The Secret Realm of Time, His and Her Life Through the Changes

September, 1999

Zhou Yanruo has been really annoyed lately. She thought she had finally managed to escape to her grandmother's house in Xichuan City, but her parents were coming here on a business trip. Although the business trip would only last for two or three days, they might take the opportunity to bring her back with them.

Zhou Yanruo had just finished the college entrance examination, and her parents were naturally not satisfied with her results last week.

She was determined to get into an arts college, thinking that since these schools didn't have high academic requirements, as long as she practiced her singing and dancing skills diligently and got top marks in her professional exams, she would definitely pass the admission standards.

Who would have thought that she was too stupid and failed the college entrance examination, which made her very frustrated.

Her parents are none other than Professor Zhou Fang and Doctoral Supervisor Yan Man, renowned figures in top universities across the country like Tsinghua and Peking University.

How could they tolerate their only daughter pursuing a singing and dancing "career," especially since she couldn't even attend university?

There's nothing to say. She'll repeat a year and take the college entrance exam again next year. As their daughter, she has to go to university. That's their only expectation of Zhou Yanruo. No, now it should be an order, a must.

For this reason, she trained hard for five years without her parents' knowledge and tried to persuade them for five years, but it was no use. They were scientists and professors, and they felt that their daughter should go to university, get a doctorate, and become a researcher at the Academy of Sciences like them.

They believe their lives are meaningful because they can continuously produce research results, contribute to society, realize social value, and gain people's respect. Therefore, becoming like them and living their lives is meaningful.

The college entrance exam results are out now, and these scores are far from meeting the admission requirements for undergraduate programs. Even for art colleges, which have relatively lower requirements for academic subjects, there's still a gap.

Zhou Yanruo didn't do poorly on the exam; this is just her level. She did okay in humanities, but she barely passed math, physics, and chemistry.

The phone rang at home, and Zhou Yanruo clasped her hands together and silently prayed, "Please don't let it be my mom."

A moment later, she heard her grandmother standing at the top of the stairs calling to her: "Ruoruo, come down and answer the phone. It's your mother calling."

"Oh, I'm here!" Zhou Yanruo slowly came downstairs and took the phone from her grandmother. "Mom."

"Ruoruo, you can stay at Grandma's for two days. Come back on the weekend. If you want to repeat a grade, you need to prepare in advance and choose a school."

"I've only been here for three days, and you're already urging me to go back. All my classmates have gone on their graduation trips, but I haven't gone."

"You have to prepare for class, how can you have time to play? Who told you to get such a bad grade?"

"Fine, I won't play anymore. I'll find a tutoring class here first and learn. I'll go back to school after summer vacation. Is that alright?"

"What can you learn in Xichuan? Get back here right now."

Zhou Yanruo looked at her grandmother standing beside her with a pitiful expression. She covered the microphone and asked her grandmother for help, "My mother insists that I go back. I want to stay with Grandma for a few more days. Can you talk to my mother for me?"

Grandma took the phone: "Yan Man, let Ruoruo stay a few more days. I'll watch her study."

"Xichuan has a very good teaching quality. Her father also graduated from here. I promise she won't just play around. Don't worry."

After hanging up the phone, Grandma said to Zhou Yanruo, "Your mother agreed, but you can't be too playful. Your mother is right, you can take the college entrance exam again next year. Or, your mother said she's also considering whether to send you abroad to study."

By the way, your mother was just passing through Xichuan on her business trip and didn't have time to go home.

"Yay!" Zhou Yanruo couldn't help but jump up with joy when Grandma mentioned that Mom wasn't coming to the house anymore.

She said goodbye to her grandmother and then went out.

Although it had just rained, it was still hot and humid in Jiangnan in July. She walked along the damp alley paved with stone slabs to the street, and continued walking along the street until she reached the octagonal pavilion she often visited.

There were few people and cars on the street in the afternoon. Everyone had things to do, but she was just wandering around aimlessly.

The wooden bench in the octagonal pavilion was a bit mottled and damp. Zhou Yanruo hesitated for a moment but still sat down. She stretched out her legs, hooked her toes, placed her hands on both sides of her body to support herself on the bench, and tilted her head slightly to look at the road she had come from, lost in thought.

A gentle breeze blew by, and a promotional poster on the opposite bench was blown to her feet. Zhou Yanruo looked away and noticed that it was an ordinary recruitment poster, but what was different was that the Chinese characters were interspersed with bold, black Korean characters. The Korean characters, which looked like talismans, caught Zhou Yanruo's attention.

Zhou Yanruo is interested in South Korean trainee audition programs and originally hoped that there would be such programs in China, so that ordinary people like her who did not graduate from art schools could have more opportunities to showcase themselves on stage.

This piqued Zhou Yanruo's curiosity. Since she had nothing to do during summer vacation, signing up for a class would not only kill time but also give her an excuse to go out every day. She couldn't tell her family it was an art student training class, so she'd say it was English tutoring. Didn't her mother just tell her grandmother on the phone that they were considering sending her abroad to study? Tutoring in English seemed like the obvious thing to do, right? That's what she'd do.

……

After a few busy days, Zhou Yanruo was still confident in her professional singing and dancing skills. She passed all the tests in the training class without any effort. After making arrangements for herself, she smoothly received the admission notice of the training class.

Before she knew it, the training class was about to start. Zhou Yanruo left home early in the morning as if it were her own business, without needing any permission from the adults. This was wonderful. Even the sweltering summer heat felt pleasant, and the waves of heat felt refreshing.

Thinking back to when she first received her acceptance letter, her grandmother called her mother and praised her highly: "Ruoruo is so ambitious. She didn't forget to take foreign language lessons during the summer vacation. You and Zhou Fang should encourage her more and not always criticize and blame her."

Zhou Yanruo couldn't help but chuckle as she thought about these things.

Zhou Yanruo's school wasn't close to her home; she had to transfer buses once, and the journey took at least 50 minutes. Because it was her first day of school, Zhou Yanruo was very excited and left early, arriving at school a full forty minutes before class started.

This place is less of a school and more of a courtyard with a small building. The three-story white building had just been painted and was bathed in a hazy glow by the morning sun. The courtyard wasn't large, but it was clean and tidy. A narrow asphalt road led directly to the entrance of the building, and besides neatly trimmed shrubs, there were scattered sculptures depicting reading and inspirational themes. The entire campus was quiet and clean; one could feel the tranquility and peace as soon as they entered.

She found the classroom for her first class. When she entered, there were no students yet, so she found a seat in the back by the window. She casually picked up a copy of "Reader's Digest" that she had bought from the newsstand downstairs and started reading.

As class time approached, students began to enter in twos and threes, greeting each other as they met, and the classroom quickly became lively.

A tall, thin boy followed them in. Instead of looking for seats with the other students, he stood at the front.

"Hello everyone, I'm Wang Jie. I'll be leading you all in learning English for the next while." The boy skipped the usual small talk and went straight to introducing himself.

When someone spoke, the students quieted down, and Zhou Yanruo also looked up.

She then realized that the classroom layout was different from the classrooms she was familiar with; there was no blackboard, no podium, and no lectern.

A boy stood straight in front of them, speaking to them. He was wearing a white shirt, blue pants, and white sneakers, with his shirt tucked into his pants.

Isn't this the standard attire for boys during the school's singing competition? This is... this is our teacher? Zhou Yanruo couldn't help but burst out laughing.

“That girl, let’s start with your self-introduction,” Wang Jie said, raising his hand towards Zhou Yanruo. “Yes, the girl in the back row by the window.”

Zhou Yanruo, who was suddenly called upon, stood up confidently and said, "My name is Zhou Yanruo, hello everyone!"

……

Perhaps because the students were all young, of similar age, and all art lovers with naturally lively and cheerful personalities, they all got to know each other and became friends in just one morning.

The school is a training institution open to the public, and can arrange its own curriculum according to its needs, without being subject to the administrative constraints of the Education Commission. Considering that students will also have physical training classes, each class is scheduled for 60 minutes with a 15-minute break. This morning, three classes were scheduled. The first class was English, and the first class every day thereafter will also be English. Following that were a vocal class and an art appreciation class. The afternoon was dedicated to physical training and dance rehearsal.

The day's schedule was quite full.