In the evening.

In his home drawing studio.

Zhang Ye buried himself in work and was drawing the third chapter of One Piece, looking focused. He wanted to complete at least ten chapters before heading to Japan.

One page.

Two pages.

Three pages.

The characters came to life on the canvas one by one.

When he suddenly looked up, Zhang Ye realized another person was inside the small drawing studio.

Zhang Ye put the stylus down. “Whoa, when did you come in?”

Wu Zeqing, who was standing behind him, smiled and said, “I’ve been here for a while now. Did you set up this new drawing studio because you wanted to make comics?”

Zhang Ye said, “Yeah.” He turned back. “Here, read it.”

Old Wu said with a smile, “I read it already. It’s pretty good.”

Zhang Ye said helplessly, “You always say the same thing for everything I do.”

Old Wu said, “Hur hur, but it’s really pretty good.”

Zhang Ye said, “Oh yes, I’ll be going to Japan next week to receive an award.”

Old Wu asked, “Alright, for how many days?”

Zhang Ye said, “I’m thinking of staying a little longer to get a sense of the market there.”

Old Wu said, “OK. But the people there aren’t that welcoming of you, so just be careful, alright?”

Zhang Ye smiled. “I will. I’m gonna continue drawing then.”

Old Wu said gently, “I’ll go make you a cup of coffee.”

“Thanks, honey!” Zhang Ye acknowledged before getting back to work.

An hour.

Three hours.

The third chapter was finally completed.

When he checked his watch, it was 12 AM.

Zhang Ye did not go to sleep and continued drawing the fourth chapter.

If any Japanese cartoonists would have present, they would definitely have been shocked by Zhang Ye’s speed. Zhang Ye did not even blink as he started drawing the moment he held the stylus. Swish, swish, swish. His hands seemed to produce afterimages at the speed he drew. He did not even stumble at any point in time while drawing the comics. There was no erasing, no alterations, and no errors. This had nothing to do with speed. Reaction, agility, strength, and stamina, all of it was indispensable. No one could draw as quickly as he did. Only a martial arts master who had knowledge of his previous world’s completed comics, like Zhang Ye, could do it!

…

One day.

Two days.

The final copy was building up page by page.

Eventually, ten chapters of the final copy were completed.

…

On the morning of the third day.

Zhang Ye returned to the studio and showed everyone the final copy.

The studio staff could no longer express how they felt at this moment.

“Ten chapters?”

“You drew up eight chapters in the last two days?”

“Jesus!”

“You’re too fast!”

“Director Zhang, you must take care of your health!”

“Yeah, don’t tire yourself out!”

However, Zhang Ye said in a relaxed manner, “What about me tiring out? What’s the big deal with just this bit of workload?” He wasn’t bragging; he really didn’t feel tired at all. When he left the house with Old Wu this morning, he even jogged three laps around their neighborhood before driving over to work without breaking a sweat.

Everyone was speechless.

They sometimes wondered if Director Zhang was made of metal.

They really wanted to take off his clothes to see if there were steel plates underneath.

Ha Qiqi said at this moment, “Oh right, Director Zhang, the itinerary for the Japan trip is out.”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “OK, let me have a look.”

“Here.” Ha Qiqi passed it to him. “It’s from the Asian Charity Association.”

Schedule:

Next Monday.

Plane arrives in Tokyo.

Check-in to the Asakusa Hotel.

And so on.

Zhang Ye read over it. “Alright, we’ll travel according to their itinerary. But for the return trip, there’s no need to rush it. Let’s stay for a few more days.”

Ha Qiqi nodded. “Alright, I’ll go and liaise with them.”

Zhang Zuo asked, “Who will be in the entourage this time?”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Who wants to go?”

Little Wang raised her hand and shouted, “Me, me, me!”

Little Zhou also raised her hand. “I’ve never been to Japan before either!”

Ha Qiqi laughed and said, “It’s not like we’re letting you guys go there to have fun. We’re going to be handling important matters.”

However, Zhang Ye was not that particular. “Haha, it doesn’t matter. It’s going to be a work and R&R trip. Alright, Little Wang and Little Zhou will be coming with me. And Little Sun too, you’ll definitely have to come along as well.”

Little Sun smiled. “OK!”

Zhang Ye looked at Ha Qiqi. “Old Ha, why don’t you go too?”

Ha Qiqi said, “I will definitely be going.”

Zhang Ye nodded. “So then, that’s about it?”

Zhang Zuo felt a little uneasy and immediately said, “Director Zhang, why don’t you bring Little Yang along as well?”

Ha Qiqi quickly added, “That’s right, that’s right. We weren’t prepared when we went to Korea the last time, so we nearly got into trouble when we hit a snag. It won’t work if we don’t have a bodyguard with us while we’re abroad. Moreover, the Japanese are always scolding you nowadays, so we definitely have to bring Little Yang along with us. Safety first!”

Across the office, Yang Shu was leaning on the windowsill and staring at the BMW X5 parked downstairs. Upon hearing that, she slowly turned her head in a daze and asked, “What’s the matter? Where are we going?”

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes.

Ha Qiqi said, “We’re going to Japan. We’ll be depending on you for protection.”

Yang Shu nodded and said, “Alright.”

Zhang Ye lectured her, “Don’t cause any trouble when you’re there.”

Yang Shu replied, “OK.”

Zhang Ye said, “And stop setting your sights on other people’s car windows!”

Yang Shu said, “Uh-huh.”

Zhang Ye harrumphed, “If you get into trouble while we’re there, we’ll leave you behind in Japan. Don’t think about coming back here either. Do you hear me?”

Yang Shu said, “OK.”

Nobody knew whether to laugh or cry!

Director Zhang!

How can you be so thick-skinned to lecture others?

You’re obviously the one who is always getting into trouble!

Every one of those words that you said was referring to yourself, alright?

The itinerary was finalized, and the entourage was determined as well. The remaining item to take care of was the paperwork.

Getting passports.

Booking the plane tickets.

Making the hotel reservations.

The Asian Charity Association had only invited Zhang Ye, but they did say that they would reimburse and make arrangements for his entourage as well. After all, they knew that for a celebrity of Zhang Ye’s level, he could not possibly travel alone for a trip like that. However, since Zhang Ye was planning to bring a lot of people with him, he didn’t want to trouble the charity to arrange all that. Zhang Ye was a fair and just person, so he decided that he would fork out the money himself.

There were three more days to go.

Everyone was looking forward to this trip to Japan.

But just before they set off, an incident that would cause a heated discussion throughout Asia happened!

…

On this morning.

The news came completely out of the blue!

A Korean journalist brought to light the in-house magazines in a hotel in Tokyo, Japan that were provided to their guests. The articles in it were extremely harsh: whitewashing history, tampering with history, denying past military atrocities, and even using language in an obviously insulting tone to the Chinese and Koreans. It was terrible and horrible! Most importantly, this hotel was even quite a famous one. It was called the Asakusa Hotel, and many of the accommodation needs of large conferences’ attendees and foreign athletes during important competitions were handled here. It was also a corporate partner to many travel agencies, and a lot of Chinese tour groups would arrange for their guests to stay with them. However, those magazines were all published in the Japanese language, so it managed to stay undiscovered until now!

In the history of this world, there were also quite a lot of similarities to that of Zhang Ye’s previous world. There were differences, but the general development of both universes did not vary by too much!

As such, many of the countries in Asia were having none of it this time!

China.

Korea.

The media.

The people.

All of them immediately started criticizing!