I’m Really a Superstar

At night.

It was already past 8PM after class.

Walking out from the backdoor of the auditorium, Zhang Ye did not head back to the office, nor did he go home. Instead, he found a spot in the auditorium’s staff room and lit a cigarette. The school did not explicitly state that teachers were not allowed to smoke, but in front of the students at school, it would definitely not seem right to smoke. So every time Zhang Ye smoked in school, he had to do it sneakily. Sometimes, he would do so in the toilet, sometimes he and a colleague would go to a spot where there was no one else.

He crossed his legs.

And sat on a chair.

Zhang Ye took out his cell phone and surfed the net.

Today’s public lecture video had been posted online very quickly. When he clicked on Peking University’s website, the video was already up. Other than the part where he spoke about the class assignment, the whole lesson had been posted. It was probably uploaded after the class had ended, so everyone could watch it quickly.

As it had just been posted, there were no comments below.

Zhang Ye checked his Weibo and as he expected, there were people already doubting the content of his lecture. Regarding such doubts, Zhang Ye had already gotten used to it in the past few days.

“Winsome Colonel’s issue was not explained correctly!”

“Praising Fourth Sister Lin was simply a general praise to a virtue, how could it be correlated to the anti-Qing issue?”

“And according to research, because of Cao Xueqin’s family relations, he could not possibly write anti-Qing topics!”

“The explanation of the structure of 108 chapters is too far-fetched! The conclusion of this research can only be used as a reference and is not set in stone yet. For example, in the middle chapters, if we apply Zhang Ye’s rule of the unit structure, there isn’t any real distinction in there. You cannot simply use where there is an obvious distinction in the story and apply it to everything!”

“Jia Zheng would never be anti-Qing. According to Zhang Ye’s views, the ending plot would never have developed in that way!”

“Everyone, don’t watch Peking University’s public class videos. Don’t listen to Zhang Ye talking blindly. He’s talking rubbish!”

After so many days, many of the Redologists and literary world members who were left speechless earlier started to fight back. Included in them were Ma Hengyuan, Meng Dongguo, and a few others. They had been staying up for many days to prepare for this battle. They all worked together to find all the problems and issues of Zhang Ye’s argument, and used it as a basis to continue disproving Zhang Ye’s lectures. At the beginning, they had all fallen into Zhang Ye’s rhythm. They could not make their way around something that they were unfamiliar with, but slowly they managed to find their way through. These people were not fools and had seen the many problems in Zhang Ye’s lecture. Now they were agitated and were charging straight for him with their spears!

But somehow, many people from the community sided with Zhang Ye!

“Who says that it was just simply a general praise to virtue? How do you know that Cao Xueqin did not have any other intention?”

“How can you apply Cao Xueqin’s family situation on the novel? You guys don’t even know who Old Cao’s sons were, so how can you be so sure? And Old Cao is an author, does he necessarily need to apply his family background into the novel? Isn’t this an international joke!?”

“Even if Jia Zheng was not anti-Qing, how do you know that Jia Baoyu was not? So when he saw that Jia Zheng had suggested to praise the Winsome Colonel, he spared no effort in doing so? On the problems of this poem, Teacher Zhang basically explained it very clearly! What do you mean by utter rubbish?”

Both sides countered each other’s arguments!

There were still many points of contention!

But there was one point that could not be disputed. It was the fact that Zhang Ye’s public lecture videos’ views never slowed down. Those Redologists had all urged people not to believe what Zhang Ye said, but everyone simply ignored them. There was no other way, everyone simply enjoyed what Zhang Ye had said!

Finally, the whole Redology world was stifled until there wasn’t even a trace of temper left!

What was worth mentioning was that within the Redology world, there was an increasingly different school of thought now. A minority of Redologists generally began agreeing with Zhang Ye’s claims and even went to the public lectures that Zhang Ye held. It went as far as them taking up and carrying on the study of Vestige Forensics that Zhang Ye had started. They had already begun to slowly research in this area of study!

It was a mess!

Because of Zhang Ye alone, because of those few lessons by Zhang Ye.

The whole Redology world, literary world, and history world were now in a mess!

Zhang Ye had not had much hope for everyone to agree with his claims. Everyone’s doubts and debates were the moving factor of Redology research and Zhang Ye’s objective had been met. Although in his previous world, the fact that someone else continued the writings after the first 80 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was already recognized as a fact, in this world, there still wasn’t enough proof, so this was not something that could convince people in the short term. A longer time was needed for the verification process to take place. It might take a few months, a few years, or even a few decades or centuries.

Let’s not look at this anymore. Hur Hur. Let’s move on to something else.

Zhang Ye had smoked half his cigarette and was still browsing through Weibo.

Suddenly, an official Weibo account had caught Zhang Ye’s attention — “The new year’s university ranking are complete and will be announced shortly!”

Below, many people began commenting.

“There’s no suspense again this year, right?”

“Yea, every year is about the same.”

“No, this year’s Peking University’s Chinese department is somewhat of a suspense!”

“Oh, that’s right. The industry insiders are all saying that Peking University’s Chinese department has declined and is going downhill. Didn’t an expert and industry insider predict a while ago that only Peking University’s Science faculty would be able to continue dominating it’s rank? Their Chinese department will have done well if they can retain 2nd place this year. Nanjing University and Tsinghua University have been improving this year. Even Beijing Normal University has been catching up these past two years, but then, Peking University’s Chinese department has become one of the favorites after all the commotion that Zhang Ye caused with his lectures on ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’!”

“I wonder if they will take into consideration Zhang Ye’s lectures. If they really take that into consideration, the result would not be that predictable anymore.”

“It’s going to suspenseful. Zhang Ye’s lessons have not yet been recognized by many in the industry yet. They are all claiming that he has been uttering nonsense, so the evaluators might also consider that point.”

“They shouldn’t. In terms of academics, many things are controversial. They cannot just deduct points off because of this, right?”

“It’s hard to say.”

“Right, let’s wait for the results.”

“Quickly, release them. Why is it taking so long?”

“I can’t wait to see what our department’s ranking is!”

“Long live Foreign language department! Hail to our Alma mater!”

“Supporting Beijing Film Academy! Death to Central Academy of Drama and Shanghai Theater Academy!”

“Support Nanjing University’s Chinese department! We must get number 1! Crush Peking University and Tsinghua University! Hoho!”

The post attracted mainly university students who were either discussing or showing their support for their institutions.

At this moment, Zhang Ye’s phone rang. It was a call from his colleague, Su Na, “Teacher Zhang, come over quickly. The university rankings are going to be released soon!”

“Sure.” Zhang Ye went back to the office.

……

When he got back, Zhang Ye saw the other Chinese department’s lecturers and professors seated in there. The three offices’ teachers had all gathered together and the atmosphere felt tense and highly pressured. A few of the female teachers could not bear to watch.

Su Na breathed deeply.

Chang Kaige and Zhen Shuquan wore their most serious faces.

The old Professor Yan Jiantao’s attention fell on the projection right in front of the office’s wall.

This ranking was obviously something that all of the Chinese department’s teachers cared a lot about. It did not only affect their salaries and bonuses, but also their reputation and pride!

Suddenly, an intern teacher who was controlling the computer had a look of shock, “It’s out! The results are out!”

Chang Kaige immediately asked, “What are they?”

“Let me put up the result!” The intern teacher quickly controlled without looking at the other department’s rankings or overall rankings and only focused on the Chinese departments ranking.

The projector flashed!

The national university rankings results were up!

1: Peking University Chinese department.

2: Nanjing University Chinese department.

3: Beijing Normal University Chinese department.

4: Fudan University Chinese department.

5: Tsinghua University Chinese department.

With the results shown, the whole office broke out in celebration!

“Alright! Great! Awesome!” Chang Kaige continuously slapped his thigh!

“First! We are really first!” Professor Wu cheered!

“What a fright! Hahaha!” Zhen Shuquan roared with laughter.

Su Na asked in a stunned manner, “I didn’t read that wrongly, right? Is it really us? It’s really us?”

An elderly professor, who was about to retire, trembled and said in an excited manner, “It’s been two years! After two years! Our Peking University’s Chinese department has finally regained our face!”

Zhang Ye was also very happy. He had a sense of belonging here. He also thought highly of the honor!

Zhen Shuquan immediately gave a phone call to Wu Zeqing using his cellphone. “President Wu! Good news. The results are out. Our Chinese department is first in the country!”

President Wu laughed and said, “I saw it too.”

Zhen Shuquan said, “It’s all thanks to your leadership.”

President Wu smiled. “It’s all thanks to Teacher Little Zhang for us to be able to be first.”

“Yes, we know.” Zhen Shuquan said, “But it’s also thanks to your great foresight in inviting Teacher Little Zhang here to teach.”

Yan Jiantao overheard Secretary Zhen’s words, but disagreed. He did not think that this was Zhang Ye’s credit. It was the collective hard work of all the teachers. Zhang Ye was just a newcomer, how much contribution would he have had? To him, this ranking probably did not take into consideration Zhang Ye’s lectures.

But all of the other Chinese department’s lecturers knew. Zhang Ye contributions were great and if it were not for his last ditch efforts, their Chinese department ranking might have turned out very differently!

……

Within Peking University’s campus, the cheers came one after another!

“Our Mathematics department is first again!”

“F**k! Why is our Peking University’s Foreign language department’s ranking so low?”

“Aiyo, f**k again! The Engineering departments have been dominated by Tsinghua University again!”

On this night, almost of all the teachers from the institutes of higher learning were looking at the results of this assessment. Because the Chinese department was a large department, very popular, and of very high standing, many of them had placed their attention to it. When they saw it, it almost came as a surprise to them!

Tsinghua University’s Chinese department, which had been tipped for a good placing, fell to 5th spot, revealing their inadequacies. Whereas, the favorite for this year, Nanjing University’s Chinese department was in second place. The Chinese department top ranking went to Peking University’s Chinese department. Once again, this aged, older, big brother has gotten first place again!

A lot of netizens were not convinced. They were obviously students from the other institutions!

“Unfair!”

“What kind of assessment was this!”

“Our Nanjing University in second place?”

“How can Peking University’s Chinese department come in at first place! There’s a conspiracy!”

“Forget it, what conspiracy? It’s because Peking University has Zhang Ye with them!”

“Oh, right! I forgot about Zhang Ye. No wonder they could get first against all odds. So it’s due to ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’! What the heck! It’s still unfair. If Zhang Ye came to our Nanjing University instead, we would have gotten first too!”

“That’s right! If Zhang Ye did not go to Peking University! They could not possibly win against our Nanjing University’s Chinese department!”

“Just complaining won’t work. Did you guys at Nanjing University invite Zhang Ye? The truth is that Peking University took a risk and made the right bet. Anyone can talk on hindsight, but the truth will always be that he who dares, wins! That Peking University could rank first this year was well deserved, at least they dared to use Zhang Ye and dared to take that risk! This was something that no ordinary institution would dare to do!”

“Oh, so Peking University’s Chinese department won on that boldness!”

“President Wu, who went over from the Education Bureau, really has great foresight. She used her people too well! Amazing!”

“Hur Hur Hur, in my opinion, Zhang Ye is still the greatest one. Just him alone overturned the adversity of Peking University!”

Finally, a hardcore fan of Zhang Ye stood up and said domineeringly, “When Teacher Zhang Ye was at the radio station or television station, his new programs always broke history’s records. He always created new records and miracles! Now even when he goes to a university as a lecturer, he is still the same! Those who gain Zhang Ye, rule the world!”

“What a big boast!”

“Zhang Ye’s not that powerful.”

“Haha, the main thing is that Peking University’s Chinese department has very good foundations!”

“Yes, I agree to that saying of the foundation of Peking University is very good. Of course, we cannot deny Teacher Zhang Ye’s contributions too. Actually, everyone’s standards are about the same, anyone could have gotten first, but with Zhang Ye adding on a little more firepower, the balance was tipped in Peking University’s favor. To be fair, a person like Teacher Zhang Ye is really outstanding. He can write and he can scold. This time, his fame will rise again. A person like that will not starve no matter where you put him. I’m increasingly bullish about Teacher Zhang Ye’s future developments. Peking University having him as a lecturer is only going to make them even stronger!”

There were many university students discussing about it and even a lot of university teachers and members of the education world. All of them had their comments about Zhang Ye and it was largely positive!