Huayu93: From Selling Magnetic Cards to Entertainment Tycoon

Chapter 51 Zhang Ziyi Zhang Jing

Li Si'an placed the textbook on the counter, her face expressionless.

"That was all in elementary school."

"Elementary school?" Chen Nan laughed even harder. "You weren't much better in junior high. If your uncle hadn't gotten you into the Affiliated High School of Beijing Dance Academy, you probably wouldn't have even gotten a junior high diploma."

She picked up her teacup, took a sip, and pointed at Li Si'an with her finger.

"Now you're telling me you want to go to university? Beijing Normal University? Did Tang Yun give you something?"

Li Si'an leaned against the counter, arms crossed, just watching her laugh. Only after Chen Nan had finished laughing did he slowly speak.

"Sister Nan, you wait here."

Chen Nan wiped away tears of laughter. "Waiting for what?"

"After I finish my exams, I'll slam the acceptance letter in front of you. Don't be surprised if your eyes pop out then."

Chen Nan stared at him for two seconds, then smiled.

"Fine, I'll wait. I want to see how someone who was second to last in elementary school can get into Beijing Normal University."

Li Si'an ignored her, opened the math textbook, and leaned against the counter to read it.

Chen Nan and Tang Yun exchanged a glance. Tang Yun shrugged, meaning, "I can't help it." Chen Nan shook his head, took out the account book from his bag, and began to reconcile the accounts.

The shop quieted down, with only the sound of turning pages and Chen Nan pressing the calculator.

The sun at the end of June shone through the shop window, falling on the rows of cassette tapes on the shelves, their colorful covers gleaming.

On the afternoon of the third day, the wind chimes at the shop entrance rang once.

Li Si'an was working on a function problem on the counter when she looked up and saw someone standing in the doorway.

Zhang Ziyi.

She was wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt, denim shorts, and sandals.

Her hair was tied in a ponytail, revealing her entire face. It was still the same face, except—it was a shade darker.

"Hey, Zhang, you're so tanned!" Li Si'an put down her pen. "Did you come back from Yunnan or a coal mine? How come you're so dark?"

"Get lost." Zhang Ziyi threw her handbag on the chair, plopped down, poured herself a glass of water, and gulped down half of it. "The sun in Kunming is much stronger than in Beijing."

"Aren't you filming in the hospital room every day? Does the sun shine in the hospital room too?"

"The hospital scenes were filmed indoors, but I still had to go outside, right? The film set is so big, from the makeup room to the studio, from the studio to the cafeteria, every stretch of road is exposed to the sun."

Zhang Ziyi put the cup on the counter and said, "The sun in Yunnan is so strong that you won't even need to ask to get a tan. You'll get tanned just by being in the sun a little bit."

Li Si'an looked her face over carefully and said with a mischievous smile:

"The sun in Yunnan has been pretty good to you, only giving you a wheatish tan, though not very evenly. But at least it's better than having two patches of red on your face from the high altitude, right?"

Zhang Ziyi imagined what her face would look like with two patches of red from the high altitude, and couldn't help but shudder.

Tang Yun came downstairs and saw Zhang Ziyi; her eyes lit up.

"You're back?"

"You're back!" Zhang Ziyi stood up, and the two of them chattered away, one saying, "You've lost weight," and the other saying, "You've gotten fairer," as if they hadn't seen each other for years.

Li Si'an leaned against the counter and waited for them to finish chatting before speaking.

"Have you finished filming?"

"No, not yet." Zhang Ziyi sat down, crossed her legs, and said, "I'm back for the college entrance exam. I have to go back after it's over."

Li Si'an was taken aback. "Give it back? Didn't you say the Beijing movie hadn't been filmed yet?"

"When I said 'go back,' I meant going back to the film crew in Beijing." Zhang Ziyi rolled her eyes at him.

"Filming in Kunming has wrapped up, and the rest of the scenes are in Beijing. I'll be joining this crew right after my college entrance exams; I'm not going back to Kunming."

Li Si'an responded with an "Oh." "That's alright. I thought you'd have to fly back to Yunnan after your exams."

"Why fly to Yunnan? I'm exhausted." Zhang Ziyi waved her hand. "The director told me to finish the college entrance exam first, and then focus on filming. Strike while the iron is hot, don't give me a chance to catch my breath."

Li Si'an leaned back in his chair and looked her up and down.

"You've been filming for over a month, haven't you read a single word of the book?"

Zhang Ziyi's expression froze for a moment.

"I'm back now... there are still about ten days left."

"How many points can you get on your math test in ten days or so?"

Zhang Ziyi hesitated for a moment, then her voice trailed off.

"The director told me... he would try to use his connections at the Central Academy of Drama to see if he could lower the admission score further."

As she spoke, she became embarrassed and touched her nose.

"If the cutoff score could be lowered a bit, I think I should be able to pass the college entrance exam... I should be able to pass."

Li Si'an chuckled. "Going through the back door?"

"What do you mean by 'using connections'!" Zhang Ziyi glared at him, but her confidence was clearly lacking. "This is called... this is called handling special cases specially. I'm filming, how can I have time to review?"

Li Si'an leaned against the counter, watching her with a smile, without saying anything. Zhang Ziyi felt uncomfortable under his gaze and quickly changed the subject.

"Alright, alright, stop talking about me. What about you? What have you been busy with lately?"

"He's also taking the college entrance exam," Tang Yun suddenly said from the side.

Zhang Ziyi turned her head and stared at Li Si'an for two seconds. Then her expression was exactly the same as Chen Nan's—her mouth stretched from ear to ear.

"You? Taking the college entrance exam?"

Li Si'an leaned back in her chair and remained silent.

"How long has it been since you last read a book?" Zhang Ziyi laughed as she spoke.

"When we were studying together, you were the teacher and we were the students. But you were the one teaching us math."

The college entrance exam doesn't just test math; it also includes Chinese, English, politics, and history. Have you reviewed those?

Li Si'an looked at her and waited until she had finished laughing before slowly speaking.

"Happy Zhang, even if I don't read books anymore, I'm still your teacher."

He picked up the math textbook from the table and waved it in front of her.

"Do you still want to study math?"

Zhang Ziyi's smile froze on her face. She opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but found that she really didn't have much confidence—this person in front of her had been explaining math problems to her for the past few months.

Regardless of his performance in other subjects, he was indeed her teacher in mathematics.

"Well..." her tone softened, "then could you explain it to me again? I was in Yunnan for over a month, and I've forgotten all my math."

Li Si'an put the textbook on the counter, leaned back in her chair, and crossed her legs.

"Okay. Call me teacher."

Zhang Ziyi glared at him, and after a long pause, squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth.

"Teacher...!"

Tang Yun burst out laughing from the side.

Li Si'an nodded in satisfaction and turned to the chapter on functions in her textbook.

"Have a seat. Today we'll be discussing the monotonicity of functions."

Zhang Ziyi pulled up a chair and sat down, taking out paper and pen from her bag. Tang Yun also sat down, and the three of them sat around the counter.

The sun at the end of June shone through the shop window and fell on the crumpled math textbook on the counter.

The shop was quiet, with only Li Si'an explaining the problems and Chen Nan taking inventory of the tapes in the warehouse.