Back to 17, My Brother is the Cult Leader

On January 14th, it snowed in Qingdao.

Fang Yuan boarded the train to Beijing.

Hard seat, thirteen hours.

He carried a backpack, a few changes of clothes, and materials for the art exam registration, mainly his certificates and a letter of introduction from the school.

The train swayed all night.

He didn't sleep much, leaning against the car window, looking at the dark fields outside.

Occasionally, I would pass by a small station, its lights flashing briefly before I was gone.

The train arrived at Beijing Station at around 7 a.m. the next morning.

I got off the train with my bag and followed the flow of people toward the exit.

As dawn broke, the platform was packed with people.

A cold wind blew in from the entrance of the passage, and he shrank his neck.

Outside the station exit, Huang Xiaoming stood by the railing, wearing a black down jacket and a scarf wrapped up to his chin, tiptoeing to look inside.

He waved when he saw Fang Yuan come out.

"here!"

Fang Yuan walked over.

Huang Xiaoming immediately gave him a big hug.

"Hey kid, I told you to come earlier, you could have played for a couple more days."

Then appreciate and scrutinize him.

"Why are you wearing a military overcoat? You look like a migrant worker."

"He's grown taller, he's even taller than me now."

Fang Yuan is now 1.82 meters tall. He got a short haircut before coming to Beijing, and he looks neat and tidy.

He was wearing a military overcoat, which was issued by Comrade Jianguo's work unit.

She was wearing a turtleneck sweater underneath, which was knitted by Xiaoming's mother. Huang Xiaoming also has one.

"Wearing this will keep you warm."

"Let's go back to my school first."

Huang Xiaoming took Fang Yuan to take the subway.

Fang Yuan had ridden the BJ subway countless times in his past life, but this was his first time in this one.

The carriage wasn't crowded, so Huang Xiaoming found a seat and sat down, placing his bag beside his feet.

"When does your school start its holidays?" Fang Yuan asked.

"Soon. We'll go back together after you register."

Fang Yuan nodded.

Huang Xiaoming's roommates are all there: Guo Xiaodong, a fellow Shandong native; and Zu Feng, who played Li Ya in the TV series "Lurking".

There is also Xu Yunfan.

Fang Yuan had no recollection of it.

"You can sleep in my bed for the next few days; there are empty beds in the dorm next door."

"Xiaoming, you sleep here with me. I'll go to the dormitory next door," Zu Feng said.

"Haha, then I won't be polite."

"You can treat us to lunch."

"No problem, let's head to the cafeteria."

Fang Yuan followed a few people, arms around each other's shoulders, to the cafeteria.

Huang Xiaoming provided explanations along the way.

After dinner, most of the students in the 96 performance class were recognized.

Chen Kun, Zhao Yanzi, Chang'e, and so on.

Of course, they are still a bit green.

After lunch, without even taking a break, Huang Xiaoming accompanied Fang Yuan to register at the Central Academy of Drama.

The two schools are not close to each other.

The two of them took more than forty minutes to ride the subway.

The registration process went smoothly.

After all, the application deadline was fast approaching, and there weren't many applicants for the Department of Dramatic Literature to begin with.

After registering, Huang Xiaoming led Fang Yuan on a tour of the Central Academy of Drama campus.

"I'll introduce you to someone later."

"Who is it?"

"We're from Qingdao."

"There's a fellow Qingdao native here at the Central Academy of Drama, two years ahead of me, named Gao Hu."

"Looks like you've been here quite a few times, huh? You know so much about it."

"Yes, let's learn from each other."

Gao Hu is no different from the one I saw on TV in my previous life.

They are just relatively young.

Fang Yuan looked at this guy and was filled with emotion.

His acting was good, and his role was also outstanding.

Pity.

Gao Hu looked at Fang Yuan and asked Huang Xiaoming with a puzzled expression:

"What kind of expression is that on my brother's face?"

"Never mind him, he's always been like this since he was little, acting all mysterious."

Gao Hu didn't mind. "Let's go, let's go to class. I'll take my brother to see the world."

"Whose class is it today?"

"You're lucky, it's Professor Chang's class."

"Then hurry up and go, Xiao Yuan, you'll finally see the Central Academy of Drama beauty you've been longing for."

"Haha, it seems Brother Xiaoyuan is a kindred spirit."

Fang Yuan was speechless and followed his two unserious older brothers toward the classroom.

The classroom is not large, with tiered circular seating and a relatively large podium in the middle.

Gao Hu led the two to sit at the back, in a high spot, while the front row was mostly occupied by female students.

There were about twenty students in the classroom, and several others were there to audit the class.

Teacher Chang looked to be in her forties, much like the female university professors Fang Yuan had seen before.

He had a stern face, a gentle voice, and was very knowledgeable.

Today's lesson is a life observation practice lesson.

The course arrangement begins with a review of the observational sketches from the previous lesson.

Then do improvisation exercises, emotional exercises, and simple segments;

Finally, students were asked to come up on stage one by one to present a short segment.

This opened Fang Yuan's eyes to a whole new world.

The performance features a beautiful woman named Zhang selling vegetables at a market, and a vegetable seller named Chang Minghao.

Yuan Quan, who sells tickets on the bus, and Liu Ye, who drives the bus, are examples of this.

It looked both funny and awkward.

More than forty minutes had passed since I finished commenting on all the students' skits.

Teacher Chang closed the folder, stood up, walked to the center of the venue, and clapped her hands:

"Alright, that's all for the review."

Remember, observing life is not about imitating actions, but about grasping the essence of a person. Every move and every word must conform to the person's identity and state.

Next, we'll do some improvisation exercises.

The topic is randomly selected; you perform whatever you draw. There's no preparation time; you just go on stage and start.

This time, Fang Yuan witnessed a scene he often saw on Douyin in his previous life.

I remember a video of Liu Ye and Zhang Tong performing together; it made him laugh so hard.

In retrospect, that was nothing compared to the great thing.

There are far more scenes than those that are funny.

Fang Yuan couldn't help but laugh heartily.

Huang Xiaoming, standing nearby, kept muttering anxiously.

"Don't laugh, don't laugh. We're just listening in; we can't make a sound."

Okay, I was holding it in, but the scene was just too interesting.

The students performing, however, were not surprised at all.

Some lucky ones get questions that allow them to improvise.

That would make things much easier.

Some were singing, some were performing opera, and some were playing the flute.

Especially Chang Minghao, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, who actually plays the guitar very well.

Her hair swung around with a stylish flair.

After each performance, Teacher Chang gave a brief critique.

"Winter break is almost here, and it seems like everyone is in a great mood, so they're really letting loose with their performances."

A burst of laughter erupted from below.

"However, one student was laughing particularly happily."

As he spoke, he looked towards the back of the classroom.

"That student who doesn't look familiar, would you be interested in coming down and performing a talent?"

"What do you mean? What does the teacher think of me?"

The students in the classroom all turned to look in the direction where Fang Yuan was.

Huang Xiaoming, standing nearby, covered his face and said, "I told you not to laugh so loudly, now look what happened!"

"What should we do then?"

Huang Xiaoming had no choice but to stand up.

"Um, I'm sorry, Professor Chang, this is my younger brother. He just came to the Central Academy of Drama to register for the entrance exam, so I brought him along to broaden his horizons. I'm really sorry for not knowing the proper etiquette and disturbing your class."

"Oh, you've registered for the art exams?"

"Since we still have some time, let's get to know each other."

Seeing that Fang Yuan was still hesitating.

"If you want to make a living this way, you can't possibly lack the courage to even step onto the stage, can you?"

"Fine," Fang Yuan thought to himself, "I'm already in this situation, so it doesn't matter."

Upon reaching the stage, he bowed deeply to Teacher Chang and the students below.

"Hello teachers, brothers and sisters, my name is Fang Yuan. This is my first time here, I'm sorry to bother you."