Chen Hao made some inquiries and learned that the young girl had bought a few small courtyard houses just before Beijing housing prices skyrocketed in 2006, each costing only several hundred thousand yuan. Over the past few years, their value had multiplied many times over.
The courtyard house she gave him wasn't particularly large, but it was the closest one to the Film Academy—only about a ten-minute drive away—making it a convenient place to crash.
The young girl was quite generous and even wanted to leave her car behind for the uncle to drive, but Chen Hao felt her red Ferrari was too flashy. He decided to wait until her loan came through and buy one for himself.
Since the young girl had bought the courtyard purely as an investment and had never lived there, it was completely devoid of daily necessities, making it impossible for Chen Hao to move in right away. Therefore, she simply drove him over to take a look and then dropped him back off at the Film Academy.
As they reached the school gates, they happened to run into several of his brothers who were returning from grabbing skewers.
Fairy Sister greeted the guys openly and naturally, handed Chen Hao back to them, and then drove off in style.
"Haozi—no, Brother Hao, what's your relationship with Senior Sister Yifei?" As soon as the young girl's car drove out of sight, the three of them immediately grabbed Chen Hao, demanding a confession.
"No relationship at all. I'm just her fan, chasing stars." Chen Hao said seriously, spouting nonsense.
"Damn it, do you take us for fools? Since when does star-chasing involve getting picked up in her car and taken out to dinner?"
"It's true. Just wait a few days and you'll see."
Chen Hao's public persona truly was that of the young girl's fan—that was his dark history. But since he couldn't wipe away that past, he could only passively wait for it to be exposed.
The guys kept pestering him, leaving him no choice but to tell them that he and Fairy Sister had met a few years ago. As for the rest, they could just wait for the news to come out and find out for themselves.
In his past life, Chen Hao had been in Performance Class 3, and one of his roommates had managed to become a third-tier actor. This time, he was in Performance Class 2, and none of his current roommates would ever make a name for themselves in the industry.
It wasn't that he refused to befriend them just because they would remain nobodies. Rather, insiders and outsiders were different.
Even if insiders caught wind of any showbiz gossip, they wouldn't spread it carelessly because that was the rule; if you broke the rules, everyone would smash your rice bowl together.
However, if these brothers eventually left the industry, the rules would no longer apply to them, and they might chat away about gossip without any restraint.
Every word Chen Hao said to them ran the risk of being exposed later on, so he didn't want to say too much, let alone put on any airs of showing off.
Along the way, the guys kept probing, beating around the bush as they tried to figure out Chen Hao's family background. Was he from some powerful, wealthy family?
Chen Hao told them the honest truth: his family was just an ordinary household in a small county town.
The brothers grew more and more confused as they listened. With a background like yours, how on earth did you end up getting involved with Fairy Sister?
Back in the dorm, Chen Hao had a hard time shaking off his brothers before pulling out his laptop to search for profitable stocks.
Unfortunately, the timing was a bit off. There was indeed a bull market wave in 2009. In 2008, due to the global financial crisis, the government rolled out a four-trillion-yuan stimulus plan to vigorously boost the stock market, but that wave of gains was already coming to an end.
On the other hand, a few U.S. stocks were set for a massive surge in the coming months, but trading U.S. stocks required a trip to the United States or Hong Kong. Good grief, the semester had just started—what excuse could he possibly use to ask for leave?
As a performance major student, his only option was to use film and television as an excuse.
Chen Hao scratched his head. He had just told Fairy Sister not to rush into setting up a film and television company, and now he was going to dabble in film and television first. Would his dignified uncle persona be able to survive this?
***
During the freshman orientation meeting, Chen Hao glanced around the classroom. The only two female students he recognized were the one who played S Lili in *Joy of Life* and the one who played Wei Yingluo in *Story of Yanxi Palace*.
The top student of their cohort was Li Meng—the actress known for putting on airs and being notoriously difficult to work with. Her acting was undeniably good, but her personality was equally high-maintenance. The most famous person at this stage was Xie Yunshan, the child star Little Dingdang, who had once worked with Fairy Sister and played the young version of Yang Guo.
However, none of those top students were in their class. Their class was an appearance-focused class; their artistic literacy might be a bit lacking, but they all looked exceptionally good.
Class 3 was somewhat similar to the vocational classes, though the vocational classes had been canceled for this year and expanded into three undergraduate classes.
It was the same old routine of self-introductions followed by the election of class committee members, while Chen Hao played dead and refused to participate.
He had taken the exam for the Film Academy because his academic grades weren't good enough, but he still needed to attend some university to answer to his family. Besides, the Film Academy offered a relatively flexible schedule, which was why he came here to study.
Still, he didn't want to waste too much time at school. He had already attended classes for several years in his past life, learning everything he needed to learn, so there was no point in going through it all over again.
The head teacher of Performance Class 2, where Chen Hao was placed, was Tao Enran, who would later change her name to Ma Xiaojing.
She was also a senior from the Film Academy, one year junior to Fairy Sister as part of the Class of 2003. After graduation, she stayed at the school to mentor a cohort of vocational students. Having seen off the Class of 2007 vocational students last semester, she was now assigned to lead Chen Hao's class.
After the meeting ended, Chen Hao stopped Teacher Tao and told her that he had a movie to shoot and needed to ask for leave.
"Asking for leave right at the start of the semester? Don't tell me you're trying to dodge military training?" Teacher Tao asked with a frown.
As for Chen Hao's claim about having a movie to shoot, she didn't believe it for a second—that was a cliché excuse used by everyone. Those with connections could simply find some crew to run errands as extras, and even that would count as joining a production.
Chen Hao was left torn between laughter and tears. He had genuinely forgotten about the military training, but since military training was indeed a major distraction, he had even more reason to ask for leave.
"Teacher, barring any accidents, I'll be playing the male lead, and the female lead is Liu Yifei. I'll have the production crew or Senior Sister Yifei come to the school to issue a certificate." Shamelessly, Chen Hao dropped Fairy Sister's name to bolster his position.
Teacher Tao studied Chen Hao closely for a few moments. What kind of background did this guy have? He was just debuting and already getting Liu Yifei to co-star with him?
Since Chen Hao dared to say such a thing, she figured he probably wasn't lying. If he were lying, he would be exposed in no time, and nobody would go to such lengths just to skip military training.
It could only mean that this guy had deep connections. But if his background was so deep, how did he end up in Class 2? Was he playing the pig to eat the tiger?
"What kind of movie is it? Yifei is an international star now, so the investment must be quite substantial, right?"
Teacher Tao was no naive innocent; she was cut out for administration and asked her questions with great skill.
In a couple of years, she would take the civil service exam and become a prominent police officer in the SWAT unit. Then, she would transform once again, returning to the Film Academy to become the Deputy Secretary of the Youth League Committee and Deputy Minister of the United Front Work Department, ascending into the school's leadership ranks and pulling off consecutive career leaps in just a few years.
Her seemingly innocent question about the budget was actually a probe to test Chen Hao's influence over the film. If he were just a minor actor, he wouldn't have access to any behind-the-scenes secrets at all.
Chen Hao was an old hand at this and caught Teacher Tao's subtext, but since he also wanted to show a bit of his edge, he answered honestly, "This movie will probably be filmed in Hong Kong, so the investment shouldn't be small."
Teacher Tao understood. As expected, it was all due to resources from this guy's family. Was his family wealthy, or powerful?