Chapter 44: Will it really not be axed?

Holy sh*t!

Second place?

“Old and Young Story Club”‘s rating actually managed to get second place?

The entire Literature Channel’s office exploded into an uproar! Impossible! Absolutely impossible. This was what everyone thought by default! What sort of segment was “Old and Young Story Club”? This was a pathetic segment that had been lining the bottom or the second from the bottom of the rankings over the years. Even “Late-night Ghost Stories”, which was even worse, could jump up to a ranking of around ten on the first day of a new novel. However, “Old and Young Story Club” had never managed to do so before. It’s best result was 18th place! This was also because of an “explosive” special program on Children’s Day five years ago!

Second? Listenership rates of 2.40%? And it had even exceeded a news-related program like “Entertainment Daily”? No one believed what they had just heard!

Wu Datao got angry for no reason, “Did you read it wrongly?”

Jia Yan also wished he had wrongly, “It’s written…like this.”

“Impossible.” Tian Bin also did not believe. “Going from last place to second? It’s obvious that such a thing is impossible!”

Jia Yan nodded. He looked at the ratings report and said, “I’m sure Statistics made a mistake. There’s no point announcing further. The rankings after this would all not be accurate. I’ll go up and find someone from Statistics!”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ye exploded, “What do you mean by this? Eh? When my listenership rating is at the bottom, you think it’s normal and take it for granted. Now that my listenership rating has turned for the better, you say Statistics made a mistake? Everything follows what you say? Everything you say must be the truth?” Zhang Ye coldly stared at everyone who doubted him, “I want to ask you! When has the station ever made a mistake with the statistics? Has there ever been once? Oh, so you having good results is justified? While me having good results is an error? What sort of people are you!”

Jia Yan knew his words were a bit over the top, but he insisted, “Everyone is questioning the statistics. We must first check it. After all, the jump is too great of an exaggeration!”

Zhang Ye quipped, “Sure, you can check. Then… what will happen if there’s nothing wrong? Will you take responsibility for the words you just said?”

Jia Yan looked at him and was sure that there was a mistake, so he said, “If the statistics are free of errors, I can apologize to you.”

“Alright, go check it.” Zhang Ye was confident. This confidence came from trusting his story. Although he, too, did not know how the rating had suddenly jumped up by so much, he knew that this story was an impeccable classical masterpiece from his world. It could not be bad!

Jia Yan left, while others began to whisper.

“Is that true?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s a mistake.”

“I think so, too. If not, it would be too great of an exaggeration.”

“Right. Teacher Feng has been at it for so many years, yet his ratings have always been at the bottom. How could the rating explode in just three days’ time when in Zhang Ye’s hands?”

“Wait and see. Little Jia should be back soon.”

Teacher Feng quickly pulled Zhang Ye over, “What’s going on?”

Zhang Ye said, “Don’t worry. The rating is definitely normal.”

Teacher Feng rolled his eyes, “You can still call this normal? This is too abnormal. If you got 19th or 20th, I could definitely believe it, but 2nd? It’s not that I don’t believe you, Little Zhang. It’s just that… Do you think our unpopular program can get a better listenership rating than a news-related program like ‘Entertainment Daily’?”

Zhang Ye blinked, “Why not?”

Teacher Feng said, “What do you mean, ‘why not?’ It’s like on television… Have you seen a program have higher ratings than the Central TV’s news broadcast?”

Actually, for this, Zhang Ye had actually seen such a case in his world!

“Forget it. Let’s wait for the outcome, before we speak further.” Teacher Feng’s mind was in a mess, too.

Over there, Jia Yan came back. Checking such a thing could be done very quickly.

Tian Bin and Wu Datao asked, “Was it written wrongly? The names were messed up, right?”

Jia Yan remained silent as he looked with an ashen face at Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye also smiled back at him. He stretched out his right hand and, with a snap of his fingers, he did a very complicated motion.

Jia Yan blinked his eyes, before holding in his temper, “Sorry, Teacher Zhang, for doubting your results. Statistics had counted it once again… There was no mistake!”

What?

It was the real listenership rating?

Wu Datao and Tian Bin stared, agape!

Zhang Ye accepted his apology and said with an educative tone, “There is no program that can’t do well forever. In the future, your first reaction to a person’s program having a good rating should not be of doubts and rejection!” Following that, he looked towards Wu Datao and Tian Bin, who had been the first to point out the error in the statistics. “Do you have nothing to say?”

Tian Bin naturally would not apologize. He pretended not to hear.

Wu Datao also did his own things, having lost all of his momentum.

Zhang Ye did not spare them as he said to them, “By my own efforts, I made the program do better and better. I did everything in an orthodox fashion. Based on what did you say that my listenership rating was fake? Or wrong?”

An elder in the station tried to smooth things over, “Forget it, Teacher Little Zhang. It is not that everyone is targeting you.”

At this moment, Li Si suddenly shouted, “Quick, look at the news! Beijing’s Education Ministry had issued a document earlier this morning! It required every junior kindergarten and all elementary schools in Beijing to have access to the children’s fairy tale, ‘Little Bunnies Be Good’. They have even sent a ‘Letter to the Parents’ to let the story, ‘Little Bunnies Be Good’ be completely immersed in both school and family. They have suggested that parents learn and teach it to their children, so as to strengthen the educative need to never open the door to strangers!”

Jia Yan was somewhat aware of this. He had also heard about the Essay Competition on the news, “It’s that Essay Competition event held by the Education Ministry? So what about it?”

An editor said, “What’s the fuss?”

Li Si smiled bitterly and did not say a word.

A woman beside Li Si looked at his screen and immediately turned dumbfounded. After swallowing a mouthful of saliva, she exclaimed, “For this Essay Competition, the first place was ‘Little Bunnies Be Good’…Heavens! It’s written by our Teacher Zhang Ye! He had obtained first place after suppressing good Teachers like Tao Xueru and Little Red Mushroom!”

Zhang Ye added on, “Yesterday, that was the story that was broadcasted at noon!” When he heard this, he, too, understood. So this was what had happened. No wonder his listenership rating had gone so high. Previously, he believed that the newspapers had not advertised for him, but who knew that the Education Ministry had issued a direct order. How many kindergartens were there in Beijing? How many elementary schools were there? How many of them were young students? It was nearly uncountable! Having disseminated to the students by the schools, wouldn’t the teachers have to listen to it, too? The students had to listen, right? Even more parents had to listen to it, too, right? That was why the listenership rating had such a miraculous leap! This was like textbooks. You don’t like them? You still need to read them, even if you didn’t like them! It was like mandatory education! Everyone had to learn!

The woman quickly followed up, “My son and I have heard of ‘Little Bunnies Be Good’. His kindergarten even printed brochures about it. Teacher Little Zhang, so that story was written by you?”

Zhang Ye said, “Yes, Big Sis Zhou. That day, I saw the Essay Competition and decided to do something for the children. With some inspiration, I wrote a piece.”

The woman praised, “You wrote very well. My son really loves it.”

Wang Xiaomei looked at Zhang Ye, “The children’s fairy tales for the past few days of ‘Old and Young Story Club’ were also written by you?”

Zhang Ye acknowledged and said in a low-key manner, “Yes. I just wrote it haphazardly.”

Teacher Feng exclaimed, “You did not use the story scripts that I gave you? You really wrote the stories yourself?” Zhang Ye had told him that if the fairy tales industry was low in quality, then he would write his own fairy tales. However, Teacher Feng never expected Zhang Ye to really write them. He thought that he was joking!

Zhang Ye was at a loss of whether to laugh or cry, “Teacher Feng, could it be that you haven’t been listening to my program over the past few days? This is a segment that you have been broadcasting for so many years, and you didn’t listen?”

“I didn’t. *cough* I did not dare to listen.” Teacher Feng’s face was a little red. It was not right for him to not listen to it at all.

Zhang Ye explained, “The few stories were all written by me. I have some experience and talent in writing after all. Sorry for incurring the ridicule of everyone.”

Incurring the ridicule?

Many people could sense the sarcasm in Zhang Ye’s words!

After they put down the things on their hands, everyone searched on the internet. All they saw were praises and discussions on the internet message boards!

“The story is too awesome!”

“Little Bunnies be good; open the door. Haha, Teacher Zhang Ye really sang it well!”

“That’s right. This children’s song is marvellous. And it’s very simple. You can learn it instantaneously.”

“My daughter has already learned this song, but she still wants me to tell the story every day. I’ve no way out. From today onwards, I will have to listen to Teacher Zhang Ye’s program at noon.”

“There’s no need for today onwards. Check the past two episodes.”

“There are more in the previous two episodes? I’m already sick of listening to those children’s fairy tales.”

“No, the previous two episodes were also original fairy tales written by Teacher Zhang Ye. One of them is “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, and another is “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. They are extremely good stories and have a moral behind them. From a literary perspective, it is even better than ‘Little Bunnies Be Good’!”

“Really? Then I’m going to take a listen!”

“I’ve heard it. Now, I’m really astounded by Teacher Zhang Ye!”

“I’ve decided that as long as Teacher Zhang Ye is around, I will not miss a single episode of ‘Old and Young Story Club’. After listening to it, I can tell it to my twins at night!”

“Hey, did you notice it? The Beijing Radio Station’s website has a notice of programs going off-air. Why is the name ‘Old and Young Story Club’ inside it? How can such a good program be taken off-air?”

“It can’t be?”

“Really. I’ll send you the link!”

“Ah? It’s really true? It’s being taken off-air?”

“Holy sh*t! Is the radio station dumb? How can such a good program be taken off-air?”

“Hai, maybe there won’t be many episodes left. Everyone hear as many as you can. There will be one fewer episode after every listen.”

“It can’t go off-air. If it does, I’ll send complaints. What the heck! Do they even have any aesthetic taste?”

Over there, Xiaofang had brought the letters from the readers. Knowing that Zhang Ye had obtained second place, pushing Wu Datao’s news program down, Xiaofang was extremely overjoyed. The amount of letters in her hands was nearly half the height of a person. She nearly could not bring them over by herself. “Teacher Zhang, your letters.”

Zhang Ye stood up and took them over, “Which stack is mine?”

Xiaofang said happily, “All of them. The other Teacher’s letters are still in the mail room. I couldn’t bring them over.”

Ah? These are all mine?

There must be a thousand letters here, right?

Teacher Feng marveled, “This number of letters must have broken a record, right? Our channel has never had more than a thousand letters sent from listeners!”

Xiaofang smiled gently, “That’s right. The rest of the letters received today, when added up, aren’t as many as this.”

Zhang Ye wiped the sweat from his forehead. He lifted the letters over and began reading. They were mostly written by parents. There were tens of them which were written by children. It was easy to see at a glance, as the characters were all crooked. They looked very innocent.

Everyone looked at each other, for they no longer had words to describe their current feelings. Back then, Zhang Ye had made the bold statement that “Old and Young Story Club” would not be taken off-air. They had not believed it, nor did they take it to heart. However, now, Zhang Ye had used his abilities and his program’s rating to make everyone shut up. Everyone even had a thought that they had never thought of before!

It’s already in second place!

Will “Old and Young Story Club” really not be axed?