Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 293: There is a mole, the deal is terminated
The next day.

Li Yapeng got up early in the morning, and after a quick wash, he wrapped himself in a military overcoat and went to the southeast gate to keep watch.

Although it was already mid-March, the capital was still in the chill of early spring. Li Yapeng hunched his shoulders and tucked his hands in, waiting for almost half an hour before two cars finally arrived.

The lead vehicle was a light truck, followed by a bright blue Xiali.

"Yapeng!"

Li Songqiang pushed open the door of the light truck, jumped out of the passenger seat, and asked with a smile, "How are your preparations going? Confident you'll pass?"

The two were from the same hometown and both loved rock music, so they had known each other for a long time. Li Songqiang was able to catch Zhang Yan's eye thanks to Li Yapeng.

"With my skills, I'm not just confident, I've got it figured out!" Li Yapeng boasted, then looked curiously at the layers of canvas on the car: "Brother Qiang, what's that thing on the car?"

"tent."

Li Songqiang curled his lip and said, "You Central Academy of Drama are so arrogant and won't even lend us an office. We can only set up tents on the playground. The Beijing Film Academy is much more accommodating. They not only lent us the space but also arranged for students to maintain order."

"That's normal, our school is always so bureaucratic."

Li Yapeng chimed in with a couple of complaints, then asked, "When will President Zhang and the others arrive?"

"That depends on when we set up our tents."

As Li Songqiang spoke, he ran over and exchanged a few words with the gatekeeper, then asked Li Yapeng to lead the way to the Central Academy of Drama's large playground.

The truck driver and several staff members in the Xiali began unloading the goods, and Li Yapeng, seeing this, also took off his military overcoat and went forward to help.

During this time, the students from the Class of '90 also rushed over upon hearing the news. The boys joined in, and the girls helped organize some odds and ends.

With everyone working together, it took less than twenty minutes to set up two tents, each about fifteen square meters in size. Li Yapeng even brought people over with desks and chairs from the classroom.

After the recruitment brochure was put up outside, Li Songqiang looked around and patted Li Yapeng on the shoulder with satisfaction, saying, "Yapeng, your classmates are all quite enthusiastic."

"That's for sure."

Li Yapeng wiped his sweat and grinned, "Everyone was worried about their future, but when they heard that our Dream Come True organization was recruiting, it was like the clouds had parted and the sun was shining."

As he spoke, he glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then whispered, "Brother Qiang, how many people can our company hire this time?"

"So this is our company now?"

Li Song jokingly remarked that, given Li Yapeng's situation, as long as his performance isn't too bad, he's basically guaranteed a seat.

"We'll probably recruit three or four full-time actors—but Mr. Zhang is also planning to hire a few people to work part-time at the film and television base, and those who perform well can be promoted to full-time."

What does it mean to work part-time at a film and television base?

"There will be performances every week at the August 1st Film and Television Base, but they won't be pure performances; they'll be the kind that involve interaction with the audience—I'm not entirely sure how exactly it will work, but it's definitely better than being a drifter in Beijing."

As Li Songqiang spoke, he said to Li Yapeng, "Don't let your classmates work for nothing—come on, register your names first, and then each of you can get a drink."

Just as the Class of '90 were lining up to register, the Ice and Snow Sisters arrived at the playground.

After scanning around and not seeing Zhang Yan, Li Bingbing took her younger sister to look at the recruitment brochure. They discovered that Yuanmeng was recruiting not only actors, but also directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, art designers, and other professionals.

And as expected, there are grade restrictions; only third- and fourth-year students are eligible to apply.

Although he had anticipated that freshmen would not be eligible to apply, Li Bingbing was still somewhat upset.

She found a staff member and asked, "Does the Beijing Film Academy also only accept students up to their third year?"

"This……"

The staff member was stumped by her question. He went inside to ask Li Songqiang before returning to reply, "This is your school's regulation, so we can only recruit third- and fourth-year students. Beijing Film Academy has no restrictions, but they require that before the third year, students cannot take more than two months of leave each year."

Upon hearing this, Li Bingbing regretted not getting into the Beijing Film Academy. However, she then thought that if she hadn't been at the Central Academy of Drama, she probably wouldn't have had the chance to meet Senior Tao Hong, let alone get to know a big shot like President Zhang.

And so I felt at peace again.

At this time, more and more people appeared on the playground, but the vast majority of them were just there to watch the excitement, and very few actually chose to sign up.

By around 9 a.m., only a little over 30 people had signed up, with nearly half of them from the Class of '94.

Among them were several students who were not in the class, and because they couldn't stand the pointing and whispering of the onlookers, they secretly backed out after registering.

So when Zhang Yan and Chen Hong arrived with Wang Jinghua and Chang Jihong, there were only about twenty-six or twenty-seven students queuing up for the campus recruitment. Zhang Yan wasn't surprised by this and even joked with Chen Hong, "It's a good thing that Beijing Film Academy doesn't restrict freshmen and sophomores to participate, otherwise there might be more people from our company than people who signed up."

"I just hope things will get better at the Shanghai Theatre Academy." Chen Hong sighed, then asked Zhang Yan, "Do you want to say a few words?"

"Forget it, I feel like the students are watching monkeys." Zhang Yan pointed to the two tents: "Men on the left, women on the right. You and Jinghua are interviewing actors, and Sister Ji Hong and I are interviewing other majors."

Amidst the noisy discussions of the students watching, the four of them each went into a tent. Then Li Songqiang came out with a tin megaphone and told the people who had signed up to split into two groups according to their majors.

Of these, 19 were from this class, while other majors only managed to gather 7, and they couldn't even fill all the majors that were being recruited.

To avoid ending too early and having to wait idly on the sidelines, Zhang Yan chatted with each person who signed up for at least fifteen minutes, and for those he was particularly optimistic about, he would start with half an hour.

Around 11 o'clock.

Zhang Yanzheng was discussing the strengths and weaknesses of screenwriters from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China with students from the 91st class of screenwriters when Li Yapeng suddenly led a tall, thin boy into the tent.

"Mr. Zhang, something strange has happened!"

"Ok?"

Seeing their hurried manner, Zhang Yan gestured for the screenwriting students to wait a moment, then got up and walked to the tent entrance, asking in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"There's an imposter among those who signed up."

As Li Yapeng spoke, he pointed to the boy next to him: "This is Huang Zhizhong from the class of '91. He is from Tianjin. Just now I saw someone I didn't recognize enter President Chen's tent, so I assumed he was from the class of '91, but Huang Zhizhong also said he didn't recognize that person."

He felt he wasn't an outsider, so after the interview, he stayed outside helping to maintain order.

"boss Zhang!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Huang Zhizhong excitedly said, "I really liked your novels when I was in high school. Later, I heard a lot about your deeds. You are my idol!"

"Really? Then we're quite destined to meet."

Zhang Yan took the initiative to shake hands with him, and then asked Li Yapeng, "Could it be that a freshman or sophomore student lied about their identity?"

"will not!"

Li Yapeng said decisively, "I asked Yu Yuexian, a sophomore, and also asked a freshman, and they all said they didn't know that person!"

Zhang Yan couldn't help but frown.

Could it be that someone from outside the school wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to join the dream-fulfilling program, so they deliberately sneaked in and lied about their identity?
This person must be very confident in their acting skills, at least far exceeding the level of students at the Central Academy of Drama. Otherwise, once their lie is exposed, they would have no chance of getting a job and fulfilling their dream.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yan also became curious about that person, so he led Li Yapeng and Huang Zhizhong to the next tent.

As soon as I arrived at the door, I heard a girl inside asking, "Are you sure you can solve our targeted training problem?"

Ok? !

Zhang Yan paused, stopping at the tent entrance.

“We have already explained it.”

Then Wang Jinghua said, "We will try our best to communicate and coordinate with the Frontier Drama Troupe to ensure that you..."

The voice rudely interrupted Wang Jinghua: "I want to know the specifics of how this will be coordinated. After all, we were all qualified to study at the Central Academy of Drama as targeted trainees. If this matter cannot be properly resolved, how can we feel at ease joining Yuanmeng?!"

Something's not right, something's extremely wrong!

If this girl were a student from the border region class, it would be understandable for her to keep asking this question. But she's clearly an imposter, yet she keeps asking about it and even wants to know the specific details...

Without further hesitation, Zhang Yan lifted the curtain and entered, saying, "Wait a moment!"

As he spoke, he walked up to Chen Hong and said in a deep voice, "I just realized that the Class of '90 were students under a targeted training program. Our Yuanmeng is a private enterprise that is a national pilot program. How can we go against national policies?"

Chen Hong was still a little confused, but Wang Jinghua glanced at the student being interviewed and immediately stood up to admit her mistake, saying, "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhang, this was an oversight on our part. We will stop recruiting students from the Class of '90 right away."

"This……"

Upon hearing this, Li Yapeng instinctively wanted to say something, but Huang Zhizhong swiftly pulled him out of the tent.

(End of this chapter)