Chapter 8: Trying the “Unlucky Sticker”!
A week passed.
That afternoon, Zhang Ye was sitting in his office, eating by himself.
His lunch was a bun, a bun and a bun. Finishing three buns was enough to fill his stomach.
After a few days of exploration, he was now familiar with his job, the equipment and the interpersonal relations in his department. Zhang Ye learned quite a lot. But of course, all of that was self-learned. Tian Bin, who had been assigned by the Leader to bring him around, had ignored him completely. After getting used to the work environment, Zhang Ye finished whatever was in hands, as he waited for an opportunity. He had not done a single program over the past week. It would even be good if he could be a stand-in host, but all of the eight radio hosts were each healthier than the last. No one got into a car accident or got struck by lightning. Hai.
“Little Zhang.” a person beside him called out.
Zhang Ye glanced over and said in a lukewarm fashion, “What is the matter?” He still remembered the feelings he had, when he had seen this person for the first time. It was of great shock. There was a moment that Zhang Ye’s mind unconditionally sprouted out a phrase一aliens have finally invaded Earth!
Right, go ahead and think what he looks like!
This person’s name was Li Si. It was a very native name. It was ranked alongside Zhang San and Xiaoming as the three most widespread names in the country. The reason why Zhang Ye gave him such an attitude was because the person who had been speaking behind his back with the Tian Bin couple was this phone editor. He had even criticized Zhang Ye for his ugly looks. Just thinking of it made Zhang Ye want to laugh. Shouldn’t you look at yourself in the mirror first? No matter how I look, I am at most average. What about you? No matter what, you can only be described with a poem!
You are like the clouds in the sky.
You are like the thick haze.
You are like the bright moon.
You are like the dust in the wind.
―Uh, well you just aren’t like a person.
Li Si put down a bunch of A4 paper. “Brother Tian will be beginning a new novel on the program tonight. The last novel, ‘Ghosts at the Zero Point’ has finished recording and broadcasting yesterday. Today, we will begin with “Recalling Spirits”, and we have gotten the copyright for the story last week. The plan is to prepare for 50 episodes. This is the script for the first two episodes.” The phone editor’s job was generally to vet the listeners who call in during a live broadcast. However, nowadays, as it was mostly pre-recorded broadcasts, the phone editor’s job was to do some text editing for some programs. Tian Bin’s “Late-night Ghost Stories” had always been arranged, annotated and audited by Li Si.
Zhang Ye said, “Why are you giving me this?”
Li Si looked at him and said, “Help Brother Tian to edit a few paragraphs. These paragraphs are a little political and the standards for broadcasting and publishing are different, so we need to edit it. Oh, I still need to mark up some words and other jobs. The program tonight will be broadcast live, so there isn’t enough time.”
Zhang Ye had been assigned by the leader to be led by Tian Bin. Since he could not say no to this task, he took it and edited it.
In the afternoon, just before getting off work.
Zhang Ye had finished the editing and had also read the first few chapters of the novel. He found it average and very cliché. According to his understanding, “Recalling Spirits” was a very popular supernatural novel these days. The simplified Chinese edition had been selling like hotcakes; however, when Zhang Ye compared it to the supernatural Tomb Robbers novel in his mind, the difference was great. This world’s supernatural novels were weaker in entertainment value and continuous suspense to the Tomb Robbers novel. When Zhang Ye checked the web to gain some understanding, he realized that this world did not have anything similar to Tomb Robbers. No one had written it and the state of the novel industry was in its beginning stages and was lacking in richness.
Suddenly, Tian Bin arrived for work. It was common for those who had night programs. Usually the host who had caught up to the live broadcasts would only come to work in the afternoon or at night.
Zhang Ye handed him the prepared scripts, “It has been edited.” He no longer called him “Brother Tian”, as this fellow was a very vengeful person.
“Li Si gave the task to you?” Tian Bin read it once and said, “Oh, that will do. These modifications will do.” He did not say any niceties.
Li Si arrived at this moment and discussed the script with Tian Bin.
Just as Zhang Ye stood up to get off work, the work that he had been eagerly looking forward to for a week came.
An assistant from the editor team came looking for Zhang Ye. After seeing him, the middle-aged man quickly stopped him, “Little Zhang, are you getting off work?”
Zhang Ye responded, “Yeah.”
The deputy said, “Hold on a while. I have something here.”
“No worries. Tell me where you need me.” As a rookie, he had to be more hardworking. Zhang Ye knew this deep down.
The assistant looked at the documents in his hand, “At night, besides the broadcast of the first episode of “Late-night Ghost Stories”, there will be another broadcast. It’s the golden time period’s interview program. We have invited a guest, so there is a need for an additional host to help attune the mood. The Literature Channel only has you as a stand-in host. Uh, I’m just not sure if you are up to the task. After all, you have just been here for a week and you might be lacking in experience. It would have been fine if it was a pre-recorded program, which we can fix by re-recording and editing the material. However, we can’t do so for a live broadcast. If any problem happens, it’s an on-air accident, so I need to make sure.”
Zhang Ye immediately promised, “I have no problems with it. I am already familiar with my work. You can rest assured!” He had been waiting for this!
The assistant from the editing team gave a faint “oh” and asked Tian Bin beside him, “Teacher Tian, Little Zhang is led by you? Do you think he is up to the task? If you don’t think there will be any problems, then I’ll let him try it out. The people for the program have been rushing me and the broadcast will happen soon, so we are in a hurry to prepare it.”
Zhang Ye looked at Tian Bin.
Zhang Ye was hired to be a broadcast host, so he had to go on a show one day. Now, he had the opportunity and, typically, people would not hinder his future prospects and would say some niceties.
However, Tian Bin’s reaction was far from expected. After staying silent for a few seconds, he frowned, “He has just come and isn’t familiar with the business. Forget it.”
Forget it?
The assistant from the editing team was stunned and acknowledged it tersely.
When Zhang Ye heard it, he turned annoyed, “I’m a broadcasting major, and have had practical lessons, so I’m already very familiar. I know how to use all the equipment, too…”
Tian Bin interjected in a manner as if he was very experienced, “Little Zhang, I know you are from a specialized major and have good foundations. However, a live broadcast is different. It tests one’s spontaneity. You are still far from that and I’m saying this because I’m responsible for you. You should first slowly gain experience in broadcasting.” With a simple sentence, he had destroyed the chance for Zhang Ye to go on a program. As for the reason, Tian Bin had obviously noticed that Zhang Ye’s attitude towards him had changed. He didn’t even call him “Brother Tian”. Tian Bin sneered in his heart and naturally took the opportunity to suppress him.
The assistant from the editor team had no other alternative but to keep the program layout and say, “Alright, then our channel’s Teacher Chen doesn’t have a program today, right? I’ll get Teacher Chen to make the appearance.”
With the opportunity lost, Zhang Ye immediately turned hostile, “Teacher Tian, I have not offended you, right? You did not give me any help on my job to give me experience. You never answered my doubts. Now, you don’t even know what my abilities are and you say I won’t do? You even took away the chance for me to a be a last-minute assistant host? And you spoke behind my back to scheme against me? Did I kill your father or your mother? Is there a need to be this ruthless?”
Tian Bin did not expect Zhang Ye to dare to speak to him in such a manner and angrily said, “You repeat that again!”
Li Si also rushed forward and said, “As a rookie, how can you speak to Brother Tian like that? Are you rebelling?”
Everyone in the office turned their gazes towards them to watch the commotion. Everyone’s eyes were staring, with no one coming forward to stop them.
Tian Bin pointed at Zhang Ye, “This kid can’t even appreciate my kindness! I’m protecting you by not letting you go on air! It’s to let you build up your experience! And you actually yelled at me? And still said that I schemed against you behind your back? Are you maligning me?”
Zhang Ye said coldly, “You know what you said back then with Li Si!”
The two began to quarrel and no one wanted to be in the weaker position. Finally, a few colleagues in the office came forward to stop them. Actually, everyone knew that Tian Bin had the bad habit of speaking behind people’s backs, so they knew that Zhang Ye would not have said this without reason. Furthermore, Zhang Ye was being asked to be a substitute host. Not only did Tian Bin not care bringing the rookie around, he had even made him do all his dirty work. And when the rookie finished the dirty work, you still didn’t let him go on a program? This was indeed quite unreasonable. No matter who it was, they would definitely not be happy about this!
Tian Bin and Li Si walked out angrily.
Zhang Ye stared at their backs as he scoffed. He knew that people had to tuck one’s tail between one’s legs and behave himself at times; however, when people bullied him, he would not be courteous to them. Tian Bin had pushed it too far! Beat him? Then wait to get fired. Scold him? It was likely that would have the same end result. This was a job Zhang Ye had a hard time getting. He definitely could not lose it. He still needed to use the radio station as the first step to becoming famous!
Wait!
That Unlucky Sticker!
Zhang Ye suddenly thought of the new item he had won at the lottery last week. He did not know how effective the item was and had never planned on using it. Whatever, since we’re in this state, let’s try using it on you! The game ring was what he would rely upon in the future. He had to understand how the items within were used and how effective they were. With his livelihood at risk, how could he not experiment? He really did not know how bad the bad luck would be!