I’m Really a Superstar

Today.

Early in the morning, Zhang Ye lazed in his bed. He laid under his blanket while surfing the internet on his cellphone. The comments on his “Tribute to the White Poplar” was ever increasing and it was all positive. He browsed through the comments before opening up the Celebrity Rankings website to take a look at his own ranking. The site was very well-organized. After all, it was the most authoritative ratings publisher with historical information and all results are clearly listed.

Searching for “Zhang Ye”.

Day before yesterday’s rating: E-List, ranking 1375.

Yesterday’s rating: E-List, ranking 1382.

Today’s rating: E-List, ranking 1375.

Zhang Ye’s previous world had many things that did not exist in this world. But this world also had many successful works which did not exist in his old world. There was no fair comparison as to which world was stronger. In fact, this world’s professional ratings were very well-standardized. There was an especially large number of artistes, with very broad development and advancement routes. There was hardly any limitations to who you can become.

For example, in this world, many stars started off as models. They developed within their industry to D-List celebrities or higher, before turning to acting in TV shows and films. In the end, they even managed to get very high achievements. Where Zhang Ye came from, it was a very different world. Models, authors or poets… It was very difficult to crossover from different industries. At the most, they could reach the pinnacle of their own field. Only a small minority could succeed when they transitioned from their own industry to a different one. The limitations were huge.

This was something that Zhang Ye appreciated. Because with his level of a few radio broadcast shows and several poetry works, he would never have become a celebrity in his old world. This world had been unified in a way where no matter which industry you came from, as long as your results were exemplary, they would contribute to your celebrity ranking data. Even if you were a cab driver, as long as you attracted enough social attention through any means and managed to climb up the Celebrity Rankings Index, advertisers would still look for you. What matters most in this world is fame!

Of course, if it were because of some hot topic which contributed to your fame, the data would take it into consideration and average out your rankings. Every factor would be carefully formulated, so that any viral topics would not attribute to an increase or decrease in rankings suddenly. The Celebrity Rankings website will also decrease rankings very quickly if a celebrity has not been producing any works that mattered.

Then again, it could be exactly because of the open nature of such rankings that contributed to the scale of development here compared to Zhang Ye’s previous world. The number of celebrities here were over ten times the amount of where he came from.

Just looking at the E-List ranked celebrities, Zhang Ye was ranked at over 1000. Further below him, the lowest number was 1400+. Going further up the list to D, C, B and A, the total number of celebrities were too many. Not counting S-list and A-list celebrities, as those had much smaller numbers, the number of people who peaked were in the minorities.

The entertainment industry’s environment is not bad, but sigh, the competition was fierce, too. You win some, you lose some!

1375?

1382?

Fell 7 ranks yesterday?

Zhang Ye knew clearly that “Dead Water” had brought him up into the E-List of rankings. But what goes up, usually comes down. There were still some fluctuations after the attention has faded. Yesterday was an exception. Even if “Ghost Blows Out the Light” was still being broadcast, Zhang Ye’s ranking dropped. Even though today’s ranking rose again, he knew that it was due to the talk around “Tribute to the White Poplar”. Although the sharing rate for it was not very high, the artistic nature of the prose was very important. It was important in the calculation of the rankings and likely to have had a big contributing rating in the statistics formulation. After all, the artistic values was something that could not be measure by fame. This had already been considered by the formulation.

“Dead Water”’s trend had already died down.

“Tribute to the White Poplar” would only be trending for several more days.

“Ghost Blows Out the Light” would finish its broadcast run within half a month.

Zhang Ye’s pressure was extremely high. He also felt that he was in danger. He couldn’t stay like this any longer. If he continued to stay home doing nothing, then his fame would fall sharply. What does an artiste depend on? They depend on continuous attention on themselves. Zhang Ye thought that if he had nothing else to show for, he would fall off from the E-List celebrity rankings in several days and go back to the role of a public figure again. He definitely did not want to see this happening. It hadn’t been easy to achieve his fame and reputation. It had been very difficult in getting closer to his ambition, so he cannot just helplessly watch himself fall!

Time to look for work!

Target: Television stations!

— This was the next target for Zhang Ye upon finishing his work at the radio station. He really wanted to be a television host to further develop himself. They had much larger audiences than at a lousy place like a radio station!

Zhang Ye didn’t laze around any longer. With an imminent taste of success, his spirits had been lifted and he began searching on a few job-seeking websites. After submitting a few resumes, he browsed over some of the television stations’ official website recruitment pages. If there was a hosting position open, he would email them his resume. Even when there was no opening for the position, he didn’t hesitate and emailed them all the same. He had to spread his fish net. It did not matter whether they were hiring or not. We will talk after the resume has been submitted!

However, something that made Zhang Ye at a loss of whether to laugh or cry happened!

20 minutes later, Tianjin Television Station was the first to reply to Zhang Ye’s email. The email said, “Teacher Zhang Ye, our temple is small. Therefore, we cannot afford to place such a strong deity like you here. Please look for another place.” One look and he knew that they knew of him; they must have heard of “Dead Water”.

The second reply was from the Zhejiang Television Station. The email was written by the human resources department of the Zhejiang Television Station, “We’re sorry, but we aren’t hiring.” However, Zhang Ye clearly saw that they had a job posting on their website which was to hire a variety program host.. and they were especially urgent!

It was a job posting that was just posted!

Great… When it reached me, you aren’t hiring?

Are all of you television stations banning me? That can’t be necessary, right? I just said a few sentences to scold my unit and Leaders. I scolded the Beijing Radio Station, not all of you!

Actually, Zhang Ye knew very clearly how big a mess he had stirred up at the awards ceremony, or he would not have submitted resumes himself without contacting Teacher Hu Fei, who had promised him earlier. He knew that no one in the industry would dare to hire him, especially the Beijing Television Station. From a point of view, they might not be the same team, but the Beijing Television Station and the Beijing Radio Station were practically two sides of the same coin, so Zhang Ye did not plan to give Hu Fei trouble. Although he knew, Zhang Ye still could not help but curse a few times while speaking to himself. All of you are less forgiving than a chicken!

…

At the same time.

Like Wind Recruitment Online, Shanghai headquarters.

A staff member in charge of contacting companies about recruiting candidates was twiddling his thumbs. He was flipping through resumes half-heartedly. He wished to finish his work sooner, so that he could leave work early. However, when he clicked casually, he found Zhang Ye’s resume posted on his company’s website. Upon seeing it, he was astonished. A former Beijing Radio Station broadcaster? Created and also broadcast the current most famous supernatural novel, “Ghost Blows Out the Light”? Wrote “Little Bunnies Be Good” that was promoted by the Beijing Education Ministry? Posted modern poems online with more than a million clicks? And even received the most authoritative newcomer award in the broadcasting industry, the Silver Microphone Awards?

He was a talent!

This was a high-quality talent!

He was shocked by the beautiful resume, and after checking on the internet, indeed, there was nothing fake about the resume; they were all Zhang Ye’s achievements! Immediately, the staff member felt touched. Why would such an impressive person need to use our online recruitment website to look for a job? Which place wouldn’t be fighting for you? But you still chose us? You trusted us this much? He immediately felt a great responsibility!

He had to be worthy of the client’s trust!

He had to live to up the recognition from such a high-quality talent!

He immediately turned diligent. He noticed that Zhang Ye wished to be a television station host and that he had no other position restrictions, which made him appreciate him even further. Look at him. He was fine with any position as a host. Variety, science, etc, he was not picky at all. Tsk, look at others. There were a bunch of those who had achievements similar to a fart. The last time, he had seen a person who was also looking for a hosting job. He was just a fresh graduate and had no experience at all. He demanded to be a variety show host, and needed a guarantee of his screen time after he received the position. He was so picky, and based on what?

Look at Teacher Zhang Ye!

Friendly! Low-key! Professional!

Don’t worry! Leave this job to me!

The staff member logged onto the backend system and quickly found the data of seven or eight stations that were hiring hosts. He then called them one after another!

“Hello, this is Like Wind Recruitment Online. I have a very qualified person here who wants to apply to be a host. When can you interview him?” the staff member asked.

The other side asked, “Does he have working experience?”

The staff laughed, “Of course, and his results are especially outstanding. You industry insiders should know. His name is Zhang Ye, and he has received this year’s Silver Microphone Award.”

“Zhang Ye?” The other side was dumbfounded.

The staff chuckled, “Yes, yes, you know him, too, right? He trusts our site greatly and posted his resume to us. I think your television station is pretty good, so I chose first to recommend a person with such outstanding credentials to you. How about it? Interview tomorrow?”

The other side was silent for a long time before saying, “Then please leave this person with outstanding credentials for other television stations. Our station isn’t that great, so we won’t need him.”

“Ah? You don’t want such an exceptional talent?”

As he said that, all he heard was the sound of the other side hanging up.

The staff was curious and called a second telephone number, followed by a third and a fourth. In the beginning, it was fine on the other side, as they appeared very thirsty for talent. But the moment that they heard him say the person was Zhang Ye, they all declined!

Finally, when he made the sixth phone call, a television station staff member put on a long face as he said, “Big Bro, can I call you Big Bro? This is the second time you are calling. I’m in charge of both the hiring for the variety segments and the news segments. We were just on the phone before, so please spare me. I’ll tell you the truth; if I were to agree to let Zhang Ye come for the interview, I can probably tell that I’ll be interviewing at other places!”

The Like Wind Recruitment staff was stunned, “Is it that exaggerated? What’s wrong with this person?”

The television station staff gave a bitter smile, “Nothing much. He just had a war of words online with his colleague, cursed his unit with a poem at an award presentation ceremony, and caused a Leader to faint from anger!”

The moment the staff heard this, he nearly vomited blood. He finally realized why Zhang Ye would submit his resume to a small website like theirs. It was not because he trusted them, but because no unit dared to hire him, so he had tried his luck with them!

This wasn’t some high-quality talent!

It was clearly an extremely notorious hooligan!