I entered Huayu Entertainment in 2016.

Zhou Ye blurted it out.

As soon as he said those words, Wang Zian felt the surrounding environment become quiet.

This was the first time he had heard a girl say this to him.

Their expressions froze instantly.

He looked down at Zhou Ye; her tears were still welling up in her eyes, her nose was red, and her chin was wet, but she didn't hesitate for a moment when she said those six words.

The light in those almond-shaped eyes was too bright, too genuine, and too uncontrollable.

She was completely immersed in the role.

Zhou Ye did not stop.

"I want to marry you, go to get off work and come home, go grocery shopping and cook, watch a movie on weekends, do a thorough cleaning, and think about all the little things. I want a simple life, even if we argue and bicker occasionally, it can only be you for the rest of my life, it has to be you~~!"

She sniffed, her voice already muffled by a heavy nasal tone.

Then she gripped his hand tightly, looked up at him with all her might, as if making the final, most resolute statement of this character.

Her voice suddenly rose a little, filled with a kind of incoherent excitement, "If everything goes well, we'll get married. If not, we'll get married later. What I mean is~~~"

She paused.

Tears finally rolled down her cheeks, slid down her chin, and dripped onto her gray sweatpants, leaving a small, dark stain.

Then she used all her strength to push out that last sentence.

"I don't want to miss you."

Zhou Ye perfectly captured the theme and delivered a superb performance.

The auditorium was so quiet that you could hear the fluorescent lights humming.

The two of them just stared at each other like that.

The performance should end here.

But when Wang Zian stood on the stage and looked into Zhou Ye's eyes, which were still glistening with tears and shone like two stars, he suddenly felt himself drawn into the role.

His eyes gleamed, and he said with a smile, "I'm reminded of a saying: Don't presuppose spending the rest of your life with anyone; let fate take us wherever it leads!"

"But there's another saying: we will all lose something in this life, so why not be bold and love someone, climb a mountain, and chase a dream?"

The lights in the auditorium seemed to freeze for a moment as well.

These two sentences landed softly on the stage, silencing everyone.

In Zhou Ye's dog's eyes, that light was absolutely dazzling.

Those two sentences are brilliant.

From the moment she took his hand until now, she has never let go of it.

After hearing those two sentences, she took a step forward and hugged him tightly.

This wasn't part of his plan!

This time, unlike at Zhou Ye's house last time, Wang Zi'an didn't withdraw his hand from the air. Instead, he slowly and gently placed it on her back.

A complete, warm embrace where both people take a step forward at the same time.

The pleasant fragrance emanating from Zhou Ye inexplicably assaulted his nostrils.

And there was her supple figure honed through physical training; even through her clothes, he could feel the warm fragrance emanating from her body spreading upwards from his chest.

Offstage, Wang Jinsong put down his pen and leaned back in his chair.

The smile that had been lingering on her lips ever since she saw Wang Zi'an in the exam hall on the day of the re-examination finally appeared in its entirety.

Kid, you've taken the bait!

···

A few seconds passed.

Perhaps longer, Wang Zian wasn't sure.

He discovered that when a person is being held on stage, their sense of time becomes very strange.

Standing here is really unbearable.

Wang Zian lifted his gaze from above Zhou Ye's head and turned to look at the audience.

Wang Jinsong's smile was so wide it was practically reaching his ears.

His eyes clearly conveyed the message: Kid, you're getting into character!

Wang Zian released Zhou Ye, and Zhou Ye felt the force of his arm withdraw, so he also released his hands around Wang Zian's waist and took half a step back.

But her flushed cheeks and crimson eyes looked fragile.

Wang Jinsong smiled and clapped.

The other teachers joined in the cheering.

Yang Mi sat in the examiner's seat, her fox-like eyes full of shrewdness.

Her gaze darted back and forth between Wang Zi'an and Zhou Ye, then back and forth again.

She rested her elbows on the score sheet, her chin on the back of her hand, and a meaningful smile slowly appeared on her lips.

"These two are really promising! Should we bring them into our company to make things easier for us?"

She silently considered it for a moment, deciding to keep the idea to herself until after the exam.

"You two did a good job." Wang Jinsong turned a page of the evaluation sheet, picked up his pen, and his voice was more friendly than usual.

"The plot is quite ordinary—it's a couple arguing. It's a cliché. But the dialogue is fresh and refreshing. Most importantly, you guys were really into it."

He turned his gaze to Zhou Ye, his admiration undisguised.

"The girl's performance was excellent; she was very emotional and paid great attention to small details. It really seemed like he was planning to leave you!"

He laughed as he said this.

Zhou Ye stood on the stage, his face already red, and now, after being praised in public by the examiner, his ears were so red they looked like they were about to bleed.

Wang Jinsong looked at Wang Zian: "Your stunned expression when that female classmate said she wanted to marry you was quite something!"

Wang Zian thought to himself: I was startled. It was the first time in his life that a girl had said something like that to him in front of everyone. How could he not be stunned?

"Although the most exciting parts of this storyline all involve the female students," Wang Jinsong continued, "you handled it very well."

"Don't steal the spotlight, don't drag out the scene, react when you need to, and step back when you should let her shine. That's a sense of proportion!"

He glanced at Wang Zian, his words unfinished, but that look itself was the end.

"Alright, you can go now!"

Upon hearing that they could go down, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhou Ye took a step back, his shoulders finally no longer tense like a drum.

She looked up at Wang Zian, her red almond-shaped eyes still bearing traces of tears, but the light beneath them no longer held the sadness of her performance.

She was starting to get excited.

She felt that she had performed very well and was sure she would pass.

Moreover, he passed through together with Prince An.

These two were the last two people in the group, and they will now proceed to the oral exam.

It is an impromptu question and answer session that tests one's adaptability, basic qualities, expression skills, and general knowledge of literature and art.

This is no problem for Prince An.

He has been looking at a lot of art exam materials in the meantime between the hotel and Zhang Yiming's company these past few days.

In addition, Zhou Ye would send him a bunch of links on WeChat almost every day.

He remembered part of it using his memory.

Hopefully it will work, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't.

However, he seems to be overthinking it.

When it was his turn for the oral exam, Wang Jinsong simply leaned back in his chair and asked a few general questions in a casual tone.

Do you know how many types of performances there are?

Who is your favorite actor? What are some of his most memorable lines?

"And what do you think of the Beijing Film Academy?"

Why does this feel like a graduate school interview?

When it was Zhou Ye's turn, Wang Zian realized that Wang Jinsong had given him a hand.

The questions he asked Zhou Ye were all very challenging.

Specific periods and representative figures in art history, the theoretical origins of performance methods and their specific manifestations in representative works, and important milestone years in the development history of Chinese drama.

Fortunately, Zhou Ye was not without any connections like him, and she answered fluently.

She occasionally got a year wrong but corrected herself, and Wang Jinsong didn't make things difficult for her. After listening to her last answer, he nodded and made a mark on the evaluation sheet.

The third round of auditions for the Beijing Film Academy has come to an end.

It was almost eleven o'clock when the two of them came out of the examination room.

The lights in the corridor were as bright as when we entered, but Wang Zian felt that the corridor was much quieter than it had been two and a half hours earlier.

The two-hour exam wasn't physically demanding, but the mental pressure felt like being pumped several atmospheres of pressure into your brain.

He moved his shoulders and felt the muscles in the back of his neck tighten.