Chapter 167: “Wishing We Last Forever” Turns Viral!
A few days later.
Zhang Ye made a call from his apartment.
“Hello, mom. Didn’t I borrow 50,000 from you and dad last time? I have the money now and I will transfer another 100,000 to you as well. Please use it as you wish. If you want to buy clothes, buy clothes. If you want jewelry, get jewelry. Don’t try to save; if you don’t have enough, let me know again.”
“Don’t worry. Mom doesn’t know much, but spending money is my specialty!”
“F**k, at least be more indirect about this.”
“Why do I need to be indirect with my own son? If I finish spending it all, I will just look for you. Oh, right. How did you get the money? Sold some copyright again? Or did you release another novel?”
“Sold a song to a popular Heavenly Queen.”
“What? My son even knows how to write songs? And even sold it off to a Heavenly Queen?”
“Yes, you know who I am. Let’s not talk about this, I need to go to work now. I’ve rested for quite a few days already.”
Zhang Ye had only just taught Wang Shuixin’s son a lesson a few days ago. To protect him, Hu Fei had given a few days off to let him stay home to wait until the matter had died down. But yesterday’s “Lecture Room” had already been broadcast up to the last recorded episode, so he had to go to the office to record a few more episodes.
Thinking about it, “Analysis of the Three Kingdoms” was almost done recording. Zhang Ye sometimes thought to himself, when the run of “Analysis of the Three Kingdoms” has ended, should he leave the television station as well? He might. Afterall, he had offended Wang Shuixin and his son greatly. Wang Shuixin would definitely not let the matter rest.
But from another point of view, Zhang Ye may not get sacked because the television station’s decisions did not lie entirely with Wang Shuixin alone. He was just a channel director and his son had, on multiple occasions, harassed the ladies in the television station. The first time, he got beaten up by Editor Wei. The second time, by Zhang Ye. This did not look good on Wang Shuixin. He would likely be questioned and affected greatly, too. It was his son, after all. He would be lucky if the television station did not discipline him as well.
If he dared to openly fire Zhang Ye, then it would be too obvious that he was getting revenge for his son. That would incite the masses’ anger, so it wasn’t likely that he would dare to do it. Zhang Ye’s “Analysis of the Three Kingdoms” was also the star segment of their local channel that broke 8% in ratings. Even if Wang Shuixin’s relationship with the Leader was good, the television station’s Leader would still have to consider it very carefully.
Anything was possible.
Zhang Ye did not think too much; he wasn’t afraid of anyone. Wang Shuixin wanted to wear small-sized shoes? Then, he will pick up those shoes and throw it at his face — This was Zhang Ye’s style!
At the most, he would quit. If this place could not keep a lord, there was definitely a place that could!
But then, what would come after the springboard that is the television station? Zhang Ye still did not know.
……
Morning.
Beijing Television Station.
When Zhang Ye arrived, there was a lot of commotion and discussion among the staff immediately.
“Hey, Zhang Ye is here.”
“It’s really him.”
“I thought that he had quit already.”
“He was standing up for someone. Why should he quit?”
“But the person he offended was Director Wang. He will have a difficult time in the future. The management will deal with him, sooner or later. Sigh. Just look at Uncle Wei as an example.”
“That’s true. Uncle Wei was such a good man, but Wang Shuixin still did not let him off.”
“But Teacher Zhang Ye’s program is one the station’s top programs, I don’t think anyone dares to touch him.”
“That’s not necessarily true. I think that we should observe the situation before saying anything.”
At this moment, no one greeted Zhang Ye. Everyone became friendly towards him because the news of him saving his fan’s life. But now, after the latest incident, many people did not dare to go near him, afraid that they would get into trouble if they stayed too close to him. They knew that Wang Shuixin was the one calling the shots at the Arts Channel. And even at the station level, he had a lot of influence because he was close to the station’s Leader. Of course, staying away from Zhang Ye was just surface behaviour. Everyone knew that Zhang Ye had beaten up Wang Shuixin’s son and they felt good about it. They were having better and better impressions of Zhang Ye in their hearts.
Zhang Ye was not bothered. He was used to being snubbed by others in the past. The label of a jinx was not for nothing. This was the norm to him, so he just walked on as usual.
On the way, there were some discussions that caught the his attention. They did not see Zhang Ye, and they were just having a conversation.
“Did you listen to any music last night?”
“I’ve not listened to any in the past month. There’s no good music recently.”
“You don’t know about it? Zhang Yuanqi has released a new song; it’s a single!”
“Oh. I watch all of Sister Zhang’s movies; they’re classics! But her songs… I stopped listening to them three years ago. They were getting quite bad.”
“Haha. Then you should go and listen to the new song that was released online yesterday. It’s called ‘Wishing We Last Forever’. It’s not just the normal kind of good we’re talking about!”
“Are you sure?”
“Who heard ‘Wishing We Last Forever’? I listened to it, too! It’s great!”
“Yeah, I randomly heard it last night. In the end, I liked it so much that I played it over and over for two hours. I fell asleep while listening to it!”
“Me, too. Sister Zhang is making a comeback this time in the music industry with this song. Her popularity in music had dropped in the past. But this time, she’s definitely going to get all her popularity back!”
“It’s really that good? Let me listen to it on my phone. I’ll search for it… Oh, these song lyrics… Why do they look so familiar? Like I’ve seen it somewhere… Let me see who wrote the song lyrics and melody. Oh, that’s not right. The lyrics were written and the melody composed by Zhang Ye? Who is that? Is there such a person in the industry?”
“Zhang Ye? Ah! I remember! Holy sh*t! Aren’t these lyrics that our Zhang Ye wrote for ‘Shuidiao Getou’!? If you don’t believe it, check it out! It’s exactly the same! The Heavenly Queen’s team bought the rights to his lyrics? That can’t be right. Then what about the melody!? Teacher Zhang Ye not only knows how to write lyrics, but he can compose melodies as well? How can he possibly know how to compose melodies? And even such a wonderful melody… ”
“Same names?”
“The lyricist coincidentally has the same name as the melody composer? How can it be so coincidental?”
“If it was a case of same names, they would surely indicate that, wouldn’t they? But there’s no indication here!”
“Holy sh*t, it was really made by Zhang Ye? He knows how to write novels, write poetry, can talk about history, write fairy tales, create advertisements and even compose songs?”
“What a godly person!”
“Yes, this kind of talent should really be called a godly person!”
……
At the office.
Zhang Ye walked in smiling, “Morning, everyone. Long time, no see!”
Xiao Lu jumped up as soon as she saw him, “Teacher Zhang! You’re finally here! We were having a discussion! Heavenly Queen Zhang’s ‘Wishing We Last Forever’, was that composed by you?”
Hou Ge anxiously asked, “Is it, Teacher Zhang?”
“The lyrics and melody are by you?” Dafei said unbelievingly.
Zhang Ye walked to his office desk, “It was composed by me. The song’s not too bad, eh?”
“It’s really by you?” Xiao Lu was shocked, “It wasn’t ‘not bad’! It was so great that it’s explosive! I’ve already downloaded it to my phone to listen to it! I listened to it the whole of last night. This morning, I happened to see the lyricist and melody composer and realised it was credited to Zhang Ye! Only then did I remember that I saw that winning ‘Shuidiao Getou’ of yours at the Mid-Autumn Festival Poetry Meet! Then, I linked up two and two! I can’t believe this! How do you know how to compose?”
Zhang Ye brushed it off, “I was feeling inspired, so I wrote it for them. It was my lyrics, after all. My understanding of them was naturally deeper than theirs.”
At this moment, Hu Fei entered the office.
Xiao Lu immediately said, “Brother Hu, did you know? Teacher Zhang wrote a song! It’s super nice!”
Hu Fei did not keep up with the music industry, “There’s such a thing? Where is it? Let me have a listen!”
“Let me get it for you.” Xiao Lu took out her mobile phone, then clicked on the song to play it.
Upon listening, Hu Fei was also extremely surprised, “Little Zhang, you really are blooming in all directions now!”
Zhang Ye said, “No, I just blindly composed it. They were asking me for help, and I didn’t want to reject them. My main responsibilities are still towards TV hosting.”
Hu Fei laughed, “Hur hur. Don’t try that with me. The more famous you become, the better it is for our program ratings. I can’t be any happier.” Looking at his watch, Hu Fei said, “Alright, we still have a lot of work to do today. Everyone, go get ready. In an hour, we will begin recording. If Teacher Zhang has no problems, we might record for the entire day. Be prepared, everyone.”
“Okay.”
“No problem, Brother Hu.”
“Leave it to us!”
Everyone got busy.
Since Zhang Ye did not require any preparation work, he looked through the work from the past few days that he wasn’t here for. Then, he went online to read news about “Wishing We Last Forever”.
“Heavenly Queen Zhang’s new single released! – Topped charts overnight!”
“Only ten hours since its release, ‘Wishing We Last Forever’ has received 1.3 million hits! ”
“After an absence of two years, Zhang Yuanqi’s new song, ‘Wishing We Last Forever’, has let everyone know that she has returned!”
The headlines were different, but the contents were all similar. Zhang Ye felt that a review by a blogger hit the sweet spot, “No one had expected anything from Zhang Yuanqi for her new single. Industry insiders have all agreed that the Heavenly Queen has been stagnating for two to three years, her fans ever-decreasing. But with the release of ‘Wishing We Last Forever’ yesterday, everyone still gave it a try as usual.
Why? Maybe there wasn’t a reason. Even though no one expected much, even though the Heavenly Queen’s works over the past two years have been disappointing, just because she is Zhang Yuanqi, just this name alone would have made everyone listen to her song. I’m one such person, too. But when I was about to prepare to write my criticisms of it, the song had immediately attracted me with the first two phrases. What came next was needless to say. I continuously listened to it on repeat ten times before I wrote this review. I don’t know how I should express my feelings now, but I would like to shout out what I feel inside: The Heavenly Queen who ruled the charts for eight months back then.. is finally back!”