Huayu: Brother, I'm having such a great time!

After dinner, I took Tang Yan back to her dorm. It was already nine o'clock at night.

By the time students reached their third year at the Central Academy of Drama, the number of classes in the classroom had been reduced significantly.

Most students started going to film sets to make their faces known, and classmates, or even roommates, would not see each other for more than a month.

If it weren't for the junior students' segment performance last week, the classmates probably wouldn't have been able to gather here.

While having dinner with Tang Yan, we both tacitly avoided mentioning the kiss from earlier, and instead talked about our future plans.

Most of the time, Tang Yan was talking and Xu Jingxing was listening.

It wasn't that he was pretending to be aloof; his memories from twenty years ago were simply too hazy. He had completely forgotten what had started and ended some of the conversations.

Even when Tang Yan asked him if he had brought a universal charger, he was stunned for a long time before he could recall this ancient artifact.

Even when it came time to pay, he still wanted to take out his phone to scan the QR code to pay. As you can imagine, Tang Yan took out the money amidst the cashier's disdainful look, who thought he was trying to skip out on the bill.

After all, he only had a little over 20 yuan left in his pockets, so it was really hard to believe that he genuinely wanted to pay the bill.

Sitting on a stone bench downstairs in the girls' dormitory, Xu Jingxing had just lit a cigarette and was about to call his younger version of his parents when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.

"Old Xu, give me one."

Xu Jingxing turned his head and saw a girl with short, ear-length hair and a slightly chubby face looking at him with a smile.

It was that person who pioneered the "chick flick" genre and became a box office guarantee in Chinese cinema, but later found himself embroiled in controversy due to the "one-finger incident":

White lily!

Xu Jingxing took out a cigarette, and the two sat on the stone bench, neither of them speaking first.

Xu Jingxing didn't know what to say.

Bai Baihe seemed to have a lot to say, but didn't know where to begin.

As the cigarette burned to its end, Bai Baihe took the cigarette butt from Xu Jingxing's hand, extinguished it along with her own cigarette, and threw it into the trash can.

"Wenzhang has been selected by Director Ye Jing, and we'll be joining the crew together next week."

Bai Baihe did not sit back on the stone chair, but leaned against the ginkgo tree next to it, and spoke to Xu Jingxing with a somewhat wistful expression.

"Isn't that great?" Xu Jingxing said with a smile.

He mentally calculated that the drama he was joining at this time should be the famous TV series, "Days Related to Youth".

"If you hadn't been so determined to go to Chang'an, this role would have been yours."

After hearing what Bai Baihe said, Xu Jingxing couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

In every unpleasant night of his past life, when he lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep, he always thought about one question.

If he hadn't gone to film "Qin Shi Huang" and instead passed the first round of auditions for "Days Related to Youth" before going to the final round, would his life have been different?

But if he didn't have the ability to see the future, even if he had to choose a hundred or ten thousand times, he would still choose "Qin Shi Huang" with TV King Zhang Fengyi in the lead role.

However, the series was later indefinitely shelved due to controversy surrounding its historical perspective.

When it was re-released, it was only a censored version, and the controversial character played by Xu Jingxing was completely cut out.

All that effort for nothing.

Then came the huge success of "Days Related to Youth".

Even after the rise of short videos, bloggers continued to create clips of this drama.

"Who knows?" Xu Jingxing lit another cigarette. "The two films were scheduled to be released at the same time. If I had known that the film in the capital would be delayed by three months, I would have signed contracts for both."

"Besides, they haven't even said they'll definitely sign me yet."

"How could that be? Wenzhang was selected; your qualifications are far superior to his."

"Hey! I won't tell you, I won't tell you."

Xu Jingxing quickly looked around and only felt relieved after confirming that no one was there.

Wenzhang is a petty person; if he overheard this, who knows what he would think.

"It's alright, actually. Maybe your movie will be a huge hit." Bai Baihe sat back down on the stone chair, this time closer to Xu Jingxing. "What are your plans lately? Staying in the capital?"

"I haven't decided yet." Xu Jingxing looked at Bai Baihe's still slightly immature face and couldn't help but tease her: "What, do you want me to stay here... to keep you company?"

"What?! I...I won't!" Bai Baihe suddenly became flustered. "I don't care where you go!"

"Alright, since you're not going to do anything about it, I'm going back now."

Xu Jingxing got up and pretended to leave.

"Wait a minute!" Bai Baihe tugged at Xu Jingxing's sleeve.

"Um?"

"Stay with me a little longer, okay?" Bai Baihe whispered.

"good!"

"Do you think we'll still have this much free time after we graduate?" Bai Baihe asked.

"It's better to be busy; I actually hope I can keep myself occupied."

In his previous life, Xu Jingxing was indeed very leisurely. He would leave work on time and spend his evenings sitting on the balcony gazing at the stars in a daze.

But Xu Jingxing wasn't a rich second-generation; a leisurely life doesn't bring in money.

"You seem a little different than before."

"Hmm? Why is it different?"

"You used to love avoiding anything easy. If we dragged you to meet with different production teams, you'd be considered diligent if you went to five out of ten."

"After going out and seeing the world, your mindset is different now, isn't it?"

Indeed, in his previous life, Xu Jingxing was just an unambitious and complacent person when he was in school.

I have a laissez-faire attitude towards everything, whether it's my studies, career, or relationships.

I was lucky enough to get into university, and I thought that getting a bachelor's degree would be enough. I only studied sporadically, and sometimes I even paid others to do my homework for me.

Once they enter the entertainment industry, they always hold the belief that becoming a big star is a matter of fate.

After several failed projects, seeing his classmates establish themselves in the industry one by one, he felt that he was not destined to become a big star, and returned to his hometown in a sorry state. He never thought that this was also the result of their hard work.

When parents arrange jobs for their children and they enter the workforce, they feel that without connections, they can't get promoted at all, so they just try to make ends meet by earning a meager salary each day.

As a result, when he was almost 40 years old, he was still on equal footing with those recent college graduates.

When he wanted to make a change, he found it was too late.

Humans are always like this; they only think they should exert their strength when they are powerless, but by then they can't even clench their fists.

"If only we could stay in school forever, we'd never have to worry about adulthood again," Bai Baihe said wistfully.

"You still have a year until graduation." Xu Jingxing looked at Bai Baihe's slightly dejected face. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Bai Baihe stared intently at Xu Jingxing's face, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "If someone appeared in your life and would have a significant impact on your future, but you didn't like her at all, what would you choose?"

If Bai Baihe had asked him this question at this time in his previous life, Xu Jingxing, who was still in the idealistic phase, would definitely have chosen the person he liked.

Having experienced the harsh realities of society, Xu Jingxing might have a different answer when he looks back at this question.

"Of course I'd choose to accept it, then drain her dry, and finally kick her to the curb, haha."

"Huh?" Bai Baihe's eyes widened in surprise. "I really didn't expect you to say that. I always thought you were an idealist."

Xu Jingxing smiled slightly, exhaling the last smoke ring. "An idealist? I haven't been for a long time!"

"I know what I should choose." Bai Baihe stood up and said softly:

"I hope I can be a woman you can never fully exploit!"

"What?"

"It's nothing, I'm going back now, goodnight."

Watching Bai Baihe's retreating figure, Xu Jingxing couldn't help but sigh:

"How come she looks like a married woman at such a young age?"