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2.34% Hitting the Entertainment News Spotlight / Chapter 16: Information

Chapter 16: Information

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

When the others heard this, they backed down from the suggestion as well.

"You're right."

After all, the National College Entrance Examination was around the corner. Even if they wasted their time to go to the film academy and the production team was casting for the upcoming movie, they might not be selected in the end.

On the other hand, the National College Entrance Examination involved their future. When they thought about it this way, the others gradually calmed down.

When the bell for the morning self-study period rang, the others returned to their respective seats. Lu Baobao wrinkled her nose and pulled Jiang Se's hand, refusing to give up. "Even if they're not going, we should go." 

In truth, Jiang Se was also tempted to go.

Zhou Hui had been clear about her view on this. If she wanted to go to college, she would have to pay for her own tuition.

However, Jiang Se was at a loss as to the kind of job that would earn her enough money to cover her tuition and accommodation fees within two months. It would be great if she had more opportunities to earn more money.

However, Jiang Se shot Lu Baobao a look and reminded her, "The National College Entrance Examination is just around the corner. Didn't you say that your parents will kill you if you flunk it?"

When Lu Baobao mentioned this earlier, she had seemed sullen. At this moment, however, she waved her hand in dismissal. "It was just a figure of speech. Moreover, my parents know me. They don't expect me to get into a first-tier university. After all, our results are similar."

Her results were average, and she chose the arts stream. She could still manage the languages, but she was behind in her English and mathematics. All she could do was to burn the midnight oil and memorize some knowledge about politics, history, and geography to salvage some points.

"Our school isn't far from the film academy. The subway is near as well. There are only five or six stations between here and there, so we can head over after school at night. We'll just be there to see if we can find out about anything. It won't take long," Lu Baobao pleaded, "Let's go, shall we?"

When Jiang Se nodded, Lu Baobao shot up and made a victorious gesture. "Yes!"

The teacher-in-charge came in carrying a pile of objects at this moment. Her face darkened when she saw the scene.

"Lu Baobao!"

Having seen the teacher coming from a long way off, the other students in the class had already taken out their books and pretended to study. Because Lu Baobao had been talking to Jiang Se just now, she did not notice the situation at the door. When her name was called, she flinched.

The teacher walked into the classroom with heavy footsteps and dropped the items she was carrying onto her desk with a loud bang. The students did not even dare to breathe.

"It's only a few days away to the National College Entrance Examination, and you're still in this playful mood! I was under the impression that you're a good English speaker, but your results aren't satisfactory in the recent test. Out of a total of 150 marks, you've only scored 68! You had more than half of the vocabulary, listening, and multiple-choice questions wrong!"

She grew more agitated as she droned on. Lu Baobao looked pitiful being scolded like that, but she dared not make a sound.

The English teacher, who bore the surname Lin, was a strict and responsible person. She was on a roll now. She rummaged through the answer sheets and found the one with Lu Baobao's name on it.

"Look at this. There are 50 questions on this answer sheet, and you got more than half of them wrong! English is an important subject. What will you do in the National College Entrance Examination if you keep this up?"

Not a single squeak could be heard from the class. Everyone was feeling sympathetic toward Lu Baobao whose face was now red from being told off by Teacher Lin.

Lu Baobao had been caught talking during lessons by Teacher Lin several times before. This had displeased this English teacher greatly. After giving her a round of scolding, she suppressed her anger.

"You'll stay back after school and write ten lines for every vocabulary you've gotten wrong. You can go back once you can memorize all of them."

When Teacher Lin said that, Lu Baobao looked as if she had nothing left to live for.

She had made an appointment with Jiang Se to try their luck at the Imperial Capital Film Academy after school and see if they could run into the casting call for "Pretense to Reality" or get some inside scoop.

However, she did not expect to have such rotten luck. Jiang Se had literally just agreed to go when she was caught by Teacher Lin.

Lessons were over at 5 p.m. while the students were to do their revision from 8 to 9 a.m.

However, due to the sheer amount of homework of the 12th graders, the teachers would usually drag the lessons on until it was well past 5.30 p.m. despite the school having set the timetable until 5 p.m. Lu Baobao had intended to slip away after 5.30 p.m. with Jiang Se. However, if she was forced to stay back, she would surely not make it to the Imperial Capital Film Academy that day.

When she thought about this, Lu Baobao appeared glum. She glanced at Jiang Se but dared not say anything before Teacher Lin.

Now that Teacher Lin had released all her steam, she began commenting on the trial examination results, "This time, some of you didn't do well while some of you exceeded expectations."

As she said this, Teacher Lin's gaze seemed to sweep past Jiang Se.

"Especially Jiang Se. Her language and mathematics have improved greatly compared to before. She's even more outstanding in English this time. It's clear that she's made the effort."

The original Jiang Se's results were rather poor, especially since her heart had not been in the right place for studies. When she was reborn, the current Jiang Se did not dare perform too well after finding out about the original Jiang Se's character.

Even so, Teacher Lin was already showering her with praises. Even her expression, which had turned sour because of Lu Baobao, softened considerably.

If Lu Baobao was detained, she naturally would not be able to go out of the school at night. When Jiang Se left at night, Lu Baobao was teary-eyed. She clearly wanted to go with her but did not dare.

"I'll go have a look and familiarize myself with the journey. Even if Ma Jingjing says that this was on the news, it's not certain that the tryouts will take place today."

Jiang Se tried to comfort her, "There are four days to the National College Entrance Examination. You'd better focus on that for now."

She was different from Lu Baobao. When she sat for the National College Entrance Examination the last time, she managed to get into the best university in the imperial capital with her outstanding results.

Even though it had been some years ago, after having gone through the mock exam, she knew what she could expect from the actual examination this time. She did not have a problem with the three main subjects and had always planned her actions. Two weeks ago, she had already highlighted the important points for history, geography, and the other subjects.

Even if she could not perform as well as when she had been Feng Nan, she was confident that she could still manage to earn a spot in the best university without much difficulty.

Therefore, her worries were not her results but the tuition fees.

The best university would offer certain financial assistance to students with outstanding achievements, but her time as Jiang Se was too short. Despite her current performance, the chances of her getting the aid were too slim, so she would have to work hard about it herself.

Jiang Se had heard about the Imperial Capital Film Academy before.

Every year, hordes of handsome boys and beautiful girls would be enrolled here. Many childhood stars were already famous during their youth here.

There was a rule in the academy. The first-years were not allowed to be involved in any films, whereas the third-years were, hence the academy was not in short supply of stars.

When it was enrollment season, reporters would swarm to the academy. At that time, almost every news outlet would be reporting the situation at the Imperial Capital Film Academy. If one was lucky, they would even be caught on camera and be featured on the news.

Many students went in and out of the school. Compared to high school, things were much more relaxed here.


Chapter 17: Favor

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The students here all had dreams of making it into the entertainment industry and becoming stars. Needless to say, there were many handsome and beautiful people. Jiang Se stood there for a moment before adjusting her backpack straps and walking into the academy.

She did not hurry about to ask if the "Pretense to Reality" crew was here to do their casting call in the film academy. Instead, she walked around the campus to familiarize herself with the surroundings.

After finding out about the rough locations of the various faculties, she felt slightly tired. From the corner of her eye, she saw a marble fountain nearby.

The fountain was beautifully crafted. Jiang Se walked up to it, removed her backpack, and sat at the edge. Then, she took out a bottle of mineral water that she had bought and drank it.

The fountain behind her was spouting water into the air and a few drops of water occasionally splashed on her face. It provided her with some cool relief on this hot night.

While she took a paper towel and wiped the sweat from her forehead, she caught a fragrant scent in the air. Someone had sat beside her. Soon after that, she felt something sting her nose.

She turned to look. A girl in a short red dress sat a meter away from her. Her long, fair legs were especially eye-catching in contrast to her red dress.

With an open bottle of nail polish beside her, the girl had her legs crossed. She was painting her toenails.

"Oh, is the smell bothering you?"

Jiang Se's gaze seemed to have caught the girl's attention. After she finished painting her big toe, she looked up and revealed her delicately made-up face which had been half-covered by her wavy auburn hair moments ago.

Her eyebrows were raised, but she did not stop painting her toenails.

Jiang Se looked at her for a long while. The girl snorted before reinserting the brush into the bottle to get some fresh nail polish and was about to paint her other toe when Jiang Se spoke, "I can see your black undergarments."

As the girl's hand jolted, the red nail polish splattered onto her toes. She hastily returned the brush into the bottle and retrieved some tissue paper from her bag.

Jiang Se took two pieces of her own tissue paper and extended them toward her. The girl hastily took them and started wiping off the nail polish without thanking her.

"We're both girls. It's nothing."

The girl finished cleaning her toes, but she did not close her legs. Instead, she leaned forward, causing her already-short dress to slide further upward. She teased Jiang Se, "Would you like to have another look?"

"No, thanks. I don't swing that way."

Jiang Se stuffed her pack of tissues back into her backpack, clearly unfazed by the teasing.

Her reaction made the girl burst out in laughter. She then screwed the cap for the nail polish on and inched closer to Jiang Se.

"Hey, which faculty are you from?" When the girl asked her question, she reached up and tucked her long hair behind her right ear. "You're from the Performing Arts Faculty, aren't you? You're pretty. In fact, you look much prettier than that Liu Yuchun who just joined the department this year."

That name rang a bell in Jiang Se's mind.

"I heard that there's a casting call here, so I came to have a look."

The girl's hand paused halfway through her own hair. Shortly after that, she said with a smile, "As expected of the powerful media. Everybody knows about it now that it's on the news."

She inched closer, her heavy perfume assaulting Jiang Se's nostrils.

"But I'm afraid that you've come all the way for nothing," she sneered, "You're talking about Gu Jiaer's 'Pretense to Reality', aren't you?"

Jiang Se nodded.

"The academy has a partnership with the crew. There won't be an opportunity for you to land an important role. The teachers are the ones who will be suggesting names for the tryouts." As she ran her fingers through her hair again, she turned and wanted to lean on Jiang Se.

"Do you have a backer? Do you have a sugar daddy? Do you have money?"

Every time she asked a question, Jiang Se would shake her head. In the end, the girl rolled her eyes.

"Yet, you want to make it into the entertainment industry? You must be out of your mind from all the dreaming about becoming a star!"

The girl's body was soft and well-rounded with the peaks on her chest towering over the rest of her body. Jiang Se seemed young and inexperienced in comparison.

Although the girl seemed to be a born socializer, Jiang Se was not used to being this close to other people, so she gently pushed the girl so that she was sitting upright and moved further away from her.

"I just want to be an extra."

Unlike the original Jiang Se, she had no ambitions of making it big in the entertainment industry.

Feng Zhongliang's disregard for actors had influenced her somewhat. At the moment, she merely wanted to land a role to cope with her current predicament.

If this was her life from now on, she would have to be more responsible about it, at the very least.

"An extra?"

When Jiang Se pushed her away the first time, the girl had stubbornly leaned back onto Jiang Se, not wanting to be pushed away.

However, when Jiang Se expressed her interest to be an extra, she was stunned and straightened up on her own. "Did you come all the way just to be an extra?"

She gave Jiang Se an appraising look, seeming puzzled. "Are you out of your mind? Do you know how much extras get paid daily and how much you can get by being a supporting actor with lines?"

Jiang Se shouldered her backpack and stood up. She had walked around the academy today and familiarized herself with the locations of the different faculties. She also noticed that there were no signs of enhanced security which would have accompanied the presence of the production team.

The Imperial Capital Film Academy had an open-door concept, so it was easy to go in and out of the campus.

If the production team was here, the reporters would have used everything in their arsenals to slip in and keep an eye out.

She felt that she had made this trip for nothing. This girl's words merely confirmed her guesses.

Since she gained nothing and had her revision waiting for her at night, she decided to head back.

The girl was holding the tissue with which she had wiped the spilled nail polish off her toes. She looked at Jiang Se and frowned.

"Do you have…"

She seemed to want to say something but appeared gloomy in the end. She ran her fingers through her auburn curls as she thought about something and lowered her hand.

"Forget it. There are no auditions on campus. The teachers will recommend students and direct them to the casting call location." She licked her lips and reached for her satchel to take out a small mirror. "I heard that it'll be on the 12th of June on level 13 of the Yijing Building in the outer circle of the imperial capital. You can go and try your luck then."

The girl looked at her own reflection in the mirror. Then, she took out her lipstick and patched her makeup. "But I'll have to warn you that the roles of the lead and important supporting characters have already been determined. Even if you make it, you'll only be an extra, at best."

Jiang Se committed the address she said to memory and thanked her.

"There's no need to thank me. I just don't like owing other people favors." She waved the tissues in her hand and did not continue chatting with Jiang Se after that. She lowered her head, unscrewed the nail polish bottle, and began painting her nails again.

Jiang Se reminded her again before she left, "You're exposing yourself again."

The girl kept a straight face and ignored her. When Jiang Se was some distance away, she closed her legs and could not help but laugh.

When Jiang Se returned to the school, Lu Baobao was still copying the English words.

Upon seeing Jiang Se, she flung her arms with a forlorn expression on her face as she asked nervously, "Sese, have you been to the film academy? Did you see Xu Xiaoying? Did you see Zhou Jingxuan?"


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