I’m Really a Superstar

Several days later.

Several photographs were published in the news.

“Zhang Ye arrives back at Beijing!”

“Zhang Ye and his team show up together at the capital’s airport!”

“The Heavenly King’s team regrouped?”

“Sending out a clear signal: Zhang Ye to take a shot again at the entertainment circle!”

“In the entertainment circle now, could there still be a place for Zhang Ye?”

“Has this Heavenly King become a thing of the past? Can he still take on the industry?”

Some media outlets and television stations even did man-on-the-street interviews on this topic.

A reporter asked, “Do you know who Zhang Ye is?”

A girl around the age of thirteen said, “Zhang Ye? I don’t know who that is, but I think I’ve heard my parents mention that name before.”

The same reporter asked, “What’s your opinion of Zhang Ye’s return to the entertainment circle?”

A young man in his 20s said, “I’m not optimistic of his chances. Zhang Ye, Zhang Yuanqi, Ning Lan, Jiang Hanwei, everyone’s memories of that era’s stars are becoming fuzzier and fuzzier these days. The Heavenly Kings and Queens from back then are all old now. The only person left from that generation who’s still active in the public eye is Xu Meilan, right? But even Sister Lan can’t compare to her former glory days.”

The reporter asked, “Are you optimistic about Zhang Ye’s return?”

An auntie in her 60s said, “Zhang Ye? I liked him a lot in the past. If he were to make a comeback, I would surely pay attention to it. I just wonder if he is still as capable as before after so many years away. After all, he should probably be quite affected having been locked up in jail for so many long. Hai, everyone prefers the young, hot stars these days. They are young and beautiful, with an innocent outlook and are untainted by the industry, so I think most people wouldn’t really care about Zhang Ye’s return. The world’s most dangerous hacker in a hundred years, the entertainment industry’s hooligan of the yesteryears, none of his nicknames portray a positive image, so why would anyone still acknowledge him? I don’t know, I suppose we’ll have to see what kind of work he comes up with.”

…

Beijing.

In a sedan that was traveling on the highway back from the airport.

Zhang Ye gazed at the city from the inside like he was a country bumpkin.

He asked, “Eh, where has the shopping mall gone?”

Ha Qiqi replied, “They tore it down long ago.”

Zhang Ye asked, “Wasn’t there a movie theater here in the past?”

Zhang Zuo said, “It’s moved away. They shifted to Dongcheng ¹ .”

Zhang Ye said, “Whoa, the changes are so big? I can’t even recognize the roads anymore.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Yeah, the changes that happened over the past few years are indeed not small.”

Little Wang said, “Director Zhang, you have to call us along the next time you go out. Otherwise, you’re gonna lose your way, and we won’t be able to locate you.”

Everyone had a laugh.

Zhang Zuo asked, “So when do we start work?”

Zhang Ye thought about it. “Tomorrow, I guess?”

Zhang Zuo said, “Alright, we’ll go and make the necessary arrangements then.”

Zhang Ye said, “Is our studio still around?”

Ha Qiqi shook her head. “That’s something I really don’t know about. We haven’t been in contact with Sister Rao these three years. After your incident, the studio staff disbanded.”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “How much money do we have left?”

Little Wang gave a bitter smile. “You’re out of your mind. There’s not even a single cent left.”

Zhang Ye exclaimed, “Ah? We’re that poor?”

Ha Qiqi laughed as she explained, “We didn’t pocket the money for ourselves, just to be clear. After your court sentence, quite a few advertisers and business partners came over to request compensation due to your breaking of the contract. Whether it was for your previous endorsements or the other projects that you had taken, the terms were not up yet, so there was no way for us to argue with them on that. After all, we didn’t fulfill our part of the contract, so we could only dip into the studio’s funds to pay them off. When we realized that there wasn’t enough money left, all of us planned to split the debt among ourselves and were prepared to fork out 200,000 RMB. However, your wife did not agree to it. Chief Wu said that this was your family’s own matter and that we shouldn’t have to dip into our own pockets for it. In the end, we didn’t really end up helping much at all.”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “There shouldn’t be any reason for you guys to do that anyway.”

Zhang Zuo complained, “That’s why money is a problem for us right now.”

Zhang Ye smiled. “Take it slow. We’ll slowly come up with a way to solve that. As long as everyone is around, nothing will be too difficult to handle.”

Ha Qiqi also smiled and said, “Right, we also started with nothing back then, and we still managed to turn the entertainment circle upside down. What we are going through is just a matter of starting from scratch again. There will surely be difficulties along the way, and the road ahead will be tough, but as long as we people are around, there’s nothing that can’t be solved. On the day we found out that you were back, we thought this through. The first shot that we make with your return will definitely have to be well-taken. It will have to be with a bang and executed as beautifully as we can pull it off. This is of the utmost priority for us!”

Zhang Ye said, “That’s what I think too.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Many netizens are saying that this is now the era of the young stud celebrities, and that someone like you is a thing of the past. But I don’t think that’s true. Our popularity back then was really high, so it’s impossible that it would just disappear like that. There’s just no reason for that. The only problem is that we’ve been away for too long, so a lot of people have started forgetting about your glory days. The thing that we have to do right now is to invoke the memories of everyone and to gather former fans. If we can really find an entry point and have something to propel us back in, I believe that it won’t take much effort at all. All we might need is a new work from you for us to regain our past glory. At that time, we can tell the world that we’re back, that the Heavenly King has returned, and that he is still the same Heavenly King he was before!”

Zhang Ye mumbled to himself, “Heavenly King?” Then he said, “An employee called me yesterday to ask if I wanted to renew my popularity rank. What do you guys think?”

Ha Qiqi immediately said, “I don’t suggest that we renew your rank at this time.”

Zhang Zuo agreed, “Right, we must not renew the rank at this time. It’s been close to four years, so no one knows what position you might be at right now. No, I should say that your rank is probably very low. Since that’s the case, why don’t we ignore the international and Asian celebrity rankings for now? We should recharge and regain our popularity before we think about this matter again.”

Zhang Ye nodded. “Alright.”

Zhang Zuo said, “Starting tomorrow, we will begin reaching out for partnerships and seeking cooperation.”

Wu Yi said, “Right, let’s pull off another big one!”

Little Wang said, “Long live Zhang Ye’s Studio!”

Everyone was full of fighting spirit.

…

Up ahead.

They had reached Zhang Ye’s place.

Ha Qiqi and the others bade them farewell and drove off. Wu Zeqing had gotten her secretary to send Zhang Ye’s grandparents, her parents, and the others back to their respective homes, while Zhang Ye’s parents and Wu Zeqing took another vehicle back here. They had arrived first and were already out in the yard unloading their luggage.

Zhang Ye went forward to help them.

The house was still the same old house, but once on the inside, the interior couldn’t be more beautiful.

Zhang Ye was taken aback. “Whoa, did you renovate the place?”

Wu Zeqing smiled. “I got it renovated last year. You like it?”

Zhang Ye said, “It’s grand; it’s really beautiful.”

Sisi ran up and reached out to him. “Daddy, carry me.”

Zhang Ye dotingly picked her up. “What is it?”

Sisi pointed upstairs. “I wanna show you my room. It’s really pretty.”

Zhang Ye kissed her. “Alright, bring Daddy to have a look around.”

Once upstairs, he stuck his head into every room to have a look.

Zhang Ye felt an indescribable warmth in his soul. Coming home again after so long was very difficult to put into words. Everything looked great to him, and all of it made him very happy.

Wu Zeqing came over at this time.

“This is your study. I refurbished it for you, and you can draw in here if you like. It’s also soundproofed with new panels that I got added in. You won’t hear anything on the outside when you’re inside. In the future, you can have more peace while you’re working.”

“That’s good.”

“And here’s the master bedroom. I think you’d like the decor, so I got people to do it up that way. Look, how’s this table? If you’re tired, you can also lie down in bed to work. The table is adjustable and can be pulled in or out. It’s pretty convenient.”

“Yes, that’s really good.”

“We actually have a basement at home as well, but I’ve never used it before. It’s not a big area though, so I’ve never furnished the interior. I thought that you’d find it useful after you got back, so I renovated it as well. It’s been turned into a recording studio, so you can sing and record at home. But it’s just that I haven’t been able to get the equipment in time. I thought you’d be back after another few years, so I didn’t get around to buying them. You can tell me what kind of equipment you need. I can get my secretary to handle it.”

Everything that could be thought of was already planned for him by his wife.

Zhang Ye had a fuzzy feeling in his heart. “The studio will be announcing the news of my comeback tomorrow. Old Wu, do you think I’ve become old?”

Wu Zeqing smiled and rubbed the corners of his eyes. “Do you think you’ve become old just because you have a few more wrinkles? Rest easy and go do what needs to be done. Let everyone judge for themselves whether you’re old or not.”