Then, Su Yi gave Liu Man a history lesson based on Tao Yuanming and the North-South Wei Jin dynasty he lived in.
Liu Man herself lived in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty. At that time, she already had a sense of declining national power. Her father decreased military taxes and became more barbaric and cruel. In the two years before her death, more and more concubines were demoted to the cold palace. The servants and maids abused lynching, seized food, and clothing. Countless women starved and froze to death in the cold palace, including her.
Therefore, after hearing that the world has been in chaos for hundreds of years after the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Man did not have any emotions despite history being so cruel. She was just a bystander now. The destruction of these countries, the joys, and sorrows, were only small stories in the history books. She did not have much sense of substitution even if she heard about the process of the Western Han Dynasty’s demise from Professor Su, she was not moved. One cannot just remember the past but should strive to look forward.
It was a calligraphy class, and it turned into a history class in the blink of an eye. Professor Su didn’t say any words on calligraphy, but he gave Liu Man lots of knowledge about history. He was very helpless.
After the course, Su Yi took out a copy of “Three Hundred Tang Poems” from his bookshelf. He gave the book to Liu Man, “After you go back, take a good look. Next time in class, I will talk about the Tang Dynasty. At that time, don’t tell me you don’t even know who Li Bai and Du Fu are.”
“Knowing history is a basic skill when you are learning calligraphy. Your job is to not only read these classic verses but also memorize them. I will randomly check the sentences in every class in the future. After you memorize the Tang poems, I will give you ones from Song.”
“Okay, okay,” Liu Man did not dare to disobey.
She just remembered that Jiang Chengfeng said that Professor Su was not only a calligrapher but also a Chinese scholar. He had studied and specialized in the classics of all dynasties.
Liu Man, who only knew the Qin dynasty and all the Qin scholars were like a semi-illiterate person in front of him.
Su Yi was also very helpless. He felt that the burden on him was heavy. He received such a wonderful disciple when he was at such an old day. But, hey, he had already taken her in as an apprentice, and he couldn’t regret his choice. If he wanted to be a moral person, he must take care of this talented semi-illiterate child and cultivate her talents.
Today, Liu Man only carried a small purse and couldn’t fit the thick book of “Three Hundred Tang Poems”, so she had to hold it in her hand. She ate a simple lunch in the cafeteria of Capital University and came to the east part of the sports field as agreed.
The east sports field had a large area, including track and field, basketball, and tennis courts. Many students played basketball, tennis, and ran fitness on weekends.
Liu Man glanced around and saw people everywhere. She had no idea where Sun Weiwei and the rest of the group were.
She sent a message to Sun Weiwei to notify her, “I’m already here.”
After a minute, Sun Weiwei replied, “We see you. Turn around.”
Liu Man turned her head to see the six people she saw before waving at her from not far away.
“No wonder she’s a cyber star. She looks like a painting just by standing there,” Zhang Jiaojiao, the make-up artist, said enviously.
“This kind of face is so perfect that I don’t need make-up to repair her face at all. Weiwei, didn’t you say that you knew her from a very early age? Has she had cosmetic surgery? Her eyes are so big, and are the double eyelids cut? The nose is so tall; has it been worked on? The chin seems to be a bit fake, too.”
Zhang Jiaojiao was also a Chinese major and was a classmate of He Qisi. She was above average in appearance and was tall, and she was counted as a beauty. Makeup was Zhang Jiaojiao’s hobby. She was also an amateur make-up artist. On weekends, she occasionally went to the photo studio to work part-time with makeup. Her habit of seeing beautiful women was to first question whether she had plastic surgery.
This made Sun Weiwei feel very speechless.
“I can tell you very honestly that she looks these ways when she came to kindergarten. She was one-hundred percent born like this.”
“Then God treats her too well.”
Sun Weiwei thought of how broken Liu Man’s brain was and didn’t quite agree with Zhang Jiaojiao’s statement.
The boys in the group also stared at Liu Man. Examining beautiful women was the nature of men. Liu Man had walked over at this moment, and she asked He Qisi, “Does the dress I wear today meet the requirements?”
The well-dressed goddess of Hanfu was so lethal that she made the talented He Qisi, who had always been eloquent, nervous. He just nodded and said repeatedly, “It does, it does. It does meet the requirements.”
The description in Sun Weiwei’s script was: A goddess so pretty that she’s glowing.
Over the past week, they have searched around for beauties in the school. There were lots of beauties, but the skill of “glowing” was too difficult to develop.
No wonder Hanfu Goddess would become a cyber star. She was so pretty she glowed.
As she stood, not moving at all, a gentle spring breeze came. Her long, light green dress slightly lifted, and her dark, silky hair made her skin look as white as snow. She looked as pretty as a fairy.
It was in everyone’s nature to admire the beauty.
Wang Sheng, who was carrying a heavy camera, was the first to pull himself back to reality. He asked Liu Man in a weird tone, “Why are you holding a “There Hundred Tang Poems” in your hand?”
Liu Man said, “I borrowed it from a teacher, and I’m conveniently reading it when I have the time.”
“Do you even feel enough leisure to read ‘Three Hundred Tang Poems’?” In Sun Weiwei’s view, Liu Man reading the book seriously was as if the sun came out from the western side of the sky. She remembered that when they were in middle school, after the whole semester, Liu Man’s textbook was as new as it if it had not been flipped open at all.
To be even more ridiculous, at this moment, as Sun Weiwei saw Liu Man holding the “Three Hundred Tang Poems” in her hand, she not only did not feel Liu Man was pretentious but felt as if she was someone who enjoyed reading.
Sun Weiwei felt worried. Is her brain starting to have problems like Liu Man’s?
At this time, He Qisi said,
“Now that everyone’s here, we should start shooting. Weiwei, temporarily help her hold the ‘Three Hundred Tang Poems’.”
Sun Weiwei said, “yes”, took the book over from Liu Man, and handed her an A4 piece of paper, “This is the script for ‘Shi-Senpai,’ episode 8.”
A Tik Tok video could only be a maximum length of 40 seconds long, so, of course, their script was much shorter and more concise than one of Ye Zian’s movie scripts.
Liu Man found her part to be very simple: she only had to walk on the path.
Sun Weiwei recalled Liu Man’s IQ back when they knew each other and introduced the script to her as if she was scared Liu Man couldn’t understand it, “Later, you will walk over from the horizontal gymnastics bar. Walk slower and make your expression pretentious like you were before. Then, subconsciously lift your hair. Do you understand?”
Liu Man nodded her head, “Understood.”
She did work with a professional director and actors during the break for twenty days, so she did have some experience.
Zhang Jiaojiao gave He Qisi a simple makeup. Unlike Liu Man’s beauty, He Qisi, with makeup, looked even uglier. He had a big pie face, dark skin, swollen eyes, a collapsed nose, and a deliberately bloody mouth. It was hard to describe how ugly he even was, but it still looked hilarious.
Credits: Sydney
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