Starting a new chapter in life

Zhizhi and I are siblings. Before Zhizhi was born, my uncle's son, Xiaoli, was already living at my house and attending school. At that time, I was still a little kid. He was very gentle and would stay with me and take care of me after school.

I was used to being the younger brother and had to be the boss, so after my sister was born, I never bullied her except when she was still in her stroller. But once she could run and jump and started competing with me for things, we would have a fight every now and then.

We're only two years apart, and my mom never told me to give in to my sister, so we used to fight quite often when we were little. As long as we didn't break any skin, generally not only my mom, but even my great-grandmother wouldn't get involved.

At first, Zhizhi would cry and complain, but after a while she stopped crying and would try to get back at us by fighting back or tricking us. We grew up slowly through these playful fights.

Xiao Li's brother has tried to teach me that I should spoil and indulge my sister, but I just can't stand her. We each have two sets of clothes per season, so why is it that every year when we buy clothes, I only have a few styles, maybe changing the color at most, while she has so many different kinds of clothes, and she never wears the same thing twice?

I asked my mom about this, and she said that girls' clothes have a lot of variety, while boys' clothes are limited to a few styles, so there's nothing to compare. But I also like red, and I want to wear pink clothes too. Why don't boys have any?

Even during the Lunar New Year, my younger sister, dressed in a red coat, looked just like a doll in a New Year's painting, while my new clothes were a dull gray. I was resentful, but... I could only hold it in. In the end, I could only find pleasure in bullying her.

But these good days came to an end when my sister was three years old. My uncle's grandson, Ci'en, was left at home by my mother to go to school. He was much older than us, and, well, he was also very strong.

Since he arrived, our usual early morning run has been supplemented with combat training. Zhizhi has been just tagging along, because she's too young. But Brother Ci'en is patient enough to teach her step by step, which I don't have.

Perhaps it was because of Ci'en's patience that Zhizhi liked to pester him from a young age. And within just a few years, no one in our generation, except for Ci'en, could rival her.

From then on, she was like a freed slave singing songs of triumph, relentlessly bullying me. In addition, the elders turned a blind eye, so I had no choice but to give in, which ended our eight-year struggle.

I never thought we'd ever have a brotherly or sisterly relationship, but as I've grown older, my past annoyance and dislike have slowly changed. Maybe that's what it means to become more sensible.

Before I went to university, Aunt Wang was picked up by her son. My mother didn't like doing housework, and my father originally thought of hiring another housekeeper, but my mother refused. I didn't understand. Was my mother trying to save money? She was so unwilling to do housework, why didn't she hire another housekeeper?

When I asked, my mother said that the original purpose of hiring Aunt Wang was to take care of my great-grandmother. After getting along with her, she felt like family and they lived together comfortably. After my great-grandmother passed away, there were still children in the family, and with Aunt Wang's help, my mother was able to take it easy.

If Aunt Wang doesn't leave, it would be nice for her to live out her days at my house. We can treat her like a sister and an elder to us. But since her son has already come looking for her, and Aunt Wang herself wants to go back, we can only go along with Aunt Wang's wishes.

As the children in the family gradually left to take exams and leave, the number of people in the family decreased, so there was no need to hire a nanny. She also didn't like the sudden arrival of a stranger in the family who would require her to readjust to her new environment.

In the end, she decided that during winter and summer vacations, we would take care of all the cooking and housework, while Mom would do it herself during the week. This way, everyone would have time to relax, which was great. With the tasks assigned, as the older brother, and a pretty good cook at that, I naturally had to take the initiative to cook.

Zhizhi was very pleased with my initiative. She said she would help me with the chores, while Xiaoxiao would be in charge of cleaning the house.

During this break after the college entrance exam, while waiting for my university acceptance letter, for the first time I really looked forward to the start of school. I didn't want to cook!

When I applied to Northwestern Polytechnical University, I just wanted to be independent. I've lived at home all my life, and although my parents don't really care about us, I still yearn for freedom. That's why I chose to apply to Northwestern Polytechnical University. The campus is located in the ancient city of Xi'an, about two days' train ride from home. I'm very satisfied.

My dad took me to school. He took a day off from work. My mom didn't come, but she prepared all my clothes and bedding for all four seasons. When I arrived at school, I quickly adapted to the new environment.

Aside from classes, my free time is really colorful. I join clubs and play soccer and basketball with my roommates or classmates, which makes my life very fulfilling.

Especially when I play basketball, many girls from school come to watch. Although I never thought about dating in college, I still enjoy the feeling of being followed by people's attention.

It's not that no girls have expressed interest in me, but I haven't reciprocated any of it. The reason is simple: dating is too expensive. I only have 500 yuan a month for living expenses, which is more than enough for me on my own. Dating wouldn't be enough.

One of my roommates spent almost half a semester's allowance on a phone, watch, and cosmetics for his girlfriend when they were dating, not to mention the occasional expenses for meals and bubble tea on dates.

He would put on a show of wealth in front of his girlfriend, then come back and complain to us, trying to freeload off our meals. Fortunately, after a semester, we started taking on some part-time jobs tutoring junior and senior high school students, which helped him earn some living expenses and eased his immediate financial woes, giving us a little boost in our savings.

My original plan was to find a good company for my graduation internship, either a state-owned enterprise or a foreign company, one with high benefits and the other with high salary. I didn't want to have both, just one would do.

But plans never keep up with changes. When I went home during my sophomore winter break, my mother said that Zhizhi wanted to take the entrance exam for film school with Lu Xiaoxiao. Xiaoxiao wanted to be an actress, and Zhizhi wanted to be a director.

I don't understand all these intricacies. My younger sister is already a senior in high school, and it's good that she has a goal. When she returned to school after the holidays and chatted with her friends about Zhizhi's choice, I didn't take it seriously.

But my classmates started talking about the chaos in the entertainment industry, about relationships between older women and younger men, love triangles, love quadrangles, and May-December romances... I was dumbfounded and called Zhizhi to try to persuade her to change her college application.

But when she talked about what kind of films she wanted to make in the future, and how she thought the TV movie she was currently making was very good... I suddenly couldn't bring myself to say anything to persuade her, and just listened vaguely until I hung up the phone.

Back at school, I was still a little uneasy, but what could I do? However, with new movies, I'm no longer indifferent like before, and I'll buy tickets to see the popular ones.

During summer vacation, I didn't go home. I was thinking of finding a tutoring job. Perhaps it was fate, but the man I tutored worked at a local film and television company.

I overheard him talking on the phone about things happening on set, so I struck up a conversation. After I finished tutoring his child, I didn't charge him, hoping to get an internship at his company in return.

Internship opportunities at these companies are highly sought after. Many people are willing to be assistants to so-called celebrities. If you can't get an assistant position, you can do other odd jobs. I still have to go to school, so I'm not very competitive compared to others.

I gritted my teeth and stamped my foot: "I don't want a salary, I'll do it for free."

Capitalists naturally wouldn't back down from such a good opportunity, and I got my wish to intern at the company. It was really tiring. Once I got in, I did odd jobs like delivering documents, photocopying, and buying coffee... These were all small tasks.

The difficult part was helping out on set. I worked in the props department and the lighting department. I was like a brick there, moved wherever needed. The only advantage was that I got to visit all the departments and understand the basic operating rules of a film company.

In order to learn more about the so-called rules and actual situation in the industry, I not only refused wages, but also had to buy milk tea and snacks from time to time to give as gifts. Not to mention my living expenses, even my part-time wages were used up.

I was really out of money, so I had to swallow my pride and call my mom to ask for living expenses. I thought she would scold me and give me a little bit, since I had already planned how to save on food. But to my surprise, she just asked me what I was doing and then agreed to increase my allowance.

When I went to withdraw the money the next day, I found out that my mother had deposited 20,000 yuan into my account. I had never received such a large sum of money before, and I was quite nervous when I called my mother back.

When I heard my mother say that as long as I don't spend money on bad things, she's not afraid of me spending too much, and she can afford to support me, I had a sudden thought. Maybe I can do more than just understand the inside story of the film and television industry for Zhizhi. Could I consider working in the film and television industry myself?

With this in mind, I asked about the family's savings. I thought maybe this idea could actually work? I tentatively asked, and my mother actually agreed to give me 600,000 yuan to start a business, and even gave me an apartment in Beijing as a safety net.

Suddenly, I felt confident. Being my own boss—that's the dream of so many boys! At that moment, maternal love became tangible in my heart.

After returning to the film company, I worked even harder and also inquired about things to pay attention to when starting a company. Knowing more is always better than knowing less, and I had to start preparing.

As soon as I graduated from university, I dragged one of my roommates, whose family was well-off, straight to Beijing. Uncle Shen had already made some connections in Beijing beforehand, so he went directly to him. The group of us discussed and agreed on renting a venue and registering a company to get the initial team up.

Just as the team was assembled and they were discussing where to sign some promising newcomers, Zhizhi brought Lu Xiaoxiao over. Xiaoxiao had taken on a role in a campus drama, but she was still a student and didn't have an agency, so she was completely clueless about many things, mainly the issue of paying taxes.

Both my family and the Lu family are law-abiding citizens. We wouldn't dare to do anything illegal like tax evasion; we're too timid. So when I knew Xiaoxiao needed to pay taxes but didn't know how to proceed, I used all sorts of trickery and deception to get her to sign the agreement.

My family's first signed actress! Although she hasn't graduated yet, she's already landed a role, and it's even the female lead. That's a great start for her. I've made a killing on this deal.

With Lu Xiaoxiao joining us, Uncle Shen and I found a few more ordinary people. Uncle Shen helped us look for resources everywhere. It was indeed difficult at first, but when the TV series starring Lu Xiaoxiao was released, it received a good response. So when we went out to look for resources again, people were finally willing to give us a second glance.

The people our company signed all come from families with limited means, but they are really good-looking. They are really willing to work hard to earn money. We are not picky and we don't care about any role. As long as a production crew wants us, we will go.

In our spare time, we arrange various acting classes for them. We can't afford to hire professionally trained actors, but we should at least cultivate their professional skills.

Uncle Shen's approach was correct. After their acting skills improved, they gradually progressed from minor roles to supporting roles, and their resources improved noticeably.

By the time Zhizhi and Xiaoxiao graduated from university, our company had finally established itself and gained the right to select scripts. I didn't want to be controlled by others forever, so I thought about buying scripts and producing my own films.

With more ideas came a greater need for money, and what I lacked most was connections. The turning point came when I met Fu Qiusheng; she must have initially taken a liking to me.

Yeah, I know she didn't fall in love with me at first sight; she just thought I was easy to manipulate because of my ordinary background. But I'm a man, and I don't want to be a kept man.

Perhaps being a kept man is appealing, but I have ambitions. If I were to compromise just to avoid a few years of hardship, I might lower my standards further and end up becoming a heartless man.

I didn't know what my partner would do, but I knew my mom would probably break my legs. Thinking of this, I resolutely rejected her temptation.

I thought I had lost such a big asset, but unexpectedly, things turned out very well. Not only did she not blame me for my rejection, but she also gave our company resources and found me a good wife.

With the resources provided by Fu Qiusheng, the company developed more and more steadily, and I also truly established myself in the film and television industry from an unknown small boss, able to protect Zhizhi and the artists under the company.

At least I don't have to drink with clients to get resources, so I can focus on my job. In this complex industry, having someone like me is the thing I'm most proud of.

My wife and I had a son a year after we got married. My mother was very happy but didn't want me to take care of the child. Fortunately, my parents-in-law liked him, so we felt at ease leaving the child with them.

After all, no one says that having children means a wife has to stay home and be a good wife and mother. Besides, Zixu is the accountant of Hongyu Group, and her future prospects are very good. She doesn't want to give up, so I naturally support her wholeheartedly.

Every time I take my wife back to my parents' house, my mother always reminds me to take the initiative to do chores at home. She says that's the kind of man a wife will like. I'm a pretty good cook, and as long as I get off work early, I'm the one who does all the cooking at home. This is a typical skill that makes me proud to call myself a good man.