Chapter 135: Extreme Validation from Peking University’s Professor!

“7.8%?”

“Holy sh*t! It broke 7?”

“This is too amazing!”

“Brother Hu! Are you bluffing us!?”

“That’s right; I thought we were done for when you came in with your face sullen!”

Everyone in the office was in jubilation. Xiao Lu threw all the documents in her hands into the air. She was unable to contain her joy and kept screaming!

Zhang Ye was also scared by Hu Fei’s earlier behaviour. When he knew the real rating, he gave a sigh of relief. He knew it! This was the well known “Lecture Room”, and he had presented an exact reproduction of Yi Zhongtian’s version of the show. How would it then receive a rating of less than 1%? It was all because of Hu Fei’s antics that scared them. Who would have expected Brother Hu to have such a side to him? But with some thought, Hu Fei was also too excited, so he decided to play a trick on them!

Dafei said, “Teacher Zhang, congratulations.”

Xiao Lu had come back to her senses now, “Right, right. Teacher Zhang, in the future we have to add another title to your introduction: famous program host!”

“Seven point something percent… That is at least 2nd place in our Arts Channel’s more than 20 years of program listings. Even if we were to include all of the programs that were ever shown from this television station, this would definitely be in the top 15 to 20 places. This is really too awesome!” Hou Ge said with amazement.

Zhang Ye quickly replied, “It’s all because of Brother Hu’s good leadership. It’s everyone’s credit and also our team’s contributions. I am not capable of all that by myself.”

Hu Fei laughed and pointed at him, “Don’t act all humble!”

Xiao Lu giggled, “Leader, are we getting a treat tonight?”

“Treat? Of course there will be a treat!” Hu Fei announced, “During tonight’s celebration feast, everyone has to be present!”

“Oh, that’s great!” Xiao Lu cheered, “I want to have big prawns!”

Little Chenchen also raised her head and said, “I want to eat hairy crabs.”

Zhang Ye smacked her head, “You want a part in everything. Hur Hur.”

Chenchen threw her tantrum and said, “Zhang Ye, you did not wash your hands! Don’t touch my head.”

Everyone was amused by the little one.

After that, Hu Fei cautioned, “Teacher Zhang, Sunday’s program recording is scheduled after this at 5 P.M. Please get ready your script…. Oh, right. I forgot that you don’t need those. Hur Hur. Then maybe you can do some conceptualization for the second episode, ‘The Real Cao Cao’. The others can go and freshen up, but don’t let it drag back your work. After the celebrations, get back to work in the afternoon. Make the most of the weekend. Let’s go towards a rating of 8%! We will bring ‘Lecture Room’ to the top of the Arts Channel with the highest ratings! We will show those who doubt us what we can do! Is everyone confident?”

“We are!”

“We are confident!’

“That’s for sure!”

“Haha. With Teacher Zhang Ye, who can scare us!”

Everyone was giving their opinions and thoughts. They were full of fighting spirit!

When they first arrived at the station, not many people expected things from the motley crew of those who dabbled in TV drama and journalism. Even for the program itself, many of those from other programs were not optimistic about it. Historical segment? Scientific segment? They felt that there was no market for this. Those who had talked behind Hu Fei’s back were now proven wrong by their team’s vision and working ability!

A rating of 7.8%!

Who would now dare to gossip about them anymore?

Those who did were probably now still in a state of shock!

……

Afternoon.

Zhang Ye signalled from his seat, “Chenchen, come over.”

Chenchen came over from Dafei’s side with a cellphone. She was playing with it and then looked up and asked, “What?”

“Don’t make trouble at Uncle Dafei’s side. Come over here. Don’t be further than two meters from me.” Zhang Ye insisted that she come over. This child was different from other children; she wasn’t so straightforward to handle. Zhang Ye thought that it would be better if she was in his sight. Otherwise, if something were to happen, he couldn’t possibly answer to Rao Aimin. “I will give you half my seat; you can play here. If you want to do something else, tell me. If you need the toilet, ask Sister Xiao Lu to bring you.”

Chenchen rolled her eyes, “I’m not unable to take care of myself.”

Zhang Ye gave half his seat and sat her down. He went online to check on the comments. This was part of his job. He would take in suggestions from everyone.

Upon looking, he saw the attention that he had gathered!

“Zhang Ye went to the TV station?”

“D*mn, why did this guy become a lecturer?”

“Yeah, does he have the qualifications? Isn’t he just a university graduate? And he’s a broadcast major graduate, too, right? This doesn’t match up! He’s not a learner of history!”

“One look and I know that you all have not watched ‘Lecture Room’!”

“You watched it? How was it? It must have been a mess, right?”

“A mess, my a*s! You don’t even know how good it was to watch it!

“Yes, yes. My dad dragged me to watch it. It was so intriguing to watch!”

“This Zhang Ye spoke too well. It seems like you guys are saying he is very famous? I have really never heard of him. I need to check the internet. Otherwise, I will be behind the times.”

“This talk about the Three Kingdoms is really too godly!”

“Is that so? Why do I feel that it is just normal?”

Everyone had all kinds of opinions, but the number of those who praised it was in the majority.

Of course, the doubtful voices were also catching up.

“This Zhang Ye, what does he know about the Three Kingdoms! Zhuge Liang was not a military genius? What the heck! He dares to insult my idol?”

“The empty fort strategy does not exist? Hahahaha. What a joke!”

“Borrowing the east wind was a historical event, right? How could it not exist?”

“To find someone who doesn’t know a sh*t about the Three Kingdoms to speak about it? What is wrong with the television station!”

“That’s right! With this kind of standard, he can appear on TV? With those kind of looks, he can appear on TV? I am laughing. Alright, I will admit that Zhang Ye can write poetry well. In Beijing, the number of writers and authors who dare say that they can write better poetry than him can be easily counted. That ‘Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff’ and ‘Shuidiao Getou’ can be considered as incomparable. Zhang has such capabilities, and no one can question that. But to speak about history? He is far from it!”

But just as these people were scolding, suddenly, a Weibo verified account belonging to a Peking University history professor commented. He presented today’s “Analysis of the Three Kingdoms” examples cited by Zhang Ye in its original form and said, “It’s true that there are too many people in our country these days who do not know enough about the Three Kingdoms history, but they write books and appear on TV to speak about it. This is getting too common and it is also our history world’s sadness. But I must tell everyone that the kind of person that you guys are discussing about is not Zhang Ye. With just the first episode’s ‘Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff’, I also have to address Zhang Ye as Teacher Zhang!”

“Uh.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“History professor?”

“That is a professor of Peking University!”

“Let’s not talk first, we should listen to what the professor has to say.”

Finally, someone from the field with authority has spoken. The netizens on Weibo had also quietened down.

The history professor said, “I can tell everyone that, as a history professor, what Teacher Zhang Ye has said can be fully backed by facts, records and has good historical logic. Of course, some of that is Teacher Zhang Ye’s personal opinions; I will not comment on those. But since this is a discussion, everyone has their own thoughts. They can add their opinions and analysis into it. A little deviation is normal. But even so, the deviation cannot be too much. Like the empty fort strategy and borrowing the east wind? These are not recorded in history. In fact, many history experts and I share the same analysis as Teacher Zhang Ye. These two events did not exist. Even if they did, they couldn’t be so exaggerated, nor could they have happened because of Zhuge Liang. This is totally cooking up facts or embellishment, but it is not the true history. Zhuge Liang is also not a military genius; at most, you can say that he was a military practitioner. Zhuge Liang can also be called a political genius, but his true achievements were not with the military!”

Below, a lot of people immediately Liked the comment and followed it.

Within them, there were a number of history scholars, including the Peking University professor’s colleagues, his students and postdocs. Even other university’s professors began to start commenting to argue for Zhang Ye, to let this historical truth dawn upon the mass audiences.

“What?”

“There was really no empty fort strategy?”

“F**k! Zhang Ye was the one who spoke the truth? Those other lecturers were the ones who were bullshi**ing?”

“I’ve been enlightened! I nearly scolded the wrong person!”

“That’s not right. I recall that there was a professor on the scene during the program’s recording. He was even given a shot. I know him. That person went on Central TV before. He had doubted Zhang Ye!”

The Peking University’s professor clearly knew Ma Hengyuan, “You are talking about Ma Hengyuan, right? I also saw him. However, you have to know that Professor Ma is an elite in the realm of literature. But if you want to talk about his research and contribution to the realm of history? Sorry, but he doesn’t exist in our history circles.” He was probably long aware of Ma Hengyuan’s spread of misinformation about the Three Kingdoms, so he was not pleased with him. Hence, his tone was not very polite.

“So that’s the case.”

“Sh*t, that means this Zhang Ye is so good?”

“No way. I must watch the next episode!”

“Are there tickets to the live recording? My dad loves this new segment so much. I want to get a ticket for my dad to let him watch it live and also see with his own eyes Teacher Zhang Ye’s awesomeness!”

Public opinion quickly changed. Not many people doubted Zhang Ye anymore. With so many history professors and scholars affirming it, who could say a thing?

Finally, that Peking University professor and a few history professors recommended “Lecture Room”, “I had not thought of the subject for my upcoming lesson for graduate students, but now I have thought of it. I will get them to do a thorough analysis of ‘Zhang Ye’s Analysis of the Three Kingdoms ‘. This is a good program. This is a program with real history mixed in with Zhang Ye’s personal views that agree with historical reasoning. If I have a chance, I really want to have an exchange with Teacher Zhang Ye, face to face. I will watch every episode in the future.”

Upon seeing this, Zhang Ye quickly replied, “Professor, you are too kind. There’s no exchange to speak of. I should be the one learning from you.”

The Peking University History professor said, “You are being humble, Teacher Zhang. Just with your historical standard and lecturing ability, even in Tsinghua or Peking University, you will at the minimum obtain a title of Associate Professor!

Associate Professor?

Man, I can even be an Associate Professor?

But why was that impossible? Zhang Ye recalled that there were several famous hosts in his world who went to universities to become associate professors to lecture after quitting their jobs. Some of them even took hosting as a sideline, while they had an internal position in the university. This direction into academia was not bad.

Zhang Ye was slightly tempted, but he knew that the professor was just making a remark. He did not have the credentials yet. He had to prove himself.

“Teacher Zhang is impressive!”

“Teacher Zhang Ye, I love you!’

“I have three televisions at home! Every ‘Lecture Room’ episode in the future, I’ll turn on all three televisions! Well, but it seems that the television station ratings are calculated through sampling statistics. Three televisions would probably be of no use!”

“I don’t really like the Three Kingdoms, nor did I read the novel. But as long it’s Teacher Zhang’s work or segment, I will unconditionally support it!”

“Because of that line, ‘The river and mountains today’s landscapes paint; Where once there were many courageous and heroic men’, I have become Teacher Zhang’s hardcore fan!”

“Well said. Every one of Teacher Zhang Ye’s poems are so classic. It was too fast when shown on TV, so I didn’t see it clearly. I’m hoping that Teacher Zhang Ye will post the original text!”

With the doubts ending, what was left were the cheers from Zhang Ye’s fans.

Zhang Ye responded to his fans’ request. He posted “Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff”!

Immediately, everyone began to forward it and Like it. Furthermore, all of the comments were full of praise, drowning out everything else!

Initially, people were unsure or did not understand Zhang Ye’s Analysis of the Three Kingdoms, so there were many criticisms and doubts. But with this poem, not a single person issued a statement criticizing it!

This poem was too good!

The romance, warring and the appearance of heroes in the era of the Three Kingdoms was vividly embodied in this piece!

Many people even believed that amongst all the poems on the Three Kingdoms, this poem was the best, and.. that there was nothing that could compare!