Huayu: Starting with binding the front desk

Zhang Jingyi watched helplessly as Wang Zhe pretended to be stupid.

One minute they say they didn't know there was summer homework, the next minute they ask if art students also have to do academic homework.

"I might have forgotten it at home," Wang Zhe said, rummaging through his backpack with an innocent expression.

Zhang Jingyi sighed: "Didn't you write it?"

Wang Zhe nodded.

"Which subject?"

"I wrote half of the English and a little of the math."

"What about Chinese and the humanities subjects?"

Wang Zhe shook his head.

"You didn't write anything?" Zhang Jingyi looked at him speechlessly.

Wang Zhe clasped his hands together in a dog-waving gesture, his expression sincere: "Save me, I can only rely on you now."

"How can I help? I already handed in my Chinese and humanities papers. Even if I hadn't, you couldn't possibly copy them all now." Zhang Jingyi shrugged.

"Then you can help me with the math, just fill in the answers, I'll do the English myself."

Zhang Jingyi sighed again: "Give me the math."

"Jingyi, you're so great! I love you so much! I won't call you 'Little Black Charcoal' anymore." Wang Zhe deftly pulled out his math homework and handed it to her.

"Stop joking around, hurry up and write your English. I can only help you drag it out until the last evening study session."

Zhang Jingyi took the homework, turned around, and went back to the front, not letting Wang Zhe see her slightly flushed cheeks.

Wang Zhe immediately buried himself in writing in English.

English is still very easy for him. He has lived in Italy for seven years, so English is no longer a problem for him.

In addition to Mandarin and English, Wang Zhe is also fluent in Italian, German, French and Russian, which are essential skills for bel canto singing, especially Italian.

As he was writing furiously, the math class representative came over: "Wang Zhe, it's time to hand in your math homework."

"Can you wait a little longer?" Wang Zhe didn't even look up, continuing to work diligently.

"Sorry, my math teacher told me to accept them now, you're the only one left."

  

Wang Zhe had no choice but to ask Zhang Jingyi for his math homework back and hand it in.

The class representative glanced at it but didn't say anything; he was just someone responsible for collecting homework.

Seeing Wang Zhe's dejected look, Zhang Jingyi comforted him, "I've already done the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions for you, and you've only done half of the essay questions. Hurry up and finish your English, and give me your Chinese and humanities papers; I'll do some multiple-choice questions for you."

"Jingyi, you're still the best to me."

Wang Zhe was deeply moved. Just as he handed over the other two books, the Chinese language representative and the class monitor came over and took the books from his hands.

"Wang Zhe, you're quite proactive this time."

Wang Zhe looked utterly hopeless. He gritted his teeth as he watched the two figures leave, then simply slumped onto his desk and gave up.

Zhang Jingyi didn't know what to say: "It's okay, you hurry up and write your English, I can help you procrastinate for a while."

Wang Zhe shook his head and handed her her English homework as well: "You should hand it in too, so you don't get scolded along with me."

"Hurry up and write it, at least one less teacher will scold you."

In the end, Wang Zhe didn't listen to her and made her hand in the homework.

It's unnecessary to let her get a word in edgewise from the English teacher.

It doesn't matter if there's one more teacher, Wang Zhe, anyway, he'll get scolded just as much.

During evening self-study, Wang Zhe returned to the classroom with four homework assignments.

Zhang Jingyi quietly turned around: "Are you alright?"

"It's nothing, I just got scolded. I'll make it up in three days."

"What did you do during your summer vacation? You didn't write anything!"

"Recording a song."

"What about other times?"

After thinking it over, Wang Zhe decided to cultivate a relationship with Tian Xiwei and Wang Cheran, and play games with Li Ran all night.

"I have a major course." He wasn't exactly lying; he did indeed have a major course one day a week.

"Tch, you were probably just playing around. Don't think I don't know you only have one day a week for your major courses, so you're probably playing games with Li Ran every day, aren't you?"

Wang Zhe's eyes widened: "How did you know?"

"Li Ran has already taken a leave of absence from school. If he doesn't have homework, then you don't have homework either? Although we are art students, academic subjects are also very important. If we don't pass the score requirement, we still won't be able to go to university."

"You're just like my mom... Alright, I know." Wang Zhe sighed.

"Who's your mother? I don't care about you. Hurry up and finish your homework." Zhang Jingyi said and turned back to the front.

After evening self-study ended, Wang Zhe finished writing down the English section he had the fewest mistakes on and handed it to Zhang Jingyi: "Could you give this to my English teacher for me tomorrow?"

Zhang Jingyi looked at him suspiciously: "Why don't you give it to yourself?"

"I'm sure I'll get yelled at again if I go to the office."

"All right."

Zhang Jingyi nodded, then paused and said, "Let's go back to the dorm. By the way, why did Li Ran drop out of school?"

As Wang Zhe walked, he answered, "I went to play professionally, in the LPL, and I'm currently in IG's youth training program."

……

In the first semester of senior year, in addition to one professional class per week, Xu Ying also found a tutor for Wang Zhe's academic subjects.

Tong Sheng Hu is a boarding school, so in addition to regular holidays, tutors will come to the school to give him extra lessons.

The school was very supportive and even prepared a tutoring room for him.

Wang Zhe will become the face of the school after he leaves, and the school is happy to see this happen.

When the acting teacher came to give extra lessons, Wang Zhe would always bring Zhang Jingyi along to sit in.

With the support of the system, tutoring didn't significantly improve Wang Zhe's abilities, but it was crucial for Zhang Jingyi.

Now, besides attending Wang Zhe's professional classes, she also goes to local art exam training classes every weekend. In addition, the school itself has art exam teachers, so she has not participated in long-term intensive training at large institutions like other art exam candidates.

Time flies, and it's now 17 years later.

The provincial unified art exams will begin right after New Year's Day.

When the results came out on January 14, Wang Zhe came in first place by a wide margin. He scored 284 out of a possible 300, while the passing score was only 150.

The second-highest scorer in the provincial exam was also his classmate, with 264 points.

But this person wasn't Zhang Jingyi; she didn't perform well this time and barely passed. (Only those who pass the provincial exam are eligible to apply for the university-specific exams.)

A few days later, in a night market street in Changsha, Wang Zhe walked ahead, and Zhang Jingyi followed behind, her head bowed low.

"Wang Zhe, am I simply not suited for this path?"

Wang Zhe turned around, saw her sullen expression, and put his arm around her shoulder: "It's just a provincial exam. It's only a big deal if you don't pass. You passed, so what are you afraid of?"

"But..." Zhang Jingyi looked up at him, then lowered her head again.

Her mind is now filled with the gossip of those people in her class.

"They were always auditing Wang Zhe's classes, thinking he was some kind of genius."

"Your grades aren't even as good as mine."

"Why does Wang Zhe always hang out with her? Could it be...?"

"What are you thinking? How could Wang Zhe possibly be interested in her? It's just that they've known each other for a long time."

"Exactly, who in the class hasn't audited Wang Zhe's class?"

"Wang Zhe is not the same kind of person as us. Will he still know her after graduation?"

……

"alright."

Wang Zhe tightened his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. "I came out today to help you relax. Cheer up, we'll see how it goes in the college entrance exam."

Zhang Jingyi leaned against him, and the bitterness in her heart was gradually suppressed by his body temperature.

She gave a muffled "hmm," then added, "I will definitely work hard for the college entrance exam."

"Where did you apply for the college entrance exams?" Wang Zhe asked.

"Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, Zhejiang University of Media and Communications, Shanghai University, Hubei University of Arts..."

"You're applying to so many places, can you handle all the exams?" Wang Zhe asked, somewhat surprised.

But then I thought about it again, and that's exactly the path most art students take. Last year, Tian Xiwei also applied to a whole bunch of programs, and she also performed poorly in the provincial exams, barely passing the cutoff. However, she ended up getting more than 20 places in the Beijing Film Academy entrance exams and even ranked second in the national Shanghai Theatre Academy entrance exams.

But since Wang Zhe had already chosen Beijing Film Academy, she also chose Beijing Film Academy and didn't go to Shanghai Theatre Academy.

"What can I do? I'm different from you. This is the only way."

After speaking softly, Zhang Jingyi suddenly looked up and asked, "Wang Zhe, do you think I can get into the Beijing Film Academy?"

She had one more question she didn't ask: If I don't get in, will we still be friends?

Wang Zhe only applied to Beijing Film Academy and Central Academy of Drama, and he chose musical theatre as his major at Central Academy of Drama to test his own abilities.

He knew that Zhang Jingyi had attended the Beijing Film Academy in her previous life and had achieved good results in the entrance exam, but he couldn't guarantee that his rebirth would have any impact.

"Of course, we'll go to the capital ahead of time, and I'll give you special treatment."

"Can……"

"There's no 'but' about it."

Wang Zhe knew she had heard enough gossip these past few days, and his tone was unusually serious, "Others may not believe you, but I do. Why care about them? This is your future, not theirs."