Chapter 16: Information

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

When the others heard this, they backed down from the suggestion as well.

“You’re right.”

After all, the National College Entrance Examination was around the corner. Even if they wasted their time to go to the film academy and the production team was casting for the upcoming movie, they might not be selected in the end.

On the other hand, the National College Entrance Examination involved their future. When they thought about it this way, the others gradually calmed down.

When the bell for the morning self-study period rang, the others returned to their respective seats. Lu Baobao wrinkled her nose and pulled Jiang Se’s hand, refusing to give up. “Even if they’re not going, we should go.”

In truth, Jiang Se was also tempted to go.

Zhou Hui had been clear about her view on this. If she wanted to go to college, she would have to pay for her own tuition.

However, Jiang Se was at a loss as to the kind of job that would earn her enough money to cover her tuition and accommodation fees within two months. It would be great if she had more opportunities to earn more money.

However, Jiang Se shot Lu Baobao a look and reminded her, “The National College Entrance Examination is just around the corner. Didn’t you say that your parents will kill you if you flunk it?”

When Lu Baobao mentioned this earlier, she had seemed sullen. At this moment, however, she waved her hand in dismissal. “It was just a figure of speech. Moreover, my parents know me. They don’t expect me to get into a first-tier university. After all, our results are similar.”

Her results were average, and she chose the arts stream. She could still manage the languages, but she was behind in her English and mathematics. All she could do was to burn the midnight oil and memorize some knowledge about politics, history, and geography to salvage some points.

“Our school isn’t far from the film academy. The subway is near as well. There are only five or six stations between here and there, so we can head over after school at night. We’ll just be there to see if we can find out about anything. It won’t take long,” Lu Baobao pleaded, “Let’s go, shall we?”

When Jiang Se nodded, Lu Baobao shot up and made a victorious gesture. “Yes!”

The teacher-in-charge came in carrying a pile of objects at this moment. Her face darkened when she saw the scene.

“Lu Baobao!”

Having seen the teacher coming from a long way off, the other students in the class had already taken out their books and pretended to study. Because Lu Baobao had been talking to Jiang Se just now, she did not notice the situation at the door. When her name was called, she flinched.

The teacher walked into the classroom with heavy footsteps and dropped the items she was carrying onto her desk with a loud bang. The students did not even dare to breathe.

“It’s only a few days away to the National College Entrance Examination, and you’re still in this playful mood! I was under the impression that you’re a good English speaker, but your results aren’t satisfactory in the recent test. Out of a total of 150 marks, you’ve only scored 68! You had more than half of the vocabulary, listening, and multiple-choice questions wrong!”

She grew more agitated as she droned on. Lu Baobao looked pitiful being scolded like that, but she dared not make a sound.

The English teacher, who bore the surname Lin, was a strict and responsible person. She was on a roll now. She rummaged through the answer sheets and found the one with Lu Baobao’s name on it.

“Look at this. There are 50 questions on this answer sheet, and you got more than half of them wrong! English is an important subject. What will you do in the National College Entrance Examination if you keep this up?”

Not a single squeak could be heard from the class. Everyone was feeling sympathetic toward Lu Baobao whose face was now red from being told off by Teacher Lin.

Lu Baobao had been caught talking during lessons by Teacher Lin several times before. This had displeased this English teacher greatly. After giving her a round of scolding, she suppressed her anger.

“You’ll stay back after school and write ten lines for every vocabulary you’ve gotten wrong. You can go back once you can memorize all of them.”

When Teacher Lin said that, Lu Baobao looked as if she had nothing left to live for.

She had made an appointment with Jiang Se to try their luck at the Imperial Capital Film Academy after school and see if they could run into the casting call for “Pretense to Reality” or get some inside scoop.

However, she did not expect to have such rotten luck. Jiang Se had literally just agreed to go when she was caught by Teacher Lin.

Lessons were over at 5 p.m. while the students were to do their revision from 8 to 9 a.m.

However, due to the sheer amount of homework of the 12th graders, the teachers would usually drag the lessons on until it was well past 5.30 p.m. despite the school having set the timetable until 5 p.m. Lu Baobao had intended to slip away after 5.30 p.m. with Jiang Se. However, if she was forced to stay back, she would surely not make it to the Imperial Capital Film Academy that day.

When she thought about this, Lu Baobao appeared glum. She glanced at Jiang Se but dared not say anything before Teacher Lin.

Now that Teacher Lin had released all her steam, she began commenting on the trial examination results, “This time, some of you didn’t do well while some of you exceeded expectations.”

As she said this, Teacher Lin’s gaze seemed to sweep past Jiang Se.

“Especially Jiang Se. Her language and mathematics have improved greatly compared to before. She’s even more outstanding in English this time. It’s clear that she’s made the effort.”

The original Jiang Se’s results were rather poor, especially since her heart had not been in the right place for studies. When she was reborn, the current Jiang Se did not dare perform too well after finding out about the original Jiang Se’s character.

Even so, Teacher Lin was already showering her with praises. Even her expression, which had turned sour because of Lu Baobao, softened considerably.

If Lu Baobao was detained, she naturally would not be able to go out of the school at night. When Jiang Se left at night, Lu Baobao was teary-eyed. She clearly wanted to go with her but did not dare.

“I’ll go have a look and familiarize myself with the journey. Even if Ma Jingjing says that this was on the news, it’s not certain that the tryouts will take place today.”

Jiang Se tried to comfort her, “There are four days to the National College Entrance Examination. You’d better focus on that for now.”

She was different from Lu Baobao. When she sat for the National College Entrance Examination the last time, she managed to get into the best university in the imperial capital with her outstanding results.

Even though it had been some years ago, after having gone through the mock exam, she knew what she could expect from the actual examination this time. She did not have a problem with the three main subjects and had always planned her actions. Two weeks ago, she had already highlighted the important points for history, geography, and the other subjects.

Even if she could not perform as well as when she had been Feng Nan, she was confident that she could still manage to earn a spot in the best university without much difficulty.

Therefore, her worries were not her results but the tuition fees.

The best university would offer certain financial assistance to students with outstanding achievements, but her time as Jiang Se was too short. Despite her current performance, the chances of her getting the aid were too slim, so she would have to work hard about it herself.

Jiang Se had heard about the Imperial Capital Film Academy before.

Every year, hordes of handsome boys and beautiful girls would be enrolled here. Many childhood stars were already famous during their youth here.

There was a rule in the academy. The first-years were not allowed to be involved in any films, whereas the third-years were, hence the academy was not in short supply of stars.

When it was enrollment season, reporters would swarm to the academy. At that time, almost every news outlet would be reporting the situation at the Imperial Capital Film Academy. If one was lucky, they would even be caught on camera and be featured on the news.

Many students went in and out of the school. Compared to high school, things were much more relaxed here.