I’m Really a Superstar

It was pretty late.

The time on his cell phone indicated that it was 20 minutes past 9 P.M.

After giving his fans autographs in the recording studio, a few staff members led the rest of the audience away. Zhang Ye let Hu Fei, Xiao Lu, Hou Ge and company go home. He stayed behind to supervise the work, collected the tapes and cleared the stage. He then arranged the documents before preparing to leave work.

Pressing the elevator button.

Ding, the door opened.

“Hey, Uncle Wei?” Zhang Ye saw the person in the elevator.

Editor Wei was surprised, “Teacher Little Zhang, why haven’t you gotten off work at this time?”

Zhang Ye said, “I worked overtime for recording. It has just finished. Why haven’t you left yet?”

Editor Wei laughed, “I accompanied a few reporters from the newspapers to dinner.” The reporters he mentioned were clearly the ones who had come in the afternoon to make a special focus on Wang Shuixin. After sending them off, some urgent matters cropped up in the unit. A few kids lost their scripts, so the Director punished us to work overtime. Seeing that the kids have something on, and it was getting late, I got them to go home first. They actually can’t help much. It’s not as fast as me doing it alone. Hur Hur.”

Zhang Ye said, “It’s almost 9:30.”

“I’m in no hurry. I’ll leave once I’m done.” Editor Wei smiled.

Zhang Ye volunteered to help, “You are already so old. You shouldn’t work so hard for youngsters. Besides, that Wang gets you to work overtime every day!? This is against the rules and against labor laws. You can go through legal proceedings!” Wang Shuixin was being too excessive. Zhang Ye found it unbearable. “Besides, can your body take it? Let’s do this. Since I have nothing to do at home, why don’t I help you?”

Editor Wei waved his hand, “I don’t need you. I can do it alone. In the future, it’s a world belonging to you youngsters. This kind of trivial thing should be done by me. There’s no need for all of you.”

Zhang Ye said with concern, “Then go home early.”

“Alright, I know.” Just as Editor Wei was about to leave, he suddenly stopped in his steps and turned back, “Teacher Little Zhang, someday, perhaps I can request a piece of calligraphy from you? Any modern poem would do.”

Zhang Ye hurriedly said, “Don’t use the word request. If you want one, I can give you one tomorrow. However, my writing is just average, and it cannot be described as calligraphy.”

Editor Wei was overjoyed, “Then I’ll thank you first.”

“You are welcome. It’s a small matter.” Zhang Ye knew that Editor Wei especially liked his poems.

……

Zhang Ye slept the moment he got home.

The next morning, Zhang Ye never expected that he would wake up so early. Since he had finished recording the program yesterday, he was quite free for the next few days. He planned on resting a bit more before going to work in the afternoon.

However, a phone call woke Zhang Ye up!

It was Xiao Lu’s number. Zhang Ye groggily picked it up, “Hey, Xiao Lu, what’s the matter? If there’s nothing, we can talk in the afternoon. I’ll sleep a bit more.”

Xiao Lu’s voice was agitated and it sounded like she was sobbing, “Teacher Zhang! Something has happened!”

Zhang Ye immediately felt awakened as he sat up in bed, “What has happened? Don’t be in a hurry. Speak slowly!”

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Ye’s expression greatly changed. He did not even bother to brush his teeth. He put on his clothes and went downstairs to his car!

……

Television station.

The Arts Channel level.

When Zhang Ye arrived, he heard sobbing in the corridor.

“It’s all my fault! It’s all my fault!”

“If only I had stayed behind to work overtime! This would not have happened to Uncle Wei!”

“Even if it was an heart attack, as long as any one of us were here working overtime, we could have helped him. But now… Why did I leave!? Why did I leave!?”

A youth cried as he lifted his hand and slapped himself forcefully. With two slaps, the right side of his face swelled up. It was obvious how hard he had hit himself!

“Little Jun, don’t be like that! Don’t!” A person next to him tugged at him.

A girl also slumped to the ground, having lost her wits. She sobbed, “Uncle Wei was afraid we worked too hard! He insisted that we leave! All the work was left to him! We… We really deserve to die! Why did we leave!? Why did we lose the scripts!?”

“No one is blaming you. Don’t blame yourselves!”

“It’s our fault!”

“Even if you did not lose the scripts, Uncle Wei would definitely have to work overtime anyway!”

This was the crux of the issue. Yes, admittedly, even if these youths did not make a mistake yesterday, with Wang Shuixin’s attitude towards Editor Wei, where he did not even treat him as a human, he would definitely not let Editor Wei sit idle. He would find a reason to make Editor Wei work overtime and intentionally torture him! So it did not have much to do with these youths. It could even be said that it was because of Wang Shuixin’s pressuring of Editor Wei to work that resulted in today’s outcome!

“Teacher Zhang!” Xiao Lu rushed over with her eyes red. Clearly, she had cried.

Zhang Ye’s face was pale, too, “What happened!? Why is he suddenly gone!? Why did this just happen without a word!? We were even chatting yesterday! Uncle Wei even wanted a calligraphy piece from me!”

When Xiao Lu heard this, she cried even harder.

Dafei was relatively calm as he said while suppressing his anger, “Yesterday, Uncle Wei worked overtime again. Maybe he was too tired at night, and it might be due to having worked all night long frequently that he received a heart attack. At that time, no one from the Arts Channel was working. There was only Editor Wei himself. In the end… In the end, when we got to work in the morning, we realized that the door to the office was not locked. Then. we saw Uncle Wei collapsed in the hallway. When we touched him… He… He was already cold!”

Zhang Ye said, “Where is he?”

Hou Ge also came, “People from the hospital have taken him away!”

Didn’t even get to see him for the last time? Zhang Ye’s emotions were in a mess. He felt a lump in his chest!

Everyone was standing in the hallway. They were standing where Editor Wei had collapsed. A good person had left this world. He was a person who was willing to pick up scraps to finance the education of children. He was a person who was willing to work a bit more and did overtime rather than letting youths or children suffer. He was gone. Everyone present was upset! Editor Wei had worked more than anyone else over the many years in the television station, but what he had earned was less than what anyone else had earned. Yet, he stayed at his post without a grudge or grumbling!

Why?

Why did good people always die young?

At this moment, Wang Shuixin’s secretary came over and waved his hands, “People, disperse! Disperse! Go back to work first! Don’t delay your normal work!”

Work?

You want us to work at this very moment?

Uncle Wei had just left. He was a colleague and a senior to us. The first words you said were not any condolences or words of concern, but for the purpose of getting us to return to work? Many people looked angrily at Wang Shuixin’s secretary. Has your conscience been eaten by dogs? However, no one dared to say a thing. They had to be afraid of the boss’ secretary. They did not dare to refute him!

However, there was a person present who was an exception!

Someone did not care about these things. That person was Zhang Ye!

Zhang Ye was just having problems finding something to vent his anger on. He stared at Wang Shuixin’s secretary, “Work, your f**king grandpa! Get lost!”

Wang Shuixin’s secretary was dumbfounded from being scolded at. He pointed towards Zhang Ye, “You are scolding me?”

Zhang Ye took a step forward, “I’m f**king scolding you! I dare you to point at me again!”

Xiao Lu quickly pulled at Zhang Ye, “Teacher Little Zhang!”

“Alright! Alright!” Wang Shuixin’s secretary was enraged, but he still put his hand down. He no longer pointed at Zhang Ye’s nose. “Do you think that you can be this defiant just because your ratings are high? Do you even have any organizational discipline? Fine! Wait for the station’s disciplinary actions!” After saying that, he saw Zhang Ye take another step at him. Wang Shuixin’s secretary was scared out of his wits as he quickly left. He did not dare to speak in front of Zhang Ye again.

There was no other way about it. He was the boss’ secretary. He was unafraid of anyone in the channel except two people. One of them was Wang Shuixin. Needless to say, Wang Shuixin was the Leader and his boss, so he naturally had to be afraid and in awe of him. However, the second person he was afraid of was Zhang Ye. He was a scoundrel who dared to even beat Wang Shuixin’s son! That was a hooligan who dared to even scold his Leaders and unit at the Silver Microphone Awards! At that Beijing Couplet Competition, Zhang Ye had even used a couplet to curse the people from the Writers’ Association! Even amongst all the wicked curses used on the internet, five of the top ten of them were created by Zhang Ye!

This was a damn hooligan!

There was no way to take the advantage when quarreling with him!

Hence, Wang Shuixin’s secretary quickly left. He was really afraid that Zhang Ye would fight him. If he was really beaten up, how was he to show his face? Hmph! A wise man does not fight when the odds are against him! Wait and see!

Hu Fei also came out of an office with a look of grief. He had also heard Zhang Ye’s cursing. However, this time, he unexpectedly did not reprimand Zhang Ye. He did not say a single word.

The other people from the Arts Channel also felt discharged from their anger. Well scolded! It was scolding in such a gratifying manner! Indeed, Teacher Zhang Ye was needed at the critical moment! A bastard like that had to be cursed in this way!

A female colleague also said with resentment, “None of them are good!”

A youth gritted his teeth, “Uncle Wei is gone! He was pushed to his death by them! He had to work overtime 200 days out of 365 days! And no bonus was given! There were no salary increments! Is this something a human can do? Uncle Wei was ordered about by them to his death! He died due to fatigue!”

“I’m thinking of quitting! I can’t stay in this crappy channel for another day! The Leaders do not treat us as humans! They only think of how to make themselves famous, so that they can appear reputable in the newspapers and on television! Uncle Wei was such a good man! Yet, he was… ”

“I also don’t feel like working here anymore. I can’t stand it!”

“Cut out your angry words. What is there for you to do with you quitting? You still need to endure! Hai!”

“Endure? Put up with it? Uncle Wei had been enduring for a lifetime! He had been a willing slave! But in the end, what happened? What sort of outcome did he end up with? The Leaders did not even show their faces! They even sent a secretary to get us to continue on with work! Can you endure that!? I can’t!”

“But what can we do?”

“He’s not around anymore. Anything we say is too late.”

Amongst everyone, there were some grudges between some people. There was some scheming, and there were people with good and bad relationships. But with Editor Wei passing away, it caused many people to unite against a common enemy!

Zhang Ye could no longer endure it any further. He had to expose Wang Shuixin’s ugly face and let everyone take a look at it! He had to let everyone in the world see it!