Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 29 The Spring Festival Gala Holdout

They agreed to meet at 6:30 over the phone, but Zhang Yan had nothing else to do, so he arrived at the Central Broadcasting Station half an hour early.

After waiting at the gate for about ten minutes, Zhang Youdai, whom I had met once before in the morgue, led a refined-looking young man out of the building.

"Ouch~"

Seeing that Zhang Yan was already waiting outside, Zhang You hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, "Teacher Zhang, you've arrived quite early. Let me introduce you. This is Yao Ke from our broadcasting studio, an outstanding graduate of the Capital Broadcasting Institute."

The Capital Broadcasting Institute is the future Communication University of China.

"Yao Ke~"

Just as Zhang Yan was about to exchange a few pleasantries with the other party, a pretty girl in a police uniform ran over and snuggled up to Yao Ke affectionately.

Upon seeing the girl, Yao Ke asked in surprise, "What brings you here?"

Then he hurriedly introduced her to Zhang Yan and Zhang You: "This is my girlfriend, Zhou Tao, who is also a recent graduate from the Capital Broadcasting Institute."

Figure:

As he spoke, Yao Ke looked somewhat troubled, clearly unsure how to settle his girlfriend.

Zhang Yan hurriedly said, "Then let's eat together! Recent graduates are definitely more familiar with the latest policies, and girls eat less. All things considered, I'm getting a great deal on this meal!"

Yao Ke secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhang Youdai also smiled and said, "Great writers really know how to talk—by the way, I haven't finished introducing you yet. This is the great writer Zhang Yan, he's been featured in magazines..."

"what?"

Before Zhang Youdai could finish his introduction, Zhou Tao exclaimed in surprise, "You're the author of 'The Great Detective of the Red Chamber'? Many people in our municipal bureau are reading this novel, and some have even recreated the techniques from it!"

Zhang Yan wasn't surprised by this. What really puzzled him was how Zhou Tao, a recent graduate of the Broadcasting Institute, became a policeman after graduation.

Does the Broadcasting Academy have a criminal investigation major?

So when they started chatting on the way, Zhang Yan tactfully raised his question.

"It's all because of the quota for staying in Beijing!"

This hit Zhou Tao's nail on the head: "The competition this year is too fierce. There are not enough quotas for our major to stay in Beijing. I've looked around and the only place that the Beijing Public Security Bureau is willing to take me in."

The current Zhou Tao is far from the gentle and poised stage presence she had as a pillar of CCTV and a regular on the Spring Festival Gala. When she gets upset, she stomps her feet in frustration, and she's no different from any other young woman today.

Although college graduates in the early 90s were guaranteed job assignments, staying in Beijing was not so easy.

Many couples break up because of quota issues, so Yao Ke and Zhou Tao are actually quite lucky to be able to stay in Beijing together.

Zhou Tao then angrily added, "Later I found out that it was the son of an old leader who had taken a liking to me. That person had been harassing me for a long time, and he finally gave up recently when Yao Ke and I were preparing to get married."

Zhou Tao is beautiful, has a good temperament, and speaks frankly and without affectation, so it's not surprising that she was chosen by someone.

However, Zhang Yan was a little worried after hearing this. What if his younger sister couldn't find a suitable job after graduation?
But then she thought again that Zhang Fang's current problem was whether she could go to university. As for what would happen after graduation, she could worry about that later.

While thinking these things, Zhang Yan cupped his hands in greeting to the two of them and said with a smile, "Congratulations! When you two get married, please be sure to let me know so I can join in the fun and share in the joy."

Zhou Tao and Yao Ke exchanged a smile, their understanding between them evident.

When they arrived at a nearby restaurant, Zhang Yan ignored the three men's advice and insisted on ordering a table full of dishes—since Zhang Youdai and Yao Ke were hosting a radio show that evening, they didn't order any alcohol.

The four of them ate and chatted, and soon the topic of art exams came up.

Yao Ke was three years older than Zhou Tao, and therefore did not understand the current art exam process as well as the latter, so Zhou Tao became the one who dominated the conversation.

According to Zhou Tao, the Capital Broadcasting Institute usually starts its campus recruitment in March. In previous years, the requirements for voice were higher, but in the last two years, more emphasis has been placed on temperament, appearance, stage presence, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Zhang Yan immediately understood; this was a shift from radio to television.

The questions for campus recruitment change every year, but the recitation section remains constant, and it also requires a considerable level of shorthand ability.

After hearing Zhou Tao give several examples, Zhang Yan felt a little uneasy. Although his younger sister was good-looking and eloquent, she hadn't received professional training and would definitely be at a disadvantage in this area. Seeing Zhang Yan's concern, Zhou Tao thought for a moment and said, "It would be best to bring your sister to Beijing and ask our school's teachers to help assess her. If she has a good foundation and isn't too far off, a few months of intensive training should be enough for her to pass."

She paused, then added, "Some teachers at our school do test preparation training on the side, but it's definitely not cheap, so you should be prepared."

Zhang Yan didn't care about money; he was guaranteed to earn at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan when the novel was published next year.

However, if they wanted to provide intensive training, Zhang Fang would have to stay in Beijing, which was a bit difficult—her parents both had formal jobs in Hengjiang, and he had just been transferred to Tianjin. They couldn't just let a minor girl come to Beijing on her own, could they?
This wasn't something he could decide on his own, so the conversation shifted to more relaxed casual chatter.

These three people sitting at the same table each have their own unique characteristics.

Zhang You is a kind and easy-going person, but he has his own principles in his career. He is currently trying to create a music program that he wants, even if it means leaving the Central Radio Station and going to a local station.

He prefers music to hosting.

Yao Ke has a somewhat mild temperament and a go-with-the-flow attitude towards his career. He is quite satisfied with his current life and work and only wants to develop his career step by step.

Zhou Tao is the one most dissatisfied with the status quo and is currently trying his best to transfer to a radio or television station. When it comes to hosting, he is also the one with the most ideas among the three.

After dinner, Zhang Yan only intended to exchange contact information with Yao Ke—after all, it wouldn't be appropriate to ask for Yao Ke's fiancée's number in front of him.

As a result, Zhou Tao not only gave her her phone number, but also said that if needed, she could provide Zhang Yan's sister with some basic training for free.

After thanking Zhou Tao for his kindness, Zhang Yan couldn't wait to return to the hotel and used a nearby public phone to contact his parents.

After hearing the details, Zhang Xingguo and Sun Xiaohong discussed it briefly and quickly decided that while their son was still in Beijing, they would take their daughter to Beijing the next day to "inspect the goods".

“If it were before, your mother and I might have hesitated, but now that you’ve made something of yourself, the money we’ve saved for your funeral is no longer necessary. We can use it to give your sister a better future.”

Zhang Yan had originally planned to pay out of his own pocket, but after hearing his father's words, he remained silent, after all, his parents also cared about their reputation.

Zhang Xingguo is definitely a man of action. While his daughter was still in evening self-study, he rushed to the school overnight to ask for leave for her.

The next morning around 8 a.m., the family of three boarded a train to Beijing—because it was a slow train, it would take about 4 hours to arrive in Beijing.

After receiving the message, Zhang Yan hurriedly contacted Yao Ke, but Zhou Tao answered the phone instead.

Hearing that Zhang Yan's sister would arrive in Beijing that afternoon, Zhou Tao readily agreed to contact familiar teachers in advance. However, considering the long journey, he suggested arranging the 'audience' for tomorrow morning.

Zhang Yan thought so too. He planned to take his sister to get a haircut and buy her some trendy clothes from Beijing first.

In addition, he always felt that Zhou Tao was a bit too enthusiastic, but he couldn't figure out what the other party was up to—they were about to get married, so it couldn't be that he had taken a fancy to him, right?

…………

the other side.

Seeing his fiancée hang up the phone, Yao Ke, who was putting on socks, couldn't help but tease her, "It's just a friend asking a friend for help, I'm not even in a hurry, why are you so concerned? Don't tell me you've fallen for that famous writer and are about to fall for someone else?"

"Screw you!"

Zhou Tao grabbed a pillowcase and threw it into Yao Ke's arms, then laughed and said, "But I've really taken a liking to him—I've taken a liking to his novels. His novels are really novel, and recently they've even sparked a craze for time travel."

"Isn't your broadcasting department going to launch a new radio drama program next year? If we take this opportunity to build a good relationship with Zhang Yan, get his authorization, and then record this novel as a radio drama..."

"Is this okay?"

Yao Ke instinctively wanted to back out: "Radio dramas are usually timeless classics. His novel isn't finished yet, is it? What if we spend all our effort recording it, only to have the production team reject it? Wouldn't that be a waste of time?"

"Why don't you think about what benefits it would bring to either of us if we appeared on the show?! You're not even willing to take the slightest risk. Do you want to be an assistant announcer for the rest of your life?!"

As Zhou Tao spoke, he turned his back in a huff, and said angrily, "If you're afraid of trouble, I'll find someone else to record it. After it's recorded, we'll broadcast it on our city bureau's radio station. It just so happens that a lot of people in our bureau like this novel!"

"No, no, no, I'll record it, I'll record it, okay?"

Faced with his fiancée's emotional outburst, Yao Ke could only surrender: "Then I'll contact the classmates who stayed on to teach at the university and ask them to help make proper arrangements."

(End of this chapter)