Chapter 1202: Project Proposal: Reach the Summit!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
The mid-autumn festivities weren't over yet.
It was the last day of the public holidays 1 for the Mid-Autumn Festival. At noon, Zhang Ye celebrated the festival at his maternal grandma's place. Right after they finished lunch, his three sisters started pestering him with questions.
His second sister stamped her feet. "Brother, are you going to tell us or not!"
His eldest younger sister blinked. "Just who is our sister-in-law?"
His third sister said, "Brother, we're gonna get angry if you don't tell us!"
Zhang Ye laughed heartily. "Another time, I'll tell you guys another time."
"Then write a song for us to make up for hurting our feelings," his second sister said.
Zhang Ye said annoyed, "Write what song?"
His third sister said, "A song to praise your little sisters."
His eldest young sister nodded. "Heehee, good idea."
So Zhang Ye ad-libbed, "Sister, you ride on the prow / Brother will pull you along… ai, this song doesn't sound right." He changed songs and sang again, "Sister, bravely march forward / Keep marching and don't look back… ai, this isn't right either." After he sung those two songs 2 , he suddenly realized that these two songs had practically nothing to do with blood-related sisters.
Then, Zhang Ye's cell phone rang.
It was from the studio.
Little Wang said: "Boss, the project proposal has been completed!"
Zhang Ye said: "Aren't you all taking a break over the holidays?"
"You've only given us a few months to reach your target, so who would have the time to go on a break? Every one of us has been putting in overtime to get the proposal out. We're just waiting for you to look at it."
Zhang Ye laughed and said: "Alright, you've all put in a lot of good work. I'll be right over."
"OK, we'll be waiting for you." Little Wang hung up.
Zhang Ye turned around and said, "OK, I've got to go."
In the living room, his maternal grandma asked, "Where to? You're not staying for dinner?"
"I can't, Grandma. I still have some work waiting for me at the studio and will probably be very busy over the next few days. You and Grandpa have to pay attention to your health, alright? If there's anything, just give me a call. I'll be off now." Zhang Ye bade farewell to his grandparents and patted his little sisters on the head before hurrying downstairs.
…
In the afternoon.
At Zhang Ye's Studio.
It was pretty packed as everyone had squeezed into the conference room.
Zhang Zuo took out a copy of the proposal. "Director Zhang, please have a look."
"Alright." Zhang Ye took it from him and browsed through it. "Who wrote this?"
Ha Qiqi smiled and said, "Basically of us discussed it before coming up with it together."
The proposal had a very ambitious title. As Zhang Ye had set his sights on the very top seven spots of the entertainment industry's pyramid, the proposal was titled: Reach the Summit. It was even emblazoned in English at the bottom. They kept it locked up in the safe before Zhang Ye's arrival, and everything done until now made it feel like they were handling the American government's Apollo project with all the secrecy surrounding it.
Zhang Ye skimmed through it and felt quite satisfied with the proposal. In the past, he had always been battling alone and would often do as he liked, or flip-flop on his decisions as he wished. He relied only on instinct for everything he did, including his work. But it was different now. With a team, his work productivity increased since there were more people helping him handle all kinds of issues and projects.
"Very good." Zhang Ye nodded.
Zhang Zuo said, "Then shall I briefly outline the proposal guidelines?"
Interested, Zhang Ye said, "Sure."
Zhang Zuo bluntly said, "Actually, we aren't very confident about completing our 'Reach the Summit' plan, because every step we highlighted is rather difficult to achieve. Rather than calling it a proposal, it might be better to say that these are milestones. But since we're trying to take one of the seven spots, the proposal was written in a more idealistic manner. What's more, all of the steps highlighted have to be achieved to realize the plan. If anything is missed, there won't be a chance of bringing the plan to fruition. This proposal was written with us bravely aiming for the unthinkable."
Zhang Ye gave a smile and said, "That's how it should be done. We shouldn't be afraid to fail, but we should be afraid of not daring to dream."
Zhang Zuo heaved a sigh of relief at Zhang Ye's acknowledgment. He was really afraid that Zhang Ye would reject the proposal as it was too "absurd" in nature. He said, "For the first step of the 'Reach the Summit' plan, we hope that you take home the most coveted domestic literary award that will be announced in the next few days, the Yanhong Literary Prize."
The Yanhong Literary Prize was named after a person.
It was one of the three most coveted awards in the literary world and the winners were chosen once every four years.
Zhang Zuo said, "As we all know, awards weigh heavily in the Celebrity Rankings Index. In the calculation of a celebrity's popularity score, awards contribute in large part. What's more, this is one of the most coveted awards in the literary world, so it means even more. The effects of receiving it would be very positive, so you must get it. Although another top prize called the Qilu Literature Prize will be awarded very soon, that award is more skewed towards longer works like full-length novels and similar works. You don't have a chance of winning that one since you don't have any full-length novels, as Ghost Blows Out the Light isn't considered traditional literature. But it's different for the Yanhong Literary Prize, which is targeted more towards poetry and prose. You're definitely one of the hot favorites to win this award that will be given out to five people in total. Logically speaking, you have the best hopes of winning, because in the field of poetry, be it the quality or the number of works produced in the last four years, no one should be able to compete with you."
Ha Qiqi took out an invitation letter. "This was the fax our studio received this morning, sent over by the people from the Yanhong Literary Prize committee. They've included you in the list of nominees, which number 30 candidates in total. We've also compiled the list for you. The final results will be based on the votes given by the judges."
The most coveted literary award?
He really hadn't won an award like that before.
Zhang Ye said while looking through the list, "Alright."
Wu Yi said, "But there are a lot of variables."
Zhang Zuo agreed, "What we just talked about was based on the best possible outcome of our predictions and analysis. The greatest variable in this is your relationship with the literary world. You've never gotten along with them, nor have you been a member of the Writers' Association or any literary organizations. All this time, you've always been doing your own thing outside of the system, so I'm afraid that'll inherently affect your scores. After our final analysis, we came to the conclusion that your best chance of winning is 50/50. It's all going to be down to luck."
Of those in the top seven spots, their greatest difference with Zhang Ye was that they had a lot of distinctions. With so many distinctions, it meant they accumulated a lot of popularity. All of them had so many awards to their names that you could just pick one of them and they would easily have multiple honors, such as being the kings or queens of the silver screen or the equivalent. All of the highest honors were basically a dime a dozen to them. The reason why those seven people were so popular was that they had all the highest honors and awards, which added to their popularity. If Zhang Ye wanted to take one of their spots, he couldn't lose out on this aspect. He had already won the most coveted awards in hosting, mathematics, variety and documentary shows, but he had almost no achievements in the literary field that he was most famous for. In a way, this was really quite unacceptable.
He could only try to fight for it. This most coveted award in the literary field was incredibly valuable. Be it popularity, fame, or qualifications, it would undoubtedly be a huge help to Zhang Ye's quest in trying to reach the summit!
Zhang Ye said, "This is good. You guys only need to think of the plan, not how it's realized. No matter what the chances are, that's my business. You just need to be responsible for planning and leave the execution to me."
"How impressive, Director Zhang!"
"Understood!"
"I'll go and contact the media!"
"It's time to publicize this."
"I'll go and liaise with the judging panel!"
Everyone felt determined to complete the first step in the "Reach the Summit" plan!
1. In China, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated over a designated three-day public holiday.
2. 1st song from A Burlak's Love and 2nd song from the TV series Red Sorghum.