58. Back To School

Qi Le An opened his email and it was a PDF file sent by an unknown account. It must be Li Jian Jun. He politely replied thanks before he opened the file.

Chen Shan also came over to the screen to look at the outline with Qi Le An.

Unlike Chen Shan, Qi Le An immediately knew which drama this was on clicking open the file.

This was the first spy thriller that Sunshine Era had produced, it was called The Disguiser “. It was a story of the young master of a rich family who joined the Anti-Japanese War. The story was great, the character development was excellent, and the ratings were record-breaking.

Qi Le An beamed with smiles as he read the outline, he was more than willing to shoot this drama.

What was more, Yin Yin Yan was right. He could afford to go back to school now that he knew a great drama like The Disguiser was going to be his next drama.

The outline of the story wasn’t long and Chen Shan quickly finished. He said, “I’m not sure, An, it doesn’t stand out as much as I have expected. Do you want to take this risk?”

Qi Le An didn’t say anything.

Chen Shan was silent for a moment and then he said, “I thought about it this afternoon. You should go to school. Do the right thing at the right age. Why don’t we take this risk?”

Chen Shan’s brows were still furrowed. Qi Le An looked at him with disbelief, Chen Shan said, “But I don’t have to attend parents’ meetings for you when you are at school, do I? Is that a manager’s job?”

Qi Le An simmered with laughter.

And just like that, they had concluded. Qi Le An replied to Yin Yan the next morning. In the afternoon, he went to the studio to meet Yin Yan and he had brought several endorsement proposals that Chen Shan had found for him.

Chen Shan had got these endorsements for Qi Le An when he was shooting Better Days. They were a makeup line, a potato chips brand, and a laptop brand. Qi Le An wanted Yin Yan to pick one for him.

After Yin Yan finished reading all three proposals, his favorite was the laptop one.

“Image, image is important, kiddo, let’s go with the laptop, ” Yin Yan said, “This brand is not bad, my son also has one.”

Yin Yan handed over the matter to Chen Shan. Because this was an advertisement selected before Qi Le An joined Gale, Yin Yan wouldn’t even take a cut, he figured the only fair way was to hand it over to Chen Shan.

Qi Le An put another matter on his schedule while Chen Shan was busy contacting the laptop company.

That was to find a school.

Chen Shan handed a pile of booklets to Qi Le An and said angrily, “I didn’t expect that I would choose a high school for a kiddo already, I’m still so young! I thought this was something that I wouldn’t do in twenty years!”

Qi Le An cut some fruits for Chen Shan with a silly smile and said, “Who else can I rely on? My dear Chen Mama.”

Chen Shan rolled his eyes and asked, “I’m your Chen Mama now, you are relying on me now? Where is your Wei Sama when you are making such an important decision?”

Chen Shan sometimes was sharp-tongued, but he was glad to help Qi Le An. He had highlighted a few schools and said, “Let’s go to the best school now that you want to get a proper education. But you haven’t been to school before. I don’t think you can enroll in public schools, but if you are particularly interested in public schools, I can ask around.”

Qi Le An also felt that he couldn’t make it to the public schools. Although he studied hard when he was a trainee,… but public schools usually had a very high standard on scores.

“You can take a look at these two schools,” Chen Shan put two booklets in front of Qi Le An.

The first school Chen Shan chose for Qi Le An was a private school which was also his alma mater. It had got excellent faculty and great study atmosphere, scores weren’t the only thing that the teachers aim for, a lot of rich kids like Chen Shan would choose that school.

The good thing was Qi Le An didn’t have to worry about scores all the time, and he could also meet new friends whose families could potentially be his cooperative partners. The bad thing was the whole atmosphere was against his original intentions, he wanted to go to school to study, not to network.

The other school was the international department of the most famous high school in the city. The school valued English more than any other subject because the majority of the students would go abroad for further study. And this school’s reputation was better than Chen Shan’s old school.

“I think both of them are good. It’s up to you which school you like better. ”

Qi Le An couldn’t make up his mind, he could see the pros and cons at both schools. One was great for networking and the other one was great to master a language. He was no longer the innocent boy in his last life, he knew the importance of networking, but he didn’t want to give up the opportunity to learn English.

A tough call indeed.

Chen Shan obviously had weighed both schools as well, he couldn’t make up his mind either, so he decided to let Qi Le An pick.

“I have to go home this afternoon. Just feel free to contact me whenever you make up your mind. There’s no rush. It’s going to be winter holidays anyway.”

Qi Le An nodded. Now that they were on the same page about the drama and going back to school, the matter of picking a school was indeed not urgent.

After Chen Shan left, Qi Le An still couldn’t figure out which school was better. As luck would have it, his phone rang, it was the deliveryman. Qi Le An let out a sigh of relief and ran downstairs to get the package.

Qi Le An had received about 20 packages in the past few days, but to his surprise, this package was not something he bought for himself. He opened the package with curiosity, it was a book called 84 Charing Cross Road!

Qi Le An opened the book, what met his eyes was two lines of words on the preface: This is such a great book, I just finished it and I want to share it with you.

‘This is Wei Chang Feng’s handwriting!’ Qi Le An recognized it immediately.

He couldn’t wait to call Wei Chang Feng, and to his surprise, Wei Chang Feng picked up the phone soon.

Wei Chang Feng smiled and said, “Did you get the book?”

“Yeah, this is a nice surprise!” Qi Le An didn’t even notice the beamed with smiles as soon as he heard Wei Chang Feng’s voice.

The two of them chatted for a few minutes, Wei Chang Feng seemed to be very busy. Just as he was about to hang up, Qi Le An saw two booklets on the coffee table and couldn’t help saying, “Wei Sama, I can’t make up my mind on something.”

“What’s wrong?” Wei Chang Feng asked.

Qi Le An told him about the two schools. Wei Chang Feng thought about it and said, “Going to school is a good thing, it’s supposed to be pure. An, you’ve come this far, and now you decide to go back to school, I know that’s not an easy decision to make, why not allow yourself to be a student?

Qi Le An felt like that was such a wake-up call.

‘That’s right since I’ve decided to go to school, why don’t I allow myself to just be a student, this is about a second chance to get an education, not about networking, not about potential cooperative partners!’

After hanging up the phone, Qi Le An felt so awake and so pumped. He was now given a second chance to plan his own life, he was excited and worried at the same time.

Qi Le An decide to start all over, he would enroll as a freshman and he would aim for Beijing Film Academy.

In the next few days, Qi Le An signed the contract with the laptop company, and he visited the principal of the international department.

It was all thanks to Chen Shan and Yin Yin’s help, they were the reason why he could meet the principal. Although Yin Yan’s father-in-law had retired, the current principal was his student at university, so it was not hard for Yin Yan’s father-in-law to introduce Qi Le An to the principal.

The international department was different from normal high schools. After the principal understood Qi Le An’s situation, he said he was so glad that Qi Le An decided to pick them, but the rules were the rules, Qi Le An had to pass an entrance test before he could get enrolled. He also said subtly that the test was not going to be hard.

Chen Shan took a pile of tutoring materials from his cousin who was in high school and told Qi Le An to study hard during winter break.

Yin Yan had also introduced a few good tutors for Qi Le An, Qi Le An had buried himself in the books.

He had always been a good student, but he was technically a twenty-year-old man who had not touched any textbook for years, so his grades at the beginning were terrible.

However, after half a month of hard study, Qi Le An’s grades improved significantly. The tutor finally didn’t want to resign so much.

Qi Le An paid the tutor a handsome salary for he knew he had a lot to learn Qi Le An managed to go through all the textbooks for junior high school in a month.

At the end of January, Qi Le An started shooting the commercial for the laptop, it took him two days to shoot a ten-second commercial. Apart from the commercial, Qi Le An needed to shoot a large number of photos.

However, this endorsement solved Qi Le An’s urgent needs. He didn’t have much money left in his account, the rent and the tutor’s salary was no small amount. If it weren’t for this endorsement fee, he probably wouldn’t be able to pay the tuition fee for next semester.

Spring Festival was just a week away after Qi Le An finished his commercial.

In his past life, he spent every Spring Festival alone after his parents had passed away. Alone in the dormitory for the first few years, then alone in his rental. He would just turn on the TV and stayed up till late all by himself.

He didn’t have any plan this year either, but he wasn’t particularly sad about it, probably because he was used to it.

It was the 28th of the Chinese lunar month this day, the last day of tutoring. Qi Le An had prepared a red packet for his tutor. His timetable was so full, six classes per day.

Qi Le An gave the red packet to the tutor and thanked him for the hard work, then he finished two Biology examination papers. It was almost 9 p.m. when he finished reviewing his notes of that day, he did a bit of stretch and was about to go to bed when he got a call from Chen Shan.

“An, have you heard that Wei Chang Feng just had a car accident?”