HuaYu: The most muscular director in history!

February 28, 2002, 2 PM.

The rehearsal hall on the second floor of the Performance Academy at Beijing Film Academy.

"1.9 meters tall?"

Behind the long table below the stage, Ge Wenyi touched her nose and suppressed the smirk on her face. Cui Xinqin, standing to the side, looked at the documents again and again, seemingly in a daze.

"I really am 1.9 meters tall."

Xiang Nan's voice rang out, youthful yet with a deep, sexy quality.

"Okay, Xiang Nan, the third test is over. Are your parents and family members with you?"

"Yes, it's right outside the school."

Cui Xinqin propped her chin up with her interlaced fingers and looked curiously at the tall figure on the stage: "I thought you came to the Beijing Film Academy to take the exam alone. After all, you look like an old man."

Xiang Nan smiled wryly: "I also wanted to take the exam alone, but my mom wouldn't let me! You know, during the first physical exam, one student was completely stunned when he saw me. Guess what he said?"

Ge Wenyi, sitting in the audience, curiously peeked out: "How so?"

Xiang Nan snapped to attention, tilting his head upwards at a 45-degree angle, mimicking the examiner perfectly: "Reporting, examiner, candidate number 32 is ready!"

"Huh? Hahahaha..." Ge Wenyi laughed so hard she slapped the table.

Good lad, completely different from the other candidates, not at all stage-frightened.

"Okay, you can go back now. We'll let you know the exam results later. Remember not to wander off."

"Thank you, Teacher Cui." Xiang Nan bowed to the audience, picked up his guitar, slung it over his shoulder, and turned to leave with 'heavy' steps.

"This student is really interesting." Only after the tall figure walked out of the door did Cui Xinqin speak and start chatting with Ge Wenyi.

"Yes, seventeen years old, 1.9 meters tall. Cheerful personality, but with a mature demeanor."

Cui Xinqin opened the documents again.

"He's alright looking, with sharp features, deep eyes, and a bit of a British mixed-race look. He's handsome in a very distinctive way."

Ge Wenyi nodded in deep agreement. In the Beijing Film Academy, where handsome men and beautiful women abound, being handsome with "distinctive features" is already a very high compliment!

"His physical foundation is a bit weak, and he knows absolutely nothing about dance. His oral exam went quite well, and his vocal performance... his talent was an original song? 'The Brightest Star Under the Night Sky,' and he got such a high score of 35!"

"Yes!" Hu Qiang, who was in the distance, also joined the discussion.

"I listened to the song. If his high notes weren't so bad, I would have given him two more points. The things to watch out for about this kid are his height and weight. He's 1.9 meters tall and weighs 175 kilograms. He's too strong! It's okay if he's developing early, but what if he keeps growing? He's only 17 years old."

"He'll be 18 soon." Cui Xinqin pointed to the information; November 12th was Xiang Nan's birthday.

"No matter if he's in his teens or twenties, men grow slowly to thirty, but once they reach two meters, it's not easy to find a film of them."

Cui Xinqin nodded slightly; she had considered all of these points.

Once he grows too tall, Xiang Nan will only be able to audition for certain roles, such as tall and strong generals in ancient times or vicious bandits, which will limit his development.

"Phew..." After a pause, Cui Xinqin tapped the documents on the table and put them into a folder.

It was clearly visible that next to each proctor was a stack of folders about 40 to 50 centimeters in size.

"Let's proceed as normal after the third round of auditions. This year's acting class is a bit tough..."

On the other side, Xiang Nan left the teaching building, thinking about something as he walked towards the school gate with his head down.

If his estimate is correct, his interview score should be in the top 30, and he'll be guaranteed a spot in the third round!

In his previous life, Xiang Nan was an ordinary person with an ordinary family, an ordinary university, and an ordinary life. His only outstanding feature was his height. In Chongqing, where he was born, Xiang Nan was like a crane among chickens.

This crane chose civil engineering in college, worked for five years, and then took the civil service exam. After several years of trying, it failed. Finally, through its cousin's connections, it got a sinecure as a photographer at an internet celebrity company.

After a few years, it was alright.

Until one business dinner, the company boss invited two internet celebrity girls to accompany him for drinks. Xiang Nan accidentally lost control and drank two extra bottles of Hennessy XO. When he opened his eyes again, it was already 01.

After processing the fact that he was reborn, he decided to change his life: to try his luck in the entertainment industry.

Are celebrities really that glamorous? And what about entertainment company executives? What's the difference between the karaoke bars they order and the ones I order? Are they all female celebrities?

He acted on his idea immediately, spending a year learning guitar and music theory, with the goal of applying to the Beijing Film Academy.

There's an old saying that goes, "One should become famous as early as possible."

The entertainment industry is not a loving family; it's a place where the strong survive and are often betrayed, buried, or blacklisted.

Xiang Nan's height of 196 cm in his previous life was his biggest limitation, which is why he rushed to apply for the exam in advance, thinking that if he failed, he would have another chance next year.

"boom--"

"Ouch—"

A soft, childlike voice, tinged with a sob, drifted into my ears, and a fair, delicate arm brushed past my eyes.

Xiang Nan bumped into a soft body, and he instinctively reached out and firmly grasped that slender arm.

Just as I steadied the staggering figure in front of me, I looked down and met a pair of misty, almond-shaped eyes.

"I'm sorry, are you alright?"

"Let go—" The girl opposite covered her chest with one hand, rolled her eyes in annoyance, pursed her full red lips tightly, and twisted her small body, but she couldn't shake off Xiang Nan's big hand.

"Sissi!"

"Release!" A roar startled passersby in the distance, who all turned to look.

Liu Xiaoli took three or five steps to Xiang Nan and raised her hand to separate the two.

Sisi? So the person in front of you is Liu Yifei?

"Feel sorry……"

The mother and daughter ignored him completely, glared at him, and then turned and left.

"So arrogant?"

Xiang Nan shook his head and turned to walk out of the school.

The Lantern Festival has just passed, and strings of red lanterns and Chinese knots are still hanging on the trees lining both sides of the gate.

On what should have been the day for resuming work, the entrance was crowded with all sorts of middle-aged people. They were wearing cotton-padded coats, their eyes fixed on the gate, watching each student as they came out. These were all parents who had brought their children for the third round of exams.

"Konan!"

A voice speaking in Chongqing dialect rang out from the crowd, sounding somewhat out of place in front of this famous university in Beijing.

Xiang Nan followed the sound and found his mother, a middle-aged woman wearing a blue cotton-padded jacket and holding a red hand-knitted scarf.

"Mom, I told you not to wait for me. It's so cold standing here on the street."

Xiang Nan's mother didn't say anything, but picked up the scarf and tiptoed to wrap it around her son.

"What nonsense are you spouting? You're taking the art exam, and if your father isn't coming, shouldn't your mother be coming too!"

Hearing his mother's accented Mandarin and looking at her still-black and shiny hair, Xiang Nan felt a warmth in his heart.

"Don't worry, your son will definitely be fine with a simple art exam."

The two hailed a taxi nearby and headed towards a guesthouse on the North Fourth Ring Road.

There's a reason I'm staying so far away: hotels near the Nortel Film Academy are too expensive!

Xiang Nan's father works for a street office in Chongqing, while his mother works at a supermarket. The couple's combined salary is about 2,500 yuan, and they live a fairly comfortable life.

But when their son suddenly approached them, saying he wanted to apply to the Beijing Film Academy and become a star, the family's situation changed.

They enrolled him in vocal lessons and pulled strings, leaving him with practically no money left over after a year. But the elderly couple never raised a single objection, supporting Xiang Nan with their actions.

For more than a year, Xiang Nan has been studying high school material during the day and practicing guitar at night, all for the sake of today's exam, the outcome of which is still unknown.

Rebirth is not so easy; it's not something that can be achieved with a wave of the hand or a stomp of the foot, where Tony Ma and Jack Ma kneel down in despair.

The class divide remains.

In his previous life, Xiang Nan knew a little about photography and had almost forgotten his past experiences with manual labor. He knew about the speculative stocks and Bitcoin that were going to be mentioned later.

But he's already decided to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Does he expect to waste another seven or eight years waiting for Bitcoin to be released? He's not old enough to buy stocks either.

"Xiao Nan, Mom is going back to her room now. If you're tired, take a nap. I'll call you for dinner later."

"Okay, Mom, you should rest for a while too."

In room 202 of the guesthouse, Xiang Nan closed the door and lay down on the large bed in the standard room.

He paused for a moment, then pulled a document from his drawer—a letter of invitation from Sony.

In two weeks, he will be going to Sony for an interview. If he passes, he will become a singer and accumulate initial capital for his path to becoming a big shot in the entertainment industry.

"Is Cui Zhendong...easy to talk to?"