On the first floor of the villa.Zhang Ye rushed down from upstairs. "Dad, Mom."
"Are you done taking calls?" His parents were both watching television in the living room.
"Yes, I"m done." Zhang Ye said with a smile, "There"s something that I want to tell you two about."
His mother asked, "What is it?"
Zhang Ye said, "The Asian Red Cross Society has officially appointed me as their new Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador."
His mother snorted. "Knock it off."
Zhang Ye said, "But it"s true; the appointment letter will be issued very soon."
His father also did not believe him. "Why would they appoint you?"
Zhang Ye said, "Because my calligraphy was sold for almost 700 million RMB and the proceeds were all donated to them."
Only then did his mother say in surprise, "Did they really appoint you?"
"Didn"t I just get off the phone with them?" Zhang Ye said in amus.e.m.e.nt.
Wu Zeqing asked, "When will you officially get the role?"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "They should be holding a press conference soon."
His mother said, "Aiyo, that"s great then. What a good opportunity!"
Realizing that he wasn"t just bragging, Zhang Ye"s parents became excited. The Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador? What a great honor that was! They certainly knew the weight that this t.i.tle carried. It wasn"t just an amba.s.sador role for one of the many philanthropic organizations across the country, but an official role for the Red Cross Society. Further, this was an amba.s.sador role that spanned all of Asia!
Zhang Yuanqi?
Xu Meilan?
Ning Lan?
Jiang Hanwei?
They were amba.s.sadors as well, but were only so within the borders of China! It was the same in Korea and j.a.pan. Every country had their own appointed philanthropic amba.s.sadors who were usually the bigger name stars or elites from the business world. They were all public figures with good standing, but the pool of them was limited. That was to say, any public figure who had contributed to charity before could apply for the role. The Chinese Red Cross Society"s philanthropic amba.s.sadors numbered twelve at most, while other countries like j.a.pan had about nine and Korea had about ten or so.
But for Asia?
There was only one!
It was a lone role!
There would only be one Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador each year and their status outranked all of the other philanthropic amba.s.sadors in Asia. Usually, the person with the most outstanding contributions to charitable causes would be selected from a pool of philanthropic amba.s.sadors across Asia, and this year, it was actually Zhang Ye who landed this honorable role? Much less his parents, even Zhang Ye himself was a little stunned by it. Before this, he wasn"t even an amba.s.sador in China. Before this, he hadn"t even partic.i.p.ated in any charity events. The Asian Charity Banquet was his first time doing so!
This was indeed a great and pleasant surprise!
To others, they might think of this as just an empty t.i.tle.
But to Zhang Ye, who wanted to make a name for himself in Asia, this was precisely the kind of good thing he wanted. It was like a pie dropping out of the sky. This opportunity had arrived quite timely for him!
What kind of potential did this position hold?
It was a pa.s.s to gain entry to the whole of Asia!
This philanthropic amba.s.sador role was the only one of its kind in all of Asia!
Reputation?
Exposure?
Attention?
It wasn"t something that any other role could compare to!
This was truly something that not even money could buy!
Thinking about this, Zhang Ye no longer felt so pinched about donating away the close to 700 million RMB piece of calligraphy. The Asian Red Cross Society was still very honorable when it came to upholding their promise to him!
…
In the rest of the world.
This news started spreading as well.
But when a lot of people heard about it, they were in utter disbelief!
…
At Xinhua News Agency.
"Who?"
"Zhang Ye?"
"Philanthropic amba.s.sador?"
"But that"s impossible!"
"Pfft, are you f.u.c.king kidding me?"
"Where did this rumor come from? Can they please stop messing around?"
…
At Central TV.
"What?"
"This must be a joke!"
"That can"t be, it absolutely can"t be!"
"It"s definitely fake news!"
"If Director Zhang can become the Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador, then I can f.u.c.king become the president of the United Nations!"
"Yeah, who doesn"t know how terrible Director Zhang"s reputation is!"
…
At the Chinese Red Cross Society.
"Hahaha."
"That"s impossible."
"Whoever did that news come from?"
"This must be the greatest joke of the year!"
"Yeah, it can"t be Teacher Zhang no matter what."
Even the staff at the Chinese Red Cross Society did not believe it!
…
However—
The news spread like wildfire!
More and more people were finding out about it!
A lot of them finally sensed that something was wrong!
Following that, an official announcement by the Asian Red Cross Society struck like a bolt of lightning. It ignited a crazy amount of discussion among the Asian public. "The Asian Red Cross Society will be appointing Zhang Ye as this year"s Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador in the near future and hopes to work hand-in-hand with Teacher Zhang Ye to bring about a grand era in philanthropy!"
Zhang Ye!
It was really Zhang Ye!
He was going to become the Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador!
Countless people were dumbfounded!
…
In the Celebrity Goof Group.
The chat group"s notifications were exploding!
Ning Lan: "f.u.c.k!"
Amy: "$%^&*()(*&^%$)!"
Zhang Xia: "What"s going on?"
Xiaodong: "d.a.m.n! Zhang Ye has landed the role of this year"s Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador!"
Huo Dongfang: "I"m quite surprised too. No one could"ve expected it to be Teacher Zhang!"
Big Qi: "Hahahaha, I heard that quite a few of the Heavenly Kings and Queens from j.a.pan and Korea were also vying for the honorable role this year. This is really a great job since they can perform philanthropy and also gain some fame for themselves. It would also help to increase their exposure in Asia. What"s most important is that I"ve heard that this role would also be considered in the calculation of the Asian Celebrity rankings as a special qualification of outstanding contributions. Who would"ve thought that this role would actually go to Teacher Zhang!"
Amy: "Oh my G.o.d! This is gonna be interesting!"
Li Xiaoxian: "I truly didn"t expect this."
Director Li Ke: "Director Zhang is quite the lucky one."
At this moment, Zhang Ye also appeared in the group.
Zhang Ye: "Thank you, thank you."
Chen Guang: "Director Zhang, hurry up and give out some red packets!"
Xiaodong: "Director Zhang, hurry up and give out some red packets!"
Xu Meilan: "Director Zhang, hurry up and give out some red packets!"
Zhang Yuanqi: "Director Zhang, hurry up and give out some red packets!"
Instantly, the big names in the group appeared as well!
Zhang Ye said stingily, "What red packets? This bro is committed to his charity work. In the future, I"ll have to save all of my money and do my bit for philanthropy in Asia!"
Fan Wenli: "Pfft!"
Amy: "*scorn*"
Xiaodong: "*scorn*"
…
j.a.pan.
The netizens threw a fit.
"Why is it him?"
"Why didn"t they get Odkun instead?"
"What is Zhang Ye?"
"That"s right, how is he qualified for the role!"
"He donated $100 million USD though. Hai, who can outdo him?"
"Is that a lot of money? Odkun also donated quite a lot of money for the whole of last year."
"It"s a $100 million USD. Even if we were to combine the total amount of donations by the Asian celebrities from China, j.a.pan, and Korea, it wouldn"t amount to half of that figure, alright?"
"Ah, it"s that much?"
"Why else do you guys think that they would appoint him as the Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador?"
…
Korea.
"I don"t accept this!"
"Right, it"s not fair!"
"In terms of an Asian celebrity"s influence, our Korean stars are the top!"
"Yeah, the role should belong to us. Why did they let a Chinese celebrity get it instead!"
"Zhang Ye?"
"I"ve never heard of him before."
"Where did this person pop out from? He"s been all over the news for the past two days!"
"But his calligraphy is indeed very good. Didn"t Master Kim also say it in private—that in calligraphy, he is truly unable to compare to Zhang Ye?"
…
The commotion was still the greatest among the Chinese netizens.
Others might not know what kind of person Zhang Ye was, but would they not know? So when they found out about this news, many of the netizens nearly vomited blood!
"Pfft!"
"How did this scammer get appointed as the Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador!"
"The Asian Red Cross Society"s people are so brave!"
"This fellow can even be a spokesperson for charity? And he"s actually going to be a spokesperson for all of Asia? I just spat blood onto my monitor!"
"With that foul temper of Zhang Ye"s, how could he have anything to do with philanthropic causes?"
"This fellow is always cheating people, every day, but still ends up becoming a philanthropic amba.s.sador all of a sudden? Give me a break!"
"I"m rolling on the floor laughing. Getting appointed as a philanthropic amba.s.sador, just how ironic is that! Is the Asian Red Cross Society doing this on purpose? They must be, right?"
"They must not have studied Zhang Ye"s background!"
"Hahahaha!"
No one knew where the Asian Red Cross Society found the courage to do this!
He was the biggest thorn in the Chinese entertainment industry!
Fighting!
Face smacking!
Scolding!
There was simply no "evil" that he did not commit!
In the end, he actually became the Asian philanthropic amba.s.sador?
Th-This…What an unreliable choice of person this was!