The Self-cultivation of Omega Running with the Ball

Pei Du actually seldom went to school. After that chance encounter, Wen Qiu never ran into him again. He only heard news about him occasionally in gossip - he had applied for such and such a project, represented the school in such and such a meeting, was passionately confessed to by a certain OMEGA and cruelly rejected.

When he became a distant and shining symbol again, Wen Qiu gradually lost his sense of reality. Sometimes he felt that all the past interactions were an illusion, and he was like Bai Ningshu, with a problem in his brain, confusing fantasy with reality.

As for him and that silly Yan Sheng, they did have a few more meals together and watched a movie together, but unfortunately they didn't develop any friendship beyond friendship. At first, Wen Qiu just liked him and wanted to use him to change his mood, but after experiencing a top-notch person like Pei Du, it was really difficult for him to be compatible with others.

So the two became friends. Yan Sheng worked part-time as a model outside of school and recommended him a job as a print model. Wen Qiu naturally wouldn't refuse, so he followed him once and earned more than a thousand yuan for a half-day shoot.

Now he is no longer so averse to taking photos. As long as he can make money, he will do anything. He will take any job as a fitting model for online stores, suspicious flyers, and advertisements for 18th-tier brands as long as he is paid. The advantage of this line of work is that appearance is king. Even if he has no experience or connections, he can often make a living with just his face.

During this period, an MCN company also approached him, hoping to package him as an internet celebrity; an agent also tried to recruit him to participate in an idol audition. Wen Qiu thought about it and refused. He only looked good in still photos, but in real videos, his movements were as stiff as possible, and his expression was as reserved as possible. He was not born to be a celebrity.

He had been busy from the winter break to the New Year, first following Director Lu Jia's comments, then revising the script and submitting it before the deadline for the Wenxin Cup.

Then he was busy practicing driving - Pei Du had paid the driving school fees in full in one go, and Wen Qiu, adhering to the principle of not wasting money, insisted on completing the lessons and passed the driving test.

In his spare time, he worked part-time and saved up another 10,000 yuan. As a result, Zhao's mother fell while riding her electric scooter to buy groceries and was sent to the hospital again. The injury was not serious, but the results of the full-body examination were very bad. She had severe rheumatism and usually endured the pain in her body without complaining. Sometimes on rainy days, her joints hurt so much that she couldn't stand up straight.

This was the result of years of hard work, but her savings were taken away by her son, and she just wanted to get through the pain. Wen Qiu couldn't bear to see her suffer, so he insisted that she receive treatment, and he paid for the medical treatment and subsequent acupuncture fees with his own money.

Zhao Ma might be one of the few people in the world who still misses him. Wen Qiu always treats her as a relative in his heart. He never hesitates to spend money on his relatives, but now he has the pressure of an old man in addition to a young one. No matter how hard he works, the balance does not increase. Sometimes Wen Qiu can't sleep in the middle of the night and thinks about the time when he was still with Pei Du.

At that time, he didn't have to worry about money and had very few anxieties. His love was as short-lived as the dew.

Only when he couldn't fall asleep did he allow himself to think for a short while, because these memories were harmful to him, and would make him blind in his delusions and fall in a reality full of pitfalls.

In addition to these imminent pressures, there was another matter weighing heavily on Wen Qiu's heart, and that was Xiao Zhiliao's schooling.

When Xiao Zhiliao turns three, that is, two years later, he will go to kindergarten. However, he has no household registration and no house, so he cannot get into a public kindergarten. Private kindergartens are not only mixed, but also very expensive, with the most expensive ones costing 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month, and the cheapest ones cost 3,000 to 4,000 yuan.

After ruling out those with really bad environments, Wen Qiu finally settled on a kindergarten that charges 4,000 yuan per month. He went home with a heavy heart and did the math. The tuition alone would be 100,000 yuan in three years. He would either have to find a way to save some money, or he would have to leave Jianghe City with Xiao Zhiliao and live with his grandmother - which would also mean that he would have to completely give up his dream of being a screenwriter.

Time does not slow down because of his worries. As red lanterns are hung in the streets and songs of "Wish you a prosperous New Year" are heard in the supermarkets, the New Year is gradually approaching.

After Zhao Ma's leg had recovered, she limped back and forth to do the work. She first cleaned the house, then bought some New Year pictures with the word "Fu" on them and decorated the cottage with joy. She also asked the old man downstairs to write a pair of Spring Festival couplets and posted them on the door.

So every day after get off work, the first thing Wen Qiu saw was a couplet on the door: "Every year brings prosperity and good fortune, and every year brings peace and good luck."

Wen Qiu gave Zhao Ma an extra 500 yuan for the holiday, which soon turned into peanuts, melon seeds, candied fruits, and bacon for the family. Little Zhiliao got an extra piece of Long Baobao's clothes, and Wen Qiu also got a share, a red scarf knitted by Zhao Ma herself.

On New Year's Eve, two adults and one child went to the supermarket together to buy a lot of ingredients. In the evening, they moved the table in front of the TV and cooked hot pot while watching the Spring Festival Gala together.

The hot pot was a double-flavored pot. Wen Qiu used the bone broth to cook a small bowl of vegetables, blew it cool and fed it to Xiao Zhiliao. Xiao Zhiliao ate until his belly was round, and at the end he waved his hands, "I'm full, baby, I'm full..."

"Wipe your mouth when you're full." Wen Qiu demonstrated the gesture of wiping the mouth, and Xiao Zhiliao followed suit, picked up the small lunch bag around his neck, and wiped his own mouth.

Mother Zhao looked at this scene, her eyes narrowed into slits, and she said with a smile: "Little Zhiliao, say 'Happy New Year'."

The little cicada opened his round eyes, clasped his hands like the people on TV, and shouted in a baby voice: "Happy New Year!"

"Oh, baby, you are so good," Zhao Ma was so happy that she stuffed the red envelope she had prepared long ago into his hand, "Grandma will give you a red envelope."

Little Zhiliao received the red envelope and danced with joy. He knew it was a good thing and handed the red envelope to Wen Qiu, "For Dad."

Wen Qiuxiao bent over and kissed his soft face several times, "Whose child is so well-behaved? Whose child is so cute?"

The little cicada was kissed by him and giggled, shouting loudly: "Daddy's house, Daddy's house!"

Little Zhiliao learns to talk very quickly, but other babies of his age can almost walk, but he still can't. When other babies crawl around the house, he likes to sit there quietly and play with building blocks. Wen Qiu knows that this is the effect of pheromone deficiency, and he often tosses and turns with worry.

After eating hot pot, the family gathered together to eat snacks. Wen Qiu cut the big orange into two halves, gave one half to Zhao Ma, then threw two halves into his mouth, and then slowly peeled the flesh for Xiao Zhiliao.

After he finished feeding the cicadas, he found that Aunt Zhao was still there peeling oranges slowly - she was squinting her dim old eyes and carefully peeling off the white orange peel.

Wen Qiu smiled and joked, "Are there so many rules for eating oranges?"

"I'm telling you, I peeled it especially for you," Zhao Ma said angrily, handing him the peeled orange segments. "You've been picky since you were little, you won't drink water without honey, and you won't eat oranges without peeling the stems. I remember it all!" Wen Qiu took the orange segments in a daze, his nose a little sour. He had long forgotten these things, but Zhao Ma still remembered them. In the past few years, he had long since gotten rid of all the bad habits of a young master, but there were still people who indulged him like a child.

He was feeling mixed emotions and ate the oranges in silence. After peeling the oranges for a while, Zhao Ma suddenly noticed that his eyes were red, so she asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"…I ate too many oranges and my stomach feels sour."

"Oh, you have a bad stomach, you can't eat too much of this, blame me. Come, drink some hot soup quickly..." Aunt Zhao wanted to get up and serve the soup.

Wen Qiu fell into her arms and looked up at her eagerly with a childish expression: "It's okay, just rub it for me."

Mother Zhao could only smile helplessly, and put her rough, warm hands on Wen Qiu's belly, rubbing him gently while nagging him to eat well.

When the little cicada saw this, it also crawled into Wen Qiu's arms, sticking its round belly out to Wen Qiu's hands, wanting to "rub it" too.

After a while, the hosts on TV began to count down to twelve o'clock. Wen Qiu imagined that at this moment, more than one billion people were holding their breath, waiting for the arrival of the new year. His heart began to pound, and he held the little one and pulled the big one to the window.

"Bang——" As the clock struck twelve, fireworks all over the sky rose at the same time, filled with people's beautiful wishes, and bloomed into gorgeous bouquets in the night sky.

But all these fireworks combined were not as good as the one he saw on his birthday.

The phone started to buzz. Even a lonely person like him received many group messages of blessings. Wen Qiu suddenly became interested and scrolled down for a long time to find the chat box with Pei Du. The last message between the two was three months ago.

He must have received many more blessings than I did. If he was mixed in with all those blessings and just sent a "Happy New Year"... Wen Qiu typed in two characters, then quickly smiled and shook his head and put his phone away.

Those who abandon me shall not stay yesterday.

Let this brilliant illusion of fireworks disappear with the old year in this bone-chilling winter night. He will welcome the new year with a new vision and those who truly care about him, with open arms.

/
After the New Year, the students' winter vacation had not yet ended, but most companies had resumed work. Pei Du went to the company to deal with some accumulated affairs.

He didn't have many projects under his charge, and he was just using this non-core industry to practice. However, the vice president's office was surprisingly luxurious and spacious enough to run a horse.

After the judges' review, the list of winners of the "Wenxin Cup" New Screenwriter Competition has been preliminarily determined. This list was naturally sent to his desk, and Assistant Jiang put it on the top.

Pei Du took a quick look and immediately called the project manager over to ask.

"Don't be nervous, Alex, there are just some minor problems." Pei Du comforted the person in charge who looked very nervous. "Why don't the scores and awards here match? According to the blind review scores of 12 professional screenwriter judges, "Where the Roses Are Buried" scored 91.25 points, and "Skyline" scored 89.4 points, but the special prize was awarded to the latter."

Alex explained: "It's like this, Mr. Pei. Liu Xingchen, the screenwriter of Skyline, is a contracted screenwriter of our company and a talent we plan to focus on training. His previous works have been adapted into online movies and will be released on various platforms soon. This wave of awards is just right to build momentum for the movie..."

Pei Du understood, "Who made the decision?"

"It's Director Wang. He takes good care of newcomers and always does things personally." Alex asked cautiously, "Does Director Pei have any suggestions on the results of this competition?"

Pei Du was silent for a moment. It was understandable that the company awarded the special prize to its own people in order to support the development of newcomers. Under the surface fairness, this is the real operating rule of this world. For Wen Qiu, who had no connections and no background, winning the first prize in his first competition was already a very good outcome.

Of course, he only needed to open his mouth to return the special prize that should have belonged to Wen Qiu. Before the breakup, he would have done his best to facilitate this matter, but now, Pei Du could not think of a reason to do so.

"I have no objection." Pei Du closed the list. "The competition was well organized. I heard that many directors and screenwriters in the industry are paying close attention to the results of this competition."

"Thank you, President Pei. It is thanks to your guidance that this competition was made possible." Alex showed a hint of joy, nodded and bowed before retreating.

This was originally an insignificant matter, but Pei Du was always distracted throughout the whole day - he made a reasonable decision, but he didn't feel comfortable.

He couldn't help but think of those things: Wen Qiu sitting cross-legged at the small table in the projection room, concentrating on revising his manuscript, his eyes shining when he talked to him about the script, and his excited look when he got the revised manuscript from director Lu Jia... All of him, countless moments, are vividly reflected in his mind, as if they happened yesterday.

Wen Qiu must have been very happy after learning that he had won the first prize, but he would never know what he had been deprived of.

Pei Du leaned back in his chair, slowly turning the pen in his hand, and spent ten minutes thinking about this matter. In the end, his rationality naturally prevailed, and he decided to remain indifferent to the matter.

(End of this chapter)