Chapter 540: Return of the.....Jinx!
On this day.
On the weekend.
The flowers were blooming for spring"s arrival.
Zhang Ye had gone back to his parents" house last night. His parents were having a rest day today and his father was in the living room preparing meat fillings while his mother was making dumpling skins for the fillings.
Zhang Ye came out of his bedroom. "Dad, Mom."
His father looked over to him and said, "You"re up?"
"Yeah, what"s for lunch?" Zhang Ye glanced at them.
His mother turned around and smiled. "Dumplings with pork and leek filling."
Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Heh, dumplings are great, I will definitely eat more then."
"All you know is to eat. Why don"t you help us a little instead?" His mother stared at him. "Go and get me some flour. I don"t have enough for the dumpling skins here."
Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Yes, Ma"am! Edict received!"
The television was switched on and the news was being reported. On screen, a familiar figure appeared. It was Wu Zeqing in her new office being interviewed by the media. As Old Wu was now heading a department that dealt with important and sensitive issues, along with the recent problems that hit the SARFT in the past two days, the media immediately arranged to interview her. Her first day on the job was yesterday. They asked about some of the more pressing issues that the people had, and also asked about the direction of future policies that the SARFT would adopt from now on. For example, the current censorship rules for some television dramas or film productions and whether there would be any changes to them. Wu Zeqing spoke diplomatically and answered all the questions.
This was the interview from yesterday and it was just being rebroadcasted today.
His father who also watched it yesterday asked him out of concern, "President Wu has really been acknowledged this time. Did she get promoted by a rank?"
Zhang Ye nodded, "She"s now a leading ministry"s deputy chief."
His father also knew a little about politics and government, mainly from listening to others. "I heard that by qualification this appointment should not have been a.s.signed to President Wu. After all, her age is still not there yet and having such a young deputy chief when there aren"t even a few of them around in the whole country, not to mention that she"s also a woman? That"s even rarer than rare. Looks like your President Wu really has good fortune. This is a promotion by three ranks to a high-ranking official now."
Good fortune?
Maybe everyone would think so, but only Zhang Ye alone knew this fortune was not G.o.d sent but was a result of his use of the difficulty adjustment die. Of course he could not tell this to anyone and even if he did, no one would believe him as even he himself was still a little dazed by all this. The difficulty adjustment die had given him great help this time as its effects had been huge. At the start, it was just winning a lucky draw on his cell phone, then came being broadcasted live for his performance, not once, not twice, but thrice! Following that, his success at wooing Old Wu was a testament of just how great the effect of the die was. Everything went smooth sailing for him and when it had done more than what Zhang Ye could have expected from it, something even more surprising happened. Not only did it help the southbound Wu Zeqing stay behind, it even helped her gain a big promotion to the post of deputy chief of the SARFT. This was as good as meat pies falling from the sky!
It was simply unbelievable!
His mother turned to him and asked, "High ranking or not, I just want to know if she can lift the ban on my son. Son, how is your relationship with President Wu back at the university?"
How could it not be good?
We’re talking about this bro"s girlfriend here!
But Zhang Ye did not spill the beans as he has not yet thought of a way to break this news to his parents. After all, Old Wu was much older than him and he was a little embarra.s.sed to say it at the moment. "It"s not bad."
"Is that bad or not then?" his mother asked insistently.
His father said, "When Little Ye went to Peking University, it was because President Wu invited him to go. Even if their relationship was just so-so, at least they know each other. They still have some fate between them and Preside…I should be calling her Chief Wu instead now. To her, it"s as simple as lifting her fingers. If she can help it, she would definitely help, right?"
His mother immediately said, "Son, then why don"t you quickly make a call to Chief Wu and bring something over for her. Ask her how things are and see if you can quickly resolve the issue. Otherwise, if you continue being in a deadlock with the SARFT, when will you ever be able to head back into the entertainment business? With that terrible temper of yours, it wouldn’t be strange even if they never lift the ban off you."
Zhang Ye casually said, "Don"t bother yourselves with this matter, I know what to do."
His cell phone began to ring.
Looking at the caller ID, he saw that it was a call from Old Wu!
"I have to take a call," Zhang Ye said before quickly going back into his room and closing the door behind him. He went over to the window and answered, "h.e.l.lo, Old Wu."
The gentle voice of a woman sounded on the other side, "You home?"
Zhang Ye said, "Yes, at my parents" house."
"You couldn"t get through to Big Sis"s phone yesterday, right?"
"Yea, I tried calling for a whole day, but it was always busy. Later at night, I was afraid that you might be too tired, so I didn"t call."
"The appointment arrived yesterday for Big Sis to take over with immediate effect, so I was a little caught up as many of my old colleagues and friends all called to congratulate me. I had so many calls to answer and my meal appointments are lined up fully as well. And there"s also some people from the entertainment companies who came to see me, but I did not bother with them and just let my secretary handle it. My cell phone has been ringing nonstop the whole day too. After I took over here officially, I had to handle some work, attend meetings, stabilize the morale of the ministry, and thus, I didn"t contact you because of all that."
"I have to congratulate you too."
"This promotion came as a surprise to me too, I would never have expected it."
"It has to be my credit this time."
"Why"s it yours?"
"Because I kept nagging for you to stay behind in Beijing and look what happened? The heavens responded, right?"
"Hur hur, alright, it"s because of you."
Suddenly, a young man"s voice could be heard on the other side. He sounded very respectful as he said, "Chief Wu, the meeting doc.u.ments for this morning, you…"
"Let"s stop talking here, I have matters to attend to," Old Wu said.
Zhang Ye nodded and said, "Sure, go busy yourself then. I"ll hang up now."
An official taking up a new post, and such an important post at that, would of course be busy with a lot of work. Zhang Ye understood this well and hung up. He hummed a melody as he walked out of his room and went back to helping his parents with preparing the dumplings.
……
Afternoon.
An update from the Weibo account of the SARFT.
"They"ve issued another statement!"
"Aiyo, quick, take a look!"
Everyone rushed over with their full attention on this announcement as this was the first move that the new chief made after the incidents of the past few days. With this reason behind, it was no wonder that everyone focused on this.
The Weibo update was posted!
A message was also posted up on the SARFT"s official website at the same time.
The published banned artists list was updated and no other additional doc.u.ments or statements were made. It was simply just an update of the list. The policies did not change and the strict rules still applied as usual. But on this list right now, many of those artists previously on it were no longer there.
For example, a male celebrity who was previously involved in tax evasion.
For example, another female singer who had taken drugs two years ago.
And for example…Zhang Ye!
It did not mention anything about an application form and the banned artist list had automatically deleted the names of those artists with minor misdeeds!
Countless of netizens exclaimed!
Countless of industry insiders screamed!
"What situation is this?"
"I didn"t see it wrongly, did I? Zhang Ye’s ban has been lifted?"
"I can accept this for the other artists who were unbanned. Their cases happened so long ago in the past and the storm had already subsided for them, so lifting their bans were natural. But what about Zhang Ye? It"s only been a few days since he posted those poems deploring the SARFT? Just what is going on? Why did they let him off? I can"t understand why this is happening!"
"Hahahaha!"
"Great!"
"Isn"t the newly appointed chief previously the vice president of Peking University? Teacher Zhang is also a teacher of Peking University, so with that kind of a relationship between them, what is difficult to understand about it?"
"Oh, that"s right! What you said is true!"
"When Zhang Ye went to teach at Peking University, I heard that he did so because Chief Wu invited him to. Now that Teacher Zhang has solved a global mathematical conjecture, he has also earned honors for Peking University. Since Chief Wu has worked at Peking University for so many years, of course there are some sentiments for the inst.i.tution. Even if she doesn"t have a lot of dealings with Zhang Ye, she would definitely still be a little biased towards Teacher Zhang. After all, they were both involved in educational work and so it isn"t really that difficult to see what"s going on here!"
"Tossing flowers to celebrate!"
"How exciting! How exciting!"
"How could there be such a plot twist? Pu!"
"Haha, those who were waiting to witness Teacher Zhang"s downfall are probably fuming mad now!"
"Aiya, How can Teacher Zhang"s luck be so good! How did it even end up like this?"
On this day, the tremors spread throughout the whole entertainment circle!
With his ban lifted, Zhang Ye was back!
That fearsome jinx… was back again!!
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