Chapter 1200: The top few spots of the entertainment industry!
Chapter 1200: The top few spots of the entertainment industry!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
After returning home.
Before they even opened the door, they heard the phone in the living room ringing.
His mother picked up her pace to answer the call. It was from Zhang Ye's third uncle.
"Sis, Little Ye has gotten engaged?"
"Haha, yes."
"Aiyo, why didn't we know anything about this!"
"No one knew."
"Whose family's kid is it?"
"Little Ye won't allow me to say it. He wants to keep it a secret."
"We're all one family. Why's there a need to keep it a secret?"
"Hehe, because my daughter-in-law is someone special."
The calls kept coming one after another. There were calls from his maternal grandma, his uncles and aunties. When they found out about the news, all of them called over in surprise and tried their hardest to find out who his fiancée was. His mother wanted, of course, to say who it was. She had been forcing herself so hard to keep her lips sealed in recent days. But due to the fact that the engagement was very important and of great public concern, coupled with the fact that Wu Zeqing was no ordinary woman, she prevented herself from revealing the secret for the time being.
Zhang Ye was also busy taking calls on his cell phone.
Or, to be exact, he took the initiative to call every one of his friends. He did not wait for them to ask. Instead, he called them to let them know about the good news, happy as a clam!
First, he made a call to Yao Jiancai, his old partner he was on the best terms with.
"Old Yao, I've gotten engaged."
"Don't joke."
"Damn, I really did!"
"You don't even have a girlfriend, so who are you getting engaged to?"
"Heh, who says that I don't have a girlfriend?"
"Kid, are you telling the truth?"
"It's so true that it can't get any more true. Hurry up and congratulate me."
"Congratulations! Ai, which family's daughter was unlucky enough to get picked by you?"
"Your sister!"
Then he called Beijing Television's Hu Fei.
"Brother Hu."
"I saw your Weibo, what's up with that?"
"Haha, I just got engaged."
"This came too suddenly, but it's still good news! Congratulations!"
"Thank you."
"When's the wedding?"
"It should be soon."
"Great, let us know when the date is set. We'll definitely be there!"
"That's a must!"
Over a dozen calls were made, and Zhang Ye informed all those he could inform. When he finally checked his cell phone, the Celebrity Goof Group was also exploding with messages. Everyone in there was trying to guess who Zhang Ye's fiancée was.
Ning Lan: "Haha, who do you guys think is so unlucky?"
Fan Wenli: "lol"
Chen Guang: "Boss Zhang has kept the secret amazingly well. Even I did not know a thing about it!"
Huo Dongfang: "Anyway, congratulations!"
Xiaodong: "Ahhhh, could Boss Zhang just be joking around?"
Chen Guang: "That might be the case too. Hardly anything honest ever spews out of his mouth."
At this moment, Zhang Ye appeared. "It's not a joke, I'm serious."
Amy sent a voice message that said: "You've finally shown yourself! Everyone here is guessing whether she's also in our industry. So then, who is it? I'm so curious!"
Everyone kept flooding the chat group with messages and were constantly asking who it was!
Many of the big name celebrities lurking in the group also came out to observe the ruckus.
Zhang Ye answered: "She's both in and not in showbiz."
Ning Lan: "Do we know her?"
Zhang Ye thought for a moment, then typed up a response with a smile on his face. "You've all probably heard of her, but I'm not sure if you know her personally. I'll keep it a secret for now and announce it when we're getting married."
Director Li Ke: "Are you trying to suffocate us with suspense?"
Fan Wenli: "When will the wedding reception be held?"
Zhang Ye: "Hai, it's not set yet."
Li Xiaoxian laughed. "But I must admit, Teacher Zhang's way of dealing with this is so cool. He can announce such news as he wishes, or get married if he decides to, unlike the rest of us. We even have to keep a low profile when we're meeting up with a male friend as we're afraid that it will lead to gossip and cause our popularity to drop, much less talk about marriage. I really envy Teacher Zhang for that."
Amy sighed. "That's right. Lord Zhang's fanbase is far more dependable than ours. Now that he's reached where he is, he doesn't have to worry about anything else. But for us, we're still unable to get past the issue of marriage. I wonder how many people can get past it."
Ning Lan: "Amy, you're dating?"
Amy: "Would I dare?"
Xiaodong: "Heehee, Amy's thinking of earning more money first before getting married when she no longer has anything to worry about. By then, she'll have officially bid farewell from the entertainment industry."
Everyone started discussing how "celebrities could get married without losing fans" and engaged in deep discussion. Using Zhang Ye as an example, and highlighting many other cases of celebrities in the entertainment industry, they did some analysis before finally arriving at a surprising conclusion—how can a celebrity get married without losing fans?
Hur hur!
Only God would know something like that!
On the very same night, the media was also having a grand ol' time.
"Zhang Ye announces his engagement!"
"The great reveal of Zhang Ye's fiancée!"
"Breaking news! Zhang Ye secretly obtains certificate of marriage!"
"According to eyewitnesses, Zhang Ye often has late night meetings with Dong Shanshan!"
"The exclusive reveal of Zhang Ye's fiancée: university classmate Yu Yingyi!"
There were all kinds of rumors, many of them sounding very official and true. All kinds of expertly photoshopped pictures started appearing as well, but were in fact just random people trying to ride the wave. In the end, they even bamboozled some of the official media outlets who started blindly analyzing things without verifying sources. A lot of people swore they figured out who it was.
Without even looking at it, Zhang Ye knew they had gotten it all wrong. If anyone really knew who his fiancée was, they would never release the news just like that.
…
At night.
After the commotion died down, everyone got on with their own things again.
Zhang Ye browsed the updated Chinese Celebrity Rankings Index and checked on his current ranking. He was still in first place in the A-list rankings and his popularity score had grown by quite a bit again. But looking at the few people in the S-list rankings who were standing at the top of the entertainment industry, he was still not closing in on their popularity score by much. Of those top few people, someone had just played the main lead of a movie that grossed over 300 million RMB in the box office, while another's new TV drama set the country ablaze. There was also someone whose new song had jumped into the middle of the charts on an authoritative international music chart. Every one of them was better than the other.
Zhang Ye was very popular!
But so were the others! They were also building on their fanbases every day!
Although, among those at the top, there was a Heavenly King whose popularity was no longer as great as his younger days and was going downhill without gaining much popularity these days. But a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. With so many years of accumulated popularity, he was not someone Zhang Ye could easily surpass in a short amount of time. The S-list rankings had not been updated in so long. It had always been those few who ruled the entertainment industry and was a place so monolithic that there had barely been any changes to it.
Looking at those familiar names, Zhang Ye made up his mind. After getting engaged, his fighting spirit and motivation were kindled. All he was thinking about was how to break into that monolith and gain a foothold in the S-list rankings.
Impossible?
Unrealistic?
That wasn't something that Zhang Ye was willing to consider!
Because this was something that he had to do sooner or later!
There was still a very large gap between the A- and S-list rankings. If one could really break into the S-list, the position would probably not matter since it was theoretically not much of a difference who ranked higher or lower. They were revered all the same and were at the top of the food chain. But an A-list celebrity was just different from an S-list celebrity. No matter how close one's popularity score was to theirs, the status was just not the same—this was also why Zhang Ye was so stubborn about climbing to the very top. He had already opened his account on the Asian Celebrity Rankings Index, but he didn't pay much attention to it because he knew that he needed to get to the top in China first. Only with that base could he have a future within Asia and aim for the international entertainment scene. Otherwise, if he were to aim for the international market without having gained a proper foothold domestically, it would obviously not be reliable. Everything had to be done in a fastidious and proper way.
He would just have to put this on the agenda then!
He needed to secure one of these top spots in the Chinese entertainment industry!