I’m Really a Superstar

After the meal.

At Wu Zeqing\'s home.

"Let me wash the dishes!"

"Put it down."

"No, no. You\'ve already prepared dinner, so you can leave the rest to me."

"This is my house, I don\'t need you to do such chores."

"That\'s not right, I won\'t feel good like this."

"Oh, you.... You\'ve already given me a most precious birthday gift with \'Ode of Mulan\'. I intend to keep that with me for the rest of my life, so that I can pass it on to my children."

"That\'s not worth anything. If you want more, I can write more. Please just let me wash the dishes!"

After fighting for an entire day, Wu Zeqing finally stopped talking and just looked subtly into Zhang Ye\'s eyes. She did not say or do anything.

Zhang Ye said, "Please let me do it. You are my leader, so how can I let you keep doing such chores. You\'re making thing difficult for me, these bowls..... Alright, you do it then!" He had been fazed by Wu Zeqing\'s stare.

"That\'s right." Wu Zeqing smiled as she took the bowl from him and started doing the dishes.

He had left all the chores to Wu Zeqing as he could not find anyway to make her let him help out. He stood to the side and paced back and forth. The more he looked at Wu Zeqing, the more he liked her. She was an up and coming civil official, yet did not carry any airs about it and was always mild mannered. This sort of woman couldn\'t be found anywhere else, even if you looked. Sigh, but even if Zhang Ye wanted to marry her, he didn\'t think he was qualified enough. He knew that she was out of his league and just based on her status, it seemed like he would never have any hope in this lifetime. He reckoned that Old Wu\'s standard in looking for a partner was extremely high too, otherwise why would she still be single past 30?

The dishes were done.

It was 8PM now, not too late nor too early.

Wu Zeqing glanced at the time and said, "Come, let\'s have some tea?"

Zhang Ye cautiously answered, "Why don’t I go back instead? It\'s starting to get late." He was afraid that it would be inconvenient since she was a woman after all. He certainly needed to hold back a little regarding these kinds of matters.

"It\'s only 8PM. It’s still early." Wu Zeqing invited him upstairs.

Zhang Ye didn\'t say anymore and went back upstairs into Wu Zeqing\'s bedroom.

This room looked even larger, at least 40 plus square meters. It was not known if this was the standard for villas, or because Wu Zeqing had renovated it to be like this. The bedroom was also arranged in a very neat fashion. In the corner was a large waterbed, while over to one side was a row of wardrobes. It wasn’t known whether it was a full wardrobe or made up of one of those 3-tiered wardrobes placed together. There was also a big balcony outside, where some unknown things were placed. It was too dark to see. Over on the other side, there was a TV hung on the wall, which was very large. How large was it? It was just very very large. Zhang Ye had no concept of its exact size, so he could not put a number to it.

Luxurious.

Extravagant.

Wow, how did she do it?

Zhang Ye had earned quite a fair amount of money by working extremely hard, but even if the money was not spent on buying a car, he wouldn\'t be able to afford a villa in Taoran Pavilion. At most, he\'d be able to afford the renovations and decorations added on to it.

"Take a seat. It\'s already winter and the air\'s much too humid downstairs. It will be more comfortable upstairs since you aren\'t wearing too much. The bedroom is smaller and there\'s a heater too."

"Oh."

"What type of tea do you want to drink?"

"I\'ll drink whatever you drink."

"Then let\'s drink Tie Guanyin."

Zhang Ye took off his slippers and sat cross-legged on the thick carpet.

Wu Zeqing also sat down, but instead of a cross-legged posture, it was more closer to kneeling. Her legs was put close to each other, similar to a posture of a mermaid sitting down. She was very particular when it came to drinking tea. Every step in preparing the tea, from the washing of the tea leaves, pouring of the tea, and the serving of the tea to each of them was according to a procedure. "Here, try some."

After taking a sip, Zhang Ye said, "Good tea!"

Since he didn\'t know any better, he would just say that it was good and it would be fine.

By now, Zhang Ye had already noticed Wu Zeqing\'s legs. At home, she wore very ordinary looking track pants, which was gray in color, but even that couldn’t hide her alluring figure. That virtuous demeanor of a housewife, which made him very comfortable around her, could not be suppressed within. The gentle and warm seduction came from within her, even without that traditional getup of a qipao. Her charms of a classical beauty were still very apparent. With every smile, that charm would exude a little. Somehow, it was just the type of feeling similar to how chocolate would melt once you put it in your mouth, releasing the taste and aroma of the cocoa bit by bit.... It was just that sort of a feeling.

Her feet were exposed and she was wearing a pair of flesh-colored pantyhose, but he was unsure if it was the long or short type.

Zhang Ye had already taken several looks at the pair of beautiful legs, but still found it irresistible. He took another sip of tea and stole another glance, then felt that Wu Zeqing\'s eyes had caught him looking. He did not know if she knew that he was looking, so he quickly found a topic to talk about, "Oh, President Wu. My \'Zhang Ye Talk Show\' is back on broadcast today. Can we watch it at our house here?" Beijingers had a more pleasant and courteous way of speaking. They usually referred it as \'our house\' rather than \'your house\', making it sound friendlier.

Wu Zeqing put down her cup of tea, "Of course we can. Hur Hur, I\'ve watched a few of your Talk Shows before, but not in great detail. Let\'s use the TV to watch. I would like to watch it properly too." Then she stood up and brought over a laptop and switched it on before connecting it to the TV, "Which website can we watch it on?"

"Allow me." Zhang Ye said as he navigated to the website.

He found the video very quickly and three new episodes of the Talk Show had already been posted online. They seemed to have been uploaded around 6PM.

He clicked on it.

The video started playing.

A promotional footage appeared on the TV screen. It was that "I\'ll feed a bag of salt to myself" introduction.

Wu Zeqing and Zhang Ye both sat down again to watch the long awaited rebroadcast of the program while sipping their tea.

Zhang Ye was feeling a sense of unease since it had already been some time since his Talk Show had been banned from broadcasting. He did not know if its popularity had declined. In any case, he wasn\'t feeling too optimistic as he knew it would have definitely been somewhat affected. What\'s more, to circumvent the possible policies by SARFT, his company had to release a few episodes per day. This would not maximize the accumulation of his reputation, but there was no other way to go about this. This was how the industry was like, and policies were unchangeable. He could only do his best within the restrictions. Besides, he might even get more reputation than before, since there was no similar talk shows in this world. Those copycat programs were only trying to make the numbers, but none of them had the proper formula for a successful talk show. Their hosts also did not have what it took to be a talk show host like Zhang Ye. As such, there was only one true talk show and essentially no competitors, so even if the popularity of the show were to decline, it wouldn\'t be by much.

......

"Speaking of manners, this is a traditional virtue of our nation, but there was one day when I met someone while driving my car. That person left me very frustrated....So, you might not get a reply of \'It\'s fine\' even if you said \'Sorry\', but if you say \'Damn you", then you would surely receive a reply of \'Damn you\' too!"

Wu Zeqing was amused.

Zhang Ye looked at her, feeling very proud.

......

"Nowadays, some advertisements really leave people speechless, don\'t they? I believe that most of us have heard of some advertisement lines like \'Don\'t let your child lose before they even start in life\'. Every time I hear these words, I only feel a sense of helplessness. How can a child lose before they even start? It\'s impossible! There\'s no logic to that. Just look at how a track event is organized. Everyone begins at the starting point, waiting for the starting pistol\'s signal. If everyone is beginning the race at the same line, how could they lose before they even start? Don\'t tell me the the pistol is not pointed upwards, but towards your head? Shooting you down? That is why you lost at the starting line?"

......

An episode finished playing.

Wu Zeqing laughed out from time to time, seemingly enjoying the show.

Zhang Ye blinked, "I\'m just spouting rubbish, why don\'t we stop watching?"

"It\'s rather interesting." Wu Zeqing laughed, "Let\'s continue watching the next episode. This satirical and entertaining style of current affairs is truly worthy of being an example to other variety shows."

Upon receiving this acknowledgment, Zhang Ye suddenly became very excited. He immediately began playing the next few episode and watched it with Wu Zeqing. He even went online to check the feedback from the netizens.

On Weibo, there wasn\'t much of a stir.

But Weiwo WebTV\'s online discussion board had blown up!

"Wah! It\'s being broadcasted again!"

"Heavens! It\'s finally back!"

"I\'ve been waiting for the stars and the moon! And finally managed to wait for Teacher Zhang\'s return!"

"It\'s too exciting, I won\'t say anything else. Let me finish watching another episode before I say anything else!"

"Hahahaha! It\'s too funny! Teacher Zhang Ye is still as humorous and funny as before!"

"I was afraid that after the SARFT suspended Teacher Zhang\'s license, he would have been too depressed and in turn, affect the quality of the show. Who knew that this wasn\'t the case at all! It\'s still the same as before!"

"You thought too much! Teacher Zhang Ye is such a heartless and cold person! How could that have been a blow to him?"

"Previous poster, you thought too much too. I heard that these few episodes had already been recorded over 2 weeks ago."

"Aiya, it\'s really too enjoyable to watch! It\'s nice, it\'s nice! I\'ve been waiting half a month now! At last, I have not been disappointed!"

"Ah ah ah ah! Did you guys see the news update on the official website? For today\'s broadcast, there will be a total of 5 episodes! And it seems like they will be doing the same for tomorrow and the day after too!"

"Really? That\'s great!"

"There are so many episodes to look forward to now! Long live Teacher Zhang!"

"My tears are flowing non-stop! Thank you God!"

"A lecture on \'Dream of the Red Chamber\', the composing of \'Ode of Mulan\', I do not understand all of the literary stuff and I\'m not that cultured, but I totally love \'Zhang Ye Talk Show\'!"

"Teacher Zhang! You are the best!"

"I\'m a woman and I did not know about Zhang Ye before. Today, I read an amazing passage called \'Ode of Mulan\' which nearly made me cry. I was so touched by it. This was how I got to know about Zhang Ye and I began to go through all his previous works like crazy. I read all of his poetry and modern poems before finding out about \'Zhang Ye Talk Show\'. I think I have heard of it from several of my male colleagues who mentioned it by name, yet I did not bother and had not planned on watching it., but I did today and I can only say that I am impressed! It\'s really too good! Thank you \'Ode of Mulan\' for letting me find out about Zhang Ye! Thank you Teacher Zhang Ye for bringing such a good program to me! Your humor and talent are a treasure to this world!"

"I also came here because of \'Ode of Mulan\'. I wanted to take a look at the talent who wrote such a good poem. In the end, I was just like you. Once I started watching ’Zhang Ye’s Talk Show\', I could not stop! It\'s too good! Why didn\'t I watch this earlier?! Zhang Ye is really amazing!"

Zhang Ye checked the view counts of the episodes and found that it didn\'t perform any poorer than before. In a matter of a few hours, it had comfortably reached 5 million views. The heaviness in his heart had dropped. It wasn’t bad at all! His popularity did not drop and it was the best outcome that Zhang Ye could possibly think of!