The first classroom they entered was Shen Zhi’s open acting class, and it was absolutely packed!
What was going on?
Who had invited all these people?
Hadn’t the parents’ group agreed to boycott them?!
Even Ruan Tian was startled by the commotion before her. “Boss Yu, this class you set up is really popular!”
Yu Xiaxing had no idea what was happening either. She looked toward the window.
Inside the theater, Shen Zhi stood among the students. She wore no heavy makeup and had none of the airs of a celebrity.
She asked one student to read a passage. The student performed with great effort, even forcing tears into her eyes, but her voice remained shallow and superficial.
Shen Zhi gently reassured her. “You’re playing a woman who became a full-time homemaker for five years in order to raise her child. Now that the child has started school and no longer needs her constant care, she has to return to the workforce.”
“But those five years away from her career have made it very difficult for her to find a job. Her family doesn’t understand or appreciate what she did for them. Instead, they think she spent those five years relaxing at home.”
“You can’t act this well simply because you’re too young. You don’t understand what it feels like to lose your spirit and drive... But if you have someone like this around you, you can observe her state of mind.”
Shen Zhi demonstrated the scene herself.
The woman, returning to work after being hit by setback after setback, could only take a job selling insurance, an industry known for being relatively welcoming to inexperienced workers. Even then, she had to endure all kinds of workplace hazing and obedience tests.
Her eyes were dull, and she avoided eye contact whenever she spoke to people. Only then did she look like a woman who had lost all confidence.
The people she encountered didn’t seem to be bullying her, and yet it felt as though everyone was bullying her.
Her family refused to acknowledge everything she had contributed at home, but she still had to return to them.
The job clearly didn’t suit her introverted personality, but she still had to grit her teeth and push on.
She had no way out and nowhere to retreat to.
The students and parents around her were completely drawn into the performance. Several of them were wiping away tears.
There was no melodramatic tragedy, no one screaming or physically abusing her, and certainly no contrived plot twist involving cancer or a car accident... Yet everyone still felt utterly heartbroken.
Yu Xiaxing and Ruan Tian were also transfixed outside the window.
It wasn’t until Shen Zhi finished her demonstration and bowed to the audience that the classroom erupted in enthusiastic applause. Only then did Yu Xiaxing snap back to reality.
Shen Zhi spotted Yu Xiaxing in the hallway at once.
Her eyes immediately lit up, and she hurried out of the classroom.
“Board Director Yu, was my performance amazing? Hurry up and praise me! Tell me I’m professional! Tell me I know how to teach!”
The students and parents inside the classroom were still trying to recover from the performance.
Shen Zhi, however, had already transformed completely. She was now brimming with the vibrant energy of someone who had rediscovered her calling.
She even took the opportunity to claim credit. “I’ve never taught a class before, but I specifically asked my own teacher to give me some intensive tutoring these past few days. My teacher is a famous professor at the Film Academy!”
“I’m really good at teaching now. Today was only a trial class, but look at the parents’ reactions. I think it went really well!”
“And remember that group of students we poached from Qiao Tang last time? Almost all of them signed up.”
“As for the students from our own school, I’m going to make a bold guess... We should be in the clear!”
Yu Xiaxing: “...”
Why were they being so enthusiastic?
Who had told them to make the classes so good?
Who had told them to hold trial classes on the weekend?
She really thought they had all gone mad from working too hard!
Yu Xiaxing gritted her teeth, unable to think of anything to say. She merely asked, “Where’s the vocal training classroom?”
Shen Zhi said worriedly, “The fourth floor. Ms. Liang came today too. Her temper is a little explosive, and I’m afraid her trial class won’t go well...”
What Shen Zhi meant was: Go remind Ms. Liang to tone down her temper for now, or she might scare away all the students and parents.
Yu Xiaxing’s mood finally improved. At last, there was a teacher who was acting according to her wishes!
She quickly took the children upstairs.
Ruan Tian lagged behind for a moment and said to Shen Zhi with a bright smile, “That performance just now was incredible. Boss Yu’s eyes were practically red from watching it. She’s just tsundere—she won’t praise you out loud, but she’s definitely proud of you inside.”
Shen Zhi nodded with a smile. “Of course I know that.”
Yu Xiaxing led Ruan Tian and Ruan Ying up to the fourth floor.
There were quite a few people gathered outside the vocal classroom as well.
A student came out crying.
Her parents were waiting outside and had no idea what had happened. Her father went up to her and asked, “What’s wrong?”
The student said, “Ms. Liang said outright that I have no talent. She also said that if I’m only trying to use the arts entrance exam as an escape from my academic classes, I should change careers now and stop wasting my parents’ money.”
The student’s father was speechless. “Don’t listen to her! The academy you’re currently attending said you’re a once-in-a-century genius. We only came here because Shengde was recruiting students from its own school and the tuition was half the market rate. We didn’t expect her to be so arrogant. We’re not coming back!”
Yu Xiaxing silently gave him a thumbs-up in her heart.
The student’s mother, however, said anxiously, “Liang Qiuyan performed on countless major stages when she was young and even published a textbook on vocal training. She hardly ever takes students, but every student she has accepted is now an accomplished singer. Could it be that the other academy really did lie to us...?”
After all, once those outside academies finished showering them with praise, they had demanded enormous tuition fees.
Whenever their child couldn’t keep going and wanted to quit, the academy’s instructors would say, “Actually, you’re the student I have the highest hopes for in this entire class. You’re the first genius I’ve encountered in all my decades of teaching. If you give up now, it’ll be the fall of a genius.”
And then the whole family would happily renew the contract and pay even more.
Admitting that one’s child was merely ordinary was an extremely painful thing to do.
The parents still couldn’t accept it, so they took their child and left.
Yu Xiaxing was extremely satisfied. She liked teachers such as Liang Qiuyan, who refused to say anything merely to make people feel good!
But when she thought of Ruan Ying, she suddenly grew a little worried.
The child was just like the homemaker Shen Zhi had acted out earlier. If she suffered another blow, she might lose all her spirit.
Ruan Tian comforted her instead. “Boss Yu, it’s fine. Yingying and I only grow stronger with every setback! No matter how many times we’re rejected, we won’t be hurt.”
Ruan Ying also lifted her head toward Yu Xiaxing. “Big Sis, I want to give it a try. It’s fine if she tells me what’s wrong with my singing, because all the other teachers rejected me just because I’m blind. They never tell me whether I sing well or not.”
It was always just a polite excuse to turn her away.
To this day, she still didn’t know whether she was any good.
For a child like her, having someone sternly point out her problems was more precious than being gently rejected.
Soon, an assistant came out and led Ruan Ying inside to sit in on the class.
Liang Qiuyan told the students to stand up straight.
She quickly noticed that Ruan Ying’s posture was awkward.
She reached out to adjust it. “Relax your shoulders. Don’t jut your chin forward. What is this posture? Are you trying to sneak up on a dog?”
Several students nearby realized that Ruan Ying was blind and quietly reminded her, “Ms. Liang, this little girl seems to be unable to see...”
Liang Qiuyan had naturally noticed it at first glance as well, but she remained stern. “No one gets special treatment in my class!”
