Reborn, my online friend is the real me.

Two days later, Anxi's profile picture finally lit up.

Su Yu was in his dorm room reading a book called "An Introduction to Art," which contained the idea that "art is the expression of ideology," making him drowsy.

Wang Boxue was editing photos nearby, and Lu Yang was writing a script; the dormitory was as quiet as a library.

Suddenly, QQ beeped, and Su Yu perked up, clicking to take a look.

Anxi: "So you still know to go online?"

Su Yu immediately typed: "Little Rich Girl! You finally showed up! I thought you'd been abducted by aliens."

Anxi: "You're the one who's been kidnapped. I've been messaging you for a month, and you haven't said a word."

Su Yu sent a wronged emoji: "I really went to XJ, but there's no internet there. The villages to the north don't even have reliable electricity, so I had to charge my phone using a solar panel from a herder's house."

Anxi: "...What are you doing at XJ?"

Su Yu: "A road trip, all by myself, in a beat-up Jeep, I drove over 8,000 kilometers. Taklamakan, Kanas, Pamir Plateau, I took thousands of photos."

Anxi sent a shocked emoji: "You just finished your college entrance exams and you're already going on a road trip? Where did you get the money?"

Su Yu hesitated for a moment, then typed: "I won the lottery, didn't I tell you?"

Anxi: "You actually won the lottery? I thought you were bragging. How much did you win?"

Su Yu thought for a moment and decided not to tell the truth: "More than 20."

There was a silence on the other end for about ten seconds, then Anxi sent a long string of ellipses: "...Are you serious?"

"Seriously."

"So you're now a millionaire?"

"I guess so, but it cost most of it."

Anxi fell silent again, then sent a message: "Shouldn't you return the 10,000 yuan you charged me for chat services?"

Su Yu almost burst out laughing: "You didn't return it, that's because you gave it voluntarily, I didn't force you."

Anxi sent an angry emoji.

Su Yu quickly changed the subject: "Let's not talk about me anymore. How have you been lately? I sent you a message but you didn't reply."

Anxi remained silent for a longer time this time, and after about half a minute, she replied: "I've been sent to Sichuan by my company, and I won't be back in Beijing anytime soon."

Su Yu was stunned for a moment. He had always thought An Qian was in Beijing, after all, she had said she would treat him to dinner when he came to Beijing, but now she suddenly said she went to Sichuan?

"What company do you work for?" This was the first time he had asked Anxi about her job.

Ansie answered quickly: "Performance work that conveys emotions."

Su Yu stared at the seven characters for three seconds, his mind racing. Conveying emotions? Performance work?

"Are you a stand-up comedian?"

Anxi sent a smirking emoji: "Pretty much."

Su Yu thought about it and agreed. Stand-up comedians do need to convey emotions, and their schedules are flexible, which explains why she's always on QQ. As for why she's in Sichuan, she's probably on tour.

"When are you going back to Beijing?"

"I don't know, it depends on the company's arrangements. It could take as little as one or two months, or as long as six months."

Su Yu sent a regretful emoji: "I was thinking of having you treat me to dinner, you little rich girl."

Anxi: "Didn't you win the lottery? You're treating me."

Su Yu: "I'll treat you, I'll treat you when you get back."

Anxi sent a "It's a deal" emoji, then asked, "By the way, did your registration at Beijing Film Academy go smoothly?"

Su Yu sighed and embellished his story of being scolded by Mu Deyuan. He described how he was woken up by a frantic phone call from the admissions office, how he drove 800 kilometers from Kanas to WLMQ, and how he stood in the department head's office, looking disheveled, to be reprimanded.

After listening, Anxi sent a long string of "hahahahahaha," and Liu Yifei on the other end of the computer laughed so hard her mouth was distorted.

"You deserve it! Who told you to go play and not show up?"

"How was I supposed to know that the registration time at Beijing Film Academy is so early? I thought classes didn't start until mid-September."

"You don't even read your acceptance letter carefully?"

Su Yu, feeling guilty, changed the subject: "Alright, alright, stop talking about me. Where in Sichuan are you? Chengdu?"

Anxi: "Yes, it's not far from Chengdu."

Su Yu: "Chengdu is a great place. The hot pot is delicious, and there are lots of beautiful women."

Anxi: "There's something weird about what you're saying?"

Su Yu: "I mean you can go eat hot pot, but there aren't any pretty girls there."

Anxi sent an eye-roll emoji and said, "Alright, that's enough. I have to go to work. You should focus on your class and don't be late again."

Su Yu replied with "Yes, ma'am," and Anxi's profile picture went gray.

He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a while.

A stand-up comedian, tasked with conveying emotions, was sent to Sichuan.

He always felt something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Anxi had always been shrouded in mystery since the day he met her; she was rich, had plenty of free time, and knew a lot about Liu Yifei's private life.

...........

The curriculum of the photography department at Beijing Film Academy is much more complicated than Su Yu had imagined.

He originally thought that the photography department was about learning how to take pictures and how to use a camera, but when he got the course schedule, he almost fainted.

The course is divided into four main parts: general knowledge, professional skills, artistic creation practice, and filmmaking.

Apart from general courses like Ideological and Political Education and College English, all the other courses in the first year are major-related.

Introduction to Art, History of Chinese and Foreign Cinema, and Film Analysis; these three are theoretical courses, and the amount of material to memorize is no less than that of high school history.

When Su Yu opened the first page of "A History of Chinese and Foreign Cinema" and saw the words "The Lumière Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, 1895", he suddenly realized that he had to start learning a completely new knowledge system from scratch.

Audiovisual language, basic screenwriting, basic directing, and basic art are the four courses for creative work.

Su Yu had written several short scripts before and felt quite good about himself, but the first lesson in the fundamentals of screenwriting brought him back to his senses.

The lecturer was a female teacher from the Literature Department, surnamed Xue, in her forties, wearing round-framed glasses, and speaking slowly and deliberately.

"Classmates, a script is not a novel, not an essay, and it's not something you can just write down whatever's in your head. A script is a technical document, a blueprint for the director, actors, and cinematographer. If you write 'He is very sad,' the director won't know how to film it. But if you write 'He sits on the edge of the bed, staring at the photo on the wall, his eyes reddening,' the director will understand."

Su Yu wrote this sentence down in his notebook and suddenly realized that screenwriting was much more difficult than he had imagined.

There were two other courses that Su Yu hadn't expected: university physics and computer fundamentals.

University physics mainly covers optics and electricity, because photography involves the propagation of light, lens imaging, and the chemical reactions of photosensitive materials.

In the first physics class, the teacher drew a light path diagram of a convex lens imaging on the blackboard. Su Yu stared at the diagram for a long time, feeling as if he had returned to his high school classroom in his previous life.

"Su Yu, you answer this: when the object distance is more than twice the focal length, what is the range of the image distance?"

Su Yu stood up, his mind racing, and managed to squeeze out, "Between one-times focal length and two-times focal length?"

The teacher nodded: "Sit down."

As Su Yu sat down, Wang Boxue leaned over and whispered, "You guessed?"

Su Yu said in a low voice, "It wasn't a guess, it was deduction."

"How did you deduce that?"

"I figured I had to say something, and if I said something wrong, I could correct it."

Wang Boxue: "..."

Computer basics are relatively simple, covering computer hardware, operating systems, and office software.

In his previous life, Su Yu worked in the computer industry for over a decade, from assembling computers in Huaqiangbei to editing short videos. These things were child's play for him.

He dared not appear too proficient, so he pretended to be using a computer for the first time, typing one key at a time with his fingers.

.......

The core courses in the photography department are photographic techniques and photographic styling.

The technical class covered camera principles, exposure control, filter usage, and film developing.

In 2004, the Beijing Film Academy was still teaching film photography, with digital cameras used only as an auxiliary tool.

"Pull the film roll out and insert it into this slot, yes, then close the back cover and advance the film." The lab instructor instructed from the side, "Pull gently, don't tear the film roll."

Su Yu hurriedly loaded the film, his forehead covered in sweat.

Wang Boxue, who was standing next to him, had already set up his camera and was focusing it.

He glanced at Su Yu's disheveled appearance and laughed: "Didn't you say you were self-taught in photography?"

"I studied digital technology," Su Yu said, wiping his sweat.

"Digital and film photography operate on the same principle."

"The principle is the same, but the operation is different."

Wang Boxue shook his head and stopped teasing him.

The photography styling class covers light, composition, color, and movement.

The lecturer for this course was Professor Zhang from the Photography Department. He was in his fifties, bald, and spoke with a Beijing accent.

"Photography isn't about pressing the shutter button; it's about painting with light." Professor Zhang stood on the podium, holding a small lamp and shining it on a plaster statue. "You see, with frontal lighting, the face of the plaster statue is flat and lacks three-dimensionality. With side lighting, one side is bright and the other is dark, creating a sense of depth. With backlighting, only the outline is visible, which adds a sense of mystery."

He changed the angle of the light, and the expression on the plaster statue seemed to change accordingly.

"That's the magic of light and shadow." Professor Zhang put down the lamp. "When you study photography, you don't learn how to use a camera, you learn how to use light. The camera is just a tool; light is your paintbrush."

Su Yu sat in the audience, listening intently.

He studied photography when he was an online influencer in his previous life, but he only learned "how to make people look thinner" and "how to make products look high-end," which was all pragmatism and had no artistic merit.

Listening to Professor Zhang's lectures now, I suddenly realize that photography is much more interesting than I imagined.

..........

In October, Beijing is filled with the deepening of autumn.

The ginkgo leaves on campus are starting to turn yellow, and when the wind blows, they fall down with a rustling sound.

Su Yu's daily life is very regular: he goes to class in the morning, spends his afternoons in the library or darkroom, and goes back to his dormitory to do homework and go online in the evening.

Wang Boxue is a diligent worker; he gets up at six o'clock every morning to take pictures of the sunrise with his camera.

Su Yu asked him if he was sleepy, and Wang Boxue said, "The golden hour for photographers is one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. People who sleep in late don't deserve to be photographers."

Su Yu said, "Then I'll be worthy of it."

Then he turned over and went back to sleep. Lu Yang doesn't usually get up early, but he stays up late.

Shortly after National Day, the biggest topic in the dormitory was that "The Return of the Condor Heroes" had started filming in Jiuzhaigou.

Wang Boxue showed Su Yu the news on his phone: "Look, Liu Yifei's Little Dragon Girl costume photos, isn't she ethereal?"

Su Yu glanced at the photo and saw Liu Yifei in a white dress with long hair, standing by the lake in Jiuzhaigou. She really looked like she had stepped out of a painting.

"It's alright," Su Yu said.

"Not bad?" Wang Boxue's eyes widened. "This is too ethereal!"

Su Yu resisted the urge to complain, "It really is quite ethereal."

He couldn't say things like "this girl has bad gums" anymore, because he vaguely felt that Anxi, the "stand-up comedian," had some kind of relationship with Liu Yifei.

Although he couldn't quite put his finger on the relationship, his intuition told him that it was okay to complain about Liu Yifei in front of Anxi, but he should tone it down in front of others.

Another news item is that Jackie Chan has become a visiting professor in the Department of Arts at Peking University.

When Wang Boxue read this news, his expression was subtle: "Jackie Chan? Peking University professor?"

Su Yu said, "A visiting professor is just a title; they don't actually teach."

"That's good. I thought he was going to teach acting." Wang Boxue breathed a sigh of relief. "His style of action scenes is something most people can't learn."

The box office figures for the National Day holiday have also been released. Jackie Chan's "New Police Story" grossed 40 million yuan, which was a pretty good result in 2004.

Su Yu had seen this movie in his previous life and remembered that Daniel Wu's portrayal of the villain was outstanding. His line, "Stop it, Ah Zu," later became an internet meme.

........

In late October, a major news story broke in the entertainment industry.

Feng Xiaogang swore; Su Yu saw the news while having lunch in the cafeteria.

A clip from an entertainment program was playing on TV, and the host said excitedly, "At the press conference for 'A World Without Thieves,' Feng Xiaogang angrily rebuked reporters; the atmosphere was extremely tense!"

Su Yu picked up his tray, found a seat, and sat down to carefully read the news article.

Here's what happened: At a press conference for the film "A World Without Thieves" held at the Kunlun Hotel in Beijing, during the group interview, a reporter from *BIGSTAR* magazine introduced himself and asked a question. Feng Xiaogang immediately lost his temper and swore.

"You guys are shameless! You put my home address in the newspaper and even drew a map, now there's some crazy person blocking my door every day!"

"I fucking want to punch you!"

The reporter retorted, "Readers like it, and it has a large circulation."

Feng Xiaogang was even angrier: "Your publication is dog shit!"

He then immediately demanded that Huayi Brothers boycott the publication and never grant interviews again.

Su Yu almost spat out the braised pork he was eating when he saw this news.

He had heard about this in his past life, but hadn't paid much attention to it then. Now, looking at it again, he suddenly found Feng Xiaogang quite interesting; he has a really big temper and speaks very bluntly.

The phrase "You guys are shameless" coming from Feng Xiaogang carries a certain comedic quality.

Su Yu recalled Feng Xiaogang's expression when he said those words and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Wang Boxue sat opposite him. "What are you laughing at?"

"Didn't you find the part where Feng Xiaogang berated the reporter funny?"

Wang Boxue thought for a moment, "His home address was published in the newspaper, and people are blocking his door. It's really annoying. But given Feng Xiaogang's temper, it's only a matter of time before he yells at someone."

Lu Yang carried his tray over and sat down, adjusting his glasses: "That 'Celebrity BIGSTAR' magazine is really dishonest. They published people's home addresses and even drew maps in it. Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

Su Yu said, "So Feng Xiaogang was right to criticize, even if his criticism was a bit harsh."

"When has he ever said anything nice?" Wang Boxue smiled.