Huayu: Enjoy Yourself

Chapter 11: Who is the real ace in charge at Beijing Film Academy?

Not long after, Chen An returned to China with the rest of the group.

As soon as he got off the plane, Chen An wondered if a group of reporters would come over to interview him.

In the end, there was nothing.

Everyone dispersed, and Lin Dajiang took his men to Shanghai by connecting flight. Before leaving, he said he would contact them later.

The people from the Beijing Film Studio also left, leaving Chen An alone to go to school.

School has already started, but I haven't paid my tuition yet.

Carrying his small bag containing the trophies, Chen An began his journey to school.

Upon arriving at the school, Chen An immediately noticed a banner hanging at the school gate.

The text reads: Congratulations to Chen An, an outstanding student from the Photography Department of our school, Class of 1994, for winning the Golden Lion Award for Best Short Film at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival!

Although it was a little embarrassing to watch, Chen An finally felt a bit famous.

"I didn't expect the first publicity I'd see would be from the school." Chen Anji touched his head, feeling both excited and a little embarrassed.

"I feel a little embarrassed."

Despite saying that, Chen An immediately straightened his back and walked with a confident stride.

He walked towards Teacher Mu's office, praising and raving.

You finally won a trophy, you have to show it off, right? What? How can that be called showing off?

I just enjoy being looked at with envy and jealousy.

But as soon as Chen An arrived at the office building, before he even went upstairs, he bumped into Teacher Mu, who was carrying textbooks:

"Hey, hey, hey~ What are you doing? Head held so high, can't you watch where you're going?"

Upon hearing the sound, Chen An also pretended to walk awkwardly towards him.

Without saying a word, he handed over the bag containing the trophy.

Teacher Mu opened it, took out the trophy, and understood:

"So that's what you're doing. You're just putting on an act. You even walk in weird ways, with your head held high."

Upon hearing Teacher Mu's reply, Chen An immediately reverted to his original state, grinning broadly:

"After all, you taught me. When I first enrolled, the conditions were poor, and Teacher Mu took great care of me. I remember all of that in my heart."

"I brought it over to show you right away, what do you think, is it alright?"

Hearing Chen An's words, Teacher Mu smiled and squinted, saying:

"You're somewhat sensible, but even if this is good, it's just a short film. You still have a long way to go in learning."

"Next time you win a Golden Lion for a feature film, bring it over and show it off to me."

"I just happened to run into them when I got back. They were on their way to a meeting with me anyway. Let's take it out and show it to them. After all, they're students I taught. Let's go!"

Although that's what she said, Teacher Mu didn't return the award; she planned to take it to show her colleagues what she was made of.

"Why don't you wait a moment? I'll go pay the tuition first, and you can put your things down while I do."

Chen An had originally planned to show the trophy to Teacher Mu and then pay his tuition. He didn't really want to go, as he was likely to be targeted by the police. He preferred to develop his skills in a more cautious manner.

"Come on, why pay? The school has already waived your tuition, and you even get a scholarship every year as a reward for winning an award."

As he spoke, Teacher Mu pulled Chen An along, eager to show them the students he had personally taught.

What are people saying outside?

The directing department was abolished, and all efforts were focused on developing the cinematography department.

Today, I'll show you all that our Photography Department is the real ace of the Taipei Film Academy!

"Okay, okay, I'll go with you, but please take your time!"

Chen An, who was being pulled along, spoke repeatedly.

As soon as Teacher Mu entered the meeting place, she attracted all the attention.

"Oh, everyone's here. My student just came back with a trophy. Let me show it to you."

"This is it, everyone take a look."

He then placed the trophy on the table, immediately drawing everyone's attention.

Chen An stood obediently to the side.

This group of people is no ordinary people; after all, even Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige were trained by some of them.

They are all masters with countless students.

Professor Gan Quan was the first to reach out and take a look at it.

He said, "That's right. Even Yi Mou and Kai Ge only became famous after they graduated from school. Xiao Chen, you are really young and promising. You won an award abroad while still in school. You have really brought honor to the school."

Dean Liu was also very happy, after all, it was a student he had recommended, and winning the award made him proud.

"Xiao Chen is quite good, a young talent indeed. This time, the school has become famous. The Central Academy of Drama next door only knows drama, so in the end, we'll have to rely on our movies!"

"That's right, aren't all the great directors graduates of our school?"

"Putting everything else aside, our school is renowned worldwide in this regard!"

"."

When the neighboring school was mentioned, the others laughed.

Even though they weren't taught by me, they're still from my school, which is a great source of pride.

Teacher Mu smiled throughout the entire meeting, and Chen An only managed to leave after the meeting started, taking his things back to his dormitory.

Back in the dormitory, Chen An saw his only roommate, Chen Wei.

A young man wearing glasses who had grown a beard.

He was still my senior, but we were assigned to the same dormitory.

This is a four-person room, which Teacher Mu specially assigned to Chen An.

The other two have residences off-campus.

People who get into photography are all wealthy; their families are all from Beijing.

On the first day of school, the moment Chen An carried in a sack, they all moved out, except for Chen Wei who stayed.

So the two had a good relationship, and she even borrowed the radio from him for the Lunar New Year.

Seeing Chen Wei lying in bed reading a magazine, Chen An took a step and walked directly to his bedside:

"Brother Wei, look at this! What is this thing?!"

He simply pulled out the trophy and handed it to him.

"I know about you. You're a 19-year-old genius director, right? You won the Golden Lion for short films at Venice. Bring it over so I can see what it's like."

Chen Wei tossed the magazine aside and took the trophy from Chen An.

He held it in his hand, turning it left and right to examine it carefully.

Chen An stood to the side watching, enjoying the sight of others holding trophies.

"You're pretty impressive, kid. You got scammed, but you still managed to convince the boss to make a short film, and then win an award at one of the three major film festivals. Even Zhang Yimou wasn't as impressive as you when he was in school."

Chen Wei handed the trophy to Chen An and said with some admiration.

"So, how about we grab a drink tonight?"

"Hey, you're back just in time! I'm so glad!"

"Alright, I'll pack my things and then go get ready."

"Okay, I'll help you speed things up."

The two of them worked together and quickly packed up the things.

We went straight out to buy some snacks to go with our drinks, planning to have a meal together for the two of us that evening.

The two drank and chatted that evening.

Chen An was the main speaker, mimicking Jiang Wen's animated description of what had happened.

Chen Wei listened patiently, as he was quite interested as well.

Chen An, the person involved, also gave a vivid and detailed account.

After returning to school.

Chen An continued to attend class attentively, but now he attracted some attention when he entered the classroom.

However, not many people took the initiative to talk to him, after all, Chen An had always been an oddball in this class.

My family was poor, and I was always busy with work. I often went to the directing department to audit classes.

Occasionally, he would collect scraps from the theater to sell, which was something that people who were still students wanted to stay far away from.

They looked down on him to some extent, and even now that he has won a Golden Lion for a short film, they still think he was just lucky.

Deep down, he still didn't think much of Chen An.

Chen An was somewhat aware of their thoughts, but he couldn't be bothered to pay them any attention.

I'm living my life, and I'm not bothering you.

I'm not asking you to date me, nor am I asking you to live with me, so I don't care what they think. I'll just live my own life.

However, Teacher Mu often called on Chen An to answer questions during class.

As the days went by, Chen An attended classes while writing scripts.

In between, he also contacted Jiang Wen, had drinks with him a few times, and took the opportunity to show off the trophy he had promised to get for him.

After all, the female lead still needs to find him, and he needs to act quickly, otherwise she'll run away.

Uncle Ge came once or twice, but after he got a film contract, I haven't seen him since.

Besides attending classes, Chen An mainly focused on writing screenplays, his first time writing a full-length novel.

He could only polish it bit by bit, and there were several drafts that were discarded. It took Chen An almost a month to finally finish the script.

Run Lola Run

Several large characters were written on the cover.

I beg for everything, I beg for everything.

(End of this chapter)