The next day.

The clouds covered the sky.

Today, Zhang Ye was not permitted to drive, so he had to leave his car in the parking lot. He took the subway alone to work. There were quite a lot of people there, so he failed to board the first time. He was late by a few minutes by the time he reached the office.

“Morning.”

“Teacher Zhang, you are here?”

“Teacher Little Zhang, good morning.”

Hou Ge and Xiao Lu greeted him. Yesterday, when Zhang Ye first came, they had called him by his name or “Little Zhang”, but now after knowing the awesomeness of Zhang Ye, they all changed their form of salutation. It changed from “Little Zhang” to “Teacher Little Zhang”. They were very polite. Be it an institution, commercial business, private business or the entertainment industry, it was all the same. As long as you had sufficient experience and great ability, with your fame, no one would dare to disrespect you.

Xiao Lu took the initiative to pour a cup of water for Zhang Ye, “Here you go.”

“Thank you. I’ll do it myself.” Zhang Ye did not want to impose.

Hou Di smiled. “Right, Teacher Zhang. Just now, Brother Hu came over, but didn’t find you. Maybe the higher ups have a meeting that Brother Hu wants you to join.”

Zhang Ye immediately said, “Aye, why was I late? Where’s Teacher Hu?”

“Brother Hu’s office is here, too.” Hou Ge chuckled, “He will be here in awhile.”

Just after he finished speaking, Hu Fei walked into the office.

“Teacher Little Zhang, follow me for a while.” Hu Fei smiled. “The channel has a meeting. Since I don’t have an assistant, go with me, too. Hur Hur. I’m not treating you as an assistant, and roping you in is not just to make you be in the front stage; your literary qualities can always shine backstage.”

Zhang Ye asked curiously, “Teacher Hu, what sort of meeting is it?”

Zhang Ye was enlightened.

……

A small meeting room upstairs.

There was a long table, with not more than twenty seats.

By the time that Zhang Ye and Hu Fei arrived, the room was nearly full. A few people-in-charge and employees from the various segment teams from the Arts Channel had filled the room. Zhang Ye saw a few familiar faces here. There was a youth and a woman, who were his interviewers from the previous day.

Seeing Zhang Ye, these people only gave him a glance.

“Old Hu, Hur Hur. You are the slowest.” a middle-aged man greeted him.

“Isn’t the Leader not here yet? It’s fine, as long as we aren’t late. Old Wang, this is our segment team’s Teacher Zhang Ye. Please take care of him in the future.” Hu Fei seemed familiar with him.

The middle-aged man said in amusement, “He’s your man. I can’t take care of him, even if I wanted to. However, I have long heard of Little Zhang’s name. What is his position now?”

Hu Fei said, “Guest host. I might also get Little Zhang to do some of the documentation work for backstage work. There’s no other way, since my segment isn’t as large as others. With few people, everyone has more responsibilities.”

The woman, who had interviewed Zhang Ye, smiled. “It’s also quite suitable for Little Zhang to do documentation work. Few in the channel can match him in their literary skills. A capable person has many responsibilities.”

Everyone sat down.

Hu Fei introduced people to Zhang Ye in whispers.

Zhang Ye knew that the middle-aged man’s name was Wang Meng. He was an overall Director-in-charge of the trending music segment team. The woman who had interviewed him was Jiang Fen, an overall Director-in-charge of entertainment and literature news reporting.

At this moment, about 5-6 people came in from inside. One of them was the head of the channel, Wang Shuixin.

An employee handed over a draft, or it could be precisely said to be a writeup, “These were the two ideas that we came up with last night during overall time.”

Another employee distributed copies to the others.

Zhang Ye also obtained a copy. He flipped it open and took a glance.

After giving it a look, Wang Shuixin threw the writeup on the table, without reading it carefully, “You call this creativity? This is your so-called creativity?” Wang Shuixin rapped on the table, “Everyone is responsible for saving electricity! Saving electricity begins with everyone! Is there anything fresher?”

Wang Shuixin said furiously, “Even if you can’t do it well, you have to do it well. Why are you making excuses?”

The person remained silent for a moment, “Leader, it’s our responsibility. We will think of something again.”

Jiang Fen asked, “How many seconds does it need to be?”

Jiang Fen suggested, “Why don’t we be creative on the advertising tagline? I have a pretty good one, ‘Saving, the path to the continuation of life’.”

Wang Shuixin shook his head, “No, that’s still too common.”

Wang Meng said, “What about a witty tagline? Gentlemen have manners; be a man when using electricity.”

Wang Shuixin said angrily, “You have to think of something, even if there’s no hope! Are you going to be shouldering the responsibility for failing the task?”

The person-in-charge had been joking, but with this retort, he did not dare to say another word.

Following that, others from a few segment teams suggested their ideas, but Wang Shuixin was unsatisfied by them. They were all denied. No creativity!

However, everyone felt helpless.

Freshness?

Creativity?

How could one be creative for the theme of electricity saving?

After so many years, all sorts of tricks had been used by all the different television stations!

Wang Shuixin looked at Hu Fei, “Old Hu, only your segment team has not contributed an idea. We invited you here to come up with ideas, not to just sit there and drink tea!”

Just as Hu Fei was not sure how to answer and the other people-in-charge and employees were unsure what to do, Zhang Ye spoke.

“I have an idea.” Zhang Ye’s words shocked everyone.

Hu Fei’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. That’s right. He suddenly thought of Zhang Ye. The person beside him was an effective writer, “Teacher Little Zhang, please say.”

Wang Shuixin looked on with a complicated look at Zhang Ye, “Go ahead.”

How could this be difficult for me? I’m going to be the pirate king… I mean.. I’m going to be a superstar!

Translator’s Note: Zhang Ye was not permitted to drive on certain days due to a regulation in Beijing. Read here for info on Road Space Rationing