Chapter 482: First!
The live broadcast ended.
There were only positive comments from the netizens!
"That"s freaking cla.s.sic!"
"The sword of a hero doesn"t age, the madam"s beauty never wanes? Ah hahahaha!"
"That brain of Teacher Zhang Ye is really too quick witted. He"s worthy of being labeled as a treasure of humanity. I didn"t expect that 10 short minutes of crosstalking could be done in such an extraordinary way?"
"That was too fun!"
"I got gooseb.u.mps listening to that! That was very satisfying!"
"But that was bordering on the line of controversy, haha!"
"It"s acceptable since the preliminaries are only broadcasted over the internet, so the censors would have less stringent standards for it. If it were broadcasted live on TV, then Zhang Ye would have to modify quite a few of his joke segments. They would definitely not have allowed him to say that."
"I believe you shouldn"t even think about a live broadcast on TV. Take a look at the official website. The live broadcast has been halted. "I am a Scholar" was there a moment ago, but now it has been deleted!"
"What? Deleted?"
"Then why did they air it live?"
"I heard that it was aired erroneously due to some unexpected complications with communication!"
"Which means the ban on Teacher Zhang and Teacher Yao remains indefinitely?"
"d.a.m.n it! I was happy for nothing. I thought Central TV ignored the ban! So it was just a mistake?"
All traces of "I am a Scholar" had disappeared from the compet.i.tion"s official website. Many netizens, who had not watched the live broadcast, had rushed in to take a look at the crosstalk deemed as a cla.s.sic by so many. They immediately began to rouse as some even began cursing!
"Why is it gone?”
“We haven"t watched it yet!”
Numerous people began lodging complaints with the official website. However, Central TV"s Department 11 remained indifferent to them. They were completely ignored.
However, just as everyone was feeling a great sense of regret, a small video website posted a video of "I am a Scholar". It was obvious that it had been recorded straight from the live stream, as it was identical. Furthermore, it was also a high resolution version. Following that, numerous video websites and discussion forms also posted Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai"s crosstalk performance. Of course, they were not posted by the websites, but were uploaded by netizens.
Everyone was amused!
"It is so timely!"
"Nice, I can watch it again!"
"Haha, empowering!"
"F**k! I finally got to see it! No wonder so many people gave their kudos! This crosstalk is absolutely wonderful!"
At this moment, a heritage of intangible culture, that was pa.s.sed down from China"s Song dynasty, revealed its power once more—Piracy!
A few videos of "I am a Scholar" were taken down from several video websites. It was unknown if it was the website"s doing or because they had received orders from higher management. Clicking on the video would return a "Video does not exist" error, but immediately following that, there would be more pirated copies appearing on other video websites. Deleting one, sprouted two. Deleting two would sprout ten. There was no way of completely deleting them all. Even on mainstream video websites, the views on "I am a Scholar" had risen so much that it was in the trending rankings. In a short moment, it had reached the top 20!
Similarly, the votes for Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai were rising!
The National Crosstalk Compet.i.tion had been going strong for about six or seven hours now. The compet.i.tion was intense. A few excellent crosstalk works were very well-liked, and their fans rushed to vote for them. They wished that the excellent crosstalk actors would be pushed to the top. Before the end of the voting, the first to third place votes were enjoying a stable position. The third ranked group was a black horse. No one had heard of these two new crosstalk actors in the past. Second place was a somewhat famous pair of crosstalk actors. The person who currently in first place was the crosstalk actor who had to pull out last year’s compet.i.tion due to health complications. Although he had yet to perform, the amount of popularity he enjoyed was just too high, so he had already received a large number of votes. Some people evaluated that, if not for his pulling out due to health reasons, last year"s champion would definitely have been him. Hence, this Teacher Peng was temporarily in first place with 8300 votes.
As for Tang Dazhang"s two disciples in Division C, they were ranked fifth. They were, however, ranked first within Division C.
Of course, these numbers were from ten minutes ago, before Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai had gone onstage. Now, the rankings of the preliminaries had undergone a groundbreaking change!
And it was one that made everyone burst out with laughter!
Why? That was because in the voting options for the compet.i.tion, Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai"s names were not written at all! It was as if these two banned contestants were not partic.i.p.ating in the compet.i.tion. The listings of the contestants from Division C were on the second page, and they were densely packed with text, but on the eighth line, Division C, Team #8 was empty. There was no name on it, but there was a voting radio b.u.t.ton on the right, similar to every other contestants.
There was no name, but they could still receive votes!
Anyone who paid a bit of attention could guess who the blank name belonged to!
Hence, during the live broadcast, the voting numbers began changing!
A 100 votes!
A 1000 votes!
2000 votes!
When the live broadcast ended, when "I am a Scholar" began to go viral on the internet, the values had paused slightly before instantly exploding!
10,000!
50,000!
100,000!
Finally, under everyone"s unbelieving gaze, in just half an hour, Teacher Peng, who was previously first with over 9000 votes, was now second! And first place belonged to the two crosstalk actors with blank names. Yes! The names were blank! And the votes amounted to 110,000! It was more than ten times higher than Teacher Peng, who was now in second place! There were even people who did some calculations, and realized that the total votes received by these two blank crosstalk actors was...more than the votes received by the first fifty contestants in the crosstalk compet.i.tion combined!
"Holy f**k!"
"That"s too fierce!"
"This is crazy!"
"My eyes!"
It was a total wipe out!
It was an inhuman gap!
At this moment, Central TV"s Department 11 was stunned. The audience, that was paying careful attention to the compet.i.tion, was stunned. Those crosstalk compet.i.tion contestants were also stunned!
Many people had yet to understand what was happening!
A Division J contestant exclaimed, "What"s this? Why are there so many votes? And there"s no name? Did the system make a mistake? "
A Division G contestant even lodged a complaint. "What"s up with first place? There"s a problem! Someone must be faking votes!"
Someone from Division I shouted, "It"s a conspiracy!"
To increase so crazily to 110,000 votes in half an hour? Are we seeing a freaking ghost? That"s impossible! In the preliminaries from previous years, the first place, after three rounds of preliminaries, would only have votes that numbered in the tens of thousands, but now? This was just the first day of the preliminaries! How could there be such a heaven-defying vote counts?
This was a complete wipe out!
Then what the h.e.l.l are we here for? Just do it yourself. All of us can pack up and go home! The difference was too great!
However, many of the audience, who were in the know, were amused seeing these people lodging complaints and shouting about conspiracy theories. They began replying below in volumes as if they had agreed on it earlier.
"Hur Hur, person below, maintain formation."
"Hur Hur, person below, maintain formation."
"Hur Hur.."
A whole series of Hur Hur’s appeared with more than a hundred replies!
Finally, a "kind person" explained to them. "As to what happened, go take a look at "I am a Scholar", and you"ll know. Oh right, it"s not on the official website. You can only watch a pirated copy on another video website. Well, as for it being a conspiracy, all of you can probably guess correctly. There is indeed a conspiracy, but it is one of banning. Take a look at the votes for the two "nameless people". They actually received that many votes while under a complete ban. If they were not banned, the official website would have written their names. If their videos could be put up, I believe the number of votes they receive would be even higher!"
Number one on the rankings was just too eye-catching!
110,000 votes was too eye-catching!
Even though there was no name, with Central TV"s Department 11 concealing it somewhat, how could anyone who had voted for "Nameless" not know who they really were? Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai had really conquered all the members of the audience with their crosstalk performance. This was why they received such an overwhelming number of votes! It was because after watching "I am a Scholar", the audience found it hard to swallow any other crosstalk performance, even if they had liked them in the past! It was like the difference between a scud missile and a nuclear bomb! They were both bombs, but there was a qualitative difference! The latter led the former by leaps and bounds in terms of technology! Zhang Ye"s crosstalk was similar!
"First place!"
"Everyone is truly supportive!"
"Hahaha, there are so many people supporting Teacher Yao and Teacher Zhang?"
"That"s because everyone"s aesthetic standards are about the same. This first place is truly well deserved. There is no other way besides it. There is no room for doubt either!"
"I think some people"s faces are already swollen!"
"Those people who shouted daily, saying how Zhang Ye was doomed. Come on out and shout for me again! Despite being banned, Teacher Zhang Ye has been able to turn the tides and appear back in the eyes of our nation. He accomplished whatever needed to be done. What sort of heaven defying act is this!? So what if he’s banned? Teacher Zhang"s popularity still grows! He can still carry on dazzling in the entertainment industry!"
"Well said!"
"Zhang Ye won"t go down!"
"Teacher Zhang did not do anything wrong to begin with! Him being banned was unjustified! Now, all is fine. I"m really happy for Teacher Zhang Ye! Finally, he can vent the pent up anger in him!"
"Old Yao also suffered from injustice."
"Haha, I"m giving a Like to both Teachers!"
“Hold unyielding! No matter where the winds blow from! Just thinking of Teacher Zhang"s line in that poem, it"s uplifting! Teacher Zhang has not disappointed us! Well done!"
"The two of them were still tough despite knowing they were in a powerless situation. Even though they knew it was hard to go against the tides, they still shouted on stage, shouting their voice out for everyone to hear. Don"t you think it"s admirable? No matter how the outside world evaluates Zhang Ye, in my heart, Zhang Ye is a heroic warrior!"
"Heroes never fall!"
"Teacher Zhang, hold on!"
The tenacious "fight" Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai had performed touched many people. People began leaving messages and cheering for them!
......
In the overall rankings of the preliminaries, the votes for the nameless team kept soaring!
Even on the Celebrity Rankings, the situation where Tang Dazhang, who was nearly about to surpa.s.s Zhang Ye, was reversed. With this explosive increase, from the numbers in the detailed page, Zhang Ye"s rankings shot up in a straight line by three or four rankings. He was no longer the third from the bottom amongst C-list celebrities. As for Tang Dazhang, he was still hovering amidst the D-list celebrities. Every time he was about to catch up to Zhang Ye, no matter what, he would fail to do so. Now, with "I am a Scholar" released, Tang Dazhang"s hope for climbing into the C-list rankings was slim. As for thinking about surpa.s.sing Zhang Ye, it was probably much more realistic for him to surpa.s.s the lowest person on the C-list celebrities. After Zhang Ye"s crosstalk performance, the distance between him and Tang Dazhang increased even more!