On the eve of the Spring Festival.
Zhang Ye"s maternal grandma"s house.
The sound of firecrackers going off outside was heard all around as every household decorated their homes with lanterns and streamers.
By the time Zhang Ye drove there and arrived, it was already evening and the sky had turned dark.
His third sister went up to the door. "Brother, why did you just arrive?"
"Wow, our brother is here!" His second sister also ran over.
His third aunt opened the door for him. "Little Ye, come in quickly. We were just talking about you!"
Zhang Ye smiled and greeted, "Third Aunt."
His third aunt said. "I still haven"t thanked you for getting Mengmeng such a good cell phone and even got her to bring me a cosmetics set. Thank you so much, Little Ye."
Zhang Ye sighed, "Why are you still being so polite with me?"
His mother emerged from the living room and asked, "Didn"t you say you"d be busy today?"
Zhang Ye laughed and replied, "I"ve finished all my work and the routine has been confirmed as well. There"s only the live broadcast left tomorrow, so I decided to come back to celebrate the New Year with everyone. Whoa, there"s this much food? We"re not eating yet?"
His grandma said, "We"ll start very soon."
"Grandma, Grandpa, happy New Year to the two of you." Zhang Ye put down the two boxes of Brain Gold in his hands. These were from the previous time that Wu Mo had given the health supplements to him. He had kept them in his car"s trunk ever since. It made it convenient for him to give them out wherever he went, so he didn"t have to worry about not being able to bring any gifts if he suddenly visited someone.
His first uncle and aunt, second uncle and aunt…
Zhang Ye made the rounds to give his New Year"s greetings to them. By the time he was done with everything, his throat had gotten extremely dry. So he sat down and drank a sip of tea. "Has the Spring Festival Gala started yet?"
His eldest sister looked at her watch and smiled. "There"s still half an hour till it starts."
His third sister suddenly said, "Brother, have you seen the newly posted statement by Central TV"s Spring Festival Gala?"
Zhang Ye was taken aback. "What new statement?"
His second sister held up the cell phone Zhang Ye had given to her and showed him. "Here."
"I was busy at Beijing TV all day today and didn"t keep myself updated on anything. Let me see." Zhang Ye lowered his head and looked, then read the netizen"s comments as well before understanding what was going on.
Due to a not so good overall audience satisfaction for last year"s Spring Festival Gala which had invited a Korean celebrity, an incident where Zhang Yuanqi"s and Zhang Xia"s performance was sc.r.a.pped, topped with the language performances being unfunny, as this year"s Spring Festival Gala approached, more and more people started criticizing the show and had very low expectations for this year"s Spring Festival Gala. It ended up with the Spring Festival Gala production team issuing an official statement on Weibo after getting provoked by all those negative comments. They said that there had been someone with ulterior motives who was trying to ruin the Spring Festival Gala and so on in recent times, and that they would not dismiss the possibility of using the law to defend their interests.
Someone with ulterior motives? They were clearly talking about Zhang Ye!
However, after this statement was published on the official Weibo account, the netizens started criticizing even harder!
"They"re talking about Zhang Ye, right?"
"How many days has that incident been? Why are they still pulling it out to talk about it?"
"Pfft, why do you all keep pinning the blame on Zhang Ye? Everyone is saying that there is a problem with the performances and don"t find them enjoyable to watch, so that already says that the problem lies with the Spring Festival Gala production team! Why are you guys finding fault with Zhang Ye?"
"Why is it that when something happens, Central TV will always blame it on Zhang Ye? Isn"t he one of your hosts?!"
"What does the criticism of the Spring Festival Gala have to do with Zhang Ye? Didn"t he only perform a satirical crosstalk many days ago?! Do you guys need to resort to using legal action on that? Don"t forget that Teacher Zhang is also a lawyer himself, so think about who you"re suing! Did you beat him in the previous lawsuit to begin with? At that time, Zhang Ye had utterly destroyed your Central TV legal team all by himself!"
"Everyone has been criticizing the Spring Festival Gala for many years. It"s already become a form of entertainment in itself. Why are you guys s.h.i.+fting the blame to Zhang Ye now? How many times has Teacher Zhang been shot even though he"s just lying there and doing nothing!"
"I"ve come to realize that the current Central TV organization is becoming very interesting. When a show doesn"t do well, it"s Zhang Ye"s fault. When a show does well, it"s Zhang Ye"s fault. Now that someone over here is scolding them, it"s the fault of Zhang Ye too. When someone over there criticizes them about their performance lineup, it"s still Zhang Ye"s fault. Pfft, Teacher Zhang will never be any good no matter what!"
"Go on and fight it out, the contract won"t last much longer anyway."
"I"ve been following Teacher Zhang"s conflict with Central TV for half a year now, but I"m still not bored of watching it! Haha!"
At home.
His second sister put down the phone. "Know what happened now?"
Zhang Ye threw his hands up and laughed. "Why am I involved again?"
His second uncle said, "They are totally targeting you now."
"That lousy Spring Festival Gala, I"m never watching it again in the future!" his grandma grunted.
But Zhang Ye said happily, "Don"t be like that. I wasn"t actually planning to watch it, but since the Spring Festival Gala production team has given that statement, then I"ll definitely watch it closely. This bro will take on the role of that "someone with ulterior motives" as they said!" He had been worried that he wouldn"t have anything to keep him occupied this Spring Festival Eve, but somehow this had happened.
I was the one who led the criticism against you guys?
Alright then, this bro will take the lead all the way to the end!
At Central TV.
At the Spring Festival Gala venue, everyone was busy with their a.s.signed jobs!
"Counting down to the last ten minutes!"
"It"s about to begin!"
"Camera 3, try it again!"
"Lighting Team 7, get the lights in sync! What are you doing! Hurry up!"
"Where are the hosts? Why are they still at the bathroom at this time! Call them back now!"
The executive director gave his orders. Xu Yipeng and the other a.s.sistant directors also went about taking charge of their responsibilities. They all felt nervous while waiting in antic.i.p.ation for today"s Spring Festival Gala to begin. They were nervous because this was going to be a live broadcast and there couldn"t be any screwups. Their antic.i.p.ation was due to their satisfaction of their planned performances for this Spring Festival Gala that they wanted to present quickly to the audience and to let the higher-ups see that they could beautifully finish the job the organization entrusted to them.
The hosts were on standby.
Chen Ye made some last-minute adjustments to his red suit and looked very high-spirited. He was going to step onto this wonderful stage again today after Rise to the Dance had slipped in the ratings and popularity toward the end of its broadcast, which had affected his individual popularity greatly. Such a large-scale talent show had not helped him gain much popularity at all, so Chen Ye had definitely failed his objectives this past year. He had lost to Zhang Ye by too much. But that was fine, because Chen Ye still had the stage of Central TV"s Spring Festival Gala. This was something that Zhang Ye could never compare with, in his opinion. With the current relations.h.i.+p between Zhang Ye and Central TV, it was definitely impossible that Zhang Ye would ever have the chance to stand on this stage. And so, on this day, Chen Ye needed to present his best side to continue consolidating his position in the industry!
They were all looking forward to the Spring Festival Gala quite a lot!
Online.
The netizens were also getting prepared.
"It"s about to begin!"
"Let"s see how this year will turn out!"
"I actually still have some antic.i.p.ation for it."
"It"s almost time to start our criticism. It"s time for us flamers to step forward!"
"Haha, I"m here!"
"Watching the Spring Festival Gala these days, it seems like criticizing the show is more enjoyable than watching it!"
"Yeah, we created quite a number of jokes about last year"s show, so let"s see which flamer will excel for this year"s show!"
"Today is the once-in-a-year stage for us flamers!"
"I"m on standby!"
"Flamer #3 is here as well!"
"Flamer #11 reporting for flaming!"
"My large saber is again again again again again again again again again again again again again again again again again unable to endure the thirst!"
Countless flamers were gearing up and silently counting down to the start of the show!