Huayu: A master director who debuted as a singer

Chapter 86 The Butterfly Effect

With Gao Yuanyuan's help, Zheng Hui felt that his exam preparation progress was ridiculously fast in just a few days.

He discovered that his brain was like a sponge, frantically absorbing knowledge.

Those functions, difficult classical Chinese texts, and complex ocean currents that used to give him headaches in high school classes can now be clearly remembered after just one reading.

The secret test papers that Gao Yuanyuan brought, which he originally regarded as a monstrous flood, have now become the best tool for him to test his learning results.

He solved problems faster and faster, from taking more than an hour to finish a math paper at the beginning to being able to finish it in thirty or forty minutes later.

Gao Yuanyuan was completely dumbfounded.

She started as a tutor, then became a pageboy, and eventually became a supervisor.

Her task was to watch Zheng Hui quickly finish a set of test papers, then blankly pick up a red pen to check the answers.

"All correct again?" Gao Yuanyuan looked at the science exam paper, which was filled with answers and checkmarks.

"I misunderstood a concept in the second sub-question of the last big physics question, and lost two points."

Zheng Hui picked up the test paper and pointed to that spot: "Look, I reversed the direction of centrifugal force."

Gao Yuanyuan leaned over for a look, and the dense formulas and symbols made her dizzy.

She gave up, threw the test paper on the table, rested her chin on her hands, and looked at Zheng Hui as if he were a monster.

"Zheng Hui, tell me honestly, are you an alien?"

Zheng Hui put down his pen and stretched his wrists: "If I were an alien, the first thing I'd do is capture you and take you back to my planet for research."

Gao Yuanyuan blushed and muttered softly, "That works too—"

Zheng Hui didn't hear him clearly: "What did you say?"

"It's nothing!" Gao Yuanyuan quickly waved her hand, changing the subject: "At your pace, let alone the Joint Entrance Examination for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Students, you could probably get into Tsinghua or Peking University right now if you went to take the National College Entrance Examination."

Zheng Hui himself felt the same way; he now had absolute confidence in passing the exam.

He looked out the window; the sky over the capital was a rare clear blue.

"It's boring staying in the hotel all day. Why don't we go out for a walk?" Zheng Hui suggested.

"Where to?" Gao Yuanyuan's eyes lit up.

"I heard there's a temple fair at Ditan Park recently, it's quite lively, want to go check it out?"

"Great! Great!" Gao Yuanyuan was so happy she almost jumped for joy, but then she asked worriedly, "But what if someone recognizes you if you go out now? There are so many people at the temple fair."

"I have a clever plan."

Zheng Hui started rummaging through his suitcase.

Half an hour later, a completely new Zheng Hui appeared in front of Gao Yuanyuan.

He changed into a somewhat oversized cotton coat, put on a hat, and most importantly, wore a pair of black-rimmed non-prescription glasses on his nose.

The glasses obscured some of the brilliance in his eyes, making his originally handsome demeanor appear somewhat bookish.

He deliberately hunched his back a little, put his hands in his sleeves, and looked exactly like a bookworm.

Gao Yuanyuan circled around him, marveling, "Your disguise skills are too good. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have recognized you on the street."

"Let's go then." Zheng Hui pulled down his hat brim and stepped out the door first.

The two took a bus to Ditan Park.

As soon as I got off the bus, there were people everywhere, people packed together, people shoulder to shoulder.

The shouts of vendors selling candied hawthorns, the cries of vendors selling windmills, the cries of children, and the laughter of adults mingled together, creating the lively atmosphere of a Spring Festival temple fair.

The air was filled with the sweet aroma of roasted chestnuts and the cumin scent of grilled meat skewers.

Zheng Hui and Gao Yuanyuan walked forward with the flow of people.

The roadside stalls displayed all sorts of strange and unusual items.

The master sugar maker blew out a lifelike Sun Wukong in one breath.

At the dough figurine stall, the twelve zodiac animals are lined up in a row, their adorable expressions endearing.

There were also ring toss games and balloon shooting games; every stall was surrounded by people.

"Look at that!" Gao Yuanyuan pointed to a stall, her eyes sparkling.

It was a stall selling all kinds of Peking Opera masks, red for Guan Yu, black for Zhang Fei, and white for Cao Cao, all painted so lifelike.

"Do you like it?" Zheng Hui asked.

Gao Yuanyuan nodded.

"Boss, how much is this?" Zheng Hui squeezed through the crowd to ask.

"Ten yuan each, pick whichever you like!"

Zheng Hui took out his wallet, handed the shopkeeper a ten-yuan note, and picked up a mask painted with a female role's face and handed it to Gao Yuanyuan.

Gao Yuanyuan took it and happily put it on her face, revealing only her smiling eyes.

She mimicked the mannerisms on stage, raising her pinky finger and striking a pose for Zheng Hui.

Zheng Hui was amused by her.

The two continued strolling forward, Gao Yuanyuan like a bird released from its cage, curious about everything.

When she saw someone selling donkey rolls, she wanted to try one.

Seeing a vendor selling sausages, she wanted a bowl too.

Zheng Hui followed behind her, taking care of paying and carrying things.

After strolling around, both of them had their hands full of various snacks and trinkets.

"Let's find a place to rest for a while, I can't walk anymore." Gao Yuanyuan rubbed her calves.

Zheng Hui looked around and pointed to a small shop selling fried liver and steamed buns not far away: "Let's go there, there are seats inside."

The small shop was packed with people, and the two of them finally managed to find an empty table in a corner.

The table was small and greasy. The two people sat facing each other, their knees almost touching.

Zheng Hui put his things on the stool next to him and ordered two bowls of fried liver and a basket of steamed buns.

The steaming hot stir-fried liver was served, with a rich aroma of garlic.

Gao Yuanyuan scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and carefully put it into her mouth.

"Delicious!" She squinted her eyes in satisfaction.

Zheng Hui looked at her and picked up a spoon to eat as well.

The small shop was bustling with activity, full of the vibrant atmosphere of daily life.

Zheng Hui took a few bites, put down his spoon, looked at Gao Yuanyuan who was eating heartily across from him, and asked a question that had been lingering in his mind for a long time.

"Yuanyuan".

"Hmm?" Gao Yuanyuan looked up, with a little sauce still on her lips.

"You—aren't you dating anyone?"

Zheng Hui asked very directly.

He felt that their relationship was somewhat ambiguous and he needed a clear answer.

Gao Yuanyuan froze, the spoon in her hand hanging in mid-air.

She looked at Zheng Hui with a puzzled expression, as if she hadn't understood his question.

A few seconds later, her face flushed red, from her cheeks all the way to her ears.

"No—no." She lowered her head, her voice barely audible.

She stirred the food haphazardly in the bowl with a spoon, avoiding Zheng Hui's gaze.

"Oh," Zheng Hui replied, feeling a little conflicted.

He had assumed that a girl as pretty as Gao Yuanyuan would have no shortage of suitors.

In particular, he knew from his memories of his past life that she and that Director Teng should have had a relationship.

How could it not be there?

"If there is—"

Gao Yuanyuan's voice became even softer, and she lowered her head even further, almost burying it in the bowl.

"If I did—why would I—why would I come looking for you—"

Zheng Hui was a little confused. Could it be that his memories of his past life were inaccurate?

He decided to ask in a different way.

"By the way, I remember you filmed a TV series last year, right? I even saw it on TV."

"Huh?" Gao Yuanyuan looked up from the bowl, somewhat bewildered.

"It's called 'Lost in the North,' right?"

When the drama was mentioned, Gao Yuanyuan's blush faded somewhat, replaced by a complex expression.

She put down her spoon and sighed, "Don't even mention it, it's my nightmare."

"What's wrong? Is the filming not going well?"

"It's not that things aren't going well, it's that it's painful." Gao Yuanyuan pouted. "Zheng Hui, to be honest, I can't act at all."

As if she had found an outlet, she began to pour out her grievances.

"I'm just okay looking. Someone from GG Entertainment pulled me into filming a few movies, and then people started asking me to act. Actually, I don't like acting at all, and I don't know how to act."

"When we were filming 'Spicy Love Soup,' the director said something about me. He said I couldn't cry when I should have, but tears kept falling when I shouldn't have."

"When filming 'Lost in North,' although that situation didn't happen again, I still couldn't find the joy in acting."

Every day on set, I'd get nervous whenever the director yelled "Action!", my palms would be sweating. As soon as the director yelled "Cut!", I'd breathe a sigh of relief.

"So I wasn't very comfortable on set."

"So what's your relationship like with the crew? Like the director?" Zheng Hui asked, seemingly casually.

"Director—" Gao Yuanyuan thought for a moment, "It was alright at the beginning, he was a nice guy, he taught me how to move and how to find the camera. After filming was over, he would occasionally call to keep in touch."

"And then what happened?" Zheng Hui pressed.

"Later—" Gao Yuanyuan's expression turned somewhat displeased.

"Later, he came to the school to find me. I was listening to your songs on my Walkman, the album you released last September."

Zheng Hui's heart skipped a beat.

"and then?"

"Then he said these songs were no good, that they were decadent and lacked power."

Gao Yuanyuan mimicked the director's tone, pouting as she said, "He said that young people should listen to Cui Jian and rock music, that's the voice of the times. He also talked to me a lot about the spirit of rock and roll and humanistic care."

She wrinkled her nose, a look of disgust on her face: "I felt really uncomfortable at the time. It's my freedom to like what kind of music I listen to. Why should he lecture me? And he even made my favorite songs sound worthless."

"After that, I didn't really want to talk to him anymore. When he called again, I would say I was busy, and gradually we stopped having any contact."

Zheng Hui was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this.

He finally understood; that was where the problem lay.

It turns out it was all because of my album "Stubborn" that I released last September.

He could almost picture the scene.

A director who considers himself an avant-garde artist talks at length about the profundity and power of his understanding to a naive young girl, while simultaneously belittling the pop music he likes.

That feeling, in later terms, was that the Deng flavor was too strong.

Zheng Hui could even guess that the director surnamed Teng was probably someone who was all talk and no action.

Gao Yuanyuan, a well-off girl from Beijing who had been pampered since childhood, could hardly stand this kind of didactic pursuit.

It's likely that at that moment, any remaining goodwill she had for the director was completely extinguished by the smell of that odor.

It turned out that it was he himself who had severed Gao Yuanyuan's ill-fated relationship before it even began.

Happy times are always fleeting.

After visiting the temple fair, the New Year celebrations are considered over.

Zheng Hui threw himself back into the final sprint of exam preparation.

Soon, March 6th arrived.

This day was the day of the written entrance exam for the Literature Department of the Beijing Film Academy.

Only those who pass today's written test are eligible to participate in tomorrow's interview.

Zheng Hui got up very early. Lin Dashan had already returned, but he didn't let him go with him. He took a taxi to Beijing Film Academy by himself.

He was still dressed in the same disguise, wearing a hat and glasses, blending in seamlessly into the crowd.

The exam was held in a large lecture hall at Beijing Film Academy.

When Zheng Hui arrived, the corridor outside the classroom was already full of people.

There was a dense crowd of at least three or four hundred examinees.

Everyone's face showed tension and anticipation.

Some people are making the most of their last moments to memorize film history.

Someone was quietly discussing with their companion about the film theory that might be on the test.

A tense atmosphere filled the air.

Zheng Hui lowered the brim of his hat, kept his head down, and squeezed through the gaps in the crowd.

Fortunately, everyone was focused on the exam, and no one noticed him, this random passerby.

He found his name and exam number on the seating chart at the entrance and then went into the classroom.

The classroom was already quite full.

Zheng Hui found his seat, took out his admission ticket and ID card from his bag, and placed them on the corner of the table.

The invigilators took the list and photos and began to check the candidates' information.

"Zhang San."

"arrive."

"Li Si".

"arrive."

"Zheng Hui".

When the proctor called out the name, Zheng Hui stood up and said, "Here."

The proctor looked up, his gaze sweeping across the classroom before finally settling on Zheng Hui.

He held the photo in his hand, then looked at Zheng Hui's face, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes.

The photo is the ID photo Zheng Hui submitted when he registered. He wasn't wearing a hat or glasses, and he looked incredibly handsome.

The candidate in front of me, although wearing a hat and glasses, had a face that looked exactly like the person in the photo.

But is it really Zheng Hui who sang on the Spring Festival Gala?

The proctor's expression was a little strange, but he didn't say anything. He just put a checkmark next to Zheng Hui's name on the list.

His professionalism and experience of meeting many celebrities at the Beijing Film Academy kept him calm.

He walked over to Zheng Hui's seat, picked up the admission ticket and ID card on the table, and carefully checked them.

Name: Zheng Hui

The photo is of me.

After confirming that everything was correct, he put the document back on the corner of the table and gave Zheng Hui a serious look.

"Sit down."

"Thank you, teacher."

Zheng Hui could feel several curious gazes directed his way.

The invigilator's unusual behavior earlier had caught the attention of some people.

However, the exam bell rang soon after.

Everyone's attention was instantly drawn back to the exam that was about to begin.

The test papers were handed out, and Zheng Hui picked one up and glanced at it.

Part One: General Knowledge of Arts and Literature and Film History.

Part Two: Story Writing.

He picked up his pen, unscrewed the cap, and said, "Beijing Film Academy, here I come."