Chapter 11: Having His Own Program!
On air.
As Zhang Ye narrated the story, he spoke more quickly. It was at least much faster than Tian Bin’s speed. This was like how the personalities of people differed. Narrating a chapter also depended upon one’s character. Most of the time, Zhang Ye described the story at a fast to very fast pace. Of course, at important parts of the story, he would slow down when it was required.
“First chapter. The Funeral Doll. My grandfather is called Hu Guohua and his ancestors were large landowners known far and wide. During their most glorious period, they purchased in the city three alleys that linked together forty houses. They were also involved in some politics and trade, donating provisions and assisting in transportation.”
Outside.
Everyone did not know what was going on. No one had expected Zhang Ye to take over the job of narrating a ghost story and they were worried. From listening to the first few paragraphs, no one had much anticipation for the story’s content. Was this a supernatural novel? It was too plain. Was this an autobiography? After describing for so long, it was all matters regarding the main character’s grandfather? And grave robbing was mentioned earlier on? Was robbing graves considered supernatural? There had never been such a novel of this type before. To them, only works that had been accepted by the market and had experienced the trial by fire of readers were considered good. However, Zhang Ye’s grave robbing novel was something they had never heard of. As such, they immediately labeled it as something that “was not up to mark”.
However, this view only lasted for ten minutes.
When Zhang Ye described how the funeral paper doll made by the craftsman came to life and asked to marry Hu Guohua, Wang Xiaomei felt a shudder. Zhao Guozhou’s gaze turned serious as the entire atmosphere of the studio chilled down!
The funeral paper doll had let Hu Guohua dig up her grave for riches. Eventually, when Hu Guohua could not resist the temptation, his liver was eaten by the paper doll. When the plot reached this intense point, everyone’s breathing had also tensed up!
Tian Bin was stunned when he heard this. As this was a midnight program, many people working for the channel did not listen to it. Most people would have slept by that time; hence, they would not know much about ghost stories. However, Tian Bin was a DJ who narrated such stories. He dabbled with all these ghostly stories on a daily basis, so he had the ability to distinguish things. Initially, he had deemed it impossible for this grave robbing novel to have any market, as it had never appeared before. But as he listened, Tian Bin felt his pores contract. It was as if Zhang Ye’s mouth emitted a chill. The story had captured Tian Bin immediately!
Was this an original work of his?
How could this be possible!? He could write such stories?
Tian Bin did not believe. Neither could Wang Xiaomei and company believe!
Only Zhao Guozhou had a vague idea of the situation. Thinking back to how Zhang Ye composed the poem, “The Song of the Stormy Petrel” during the interview, Zhang Ye had managed to surprise all of the interviewers. This was a very talented person. Else how could he be granted special permission to be hired with his looks? Zhao Guozhou had grabbed Zhang Ye from Li Honglian’s hands forcefully into his Literature Channel. Now, it seemed like he was prescient.
One o’clock in the morning.
An hour passed by very quickly.
The number of people outside were the same as before. No one, including Zhao Guozhou, had left early. They were all listening to the story.
The female assistant gestured to Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye nodded to signal that he got the message and he stopped his story at a suitable spot, “Dear listeners. That will be all for today’s broadcast. I welcome you to carry on listening in for the story tomorrow. Thank you, everyone. This is your DJ, Zhang Ye.” Pushing a button to broadcast music, Zhang Ye took off his headset and heaved a sigh of relief. It would have been a lie if he said he was not nervous. He had made some mistakes during the process and nearly embarrassed himself. Thankfully, he had the basic foundations, hence Zhang Ye was still pretty satisfied with his first broadcast. There was still some room for a few flaws.
A staff member walked in quickly. What followed was a replay of prime-time programs, so he had to adjust the equipment.
Zhang Ye walked towards the room that Zhao Guozhou and company were in. After pushing the door open, he first apologized, “Leader, sorry. I took the initiative to take over the broadcast without discussing with everyone. Mainly it was because there was no time. I did not want the program to have any broadcast incidents and go off-air, too, so I suddenly thought of a plot and idea I previously had. I followed my thoughts and narrated the story. Since it’s my original work, then it would not cause any problems with copyright. I also thought pretty simply, uh, anyways, sorry to everyone. If the higher-ups want to pursue the matter, I will take full responsibility for it!”
No one had any response as they were silent.
Zhang Ye blinked his eyes, “Leader, I…”
Suddenly, Zhao Guozhou raised his hands and slowly clapped!
A middle-aged man in the editing team also raised his hand and clapped vigorously!
Following that, a round of applause sounded. It caused quite a commotion in the radio station’s building late at night.
Zhao Guozhou grabbed Zhang Ye’s shoulders and smiled. “Are you still apologizing? You have saved this situation at such an opportune time! Without you going on up, we don’t even know what would have happened to the program. Besides, your ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light’ was written so well. There’s nothing to say about the quality and neither can I pick on your language. I find it much better than the supernatural novels that our station has to pay top dollar for. Great, I knew I did not make a mistake choosing you!”
Zhang Ye immediately said, “Thank you. I’m flattered.”
The female assistant also grinned, revealing her canines, as she secretly gave Zhang Ye a thumbs-up.
Li Si’s eyebrows were knitted tightly. Tian Bin was also not in a good mood as he stared coldly at Zhang Ye.
Zhao Guozhou clapped his hands to attract everyone’s attention. “Alright, everyone has been busy all night. You have all worked hard today, so go home and take a rest.” Again, he spoke to Zhang Ye, “Little Zhang, do you still have a follow-up to this story? Tomorrow you can just carry on narrating it. ‘Late-night Ghost Stories’ will temporarily be hosted by you!”
Me?
This program was temporarily mine?
There was no need to mention Zhang Ye’s pleasant surprise. He was, of course, overjoyed. He had just started work for a week and was a rookie amongst rookies. Without any experience, he was given a program that he could call his own? He had seized the opportunity at the most opportune time as he immediately said, “Thank you for the Leader’s trust. I will definitely do well!”
Tian Bin could not accept hearing this, “Leader, letting him host? Then, what about me…”
Zhao Guozhou said impatiently, “What about you! You didn’t even dare to sit on the seat during the last few seconds! If not for Little Zhang rescuing the situation, we would have a live broadcast incident! You shall be a stand-in host for now! And take some time to reflect!” After covering his mouth to yawn a few times, he walked out tiredly.
“Leader!” Tian Bin shouted.
Zhao Guozhou went home without even looking back.
Wang Xiaomei stared deeply at Zhang Ye, before returning.
Zhang Ye glanced and said to Tian Bin, “Teacher Tian, I’m sorry. I will consult you if there is anything I do not know in the future.” He did not kick Tian Bin while he was down and did not turn arrogant upon being successful. He calmly said some pleasantries. Zhang Ye was pretty impressed with his own bearing. Look at me being so refined!
Tian Bin was so angry that his eyebrows were tightly knitted!
Earlier that day, Tian Bin had been all-powerful and had repressed the rookie, Zhang Ye, due to his qualifications. In a few hours, his program had been taken over by Zhang Ye! With winners crowned and losers vilified, it could be said that nothing could be taken for granted in this world! Tian Bin bit his molars as he believed that it was still to be determined as to who had the last laugh. The most important thing was to see the listenership ratings when they were released tomorrow. If the first day’s rating was still at the bottom, even after all the promotions, then Zhang Ye might be kicked away even if he did not make a mistake. After facing disciplinary action, the program would still be Tian Bin’s!