I am Really a Superstar

The next day.

The uproar over the Yanhong Literary Prize had died down. This was how cruel it was at the level of the highest awards. Even if anyone had doubt, even if everyone was protesting for Zhang Ye, the award that was held once every four years was already given. No one could change the results. Those five names would be entered into the annals of the Yanhong Literary Prize, into the annals of the literary world, while Zhang Ye missed his only opportunity to do so. After several years, the majority in the literary field were still not acknowledging Zhang Ye, whom they viewed as someone who had come from an unconventional background.

Everyone thought the issue had blown over.

Everyone thought Zhang Ye had been felled by the thing called "beauty."

In the morning.

At the studio.

Several colleagues arrived at work in a listless mood.

"You\'re here?"

"Yeah, morning."

"Hai, have you seen Director Zhang\'s poem?"

"I\'ve read it already. This industry is just cruel like that."

"After reading that poem, I feel that Director Zhang\'s decision was right. It\'s getting really ugly in the entertainment industry these days. There\'s so much compromise, betrayal, and out-of-control hype, so there\'s nothing wrong with doing things a little more beautifully!"

"But he threw away the most coveted award because of that."

"The plans to reach the summit have gone up in smoke!"

"Ai, we couldn\'t even complete the first step of the plan, so it\'ll only get harder from here."

"I don\'t think there\'s any hope of reaching the summit this year. Our Director Zhang has offended too many people and industries. The further he climbs, the more pressure there will be on him. He\'s paying off his past debts. There are probably a lot of people who are waiting for Director Zhang to fall, and many of them should be applauding as well. He wants to reach the summit? If Director Zhang drops his guard even for a second, just watch, countless people are sure to rush up to try to take a chunk out of him!"

Everyone was chatting among themselves.

Ha Qiqi had just bought breakfast and stepped into the office.

Then, footfalls came from upstairs. "Let them try. To be honest, I\'ve never lost the many conflicts that I\'ve had in all these years. I would really like to see who can take a chunk out of me."

It was Zhang Ye!

Zhang Zuo said, "Ah?"

Little Wang said in surprise, "Why are you here so early?"

"What do you mean by early?" Zhang Ye laughed and said, "I haven\'t left since I got back here yesterday. Quick, did anyone buy breakfast?"

Ha Qiqi unwittingly answered, "I did."

Zhang Ye jogged over to her and plopped down. He grabbed some soup dumplings and stuffed them into his mouth. After he ate a few of them, he even pretended to be polite and said to Ha Qiqi, "Have some too, Sister Ha."

Ha Qiqi was speechless.

What do you want me to eat!

You didn\'t even leave any for me!

Wu Yi asked curiously, "You didn\'t sleep the entire night?"

Zhang Ye inserted a straw into a cup and slurped on soy milk. "Yeah."

Seeing Zhang Ye in such a good mood, Zhang Zuo was feeling very curious. Based on Director Zhang\'s temper, he would\'ve flown into a rage at a time like this. Why was he still acting so calmly? He probed, "Director Zhang, has our previous plan to reach the summit been canceled? Will the plan still be carri—"

Zhang Ye asked in surprise, "Why would it be canceled?"

Zhang Zuo smiled bitterly. "But we couldn\'t even achieve the first milestone."

After he finished drinking the soy milk, Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I\'ve said before, you guys only need to think of the plan. As for how it will be realized, that isn\'t for you to worry about. That\'s my business."

As they spoke, it gradually turned into a meeting, so everyone sat down.

Ha Qiqi said, "Our first step of the plan was for you to win one of the most coveted awards in the domestic literary world so that you could polish up your credentials to help push your popularity higher. With the newly gained popularity from winning the award, the second step would be to publish another novel like Ghost Blows Out the Light. We would then try our best to make it a bestseller. You haven\'t written a novel in a long time, so that should help you increase your popularity within the literary field and bring it to new heights. In that way, we could\'ve taken another big step towards the realization of our plan to reach the summit. But now that you didn\'t manage to win one of the most important awards in the domestic literary world, the next step would be—"

But Zhang Ye pointed upstairs and said, "I\'ve already started on a new novel."

Zhang Zuo exclaimed, "You\'ve already begun writing it?"

"Yeah, what else did you guys think I was doing all night?" Zhang Ye suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, hurry up and contact the publishing firm. We can already get the process started."

Ha Qiqi asked, "When will you finish writing it?"

Zhang Ye looked at the calendar and said, "I\'ll try to finish it in two days."

Two days?

Was he writing a short story?

"OK."

"Understood."

"I will go and liaise with the publishing firm!"

Nobody asked further.

Zhang Ye did not say anything else either. After he finished eating, he ran upstairs. Everyone heard his office door shut. Until evening, no one saw Zhang Ye take a step out from his office.

The next day.

It was past 5 PM.

The office door opened and Zhang Ye came downstairs sporting an unkempt look.

Everyone stood.

"Aiyo!"

"Director Zhang, you finally came out!"

"Quick, come and eat dinner. I\'ve already bought something for you!"

"You nearly scared us to death! You didn\'t even open the door when we knocked."

But Zhang Ye laughed and said spiritedly, "Little Wang, print the draft out."

He had finished writing it within two days, but there was a heavy price to pay. Zhang Ye had barely gotten any sleep these past two days, as he spent close to 20 hours a day typing in front of the computer. He had always been like that and was someone who would work himself to death. Everyone knew his character.

Little Wang ran upstairs to print the draft.

20 pages.

50 pages.

100 pages.

The draft was printed out page by page.

Everyone in the studio was getting more and more dumbfounded as they watched.

Ha Qiqi said in a startled manner, "Why are there so many pages?"

Zhang Zuo quickly flipped through the printed pages to have a look. "Th-This many words?"

"There are around 200,000 words or so. I\'m not sure since I didn\'t count," Zhang Ye said offhandedly.

200,000 words!

Everyone was shocked!

It didn\'t even take two days, but you\'ve already written 200,000 words? Damn, there were fast writers around, but wasn\'t that still way too fast! Was a grave robbing novel that easy to write?

When everyone gathered around to read the draft, they were stunned again!

"What?"

"This, this isn\'t a grave robbing novel!"

"Director Zhang, what happened?"

"Is this a romance novel?"

"Or is it about marriage?"

"This doesn\'t fit with what we discussed, Director Zhang!"

Everyone in the studio looked at each other and felt that this was too risky. You can\'t be writing a novel about marriage just because you\'re getting married, right? This kind of novel does not have much of a market and is not easy to sell! Having written Ghost Blows Out the Light, the people had expectations of his new novel. As long as they gave it a similar title such as Ghost Blows Out the Light 2, the book sales wouldn\'t do too badly. So they couldn\'t comprehend why Zhang Ye would touch on the topic of marriage for his new novel!

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "This is it. Contact the publishing firm and get the book out there as soon as possible."

He said that with a lot of certainty, so they had to do as they were told.

After gobbling up his dinner, Zhang Ye was so happy that he even had some Erguotou to drink. Afterwards, he walked into the empty conference room and took out his cell phone to make a call.

It was a call to Elder Qian.

Du du. The call went through.

"Elder Qian, have you had dinner yet?"

"Oh, it\'s Little Zhang? I just finished eating, why? Is there something that you\'re looking for me for?"

"You mentioned that you were on the judging panel for the Qilu Literature Prize?"

"Yeah, what\'s the matter?"

"How does one qualify for the Qilu Literature Prize?"

"Why are you asking? The nomination for the Qilu Literature Prize depends on the literature in question. We go through the better literature that\'s published within the last four years, and every member of the judging panel is tasked with nominating one or two novels to the shortlist. These books will then be placed into the final selection pool and be voted on so that five winners will be chosen to receive the final award."

"Oh, then why don\'t you help me nominate a novel?"

"Whose novel is it?"

"Mine."

Elder Qian laughed aloud after being taken aback for a moment. "Your novels won\'t do. Be it that Ghost Blows Out the Light or Legend of Wukong, none of those books fulfill the requirements to get nominated, nor are they considered literature in the traditional sense of the word. The Qilu Literature Prize emphasizes more on literary merit, so I\'m afraid I can\'t give you a pass on that."

Zhang Ye said in amusement: "Don\'t worry, it\'s my new novel I\'m talking about."

Only then did Elder Qian take him seriously again. "Do you intend to compete for the Qilu Literature Prize?"

"Yes," Zhang Ye said.

"Are you serious?"

"Does it sound like I\'m joking?"

Elder Qian did not quite understand. "But why?"

Zhang Ye answered with a laugh: "For beauty."

Why did he fail?

For beauty!

And why did he stand again?

Still for beauty!

Elder Qian stayed silent for a few seconds before saying: "What\'s the title of the novel?"

Zhang Ye placidly answered: " Fortress Besieged 1 ."

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_Besieged