I'm Really a Superstar

9 PM.

After the commercial break on Central TV Department 1, the logo of The Voice of China appeared at once on TV. With the accompanying background music, the introduction clip ran. The four coaches each made an appearance in it and a voiceover and captions introduced the coaches one by one, followed by the introduction of the blind audition rules.

The Voice has started!

The first episode was officially broadcast!

At the same time, many people were waiting in front of their televisions.

These included Zhang Ye’s parents, his cousins, uncles, aunts; his friends like Yao Jiancai, Su Na, Tian Bin; his fans, Zhang Yuanqi’s fans, Chen Guang’s fans, etc. Most important of all, many of the people who were not optimistic about The Voice were also at this moment waiting in front of their televisions and tuned in to Central TV Department 1, curious to see what was in store. It was the same for those television industry insiders as well. Given, they were denouncing Zhang Ye’s new show, but it was also because of this that they wanted to know firsthand what it was like, to see how flawed and how big of a failure it would be, so that they could attack Zhang Ye with everything they had gathered!

Those from Central TV, Beijing Television Station, Shanghai Satellite TV, all of them were currently focused on this program together!

Countless pairs of eyes were watching.

Countless people were doubting as well.

“It’s starting, it’s starting!”

“Didn’t they say it was going to get canceled?”

“Yeah, why did it still get broadcast then?”

“A rumor?”

“Let’s watch first, I’m afraid the show’s quality is more or less done for!”

“I’m so looking forward to it!”

“Let’s see what kind of show Teacher Zhang can come up with this time!”

“Hur hur, it would be strange if it’s good!”

“The Voice is a total joke!”

With this flurry of activity, the first episode of The Voice finally appeared!

……

At Beijing Television Station.

In a certain program team’s office from the variety channel.

The television was turned on in the office premises. Seeing that the leaders were not around, the night shift staff switched the channel to Central TV Department 1 as everyone prepared to watch the hotly discussed show, The Voice of China.

“It’s coming.”

“The introduction has ended!”

“What are we watching this for? Central TV Department 1’s Thursday night host had a scandal and The Voice was brought on to fill the slot. With just slightly more than half a month’s preparation, they want to produce a large-scale variety talent show? That’s a total joke, just ask anyone in the industry if they could do it.”

“Yeah, even if you gave it two months of preparations, it wouldn’t be enough! For such a large-scale variety show, the minimum preparation time is three to six months. If the stage could somewhat be set up in time, it should already be good, so let’s not even talk about the stage effects. Zhang Ye should have just come back to Beijing Television at that time. Just look at it now. He has been tasked to rush the program for broadcast so fast that he couldn’t even finish the preparation work in time, so what’s there to look forward to? He definitely won’t have anything to show!”

They each had their own opinions of how the program would turn out.

As soon as they stopped talking, the scene on the television was showing the performance venue!

When the lights were turned on, the entire stage was lit up at once. In the midst of the audience’s cheering, the stage lighting changed!

“I wanna fly to the sky, walk beside the Sun. The world waits for me to change it…”

“Never been afraid of others seeing my dreams. Here, I can make it happen!”

“Laughing loudly, let’s walk side by side. Isn’t happiness everywhere!”

“Casting off all worry, I stride forward bravely. Now I am taking center stage!”

Chen Guang!

Fan Wenli!

Zhang Xia!

Zhang Yuanqi!

The four coaches appeared on stage glamorously, with the new theme song pumping up the entire audience!

“I believe I’m me, I trust in tomorrow. I believe youth has no limits. Whether sunset at the beach or the crowded streets, it’s the prettiest paradise for me!”

It fell silent.

The program team’s office in Beijing Television was totally quiet!

A woman said, “This…”

A youth stared at the television screen dumbfounded. “Who just said that if they could get the stage up in time, it would already be very good?”

The girl who said that earlier could not muster up a response!

A middle-aged person was astonished. “Does that look like they just managed to get it up? That stage, that equipment, those audio effects, those lights, my god! How could that be something they set up in just 20 days! Are Zhang Ye and his team really all superhuman? Finishing up all that in half a month when others could not complete it even with a few months of production time? They even built the stage that magnificently? And it’s even superior in quality? Do all the people in their program team have eight arms!?”

The girl who who couldn’t say a word finally managed to say, “Zhang Ye and his team must have worked very hard or something. I really wonder how they did it.”

They also worked on shows, so they naturally understand the way things worked when making one. They understood just how impossible of a task this was, so many of the industry insiders were feeling even more pessimistic about this show. But who could have expected that the outcome was totally different from what they had assumed! They asked themselves, if they were Zhang Ye’s program team instead, could they do the same if they were given 20 days to create such a big stage and complete the auditions for the contestants? The answer was no!

They couldn’t!

This was an impossible task!

In the entire country, no program team would dare thump their chest and claim that they could do it!

……

At the train station.

Many passengers were seated under a large screen, waiting for their trains.

“What the f**k! How much money did they spend on that stage setup!”

“This stage, those lights, why does it feel like I’m watching the Spring Festival Gala!?”

“Since when did Central TV become so generous? They must’ve really poured a lot of money into that!”

“How awesome! The stage and audio effects are amazing!”

“Listen to this song!”

“How nice!”

“This song is really great! Listening to it makes me feel really pumped up!”

“Eh, seeing the opening of The Voice, it doesn’t seem to be as bad as what people were saying!”

“Yeah, keep watching, let’s see how it turns out!”

The opening theme ended!

Zhang Ye appeared!

……

Beijing.

In a certain restaurant, in a certain private room.

There was a mini-gathering here arranged today by Zhang Ye’s ex-colleague, famed broadcast host from Beijing Radio Station, Wang Xiaomei. She was with her university classmates, who all graduated as broadcast majors. Some of them worked in local television stations as hosts and some were radio announcers, while there was also one who was a DJ for live mini-events.

Wang Xiaomei suddenly called for a waitress. “Can you please switch on the television?”

“Sure.” The waitress immediately turned on the the television and it showed Central TV Department 1’s channel, which was usually the default channel that many televisions would switch on to.

Onscreen, Zhang Ye was currently introducing the coaches.

A man asked, “Xiaomei, you still watch talent shows?”

Wang Xiaomei laughed. “I’m just curious.”

A woman blinked and asked, “What are you curious about?”

Wang Xiaomei replied, “I want to see how exactly Zhang Ye would host a talent show.”

A bearded man said, “How else can he host it? I’ve also done a similar program before, so don’t even talk about it. Being a host in such a program is really torturous. It’s like you don’t exist at all. Whether you’re onstage or off, it’s always very awkward. All you do is make announcements and present the advertising messages. What else can you do?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“It’s the same whoever does it.”

Wang Xiaomei plainly replied, “That might not be true. As I’ve been colleagues with Zhang Ye before, I do know him a little better than most people. If it were any other host doing this show, they really might be just a supporting cast member and do things like only making the announcements. But that doesn’t apply to Zhang Ye. He’s not the type who would just take a step back and be in a supporting role. Mhm. But I still don’t know how he will do this, because just like you all said, for these talent shows, there really isn’t much for a host to show what they can do.”

The woman said, “There’s simply nothing to bring to bear. It’s just making announcements and reading advertising lines. It can’t be that he plans to say those things for the entire show, can he?”

The bearded man said, “Xiaomei, aren’t you putting Zhang Ye on too high a pedestal? We’re all in the business of hosting and our standards are all about the same. It’s just that Zhang Ye has the added advantage of being more talented in literature. That’s why he can achieve so much just within a year. If we’re just talking about basic hosting skills, then all of us here wouldn’t be worse than him.”

Laughing, another person chimed in, “That’s true.”

The man with the short hair, leaning against the door, said, “We’re all proper graduates of broadcasting, so how much difference can there be between our standards? Central TV went to look for Zhang Ye and not someone else because Zhang Ye has program planning skills. It wasn’t because of his hosting abilities. If we’re talking about pure hosting abilities, then with so many hosts at Central TV, would they lack his abilities at all? So it’s not like a talent show like this would miss his presence either. If you put me there instead of him, I can say the same things too, and I might even do it better than him.”

“Hur hur, who doesn’t know how to read advertising messages?” the bearded man said.

The woman mocked, “If you can’t even say an advertising message well, then you better not work in this business!”

On TV, Zhang Ye was standing in the center of the stage.

“Hello, everyone. I am you host, Zhang Ye.”

“Today, we have eight people who will be joining us onstage. Who could they be? What kinds of voices will they have? What songs will they choose to perform? Alright, next up, is the segment that is the most, most anticipated—advertisements!”

At the table, the bearded man who was drinking his water suddenly spewed it all out.

Pfft!

Why would I be anticipating advertisements!

Just before everyone was about to make fun of what Zhang Ye had said on TV, a scene that would shock these professional broadcast majors and the entire world’s citizens began!

On the television screen, Zhang Ye took a deep breath. “I-will-not-accept-any-gifts-this-year The-only-gift-I-will-accept-is-Brain Gold There’s-no-need-to-watch-any-TV-shows-this-year The-only-TV-show-you-need-to-watch-is-The Voice The-authentic-health-product The-authentic-The Voice Welcome-to-the-broadcast-of-The Voice of China-brought-to-you-exclusively-by-our-title-sponsor-leader-in-health-products-Brain Gold Drink-Mount Zhou Mineral Water-to-show-your-support-for-The Voice The-most-favored-student-of-the-four-coaches-for-this-season-of-The Voice-will-get-a-chance-to-join-Mount Zhou Mineral Water’s Music Dreams Tour Text-to-support-your-favorite-singers-and-you’ll-get-a-50-yuan-book-voucher-from-EveryRead.net We-thank-EveryRead.net-for-their-generous-support-of-our-singers-of-The Voice For-any-of-our-contestants-as-long-as-they-get-acknowledged-by-at-least-three-coaches-they’ll-win-a-10,000-yuan-Music Dreams Scholarship Sponsored-by-Brain Gold. We-also-give-our-thanks-to-Beijing Dahua Hotel-for-sponsoring-the-accommodations-for-the coaches-of-The Voice of China!”

Wang Xiaomei was dumbfounded!

The bearded man was dumbfounded!

The short-haired man who was grabbing some food with his chopsticks was dumbfounded!

The waitress who had just entered the private room to refill the drinks for the customers was astounded and looked at the television, also dumbfounded by it!

“Oh my god!”

“Damn!”

“This!”

Everyone present were all dumbfounded by this!

You’re too damn fast at speaking!

Were you on f**king stimulants!?

How many seconds was that? That was even done in a single breath! You actually recited that entire chunk of advertising messages without a cue card or missing a word, and they were even spoken clearly??

The waitress couldn’t help but say, “Isn’t that amazing?” After refilling their drinks, she doubled up and ran out, telling anyone she saw, “Quick, go and watch The Voice! The host is awesome!”

Awesome?

Was it only just awesome?

In the private room, Wang Xiaomei and the others were all speechless. As broadcast hosts themselves, they had all learned these basic skills like off-script speed reading as well as crosstalk speed recital, all to practice their reading skills. But there was surely a limit to people, and this limit was more or less the same for everyone. There shouldn’t be too much of a fluctuation in their standards, even the most able person they met in school could only read a script of 100 words at a rate of 6 words per second and that already amazed them. It was a speed that would leave them in the dust!

But Zhang Ye?

This advertising message of Zhang Ye’s?

He probably managed more than 10 words per second!!

This was more than twice the speed of the fastest recital they’d ever heard of before today!

When this statistic was actually calculated, the difference was obvious. Awesome? This was no longer just awesome! This was crazy! This was a crushing blow to all the hosts in the country, and possibly, even those from overseas!

Wang Xiaomei didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had guessed the outcome correctly, but not the process. She suddenly said, “This reading speed, is there anyone else in the hosting world who can do it?”

The woman took a deep breath and said, “Impossible!”

Another woman agreed, “It’s definitely impossible!”

The bearded man, still bitterly smiling, said, “Other than him, there’s definitely no one else who can do it!”

“F**k!” The short-haired man suddenly cursed. “Is Zhang Ye still human!?”

Just a while ago, they were still joking around and making fun of him.

Anyone could do it?

Say the advertising messages for the entire show?

Zhang Ye only got the hosting job because of his program planning ability?

All of them were proper graduates in broadcasting and there wouldn’t be much difference in their standards?

Thinking about what they had just said, they all turned red with embarrassment. This was a hosting job that no one else could do! He had actually goddamn created something new out of reciting advertising messages! It was not because of the advantage he had for program planning that he got the job as a host in Central TV. In the field of professional hosting, there were those who were on a similar level, but there were also those who were much better!

Just as with Zhang Ye’s speaking abilities, no one else could do what he did!

This was Zhang Ye’s debut program in Central TV and also this first time being the host of such a grand stage. But in this debut performance, he had taught those hosts and industry insiders who doubted him a lesson. Just with this unique ability of his—and the resume he had from the time he hosted at the local and online television stations—it was enough to put him among the top hosts in the country. No one could deny that!

What a great Zhang Ye!

So it was them who were the frogs in the well!

At this moment, Wang Xiaomei’s university classmates, who a while ago were still disapproving of the talent show Zhang Ye was hosting, felt depressed for the first time about why they were still at the lower echelons of the industry trying to make things work and not able to move up onto the level of hosting at a satellite channel, while Zhang Ye had already planted his feet firmly in Central TV Department 1!

The difference was in their talent?

No, that was not it!

Just comparing the basic skills in broadcasting, they were all far behind Zhang Ye!