FIMA Ch29: Guidance

Two minutes later.

The door to Gu Siyuan’s office was knocked again.

Although he had previously agreed to give Xie Jinzhao private lessons, that was official business. With his personality, it was naturally impossible for him to just sit there wasting time, idly waiting for the person to arrive.

At this moment, he had habitually opened his email and was grading students’ theses.

Hearing the sound, he slightly raised his head and responded, “Come in.”

Before coming here, Xie Jinzhao had heard from the vice director that a very talented lecturer in the department had agreed to give him lessons.

He was actually quite excited, but the moment they locked eyes, he was completely stunned.

First, because this talented lecturer who was going to teach him was actually Gu Siyuan.

Second, because Gu Siyuan was actually wearing glasses.

To be honest, the second point shocked him even more than the first.

From their very first meeting, Gu Siyuan had given him the impression of a super pretentious, cold-faced hero; every part of him was cold and hard.

But now, with these glasses on—the lenses were very thin, not wide or round, with fine silver rims resting on his tall, straight nose bridge—his dark, profound eyes seemed to be covered by a layer of light gauze, and the sharp, cold contours of his face were also slightly obscured. The biting coldness all over his body was thus neutralized by half, giving off a faint scholarly vibe, yet making his aura even more mysterious and profound.

It wasn’t Gu Siyuan’s first time seeing Xie Jinzhao space out in front of him, but it was the first time he noticed that this daze carried an unconcealable, lovestruck infatuation.

He narrowed his eyes: “The indoor light is being completely blocked by you.”

“Oh, sorry.” Xie Jinzhao jolted awake, practically jumping as he hurriedly stepped aside.

Although he wasn’t considered exceptionally tall in the entertainment circle, he was still 179 cm. Standing in the narrow doorway, the room indeed darkened considerably.

Gu Siyuan let go of his mouse and said to him flatly, “Please take a seat.”

“Thank you.” Xie Jinzhao immediately and obediently moved to the sofa against the right wall and sat down. His back was straight, and his hands were placed on his lap, looking exactly like an elementary school student.

Watching the person’s demeanor, that inexplicable sense of familiarity slowly welled up in Gu Siyuan’s heart again.

He furrowed his brows slightly and got straight to the point: “Since you want private tutoring, do you have any specific requirements for the direction of the lessons? Dialogue, expressions, eye acting… or should we start directly from the beginning, checking for gaps and conducting targeted training based on my assessment?”

Xie Jinzhao thought for a moment, then said sincerely and respectfully: “I’ll listen to you.”

Gu Siyuan nodded: “And the class schedule?”

Xie Jinzhao continued respectfully: “Whatever is convenient for you. For the next two months, apart from needing to record one guest appearance on a variety show and a few commercial events, I basically have no work. Um… if something comes up temporarily, I will discuss it with you in advance.”

Gu Siyuan nodded.

He was indeed a relatively obedient and polite person.

Right at this moment, Xie Jinzhao suddenly raised his hand and asked, “However, Teacher, can we hold the classes at my house?”

“…I moved to a new place a few days ago.”

As if afraid of being rejected, he quickly added another sentence.

Sure enough, Gu Siyuan looked up at him. His gaze, transmitting through the cold lenses, appeared even more icy and transparent.

For some reason, Xie Jinzhao actually felt a wave of guilt being looked at like this.

He hurriedly explained: “It’s just… when I came over just now, it already attracted a crowd of students looking at me. So if I come and go frequently in the school later on, I’m afraid it won’t be very convenient.”

“Mn, that’s fine.” Gu Siyuan’s expression remained unchanged, his voice cool: “What’s your number?”

Xie Jinzhao almost reflexively answered: “186xxxxxxxx.”

But as soon as he finished reciting it, he immediately couldn’t help but curse himself internally. That was way too fast. He probably didn’t even hear it clearly, let alone write it down.

…Why is it that every time this person sweeps his gaze over me, I can’t help feeling guilty, as if I’m terrified he’s going to sneer and start mocking me in the next second?

…Did I get mocked by this guy in a past life and develop psychological trauma?

Xie Jinzhao raised his head, just about to slowly recite the number again, when he saw the slender fingers of the man behind the desk moving lightly. Then, his own phone buzzed—it was impressively a friend request on WeChat.

Xie Jinzhao extended a slender, pale finger and pressed ‘Accept’, while secretly muttering: Having a good memory is really amazing, huh…

It was a bit past 2 PM when Xie Jinzhao arrived at the Film Academy. After delaying a bit here and there, it was already past 4 PM.

It would soon be time for students to finish class and hunt for food. Not daring to stay any longer, he proposed taking his leave.

Gu Siyuan smoothly stood up as well.

Xie Jinzhao froze: “No need to be so polite, I can go down by myself.”

Gu Siyuan took off the glasses on his nose bridge, the corners of his lips curving up slightly: “I’m heading out too.”

“Oh,” Xie Jinzhao puffed his cheeks.

Then, he obediently waited to the side, watching Gu Siyuan turn off the lights, cut the power, and close the office door. Then, he followed behind him, stepping on his shadow, practically skipping downstairs.

He was probably having too much fun and got completely absorbed, so much so that he didn’t realize Gu Siyuan’s footsteps were also gradually slowing down to match his rhythm.

It wasn’t until they walked to the parking lot that Xie Jinzhao snapped out of it.

I was clearly the one who was supposed to leave first, so why did I follow behind Gu Siyuan the whole way in a daze, like a little eunuch…

Bah… doesn’t that make Gu Siyuan the emperor?

Xie Jinzhao couldn’t help but glance at the person diagonally in front of him again. Under the faint yellow sunset, his profound and handsome side profile seemed plated with a layer of radiance. His back was tall and straight, radiating a boundless, cold, and steady aura that made people want to keep a respectful distance.

Hmph, he acts even more like an emperor than an actual emperor…

Xie Jinzhao couldn’t resist making a face at his back.

Gu Siyuan had always been sharp. From the corner of his eye, starting from when they walked downstairs, he had noticed all of this guy’s little movements the entire way.

He turned around, raising his eyebrows slightly: “Is there something you need?”

“Ah…” Xie Jinzhao’s eyes darted around. Suddenly, his gaze brightened. He took a few quick steps to his own car, gave a bow toward Gu Siyuan in front of him, and said, “Goodbye, Teacher Gu!”

After saying that, without waiting for Gu Siyuan’s reaction, he directly pulled open his car door, ducked inside, stepped on the gas, and left in a cloud of dust.

Gu Siyuan shook his head, letting out a soft chuckle.

Cowardly, yet loves to provoke.

After watching Xie Jinzhao’s car disappear from sight, Gu Siyuan immediately drove his own car and left as well.

The reason he left school so early today was because he had received a long-lost phone call from the original owner’s biological mother, asking him to return to the Gu family home for dinner.

He had refused, but failed.

The Gu family’s villa occupied a massive area. In this capital city where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, it naturally couldn’t be located in the city center, and thus was very close to the suburbs. Driving there from the Film Academy, even avoiding the evening rush hour, took nearly an hour.

By the time Gu Siyuan walked in the door, the sky was mostly dark.

Gu Hongxuan and Eldest Brother Gu were customarily not home, probably out working or socializing somewhere.

Inside the house, Second Brother Gu, Third Brother Gu, and his maternal half-brother Gu Xiaosi (Fourth Brother) were all present. Additionally, there were two uninvited guests, Qi Ran and Qi Run. All of them were raising their glasses and drinking, enjoying themselves thoroughly.

Seeing his arrival, apart from Gu Xiaosi who was still stuffing his face with food, everyone else’s gazes grew heavy.

Acting as if he hadn’t noticed, Gu Siyuan merely nodded and said flatly: “I’m late.”

His attitude made people look at him sideways.

After all, in the eyes of everyone present, Gu Siyuan had always been submissive, gloomy, and cowardly. When had he ever been so imposing? He was practically a completely different person from before.

Qi Ran even stared at him several times.

“What massive airs, making us wait every single time,” Third Brother Gu couldn’t help but sneer coldly.

From childhood to adulthood, he was also the one who bullied the original Gu Siyuan the most.

Acting as if he hadn’t heard, Gu Siyuan walked straight to the only empty seat and sat down.

Mother Gu couldn’t help but tug at the corner of his clothes, scolding softly: “Was the traffic bad today? Didn’t I let you know in advance? Why are you still so late?”

Hearing this, Gu Siyuan glanced at her and said coldly: “Let’s just say it was.”

Mother Gu frowned: “You child, why are you so insensible? Everyone was waiting for you…”

Seeing this, Third Brother Gu sneered: “Who are you putting on this ‘Liu Bei punishing his son’ act for?” (TN: A Chinese idiom referring to a performative punishment meant to appease onlookers).

Mother Gu’s expression changed. She hurriedly said, “Wenrui, you misunderstood.”

“Indeed a misunderstanding. I’ve also never seen a situation where the wine is drained and the food is half-eaten… yet it’s still considered ‘waiting for someone’,” Gu Siyuan wiped his fingers, his voice icy.

As soon as these words came out, before anyone else could react, Mother Gu swung a slap at him first: “How are you speaking?”

But Gu Siyuan was naturally not someone to take a beating for nothing.

Using slight force, he caught Mother Gu’s wrist and made her sit down, saying flatly: “Mother, make your movements smaller when getting up, you almost hit me.”

Mother Gu’s expression changed several times, glaring at Gu Siyuan with eyes filled with fire: “You… you…”

At this time, Second Brother Gu, who always had a good reputation, finally said slowly: “Auntie, since Siyuan is already here, don’t fuss over it so much, let him eat properly.”

Sitting below him, Qi Ran also smilingly smoothed things over: “Yes, Brother Siyuan works at the school. It’s graduation season recently, so he must be swamped with grading theses and such. His schedule definitely isn’t as flexible as ours.”

Hearing this, Gu Siyuan suddenly looked up, let out a soft chuckle toward Qi Ran, and took out his phone.

Qi Ran froze slightly. He hadn’t expected that after Gu Siyuan had supposedly gone crazy, his smile would actually become so… so captivating.

Seeing Qi Ran’s reaction, Third Brother Gu couldn’t help but sneer: “Ah Ran, you’re still speaking up for him. This guy completely fails to appreciate kindness, and you still have the nerve to say he stayed at school to grade theses? Knowing full well that Ah Yuan was introduced by you, he actually deliberately made Ah Yuan delay his graduation. When the time comes, Ah Yuan is definitely going to be criticized to death by those plebs on the internet again.”

The Gu family, Qi Ran, and the Chen family were all people from the same circle. The second generation of these families naturally knew each other from childhood and had deep relationships. Especially Qi Ran, as the group-pet protagonist, practically everyone loved him, and even this spoiled rich kid, Third Brother Gu, was no exception.

“Did such a thing happen?” Second Brother Gu also said warmly, “Siyuan, the Chen family are all acquaintances of ours. You should still exercise some discretion when handling matters. Otherwise, if Dad finds out, it won’t be easy to explain.”

Right at this moment, Gu Siyuan put down his phone, looked up at these three people, and said slowly: “No need for ‘when the time comes’. I already posted it.”

“Ah…” Qi Ran, Second Brother Gu, and Third Brother Gu were all slightly stunned, not knowing what he was suddenly talking about.

The corners of Gu Siyuan’s mouth curved slightly as he said word by word: “I said, I’ve already posted Chen Yuan’s thesis and attendance records on the internet.”

Qi Ran directly stood up from his chair: “Are you crazy! Are you trying to get Ah Yuan killed?”

“You… you… you really are crazy.” Third Brother Gu also hadn’t expected that he had just taken out his phone to do such a thing. He was simply dumbfounded.

Was this forever “yes-man” Gu Siyuan driven crazy, hence this sudden rebellion?

Wouldn’t this cause the Chen family to have conflicts with their Gu family?

One must know, there were precedents of stars being ruined over graduation theses, and it could even implicate a large group of people as a result.

Second Brother Gu’s gaze also turned over.

He, who rarely looked Gu Siyuan in the eye, now had a gaze full of dissatisfaction and anger towards him.

He wasn’t very familiar with Chen Yuan and didn’t care what happened to him next. The actions of a stepson like Gu Siyuan obviously wouldn’t impact the relationship between the Gu and Chen families; at worst, they would just kick Gu Siyuan out.

But Gu Siyuan’s action just now was done after he had spoken up to advise him. This was a provocation to his authority, something he absolutely could not tolerate.

Right at this moment, Qi Run suddenly spoke up: “Did he post it on Weibo? Siyuan shouldn’t have many followers on Weibo. There’s still time to delete it now; probably not many people have seen it.”

Qi Ran also snapped out of it and hurriedly said: “Right, right, hurry up and delete it.”

Second Brother Gu also nodded: “Go delete it. It’s just a few words of dispute, no need to blow it out of proportion.”

Mother Gu even reached out her hand, trying to snatch his phone directly.

Gu Siyuan casually picked up his phone, his eyes narrowing slightly as he slowly spat out a few words: “I didn’t post it. I was just tricking you guys.”

The group of people first felt a wave of relief, followed by a much deeper, thicker anger. “You lunatic!”

How dared this guy, how dared he… play them like this?

The way they looked at Gu Siyuan, they practically wanted to swallow him alive.

“However, next time might not be a sure thing. So, I would ask everyone to stop here, don’t do any unnecessary things, and don’t let me hear any more ugly words.” Gu Siyuan stood up, pushed back his chair, and gave a slight nod: “I’m full. Take your time eating, everyone.”

At the end of the table, Gu Xiaosi looked at Gu Siyuan with a gaze full of worship.

Awesome, that was incredibly awesome.

His brother usually looked so useless, but to think just a few casual words could enrage Second Brother and Third Brother like that, and even leave their mom unable to do anything to him.

He wanted to learn that too.

…

Having angered those people half to death, Gu Siyuan was clearly in a very good mood.

Especially after returning home to see his stock account, and receiving a notification from Cheng Ou.

Cheng Ou stated that after half a month of invested research, the company’s technological achievements had been initially demonstrated.

He was going to invite a few partners to come visit soon.

After that, they could probably start slowly turning a profit, and the technology would continuously be refined and improved through use.

Gu Siyuan had a good night’s sleep smelling of money.

The arrival of the second day made his happiness continue and even double.

Gu Siyuan scheduled Xie Jinzhao’s class times very tightly, leaving no transitional period at all; they were starting directly this afternoon.

Following the address Xie Jinzhao sent over WeChat, Gu Siyuan arrived at a brand-new residential complex.

It was very close to both the Film Academy and his own residence, only a ten-minute drive away.

Before setting off, Gu Siyuan had sent Xie Jinzhao a text.

When he reached the complex gate, he saw a person dressed in all black—fully armed with a hat, mask, and sunglasses, looking like a beekeeper—standing by the security booth, looking around.

Gu Siyuan slowly glided over and rolled down his window.

Seeing the familiar Audi driving over, Xie Jinzhao took off his sunglasses, revealing a small, palm-sized, pale face.

Without needing an invitation, he directly opened the door and sat in the passenger seat. Then, he stuck his head out and said to the security guard: “This is the teacher I hired. He’ll probably be coming every day for the next two months. Please register his license plate.”

The security guard nodded.

Under Xie Jinzhao’s directions, Gu Siyuan parked the car in the underground garage.

And after entering Xie Jinzhao’s home, he acted more like the owner than Xie Jinzhao himself. He sat directly on the sofa, his very first sentence being: “Do you have any ready-made scripts on hand?”

Xie Jinzhao placed the freshly poured warm water on the coffee table and nodded: “I do.”

Although the broadcast situation of his last drama wasn’t very good, his buzz and traffic were still there.

Every month, the script invitations sent to his email numbered in the dozens, if not hundreds.

He had done a preliminary screening of a portion of them, and for a few that he favored more, he had even printed out hard copies.

Although he had only moved into this house a few days ago, everything had already been put in order.

Xie Jinzhao went into the study and brought out about six or seven physical scripts: “Because it’s still in the invitation stage, the production teams only provided the synopsis and the scripts for the first two or three episodes. These are the ones I felt were relatively better after reading them.”

“Mn, which means you’ve finished reading all of these, right?” Gu Siyuan glanced at him and directly picked up the top one to browse through.

“Yes,” Xie Jinzhao replied.

“Good,” Gu Siyuan nodded.

He flipped through the script in his hands extremely quickly; in Xie Jinzhao’s eyes, it looked no different than not reading it at all.

Then very quickly, Gu Siyuan swapped to another one.

About five minutes later, he handed the script in his hand to Xie Jinzhao, pointing at a certain page with a pen: “This segment, act it out for me now.”

“Ah…” Xie Jinzhao was slightly bewildered.

Gu Siyuan leaned lazily against the sofa back, undid his cuffs, and rolled his shirt sleeves up a bit, revealing his strong, slender forearms: “Didn’t you say you’ve read all the scripts? What’s the problem?”

To be honest, Xie Jinzhao was quite afraid of losing face in front of Gu Siyuan.

He didn’t know why. He was usually someone who didn’t care much about others’ opinions, but in front of Gu Siyuan, he suddenly felt heavily burdened by his image.

Even though this was only their third time meeting.

But when he looked up and met Gu Siyuan’s firm, icy gaze, Xie Jinzhao knew he had absolutely no room to refuse.

“No problem.” Xie Jinzhao took the script and read it over seriously once more.

The script in his hand was an ancient costume suspense idol drama. The segment Gu Siyuan highlighted was the first meeting between the male and female leads.

He hadn’t expected that someone as cold and stiff as Gu Siyuan would actually choose this kind of script and this kind of romantic scene for him to try.

The plot involved 300,000 taels of silver dispatched by the Ministry of Revenue to Shandong for drought relief. During the on-site silver counting and handover to the Censorate, it was discovered that only 50,000 taels were real silver; the rest were all copper and lead plated with an outer layer of silver.

With 250,000 taels of silver vanishing into thin air, the Minister of Revenue was almost scared to death on the spot. Hearing of this, the Censorate didn’t hesitate for a moment, going straight into the palace to report to the current Emperor.

The Emperor was furious and ordered the Jin Yi Wei (Embroidered Uniform Guard) to assist the Three Judicial Offices (Censorate, Ministry of Justice, and Court of Judicature and Revision) in investigating this official silver theft and exchange case.

Preliminarily, there were two possibilities for the silver swap.
One: The official silver was secretly swapped while sealed in the Ministry of Revenue’s vault.
Two: There was already a problem before the official silver entered the Ministry of Revenue. This batch of swapped silver was originally the autumn tax handed over by the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commissioner last year.

But regardless of whether it was one or two, the Ministry of Revenue couldn’t escape the blame; the charge of negligence was inescapable.

As the Commander of the Jin Yi Wei, the male lead received imperial orders to investigate the internal situation of the Ministry of Revenue.

However, after arresting a batch of relevant personnel in the Ministry of Revenue—several of whom even died unable to withstand the torture—there was still no major breakthrough, and they couldn’t find the mastermind behind the scenes.

On this day, the servant of a Director from the Sichuan Department within the Ministry of Revenue came to the Shuntian Prefecture Yamen to report a case, saying his master had drunk too much last night, fell into a well, and drowned.

But the young miss of the household didn’t believe it, insisting her father was murdered, and made him come report the case.

No matter how he died, recently, due to the official silver theft case, everyone in the capital was jittery, and no one wanted to touch anything related to the Ministry of Revenue.

Under these circumstances, the female lead—as a newly arrived coroner at the Shuntian Prefecture Yamen—had the “honor” of following a few normally ostracized judges and constables to the Ministry of Revenue Director’s home to investigate the case.

Then, through an autopsy, the female lead proved that this Director was indeed murdered, and even helped point out a suspect present at the scene.

But the suspect had martial arts skills. Their temporarily assembled team couldn’t stop him at all. Just as the suspect was about to escape right under everyone’s noses…

At this critical, hair-raising moment, the male lead made his grand entrance with his subordinates.

Because he had already flipped through it many times, Xie Jinzhao read it very quickly.

Three minutes later, Xie Jinzhao stood up from the sofa.

Just from his standing posture and movements, Gu Siyuan knew that Xie Jinzhao was someone with a bit of acting talent.

After watching the subsequent performance, Gu Siyuan was even a bit more satisfied with Xie Jinzhao.

Although Gu Siyuan himself had nothing to do with acting in both his lifetimes, he had inherited the original owner’s memories, and the original owner’s status as an acting department lecturer was completely solid.

Coupled with Gu Siyuan’s extremely high and powerful learning ability, during his time at the Film Academy, he had also gone to observe lectures by senior professors. Not only did he thoroughly master the original owner’s knowledge, but he also better summarized and refined his own set of theoretical insights.

Gu Siyuan asked: “What are your thoughts on this character?”

Seeing him remain expressionless the whole time, Xie Jinzhao didn’t know if he did well or not, so he could only speak based on his own understanding: “The male lead in this script is a Jin Yi Wei who kills like swatting flies and is ruthless. Unlike ordinary righteous male leads, he is calm, rational, and willing to do whatever it takes to investigate the case…”

Gu Siyuan listened quietly to his explanation.

Xie Jinzhao was a talented person. He would construct a set of logic for the character he was playing, acting with his brain rather than just being a director’s tool.

However…

Gu Siyuan looked at him and said flatly: “Your understanding is not bad. But do you know why the script describes the details of their first meeting in such detail?”

Xie Jinzhao: “To shape the character’s traits, and also to leave a deep impression on the female lead.”

Gu Siyuan continued: “Yes, to shape the character and leave an impression. Your acting just now was considered not bad, but only not bad.”

“This is an idol drama, and the male lead of an idol drama has his own special mission. The behavioral traits you acted out for the character—aside from making the character’s personality complete and leaving an impression on the female lead—more importantly, are meant to make the audience fall in love with the character you’re playing through these details. If the audience doesn’t fall deeply in love with you, what’s the point of acting in this drama?”

It was the first time Xie Jinzhao had heard such a utilitarian statement, and it was coming from the outwardly serious, cold-as-ice Gu Siyuan. He subconsciously widened his eyes.

Gu Siyuan continued: “So, to put it in layman’s terms, the reason there is so much buildup for his entrance is for the male lead to posture, act cool, and create a ‘swoon factor’ (Su-appeal). It’s to make the audience instantly attracted to him and their hearts race at first glance.”

Xie Jinzhao coughed lightly twice: “Act cool, swoon factor? You sure know quite a lot!”

Gu Siyuan shot him a cold glance: “Stop interrupting. I am not isolated from the world.”

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