Huayu: The young actress is heavily dependent on me

A residential community in Tonghua, Jilin Province.

The living room was brightly lit, and a practice mat was laid out in the center of the floor.

A girl in a black tight-fitting exercise outfit is bending her knees and stretching her legs, her insteps are straight, and fine beads of sweat on her forehead are sliding down her jawline.

She was extremely clean and beautiful, with relaxed eyebrows and eyes that were slightly upturned at the corners but not sharp. At this moment, she had no expression, but her eyes were full of the focus she had when practicing dance.

The mother came over with a glass of warm water, her eyes filled with heartache as she looked at her daughter's tired yet tense state.

"Cunzi, take a break. Relax when you get home, don't push yourself so hard."

Liu Haocun took the water glass, sipped it slowly, and his voice was still a little breathless:

"Mom, it's okay, I'm used to it. If I don't practice for a day, my bones feel like they're rusting."

The mother sighed, sat down beside her, and lowered her voice:

"I know what you're thinking... about that matter... the court just ruled on the compensation, and the family is indeed..."

She paused, seemingly finding it difficult to speak, but continued anyway.

"But you don't have to do this. This isn't something you should be carrying."

"There's not much I can do, I can only do my best." Liu Haocun lowered his head, looking at his toes, which were somewhat deformed from years of dance practice, and spoke softly.

"Once I go to university, I'll see if I can find a part-time job. Earning money early will help ease the burden on my family."

"Silly child," the mother said, her eyes reddening as she stroked her hair.

"Your parents can manage. Your sister is still young, and there will be many expenses in the future... These are not things you need to worry about."

"Just focus on dancing, study hard, and have a bright future. That's more important than anything else."

That being said, the sudden financial strain at home cast an invisible shadow over what was once a warm and cozy home.

Liu Haocun keenly sensed all of this, and the pressure to succeed faster weighed heavily on her heart.

She just turned 16 this year, which should be the most lively age.

But that incident, like a huge, unshakeable dark cloud, shrouded this once happy and harmonious family.

Her parents run a dance training class in this small town. Although they are not rich, they live a stable and harmonious life and fully support their daughter's dance dream.

However, in 2012, a six-year-old girl in the training class suffered an accident while practicing backbends, resulting in spinal cord damage and ultimately paralysis. The high compensation and ongoing legal disputes nearly emptied the family's savings accumulated over many years.

The first-instance judgment was just handed down on November 28, 2014, with the court ordering compensation of more than 11 yuan.

There should still be some money at home, but her parents' selfish motives are ultimately for their sake, so she couldn't say anything.

She simply nodded: "Mom, I understand. I'm going to take a shower."

Back in his tidy but somewhat monotonous room, Liu Haocun did not immediately go to wash up.

The frustration in my heart, the worries about my family, and the vague yet urgent longing for the future were all tangled together like a mess of knots.

She needs something to distract herself.

She opened her laptop and, as usual, clicked on Penguin Video.

Several new drama recommendation posters were displayed on the homepage, and her gaze lingered on one in the corner.

So Lovely Us

The cover shows a group of teenagers playing cards under an old locust tree. Sunlight filters through the leaves and falls on their faces, making them look completely different from those big-budget period dramas. They are clean and tidy, like a cup of warm water.

It looks like a youth drama?

As if possessed, she clicked play.

Without any lengthy setup, the opening scene immediately evokes a sense of quiet everyday life.

At the entrance to an empty, old-fashioned staircase, the morning light falls precisely on the crack of the third step, and a narration begins softly:

"Some people are destined to meet from birth. But meeting is just the beginning, not the end."

Accompanied by a light guitar melody, the scene cuts to the faculty and staff residential compound of Shude University.

Five teenagers were playing cards under an old locust tree. The female protagonist, whose face was covered with notes, angrily pounced on the male protagonist and snatched his camera.

"The visuals in this show...it's just like a movie," Liu Haocun muttered to herself. As a dancer, she has high standards for visual art.

But at this moment, the composition, color tone, and camera movement of the scene were all flawless to her.

That old residential building was so realistic.

The yellowed electricity bills in the stairwell and the different colored anti-slip mats in front of each door—every detail makes this community look exactly like the old residential buildings that Liu Haocun passes by on his way to school every day.

It's as if you can smell the aroma of stir-fried cabbage wafting from your neighbor's house as soon as you push open that door.

The plot unfolds episode by episode.

Huang Chengzi and Tan Song bickered, fought over snacks, and chased each other around in the hallway.

The two of them skipped class by climbing over the wall to go to the rooftop to listen to music, and she put one of his earphones into his ear.

Tan Song handed her an umbrella in the rain, getting soaked herself, but secretly tilted the umbrella slightly towards her.

Seeing this, Liu Haocun couldn't help but smile. These two are just too sweet.

This male lead is so handsome! I wish I had a boyfriend like him someday...

Liu Haocun's lips curled slightly as he remembered the male lead's name.

Chen Li...

Then came a soft voiceover at the end of the unit, like turning the pages of an old yearbook:

"Back then, we thought that liking someone meant arguing with them every day. Later we realized that arguing was fake; what we really wanted was for them to look at us more."

Liu Haocun was stunned.

She pressed the pause button and stared at the frozen image on the screen.

Huang Chengzi's eyes were still red, but she was already suppressing a laugh.

She thought that if she had a childhood sweetheart, when she was so tired from dancing that she could barely keep going, someone would hand her a glass of water and say, "Don't push yourself too hard."

What would that feel like?

The female lead seems to be a high school student as well?

I wish I could act like her someday.

Waaaaah... I'm so envious!

As the end credits rolled, a clear male voice flowed from the headphones.

The high notes are clear, the transitions are light, and each ending note seems to be held up by a thin veil, then gently lifted up by the next melody.

It's "The Wind Rises".

A title card pops up in the bottom right corner of the screen: "The Wind Rises"

Singer: Zhou Shen.

As the last note of the end credits song faded from her headphones, she suddenly grabbed the plush pillow next to her and hugged it tightly, burying her burning face in it before lifting it up and shouting at the screen:

"This song is so good! I'm going to save it so I can listen to it when I'm dancing!"

"This is so sweet! I want to fall in love too!"

"What an amazing drama! The director is so talented! Ahhh, I'll remember this scene for the rest of my life!"

She kicked her legs happily in the air, but her eyes were still fixed on the scrolling cast and crew list on the screen.

Director/Screenwriter/Starring: Chen Li.

She remembered it.

At this moment, it was as if countless invisible threads were connecting millions of viewers in front of their screens, resonating with the same feeling of excitement in different spaces.

In the girls' dormitory at Yenching University and Beijing Film Academy, a girl with her hair in a bun suddenly held her phone up to her roommate, the image freezing on a close-up of Tan Song tying Huang Chengzi's shoelaces in the hallway:

"That's it! I'm talking about this shot! Look at his hand—even tying his shoelaces looks like a confession!"

In a residential building in Chongqing, a mountain city, Tian Xiwei's classmate was snuggled in bed watching the finale of the TV series when she posted a tearful message on her WeChat Moments:

"Huang Chengzi and Tan Song are together, and my youth is over. I'm not saying anything more, I have to get up early for morning self-study tomorrow."

In a cozy bedroom in Shanghai, a girl suddenly covered her mouth, but couldn't stop the gasp of surprise that escaped through her fingers:

"The male lead is so handsome! He looks like he stepped right out of a manga when he stands next to the female lead!"

In a university dormitory in Guangdong Province, several roommates jumped up from their chairs at the same time, hugged each other, laughed and shouted, and bumped into the chairs with a loud bang.

Countless "Liu Haocun" voiced the same exclamation at the same moment. The barrage of comments instantly flooded the screen like a tsunami:

"This is what youth should be like!"

"The modular structure is amazing!"

"The narration at the end of each episode is so touching; I've already taken more than a dozen screenshots."

"The chemistry between the male and female leads is amazing; their childhood sweetheart-like understanding is so realistically portrayed."

They screamed at the same song playing in their rooftop headphones.

I screamed for the line at the end of the film: "Saying goodbye is not forgetting, it's putting someone in your heart and then moving on."

I scream for this ordinary yet real story of youth that took place in an old family dormitory building.

At this moment, transcending geographical boundaries, age, and identity, the emotions of all viewers were wonderfully connected through the screen.

They share the same heart-fluttering feeling, the same ordinary yet warm romance, and the pure memories of their childhood that are rarely found in real life.

On this winter night, countless people turned off their screens, stared at the ceiling, and had only one thought in their minds.

"So Cute Us" is so good!