I’m Really a Superstar

The next day.

Later that morning.

Zhang Ye and his entourage returned to China. When they left, everyone was still feeling a little perturbed over how they did not really understand the comics industry. But when they arrived back at home, everyone looked exhilarated.

After they got off the plane, they drove back to the studio.

Zhang Zuo and the others were waiting for them.

“Director Zhang!”

“Aiyo, you’re finally back?”

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Don’t go abroad anymore. You gave everyone such a fright.”

“Fortunately, nothing bad happened this time.”

“Pfft, and your Asian popularity has grown further too.”

Zhang Ye’s popularity was getting higher and higher by the day as he got closer to becoming an Asian S-lister. As such, their studio naturally became more popular as well, with countless invitations to work on projects all over the country. Zhang Ye had been away for 10 days, so the work was also piling up. A lot of it had to be personally looked through by Zhang Ye.

Wu Yi anxiously asked, “Oh yes, how did the comic go?”

Ha Qiqi said happily, “It was a great success!”

Zhang Zuo’s eyes lit up as he said, “Really?”

Little Wang said excitedly, “Director Zhang’s comic has been serialized. Furthermore, it received a very enthusiastic response as soon as the first chapter was released. It was ranked first in Shōnen Magazine’s popularity poll.” Seeing how no one reacted to that, Little Wang added, “Perhaps you guys don’t grasp what all of that meant, so let’s put it this way instead. You all know about Martial King, right?”

Wu Yi blinked. “I’ve watched the cartoon.”

Little Wang said, “Yes, it’s that extremely popular cartoon. Martial King’s comic was ranked second place behind One Piece!”

Everyone was shaken!

He really did it?

Director Zhang’s comic had really become popular?

Ha Qiqi said, “Only one chapter has been released so far, but Shōnen Publishing’s editorial department is placing a lot of importance on it. The editor has already given us several calls, so it seems like they’re already handling this comic series with a lot of priority. Who knows? We might even get to see One Piece getting an animated adaptation soon. If that happens, it will even be able to propagate to the rest of Asia. We can only observe how popular One Piece can become for now. This is not something that anyone can guarantee at the moment, so we’ll have to see how it performs.”

A comic series also had many levels of popularity.

Becoming a little popular.

Becoming very popular.

Or even becoming popular on a national level. The degrees of popularity were all different.

One Piece had only just started, so everything was still unknown.

Zhang Zuo said, “Director Zhang, quite a lot of work piled up over the past 10 days—”

Zhang Ye laughed. “Put it aside, I have to go home right now. My mom has been nagging me for the past few days, so I’d better go back and report to her first. I’ll come back to handle these business matters at a later time.”

Zhang Zuo said, “Alright, quickly head home then.”

He took his luggage and drove back home.

…

Back at home.

In the villa.

Zhang Ye took out his key to open the door. When he went inside, he called out cheerfully, “This bro’s finally back!”

However, he realized there was something wrong with the atmosphere. It turned out that his parents were here. Furthermore, Old Wu’s parents were also here. Then he saw his wife. She was sitting on the sofa with one of her legs perched up. It was wrapped in a white cloth, and a cast seemed to be on it. There was even a pair of crutches next to her.

His mother harrumphed and said, “You still know to come back?”

Zhang Ye was horrified. “Aiyo, my dear wife! What’s going on here?”

Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “It’s nothing, I just fell down.”

Zhang Ye bounded over to Old Wu and crouched down beside her. He touched her leg lightly. “How did you fall?”

Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “I wasn’t paying attention while walking, so I fell. The baby is fine, don’t worry.”

Zhang Ye stared hard and said, “It’s not fine if you’re not alright either.”

Wu Zeqing said, “I’m fine, can’t be better.”

“You’re like this, so how can you not be better?” Zhang Ye’s heart was aching badly. He turned around and groused to his mother, “Hey, how could you have kept this from me!”

His mother rolled her eyes. “Didn’t I keep asking you to hurry back home!”

Zhang Ye remembered that. “So it was because of this that you kept bugging me with your phone calls? Then you should have said so! If you told me directly, I would’ve returned two days ago!”

His father said, “Zeqing insisted on not letting us tell you.”

Zhang Ye said angrily, “How many days has it been since the fall?”

His mother curled her lips. “Two days.”

Li Qinqin said, “Her ankle is fractured, but everything else is alright.”

Wu Changhe also said, “They’ve set her bones and placed a cast on it, but she has to recuperate for the next few months.” Then he looked at his daughter and said, “Why didn’t you be more careful when taking the stairs?”

Zhang Ye immediately said, “Which stairs did you fall down?”

His mother was amused. “Why? Are you going to chip them?”

Zhang Ye clenched his teeth and said, “I’ll break them apart!”

Everyone laughed at that.

Zhang Ye checked on his wife for a long time, showing concern for her injury at times and checking the X-ray film from the hospital at times. He suddenly remembered that he still had the [Spring Water of Health] that he received from the lottery draw. If he let Old Wu drink it, it should be able to heal her injury easily. But after considering and hesitating for a long time, Zhang Ye knew that he couldn’t use it on her. He had used it on Old Rao before to cure her of her internal injuries. But as internal injuries were not something that could be seen, and coupled with the fact that Rao Aimin had also been recuperating for a long time before that, it didn’t seem strange when she suddenly recovered from it. Meanwhile, Old Wu’s fracture was a different matter as she had only just broken her ankle two days ago. The hospital X-rays were right there, so how would it look if she could suddenly skip around or run a marathon when she was still walking with the aid of crutches a while ago? How could he explain something like that?

Noon.

They started eating.

Everyone began discussing how to take care of Wu Zeqing during this period.

Li Qinqin suggested, “Changhe and I will bring Zeqing home with us. This place has two floors, so it will be very inconvenient for her to move around. It’s better if she stays with us so that we can take care of her.”

Wu Zeqing smiled. “There’s no need for that. I can handle myself.”

Li Qinqin shook her head. “You definitely can’t take care of yourself alone.”

Zhang Ye’s mother objected, “Leave it to Little Ye’s dad and me to take care of her. Haven’t we been doing so for the past two days already?”

Wu Changhe said, “The two of you are not young anymore. If you keep traveling to and fro every day, cooking and doing the chores, that’s definitely not feasible. Why don’t you just leave it to us?”

Both families argued over the matter for a long time.

In the end, it was still Zhang Ye who made the decision.

Zhang Ye put down his chopsticks. “Stop arguing. She’s my wife, so I’ll be the one taking care of her, of course.”

His mother glanced at him. “Son, it’s not that Mom doesn’t believe in you. I trust that you are capable of caring for her in normal times when she is uninjured. But the problem is that it takes Zeqing a lot of effort to even go up and down the stairs, to say nothing of doing the laundry and cooking. Let you take care of her? With that culinary skill of yours? Even Pigsy would starve until the skin on his stomach became loose ¹ !”

His father also said, “Zeqing is carrying a child. Fast food is full of MSG, so she mustn’t eat too much of it. She can’t take a lot of medications either, so she will have to recuperate her injury by herself. You don’t even know how to cook or make tonic soups for her to strengthen her body, so you should just forget about that idea of yours. At worst, your mother and I will come by daily to help out.”

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. “There’s no need for that. In any case, don’t bother yourselves with this matter.”

Li Qinqin said, “That won’t do. You already have so much work to attend to every day, so where would you find time?”

But Zhang Ye said, “I’ll push away back. Starting today, for the next few months, I’ll stay at home and take care of my wife. I won’t be going anywhere, so that’s that! Nobody say any more!”

Doing the laundry?

I’ll learn!

Cleaning the house?

I’ll learn!

Cooking?

I’ll learn!

This is my wife! I won’t have anyone taking care of her but me!