The entertainment industry: My 99 future timelines!

"alright."

The next day, after sharing everyone's stories from their high school days again.

Professor Zhou clapped his hands and said:

"Everyone, remember how you felt when you were telling your stories, remember the feelings and genuine emotions you had when you heard other people's stories. They will be very useful when you're filming."

"Now, I want you to pair up."

"No script, no roles, just pick someone randomly and have them improvise a scene—a high school classroom, ten minutes into the break, begin."

There was no preparation time and no script prompts.

But this time, no one hesitated.

Li Xu and Jing Tian naturally became a pair.

The two walked to a corner of the venue, Li Xu pulled up a chair and sat down, while Jing Tian stood next to his desk.

"start."

Professor Zhou continued.

Li Xu began writing something on a piece of paper. Jing Tian looked at him for a few seconds, then reached out and gently poked his arm.

Li Xu looked up.

"Can you solve the last big problem on the math test?"

Jing Tian's voice held a feigned nervousness tinged with laughter. Li Xu glanced at her, then shoved the paper in his hand towards her like a test paper: "Which question?"

"this."

Jing Tian pointed to the "test paper" and said, "I drew the auxiliary lines, but I can't figure it out."

Li Xu took the test paper, glanced at it, picked up his pen, and drew a few lines on the draft paper: "Like this, draw a line from here, then apply the law of cosines..."

He spoke very seriously, his profile clearly defined under the stadium's overhead lights.

Jing Tian bent down to look at him, her ponytail slipping off her shoulder, the ends of her hair brushing against Li Xu's face. The two were very close, so close that Li Xu could clearly hear her breathing.

At such close range, Li Xu's pen paused for a moment.

"Do you understand?" he asked, his voice tinged with an unconscious tension.

"...Understood, thank you, Ko Ching-teng."

Jing Tian straightened up, took the exam paper, and spoke softly, her face and eyes filled with a smile.

"Um."

"Well... can I ask you a question in English tomorrow morning? I always get the cloze test wrong."

"OK."

Simple dialogue, simple setting.

But for some reason, Shen Ao, who had entered the classroom at some point and was watching silently, felt as if he really saw Shen Jiayi and Ke Jingteng.

There was no deliberate ambiguity, no exaggerated expressions.

It's that kind of awkward, innocent, and hesitant interaction between high school students—a desire to get closer but a reluctance to be too obvious.

And that subtle tension in the air is exactly what "You Are the Apple of My Eye" needs most.

"But why does this relationship seem a bit reversed? Who's the real underachiever here?"

Shen Ao muttered to himself.

-

In the afternoon, we had physical education class, which consisted of basic basketball training.

Li Xu changed into his jersey—a red and white Shohoku High School jersey, number 11, the same as Ko Ching-teng's jersey in the movie.

"Let me demonstrate the basic movements first."

He stood outside the three-point line, dribbled, turned, faked, jumped, and shot.

The basketball traced a beautiful arc in the air.

brush.

Hollow-core netting.

"Wow—" Hao Shaowen and the others couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"Director Li, you've trained before?" Zhang Ruoyun's eyes lit up.

"One and a half months, two hours a day."

Li Xu caught the ball that bounced back without saying a word.

He started with the most basic dribbling and passing, then moved on to layups and pull-up jump shots, playing around with it all on his own.

At that time, he was not the producer of "You Are the Apple of My Eye," but Ko Ching-teng.

Beside Li Xu, Zhang Ruoyun and the others were also playing seriously, while Jing Tian and Song Tie were practicing passing and dribbling on the other side.

Jing Tian's basketball skills were almost non-existent, and the ball always seemed to slip away from him when he dribbled.

Song Tie does know a little bit, managing to dribble the ball across half-court with some difficulty, but the two of them still had a lot of fun.

"Relax your wrist, don't look at the ball, look straight ahead."

I practiced on my own for about half an hour, and the first physical education class was almost over.

Li Xu walked over, stood beside Jing Tian, ​​gently supported her wrist, and instructed, "Yes, like that..."

His hands were large with long, slender fingers, and when he held Jing Tian's wrist, the warmth emanated from his skin.

Jing Tian's ears involuntarily turned slightly red. The future marriage relationship is one thing, but the current, still innocent and hazy feelings between the two of them are the real relationship at present.

"I'll do it myself..."

After being instructed for a few minutes, seeing Song Tie's amused look on her face, she whispered something, snatched the ball back, and continued clumsily dribbling.

Li Xu didn't insist and walked to the side to watch the others practice.

By 4:30 p.m., everyone was exhausted.

But Li Xu did not call a halt.

"Ten-minute break, then the second PE class, we'll start with a basketball game, a three-on-three match."

As Li Xu spoke, he casually called out the names of six boys, dividing them into two teams. "I'm on one team with Cai Changxian and Liao Yinghong, and Cao Guosheng, Xie Minghe, and Lao Zhang are on the other. We'll play half a game, seven balls."

"Director Li, please go easy on him!"

The boys who were assigned to the opposing team wailed.

"Not keeping them."

Li Xu smiled, revealing his white teeth, "The loser has to do fifty extra push-ups tonight."

"ah--"

Game start.

Li Xu plays point guard.

His dribbling isn't flashy, but it's very steady. His first step when breaking through is quick, and defenders often can't keep up.

Under his guidance, Cai Changxian and Liao Yinghong scored frequently.

It took them a long time to give the opponent a 4-0 score.

The three opponents panicked and began to strengthen their defense, no longer caring about whether it was a director or not.

During one of his breakthroughs, Cao Guosheng (Cao Jun), who was defending, made a slightly over-aggressive move, accidentally elbowing Li Xu directly in the ribs.

"hiss--"

Li Xu gasped, his movements pausing for a moment.

"Director Li, are you alright?" Hao Shaowen and the others immediately gathered around.

"fine."

Li Xu waved his hand and rubbed his ribs. "Let's continue. A basketball court is a basketball court. I'm Ke Jingteng, not Director Li."

But in the next few minutes, Li Xu's movements were clearly affected by this accidental elbow.

During one layup attempt, Xie Minghe suddenly jumped up and slapped him away from below with his hand.

"Good shot!" The spectators cheered, but Jing Tian frowned slightly.

Li Xu picked up the ball, looked at Xie Minghe, and smiled: "Not bad, I didn't expect you to have such good jumping ability, even though you're a bit chubby."

Xie Minghe (Hao Shaowen) scratched his head: "Director Li, you're letting me win, aren't you?"

"I didn't let you win because you're really good. Let's play again." Li Xu passed the ball out, his face radiating a youthful energy completely different from his image when filming movies.

The game continues.

The final score was 7-5, and Li Xu's team won.

But everyone could see that Li Xu was just putting on a brave face for the last few shots.

When he left the field, he walked somewhat awkwardly.

"Li Xu, are you really alright?"

Jing Tian finally walked quickly to Li Xu's side, handed him a clean towel, and asked in a low voice with concern.

"It's really nothing."

Li Xu casually took the towel from Jing Tian and wiped his sweat. "It was just a light touch. I'll just use a hot compress tonight."

"You, a top director of the new generation, why are you arguing with these people... it's worrying."

Jing Tian snorted, her face showing both anger and heartache.

"It's not about being nitpicky, it's just about having the most basic sense of responsibility."

Li Xu looked at the young actors who were drinking water and chatting, his tone serious.

Jing Tian sighed, not wanting to say anything more. She swung her ponytail and left, not even bothering with the towel.

-

After dinner is evening self-study.

The classroom was quiet, with only the sounds of turning pages and writing.

Li Xu sat in the last row, with his math textbook and exercise book spread out in front of him, occasionally glancing up at the others.

Jing Tian was memorizing English words, muttering to herself.

Song Tie was doing Chinese reading comprehension, his brows slightly furrowed.

Zhang Ruoyun was struggling with a physics problem, scratching her head and looking puzzled.

The lights were a warm yellow, shining on every young face.

Outside the window, the night was deep in autumn, with the occasional bark of a dog in the distance.

For a fleeting moment, Li Xu felt somewhat dazed.

It felt like I was back in my senior year of high school at seventeen, back to that sweltering summer filled with exam papers and dreams, instead of simply doing pre-filming training.

Study session ended at 9 PM.

Everyone dragged their tired bodies back to the dormitory.

Li Xu stayed behind last to check the classroom doors and windows before leaving.

As he walked out of the teaching building, he saw a person standing on the playground.

It is Jing Tian.

She was wearing sportswear, standing under a street lamp, looking up at the sky.

The autumn night sky was clear, and the stars were clearly visible.

"Jing Tian, ​​why don't you go back and rest?"

After walking a few steps over, Li Xu asked a question.

Jing Tian turned around upon hearing this: "Ke Jingteng, I need you to walk with me... like the way Ke Jingteng treats Shen Jiayi. No half-heartedness allowed. Didn't you say you were very serious about your work?"

"Now, we need to get serious."

When Jing Tian said this, there was a hint of smugness in her eyes, and her tone was self-righteous.

"Alright, Shen Jiayi, let's go."

Li Xu glanced at Jing Tian lightly, but didn't pay attention to her tone.

"Um...right, I want to hold hands. According to the script, even if Ko Ching-teng and Shen Chia-yi haven't kissed, they should at least be in a flirtatious relationship, but neither of them dares to say it out loud."

Upon hearing Li Xu's agreement, Jing Tian's lips curled up slightly, as if she had won a great victory.

As she spoke, she directly placed her fair and delicate hand into Li Xu's hand.

There was a two-second silence.

The image of Liu Yifei involuntarily flashed through Li Xu's mind, but he still did not refuse and gently took Jing Tian's hand.

Under the dim streetlights on campus, the two strolled along like a young couple who had just started dating.

But unlike before, there was little talking or conversation; only a subtle sense of companionship and ambiguous atmosphere permeated the air.

After walking for a short while, Li Xu took Jing Tian's hand and escorted her back to the girls' dormitory where the training camp was being held.

"Ko Ching-teng, see you tomorrow."

"Shen Jiayi, see you tomorrow."

Jing Tian skipped away, one hand behind her back, and quickly walked up to the dormitory building, speaking as she went.

Li Xu responded and turned to leave.

He has classes, training, and countless scenes to prepare for tomorrow. For now, the story of Ko Ching-teng and Shen Chia-yi will have to stay as it is.

-

As the training camp entered its second week, the regular routine helped the young actors gradually find their rhythm.

Morning runs are no longer a struggle, fewer people are dozing off in class, and improvisational practice in performance classes is becoming more relaxed.

The thirteen young people began to develop a real sense of high school "classmates"—they would copy each other's homework, complain about the teachers together, and argue heatedly about the outcome of a basketball game during PE class.

The most noticeable change is in Jing Tian.

During this period, she would sit up straight in class like a good student and take notes diligently.

When class ended, she would go to get water with "Hu Jiawei" (Song Tie) and quietly discuss the math problems the teacher had just explained.

During physical education class, she would stand on the sidelines watching "Ko Ching-teng" play ball, holding water and a towel in her hand, but she didn't dare to hand them over.

Everything was natural.

So naturally, sometimes even Jing Tian herself couldn't tell whether she was Jing Tian or Shen Jiayi.

All she knew was that she loved how she felt right now, ever since that night when she and Li Xu took a walk hand in hand, and she was completely absorbed in it.

-

The last day of the second week of training.

As always, she waited in front of the teaching building after evening self-study, and once again declined Song Tie's invitation to go back to the dormitory together.

After finishing her evening self-study session, Jing Tian stood downstairs in the dormitory building, silently waiting for Li Xu to close the classroom doors and windows and come downstairs.

then.

As usual, she offered her hand to Li Xu without saying much; it had become a habit for the two of them recently.

Li Xu would inevitably take Shen Jiayi back to her dormitory hand in hand every day after evening self-study, just as Ke Jingteng would never refuse Shen Jiayi's request.

Their relationship was also in this ambiguous and ambiguous state.

Take one step forward, and you'll become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Take a step back, my good friend.

But no one actually crosses that line.

The few times they were most ambiguous were when they gently hugged each other downstairs in the girls' training dormitory before parting ways.

They didn't kiss.

There were no further transgressions.

Li Xu and Jing Tian have truly become like Ke Jingteng and Shen Jiayi, both guarding their last remaining relationship, embracing this tacitly understood ambiguity, without making any progress.

Li Xu instinctively wanted to stay there.

He was still a little confused, with another figure occasionally flickering in his mind, and he had to reply to the few daily greetings from that side every now and then.

Nobody knows what Jing Tian is thinking.

Song Tie was unaware of this because she had seen the two of them holding hands and walking back from downstairs several times while she was in the dormitory building. However, since that was the only relationship between them, her desire to gossip was completely unfulfilled.

Zhao Shanshan was unaware that she had visited the training base a few days ago and even made a point of asking about the progress of Jing Tian and Li Xu's relationship, fearing that if things went too far, she wouldn't be able to explain it to Jing Tian's family.

To her surprise, even though she was absolutely certain of her feelings, Jing Tian was actually quite honest.

"What do I think? I just want to experience his youth."

"I know his future."

"I have seen and experienced his thoughtfulness, gentleness, and even holding hands and kissing at the wedding. But I never participated in his youth."

In the girls' training dormitory.

On the standard iron bed that had been replaced with a very soft mattress, Jing Tian closed her eyes, recalling how Li Xu had once again taken her hand and escorted her to the dormitory door, hugging her as they left. A faint happiness and a little bit of joy appeared on her face as she thought to herself.