Chapter 80: This World’s Celebrity Rankings!
The second day, Saturday.
It was entering Autumn, so the temperature was cool and pleasant.
Today was a rest day. But even if it was not a weekend, Zhang Ye had to take a “long vacation”. After leaving the radio station, he was now a free man.
The phone rang.
Zhang Ye did not pick it up the first time, as he was sleeping soundly.
However, the phone kept ringing nonstop, giving Zhang Ye a headache.
He could only yawn as he grabbed the cellphone on the table, “Hello. Who’s this?”
“Who do you think is it?” It was Mom’s voice, “Why are you still sleeping? It’s already 9+! And I want to ask you, what is this matter that is written in the newspapers? How did a rotten kid like you offend his Leader again? If you took the Silver Microphone Award, so be it! It’s such a good thing! Even a person who doesn’t know your industry like me knows about the award! It’s very valuable! But what did you say for your acceptance speech!? Do you still want to work at your unit?”
Zhang Ye said sleepily, “I don’t want to.”
“What did you say?” Mom turned worried.
“I already resigned yesterday. My wages have also been settled.” Zhang Ye told his Mom.
Mom was angry from worry, “You finally managed to find a job and you were doing well! Why did you quit!? Are you dumb!? That is the Beijing Radio Station! An institution! Where can you find a better place than that in the future? Who would want you with your looks?”
Zhang Ye gave a helpless laughter, “Mom, I’ve already resigned. I will have no future staying there. Let me rest a few days. After that, I’ll go look for other units.”
Mom was rejected, “No, immediately take back your resignation letter!”
“Mom…” Zhang Ye was at a loss of whether to laugh or to cry, “Don’t worry. My next unit will definitely be better than this. And it has to be much better. I assure you.”
“No way!” Mom was angry.
However, Dad’s voice came from over the phone. Zhang Ye only heard him say lightly, “Our son has grown up. He has his own plans, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“How can I not be worried!? Now all our relatives know my son is a small celebrity in the radio station. With him quitting, how can I keep bragging in the future?” Mom was quite frank.
Zhang Ye was amused, “Alright, Mom. Let’s end it here. I’m hanging up.”
After putting down the cellphone, he could no longer fall back asleep. He got up and used the computer and watched the news.
Indeed, there were many forum discussions on the Silver Microphone Awards ceremony yesterday online. Zhang Ye’s Weibo had been @ crazily, with a barrage of notification sounds!
“I love this ‘Dead Water’ too much!”
“Every work of Teacher Zhang Ye is earth-shaking!”
“Haha. It is a delight to hear and see! Teacher Zhang Ye also can get mad! So addicting!”
“Well-cursed! The institutional abuse is too much nowadays! Only Teacher Zhang Ye dares to stand up and speak out!”
“Did you notice that Teacher Zhang’s Weibo’s verification has changed to ‘Former Beijing Radio Station Literature Channel famous radio host’. Was Teacher Zhang fired?”
“He wasn’t fired. I heard my insider friends say that he had resigned by himself.”
“So what if he quits. There’s no need to be attached to such a Dead Water unit. Teacher Zhang, you still have us. No matter where you go, we will support you!”
“Well-said! Supporting Zhang Ye!”
“All limbs up in the air while rolling on the floor to support!”
“A single ‘Dead Water’ has sounded the words in people’s hearts. Yes, it is clearly Dead Water filled with metal scraps and leftover food, yet it pretends to be elegant. This is the state of many of our units. It reeks of death, with the Devil proliferating it. On Monday, when I was at work, I really wanted to be like Teacher Zhang Ye, shouting at my unit’s Leader, ‘One may as well let the Devil cultivate it, and see what kind of world he will create’, but I couldn’t do it. I still have a family to feed. I do not dare to lose my job. I do not have Teacher Zhang Ye’s boldness and courage, so after listening to that poem, I have made a decision. From today onwards, I will be a hard-core fan of Teacher Zhang Ye and will never change until death!”
“Will never change until death+1!”
“Will never change until death+28!”
This work of Zhang Ye had brought him quite a number of white-collar worker fans online!
“Dead Water” had gone completely viral online. Not only was the poem well-written, the special background gave it additional fame. That was the Silver Microphone Awards ceremony. This made “Dead Water” even more legendary, as people enjoyed talking about it!
Weibo forwards!
Forum clicks!
The publication in newspapers!
The transmission of the award ceremony’s broadcast!
Zhang Ye’s popularity had once again increased slightly. Maybe it did not have much influence on people outside the circle, but it was shocking inside. Many people in the industry already knew of Zhang Ye’s name!
The comments and replies seen previously were mostly yesterday’s.
Suddenly, the fan, “ZhangYeNumber1Fan”, who spared no effort in supporting Zhang Ye, @-ed him. A new Weibo post was published with a picture.
“Wow, quick look at the Celebrity Rankings!”
“Godly Number1, what’s the matter?”
“Didn’t I attach a picture? Can’t you see it?”
“Ah, I see it! Holy ****! Teacher Zhang Ye has become an E-list celebrity!”
“Is that true? It’s really true! Congratulations, Teacher Zhang Ye. You deserve it!”
“Citizens of the Hebei province send their congratulations. Congratulating Teacher Zhang on making a new high!”
“There aren’t many people who become E-list celebrities just from writing poems and making radio programs, right? You can count them with your fingers; there’s definitely not more than 20 people!”
“Awesome!”
“Teacher Zhang is impressive!”
They were all very lively and excited.
However, when Zhang Ye saw this, he was confused. E-list celebrity? Celebrity Rankings? What and what? Zhang Ye knew he was still unfamiliar with this world. For example, his previous world did not have the Silver Microphone Awards. Hence with an open mind, he clicked the link everyone gave into the Celebrity Rankings’ official website. Upon seeing it, he was shocked. Holy ****. He had originally thought that it was someone’s personal website or some forum, but when he saw the organizing unit of the website, he was dumbfounded. It was the News, Publication & Broadcast Bureau!
This was an official authoritative website?
There were even official announcements for Celebrity Rankings?
He had initially thought it was fake. He quickly checked the website’s cooperating units. There was the National Writers’ Association, Directors’ Union, Editors’ Association, China Film Group Corporation, etc. Zhang Ye knew it was not fake. After a series of searches and inquiries, Zhang Ye finally manage to understand what this Celebrity Rankings was all about. This ranking was standardized internationally, and was not only effective domestically. It had a certain amount of authority even internationally. As for the ranking criteria and choices, they were partially done manually, but a large portion of it was calculated through a statistical formula. It was valid worldwide. The entire world also used this formula to give a celebrity a ranking based on his overall abilities, influence and popularity. It was most authoritative, unlike any other!
In Zhang Ye’s world, there were also rankings for celebrities.
For example an international B-list celebrity, or a domestic S-list celebrity.
But over there, this ranking had no fixed formula, nor was it conclusive. It was beauty in the eyes of the beholder. It only counted if a large number of people acknowledged it. It was comparatively fuzzy. For example, some celebrity may be considered as an A-list celebrity by industry insiders, but many people would only think he was a B-list celebrity. There were also cases where people felt he was a B-list celebrity, but the professionals or other people would think that he was a C-list celebrity. Who do you listen to? What rank would this celebrity be? There was no certainty, because there were no clear boundaries!
But this world was different!
There were all sorts of scores and all sorts of rules. Over many years of refinement, a nearly-perfect set of judging rules were produced. It was acknowledged by official bodies and the people. Even other celebrities acknowledged it! It was no longer that troublesome to know a celebrity’s specs; one could get it from flipping through the Celebrity Rankings!
Domestically, there were seven rankings.
S-list, A-list, B-list, C-list, D-list, E-list.
The seventh rank was not called a F-list celebrity. In this world, they were collectively referred to as “public figures”.
After checking this out for a long time and taking a long time to absorb this information, Zhang Ye finally understood. The celebrity rankings between the two worlds were similar, but they also had their differences. For example, in Zhang Ye’s world, when an E-list celebrity was mentioned, it was just an adjective. There was no real E-list celebrity in his world. The meaning of E-list meant the lowest and most obscure celebrity. There were at most the A-list, B-list, C-list and D-list. Even D-list was not something many people acknowledged. There was a lot of controversy behind it. However, over in this world, it was clearly demarcated. An A-list was an A-list, an E-list was an E-list. There was no dispute!
There was another difference.
Maybe it was because this world’s entertainment industry was relatively more developed, where people crossed over more often. the rating score was an overall integrative score.
Notability was important.
Influence was important.
The fan cohesiveness strength was important.
The quality of the works were important.
Good works had to be produced over a long period of time, and had to not go out of fashion.
In general, no matter what industry one was in, the ranking depended on one’s overall ability!
For example, the authors, Han Han or Guo Jingming, were they considered celebrities in Zhang Ye’s world? Of course! Were they highly notable? Of course! But what rank were they? Probably no one could tell. There was no celebrity ranking system for people in the publication industry. At most, when they were mentioned, they would be publicly acknowledged as A-list authors in the publication industry, but this world had unified it. Be it writing novels, children’s fairy tales, poems, or even university professors and wealthy businessmen who received a lot of attention, they could obtain a rating from their combined abilities and appeal using the statistical formula. Once the rating was calculated, they could be perfectly ranked!
This was this world’s Celebrity Rankings!
Zhang Ye had used “Dead Water” to go from a public figure to an E-list celebrity. This could be said to be one big step, and could also be said that this was the actual moment that he entered the entertainment industry. One had to know that be it Little Red Mushroom, the Vice President of the Beijing Writers’ Association, or Big Thunder and company, they were all considered public figures. As for Tian Bin and Zhāng Yě, they were ranked in the tens of thousands amongst public figures. They would not even be ranked.
Zhang Ye had already surpassed them!
Although an E-list celebrity was the lowest, it was still a celebrity!
However, he still had a long way to go. This was just the beginning!