Chapter 148: A Celebrity Goes Broke to Save a Fan!

The second morning.

The sun moved away from the horizon, but was covered by dark clouds.

Zhang Ye had applied for absence from work. Yesterday, he had rushed to the hospital in the morning to save a life, then he raised money and sent the money. He was both mentally and physically exhausted, so he wanted to rest. After he woke up, there was nothing to do. He switched on the TV and watched some news before logging on to Tieba.

His Tieba suddenly increased a lot in fan numbers.

“Teacher Zhang, I’m also your fan. My father is sick, I wonder if you could lend me 500,000. When I have the money, I will repay you.”

“Teacher Zhang, I am sick. Please help me. My family can’t afford my medical bills, so I could only come to you.”

“I am a fan of your books. You are so good to your fans. Can you lend me 30,000 for me to see a doctor?”

“The doctor says I need 100,000 to cure me of my illness. 100,000 is enough. You don’t lack that bit of money, so why don’t you help me!”

Many threads seeking for help began appearing. Some directly asked for money without any reason, while some others didn’t go into details except to say that they were fans of Zhang Ye and were sick. Some even posted their bank account numbers directly for Zhang Ye to transfer the money to them.

Zhang Ye’s original fanclub members weren’t too happy about this. But for threads asking for help for their illnesses, the moderators didn’t dare to delete them.

“Where did all these people come from?”

“Who are they, and why are they all sick?”

“It’s definitely fake. Aren’t these people just taking advantage of the situation?”

“Not necessarily. Some might be real. Can Teacher Zhang help?”

“Are you crazy? There’s so many people here! How can he help all of them? Teacher Zhang does not own a bank. Even if Teacher Zhang has the money, he can’t possibly help like this. If anyone just posts their bank account, does that mean Zhang Ye has to transfer money to them? Based on what? There’s no such logic!”

“How should we handle this?”

“I don’t know. Let’s wait for Teacher Zhang to respond.”

“Eh, Teacher Zhang is online. He should have seen it.”

Zhang Ye did see it, but he did not respond.

One of the posters who posted several threads urging for anwers saw that Zhang Ye was online but did not respond, so he posted another thread, “What is this yapping on and on about Teacher Zhang! They were all exaggerating about him on TV! I think he’s just a pretentious fella! Oh, is it just because the fan is female!? Because she’s a female, that’s why you help? Such a big amount just like that? Are we male fans not people, too? You don’t even bother about us? Aren’t you being too biased like that? Eh? What good person? You’re definitely a hypocrite!”

Another person who had earlier asked for helped said, “That’s right; I bet he helped because she is a female. He didn’t have any good intentions in the first place. Such a person can go on TV? Pui!”

A lot of Zhang Ye’s fans could no longer bear with it.

“How can you say that!”

“Watch what you say!”

“Number1 had been fighting alongside Teacher Zhang since the very beginning! She’s our fanclub’s Leader! Of course Teacher Zhang will help! Who the hell are you all? Immediately asking for money after signing up! We didn’t pick on you, yet you dare to scold! What sort of people are you!”

The help seeker said, “We are also fans, so why does he help others but not us?”

Zhang Ye could no longer not reply. He posted in the thread, “I’m sorry. I’m currently unable to help.”

The help seeker mocked, “Come on. Your ‘Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’ is so popular. And with all those poems, novels and fairy tales, how could you be short of money? A bit over a hundred thousand shouldn’t even be money to you! If you don’t help us, that means you are not willing to help us! Don’t say that you are unable to help! You’re so d*mn fake!”

Those who wanted money all began scolding.

Zhang Ye was not bothered by this, but he did not know what to say either.

He had thought that this would pass without any issues, but it became more and more problematic. People who claimed to be his fans kept appearing on his Tieba, using all sorts of excuses to ask money from him. In the end, this matter even became a topic of discussion online.

“When a fan is in trouble, should they be helped?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

— A poll with that title appeared on Weibo for discussion.

“Sigh. This society nowadays… It doesn’t allow people to do good things anymore!”

“Why are there so many people suddenly? Teacher Zhang Ye is very unlucky.”

“Yes. He helped one person, but other people want in, too? Oh, you are helping her, but not us? Why? Why should you help her? We are all your fans, but why are you biased — It has brought about a wrong effect. If Zhang Ye wants to help, but is unable to help everyone, then the other fans will have opinions again.”

“There’s no point in doing good.”

“Why is it always like that these days?”

“That bunch of people, are they really Zhang Ye’s fans? I doubt so!”

In the end, this issue was even reported on the fifth page of the Beijing Daily newspaper.

……

Afternoon.

An angry Hu Fei, who was at work, slammed the newspaper onto his desk, “This bunch of people, they are too disgusting! What do they know?”

Xiao Lu asked, “What’s the matter, Brother Hu?”

“Take a look for yourselves.” Hu Fei passed the papers to them.

Hou Ge had only read half of it before he also angrily hit the table, “Do they take Teacher Zhang for an ATM? So many of them are asking for money? They even act like they are entitled to it?”

Suddenly, a woman’s voice came from outside the door.

“Producer Hu, can I disturb you for a moment?” It was a familiar face. They all knew her from the first recording of “Lecture Room” as one of the guests — Reporter Ci. At that time, when Zhang Ye and the program team had disagreements with the guests, Reporter Ci had helped to smooth things over. They had a good relationship with her, and she was even one of the more well known reporters in her field.

Hu Fei said surprisingly, “Reporter Ci, you are here? Please come in. Is there anything we can help you with?”

Reporter Ci smiled. “I am now in charge of the newspaper’s literature section, but the news team asked for my help, so I came over to understand the situation. A lot of Teacher Zhang’s fans are still asking him for donations now. Do you know about this?”

Dafei indignantly said, “We just found out a while ago.”

Xiao Lu said, “These people are really wicked!”

“Don’t spout nonsense.” Hu Fei was speaking to a reporter. He had to be careful, even though they weren’t just mere acquaintances, one couldn’t be too careful.

Reporter Ci blinked, “Teacher Zhang had posted on Tieba this morning. He said he was unable to help and rejected donations to those fans.”

Xiao Lu spoke without thinking, “Of course he couldn’t help, Sister Ci. Let me tell you: do you know how Teacher Zhang Ye paid for Yang Lian’s operation fees this time? He didn’t have much saved. This money was raised by selling ‘Zhang Ye’s Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’. Two copyrights were exchanged for one million. If Teacher Zhang wasn’t in a rush to raise the amount, with more negotiations and time, these two copyrights would have fetched a minimum of 1.6 or 1.7 million. But because Teacher Zhang wanted to save a life, he didn’t bargain for a better price. In fact, the amount was not enough to cover the fees. Teacher Zhang had to break the bank to make the difference. He even wanted to sell his car, but as it wasn’t easy to sell it off quickly, he had to borrow money from us!”

Upon hearing that, Reporter Ci was slightly shocked, “What? There’s such a thing?”

Dafei grumbled, “Yeah. Even our money was not enough. In the end, Brother Hu had to lend him 50,000. With Teacher Zhang’s salary, he would need to pay it off over at least 3-4 months. Of course, Teacher Zhang was unable to help; he has less than 1,000 on him! Who can he even help if he doesn’t have enough to eat!”

Reporter Ci was somewhat agitated, “What you said, is that the truth?

“Of course, it’s the truth!” Hou Ge said, “Why would we lie to you?”

Reporter Ci said with a trembling voice, “I still thought that Zhang Ye could afford the operation fees easily because he had enough. Who knew….. Alright, don’t worry about it. Let our newspaper clear Zhang Ye’s name this time!”

……

That afternoon.

A freshly published newspaper went on sale quietly.

“Celebrity gone bankrupt saving fan’s life”

Content: Yesterday afternoon, Beijing Television Station reported some news that had captured everyone’s attention. A celebrity saved his fan’s life and pledged to pay for her medical bills. Most people know this as the story, but on our newspaper reporter’s further investigations, the story is not so straightforward. Although Teacher Zhang Ye had agreed to cover the medical bills for his fan, this has caused him to go broke. He had agreed to sell off his work’s copyright for a low sum and even had to borrow money from his colleagues to raise 1.1 million. Teacher Zhang Ye has hardly a cent left for himself, preferring to put this debt on himself to help raise the amount for the fan’s operation.

However, many self-proclaimed fans of Zhang Ye are now asking for money from him! We did some simple research and found that one of the claims is from a Mr Liu from Jiangnan. He was admitted to Jiangnan’s Second Hospital and wanted to borrow money from Zhang Ye for an operation due to a terminal illness. But upon our reporter’s investigations, his posting IP was not from Jiangnan; it was not even from the south, but from the northeast!

There were also many others who used illness as an excuse to ask for donations from Zhang Ye!

I only want to say a few words. Why don’t you all touch your heart and ask yourselves… Are your consciences really clear?

……

With the report made public, the internet went into a frenzy!

“What? Zhang Ye had to borrow money for the operation fees?”

“Is this news reliable? If it is, then this person must definitely not be criticized!”

“Yes. I thought that Zhang Ye was very rich. After all, he is pretty popular in Beijing. Who knew that he had to sell his copyrights and borrow money to ……”

“I’m numb. My eyes are all red!”

“Me too. I’ve not been this touched in many years!”

“Who are the ones trying to take advantage of Teacher Zhang? F**k their ancestors!”

“This bunch of heartless things! Zhang Ye went broke to save a person! Yet you people are fishing in troubled waters? And even tried to discredit Teacher Zhang? Aren’t you all wicked!”

On Tieba.

Zhang Ye’s fanclub HQ.

A person had posted the newspaper report. Upon seeing this, all of Zhang Ye’s fans went silent. They didn’t know what to say; they only felt that their hearts were full.

Those who had earlier been scolding or asking Zhang Ye to lend them money no longer made a sound.

Only one person who had asked Zhang Ye for a donation posted a thread — “I’m sorry”.