Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Noon.

After eating lunch at home, Zhang Ye produced two pieces of clothing out of nowhere.

"Dad, Mom, these are for you," Zhang Ye said.

His mother looked over and asked, "What is that?"

His father frowned. "You\'re wasting money buying things again?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "It\'s the new year so I bought some clothes for the two of you. A mink coat for Mom and a leather jacket for you. They are reputable brands. Put them on and see if they fit."

"Don\'t waste money buying such things in the future." His father was already used to not spending frivolously.

His mother smiled as she took the coat from him. "How much did it cost?"

Zhang Ye replied, "Around 100,000 yuan."

His mother was deeply shocked by that. "Whoa, are you crazy?! If you have a hundred thousand, why don\'t you spend it on something better instead? You could have given me the money and I would\'ve saved it up for you!" She threw the coat back to him and said, "Quickly return it and get a refund!"

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "I was just kidding, it\'s only a few thousand yuan. Alright, I still have to report to Beijing TV in the afternoon, so I\'ll be leaving now."

His mother asked, "Are you coming home tonight?"

Zhang Ye said, "I\'ll see how it goes."

His mother asked again, "How about the second and third days of the new year?"

Zhang Ye said, "I don\'t know yet. It\'ll depend on whether I\'m busy or not."

His mother grumbled, "Don\'t keep running around outside during the New Year period. Can\'t you just spend the new year at home? How many days have you been around at home in the past year? When you come home every night, it\'s already past 10 or 11 PM and I can barely get to see you. When you left Beijing to shoot your show, it was for a few months at a time. And just last year, you stayed away from home beginning from the eve of the Spring Festival! You insisted on going to the venue of Central TV\'s Spring Festival Gala to write songs for other people and even fought with a Korean which resulted in you spending New Year\'s Day at the police station! So can you just not run around this year! Be good and stay at home!"

Zhang Ye acknowledged, "Aiya, I got it."

His mother stared at him. "Drop that patronizing attitude! Why is it so difficult for our family to spend the new year together?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "OK, Mom, I got it."

His father asked with concern, "How\'s your preparation for the crosstalk gone?"

Zhang Ye said casually, "It\'s already done."

"Then why did I still hear you preparing in your room just now? Muttering something to yourself in there?" his father said.

Zhang Ye sighed. "Actually, there are no more problems, I was just refining it. The two of you can rest assured and just watch the show tonight."

...

The live broadcast was getting close.

The chattering online was also growing louder.

When Zhang Ye arrived at Beijing Television, he bumped into several people from the Gala production team.

"Eh, Teacher Zhang, you\'re here?" an assistant director remarked.

Zhang Ye smiled. "Yes, I came early to prepare."

The assistant director said, "Many people are discussing your routine for tonight. There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding it."

"Yeah, I saw that too," Zhang Ye said indifferently.

The assistant director laughed and stated, "Many people feel that you can\'t do a gala crosstalk, and even if you can, you won\'t do it well. Though there are still quite a lot of people supporting you. We were so amused when we saw what some of your fans said. They claimed that even if you did not say a word onstage and started to munch on sunflower seeds with Yao Jiancai, they would still enjoy watching it!"

A director\'s aide said, "Teacher Zhang, break a leg."

Another staff member said, "There\'s certainly not going to be any problems regarding your performance."

"Thanks." Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I\'ll be counting on your blessings."

As he walked in, he greeted the people he knew. Then Zhang Ye found a waiting room and closed the door behind him as he started to deliberate on the crosstalk script again. This was his first time preparing a crosstalk routine in such a way. It wasn\'t that he did not have the confidence, but rather that this crosstalk was too risky. Those previous crosstalks he performed all revolved around the crosstalks that existed in his previous world and he would at most add a few of his own ideas to it without changing the main through line. But the crosstalk that Zhang Ye was going to perform today was made up of different individual\'s jokes put together. There were Guo Degang\'s, his apprentice, Yue Yunpeng\'s, and Wang Zijian\'s bits, peppered with some of his own ideas as well. What he needed to do now was string them together into a single routine, which was a very difficult task to achieve. As a result, Zhang Ye had to put in a lot of effort and judgement this time around as he wasn\'t very sure if he could perform this crosstalk routine well. Rather, to phrase it better, he wasn\'t too sure if the audience would accept it.

Around 2 PM.

Yao Jiancai arrived.

"Old Yao, you came at the perfect time."

"You\'re quite early, eh? It starts at seven in the evening, you know."

"I\'ve made some changes to our routine again."

"Ah? You\'ve changed it again?"

"Somehow, I feel that something is missing and it doesn\'t feel exciting enough!"

"But it\'s already very good."

"Come, let\'s go through it quickly."

"Sure, whatever you say."

Everyone at Beijing Television was kept busy by their work. The busiest period each year would probably be during the Spring Festival Gala on the first day of the Spring Festival, as it was a live broadcast after all. Naturally, there were some television stations that were not so busy; for example, Gansu Television, Shanxi Television, Jiangxi Television, and a few other stations. As their viewership ratings were just average and them not being the popular television stations around, they had nothing to vie for on this occasion. To put it bluntly, their Spring Festival Galas were all prerecorded several days before. In this world, only Beijing Television, Hunan Television, Liaoning Television, Zhejiang Television, and the other, larger provincial stations would broadcast the Spring Festival Gala live. As they wanted to fight for the viewership ratings, they had to broadcast a live show.

Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai\'s crosstalk was no doubt one of the main highlights of Beijing Television\'s Spring Festival Gala this year. As the station planned to rely on them to pull up the viewership ratings, they were arranged to appear at the earlier part of the programming schedule. This was different from Central TV\'s Spring Festival Gala as Central TV broadcast on the eve of the Spring Festival to coincide with the countdown to midnight. As a result, the main highlights of the gala were all scheduled just before midnight. These were the differences between them and a provincial station\'s Spring Festival Gala.

A few hours later.

A staff member came over to remind them, "Teacher Zhang, Teacher Yao, it\'s time for your makeup!"

Zhang Ye looked up at her and said, "Wait a while more, we\'ll go over soon!"

That female staff member said anxiously, "But it\'s already 5:30 PM!"

"There\'s still something we need to deal with." Zhang Ye immediately got back into the discussion with Yao Jiancai. "Are we still going with this bit?"

Yao Jiancai said, "There might not be enough time."

Zhang Ye nodded. "Then let\'s take it out."

Finally, the executive director of Beijing Television\'s Spring Festival Gala, Chang Xiaoliang, was alerted. He dropped the work in hand and rushed over in a hurry. "Why aren\'t the two of you getting your makeup done and changing into your costumes? It\'s almost 6 o\'clock! We\'ll be starting in an hour\'s time!"

However, Zhang Ye ignored his words and just said, "Director Chang, I was just going to look for you. I was going through the script with Old Yao just now and there are some things that we need to add in. I want to have a piece of music added to our performance and record two sets of narration now."

Chang Xiaoliang was dumbfounded. "We don\'t have time for all of that!"

Zhang Ye insisted, "We must add in this segment no matter what."

"Why would a crosstalk routine require music?" Chang Xiaoliang did not agree to his requests. "Wasn\'t what was rehearsed previously already very good? The production team has already approved that, so we\'re fine with it."

Zhang Ye shook his head and said, "I haven\'t been feeling too confident with our previous routine all this while, but I only just understood the reason. The ending is not enough to hold up the routine and that makes all the jokes seem too scattered. Therefore, I must add in this segment!" He explained his thought process to Chang Xiaoliang in a simple manner.

When Director Chang heard that, he said, "Your changes came too suddenly and it\'s hard to say whether they\'ll work or not. Since nobody can see the end product and I\'m also unsure of what overall effect it would add, how do you expect me to agree to your changes?"

Yao Jiancai said, "It should be good."

Zhang Ye added, "Director Chang, you have to believe in my professional standards!"

Hu Fei and the others also rushed over upon learning about it. "What happened here?"

Chang Xiaoliang said, "This issue is too serious. I must discuss with the heads first." He quickly left the venue to make a few calls. After communicating for some time, he finally came back.

Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai both looked at Director Chang.

Director Chang clenched his teeth. "The heads have approved of the changes, so we\'ll base it on your idea to perform the routine! The two of you really know how to make things troublesome for me."

Yao Jiancai also wiped away the smile on his face and said, "Little Zhang is rarely as serious as now."

Zhang Ye commented, "We are striving for perfection."

Chang Xiaoliang stated, "Hurry up and tell me what you need. I\'ll get someone to arrange for it immediately!"

A staff member said anxiously, "Teacher Zhang, Teacher Yao, please do your makeup first! You can discuss while having your makeup applied!"

Zhang Ye apologized, "Sorry, I\'ve made it quite troublesome for everyone."

In the past, Zhang Ye\'s crosstalk routines were all about scolding people. He would scold one person after the other. Being comical and face-smacking were good enough, and the routine did not have to be too artistic or exquisite. But this time, it was different as he wanted to perform a proper routine. He definitely had to polish it repeatedly and not have a casual attitude like before.

The audience gradually entered the venue and got seated.

As the start of the gala neared, the atmosphere was becoming tense!

The staff of Beijing Television were fidgeting with anxiety too!

"It\'s starting soon!"

"Where\'s Director Chang? Where has Director Chang disappeared to?"

"Director Chang is at the recording studio!"

"Something happened with Zhang Ye and Yao Jiancai\'s crosstalk routine. I heard that there were some last minute changes and a lot of people are running around because of it. Hai, their crosstalk routine was arranged for the sixth performance of the night!"

"Ah?"

"Will they make it in time then?"

"Who knows! Teacher Zhang Ye is always doing things like that!"

"Hurry! Hopefully they\'ll make it in time!"

With the unexpected situation happening, Beijing Television\'s Spring Festival Gala production team staff had their hearts in their throats!

Counting down to the last 20 minutes.

Chang Xiaoliang was back.

An assistant director asked anxiously, "How are things going over at Zhang Ye\'s side?"

"They\'re still getting to it. Let\'s not bother with them anymore!" Chang Xiaoliang shouted, "Everyone, get into position!"

A female assistant director stamped her feet. "That Zhang Ye! Seriously!"

Counting down to the last 10 minutes!

Counting down, 5 minutes to go!

At 7 PM sharp, the live broadcast of Beijing Television\'s Spring Festival Gala officially began!

...

Meanwhile.

Liaoning, Hunan, Zhejiang, Shanghai, as well as the other provincial stations\' Spring Festival Galas began almost concurrently!