Saturday.
When Zhang Ye woke up, it was already snowing heavily outside.
"Whoa, it's snowing so heavily?" Zhang Ye was amazed.
His mother was also opening the window to look outside. "There's a thick layer of snow on the ground. It probably rained last night."
Chenchen tugged at Zhang Ye's shirt. "Zhang Ye, I want to watch it too."
Zhang Ye carried her and walked to the window sill. He couldn't help but be in a good mood, "It hasn't snowed so heavily in the past two years in Beijing, right? The air is pretty good today. Chen-chen, do you want to have a snowball fight with your uncle? "
Chenchen looked at him. "Zhang Ye, why are you so childish?"
Zhang Ye: "…"
His father laughed and said, "If we don't count last month's sleet, this should be the first snow in Beijing this year. Indeed, I didn't expect it to be so heavy. Little Ye, don't drive to work today. You might get into an accident."
"I know," Zhang Ye said.
After breakfast, Zhang Ye went to the office.
In the small square in front of Central TV Tower, several parents were playing with their children. Some were making snowmen, while others were having snowball fights. Beside him, a few colleagues from other departments of Central TV were passing by and bumped into Zhang Ye. They were stunned for a moment before coming over to greet him with a smile.
"Good morning, Teacher Zhang."
"Hey, good morning."
"I watched the latest episode of A Bite of China. It was especially good."
"Thank you, the next episode will be even better, hehe."
"Are the ratings out yet?"
"I'm not sure either. It's hard to tell when the statistics will be done. Sometimes it'll be done in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes it'll be done at noon the next day.
Chatting casually, they went upstairs together.
He knew that they were from the same unit, but Zhang Ye did not know any of them. However, that did not matter. This trait of Beijingers was vividly reflected in Zhang Ye. No matter who it was, no matter where it was, no matter if he knew them or not, he could still chat with them.
…
It was snowing in many parts of the country. Everyone was in a good mood and chatted happily online. Some people were already guessing the ratings.
"This episode of Do You Remember is very good!"
"Yeah, I really like Dong Shanshan. She's so sexy!"
"'Idiom Club' also has a new guest for this episode. He looks pretty good."
"But we still have to watch Rise to the Dance and A Bite of China. The focus is still on them!"
"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the viewership ratings of these two shows!"
"Who will win?"
"The results should be out before noon!"
"There was only one episode of A Bite of China broadcast yesterday, so there's no advantage at all!"
"A Bite of China's episode is only 40-50 minutes long while Rise to the Dance's episode is almost two hours long. A Bite of China has already lost at the starting line."
"Yeah, Rise to the Dance has put in a lot of effort and is going all out. The viewership ratings for this episode will most likely increase!"
"But don't you guys forget that last week, A Bite of China did not even have any money to do any promotions. It was all 'borrowed' by Central TV Department 1. Even without any promotions, they could still achieve that kind of viewership ratings. This week, A Bite of China has been heavily promoting with advertisements all over the place, so it's worth looking forward to how much the viewership ratings can increase!"
The entire nation's entertainment news media outlets were also focusing their attention on these two shows. The only difference from last week was that no one dared to blindly ignore Zhang Ye's documentary anymore. Many of the media outlets seemed to have discussed this beforehand and were more neutral in their news reports. Even those who were optimistic that Rise to the Dance would win in the viewership ratings did not dare to say anything definite. It wasn't because they were being cautious, but because of the tie for first place in the viewership ratings last week. That was a slap to the faces of many of the media outlets, so they had to learn from their mistakes!
...
It was time for the day of overtime.
Zhang Zuo and Little Wang were the first to arrive at the office. When they saw that Zhang Ye was already in the office, the two of them were very surprised.
"Director Zhang, you're early?" Zhang Zuo was not used to this. Thinking about how Zhang Ye had always been coming in late and returning early every single day of the week, he would even apply for leave or something along the way.
Zhang Ye smiled. "I just got here not too long ago."
One after another, the program team staff arrived at work. Everyone looked a little tense, but it was unknown if it was because of nervousness or anticipation. Everyone seemed to be deliberately avoiding topics related to the viewership ratings. Perhaps the more they did this, the more it showed how much importance they placed on the viewership ratings.
Yan Tianfei also arrived shortly after. "Little Zhang."
"Director Yan." Zhang Ye looked over.
Yan Tianfei similarly did not mention anything about the viewership ratings. Instead, he said, "Oh yes, I couldn't find you yesterday. Do you know about our station's calligraphy competition? It started this morning. "
"What calligraphy competition?" Zhang Ye did not understand.
Ha Qiqi explained, "Actually, there was a notice posted last month, but at that time, we were out of town filming. I think it was just a calligraphy competition for our internal staff, just for entertainment purposes."
With that said, Zhang Ye finally understood.
It was almost the end of the year, so there were a lot more internal activities and competitions. When he was upstairs, he seemed to have seen a notice about a table tennis and badminton competition that would be taking place soon. The contestants were all employees of Central TV's departments. It was an internal activity with prizes such as cell phones, computers, and whatnot. Every television station would organize such activities every year, but Zhang Ye was always offending people and had never worked for a television station or unit for too long. As a result, he had never participated in such activities before.
"Are you going to participate?" Yan Tianfei asked.
Huang Dandan smiled and said, "Director Zhang, go ahead, go ahead."
Yan Tianfei said happily, "In our Department 14, only Little Huang and I have signed up for it. If you want to go, you can still sign up now. I'll let them know and they'll add you in."
Tong Fu looked at Zhang Ye and asked, "Director Zhang, how's your calligraphy?"
Zhang Ye smiled. "It's just passable."
Seeing that her boyfriend did not know anything, Huang Dandan couldn't help but roll her eyes. "You still want Director Zhang's calligraphy to be good? Can you stop showing off? "
"Ah?" Tong Fu really did not know. "Director Zhang's calligraphy is very good?"
Yan Tianfei laughed heartily and said, "Little Huang is right. Little Tong is a little ignorant, but your Director Zhang's calligraphy is more than good. Just ask around in the calligraphy world and you'll know. Who doesn't know him? I wouldn't dare to speak about the entire country, but among the entire Central TV system and department staff, no one can compare to his calligraphy skills. I've even tried to copy Little Zhang's calligraphy a few times in the past, but the uniqueness of his calligraphy is too distinct. Especially that 'Ode of Mulan,' it's not easy to copy. "
Tong Fu said in shock, "Really? Director Zhang has such a skill? "
Little Wang giggled and said, "You only know about Director Zhang's skills now?"
Compared to Zhang Ye's reputation as a famous host, a famous television program director, a writer, a mathematician, and so on, Zhang Ye's reputation as a calligrapher was indeed a little inconspicuous. Although there were quite a few people who knew about it, not many of them knew about it either. It was no wonder that Tong Fu and many of the staff of Department 14 had not heard of it.
Yan Tianfei said, "Then I'll get my secretary to sign you up?"
Zhang Ye said nonchalantly, "Sure, I'll join in the fun with you then."
"I'm the one who's joining in the fun. You're going to win the prize." Yan Tianfei smiled and said, "There aren't many people in Department 14. In the past, we would only participate in these year-end events and never get any good results. But since you're here this time, even if we don't compete for table tennis, badminton, or basketball, we definitely won't be able to escape first place in the calligraphy competition!"
Later that morning.
Before 10 AM.
In a large activity room at Central TV, the year-end staff calligraphy competition had begun. As Yan Tianfei was the director of Department 14, his participation naturally attracted a lot of support from Department 14. Other than the three participants, Zhang Ye, Yan Tianfei, and Huang Dandan, more than half of the staff of Department 14 had also come.
When they arrived, they realized that the activity room was quite lively.
Jiang Yuan was there.
Xu Yipeng and Chen Ye were there.
They even saw the station head of Central TV!
He had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and was dressed in a Chinese tunic suit.
Many of the people who had just arrived were taken aback and couldn't help but become cautious. This was not any ordinary deputy station head. Standing there was a middle-aged man with a kind smile on his face. He was the station head of Central TV, the true leader of the station. Even Zhang Ye, who was meeting him face to face for the first time, could not help but take a few more glances at him.
No one dared to go up and talk to him. Yan Tianfei was one of the few exceptions. After all, his rank was too high.
"Station Head," Yan Tianfei greeted.
Only then did the station head look at them and say with a smile, "Old Yan, you're also participating in the competition?"
"It's just that my hands are itchy. I don't expect to get any good results," Yan Tianfei said with a shake of his head.
The station head said, "Your calligraphy is quite good. We're about the same."
Yan Tianfei said, "I should say that we're about the same."
Then the two of them burst out laughing.
Following that, the station head's gaze fell on Zhang Ye's face. It seemed like it paused for a moment, but at the same time, it didn't seem like it did. He looked elsewhere and saw that Jiang Yuan had already walked over to talk to him. Later, Central TV Department 1's Director Jiang Naixiong also came over, followed by the director of Central TV Department 2 and the director and deputy director of Central TV Department 7. Since the station head was participating in the competition, the atmosphere would definitely be grander.
The people from Department 14 and Central TV Department 1 also bumped into each other, but they pretended not to see each other and stood far away from each other. The two groups of people were clearly separated from each other.
Chen Ye glanced at Zhang Ye and the others, then asked an employee beside him, "Are the viewership ratings out yet?"
"Not yet." That person answered, "It should be out soon."
Another person laughed and said, "Department 14's documentary has already created history, so that's enough. They can't possibly get any higher than that. Don't tell me they're really hoping that their documentary can crush all the other variety shows? A tie for first place is still a tie for first place. Miracles only happen once. "
Someone picked up a microphone and announced the start of the competition.
Xu Yipeng smiled and said, "Let's start with the competition first. I haven't written in a long time, so I don't know if my foundation is still there."
Chen Ye laughed and said, "Even if you use just half of your foundation, you can still get first place."
Xu Yipeng's calligraphy was very good. Two years ago, he was the assistant director of the Spring Festival Gala and was too busy, so he did not participate in the competition. But in last year's staff calligraphy competition, Xu Yipeng had gotten third place, which was a pretty good result.
However, when Xu Yipeng looked at Zhang Ye, he shook his head and did not say anything.
When many of the Central TV staff who knew about the competition saw that Zhang Ye had also come, and that someone had even helped him get his participation number, everyone was left speechless. There were even a few calligraphy enthusiasts who were excited to compete for first place, but now they could only smile bitterly.
What was there to compete for?
We're just amateurs!
You're a professional calligrapher recognized by the industry, how can you compete with us?
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
