Superstars of Tomorrow

Due to the security team’s verification and reminders, nobody went over to disturb Fang Zhao after that.

Only in the evening, when the sun was starting to set, did Fang Zhao’s attention finally leave his music scores. Looking at the progress he had made today, he finally shut the notebook.

Fang Zhao felt rather satisfied with this piece of work and decided to place it among his concert pieces.

A little growl from his stomach indicated that he was hungry. Fang Zhao looked at the time; it had been so long since he had sat down. His inspiration had been overflowing, and he had composed nonstop and lost track of time. Getting up, he stretched his arms and prepared to leave. He had only walked a few steps when he heard footsteps approaching him.

"Please wait!"

Fang Zhao turned toward the source of the sound and saw a nurse briskly walking over.

Fang Zhao remembered that it had been this nurse who had kept a wary eye on him, although it had not been long before her gaze had vanished.

That nurse’s face was bright red, and she was so nervous her tongue was in a knot. "H-h-h-hello! Are you... Fang Zhao?"

In the security team office, the security person watching the surveillance feed rolled his eyes. Why must she ask the obvious when she is just giving a greeting?

Fang Zhao was a little surprised. "That’s me." At the moment, the young nurse in front of him did not have the slightest bit of wariness in her eyes. Instead, they were filled with excitement and admiration. Any more and her eyes would be shining brightly.

"Could I trou-trou-trou-trouble you for an autograph!" As she spoke, the young nurse fished out a card.

This was a Memorial Day greeting card that she had not used and had kept in her locker. Now she had taken it out.

Fang Zhao smiled and didn’t reject it. The nurse had forgotten to bring her pen, so Fang Zhao took out his own pen that he took notes with, signed his name on the card, and added "Happy Memorial Day."

"Thank... thank you!"

The young nurse had not requested Fang Zhao write anything else. After thanking him, she quickly returned to the hospital building and then posted a photograph of the greeting card with the autograph in the military district hospital’s internal chat group.

"I saw Fang Zhao in the little garden behind the hospital a while back!!!"

Previously, she had not mentioned in the chat group that she had seen Fang Zhao in the little garden behind the hospital, as she had been afraid that there would be too many curious people and it would disturb Fang Zhao’s composing. But now that Fang Zhao was already done and she had successfully managed to obtain the idol’s autograph, of course she had to show off a little.

In the evening, there were off-duty staff that normally did not say a thing, but when this message appeared, the chat group buzzed to life as many lurkers appeared.

"Fang Zhao? That famous Fang Zhao from our military district?"

"Where is he? Can I still make it to get his autograph?"

"I want to go too! Ever since I arrived at the military district, I have never gotten to see him in person!"

"I’m busy on duty. Anyone going to get his autograph, please me get one too!"

...

Two senior nurses shook their heads as they saw the discussions in the chat group and sighed while laughing. "These bunch of young ladies are just..."

"Don’t you frequently praise Fang Zhao? Don’t you want his autograph?" someone else asked.

"Cough, how can I stop other people at the hospital and ask for their autograph?"

"I also think..."

"I dropped by his place in the family district and even took a photograph together!’

"..."

Little did Fang Zhao know that the bunch of nurses were passionately talking about him. After he returned to his residence in the family district, he received an incoming call from Shanta.

Shanta told Fang Zhao that for this incident, those that deserved to be punished had been punished and those that deserved to be rewarded would not be excluded. Fang Zhao’s service had already been reported to the higher ups and news would be released.

This incident could not be kept under wraps. Many people in the internal loop already knew about this. The rumors flying about concerning Fang Zhao’s ears were becoming even more and more divine. This could not be helped, though. As planet Baiji lacked entertainment facilities and gossip, how could the people miss out on such a chance? Furthermore, many people felt that Fang Zhao’s ears were really mystical, and they could not stop discussing his ears.

Shanta’s intention was this: since it couldn’t be covered up, then it just had to be publicly commended!

"Why should we cover up a good deed?"

What Shanta meant was that as long as there were merits, they deserved to be publicly commended. Also, it didn’t have anything to do with terrorists, just the arrest of a gang of thieves, so why should the person who had actually rendered service be hidden? For what reason? Shouldn’t those people who harbored errant thoughts be the ones hiding instead?

Thus, during the official annoucement where Fang Zhao’s service in this matter was commended, Shanta also had some words to say. Anyone who dares to try and take revenge against Fang Zhao over this matter, us at Baiji military district will never let them off!

Not only Fang Zhao, from now on, in similar situations, anyone’s meritorious deeds would be publically commended, and if anyone dared to retaliate, Shanta would return the favor with added interest!

Thus, in no time, more people on Earth got to know about the matter of Fang Zhao relieving duty on Memorial Day and foiling a criminal gang’s ore-theft plans. Furthermore, in the news that planet Baiji officially released where an account of incident was described, there was a line that epecially emphasized "Fang Zhao heard that something was not right." This line gave rise to a round of heated discussion.

"He can even hear that?"

"How far is the range of his hearing?"

"Really, Diting!"

"Although the previous rumors were slightly overexaggerated, there was indeed reasoning behind the online circulation about those ’divine ears’."

"Am I the only one that is focusing on the mecha-troops being deployed? If I was one of those thieves, I would have crumbled. To actually be faced with mecha-troops just from stealing some ore, they probably didn’t even have the courage to resist. Hahahaha!"

"Those thieves never expected that Shanta would be so ruthless. He simply did not waste any time with them."

"I have pondered deeply and analyzed this quite a bit. Shanta’s decision was the right one. By making such a ruthless move, he sent out a statement. I believe there will be less people who try to steal ore in the future."

"Rubbish. Anyone can tell this from one glance—do you still have to ponder deeply and analyze it?’

"I just received news that a firm that manufactures protective ear equipment has decided to look for Fang Zhao for an endorsement deal!"

"Why did I hear that it was a company that sells sound equipment that is looking for Fang Zhao to be an ambassador?"

"I don’t know about others, but till now, Fiery Bird is the only one confirmed. The new model of ear pieces that is going to hit the market in May is set to be endorsed by Fang Zhao. I heard the contract was signed some time back. This is internal information, so it should be true."

"Only Fiery Bird has such foresight. Hasn’t the value of Fang Zhao’s ears appreciated once again? The fees for approaching him as an ambassador are surely at a premium."

Fiery Bird were indeed rejoicing. They had already discussed the contract for endorsing the new model earpieces, and the fees had already been fixed. If they were to negotiate a contract now, they estimated the fees would be 30% higher.

Originally, the plan had been to wait till Fang Zhao had completed his military service. If his popularity fell, they would roll out some PR operations to hype it up. Unexpectedly, there had never been any need for them to make a move. Fang Zhao’s ears had once again become a hot discussion topic, and their value had risen once more!

Watching the value of Fang Zhao’s ears sore, Fiery Bird wondered whether they should get Fang Zhao to endorse the company’s many other sound and stereo equipment.

At the same time, having found out about the incident’s entire timeline, Kevin Lin sighed in his heart. He had known that letting Fang Zhao go out would cause him to miss big news. If he had followed Fang Zhao to the guard post on that day, perhaps he might have gotten to film quite a bit of big news!

During this time, Kevin Lin had followed the Memorial Day program planned out by the column’s editor in chief, and there had been nothing really spectacular. Channels S1–S5 were all virtually the same. It was not that they were bad, just that the special programs were all in the same style of stirring up emotion, and audiences did not pay them much mind to them when they were over. Furthermore, military service was not something new and had been around for many years. There had been many such videos filmed in the past for special programs, so online audiences were already immune to such scenes.

Naturally, there was one person whose heart felt really uneasy as he watched the piece of news officially released by Baiji military district.

Wang Tie, who was currently at the Wai Filmed Entertainment Culture Base, was secretly taking snapshots of a certain big-name celebrity. When he saw that piece of news, his first reaction was this: Perhaps the reason Fang Zhao was able to see through my disguises is because he heard through them!

Wang Tie searched the internet for related information and legends of the mythical creature Diting’s hearing ability and found out that the Diting was said to be able to hear truths and lies. When considering his own circumstances, the more Wang Tie thought about it, the more he felt that this was the case.

Regardless of what other people thought, Wang Tie had a mental "Diting" label stuck to Fang Zhao.

Fang Zhao did not read online evaluations of himself, but he found out about them from Kevin Lin. The value of his own ears had risen, so much so that people suggested insuring his ears. From his earlobe to his eardrum, his ossicles, and his cochlea, every bit of his ear should be insured.

Fang Zhao himself had no idea that his ears would actually be raised to a divine status, but he had no explanation for it. Besides, if he explained it, he would have to give many other reasons, and there were some things that Fang Zhao could not disclose. The more he said, the more doubts would appear. His body had too many secrets that others could not know about.

In the days that followed, Fang Zhao continued with his military service. Regardless of how others went about their lives, Fang Zhao’s daily routine was roughly the same. The only difference was that planet Baiji had started publicly annoucing the merits of soldiers and specifically started a topic about the meritorious services of this bunch of youngsters that were undergoing military service. From this, Fang Zhao’s name often appeared in front of people’s eyes.

And when people saw news relating to Fang Zhao, their evaluations also changed.

"Fang Zhao has rendered a meritorious service!"

"So impressive? It’s simply hard to believe, is it exaggerated? Don’t the media just love to blow things out of proportion and create things out of nothing? Even if it is true, it’s surely overexaggerated. It’s probably to set a benchmark. This is probably to complete their political duty."

...

"Fang Zhao has rendered a meritorious service again!"

"What? Another one? Are you sure it’s real? Are there videos? This little fella is really hardy. This time it really isn’t exaggerated."

...

"Fang Zhao has rendered a meritorious service yet again!"

"Impressive! There are so many opportunities on planet Baiji. Now that Fang Zhao has once again received a merit, given his record, he can probably get promoted, right? Im so envious! Fang Zhao will be my idol from now on!"

...

"Fang Zhao has rendered meritorious service once more!"

"As expected of my idol!"

...

"Fang Zhao has garnered yet another meritorious deed!"

"Has he been promoted yet? Don’t call me if he hasn’t been! I’m gaming!"

...

"Fang Zhao has garnered meritorious deeds once again!"

"Oh."

Afterward, whenever Fang Zhao rendering meritorious service or deeds was mentioned by Baiji military district, unless it was third-class merits or the like, it rarely even created a splash. Only some idle audiences would lament about it.

Furthermore, Fang Zhao’s fans were rather unperturbed. They had already classified Fang Zhao under the category of "an abnormal person." The image that "my idol is a mythical creature" was already firmly etched in their hearts. Thus, small matters like this would not excite them. For a mythical creature, these kind of small matters were nothing more than simple effort. Was there a need to be amazed?

The number of Fang Zhao fans was also continuing to increase.

However, there were also many people who could not understand Fang Zhao’s actions. What was a conscript who was only undergoing temporary military service striving so hard for? You aren’t even a career soldier! Yes, you can strive for merits over at Baiji military service and rise up the ranks, but even if you reach an officer rank, the bonus you will get after ending your military service is not even a tenth of the revenue you earn just from composing one tune!

It was said that those who could use their brains didn’t need to use their hands. Why did Fang Zhao have to use his brains and also use his hands? That just wasn’t worth it!

What was he trying to prove?