I’m Really a Superstar

On this day.

News spread.

“Zhang Ye accompanies his wife to the hospital.”

“Zhang Ye’s wife’s due date approaches!”

“Zhang Ye’s Studio reveals: Zhang Ye to bid a temporary farewell to the entertainment industry.”

As an influential figure in the Asian entertainment industry, the media and the public were paying close attention to the latest developments surrounding Zhang Ye. There was even greater attention on him, especially now he had sailed into the top three spots of the Asian A-list based on his heaven-defying domestic animation production.

On Weibo.

“Face-smacking Zhang is taking a break to care for his child?”

“That’s in about two months, right?”

“This fellow is really going to be a father!”

“Congratulations in advance. I’m waiting to see the birth of little Zhang Ye.”

“Haha, I’m just afraid that he’ll turn out to be a troublemaker like his father.”

“He should be gone for at least a year with this farewell, no?”

“There’s not enough time for him to reach the summit of Asia.”

“It’s highly unlikely. His popularity is not strong enough, and there’s too little time left.”

“Come on, give us something before going away.”

“Yeah, @ZhangYe hold a concert.”

“Right, right, I want to attend Zhang Ye’s concert. He’s never held one before!”

“It’s coming to the end of the year. Hold a concert please!”

“I want to hear some new songs!”

All of a sudden, the people responded to this and started requesting that Zhang Ye hold a concert.

…

At the studio.

Zhang Ye’s parents had come to “spot-check” him.

“Where’s Zeqing?” his mother asked.

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “She’s started her maternity leave in advance, and Mother-in-law insisted that she go over to stay for a few days. I just dropped Old Wu off over there.”

His father gave him an ultimatum. “It’s about time you start preparing yourself too.”

His mother nodded. “You should be tying up your work.”

“I understand.” Zhang Ye took out his cell phone and looked at the date. “I’ll settle everything within these two months and then get prepared for what’s coming. This bro is going to be a full-time dad in the future.”

His mother was amused. “You? Come off it. I still trust Zeqing more. If we leave the child to you to take care of, I can’t imagine how it would end up with all the things you’ll teach to it.”

The studio staff were all secretly chuckling in the office.

Zhang Ye didn’t like hearing that. “And what’s so bad about my teaching? Surely I can teach it how to write? No matter how good Old Wu’s calligraphy is, is she be better than me? I doubt it.”

His mother curled her lips. “Stop bragging. I’m afraid that the child won’t learn how to write its own name before learning how to write the word ‘fighting’!”

Zhang Ye was speechless.

The studio staff laughed, “Hahaha!”

After his parents left, Zhang Ye started throwing his weight around.

Zhang Ye harrumphed, “Who were the ones who laughed just now? Huh?”

Everyone pretended to know nothing. “Did we?”

Zhang Ye said, “Can’t you guys also think of something regarding what we discussed earlier?”

Ha Qiqi said helplessly, “All of us have given it some thought, but there’s nothing much that we can do. There’s practically no hope of us reaching the summit of Asia within this year. What we lack is the popularity and attention of the Koreans. Although your comics have also made their way into their market, not many Koreans like reading Japanese comics, and most of the people there are not convinced by them. Furthermore, the restrictions on you are still in force over there, so your works can’t enter their market either. There’s also a certain level of control over the news surrounding you. There’s no way we can do anything about that. We’ve already thought of all that we could.”

Zhang Zuo blinked. “Director Zhang, why don’t we forget about it?”

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. “But we’re only a step away.”

Wu Yi said, “But this is too great a step.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Auntie also told you to tie up all your work just now. I reckon that we can only take one more job assignment.”

Korea?

All that was left was Korea?

Zhang Ye pondered it for a long time and could not come up with any good ideas either. He found it a pity that he was lacking this one final step, but there was no other way of achieving it. Furthermore, he was going away on a long break from the entertainment industry soon, so it would be difficult for him to maintain his popularity after that. If he did not take advantage of this moment to make a bid for the top, he would have to slowly catch up and start all over again when he got back. So this was really quite regrettable for him. If he could reach the top of Asia in one breath, then even if his popularity dropped by a little in the future, it wouldn’t matter much. If he could reach the top in both China and Asia, that would go into his list of honors and he wouldn’t have to go through this journey all over again. When the time came for him to make a comeback, he could simply aim for the international entertainment circle without any worries.

Filming movies?

Making an international variety show?

Singing global pop songs?

He could do all kinds of things!

But now it seemed like that was going to be very difficult to achieve.

Zhang Ye mumbled to himself, “There’s only enough time to pull off one last job?”

Pull off one last job?

Only Zhang Ye would use such a phrase to describe his work in the entertainment circle. However, when the studio staff thought about it carefully, this statement couldn’t be more appropriate. At least in Zhang Ye’s case, this phrase was evocative.

Ha Qiqi said, “Right, we can still pull off one last job.”

Zhang Ye smacked his lips. “Then what should we do?”

Little Wang said, “A lot of people are hoping that you’ll hold a concert.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” Little Zhou said excitedly, “A lot of people are saying that they hope to hear you in concert before you go on hiatus.”

Zhang Zuo nodded and said, “That’s pretty good. First, we’ve never organized a real concert before. Be it a small one, or a big one, we’ve never done it. Second, this can be a farewell to the people. These are the people who have supported you all these years since your debut, so you should definitely show some appreciation to them.”

Ha Qiqi smiled and said, “And who knows? If the concert turns out successful enough, the songs might even spread to Korea and instantly gather all of the popularity and attention from over there too.”

Zhang Ye said, delighted, “There’s even such a possibility?”

Ha Qiqi said, “Of course not.”

Zhang Ye was speechless.

Zhang Zuo was at a loss. “Director Zhang, we shouldn’t just focus on popularity.”

Zhang Ye nodded at the words. “Brother Zuo is right. Alright then, for our last job, let’s hold a concert. We’ll make it as big as we can and finish with a bang!”

“Alright!” Ha Qiqi said with a smile, “I’ll go and take care of it and start the preparations today!”

Zhang Zuo asked, “Where should we hold it? This is the first thing we have to settle with the organizers. Some venues are hard to get, but with our popularity, I believe that we can choose from any of the biggest venues in China.”

Zhang Ye asked, “What’s the best place we can hold it at?”

One, two, three, four.

Everyone suggested a venue.

In the end, Zhang Ye was not satisfied with any of them.

Ha Qiqi said, “But that’s all there is?”

Zhang Zuo said, “Right, there are no other places to choose from.”

But Zhang Ye’s next words were alarming. “There’s one more place—I want to hold the concert at the Bird’s Nest ¹ !”

Everyone had a confused expression on their faces.

Bird’s nest?

What bird’s nest?

Zhang Ye was startled before remembering that there wasn’t a Bird’s Nest in this world. So he put it differently. “Let’s hold our concert at Olympic Stadium² . I’ll go find someone to liaise with!”

“What?”

“Olympic Stadium?”

“A-Are you sure?”

“Damn, that place doesn’t allow concerts, right?”

“No one has ever held a concert there before!”

“It’s a venue for at least 100,000 people!”

Everyone was stunned!

If they managed to secure this venue, then this matter would definitely blow up!

It was only now that they realized that Zhang Ye had still not given up on the idea of reaching the summit of Asia. This last job that he was going for was still aimed at making a break for the Asian S-list!