After the start of the new semester, the three floors housing the first-year students of City No. 2 High School were filled with a chorus of groans.
"Teacher, why are we starting evening self-study so early? What happened to reducing our workload..."
Teacher Gao's face darkened. He slammed a giant compass on the lectern. "Quiet! Be quiet! What's all this racket? This is for your own good! You've all gone wild over winter break. Do you still want to get into university? Besides, it's just a couple more hours of self-study. When you're in second year and weekend make-up classes are added, are you going to tear the school down?"
"Oh heavens, make-up classes too... students have it so hard..." The students' wails grew even more pitiful.
"Work hard now, get into a good university, and then you can have a clear conscience towards your families and yourselves. After that, you can play all you want in university; it's very relaxed there." Teacher Gao skillfully painted them a rosy picture, then flipped his lesson plan and swiftly wrote two problems on the blackboard, tapping it with the compass. "As usual, who wants to come up and solve these? They're very simple."
The students instantly fell silent. Their eyes swept over the two problems on the blackboard they couldn't even begin to understand, grinding their teeth in frustration.
The teacher is inhuman!
"Why the sudden quiet? Who was it just now shouting about reducing workload?" Teacher Gao snorted coldly, his gaze sweeping over the mischievous monkeys below.
No one spoke. Everyone looked down.
Teacher Gao planted his hands on his hips, striking a teapot-like pose. "Who's coming up to solve the problems?"
Everyone secretly glanced at Yu Shulin and Li Tao, the top two students in the class—heroes, it's your time to shine!
"I'll do it." Li Tao lived up to expectations by raising his hand, though his expression remained sour.
Receiving the chilly glance Li Tao shot his way before heading to the blackboard, along with Wang Zhi's pleading look, Yu Shulin reluctantly raised his hand too. "Teacher, I'd like to try."
Teacher Gao's expression softened slightly, but he still scolded, "It's always the two of them. What about everyone else in the class? You're usually so talkative, why aren't you making a fuss now?"
Everyone buried their noses in their textbooks, pretending to be engrossed in previewing the material.
Li Tao had only written a couple of strokes when he saw Yu Shulin come up. He glanced at him sideways, gave a cold humph, but his expression improved a bit.
Yu Shulin felt somewhat helpless. Why was this kid getting more and more inexplicable?
Evening self-study lasted until 9 PM. Although Liang Zhou knew most high school students had similar schedules, he still felt unbearably heartbroken for his brother, convinced that Yu Shulin had become so thin a strong wind could blow him over.
He stuffed a large bag of high-calorie snacks into Yu Shulin's backpack and made him promise to eat the midnight snacks made by Auntie Liu every day before reluctantly boarding the plane for his trip abroad.
The film project negotiated with the foreign party earlier was finally in its final preparatory stages. As Guan Bowen's first work after joining Glory and Liang Zhou's comeback film after his hiatus, this project was extremely important. They had to go abroad early to prepare and would stay for several months, only returning after filming was complete. Furthermore, the entire filming process would be kept under wraps. The collaboration between Chinese film stars and Hollywood would undoubtedly spark debate, regardless of the final outcome. To avoid unnecessary trouble, this level of secrecy was necessary.
Liang Zhou had his own plans as well. Currently, apart from Guan Bowen, Glory didn't have any other stable, top-tier A-list or superstar actors he and Zhao Zhi could rely on. They had long wanted to select a few individuals for focused development, but after much discussion, looking over the company's roster, the artists were either too old, lacked sufficient experience, or hadn't yet earned the company's full trust. After much deliberation, he had no choice but to step into the spotlight himself. Although he was relatively new, he was at least an award-winning actor and the company's top executive. Focusing resources on him wouldn't incite envy, jealousy, or underhanded schemes from other artists.
After taking his brother in, he increasingly felt his identity as an actor was a burden—the busy work, frequent business trips, the need for disguise when going out... It was no good, just various inconveniences. He had already thought it through: if this film succeeded, his status in the entertainment industry would undoubtedly rise to new heights, and Glory would become more stable. During this period, Zhao Zhi would focus on cultivating talented artists within the company, striving to select a few excellent prospects for proper development.
Once Guan Bowen announced his retirement and the company shifted its focus to cultivating others, he could then announce his own retirement and concentrate on managing the company.
—He absolutely had to retire before Shulin finished high school. That way, by the time Shulin graduated from university, the public's impression of 'actor Liang Zhou' would have mostly faded. When Shulin ventured into society later, he wouldn't be burdened by his brother's fame.
Guan Bowen, seeing him frowning in deep thought, leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "Facing months apart from your little sweetheart, how does it feel? Going to get lonely?"
Liang Zhou snapped out of his thoughts, gave him a bland sidelong glance, put on his eye mask, and went to sleep.
This trip was too long, so He Long, as Liang Zhou's assistant, also came along. He secretly observed Guan Bowen, feeling this award-winning actor was... not quite what he had imagined.
Too mischievous and gossipy, he thought with a hint of irreverence.
As if sensing his scrutiny, Guan Bowen turned around, met his gaze, smiled, and asked, "Assistant He, do you know who your boss's little sweetheart is?"
"..." This actor is truly disillusioning... He Long turned his head away, pretending to look at the scenery.
Guan Bowen raised an eyebrow and turned back around. It's true what they say—like boss, like subordinate. Every one of them is so dull.
After several major exams, summer arrived.
Yu Shulin held the distributed joint exam math paper, looked at the score of 148, and sighed. "Sloppy. Got one fill-in-the-blank wrong."
Li Tao, who had his back to him, stiffened slightly. He secretly tucked his own perfect-score math paper deeper into his desk and instead pulled out his worst-scoring Chinese language paper.
Wang Zhi pointed a trembling finger at him, looking like he wanted to strangle him. "You only got one wrong! One question! What more do you want? I got countless wrong!"
"I got a lot wrong too," Yang Sese pouted, on the verge of tears. Math was always her weak subject, and this joint exam was abnormally difficult. She got nervous, performed poorly, and her score suffered.
Yu Shulin finally realized he was attracting a bit too much resentment and hurriedly put away his test paper, changing the subject. "We have to choose between Arts and Sciences for second year. Have you all decided what you're picking?"
The school had just distributed the Arts/Sciences intention forms a couple of days ago. Teachers had specifically analyzed the differences for the students and given strong warnings to several students with significant subject biases. Lately, break-time conversations among students mostly revolved around this topic.
Wang Zhi perked up at the mention of subject selection, his expression turning cheerful. "Science, of course! History and Politics are so annoying to memorize. I can finally get rid of them! What about you, Shulin? You're so good at Physics and Chemistry, you must be choosing Science, right?"
"Mm, I prefer Science," Yu Shulin nodded with a smile.
"Ah, what a shame. I've decided on Arts. My Science subjects are too weak..." Yang Sese said with a worried frown, somewhat helpless about her own bias. "Looks like I'll have to be separated from you guys then."
"It's fine, it's fine." Wang Zhi comforted, "We're all in the same school, it'll still be easy to stay in touch. Don't we have QQ friends? We can chat online."
Remembering the exciting and novel entertainment online, Yang Sese's expression brightened, and she nodded with a smile, "Yeah, we'll chat online then!"
Listening to their conversation, Li Tao took the intention form he had tucked inside his textbook and filled in "Science" in the subject selection section. His gaze shifted to the guardian signature line, dimmed slightly, and he casually signed it himself.
Just as the group was chatting happily, their usually distant class monitor, Liu Fen, suddenly ran over. Blushing and with a flickering gaze, she looked at Yu Shulin and asked hesitantly, "Shu, Shulin, are you planning to choose the Arts or Science track?"
Wang Zhi and Yang Sese immediately stopped talking and looked at her strangely.
Yu Shulin was a bit puzzled. He wasn't really familiar with Liu Fen; aside from handing in homework, he rarely spoke to her. But considering they were classmates, he nodded politely and replied, "I prefer Science."
"I, I see..." Liu Fen blinked and answered quickly, "Me, me too!" Then she turned and ran off.
"What was that about..." Yu Shulin was baffled. Why did she run off like he had bullied her or something?
Yang Sese, however, wore a slightly odd expression. After hesitating for a moment, she whispered quietly, "It's not good to talk about classmates behind their backs, but... I've heard Liu Fen has already had several boyfriends. Shulin, you... be careful."
"Truly the enemy of all males!" Wang Zhi said, a mix of envy and resentment. Although Liu Fen's personality was a bit... well, unspeakable, she was indeed pretty.
"..." He was starting to understand... Oh dear.
Li Tao stuffed his textbook back into his desk with a "thump" and flopped down, not moving.
For students, memories of time passing are all tied to one big or small exam after another.
After the long final exams, while the students were complaining they were "fried from the tests," they also excitedly began planning how to spend their summer vacation.
"Shulin, what are your plans for summer vacation? Going on a trip?" Wang Zhi asked.
"Probably staying home to preview the second-year textbooks. Did you forget we have summer classes?" Yu Shulin squinted, calculating the number of days he could actually rest after tutoring, and mentally drafted a simple study plan.
"...Why did I even ask you... Summer classes, go away, go away, I don't want to remember!" Wang Zhi wailed, glared at Yu Shulin indignantly, and ran off.
"..." Are summer classes really that scary?
In early July, Liang Zhou, who had been filming abroad in a closed set for nearly five months, finally returned home.
Yu Shulin stood at the arrivals gate, constantly checking his watch, feeling a bit nervous.
"Soon, soon. Young Master Shulin, are you hungry? Do you want to get a little something to eat first?" Uncle He, thinking of his young master and son whom he hadn't seen in half a year, still remembered to spare some attention for Yu Shulin's stomach.
"Not hungry, not hungry, I ate a big breakfast." Yu Shulin waved his hand, his gaze still firmly glued to the exit.
At ten past eleven in the morning, Liang Zhou's flight finally arrived. About ten minutes later, passengers began streaming out of the exit one after another. Yu Shulin and Uncle He instantly tensed up.
"Brother! It's brother! Uncle He, I see brother and Brother He Long!" Yu Shulin spotted Liang Zhou wearing sunglasses and carrying luggage at a glance. He waved excitedly towards them and pointed out their location to Uncle He.
Hearing the noise, Guan Bowen turned his head. Just as he was about to alert Liang Zhou, he saw the other man already speeding up, leaving him behind. Guan Bowen stroked his chin, his tone meaningful, "Little sweetheart... hmm?"
"That's the boss's brother. Biological." He Long rolled his eyes, waved at Uncle He who was looking over, and also quickened his pace.
"...Hmph." The audacious, terrible assistant. The great movie star Guan was quite displeased.
