Huayu: This celebrity doesn't follow the rules.

Chapter 17 Oh no, this guy wants to sleep with me!

"Feifei, is this information reliable?" Meng Ziyi closed the book in her hand, her fingertips lightly tapping the cover. "Can a freshman really get Professor Tian to agree to this?"

She frowned slightly. "And if we really need to cast actors, why hasn't the department given us any indication?"

Wang Yifei looked around, then leaned closer and whispered, "I have a fellow villager who's in this year's directing program. He secretly told me this morning..."

She pulled up a blurry photo from her phone's album. "Look," she said, "it clearly says 'Art Director: Tian Zhuangzhuang.'"

“I heard that this project is going through the ‘teaching experiment’ channel,” Wang Yifei continued, “so the casting is not open to the public, and the roles are only selected from current students.”

Meng Ziyi's breath hitched slightly.

She was somewhat tempted!

The Beijing Film Academy has hundreds of student film crews every year, but most of them are just for fun.

There are very few directors who can be involved in the Fifth Generation directors.

"What's the boy's name?" she asked casually.

"Jiang Ye, a student in the Directing Department's BFA class."

The latte art in the coffee cup gradually spread out.

Meng Ziyi gazed at the ginkgo tree outside the window, lost in thought.

She attended Changchun No. 11 High School, which is no ordinary high school...

She wasn't an art student; she took the entrance exam directly from a regular high school.

As for why she suddenly made such a big change, the reason is simple: she broke up with her boyfriend...

She was dumped by her first love before the college entrance examination, and at that time she felt she couldn't stay in Changchun for even a day.

I happened to have a friend studying acting at Yenching University who said he was going to take an exam, so I asked him to help me register for the exam.

Her goal at the time was very simple: to become a big star so that the man who dumped her could always see her on TV!

Let that bastard regret it!

So she and her friend took the exam together. Her friend, who studied acting, didn't pass, but she did.

At the time, besides the issue of time, she didn't have enough time to apply to the Shanghai Theatre Academy, so she applied to the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, the Communication University of China, and the PLA Academy of Arts.

She actually qualified for most of them and even won a prize, except for the military arts academy.

I failed the second round of auditions for the PLA Academy of Arts. The reason was simple: I had to sing...

Life is always full of unexpected twists and turns.

But after enrolling, I realized just how difficult it is to make it in the entertainment industry without connections!

……

The cafeteria at Beijing Film Academy is located on the first floor of Morning Star Building on the east side of the campus. The space is not large, but it is clean and bright.

A long white table with blue chairs, and movie posters of outstanding graduates from previous years hanging on the wall, from Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" to Lu Chuan's "Nanjing! Nanjing!", silently remind the students of the traditions passed down here.

The signature dish at the window is the "Director's Set Meal," which consists of braised pork belly with a fried egg. It is said to have been a favorite among the senior students of the Class of '78.

Acting students prefer the low-fat "actor salad," while the corner always has a long queue for "photographer's fried rice," which is spicy, has eggs, and is full of wok hei (wok aroma).

Jiang Ye sat down by the window with his tray in hand. Opposite him was Zhang Ming, his classmate, the boy who had "unintentionally" leaked the news to his fellow villager.

"Is everything settled?" Jiang Ye picked up a piece of braised pork and asked casually.

Zhang Ming pushed up his glasses: "I told her... but I don't understand why you told her?"

Jiang Ye took a leisurely sip of soup: "Because Wang Yifei is Meng Ziyi's best friend."

"Huh?" Zhang Ming's eyes widened. "Then why don't you just go find Meng Ziyi?"

"That's no fun," Jiang Ye chuckled. "What I want is for her to come to me." "Oh, so you've taken a liking to Meng Ziyi, right?"

? ? ? ? ?

Jiang Ye almost spat out the soup he had just taken a sip of.

Zhang Ming felt he understood. "I've heard of her. This girl is the most beautiful girl at Beijing Film Academy. Her ID photo when she enrolled was even used as the cover of the school magazine. She has a lot of boys chasing after her!"

"If you want to pursue her, it won't be easy!"

"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Ye wiped his mouth. "I just think she's quite suitable for the role."

Seeing Zhang Ming's disbelief, Jiang Ye put down his chopsticks, his eyes suddenly turning serious: "Do you know about the scarcity principle?"

Zhang Ming shook his head, looking completely bewildered.

“There’s a classic theory in psychology,” Jiang Ye drew a circle on the table with his chopsticks, “that people tend to value things that require effort to obtain. Just like at an auction, people will bid wildly for the items they are bidding on, but they will disdain the same items that are offered to them on their own initiative.”

He pointed to the long queue at the cafeteria window: "Look, it's all the same fried rice, so why would people rather wait in line for twenty minutes than eat a ready-made meal? Because the brain automatically converts 'difficulty of acquisition' into 'value judgment'."

"So you mean..." Zhang Ming seemed thoughtful.

“If I offer the script to Meng Ziyi, it will just be another ordinary opportunity.” Jiang Ye wiped the water stains off the table. “But if she ‘accidentally’ discovers this secret project and then goes to great lengths to secure the role…”

"She will cherish this opportunity as if it were a trophy."

Jiang Ye narrowed his eyes, but there was one thing he didn't say.

If she hadn't come to him on her own initiative, how could he have gotten her to invest money?

We want the person, and we want the money!
"What if she doesn't take the bait?"

"Then let's hold open casting calls," Jiang Ye shrugged. "It'll just mean interviewing a few hundred more people, it'll just be a bit more tiring."

Despite saying that, his gaze unconsciously drifted toward the entrance of the cafeteria.

If his judgment is correct, given Meng Ziyi's personality, she will likely do so as early as tomorrow...

"Hello... are you Director Jiang Ye?"

? ? ? ? ?

Jiang Yegang's braised pork, which he had just picked up, fell back onto his plate with a "thud".

He slowly turned his head, and Meng Ziyi was standing half a meter behind him.

What the heck? When did this girl arrive?
There's not a sound at all!

Wow, that's quite a drive...

Today she wore a denim jacket over a plain white T-shirt, light gray sweatpants, and canvas shoes.

Her hair was casually tied into a high ponytail, and her clean face was without lipstick. Only a few beads of sweat glistened on the tip of her nose, indicating that she had probably run over.

"I'm Jiang Ye." He put down his chopsticks. "And you are...?"

"Meng Ziyi, a sophomore in the acting department." She pulled out a chair next to her and sat down so forcefully that Zhang Ming spilled his soup. "I heard you're looking for a female lead?"

The girl seemed impulsive, but the tips of her ears were subtly turning red.

"You're quite well-informed," Jiang Ye teased her deliberately. "But we haven't officially started recruiting yet..."

"Can I try? Um..."

She pulled a stack of documents out of her canvas bag. On top of it was a photo of herself in ancient costume, dressed in red with flowing sleeves, her eyes sparkling. She was completely different from the girl in sweatpants in front of her.

"There are too many people here." Jiang Ye suddenly closed his documents and lowered his voice, "How about we talk in my dorm?"

Meng Ziyi's eyes widened suddenly, and the documents in her hand fell to the ground with a "thud." She subconsciously leaned back, and the chair creaked under the weight.

The dorm? Oh no, this guy's trying to take advantage of me!
(End of this chapter)