I'm Really a Superstar

Thud.

The venue's door was closed by the staff.

This announced the start of the press conference!

The reporters roused themselves and looked at the stage. They looked around for the host of the press conference or Central TV Documentary Channel's supervisor.

"It's beginning!"

"Where's Zhang Ye?"

"Where is he?"

"Eh, why isn't anyone coming out?"

"Who's hosting the press conference?"

All of a sudden, the venue's lights went out!

Click!

Click!

Most of the lights turned off!

Only a few of the dim stage lights remained lit!

The venue instantly darkened!

"Huh?"

"What's going on?"

"Why did they turn off the lights?"

"What's the meaning of this?"

"Hey, what are you guys trying to do?"

The reporters were startled. Everyone started questioning Department 14's staff about this. This setup bewildered them as they had never attended a press conference that was held in this way. Why did they turn off the lights?

However, the employees of Department 14 were also startled by this. They did know understand what they were seeing. They hadn't received any prior notice and wondered how the press conference could be held with the lights off.

Wu Yi quickly said, "It's probably a fault with the lighting system!"

"Quick, go and take a look!" Yan Tianfei's secretary was here as well.

Little Wang said, "B-But I don't think anyone's backstage?"

Someone else wondered, "The lighting was preprogrammed. I don't think there's a lighting technician around today?"

"What's going on then?"

Ha Qiqi sensed that something was wrong!

Zhang Zuo and the others also felt it!

The next moment, however, a vertical beam of light abruptly shot down from above and illuminated the rostrum on the stage. In the dusk of the venue, this light was quite conspicuous!

In an instant, the venue fell silent!

Everyone looked up at the stage in surprise!

From backstage, a silhouette slowly walked out.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

"Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I turn on the light. I see the light shining and motes of dust, and sometimes even some irritating bugs flying toward the light."

The man's voice rang out before his face could be clearly seen.

Zhang Ye walked up to the rostrum. He did not gaze at the stunned faces of the hundred-odd media reporters in the audience. He just stared straight up at the beam of light as he walked toward it until he came to a stop in the center of it. "But there's something that I cannot see, the fine particulate matter floating in the air. It's smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter. It has a high refractive index which allows them to absorb a large amount of visible light, leaving us with a very low visibility of the places surrounding us. In time, people began giving this phenomenon a name, which I think is called 'smog.'" He smiled and reached out to grab something, but grabbed only air. "I've always been very curious about smog and wanted to know what it really was. It's right in front of me, yet I can't see it."

The venue was dead quiet!

No one could react to what was happening before their eyes!

This opening, this speech stunned everyone!

Ha Qiqi stared, eyes wide!

Zhang Zuo could feel goosebumps cover his body!

Huang Dandan excitedly balled her fists!

Little Wang's eyes reddened, tears threatening to spill out!

Director Zhang!

You…

Zhang Ye took two steps to reach an onstage master console that was set up beforehand and tapped on it. "There's only one way that I can drag it into my sight."

The big screen behind him lit up.

A picture of an apparatus appeared.

Zhang Ye smiled as he pointed at it. "This is a PM2.5 sampling apparatus that I borrowed from the Environmental Sciences Department at Peking University. Professor Wang from their department told me that this instrument is extremely precious and that there are only ten of them in Peking University, so they couldn't loan it out. So I handed him a 68-yuan 1 bottle of wine and he immediately said that I could have the apparatus as a gift."

A female reporter in the audience burst into laughter!

A few other reporters couldn't hold in their laughter either.

Zhang Ye spread his hands and smiled as he said, "I've always thought that the smog was very mysterious and wouldn't show itself to just anyone. But later, I found that with an apparatus like this, which I exchanged for a bottle of wine, by placing a pristine sample of film in it, the smog would automatically show itself to me."

The screen flashed.

One by one, photos featuring scenes of Zhang Ye's daily life appeared.

There was a timestamp.

There was a location.

There was a figure of the PM2.5 values at that second.

Zhang Ye said, "This is from two days ago when I carried this apparatus around for 24 hours."

Two days ago?

So you did not come to work for the past few days because you were doing this?

At this moment, without exception, everyone from Department 14 looked deeply touched!

Ha Qiqi almost sobbed! Director Zhang!

Then, a shocking picture popped up!

The reporters gasped in shock!

"Ah?"

"This!"

"This is?"

Zhang Ye smiled. He pointed at the screen and said, "This was the sample of film that was taken out at the end of the day."

The film sample in the picture had turned completely black!

It was the same color as coal!

"Why is it like that?" a female reporter asked in disbelief!

"This…this is what the smog is?" A male reporter was also shocked!

One of the reporters nearly jumped up. "Impossible!"

Zhang Ye looked at him and said with a smile, "Yeah, I didn't believe it at the beginning either. However, I went to look for my Peking University colleague, who is still that Professor Wang from the Environmental Sciences Department, and gifted him yet another bottle of wine, and had him help me analyze the sample that I'd collected. I wanted to know what was really in it."

The picture changed.

A densely packed group of chemical names appeared!

Zhang Ye raised his hand and pointed at the screen. "These are the results of his analysis of the film sample. There are a total of 15 types of carcinogens, including the strongest carcinogen in the world, benzo[a]pyrene. Do you know how many times above the national standards it was measured at? It exceeded it by 14 times!"

It caused an uproar!

Carcinogens?

Exceeded the standards by 14 times?

Zhang Ye said, "I didn't believe it, so I carried the apparatus around and went out again yesterday to do another test. Then I hurried back to Peking University to look for Professor Wang and had him help me analyze the film sample again. This time, the result was…the benzo[a]pyrene levels exceeded the standards by 17 times! I was astounded. I thought my initial test was wrong, but how could the results of the second test exceed the standards by an even higher figure? Professor Wang said to me, 'Professor Zhang, did you go shopping this time?' I told him I did. Professor Wang replied, 'If you'd walked around a little longer, the result would have exceeded the standards by much more!'"

Everyone looked up at the stage in horror.

Zhang Ye shrugged. "I knew that Peking University had recently built a laboratory. As all of you know, since I'm part of Peking University, I'm in a relatively favorable position for some things. So I spoke to Professor Wang and asked if I could volunteer myself for the Key Laboratory of High Concentration Particulate Matter, and if they could measure my body for data so that I could better understand and inform the people of this. But Professor Wang shook his head and said that there was no way. So I asked why. I told them that I wasn't afraid of this. Signing a liability waiver was fine too. If anything happened to me afterwards, I would not hold them responsible for it, so just let me do it."

Everyone was rendered speechless. They didn't think that Zhang Ye would actually risk his life like this!

Continuing, Zhang Ye said helplessly, "Professor Wang hesitated for a long time before telling me, 'There's no need for you to go inside the Key Laboratory of High Concentration Particulate Matter. In fact, the outside air you breathe every day is much more polluted than the air inside the lab!'" Looking at everyone, Zhang Ye said, "It was at that moment that I realized all of us are actually living inside a lab that is constantly exposed. This is what the smog is, and that is who our enemy is. We can't see it, but it's all around us!"

Many of the reporters were aghast!

Many of them were also stunned by today's presentation!

Wasn't this a press conference? Weren't they going to explain why the documentary was taken down? Why did it become something like this? What was going on?

Documentary?

You're actually showing a goddamn live broadcast of the documentary?!

No one had seen anything like this before! These reporters had never even heard of something like this!

On the other side of the venue.

The emotions of the staff of Department 14 got a bit out of control!

Tong Fu wished he could slap his own face. "Director Zhang!"

Wu Yi said, "This…"

Little Wang wiped her tears away. "So it turns out that Director Zhang did this much in the past few days! And we didn't even know about it! We didn't know anything at all! I, I even spoke harshly to Director Zhang! I had thought, had thought that Director Zhang did not care about us anymore!" As Little Wang talked, her tears fell faster!

A staff member said, "Goddamn me!"

"I should have known!"

"Yeah! When has Director Zhang ever been afraid of trouble!"

"Why did he choose to do this by himself? Why didn't he tell us about it? He even told us to stop kicking up a fuss over it? And told us not to be involved anymore?"

Ha Qiqi's lips were trembling. "He was afraid that he would get us into trouble! He intended to bear all of the criticism by himself! All of us…we have wronged Director Zhang!"

"Director Zhang!"

"I, I…"