I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

This is also one of the most eye-catching parts of the plan, after all, they said earlier that they would not invite well-known actors, but then they invited a currently somewhat famous online singer to attend.

“We’ve already communicated with them, and the school doesn’t need to cover the costs. She will appear as a guest and judge, and I will be responsible for everything related to her.”

Seeing Chen Junqian's resolute attitude, almost like a pledge to the emperor, the principal stopped asking about the activities and instead smiled and asked him directly:

"Have you ever thought that if the event is large-scale but the final result is mediocre, or if there are minor mishaps along the way, the student council, grade group, and school will all bear the pressure, and as the student leader, you will also be questioned by many people."

Chen Junqian simply smiled broadly at the question and answered without hesitation:

"It's okay. I've been at the school for almost four years, three years in junior high and one year in senior high. I've seen many graduating classes. Of course, the college entrance exam is important. A large part of the purpose of a school is to send students to better universities. But if all a school leaves students with in their final memories are exam papers, rankings, and graduation procedures, I personally feel a little regretful."

"I hope that on the night they return after the college entrance examination, they will not see empty classrooms, but a lit-up auditorium, a screen on the playground, applause from younger students, and the opportunity to sing a song loudly again and say goodbye to their youth."

"This competition is called Top Ten Singers, but it's not just about singing. It can be the last shared memory that this year's graduating class leaves for the school, and also the last memory that the school leaves for them."

Sitting next to Chen Junqian, Zhu Wenyun casually rested her chin on her hand and turned to look at the boy beside her, her eyes almost overflowing with emotion. She suddenly felt that the sentences about the growth of teenagers in her novels finally had a real-life footnote at this moment.

Most people's youth is indeed unremarkable, which is why we really hope that there will be a seventeen-year-old boy sitting in the principal's office, holding a proposal, earnestly fighting for a farewell for his peers.

From this perspective, this is another key reason why Chen Junqian gained popularity on campus.

So, Zhu Wenyun stood up again and spoke up, taking the initiative to stand beside Chen Junqian and offer him support:

"I would like to add that, from the perspective of creators and production teams, the most valuable thing about this kind of activity is its authenticity. Many film and television works depict youth, but what they end up with are just filters and slogans. But true youth is not just about beautiful classrooms and neat school uniforms. It should include the release after tension, the clumsiness and passion of teenagers, and the moments when teachers want to discipline but can't help but be moved."

"Moreover, I personally feel that if Ningzhong is willing to hold such an event, it will not only showcase the school's management capabilities, but also its educational attitude. When the film crew visits, it will not disturb the school; on the contrary, they may be able to record this reality. Even if the film is not officially shot here in the end, this event itself will become a very special calling card for the school to showcase itself to the outside world."

It seemed that the principal had finally been persuaded by the two people in turn, and he nodded and made the final decision:

"Alright, this year's Top Ten Campus Singers Competition is in your hands!"

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

Chapter 217: The words "graduation" and "adulthood" always tug at the heartstrings.

By the end of May, Guoning had fully entered summer.

The afternoon sun blew the cement ground in front of the administration building white, and the dense leaves of the trees turned out layers of green in different shades in the hot wind. The countdown board over the senior high school building had finally been turned down to single digits. There was a kind of tension in the air that was unique to the college entrance examination. Meanwhile, on the other side, the poster for the June Campus Top Ten Singers Grand Prix had been quietly posted on the bulletin board.

The poster's background color is a very light blue, like the sky before a summer night.

[Announcement of the 2016 Top Ten Singers Competition and Graduation Night Event for Senior Three Students at Guoning High School]

In just half a day, the words and the details below had spread among the students. Students from different grades had different points of interest. Those who liked the song "Fairy Tale Town" never expected that they would one day meet the mysterious singer in person in Guoning. However, the veterans would soon tell them that Guoning had actually invited Jay Chou before.

The senior high school students are more concerned about the fact that they can return to school to participate in the event again after the exam. Moreover, it is said to be the farewell night of graduation season. Although there are still a few days left before the college entrance examination, just looking at this line of text, I can already imagine the relaxed mentality that is completely different from now. Even the atmosphere around me feels less oppressive.

At this stage, adjusting one's mindset is more important than frantically studying. For students who don't care about anything, having an activity that allows them to skip evening self-study is like having a holiday, so of course we wholeheartedly welcome it.

As a result, the reputation of the chief planner has been further enhanced. Chen Junqian even felt that the scenario his sister had complained about before was about to come true. At least he had already encountered many students who would jokingly suggest that he should become the principal, just for his ability to organize events.

In the late afternoon of May, a black minivan slowly drove into the east gate of Guoning Middle School. The security department had received prior notification from the principal's office. The gatekeeper checked the list of visitors and issued temporary visitor passes to the guests in the car before lifting the barrier to let them pass.

Outside the car window, Guoning's campus unfolded in the bright, almost blinding sunlight of this summer.

Old red brick buildings, white railings, rows of green trees along the playground, faded photos of outstanding graduates on the bulletin board, and the sounds of classes and chalk hitting the blackboard coming from the distant teaching building.

The man sitting in the back turned his head slightly, looked through the car window for a while, and suddenly smiled:

"It definitely has more character than it appears in the photos."

It was Director Zhou, who had met Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun in Shanghai last time. As the chief director of the web series adaptation project "We Live in Guoning", he was naturally present at the location scouting and preliminary preparations. When the business car stopped in front of the administration building, Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun were already waiting there.

Unlike their meeting during the winter break, the two, still in school today, were naturally wearing summer school uniforms with blue and white as the main colors. However, this common school uniform, which was worn by thousands of students in the school, looked exceptionally good on them. The cuffs were neat, and their posture was upright. The sunlight at the end of May fell on the boy's shoulders, making his profile look cleaner and more neat than usual, which also caught Director Zhou's eye.

For the production team of "We Live in Guoning," which started filming last year and officially aired this year, the highly successful web series "With You," which is also a youth campus drama, is certainly a predecessor worth learning from. In Director Zhou's own opinion, one of the reasons why this drama received the most crucial praise of "realism" is the actors, especially the male and female leads. The casting of the male lead, Liu Haoran, was very comfortable. He was only eighteen years old when filming started last year, a genuine high school student. This age is definitely much better than the large number of thirty-something actors in the entertainment industry who play high school students.

Although the female lead, Tan Songyun, is a bit older, her appearance and height make her look much younger, so there's no sense of incongruity at all. The pairing of the two created the Geng Geng and Yu Huai couple, who are still being hotly discussed even after the show ended.

In this respect, the two people in front of him were not bad at all. Whether in terms of age or appearance, they were impeccable. Especially now that they were wearing school uniforms, Director Zhou had the urge to set up the camera and start filming right away. He even felt that as long as these two people appeared on screen, no matter what they did on campus, there would be no shortage of people watching.

"Director Zhou, it's been a long time."

After getting out of the car, Zhou Linchuan took off his sunglasses and shook hands with Chen Junqian:

"Time flies. It was winter when we last met, and now it's almost summer."

Then, his gaze fell on Zhu Wenyun, and he nodded in greeting:

"I hope this will be a pleasant collaboration with you, Professor Zhu."

"Yes, it's a pleasure to work with you."

"To be honest, I really didn't expect that a high school student could connect the school, students, film crew, artist team, and safety plan. When I saw the plan, I even wanted to recruit you to our production team as the executive coordinator."

"Then forget it. I'm just trying to make a living from both sides. I'm also using the film crew's name to put on a show at the school."

As they spoke, the main members of the production team who had come with Director Zhou got out of the car one after another. The production manager, director of photography, art director, executive director, production coordinator, production manager, etc., were all core members of the crew. However, since they had all worked together before, they were basically old acquaintances.

Accompanied by school teachers, the group first gave a brief tour of the administration building, the old teaching building, the playground, the auditorium, and the outside of the canteen.

Director Zhou walked very slowly. He carefully examined the dust marks left by students' backpacks on the walls of the old building corridor, the plastic film curled up at the corners of the bulletin board, the old basketball hoops piled up under the playground stands, the exam integrity slogans posted at the corners of the teaching building stairs, and even the row of different colored water cups next to the water dispenser.

"Junqian should have seen 'With You', right?"

Knowing that Zhu Wenyun was basically at Chen Junqian's mercy when he was present, Director Zhou turned around and spoke to Chen Junqian directly.

"Yes, it was filmed very well and achieved good results. I remember that most of the filming locations were in Qingdao."

"Yes, because Ms. August Chang'an herself is from the North, and many of the descriptions of campuses in her novels are more characteristic of the North. However, Ms. Zhu's Guo Ning is more Southern. The production team initially planned to find filming locations in southern Anhui or Zhejiang."

Standing in the corridor on the third floor of the senior high school building, Director Zhou suddenly stopped.

Outside the corridor was a brightly lit playground, and in the distance, you could see the countdown clock on the exterior wall of the senior high school building. Downstairs, students were rushing past carrying stacks of test papers, their white school uniforms billowing in the wind.

He leaned against the railing and suddenly sighed:

"I've met with Ms. August Chang'an before. She said that youth doesn't necessarily have to be about fighting, brawling, darkness, and heaviness. True youth should be a subtle emotion in the process of studying hard and the budding of love. What I want to convey is always the positive energy of ordinary people's youth. Ms. Zhu's style is quite similar to hers, and I can feel the feeling of repression and passion coexisting in the novel here."

Upon hearing this, Chen Junqian looked at the playground and replied softly:

"Guoning is just like this. Unlike the school that is always bright and beautiful in the filter, there are many old, hard, and suffocating things. But it is precisely because of this that I feel the passion of the youth is more obvious."

Zhu Wenyun stood aside without interrupting, simply listening quietly. What Chen Junqian was about to say was exactly what she wanted to say. He was her first reader and her first editor, so he naturally understood everything she wanted to express.

"Junqian, if I had to choose three scenes for you, which one do you think Guoning would be best suited to film?"

Upon hearing the director's question, Chen Junqian thought for a moment, then smiled and replied:

"The corridor after school in the evening, the playground before evening self-study, and the courtyard under the senior high school building."

"why?"

"The days are too busy, everyone is rushing, and the nights are too quiet. It's like the school is covered by some kind of rule. Only in the evening, when students come out of the classroom and haven't fully entered evening self-study, are they relaxed. Some go to the cafeteria, some play ball, some memorize vocabulary, and some wait for others in the corridor. That feels like the most real time."

It was definitely not because he was constantly being pursued and intercepted by various female protagonists and experiencing a series of unexpected events.

The director smiled upon hearing this:

"It's a good choice."

After touring the entire school, it was almost time for dinner. The welcome dinner was held at a local restaurant. The private room wasn't luxurious, but it was very quiet. You could see the traffic lights flowing on the city's elevated highways outside the window. The air conditioning inside was on full blast. Guoning's specialty dishes were placed in the center of the round table. The school didn't make a big show of it, only sending Teacher Xu from the Youth League Committee and Director Liu from the General Affairs Office to attend briefly. They left halfway through the meal because the school had an evening duty shift. In the end, the only ones left were the main cast and crew members, as well as Zhu Wenyun and Chen Junqian.

It has to be said that Chen Junqian has been skipping many evening self-study sessions because he has been busy preparing for this campus singing competition. Mu Mu would ask about it at first, but now it seems like she has tacitly agreed.

As it turns out, "With You," which just finished airing this month, really gave the entire crew a huge boost of morale. After all, they've already proven that this kind of subject matter can be well-made and has a market, so the atmosphere at the dinner table was quite lively.

"This year, the youth campus drama 'With You' reignited the market. It was trending on social media one after another during its broadcast, and the platform data was also impressive. More importantly, it didn't rely on melodrama; it captured the realism of the high school atmosphere quite well. Although it's a web series, the production quality is excellent."

"Yes, what's impressive about it is that many scenes don't feel fake. The classrooms, playgrounds, corridors, and even the test papers on the desks all feel like people have actually lived there. It's not the kind of exquisitely set campus that you can tell at a glance is just a staged film. The lead actors were also chosen to be quite authentic."

"Audiences are getting smarter now. If a youth drama is too fake, the filters are too heavy, the school uniforms look like custom-made ones, and the classrooms are as clean as showrooms, the audience will be taken out of the story immediately."

Seemingly feeling that continuing to discuss another work was somewhat unfair to Zhu Wenyun, Director Zhou quickly steered the conversation back on track:

"Let's not talk about others, our foundation is also very good, isn't it?"

"Teacher Zhu's novel, *We Live in Guoning*, is a bestseller; it has already stood the test of the market. The plot and characters are very solid, and the original work leaves us with a lot of room for interpretation. Let's all work hard and try to make a film that's just as good. Teacher Zhu, could you say a few words? What are your thoughts on the filming?"

Being singled out by Director Zhou, Zhu Wenyun wasn't intimidated. After all, she was just used to having Chen Junqian communicate for her, but that didn't mean she was completely socially awkward. Rather, as one of the screenwriters, she was genuinely dedicated to adapting her work.

"If the filming location is set in Guoning, I hope to capture the entire view of this small county. After all, when I was writing the book, I never thought that Guoning was just a backdrop for a simple romance. For the children in the story, it is both an opportunity and a pressure. Some people see a bigger world because of it, while others realize the gap between themselves and others for the first time. Youth certainly has a bright side, but I also want to retain that real weight."

Seeing Zhu Wenyun's serious expression, Director Zhou also solemnly assured her:

"Don't worry, we won't make it into that kind of exaggerated idol drama."

The director of photography then chimed in with a smile:

"If you're talking about realism, we filmed directly on location. Actually, I really liked the old corridor in Guoning this afternoon. The walls were a bit old, the window frames weren't new, and there was dust in the sunlight. The atmosphere was really good."

The props and art director also chimed in with their own comments:

"The messy boxes of books, sticky notes, and graffiti on the corners of desks in the classroom cannot be cleared away. If they really come to take pictures, I would like to ask the students to provide some real desktop settings, which are more natural than what our art group has arranged."

Seeing that everyone seemed determined to film here, the production manager finally made the decision:

"If the filming goes smoothly, we hope to start shooting before the end of June. After the college entrance examination, the senior high school area will be available, which is perfect for shooting some scenes during the graduation season and before summer vacation."

"Junqian, is this time feasible for the school?"

"The end of June is definitely no problem, as schools will be on holiday then and there will be no one inside. In late August, the new senior high school students and new freshmen will gradually enter the school, so filming in the main areas of the teaching building must be completed before September, otherwise it will affect the order of the start of school."

"Don't worry, that's what we're thinking too. The filming period for 'With You' was kept within three months, which was very efficient. We also hope to shorten the period as much as possible this time, and ideally finish all the scenes in Guoning before September."

Chen Junqian nodded slightly upon hearing this:

“If the production team formally submits the filming plan, I can help compile the available timetable on campus, but the final approval will be required from the school.”

"Of course we'll follow the proper procedures, but with you here, the communication will be much more efficient. We don't aim for speed, but for accuracy. If we can film on a real campus, we definitely won't delay until after the start of the semester and cause trouble for the school."

Zhu Wenyun glanced at Chen Junqian and said half-jokingly:

"Don't get too comfortable with him; he still has final exams to take."

Everyone burst into laughter, and Director Zhou patted his head in a dramatic manner.

"Oh right, I almost forgot, Chen is still a high school student."

Chen Junqian couldn't help but chuckle at this, shaking his head and saying:

"I will arrange my time."

As the conversation progressed, Director Zhou seemed to suddenly remember something, put down his chopsticks, and glanced between Zhu Wenyun and Chen Junqian:

"Oh, right, there's one more important thing."

"what?"