Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 84 Don't you think it's weird?

Chu Ran saw the in-depth report in her dormitory.

Tian Xi forwarded it to her, along with a message: "The company put together an in-depth report, the data is really solid, you know?"

She was lying on the bed memorizing her lines, her phone tucked under her pillow. It vibrated twice but she ignored it. She only took it out on the third time, saw Tian Xiwei's message, and glanced at the report.

The data was indeed impressive. She read a few sections, and when she got to the part about "What Kind of Conduct," she knew exactly how many views it had and how high its Douban rating was. It was exactly the same as what was written in the script. After reading it, she put her phone aside and continued memorizing her lines.

The lines were from the last scene of "Ning An Ru Meng". She wasn't the lead in the play, but she still memorized them over and over again, but she always got stuck at the same spot.

She rolled over in bed, picked up the script, and started reading from the seventh line onwards. She paused at the end and then started again.

This scene was the last one to be filmed. Peng Bing said at the time that he wanted her to put all the effort into it. She didn't quite understand at the time, so they filmed it three times. On the third take, Peng Bing called "cut," but didn't say much. He just stood in front of the monitor for a while, stunned, before saying "That's a wrap."

She folded her script on the bed, pressed it to her chest, and stared blankly at the upper bunk for a while.

She was alone in the dormitory. Tian Xiwei had a physical education class today and wouldn't be back until eight o'clock. There were people chatting in the hallway outside. The voices came through the crack in the door. It was two classmates whose names she didn't know, talking about the end-of-week exams. The footsteps faded away in a short while.

She picked up her phone and replied to Tian Xiwei, "I saw it, I don't know."

Tian Xiwei replied almost immediately: "It's all because of our boss, Lao Zeng. He's going against Yang Shanshan's article. You really didn't know?"

Chu Ran read the message again and replied, "I really don't know."

"Okay." Tian Xi sent an emoji, paused for two seconds, and then added, "Have you eaten dinner yet? I want to go out for hot pot after my dance class."

Chu Ran glanced at the time; it was almost six o'clock, and she was still hungry. Her takeout for breakfast was still warm, and she'd only had a quick bite at the cafeteria for lunch. Her stomach was already growling. After thinking for a moment, she replied with two words: "Waiting for you."

She put down her phone, picked up the script from her chest, turned to the page, and started reading from the seventh line.

This time there was no hiccup.

She tossed her script aside, sat up, grabbed a hair tie to tie her hair up, took out her shoes from the drawer, put them on, picked up her schoolbag, and got out of bed.

My schoolbag contained two textbooks, a script, a voice recorder, and some loose change I'd forgotten to take out yesterday, all tucked at the bottom. As I went down the stairs, the coin bumped into the voice recorder, making a clinking sound.

The corridors of the Shanghai Theatre Academy were busiest at this moment. The physical education class had just ended, and a group of people poured out of the practice rooms. Some were stretching, some were chatting about what the teacher had said that day, and others were engrossed in their phones. She weaved through the crowd, and someone called out, "Chu Ran!" She turned around and saw a girl from her class, holding up her phone and saying, "Did you see that? The comments section of that report about your company is full of praise for your boss!"

"I've seen it," Chu Ran replied casually. "It's pretty good."

After saying that, he continued walking forward, casually pulling up the strap of his backpack.

She glanced at the in-depth report but remembered a detail—not data, but the last paragraph about artist signing strategies: "Focusing on long-term development with short-term monetization as a secondary goal." She had heard this before, not from this article, but sometime earlier, though she couldn't recall where she'd heard it.

Maybe it's what he said, or maybe he figured it out himself, anyway, it makes no difference.

She adjusted her backpack strap, stepped down the last step, and pushed open the dormitory building door. A gust of wind rushed in, carrying a chilly feel, blowing a few stray strands of hair around her ears before letting them fall back down.

She stood at the door for a second, then looked up at the sky. It gets completely dark after seven o'clock, and there was still a little afterglow left, cut into a few crooked pieces of light by the buildings, hanging in the sky.

She turned left to find the hot pot restaurant she had arranged to meet Tian Xiwei.

After walking about two hundred meters, my phone vibrated.

It was from him; it was just one sentence: "There's something of yours upstairs. Go get it before you eat."

She stopped and stood still, reading the message once, then again.

"What is it?" she replied.

There was no immediate reply; about forty seconds later, a message appeared: "Snacks."

She held her phone in her hand, stood on the road outside the Shanghai Theatre Academy dormitory building, and remained motionless for five seconds.

Then he turned around and walked back, pushed open the dormitory building door, went upstairs, pushed open the dormitory door that had just been closed, threw his backpack on the bed, and walked to the table.

On the table was a small brown paper bag. She hadn't seen it before, but she recognized it as a bag from the convenience store downstairs in the Sunshine Entertainment building. Zeng Hao often used this store for ordering takeout. The bag wasn't sealed, so she opened it and looked inside—there were two bags of her favorite potato chips, a can of hawthorn juice, and a bag of nuts. It was the brand she had casually mentioned last week while waiting in the interview room.

She remembered that time when someone next to her was eating this, and she said, "This stuff is delicious," just that one sentence, and then went in to record the interview, without taking it to heart at all.

She closed the bag and put it back on the table.

What a coincidence! It arrived just as I stepped out.

She put her schoolbag back on without finding it troublesome, happily slung the brown paper bag over her arm, went downstairs and out the door, then turned left to find Tian Xiwei.

One by one, the streetlights lit up, making the road brighter and warmer than before.

She didn't send a message to say thank you.

Tian Xiwei booked a small hot pot restaurant near the Shanghai Theatre Academy. It was crowded and smoky, so the two of them found a corner to sit facing each other.

"Don't you find it strange?" Tian Xiwei picked up a slice of tripe and put it into the pot, her eyes fixed on her. "The timing of that report was just too perfect, coinciding perfectly with Yang Shanshan's interview. There's no way it could be a coincidence!"

Chu Ran placed her chopsticks on the rim of her bowl: "You read Yang Shanshan's interview?"

"I saw it," Tian Xiwei said. "The words were vague, but the meaning was clear: the company's resources are being allocated unfairly, and there are all sorts of messy cooperation plans." She took out the blanched tripe and dipped it in sauce. "Does our company really have such a mess? My film hasn't even started shooting yet, I don't want to be caught off guard before I even get started—"

"Stop!" Chu Ran gestured for a pause. "I don't think the company should be run like this!"

"Okay," Tian Xi nodded slightly, "So our boss knew she was going to cause trouble and released this report beforehand to suppress it." She paused, "Why aren't you worried at all?"

"What's the panic?"

"With Yang Shanshan causing such a scene, how can your projects not be affected?"

Chu Ran picked up a slice of beef and put it into the pot, watching the slice slowly curl up in the broth: "He'll handle it."

She said those words without thinking at all; they just came out without her noticing. After she finished speaking, she even used her chopsticks to flip the meat over.

Tian Xi stared at her for two seconds: "Hehe...you seem to trust him quite a bit."

Chu Ran didn't reply. She scooped out the sliced ​​meat, dipped it in the sauce, and put it in her mouth.

The hot pot had a red broth and was moderately spicy. She specifically asked for it not to be too spicy, but it was still quite spicy. The hot and spicy sensation on her tongue suddenly surged up. She frowned, picked up the drink next to her, and took a sip to suppress it.

"You have snacks hanging on your arm," Tian Xiwei noticed the brown paper bag on her elbow. "Who got that for you?"

"I just grabbed it at the convenience store," Chu Ran said, taking the bag off and stuffing it under the chair. "Just something to tide me over before we eat hot pot."

Tian Xiwei said "Oh" and didn't ask any more questions.

Steam rose between the two, obscuring Tian Xiwei's face. The soup in the pot bubbled and boiled loudly, drowning out most of the conversations at the neighboring tables.

Chu Ran added a few more slices of meat to the pot, put the vegetables aside, and quietly stared at the boiling soup.

"What program did you choose for your final exam?" Tian Xi asked.

"It's a one-man show," Chu Ran said, "not finalized yet, we're still choosing the text."

"A one-man show?" Tian Xi raised her head slightly. "The teacher didn't require us to choose a one-man show."

"I'll choose this one."

Tian Xiwei twirled the chopsticks in her hand: "This is quite difficult."

"I know," Chu Ran said, "but I just want to try this level of difficulty. Trying something easy is much less interesting."

She genuinely felt this challenge was worth trying. She had been at the Shanghai Theatre Academy for over a year and had seen many people choose easy tasks. They could pass the easy ones without a problem, but every time she saw someone choose the most difficult task to perform on stage, she couldn't help but take a second look.

Tian Xiwei avoided the topic and didn't say much, instead picking up a piece of tofu and putting it into the pot: "Okay, good luck, you have to treat me to a meal after the exam."

"No problem," Chu Ran said, "Let's make a reservation first, and come back to this place."

Night had completely fallen outside, making the streetlights shine even brighter. The glass door of the hot pot restaurant was covered in condensation, making everything blurry when looking in from the outside, but when looking out from the inside, the streetlights illuminated the cracks in the sidewalk bricks clearly.

Chu Ran pondered the bag of snacks for a moment, then turned to Tian Xiwei across from her and asked, "What did you choose for your final exam?"

"Physical demonstration," Tian Xiwei said, "Let's choose something simple. My main concern this year is the physical education class, so let's get through this first."

"Is the teacher strict?"

"She's incredibly strict," Tian Xiwei said, "but she's strict for a reason." She paused, put down her chopsticks, and said, "Do you know how many times she made me redo today's dance class?"

"How many times?"

"Eleven times! Oh my god!" Tian Xiwei said, "Just the same action, eleven times, each time she just said 'Again,' without saying anything wrong, just two words 'Again.' After I finished the eleventh time, she just said one word 'Good,' and then let the next person do it."

Chu Ran looked at her: "And then?"

"Then I went back and drank two glasses of water," Tian Xiwei said calmly, "and then practiced the next move."

Neither of them uttered a sound. The soup in the pot bubbled and churned in silence, waves of steam rising to the surface.

Chu Ran picked up her chopsticks and scooped up a piece of vegetable from the pot: "I'll definitely come to your graduation presentation."

"By then, you'll probably have filmed several dramas," Tian Xiwei said, "Will you still be able to make time for me?"

"I have to make room for you," Chu Ran said. "I'll definitely save it for you."

……