Chapter 7: Spinning Leap

Cheng Jinzhi knew her way around a supermarket like the back of her hand. A few days ago, when Ah Hui threw his birthday party, she’d been the one in charge of shopping. Though an accident had happened—Ah Hui’s girlfriend had gotten into a fight with Ah Hui’s stepfather, and the party had ended badly. These past two days, Ah Hui’s stepfather had been contacting their classmates, apologizing and wanting to throw Ah Hui a make-up party.

Ah Hui’s stepfather treated Ah Hui quite well. It was Ah Hui who felt awkward about it, especially egged on by their group of rowdy friends, particularly Ah Hui’s girlfriend. Ah Hui’s girlfriend had also grown up in a blended family, just not as fortunate as Ah Hui.

“Mm, I understand, Uncle. Next week, right? Okay, if I have time, I’ll definitely come.” Cheng Jinzhi answered the call from Ah Hui’s stepfather.

Ah Hui’s stepfather was the CEO of the Qingteng Group. That kind of connection had to be maintained. Qingteng was still just an ordinary media conglomerate right now, but in a year or two, it would start adapting many web novels, ushering in the great IP era. Web novels came with built-in fanbases and marketing—a form of fan economy. Cheng Jinzhi had filmed several big IPs herself, romance and suspense alike, but all of them had flopped without exception. Many web novels had inherent problems with violence and explicit content—that was web writers’ way of grabbing attention—but those plot points certainly couldn’t go on the big screen. They’d fail censorship, get cut and rewritten, and slowly expose the story’s underlying thinness. Cheng Jinzhi, with her mediocre acting, had gotten shot down many times over, hung at the top of “please spare us” lists by the “original novel fans.” Cheng Jinzhi’s PR team was useless, mainly because they had no budget issues but no grounding in reality. The team leader once complained, “This novel itself isn’t even coherent,” which got him buried under an avalanche of abuse from online original-fans, with the cannons aimed directly at Cheng Jinzhi, the female lead.

Cheng Jinzhi—a woman who gathered ten thousand haters to herself. If you kept up with resources, you’d be famous in a black-and-red way. If you couldn’t keep up, like her, you’d slide from playing vicious supporting actresses to playing vicious mothers-in-law. Her persona was beyond reproach—it was just that audiences didn’t buy it.

Rong Si wasn’t as familiar with supermarket shopping as Cheng Jinzhi, but she moved at a relaxed pace. While Cheng Jinzhi was on the phone, Rong Si casually picked out items beside her. By the time Cheng Jinzhi hung up, Rong Si had almost finished choosing.

“Why didn’t you grab any snacks? What if you get hungry doing homework at night?” As she spoke, Cheng Jinzhi tossed quite a few high-calorie, high-carb snacks into Rong Si’s cart, making Rong Si’s heart skip. When Cheng Jinzhi turned her back to get drinks, Rong Si compared items and put most of them back.

“Hey? Where are your snacks?”

“I don’t like them.”

“You need to grow.”

“I’m past the age of growing.”

“Maybe you’ll still squeeze out another centimeter or two.” Cheng Jinzhi said.

“Eating these won’t make me grow.” Rong Si was quite patient.

“Really?” Cheng Jinzhi swept the snacks back into the cart.

Rong Si glanced at Cheng Jinzhi and finally understood—it was Cheng Jinzhi who wanted to eat them.

Ever since she’d gotten older, Cheng Jinzhi felt her digestion wasn’t what it used to be, so she rarely ate snacks. Now that she was back to being twenty, of course she wouldn’t pass up the chance to indulge. In her past life, she’d rarely eaten these either, for her figure’s sake. This life, she wouldn’t shortchange herself. Eat, drink, and be merry; sleep less at night and plant more trees.

“You have military training coming up. You should buy some skincare.”

“Mm.”

“The sun’s been pretty strong lately. If you want, I can get you leave.”

“No need.”

After finishing the supermarket trip with Rong Si, they had lunch together. Rong Si ate very little, just some salad.

“You’ve been walking this long and you’re not hungry?” In the face of silent Rong Si, Cheng Jinzhi felt like a chatterbox.

“I’m fine.”

“Keeping your figure?”

“Mm. I have a photoshoot this weekend.” Rong Si said.

Rong Si’s mind was a bit rigid. Here she was, this huge sugar mommy standing right in front of her, even opened an account for her, yet she still ran off to do part-time work. Huh? Cheng Jinzhi thought again. In her past life, she’d never noticed this side of Rong Si. Actually, come to think of it, she hadn’t slept with Rong Si that many times. Her heart had been all over Gao Yi. Whenever Gao Yi coaxed her, she’d go running back to be her secret lover. On Rong Si’s side, she’d just tossed a few roles her way. In the end, Rong Si had made her own way through hard work.

Back at school, Rong Si went straight to her class to report in. Cheng Jinzhi had just stepped into her own classroom when someone hooked an arm around her shoulder. The person was holding a pair of binoculars. “Eldest Miss, I saw everything.”

Gou Yu really was everywhere.

“What did you see this time?”

“I told you, you’ve found a new lover.” Gou Yu rested her chin on the binoculars, looking smug. “Xia You insisted you and Gao Yi were just fighting.”

“You two, standing guard at the door like a pair of door gods?” Teacher Wu Yi arrived, his voice deep and resonant.

“Hello, Teacher.”

“Don’t think about skipping class. Go sit up front.” Teacher Wu Yi casually tucked a textbook under his arm. “And you, Gou Yu, what are you running to the back for? Sit next to Cheng Jinzhi.”

Gou Yu had no choice but to pout and take the seat to Cheng Jinzhi’s right. On Cheng Jinzhi’s left was Xia You, who liked sitting in the front row. In college, aside from major courses, everyone preferred the back. Martial arts class was even a general requirement for their performance department.

“I’ll take attendance ten minutes before class ends. You can call over all those ‘in the bathroom’ and ‘overslept’ people. Anyone sick, bring me your medical records.” Teacher Wu Yi picked up a piece of chalk and drew a set of movements on the blackboard. He casually tossed the chalk onto the desk and blew the dust off his fingers. “Today, we’re learning the camera sense of martial arts performance.”

“Last class, I taught you the split movements. Who wants to demonstrate?”

Here we go again… That familiar classroom atmosphere. When a teacher called for answers, the vast majority of the class lowered their heads.

“Cheng Jinzhi, come up and show everyone.” Wu Yi glanced at the front row. “Gou Yu, stop laughing. Come up and assist Cheng Jinzhi.”

“Teacher, Jinzhi didn’t come last class. She…” Xia You spoke up, seemingly trying to help Cheng Jinzhi out.

“Didn’t come? Then ask a classmate. Is that the right attitude for a student?” Wu Yi shot Xia You a look.

Cheng Jinzhi had no choice but to raise her hands in surrender. “I’ll go.”

Cheng Jinzhi walked up to the podium, followed by a reluctant Gou Yu. Gou Yu felt she was a victim of friendly fire. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have gone to poke fun at Cheng Jinzhi.

“Threading Palm.” Wu Yi propped his elbow on the podium. “One chop, two press, three thread. The rhythm needs to be fast.”

Back then, when Teacher Wu Yi had invited her to film 《Embroidered Uniform Guard》, she’d pushed aside plenty of commercial gigs to study for almost half a year. Cheng Jinzhi thought about it—it had been a while, and she couldn’t quite remember the stances.

“Cheng Jinzhi, are you squatting in horse stance? What about the part after?”

“Turn right.” Xia You, sitting in the front row, mouthed to her.

Right, right. Cheng Jinzhi remembered. The upper body needed to turn forty-five degrees right, right hand withdraws to the waist, palm facing up, left hand from the waist down, back, up, and over the head to press down right, wrist bent with the palm flat at the inner right shoulder, hand angled forward and down. She’d practiced this basic set for a long time. Teacher Wu Yi had loaded her down with lead weights back then to give her strikes power.

Once she remembered, her body moved on its own.

“Jumping Whirlwind.”

Cheng Jinzhi took a breath and got into the ready position. The martial arts room was fairly large. She took a step, swung her arms, hopped, turned her body, and executed an inner crescent kick.

“Flip again.”

Cheng Jinzhi flipped easily, probably because her body was still young. When she’d first learned martial arts moves, she was already past thirty-five, and her coordination and flexibility had been shot.

“Three flips.”

At “three flips,” the class’s mocking gazes began to shift to surprise. Oh my god, Cheng Jinzhi could actually flip.

“Step forward, hook hand, horse stance, palm strike.” Wu Yi’s voice carried a hint of a smile. He was usually stern in class; it was rare to see a smile on his face.

“Gou Yu, move dismantling.” Wu Yi glanced at Gou Yu beside him.

Gou Yu stepped forward and began dismantling Cheng Jinzhi’s palms.

“Paired drill.” Wu Yi seemed to want them to run a combined sequence.

After a few exchanges, Gou Yu lost the rhythm and got caught by the back of the neck by Cheng Jinzhi.

“Teacher! You haven’t taught this move yet!” Gou Yu turned her head to look at Wu Yi, gasping.

“Enough.” Wu Yi glanced at Cheng Jinzhi.

Xia You, sitting in the front row, was already stunned by Cheng Jinzhi’s movements. She clapped her hands, and then the class joined in with rousing applause. “Damn, Jinzhi, you were hiding your talents!”

Wu Yi slapped the podium. “Upper and lower body disconnected, insufficient turn angle, uncoordinated movements—flaws everywhere. Whoever dares to cheer next, come up here.”

The moment Wu Yi’s voice fell, everyone quieted down instantly.

“Cheng Jinzhi, go back and practice the ‘turning jump’—the three-sixty-degree turn without leg techniques—to improve your body’s rotational ability.” Wu Yi said.

“Teacher, what about me?” Gou Yu pointed at herself.

“You go do stance training in the practice room after class. Your stance foundation is terrible. Anyone can see you slacked off during practice sessions, and you still have the nerve to ask me.”

Today was just unlucky. Avoid Cheng Jinzhi. Gou Yu did stance training until the middle of the night, got carried back to the dorm by her roommates, and wrote exactly that in her diary.

Rong Si had been in military training these past few days. Seeing the blazing sun, Cheng Jinzhi raised her little parasol and did her dainty steps to go watch the fun. I told you to take leave and you wouldn’t—now suffer. Also, Cheng Jinzhi had brought her camera. The sight of a Best Actress turned “charcoal” was worth commemorating.

But the moment Cheng Jinzhi entered the training ground, she saw Rong Si standing in the shade of a tree, training the new students.

What the hell? Wasn’t Rong Si a freshman?

Cheng Jinzhi’s arrival caused a small stir. When she reached Rong Si’s class, the trainees in formation started whispering and stealing glances at Cheng Jinzhi.

“Rong Si.” Cheng Jinzhi walked up to Rong Si, drawing out her voice to sound extra clingy. She wanted to see how black the little brat had gotten.

Rong Si had seen Cheng Jinzhi long ago, fluttering around like a colorful butterfly. Noticing her classmates peeking, Rong Si frowned slightly. “All of you, about face!”