The other problem would be another woman trying to charm Wei Keli.
The best example of that was Qin Murong.
It was clear that compared to her academic success, dating Wei Keli was more important for Yuan Keqing.
That was why, no matter what, she would never agree to study abroad.
She had to stay close to Wei Keli.
If she couldn’t attend Beijing University, then, at the very least, she had to remain in B City and attend one of the universities there.
Yuan Keqing paced back and forth, trying to think of a solution. She suddenly stopped and exclaimed to her mother, “Mom! I know! I’ll go to the NCU.”
“NCU?” Xu Mingjing was shocked. “NCU as in the National Cinema University?”
“Yes, that one!” Yuan Keqing nodded excitedly. “The NCU is in B City, so I don’t have to be far away from home. It’s also an arts-focused university and doesn’t have high requirements for science subjects. Even though my initial target was Beijing University, I also applied to other universities as well, including NCU. If you and Dad can’t get me into Beijing University, then NCU should be fine, right? It should be easier than Beijing University. Aunt Mingzhen only said that she didn’t want me to attend Beijing University, but she didn’t say anything about other universities, right? I’m sure she would allow it.”
“It’s true that it will be easy to get you into NCU, but why the sudden decision?” Xu Mingjing asked.
It was normal for her to be curious as Beijing University and the National Cinema University were two universities that had little in common.
“Mom, did you forget that Tan Mo is a famous scriptwriter now? She was the one who wrote the popular ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’. She even won the Best Script Award at the Tulip Awards for that.” Yuan Keqing went on, “Also, there’s Tan Jinqi. He’s studying under the famous Hou Yuehai, and we also saw how close he was with Director Liu at the Tulip Awards. Since he’s an assistant director now, it won’t be long before he starts directing his own work, right? And when he does, Tan Mo will definitely take care of his script. Now that we have a director and a scriptwriter in our family, it should be easy if I tried to be an actress.”
Yuan Keqing had already begun planning on how to use Tan Mo and Tan Jinqi in the future.
Her mother wasn’t as optimistic as she was. “But, do you think they’ll help you then? They didn’t even want to help you to get into Beijing University. What makes you think they’ll agree to give you a role in their projects?”
“That’s totally different,” Yuan Keqing said. “The reason they didn’t want to help me is that they would have had to ask President Mu to approve my application to Beijing University. They were afraid that Tan Mo would leave a bad impression because of that. The other problem was that if word of it ever got out into the public, it could ruin President Mu’s reputation. That’s why they didn’t want to help us.
Yuan Keqing took a sip of water before continuing, “Also, didn’t they say that finding teachers for the three brothers was completely different from getting me into Beijing University? Doesn’t this mean that if we ask them to help with something similar to the former, they will help us? I mean, I am not even asking them to help introduce me to another director. I wouldn’t mind working with Tan Jinqi. I don’t even want to play the main character. Just a supporting role is more than enough for me.”
The more Yuan Keqing thought about it, the more confident she was that the Tan family would help her.
“If they really don’t want to help us, then we’ll just pressure them with what happened about my exams. They still haven’t given us an explanation, so we’ll just make them give me a role as compensation.”
Now that Xu Mingjing had heard her daughter’s explanation, she realized that her daughter’s idea made a lot of sense.
The main reason they thought it would work was that giving Yuan Keqing a minor role wasn’t really important. It was something that either Tan Jinqi or Tan Mo could single-handedly decide.
The siblings would not have to ask any outsiders for help.
If Yuan Keqing were to study at the National Cinema University and become an actress, she could use the resources she had in her family, which were Tan Jinqi and Tan Mo.
“All right. Let’s tell your dad once he gets back tonight,” Xu Mingjing nodded. “It should be easy to get you into NCU.”
…
Tan Mo and Tan Jinqi had no idea that Yuan Keqing was planning to benefit from them in the future once again.
If they’d known about it, they would’ve straightaway told her to stop dreaming.
As Yuan Keqing made a decision where to study, Tan Mo had just arrived at Qin Muye’s place.
“Yeqing? You’re pretty early!” Tan Mo exclaimed when she noticed Ming Yeqing was already there.
“I just got here about five minutes ago,” Ming Yeqing replied with a smile.
“So, what’s your total score?” Tan Mo asked as she changed out of her shoes.
“We haven’t checked yet,” Qin Muye replied, pointing at her laptop on the table in front of her. “I wanted to wait for you both to arrive before checking. I’m too scared to look if you guys aren’t with me…”
She was afraid that she had failed the exam or that she would be short a couple of points to make it into Beijing University.
That would be more agonizing than failing it entirely…
“Should we do it now?” Tan Mo asked as she sat down next to Qin Muye.
Qin Muye nodded and set the laptop down on her lap.
“Don’t worry. Yeqing and I both saw how hardworking you’ve been,” Tan Mo said. “Also, didn’t your brother say you’d do fine?”
Everyone in the Qin family was extraordinarily smart, and Qin Muye was no different.
“We even gave you a lot of pointers to focus on. You’ll definitely make it.” Tan Mo smiled. “You know me, I’m just good at remembering things, but Yeqing is your typical genius and knows what to focus on. With how much he’s been teaching you, there won’t be a problem.”
“Thank God you’re here, Mo Mo.” Dong Hanbi let out a sigh of relief as she walked in. “She wouldn’t calm down no matter how hard I tried.”
Qin Muye took a deep breath and another one before steeling her nerves and saying, “All right. I’m checking it now…”
“Hurry up!” Tan Mo urged.
Qin Muye opened the lid of the laptop. It had already been turned on beforehand.
She unlocked it with her fingerprint and opened the internet browser.
Tan Mo noticed that Qin Muye had already made all the preparations as the first page that popped up was the result-checking page.
All Qin Muye had to do now was key in her examinee ID.
She took another deep breath and rested her hands on the keyboard. Her fingers were visibly trembling and sweating.
Qin Muye then rubbed her finger, feeling how wet it was.
Since Tan Mo had held her friend’s hand earlier, she knew the latter was already sweating. She quickly grabbed a piece of paper and said, “Here, rub your hands first. Take a deep breath.”
Qin Muye nodded and took the paper to rub her hands.
Tan Mo then took Qin Muye’s examination ticket and said, “I’ll read your ID for you. You just have to key it in now.”
Qin Muye nodded.
As Tan Mo spelled the ID out, Qin Muye repeated it on the webpage.
Tan Mo knew how important the moment was to her friend. Even when she’d already memorized the ID, she still read it out through the ticket.
She even covered the numbers that she’d said with another piece of paper to make sure she didn’t repeat any.
Being 100 percent accurate was her way of making Qin Muye as calm as possible.
After Qin Muye had entered the ID, Tan Mo said, “I’ll repeat it. Check to see if it’s correct.”
“Okay.” Qin Muye nodded.
Tan Mo then repeated the ID while Qin Muye checked on her screen.
