I’m Really a Superstar

Eight o’clock in the evening.

Four hours before the essay competition ended.

“The next day, Mommy Bunny went into the forest to pick some mushrooms. The Little Bunnies locked up the door and waited for their mommy to return. After a while, the Big Bad Wolf came again. He knocked at the door while holding his nose, “Little Bunnies be good, open the door. Come open quickly; I want to come in.”

“No, no! That’s not Mommy’s voice.”

“No, no! It’s not Mommy; it’s the Big Bad Wolf!”

“Not opening, not opening. We’re not opening. Mommy hasn’t returned yet. We won’t open it for anyone!”

The fairy tale was simple, but to the point. The Big Bad Wolf mimicked Mommy Bunny’s song to trick the Little Bunnies. Little Red Eyes and Stumpy Tail were tricked and wanted to open the door, but Long Ears knew better. So it peeked through the cracks in the door and saw that it was not Mommy Bunny. They tricked the Big Bad Wolf into putting his tail in through the doorway and slammed the door shut. The Big Bad Wolf was trapped and when Mommy Bunny came home, she chased the Big Bad Wolf back to the mountains, with his broken tail between his feet.

A message simplified.

Something so simple, but yet the message was clear.

After posting, Zhang Ye didn’t give it further thought. He went to the bathroom and had a warm shower. After drying up and blow-drying his hair, he went off to the landlady’s place. He pressed the bell many times, but no one opened the door. Rao Aimin must not be around. Giving it some thought, Zhang Ye finally took out his wallet and counted last month’s rent and supply debts, together with this month’s rent, before slipping it underneath the doorway. He followed up with a note to explain.

At this moment, the opposite door opened and a couple came out of their rented home.

“What shall we eat?”

“Anything’s fine. Oh, I just read a fairy tale and found it to be really good.”

“The ones from the Education Ministry’s essay competition to the children?”

“Yes, it’s called “Little Bunnies Be Good”. It’s so well-written, even though it’s just a paragraph of words to tell children not to open doors to strangers. The words seem rubbish at first glance, but in fact none of the words in there can be considered rubbish; it’s even interesting. Too bad there is no music to accompany the song portion. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the song should be sung.”

“Is it that good?”

“You would know if you read it. The story has only been posted for less than an hour. There’s already a few thousand votes for it, and it is doing better than most submissions that were sent in a week ago.”

“So ruthless? Which Teacher wrote it?”

“I don’t know. I did not pay attention to that.”

The person relating it had less interest than the listener. Zhang Ye gazed at the two of them walking further and further away. He rushed back to his room and quickly went online to check his ranking!

9th place!

“Little Bunnies Be Good” Total votes: 7,861 votes!

The discussion and comments below were also explosive!

#1: Which master’s work of art is this? The story is too awesome!

#2: Zhang Ye? I have never heard of him. Master, don’t put on an act anymore. You must be a fairy tale author. Please tell us your true identity. You can’t bluff me!

#3: Such depth!

#75: It’s almost reaching 8,000 votes. How long has it been up?

#80: Who is Zhang Ye? Those must be manipulated votes, right?

#81: You still ask who he is? Isn’t there a verification behind his name?

#82: Verification details cannot be believed. A ghost story writer coming to write a fairy tale? And he wrote so well?

#90: As a kindergarten teacher, I find this story to be absolutely perfect! I have already recommended it to my colleagues. I have also posted it on Weibo for my students’ parents. Everyone, help vote for “Little Bunnies Be Good”. Help promote it. This is first place in my heart!

#99: I read this story to my child, and he really liked it. And he actually understood it. He kept saying how he would never open the door for the Big Bad Wolf! I’m so thankful to Teacher Zhang Ye. With so many abducting incidents happening this month, as a couple, we were very worried. We kept instilling in our child that he should not open the door to strangers, but he could not understand. But now after listening to this story, without us needing to say much, the child himself has understood. In the past, I really did not believe in fairy tales or so-called children’s literature. I was thinking, ‘What about them? Could children really understand that?’ At most, it would be a joy reading it. But today, I understood that it is not that children’s literature is unreliable, it is that our country lacks good stories! I have already activated several parents to help vote. We must keep voting for it to the end!

#130: Can it not be so dramatic!? Why are there so many votes? Haha, however, one of those votes is mine. There’s nothing else to say about the story. It’s absolutely great!

Zhang Ye watched with his own eyes as the votes soared. He, too, was shocked. He had not expected much from this essay competition, as he could not compare to people who had been canvassing for votes for a week. He never expected that everyone gave it its due recognition!

10:30 P.M. The votes had reached 10,000!

11 P.M. The votes had already exceeded 20,000!

At 11:30 P.M., “Little Bunnies Be Good” had already climbed to second place. It was only losing to first place, Teacher Little Red Mushroom’s story, by a few hundred votes!

Having been uploaded for four hours! Votes reaching 29,000 votes!

This was almost a miracle! Many people turned silly seeing this!

As the saying goes, “problems happen to people when they turn famous; the bird which takes the lead gets shot.” For a layperson like Zhang Ye to catch up with the top masters in the field, especially in a sure-kill momentum all the way up, there were naturally people who couldn’t stand watching this. Fans of Little Red Mushroom immediately came attacking!

The comments section on “Little Bunnies Be Good” had exploded!

“Definitely manipulated votes!”

“Do you even have a heart? To manipulate like this?”

“How can you have more votes than Teacher Tao Xueru!?”

“Summoning! All fans of Teacher Little Red Mushroom, take notice! Regardless if they are manipulating votes, we must help Teacher Little Red Mushroom to push hers to the top. Every IP is limited to one vote, but I can teach you a simple way. Disconnect and connect again. Typically, your internet connection will change its IP. If that doesn’t work, clear your cookies, then carry on voting. Everyone, let’s go!”

“Right! Come and help!”

“We cannot let Teacher Little Red Mushroom get suppressed!”

“We must get first place! Regardless of who stands in our way!”

“Haha, aren’t we a bit of a bully? He is a newcomer and must not have seen the power of such a huge fanclub. He’s probably scared by now!”

“The point is to scare him to death!”

“That’s right; we must let him know who is the boss in the industry!”

“Ah, Teacher Little Red Mushroom has posted on Weibo, asking everyone to vote for her!”

“Supporting Teacher Mushroom. How dare a layperson be this arrogant? Let’s tell him why flowers are so red!* However, do it with mercy; don’t scare a newcomer!”

The moment Little Red Mushroom made the call to arms, her massive fanbase gathered together. Initially, they were leading by a few hundred votes. But in just ten minutes, they had pulled away from Zhang Ye by more than 5000 votes!

Her fans had even gone into Zhang Ye’s story commenting section to ridicule.

“Oho, you are going down now, right?”

“We’ll let you try to catch up. Looking down on our Mushroom fanclub?”

“Everyone show some mercy. I’m guessing that this newcomer Zhang Ye is already dazed from fright. Haha!”

Many onlookers could not stand watching this any further. What sort of people were the Mushroom fanclub? How could they be so insolent? “Little Bunnies Be Good” was in itself a very good story; how could you claim that they had manipulated votes? And the bunch of you ended up manipulating votes? And even trampled on him!? Laughing at how he was a newcomer without any fans!? This made many uncomfortable. So what if he was a newcomer? So what if he did not have fans? Who made the rule that newcomers could not write good stories? The onlooking parents and kindergarten teachers wanted to help Zhang Ye, but their strength was limited. They could only give him another 1,000 votes.

There was another ten minutes before the polls closed!

There was only ten minutes left to midnight!

At this moment, everyone knew that Zhang Ye had no hopes of being first. He was forcefully suppressed by the local pecking order. Zhang Ye felt the same way, too!

However, there were always surprises that lay in wait!

A miracle that no one had expected happened!

…

On Weibo, a post appeared out of nowhere!

ZhangYeNumber1Fan howled, “Are there any brothers who have not slept? Quickly come out! Urgent! Urgent! Teacher Zhang Ye has posted a children’s fairy tale on the “Fairytale Essays Collection for Not Opening the Door to Strangers”! It’s a new piece of work! It was about to get first place! But it was suppressed by Little Red Mushroom’s fanclub! They even cursed by saying Teacher Zhang Ye is a newcomer and doesn’t have the power of fans. They even flooded the screen with mocking words. Let me show you a screenshot!”

He immediately uploaded a screenshot, which included the mockery and ridicule the Mushroom fanclub had posted. Some morally bankrupt fans even cursed at Zhang Ye using vulgarities for no apparent reason!

“Holy shit!”

“Immediate anger!”

“Something has happened again?”

“They dare to scold Teacher Zhang Ye? Haha! Expecting a tragedy from them!”

“They sure are overly bold. Really too bold. They clearly do not know what the result of scolding Great God Zhang is. I’m really worried about their intellect!”

“I can only admire their courage!”

“Right, anyone who knows about the war of words would never dare to blatantly curse at Teacher Zhang Ye. This is purely the prelude to courting death!”

Those members of the troll army who had participated or watched in that day’s war of words forwarded the Weibo post!

ZhangYeNumber1Fan’s growled angrily, “Can you bear it anymore? I can’t! F**k! Who told them that Teacher Zhang Ye doesn’t have a fanclub? Who told them that Teacher Zhang Ye is a newcomer? I’ll blind their dog eyes! To think they didn’t find out about Great God Zhang’s awesomeness! Comrades! The time when we are needed has come! We cannot let Teacher Zhang fight alone! All those brothers who had participated in the war of words, gather! Those who had previously fought with Teacher Zhang Ye in arms, gather! All of us, go vote for Teacher Zhang Ye! Let that Mushroom fanclub know the power of our troll army! Let’s see who will let who know how the f**k the flowers are this red!” I have “@” a bunch of people below!

…

At almost the same moment, the appearance of the troll army had flooded into the comment section of “Little Bunnies Be Good”!

“I’m here!”

“Responding to the call, vote has been cast!”

“I bought a watch last year! F**k the Mushroom fanclub to death!”

“I don’t read children’s fairy tales, but I unconditionally support Great God Zhang!”

“Ditto!”

“Ditto+110!”

“Ditto+119!”

“Teacher Zhang Ye, we are here!”

“When trouble occurs at one spot, help comes from all quarters!”

“Following Teacher Zhang Ye gives you meat to eat and girls to meet!”

“Today, Teacher Zhang is too refined. To think that he did not fight against them… So we shall do it!”

“Who told them that Teacher Zhang Ye doesn’t have a fanclub? We, the troll army, will forever be the strongest supporters of Teacher Zhang Ye! We will fight wherever Teacher Zhang points to!”

“Brothers, let’s fight!”

“The Mushroom fanclub is nothing but a fart! Seeing who has more people? When have we been afraid!?”

“To be able to fight alongside Great God Zhang Ye! I feel my warm blood boiling! My large saber can no longer endure the thirst! Brothers, attack!”

Zhang Ye’s fans began their war cries, as if they were on stimulants!

1,000 votes!

5,000 votes!

10,000 votes!

In just ten minutes!

To be accurate, it was in just nine and a half minutes!

“Little Bunnies Be Good” had suddenly jumped to take the number one spot in the essay competition! 45,000+ votes! It far exceeded second place’s Little Red Mushroom by nearly 10,000 votes!

In this miraculous instant, everyone turned silent. They were dumbfounded from the shock!

The 1,000+ people from the Mushroom fanclub gasped. They could not believe their own eyes! What was the matter? What had happened? Your granduncle! Where did these people suddenly jump out from!?

The onlooking neutral crowd also became overjoyed. They then realized that Teacher Zhang Ye, who had been scolded for being a newcomer by the Mushroom fanclub all day, was no newcomer. He, too, had his fanclub… and the numbers were more than the Mushroom fanclub’s by a few dozen times!

This smacking of the face was too ruthless!

The Mushroom fanclub fell silent. Teacher Little Red Mushroom also did not speak a single word!

This was because, at this moment, a large question mark had simultaneously appeared in their minds. Your sister! Who is this Zhang Ye? How does he have such powerful charisma!?

*This is a common slang phrase in China, it was originally a lyric from a song, to represent the passion for revolution. It was later used in other situations. Commonly used when exchanging words in a violent scene. The general idea behind it is that the person would spill so much blood the flowers would soak it up and they would turn red.