Taking Liu Yifei back to Northeast China for the Chinese New Year has sent the entire internet into

The next morning, Xingyao Entertainment.

As soon as Fang Yu stepped out of the elevator, he bumped into a large, impressive group.

Two assistants, a stylist, and a business associate surrounded the young man in the black hoodie in the middle.

Cai Kun held a sandwich in one hand and his phone in the other to check the time.

"Yes, the magazine cover shoot is at 2 PM, and I'll definitely be there by 1:30 PM."

He had just hung up the phone when he looked up and almost choked on a sandwich.

"Yu, Brother Yu!"

Cai Kun rushed over in three steps, bending his waist at a ninety-degree angle.

Fang Yu looked him up and down and chuckled.

"Hey, isn't this Teacher Cai, who debuted in the center position? Pretty impressive entourage."

Cai Kun waved his hands repeatedly, his face full of apologetic smiles:

"Brother, please stop teasing me. Just call me Xiao Cai, that's fine!"

"OK."

Fang Yu nodded slowly, "A newbie."

Cai Kun immediately broke down, his face falling.

"Bro, I've already debuted, I have millions of fans, can you please stop calling me a newbie?"

Fang Yu raised an eyebrow: "What's that called? A complete noob?"

"..." Cai Kun wiped her face, looking as resentful as a wronged wife, "Brother Yu, leave some room for maneuver, so you can meet again in the future..."

Fang Yu smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Alright, I'm not teasing you anymore."

"What does it feel like to become famous? Does it make you arrogant?"

"Float? I wouldn't dare!"

Cai Kun let out a long sigh.

"I consider it a holiday if I can sleep six hours a day now. It's even more tiring than when I was a trainee."

Before he could finish speaking, the salesman behind him poked his head out and urged him on:

"Brother Kun, the car's waiting in the underground parking garage, time to go!"

"immediately!"

Cai Kun responded, and when he turned back to look at Fang Yu, his eyes were so sour they looked like they could be squeezed out of vinegar.

"Brother Yu, we're both popular, but I'm exhausted from rushing to eight events a day."

"You're something else, coming to the company twice a month, each time it's either about the Forbidden City, CCTV, or a huge project worth over 100 million."

"Why is there such a huge difference between people?"

Fang Yu cleared his throat, his eyes darkened, and he adopted the air of someone who had been through it all:

"Little Cai, you just don't understand, do you?"

"You only see my nonchalant demeanor in public, but you haven't seen what I'm like behind the scenes—"

"What are you doing behind my back?"

At the other end of the corridor, the office door clicked open.

Sister Wang came out carrying a thick stack of folders, followed by a woman around fifty years old.

Wearing a plain, fitted suit and with her hair neatly styled, she exuded the spirit of an old-fashioned intellectual.

Fang Yu's words, "sweating silently," were on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them back.

"You've come at the perfect time."

Sister Wang stepped forward and introduced the product.

"Fang Yu, this is Teacher Qin, who has been teaching dialogue at the Central Academy of Drama for over 20 years."

Fang Yu immediately dropped his playful grin and greeted them politely:

"Hello, Teacher Qin."

After exchanging greetings, he immediately pulled Sister Wang aside and lowered his voice.

"Sister Wang, what do you mean? The company is even providing personal trainers now?"

"The script reading for 'Chinese Paladin' is coming up soon, and you're the male lead who'll be playing the leading role."

Sister Wang, expressionless, slapped the folder onto his chest.

"I spent a lot of money to invite Teacher Qin to come out of retirement, just to get rid of that thick Northeastern accent in your mouth."

Fang Yu was stunned, then spread his hands with an innocent expression.

"No, Sister Wang, I was thinking... I don't have an accent either?"

The corridor was quiet for a second.

The receptionist passing by couldn't hold back and burst out laughing, covering her mouth and running away in a panic.

Sister Wang closed her eyes, her temples throbbing.

"Just for your perfectly pronounced 'mei you' (妹有), this tuition fee was absolutely worth it!"

Cai Kun turned to look at Sister Wang, who was covered in black lines, then glanced at Fang Yu, who looked completely bewildered, and left without looking back, sandwich in hand.

If he stayed any longer, he was afraid he would burst out laughing on the spot and then be punished later.

……

Ten minutes later, in the small conference room.

Teacher Qin sat upright at the solid wood table and pushed a printed script in front of Fang Yu.

"Teacher Fang, I've watched quite a few of your live streams and performance clips."

"To be honest, your pronunciation when you sing is flawless, but when you speak normally, your Northeastern accent is too strong."

She extended her index finger and tapped on the names of the people on the paper.

"Li Xiaoyao is a street-smart boy who grew up in Yuhang Town. He was raised in the water towns of Jiangnan and is clear-headed and lively at heart."

"If he speaks with a Northeastern accent, no matter how handsome you are, the audience will be pulled out of the story in no time."

Fang Yu picked up the script, glanced at it, and smiled.

"Teacher Qin, why don't you take a look and let me explain for a bit?"

"please."

Teacher Qin unscrewed the pen, preparing to note down pronunciation flaws.

Fang Yu cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair.

His previous upright demeanor vanished instantly, revealing the shrewdness and cunning of a street vendor.

"Welcome, sir/madam, please come in!"

"You wouldn't believe it, our shop is packed with customers today. I've been busy since dawn, how could I possibly have time to clean up?"

The boy's voice was clean and clear, with perfect distinction between retroflex and alveolar consonants, and the final consonant even had a slight upward lilt, like a folk tune from Jiangnan.

Teacher Qin's pen hovered in mid-air, not a single annotation was written.

The pronunciation is meticulous, and the breath control is steady.

That spirited young man from Northeast China who kept saying "I don't have any" in the hallway just now seems to have never existed.

Teacher Qin paused for two seconds, then without saying a word, pulled out a stack of tongue twister manuscripts from her bag.

"Read this passage once, speed it up."

Fang Yu took it, glanced at it, and then spoke.

He spoke very quickly, every word was clear, and he didn't stutter at all.

A minute later, Teacher Qin closed the pen cap.

"Your basic Mandarin skills are more solid than many of the top students in our performing arts department."

"Absolutely."

Fang Yu grinned, seamlessly switching back to his native dialect.

"I just want to have some fun and don't want to hold back."

"I feel really tired of being so proper all the time."

"Tired enough?"

Teacher Qin subconsciously read it aloud once.

"Yes, I feel heavy and uncomfortable all over."

Fang Yu immediately perked up and moved his chair forward.

"Teacher Qin, let me tell you, our Northeastern dialect is a profound linguistic art."

"Take the word '整' (zhěng) for example, it is absolutely the pinnacle of versatile verbs."

"Eating is called 'zhengdian'er', working is called 'zhengyixia', and if something is done badly, it's called 'zhengchapi'."

"A single word can encompass everything; it fits perfectly into any sentence."

Teacher Qin's brows relaxed as she listened, and she nodded repeatedly.

"This belongs to high-frequency generalized verbs, whose meaning shifts with context and stress, and is indeed of great research value in applied linguistics."

"Look at that, that's professionalism!"

Fang Yu slapped his thigh.

"With your academic jargon, even our Northeastern dialect could be used to apply for national-level social science research grants!"

Seizing the opportunity, he continued with a science lesson:

"And then there's 'Gaha,' which looks like just two words, but with a change in tone, everything is turned upside down."

"Speak calmly and slowly; that's a polite way of asking what you want."

"If you raise your voice a little higher, and then glare at me like that—"

Fang Yu immediately rolled his eyes as an example.

"The atmosphere changes; it's not about chatting anymore, it's about searching the whole room for a chair, ready to fight!"

Teacher Qin was amused and pushed up her glasses, mimicking his tone of voice:

"Gah... Gah?"

"No, no, the second word should be tilted upwards, and the chin should be raised a little to emphasize the provocative aura."

"What?!"

Fang Yu's eyes lit up: "Hey, that's it!"