I am Really a Superstar

In the following few days.

The Asian Celebrity Rankings Index was updated several more times.

Zhang Ye’s popularity had risen again, but he still remained in fourth place on the Asian A-list. There wasn’t any change in that since all the popularity he received recently was accumulated from before. From the looks of it, Zhang Ye’s Asian popularity ranking had stabilized by now. It wouldn’t be easy for him to advance further, but it was also impossible for him to experience a drop in ranking in the short term.

…

In the morning.

At the studio.

After dropping Wu Zeqing off at the SARFT’s compound, Zhang Ye came to work. He was the first person to arrive today since the other staff were not here yet. As there was nothing to do, he paced around the office. Seeing Old Wu’s stomach growing bigger and bigger by the day, his sense of urgency grew stronger.

Popularity!

Where else could he earn more popularity from?

He was thinking of making a push for the top, so he started flipping through the work proposals that had been sent recently.

Commercial appearances?

No.

Variety shows?

Not gonna take them for now.

Hai, isn’t there any suitable work that I can do?

All of a sudden, he saw a document that startled him for a bit.

Eh, this is?

Soon after, the staff arrived at the office.

Everyone sat down for a meeting to discuss the upcoming workflow.

Ha Qiqi said, “Director Zhang, the rankings index has been updated again.”

Zhang Ye smiled. “I’ve seen it.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Your popularity score has increased by a little bit. But I also took a look and realized that we’re not that far from the Japanese celebrity who’s in third place on the Asian A-list.”

Zhang Zuo added, “Right, I’ve noticed it as well. When we shot up to fourth place overnight, we started pulling far ahead of the Korean celebrity who is now in fifth place. As a result, we closed in on the Japanese movie star who is in third place. I think we should be able to surpass him if we make a greater push this time?”

Little Wang urged, “Right, let’s get him.”

Little Zhou also said, “Bring him down.”

Zhang Ye said, “Sure, there’s only a few more months left to do it. When my child is born, I won’t have any time for this, so I’ll have to speed up the ascension process. Since I’m in fourth place on the A-list rankings, let’s set our next goal a little shorter term. We’ll aim to surpass the person in third place before we make our next move.”

One was in fourth place?

The other was in the top three?

The values of the rankings were on entirely different levels!

But for now, there were still some problems.

Ha Qiqi rubbed her forehead and said, “The restraining order is still in place, and all the tricks and strategies that we had have already been used. We don’t have many ways left to increase our popularity. The popularity that we can get from Japan has been maxed out, and we won’t be able to penetrate the Korean market for a while, so let’s not think about that either. No matter how I think about it, if we want to make a push in the short term to advance our ranking, we can only look to return to the domestic market.”

Zhang Ye smiled. “Wherever we go to, there’s still no place like home.”

Ha Qiqi laughed. “That’s right, our homeland is always going to have our back. No matter where we go, we still have to come back here in the end. This is where home truly is.”

Zhang Ye nodded. “Well said.”

Zhang Zuo said, “Then how are we fighting our next battle?”

Zhang Ye looked at everyone and said with a smile, “Why don’t we do something to repay our homeland?”

Repay our homeland?

How are we going to repay it?

Nobody understood what he meant.

This was also a spontaneous decision by Zhang Ye. He started flipping through the documents on the table in front of him. Finally, he found a work proposal letter and pushed it forward.

Everyone read it and were startled!

“Ah?”

“Wasn’t that the letter sent to us by an animation company several days ago?”

“What are you planning?”

“This—surely not, right?”

“You want to make a domestic cartoon?”

“You’ve got to consider this carefully. A domestic animation is very difficult to handle.”

Everyone put forth their opinions as they disagreed with this move.

But Zhang Ye said, “The more difficult it is, the more it should be done. Otherwise, why would we call it repaying the homeland?”

Ha Qiqi gave a wry smile. “It’s not a matter of it being difficult, but that it’s way too difficult.”

Zhang Zuo wiped off his sweat and said, “It’s fine to repay the homeland, but we can’t throw ourselves into something like that. The domestic cartoon industry is a deep pit. Do you know how many people have fallen into it over the years?”

Zhang Ye said, “I know.”

The Chinese cartoon industry in this world was like a pool of stagnant water. There wasn’t even foam, much less any scenery to admire. Countless companies in the country were optimistic about this industry. But after coming into it, all of them ended up dying, one after the other. As for the Chinese companies that survived, their numbers could be counted on one hand. Not only that, but they were not profitable at all. All of them were stubbornly struggling under the pressure from the Japanese companies, and their days were extremely difficult to bear.

Why was the Chinese cartoon industry so bad?

No one knew!

They couldn’t think of a reason for it!

Perhaps it had gone down the wrong path somewhere along the way?

Or perhaps their standard wasn’t good enough?

Or perhaps this path had always been a dead end since the beginning?

An industry that everyone had been optimistic about many years ago was now struggling to make a name for itself in China. No one would have thought that the Chinese cartoon industry would be so desolate!

From hope!

To disappointment!

And then to despair!

Some people gave up while others left.

The Chinese cartoon industry’s people had gone through a lot. They were once full of dreams and thought that the world was their oyster. But now, they had become the first and foremost people, economy, and market to be abandoned by the world. Everyone was choosing to avoid this place out of fear. Having gone through such an experience, how could it only be described as a tragedy?

The proposal that Zhang Ye had placed on the table was from a small company. There were no big companies in the Chinese cartoon industry. Rather than calling it a proposal letter, it was more like a consultation letter sent by a Chinese animation team. In the letter, the animation team sincerely sought Zhang Ye’s advice on three issues.

One: Is there a way out for China’s cartoon industry?

Two: Where is the way out?

Three: If there is a way out, please help us.

This letter was the most sloppy and unconventional work proposal that Zhang Ye had ever seen. It was so bad that even after the proposal was faxed over, it did not make it past the filter to the upper management of Ha Qiqi and Zhang Zuo. It was thrown aside by the staff below them. It was only because Zhang Ye was bored and browsed through the recent work proposals that he saw it. For some reason, he was quite moved by the letter. So at today’s meeting, when Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the others mentioned the homeland, Zhang Ye immediately thought of this letter.

Where was the way out for Chinese cartoons?

This was probably a question that no one in this world could answer, but Zhang Ye felt that he might be able to do it. It wasn’t because he felt that he was capable, but that there were already countless corpses and bones of others in his previous world lining up into a bloody trail of a path.

Perhaps this was meant to be Zhang Ye’s responsibility?

He felt duty-bound to do something about it.

Ha Qiqi asked, “Have you decided?”

Zhang Ye acknowledged, “I have.”

Zhang Zuo said, “Are you confident?”

Zhang Ye humbly said, “Let’s give it a try.”

Ha Qiqi gave a wry smile. “Alright then, let’s battle together again!”

Repay the homeland.

Increase their popularity.

And gain some karma along the way too.

If he could kill three birds with one stone, why not go for it?

Thus, Zhang Ye picked up his pen and wrote a reply to the letter.