Over here.
It was almost 3 in the afternoon.
The gathering had come to an end. Everyone had had their fill of food and drinks.
Su Na took the Millennial Impossibility couplet from President Wu and left satisfied with her father. The other guests also began to leave.
Zhang Ye had been made to drink a lot with Mr Feng and a few other calligraphers and was now pretty drunk. He could barely stand straight as he walked over to Wu Zeqing to say goodbye, "President Wu." He hiccuped as he said, "So then, I'll be.....crazed, you be... what's that thing, do you need me to send you back?"
Wu Zeqing had a lot of presents piled up beside her.
He only heard her say, "You've had so much to drink, how would you go back?"
"I drove here, so I have to drive back." Zhang Ye spoke with a fat tongue, but his mind was actually clear, "It'll be OK, don't worry."
Master Zhou heard him, "Yo, you shouldn't do that. If you drank, then don't drive. Let me arrange someone to send you home instead?"
Wu Zeqing smiled, "Don't bother Master Zhou. Since I did not drive here today and there are so many gifts, I could send Little Zhang back in his car. He doesn’t stay too far from me."
Zhang Ye immediately said, "It's fine, President Wu."
"Just listen to me." She said, "You're already walking so wobbly, how could you drive a car?"
A heavily drunk Mr Feng also said, "Right, let....hic.....let Little Wu send you. If there's a....another chance... let's have a drink together, just the two of us brothers....again!"
Zhang Ye replied toughly, "No problem!"
They had even become brothers now. Mr Feng was actually even older than Zhang Ye's parents.
In the end, a few people helped Wu Zeqing load up all her gifts into Zhang Ye's BMW X5. They stacked them all in the back seat of the car and Wu Zeqing put Zhang Ye in the front passenger seat before grabbing the keys from his hand. She then said goodbye to Master Zhou and the others before driving off.
"Sit still." Wu Zeqing reminded.
"Yea." Zhang Ye rubbed his temple.
She shook her head and smiled as she reached out to put the seat belt across Zhang Ye’s chest. "That'll do."
Ring, ring, ring.
On the way back, Zhang Ye's cellphone rang.
It was his leader, Wang Xiong, from Weiwo WebTV.
Zhang Ye answered, "Hello, Director.....Wang."
Wang Xiong could hear what was happening, "Little Zhang, what's the matter? You had a few drinks?"
"I had some, but still...OK." Zhang Ye said, "Is there something you want to say?"
Wang Xiong noticed that he was still clear-minded, and said, "It's like this, we just received news that the SARFT's revocation on your broadcast license has been lifted. We have also applied for your broadcast hosting qualifications to be reinstated. Zhang Ye's Talk Show can start airing again. Since it's almost Lunar New Year, you don't need to come back to Shanghai as all the episodes have already been recorded and are ready for broadcast, but there's something I need to let you know about." Saying that, his tone suddenly became more serious. "We've received some information which may or may not be reliable. There are rumors that the SARFT is preparing for another crackdown."
Crackdown?
Another crackdown?
Zhang Ye begrudgingly said, "Didn't they just finish a crackdown recently?