Chapter 17: Usage and Experience Card
“Hmm?”
Su Wanyu was momentarily stunned but instinctively nodded and smiled at the man. “Yes, that’s my son!”
“Is this a casting photo?”
The man asked quietly.
Su Wanyu shook her head. “I don’t know either; he just approached us out of the blue!”
She didn’t mention anything about Zhang Yimou.
“Dad, let’s go!”
A young art exam candidate wearing a baseball cap suddenly spoke to the man beside him.
“Don’t rush!”
The parent of the arts candidate turned his head but kept his gaze fixed on Fu Lulu, who was chatting with Chen Jin, feeling a sense of familiarity.
Su Wanyu found the young man standing nearby equally familiar.
Liu Xing?!
She recalled watching the TV show “Home with Kids,” but this person was much taller than on television—Su Wanyu almost didn’t recognize him.
“All right, goodbye, handsome!”
After reviewing the vlog and photos she had just taken, Fu Lulu smiled and waved at Chen Jin.
Chen Jin gave off a very good vibe—bright, cheerful, and handsome—not at all like a typical art exam candidate.
Nowadays, many art students are quite reserved and tend to perform poorly when they know they’re being auditioned, which puts them at a disadvantage.
Chen Jin, however, relaxed after her reminder, showing a natural acting talent.
“Goodbye, Director Sister!”
Chen Jin was very polite, making Fu Lulu smile again.
As Fu Lulu prepared to leave, the man standing beside Su Wanyu—Liu Xing’s father—quickly jogged over.
“Director Fu, do you still remember me?”
Liu Xing’s father greeted Fu Lulu, who frowned and looked up. “Who are you?”
“I’m Zhang Yishan’s father!”
“Zhang Xiaowu!”
“Yishan came to audition during ‘Curse of the Golden Flower’!”
Zhang Xiaowu hurriedly explained. At that moment, Su Wanyu pointed at Zhang Yishan and quietly told Chen Jin, who was standing beside her, “Son, Liu Xing—that man is Liu Xing from ‘Home with Kids’!”
“Is that so?”
Chen Jin watched Zhang Yishan’s back; the young man was looking down at his phone, while his father chatted with Fu Lulu.
---
“Is this assistant director Zhang Yimou thing for real?”
“Did she say anything else to you?”
Su Wanyu felt the situation was veering off her original plan. She had been ready to return and book tickets, so how did a director suddenly appear? And why was her son being auditioned? Was he really entering the entertainment industry?
“She didn’t say much, but the identity seems genuine.”
“Whether he can get the part is another matter.”
Chen Jin recounted the general process, and only then did Su Wanyu feel reassured. “I thought he really might act in a film…”
“Mom, it’s not that easy.”
“I do wish it were!”
Chen Jin glanced at his progress—it was only 1% complete, with 99% still left to go.
But if he did pass the audition, it would be a meteoric rise—even if not cast as the male lead, simply participating in a Zhang Yimou film would be a remarkable credit.
This start would easily surpass 99% of his peers at the Beijing Film Academy.
Though Zhang Yimou’s films often have a high chance of being flops, “Under the Hawthorn Tree” was decent. Chen Jin knew its ratings—far better than the absurdly bad “Three Guns.”
It was a somewhat above-average art film.
As long as Zhang Yimou avoided commercial films, his work maintained quality in visuals, story, and character development.
This wasn’t Chen Jin’s personal opinion but reflected the views of some future netizens in his autobiographical film.
Watching Fu Lulu chatting with Zhang Yishan and his father as they left the school, Chen Jin didn’t dwell on it and headed toward the hotel with Su Wanyu.
Tomorrow at 10 a.m., he had to attend the preliminary acting exam at the Central Academy of Drama.
Though he was keen on this sudden audition, Chen Jin knew the choice was out of his hands; beyond waiting for a slim chance, he had no other recourse.
His primary goal remained passing the art exam.
...
That night, after finishing his daily actor routine, Chen Jin lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
In fact, a virtual interface of the system appeared before him, with a “Random Role Experience Card” glowing faintly.
Su Wanyu, reading nearby, couldn’t see it.
“Should I try it?”
Chen Jin hesitated; he had coveted this role experience card for a long time but feared using it now and regretting it later.
“With my current skills, I should be able to pass the preliminary Central Academy of Drama exam, right?”
Though the academy’s art exam was reputed as the toughest among the top three, tomorrow’s test included poetry recitation and a themed group skit, designed to assess a candidate’s improvisational ability.
The best actors aren’t those who perform well with a set script but those who excel without one.
This improvisational skit tests a candidate’s instant acting talent.
Art exam teachers can tell at a glance if a student has a natural gift just from this.
A legend circulates that if you can pass the Central Academy’s acting preliminary exam, you can get into nearly any other art school.
In other words, except for those who didn’t apply, students at the Beijing Film Academy or Shanghai Theatre Academy are mostly filtered from Central Academy candidates.
That’s the stature of the Central Academy’s acting department—unmatched, unrivaled.
Chen Jin’s top choice was naturally the Central Academy; Beijing Film Academy was just a backup.
“I remember in my future autobiographical film, I came alone to Central Academy’s first art exam. What was the theme again?”
Chen Jin opened the system to review the original trajectory of his life.
The scenes of his first attempt at the Central Academy art exam were detailed.
[Use your acting to show what kind of place this is: beach, station, church, park, cemetery, school...]
The chief examiner was Jiang Wenli!
A very famous actress in China and a teacher of acting at the Central Academy. Her performance as the doting mother begging Master Guan to accept her son in “Farewell My Concubine” was a career highlight and became part of the acting curriculum.
Her acting was exceptional, beloved by Chen Jin’s mother’s generation.
She starred in “The Grand Mansion Gate,” “Golden Marriage,” and “Chinese-style Divorce,” widely watched by parents born in the ’80s and ’90s.
“Tomorrow’s examiner might not be her, right?”
“And the theme might change…”
Chen Jin didn’t know if the preliminary exam theme was set by the examiner or was standard, so he couldn’t be sure.
After much consideration, for safety’s sake, Chen Jin decided to try the Random Role Experience Card to boost his acting confidence.
[Use Random Role Experience Card? Yes or No?]
“Yes!”
Chen Jin murmured. Suddenly, everything went black, and he immediately fell asleep.
It was as if he had been hypnotized!