I’m Really a Superstar

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Later that morning.

Beijing Television.

Hu Fei had a sunken expression on his face. "Something has happened!"

Dafei asked, "What is it, Brother Hu?"

Hou Ge said in a startled manner, "What happened?"

Hu Fei said with a heavy heart, "I\'ve just received news. Zhao Chipeng has put the word out and more than a dozen entertainment and media companies have started boycotting Zhang Ye. Our station also received news that if we let Zhang Ye produce his shows here, they would call back all their artists and stop all cooperation with Beijing TV!"

Xiao Lu said in shock, "What?"

Hou Di said angrily, "That is too unreasonable!"

Han Qi also looked frustrated. "Then what can be done? What can be done!"

…

At Zhang Ye\'s Studio.

Ha Qiqi received firsthand news of this too!

"This is not good!"

"What\'s the matter?"

Director Zhang is being boycotted!"

"What?"

"By who this time?

"Who else? It\'s got to be Zhao Chipeng!"

"It\'s not only Tianfang Entertainment. This time, it\'s half of the entertainment industry\'s funders boycotting him. It has really blown up this time!"

…

At a music website.

"President Sun, about the new song we\'re working with Zhang Ye on—"

"There\'s no need to talk about that anymore."

"Ah? But we\'ve already begun negotiations with them."

"There\'s no need anymore. Zhang Ye is finished."

"Why\'s that?"

"He\'s been shut out by the funders. From now on, whoever tries to work with Zhang Ye will face sanctions from Tianfang Entertainment, as well as the other dozen-odd media companies. If we continue working with Zhang Ye, the artists under contract with those companies will no longer work with us and will even have their song copyrights retracted!"

"How could that be!"

…

In the short span of an hour.

The entire entertainment industry had received news about this.

Chen Guang.

Fan Wenli.

Zhang Xia.

Ning Lan.

The seven S-listers.

All of them received this notice!

A shockwave rippled through the industry!

The entertainment circle flew into an uproar

After seven years, another sponsors\' boycott has resurfaced in the industry!

Such boycotts happened very often. When some small-time celebrity offended a big shot, the big shot would put out word that there would be no coexistence between the two of them. That was also a form of boycotting. Or when an artist offended some executive at an entertainment company, that executive would also put out word to give the artist a bad time. That was another form of a boycott.

But all those were different from what was happening now!

They were only small issues that didn\'t have the same momentum as the current boycott!

An industry-wide boycott. This was something on a totally different level!

Thinking back to that day seven years ago, when a domestic film star who had made his mark as an A-list celebrity was boycotted by three entertainment companies after offending them with his diva behavior. Afterwards, an industry-wide boycott was ordered against him for the first time by the industry funders and that A-lister was banished to the bottom of the valley with no one approaching him for roles in their movies. He did not manage to get any commercial opportunities either, as his industry peers denounced him. Soon after, his friends started avoiding him as well. By the end of that year, that really popular A-list celebrity had fallen down to the ranks of the B-list, and further down, to the C-list by the following year. Without any acting opportunities, without any public exposure, that was tantamount to snuffing the life out of an artist.

Up until today, that celebrity who had been the target of the industry-wide boycott never even made an appearance on television. In the celebrity rankings, he couldn\'t even be seen in the E-list rankings. Furthermore, any reports or discussions regarding him on the Internet were removed. No one gave him any more attention. They had almost forgotten about this name, and it was only today when the industry-wide boycott resurfaced that many of show business\'s veterans remembered him.

This was what an industry-wide boycott was!

The most brutal weapon of the entertainment circle was the one that involved the declaration of an unceasing war between the sponsors and a celebrity!

Moreover, this industry-wide boycott didn\'t just involve three or four entertainment companies. There were more than a dozen companies, which amounted to about half of the entertainment circle\'s sponsors taking part in the boycott. It was several times more severe than the industry-wide boycott that took place seven years ago! The sponsors collectively put out the word to "kill" Zhang Ye!

Who could survive that?

Who could escape from that?

No one at all!

Not even the Heavenly Kings and Queens!

It was over for Zhang Ye!

This was the immediate conclusion that everyone in the entertainment circle had arrived at!

He had offended too many people this time around, and they were even people who had very strong backing!

In a flash, everyone was calling for Zhang Ye\'s head!

On Weibo.

It was the people from the crosstalk world who first made a clean break with Zhang Ye.

The crosstalk actor, Tang Dazhang: "The so-called \'A Madman\'s Diary\' is drivel. Society is not as dark as you think. Show business is not as dark as you say it is. As a public figure, instead of dutifully maintaining the image of the industry, you\'re singing the opposite tune and causing a panic. There\'s no one who can put up with your behavior!"

A group of crosstalk actors echoed this!

A part of the literary world\'s members joined in the denouncement.

A senior figure of the Writers\' Association: "Always causing trouble and writing those so-called works that can\'t even be considered essays. What a disgrace to the educated. You\'re as good as misleading the people and deceiving them. I can\'t watch this go on anymore. Starting from today, the literary world has nothing to do with you and whatever you do!"

A group of the literary world\'s members echoed this!

The education world.

The calligraphy world.

The music scene.

A television station.

A radio station.

Countless people were condemning Zhang Ye!

"Get out of showbiz!"

"We don\'t need people like you here!"

"Ignorant fool!"

"What kind of a professor are you!"

"Those contributions of yours aren\'t even worth mentioning!"

"We hope that the people will not be misled by Zhang Ye!"

"Nobody should bear with this behavior of his anymore. It\'s time to speak up and make a clean break with Zhang Ye!"

"Everyone, let\'s boycott him together!"

There were also some big shot celebrities who came forward to denounce him!

Jiang Hanwei!

Li Yu!

Zhao Qiquan!

The artists signed to Tianfang Entertainment!

The artists signed to the other entertainment companies!

All of them were calling for Zhang Ye\'s head!

Some of these were people whom Zhang Ye had offended before and were his eternal foes. Some of them were people Zhang Ye didn\'t even know nor met. Still, all of them jumped in to kick Zhang Ye while he was down in order to improve their relationships with the funders of the industry. They were basically tapping into this incident of Zhang Ye\'s to take a step up as they became a pawn of the funders! But of course, some things could not be said in such a clear manner. The affair between Han Di\'s wife and Zhao Chipeng could not be mentioned at all, and the boycott by the funders could not possibly be explicitly mentioned in the media either. All of these matters were an open secret within the industry, and no one would be upfront about it! All of these people were the same. The reason they gave for their attacks on Zhang Ye was not that he had offended Zhao Chipeng, but due to some other reason that they found him to be at fault!

Zhang Ye had offended too many people.

Thousands?

Tens of thousands?

Hundreds of thousands?

Even he could not count them all.

When the industry-wide boycott first surfaced, everyone knew that Zhang Ye could no longer survive in the entertainment industry. As such, they naturally did not have any worries and would attack him as they liked. They couldn\'t wait to get revenge for the times they got bullied by Zhang Ye and were all hoping to return him the favor together on this day!

…

The public was dumbfounded!

"What\'s going on?"

"Why is this happening?"

"Why are they denouncing Zhang Ye again?"

"Zhao Chipeng has made his move!"

"Ah?"

"When Teacher Zhang wrote \'A Madman\'s Diary,\' he was destined to terribly offend Zhao Chipeng and showbiz\'s sponsors. All of them are now ready to deal with Zhang Ye!"

"It\'s an industry-wide boycott!"

"What?!"

"Holy fuck!"

"Do you guys mean to say that this is the same as what happened seven years ago?"

"Yes, that\'s it!"

"How ruthless! They\'re really being too ruthless!"

"And this time, it\'s on an even larger scale! Half of the entertainment industry\'s sponsors have made their move against Zhang Ye. This is what\'s happening within the industry, and all that I can mention. Everyone, be prepared. This will be Zhang Ye\'s greatest predicament since he entered the entertainment industry. No, rather than saying it\'s a predicament, it should be called a crisis. With all the sponsors cutting him off, there won\'t be a chance for Zhang Ye to appear on television, nor will he have any commercial opportunities or anyone who would want to work with him again. This is as good as the end of Zhang Ye\'s celebrity life. In these days, the word of the sponsors is what matters the most!"

"Damn!"

"Can they be any more unreasonable?"

"Those bastards are this ruthless?"

"Motherfucker, I\'m enraged!"

"Teacher Zhang, there\'s still us standing behind you!"

"Right, we\'re still here to give you our support!"

"What\'s the point of us supporting him? The TV stations won\'t get him to make any more shows, the TV series won\'t invite him to act, the music platforms won\'t be working with him either, so if we don\'t even get to see him in the future, how are we going to support him? What do we support him with? I\'m from the industry myself. The waters of the entertainment circle run too deep. It\'s definitely not as simple as you guys think. Teacher Zhang has angered the sponsors this time, so they\'re making an example out of him. No one can stop them!"

"But Teacher Zhang is going to get married soon!"

"What will happen to the wedding?"

"Will anyone still go?"

"If that\'s the case, how many people will even want to attend?"

"Old Dog Zhao!"

"We\'ll fight him!"

"Bastards!"

"Is there no place for Zhang Ye in show business anymore? I really can\'t imagine that!"

"I can\'t imagine it either. Although I\'ve scolded him sometimes and have been pissed off by him before, but—I still fucking like him a lot!"

"Is Teacher Zhang really done for?"

"Is there no one who can stop them?"

"No one at all?"

Anger!

Confusion!

No one could keep their emotions in check.

Someone spoke up.

"There\'s someone who can stop them."

"Speak!"

"Who is it?"

"The SARFT, of course!"

"Fuck, that\'s as good as not fucking saying anything!"

"Don\'t be so facetious!"

"Who can\'t the SARFT stop! They\'re the overseeing authority of the entertainment circle, after all!"

The entertainment industry was in a great mess!

Society was in chaos!

The media reports were also coming in one after another.

"Zhang Ye\'s misdeeds provoke public anger!"

"Zhang Ye to quit show business?"

"Zhang Ye\'s story accuses the entertainment industry of \'eating people\'!"

"No place left for Zhang Ye in the entertainment industry!"

"Will the wedding be held as scheduled?"

"Zhang Ye\'s wedding to be postponed?"