Holy shit!”

“Holy shit!”

“What is this!”

“Zhang Ye’s popularity has gone up again!”

“Oh God, even the restriction order couldn’t stop him?”

“Fuck, who was the person who said that Zhang Ye was going to drop off from the Asian A-list rankings? Who said that they’ll make Zhang Ye’s name disappear from the Asian popularity rankings? Fucking hell! How the fuck did he still increase his popularity?”

“It was like this the previous time, but it’s still happening now?”

“I’m being driven to my grave because of him!”

“This guy is too hateful!”

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Bring him down! Hurry up and bring him down the list!”

“I can’t stand the sight of him!”

…

Korea.

“Oh my God!”

“Is this person born in the year of the cockroach ¹ ?!”

“What the heck! He can still increase his popularity in this situation?”

“Yeah, this is the first time I’ve seen someone who has been banned by two countries still making a splash like that in the Asian Celebrity Rankings. This fellow is too unconventional!”

“I know the reason why. It’s because there have been too many news reports about him across Asia today. All of China, Japan, and Korea have been reporting about his news, so he keeps getting a whole lot of exposure in the media. Even if there is a restriction order in place, it is still exposure for him. Everyone knows about it, can see it, and are discussing it. Perhaps that’s what contributed to his rise in popularity? Let me make a suggestion! Everyone, let’s not give him any attention at all! We must not let him have it! If we see Zhang Ye’s news on television, we’ll shut our eyes!”

“Right, I’m not going to look at him anymore!”

“That’s right! As long as we give him our attention, he will gain popularity. The more we do so, the more popular he gets. Dammit, stop looking at him, shut your eyes, block him out!”

“Shut my eyes? How am I supposed to fucking shut my eyes? I still have to work! I can’t just quit my job because of him! And not leave my house at all?!”

“This is pissing me off!”

“It’s alright, it’s only for today!”

“That’s right. From today onwards, there won’t be any news about him here in Japan and Korea. There also won’t be any of his works, so his Asian popularity will definitely plummet! I don’t believe we can’t do anything about it!”

“Right!”