Starting a new chapter in life

Chapter 221 Campus Recruitment Exam

The two girls were easily fooled and obediently ate the pancake. They went back to their rooms, washed up, and tried to relieve the fatigue of the thirty-plus hours on the train. While showering together, Xiaoxiao and Zhizhi were still chatting:

"We're still sitting in sleeper berths. Wouldn't it be even more miserable if we sat in hard seats? Our teacher said that if we go to university, we can buy half-price tickets with our student IDs."

But that only applies to hard seats; there's no such discount for sleeper berths. Now I'm a little worried about going home for holidays every year.

Zhizhi looked at Xiaoxiao: "If others can do it, we definitely can too. Look, many of the TV dramas and movies we watch were filmed in very harsh locations."

If you become an actor and I become a director in the future, what if we find a filming location with terrible conditions? Are we really going to give up? Compared to that, sitting in a hard seat is nothing. It's a good opportunity for us to get some experience.

We've never experienced hardship growing up because of our parents' protection. But we've grown up now, and we have to walk our own paths from now on. I'm not afraid of hardship, don't worry. From now on, you'll have me by your side, and I'll have you by my side. We'll be sisters for life, never to be apart.

Xiao Xiao nodded firmly: "Yes, no matter what happens in the future, we will always be the best of sisters."

After washing up, the two closed the door and ran to Jingyan's room. Jingyan had also taken a shower and packed her things. When they arrived, they went to the restaurant on the first floor to eat together.

The menu, complete with pictures and descriptions, featured a wide variety of dishes. The two children looked at this and wanted to eat that, their indecisive expressions amusing Jingyan.

She picked up the menu, opened it, and casually asked, "Is there anything you don't want to eat?"

The two children shook their heads together. Surprisingly, after spending so much time together, many of their movements become synchronized. These two children, who are not related by blood, now look like sisters.

Jingyan looked at the menu and ordered a meat dish, a cold dish, a vegetable dish, and a soup in the order listed. That should be enough.

After handing the menu to the waiter, Jing Yan smiled and said, "We'll be staying here for at least seven days, which is fourteen meals. There are only about sixty or seventy main dishes on this menu, so we should be able to go through them all. There's no need to worry about it; just follow the order."

We don't know the portion sizes here yet, so let's have a meal first to get a general idea of ​​the portion sizes, which will help us order more later.

After we finish eating, let's go back and rest for a while, take a nap, and if we have time in the afternoon, we can take a walk around the area. If we can't get up, we'll just sleep it off first.

The two children nodded repeatedly, their eyes wide with curiosity as they looked around. Although they had a restaurant at home, it was nowhere near as nice as this place in terms of decor, so everything looked new and exciting to them.

As expected of a hotel catering to foreigners, the Jiayuan Hotel was frequented by many blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. Zhizhi and Xiaoxiao even noticed several tables of guests who were foreigners.

Although they were curious, their upbringing made them only glance at it before looking away, not showing much interest, but they whispered among themselves.

Xiao Xiao whispered, "There really are foreigners here. Do you think there will be any foreigners taking the art exam this time?"

Zhizhi shook her head: "I don't know. Logically speaking, the possibility of foreigners taking the college entrance examination in our country should be very small. Whatever, it has nothing to do with us anyway. But if we were to communicate with them, I don't know if our English level would be enough."

Xiao Xiao felt a little frustrated: "I probably won't be able to do it. I'll only be able to speak English fluently, and people will probably laugh at me for having a Chinese accent."

Zhizhi chuckled: "We Chinese may not have many other things, but we have a lot of dialects. Chinese-style English should also have several different dialect accents. Don't worry, as long as you have thick skin, no one can laugh at you."

Xiao Xiao slapped her lightly, annoyed: "You're such a chatterbox."

As they were talking, the dishes were served. Jingyan looked at the portions; they were decent, much more than in Haishi, but less than the huge plates of dishes in Beidahuang. They were just average, enough for three women.

The food tasted great. After all, I grew up eating with Jingyan and have a strong palate. Apart from Shanghai cuisine, I can handle most dishes from all over the country. The three of us ate with relish and satisfaction. We had eaten instant noodles several times on the train, so even pickled vegetables tasted delicious now.

After a satisfying meal and settling the bill, the group returned to their rooms to rest. In the late afternoon, as evening approached, they went out for a stroll around the area. There was a night market food street there, which was very lively at night, offering a wide variety of snacks and trinkets.

They had originally planned to have dinner at a restaurant, but ended up eating while shopping. The three of them, clutching their bloated stomachs, walked back, with Jingyan sighing helplessly.

"It seems we need to carefully select the lunch dishes at the restaurant. It will be difficult to try them all. There are too many temptations outside."

Zhizhi and Xiaoxiao nodded in agreement. Why did they think that snacks tasted better than restaurant dishes?

The next day, Jingyan asked the receptionist about the film academy, and the three of them strolled over. It was less than a ten-minute walk, which was indeed quite close.

When they arrived at the school gate, they chatted with the gatekeeper for a while and found out the specific procedures for taking the exam the next day. The three of them even went inside for a look around before coming out.

On the morning of the 31st, after the three of them had breakfast, Jingyan accompanied them to the Film Academy. She found a coffee shop outside the school gate and went inside to wait while the two children went in with their identification documents and application forms to participate in the selection process.

For five days, Jingyan accompanied her every day. The waiters in the coffee shop all recognized her and knew that she was accompanying her child to the exam. They even specially helped her choose a window seat facing the college gate, with a good view so that she could see her child immediately.

On the last day of exams, the two children came back with their report cards. The results were decent: Xiaoxiao ranked 78th in the acting department, which wasn't high but not low either. Zhizhi, on the other hand, ranked 36th because fewer people applied to the directing department.

Jingyan didn't understand the intricacies of the situation, so she took her report card and asked the waiter. The manager had been working there the longest. She looked at the report card and thought for a moment, saying, "With these grades, as long as the academic subjects pass the undergraduate admission line, there shouldn't be any problems. The rankings are all quite high."

However, both of these majors are very expensive. Performing arts students can start taking on commercial performances around their third year, but the income is not high, while the dress code is quite strict. Before having a talent agency, they basically have to pay for it themselves.

As for directing majors, it goes without saying that to graduate, you need to produce a short film that you made yourself—well, maybe just a clip will do. But buying the camera equipment is generally unaffordable, and renting it isn't cheap either.

Students without connections or resources either need to be exceptionally talented or incredibly lucky; otherwise, it's very difficult to succeed in this industry. After all, to gain recognition, you have to persevere—build experience, cultivate connections, and develop skills.

Jingyan knew the store manager was telling the truth and was being fair. She smiled at the two children and comforted them, "It's alright. Although our two families don't have much money, it should be enough to support you."

You just focus on your studies; the rest is our responsibility as parents. Let's go home now. We'll head back tomorrow and come back after the college entrance exam.

The two kids shrugged along with them. Why think so much? Just do your best and leave the rest to fate. If all else fails, the two of them can open a restaurant together in the future. Zhizhi's cooking skills are more than enough, even if they're not the best.

The return trip went smoothly. Once home, they didn't care about the New Year celebrations and immediately began frantically doing practice problems. On their last day in Beijing, Jingyan took them to Xinhua Bookstore and bought a bunch of workbooks and test papers.

After finishing their school-assigned winter break homework, the two children started working on the practice tests they had bought. They completed nearly thirty workbooks over the winter break. Even Jingyan felt a pang of sympathy for the children's hands as she watched them use up so much paper and ink… Writing so many words must have been exhausting!

Rongqiang also came over every few days during the winter break to help with tutoring. An'an also came back. Her younger sister is about to take the college entrance examination. As a sophomore who earns pocket money by tutoring in his spare time, he is really professional in explaining problems.

All those extracurricular classes have been stopped, what a joke! The professional recruitment exams are all over, so those things can be put aside for now. We need to be prepared for both possibilities. This college entrance exam score absolutely cannot be too low. I don't need to go to a top university, but at least I need to get into a first-tier university.

This year, He Jiaoxu and his family didn't invite Jing Yan and her family over for the Spring Festival. Instead, the whole family came, making it a particularly lively year. After graduating from university with a bachelor's degree, He Chaoli wanted to work in the procuratorate, so he took the postgraduate entrance exam and graduated last year. He is currently interning at the Yangzhou procuratorate.

Studying law is really tough; there are so many legal provisions to memorize, and since his major is finance-focused, there are even more laws and regulations involved. That's why he hasn't come to Haishi very often in recent years.

There simply wasn't that much free time, but fortunately everyone came this year, so he had time to come back and stay for a few days.

Compared to He Chaoli's apology, Jingyan didn't really care. Children grow up and you have to let go. Currently, these children are all family-oriented; even after they start working, they'll still be living near their homes.

In fact, if there were a wider world, Jingyan would be willing to let them fly freely until one day they are tired and weary, and then come back. This is their harbor. Weary birds return to their nests, and fledglings should go wherever they want. Why keep them all at home?

Time flies even faster after the New Year. It feels like only yesterday that Zhizhi took the college entrance examination. This time, in addition to Jingyan, Lu Xiaoxiao's mother, Chen Ping, accompanied her to the exam.

In her earlier years, her mental health was not very good. With years of care and the love and understanding from her family, she now has a smile on her face, can communicate normally with people, and is willing to interact with people occasionally. So she came to see her off to the exam this time.

After dropping their child off at school, the two went into an ice cream shop across the street, each ordering an ice cream, and slowly ate while waiting.

Having someone to keep you company makes things easier, especially for someone as talkative as Jingyan. The two of them initially didn't have much in common, but Jingyan's persistence in recommending novels she found enjoyable to others proved irresistible.

So they started with "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," and Jingyan told her the gist of the plot as she could remember, like a story. Whether Chen Ping was engrossed or not is unknown, but it certainly attracted the shop owner to come over and sit down to listen as well.

Actually, Jingyan's presentation wasn't very good; her tone was flat, and her vocabulary... was lacking. But her novel writing was excellent, and the plot alone was enough. She talked and talked, and before she knew it, the three days of exam time had passed.

On the last day, after the children finished their exams, the owner was quite reluctant to see them leave. Of course he was reluctant; the story wasn't finished yet. Oh well, now that he knew what book it was, he could just go to the bookstore and rent a set to read at his own pace.

When the college entrance exam results came out, Lu Xiaoxiao scored 496 points and Zhizhi scored 510 points. They were both qualified for undergraduate programs. However, they applied to Tongji University instead of the Film Academy. Given their scores, the risk was a bit high.

Fortunately, there's still the option of attending a second-tier university as a safety net. No matter what, at least there will be a school for them to attend, and that's enough. Therefore, Jingyan doesn't have high expectations and maintains a peaceful mindset, which has influenced her two children as well.

This summer was a time to let loose and have fun, doing whatever I wanted, as if I wanted to make up for all the fun I hadn't had in the past three years.

Especially in recent years, bars have become a popular place. Whether it's good or bad, they're certainly quite mysterious to young people, so kids always want to go and see them, even if it's just out of curiosity.

When Zhizhi mentioned to Jingyan that she wanted to visit the bar area on the island, Jingyan inwardly refused. However, she also knew that the children wouldn't always be by her side. If she couldn't satisfy their curiosity, once they left home, they would be like birds that had left the nest, flying off to who knows where. It would be better for them to broaden their horizons and explore the things that piqued their curiosity, rather than causing them unnecessary trouble.

So, the arduous task of taking his younger sisters to broaden their horizons fell to Rongqiang. After all, Rongqiang had only graduated from university a year ago and wasn't too busy with work. He had three children to take care of, plus An'an, so all four of them went to play together.

Jingyan didn't know how the fun went, only that when they came back, three of the four children were walking unsteadily and couldn't walk in a straight line. Only Rongqiang was the most reliable one because he was allergic to alcohol and didn't drink.

When Jingyan woke up the next day, she asked around and found out that the kids had been drinking cocktails like regular drinks. They taste sweet and the alcohol content isn't high, but the aftereffects are strong. Look, each of them drank three or four glasses. No wonder they got drunk.

They've never touched alcohol since childhood; who can be born a wine connoisseur? But getting drunk is good, at least they'll know their limits, and they won't be as reckless as this time if someone tries to persuade them to drink in the future.

Before long, it was early August, and the admission notice from the Beijing Film Academy finally arrived. Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving the notice and began preparing their luggage for the trip to school.