I am Really a Superstar

“Public resentment boils over!”

“Big happenings in the comics industry!”

“The seven national cartoons are the handiwork of one person?”

“Who is the mastermind?”

“The people’s cry: We hope the person will turn themselves in!”

“Speculation in the industry: Who on earth can it be?”

Whatever new movies were screening, whatever new songs were released, whatever gossip there was, all of that instantly lost its newsworthiness after the comics industry’s biggest case of “castration” was revealed. No one was interested in any of that anymore, and even the news of Zhang Ye’s return was swept aside.

Movies?

Mov—your sister!

Gossip?

Gos—your sister!

Compared to that most despicable “great eunuch” in the entirety of history, none of the other news mattered anymore!

At this moment, all eyes in Asia were focused on the comics industry, on that person behind those seven national cartoons!

One by one, names were being tossed out!

…

“Could it be Yamamoto Takeji?”

“Ah, it’s possible!”

“Right, Yamamoto can draw really fast!”

“That’s right!”

The retired Yamamoto Takeji’s social network was flooded with comments!

One page!

Ten pages!

A hundred pages!

From the first comment to the 10,000th comment, all of them were the scoldings of people!

Yamamoto Takeji was stunned. He quickly wrote a post in explanation.

But the people did not believe him and insisted that it was him.

In the end, they only let him go after Yamamoto Takeji swore on his life that it wasn’t him.

…

“Could it be Haruhi Nishi?”

“Oh yes, Haruhi!”

“Teacher Haruhi is known for her diverse style!”

“That’s right. She’s perfectly capable of drawing seven different genres of comics!”

“Damn, Haruhi, come forward and show yourself!”

“Say it, is it you or not?”

Haruhi Nishi was flooded by the seething voices of the people!

Haruhi Nishi nearly passed out. What and what? What makes you think that it was me! What has all of this got anything to do with me? If I can draw at a speed of 20 chapters a week, would I still have to be hounded by my editor every week on submission day?

I am not gonna take the rap for this!

She hurriedly appeared to deny it!

…

“I know!”

“Who?”

“It’s Muto Igawa!”

“Why him?”

“Because his wife’s maiden name is Aoi, and his mother’s maiden name is Hatano!”

“Damn! Could it be any more coincidental?”

“It’s him! It has to be!”

“Muto Igawa, come out!”

Muto Igawa was the next to be under siege!

…

The people were getting really mad and were latching onto whoever they could think of!

One by one, these cartoonists were implicated!

One by one, these cartoonists were made to take the blame!

Some cartoonists swore on their lives or purely denied their involvement. Someone even produced evidence of them being in surgery during a certain date and getting hospitalized after that for more than two weeks, so it was impossible that they could have published the comics during that time—examples of such responses were countless. This was too big of an incident to be a scapegoat for. This wasn’t something that any of the cartoonists in Japan dared to take the rap for, nor could they fucking afford to! They could only distance themselves as far from it as possible!

But the people were relentless in their pursuit!

The people of Asia joined hands and vowed to dig up the identity of the mastermind!

They analyzed.

They guessed.

They studied the situation.

They sought for evidence.

The people even started checking on almost every active and retired Japanese cartoonist impatiently and ruling them out one by one until there was no one left that matched the traits of the suspect!

The people were raging mad!

“Who is it!”

“Who the hell could it be!”

“Why can’t we find the person!”

“I don’t know! No one seems to be a major suspect!”

“Heavens, which crevasse did that person pop out from?”

“There must be some clues to the identity of that person. There has to be!”

“Keep looking!”

“Motherfucker, we must root out this person even if we have to go outside the country!”

“This damned eunuch!”

…

The outside world was in chaos.

The whole of Asia had been affected by this!

The staff of Zhang Ye’s Studio started to panic!

Little Sun exclaimed, “Everyone, take a look at the Internet!”

Little Wang covered her face. “We’re done for!”

Little Zhou was crying. “We’ve gone too far this time! This matter has blown up beyond our control!”

Ha Qiqi looked at Zhang Ye. “Director Zhang?”

Zhang Zuo said anxiously, “You’ve poked the hornet’s nest this time!”

Zhang Ye was also checking the news and comments on the Internet. When he saw the public’s sentiment and anger, he started feeling a little guilty as well. Then he coughed and said, “Their reaction has gone overboard, right? Mastermind? Who are they talking about? And there was even a mention of surrendering? They’re speaking as though I’m a criminal or something. What kind of phrasing are they even using?”

Criminal?

You’re even more hated than a criminal!

Everyone rolled their eyes at him.

They heard Zhang Ye saying with conviction, “What do they know? Creative work is a very difficult process. How can everyone be so inconsiderate? Hai, who can ever guarantee that a comic series will always be smooth sailing? Do they expect everything to always be perfect? No one can guarantee such a thing! Authors are humans too, and there will be times when they encounter writer’s block or fall sick. Isn’t canceling a story very normal? They can’t just scold us like this. Everyone should be more understanding; that’s how it should be. Creative work really isn’t easy.”

Everyone rolled their eyes at him again.

Other people only did one comic series, but you had seven!

Other people only published one chapter a week, but you can publish more than 20 chapters!

Creative work isn’t easy?

Why can’t we see that that’s the case for you!

You are clearly doing this on purpose!

Ha Qiqi asked, “Th-Then what should we do now?”

“How are we going to explain it to everyone?” Zhang Zuo also asked.

Zhang Ye pondered for a moment before saying in an awe-inspiring manner, “Forget it, hai, I should just explain it properly to everyone. They are all reasonable people, so they will surely understand.”

Ha Qiqi was speechless.

Zhang Zuo was speechless.

Thus, in the midst of the chaos that was going on in the outside world, while everyone was going out of their way to seek out the mastermind, Zhang Ye made a post on Weibo.

Zhang Ye posted: “After several months of rest, my wife has finally made a full recovery. Thank you to everyone for your concern. I will be officially returning back to work starting today and serving the people. Thank you for your support.”

The people responding to this were few and far between. They were completely unconcerned with this announcement.

Some people even started chatting under Zhang Ye’s Weibo post.

“We know about this already!”

“We’ve already seen it in the news.”

“Hai, all we want to know now is who that damned eunuch is!”

“Yeah, this is so infuriating!”

“These Japanese cartoonists are so wicked!”

“That’s right. I used to think that Zhang Ye was the evilest person in the world, but who knew that someone more sinister would appear. That damned eunuch! The most horrible eunuch in history!”

“Don’t let me find out who it is!”

“We have to find this person no matter what!”

Awhile later.

Zhang Ye added another Weibo post.

Zhang Ye: “By the way, in these several months that I was away, I started drawing comics since I had nothing to do. Surprisingly, the results turned out pretty good, so I’d like to thank everyone for their support. But due to the restriction orders in Japan and Korea, and because of my own work, I can’t continue updating them. Sorry about that, but I’ll be castrating them!”

The netizens replied.

“Eh, Zhang Ye tried his hand at comics too?”

“Haha, why did you switch fields again?”

“You’re castrating your series too?”

“Even if you did that, you couldn’t have outdone that great eunuch! That person actually—eh!”

It fell silent!

It was absolutely quiet!

The next moment, everyone screamed and jumped in shock!