Chapter 78 "I just feel, this is really good..."

Chapter 78

...

For Yu Pan, the academic pressure in his sophomore and junior years was not much different from that in his freshman year. However, after entering the second semester of his junior year, the number of required courses suddenly decreased, and he suddenly had a lot of free time. At first, he was really not used to it.

However, not long after the start of this semester, a film school student named Li Cheng contacted Yu Pan through a classmate in the literary society, wanting the filming rights for one of his short stories.

Yu Pan was genuinely surprised when she learned which novel Li Cheng had taken a liking to.

That was a short story of about 30,000 words that he wrote during his sophomore year of college as a practice piece. It was also his first attempt at completing a longer third-person narrative.

I submitted it to the club for a competition and won first prize. Later, a small excerpt was published in the Kyoto University school newspaper.

Yu Pan never expected that, more than a year later, someone would still remember this novel and even come looking for her to request authorization.

Li Cheng is a sophomore majoring in directing at the Film Academy. This time, in response to a hot social issue, his school held a creative competition with the theme of "struggle". Students could submit play scripts and rehearse them, or form teams to shoot short films to participate.

Li Cheng also signed up. In the early stages of preparation, he was worried about what to film. Coincidentally, his sister Li Ying, who was studying at Peking University, came home last weekend, so he thought he would talk to his sister and find inspiration.

Li Ying had a habit of collecting and mounting school and society publications. When Li Cheng went in that day, she was organizing the latest issue of the newspapers and magazines.

Li Cheng picked it up casually and flipped through it. He was immediately drawn to the excerpt from Yu Pan's novel. After much effort, he finally found Yu Pan and hoped to obtain authorization.

Yu Pan is naturally pleased that her work can be presented in such a new form as video.

His novel tells the story of two young people who come from the countryside to the big city, how they meet, support each other, go through all kinds of hardships, and finally make their lives better step by step.

However, the novel is limited in length, while Li Cheng plans to film a short film of about twenty minutes. Visual storytelling differs from reading, requiring richer details and more specific plots to support the visuals.

The original 30,000 words were clearly insufficient to fill this length. To make the story clearer and the pacing smoother, Li Cheng planned to add some background information on the two main characters and some specific difficulties and bottlenecks they encountered in their entrepreneurial journey.

The addition and refinement of this content will require discussion with the original author, Yu Pan.

Fortunately, Yu Pan was not entirely without experience in this area. Since his work was first performed on the Youth Day stage, he has consciously paid attention to knowledge related to scriptwriting and adaptation when he reads.

The filming location has not yet been finalized, and Li Cheng, as a sophomore, has a full schedule of classes and is worried about time constraints from traveling back and forth, so he took the initiative to suggest that Yu Pan come to the film academy.

It just so happened that Yu Pan's course load was much lighter this semester, and she had plenty of time after class each day, so she agreed and arranged to meet at the Film Academy to discuss things together when Li Cheng had fewer classes.

-

After the afternoon classes ended, Yu Pan and Yu Yiming said goodbye at the entrance of the teaching building, and then Yu Pan took out her phone to call Shen Yanzhou.

The call was quickly connected. Yu Pan tilted her head and held the phone between her shoulder and shoulder while putting on her backpack.

"Panpan?" Shen Yanzhou's familiar voice came through the receiver.

“Brother,” Yu Pan said, walking toward the school gate, “I’m going to the Film Academy later to discuss the script with Li Cheng and the others. I’ll probably be home around 7:30.”

Shen Yanzhou replied, "Okay, I'll come pick you up then."

"Okay, I'll hang up now," Yu Pan said, walking to the bus stop.

"Okay, be careful on the road," Shen Yanzhou instructed.

"Okay, bye-bye."

Just as I hung up the phone, the bus to the film academy pulled into the station. The distance between Peking University and the film academy isn't far; the bus ride was leisurely, taking only about ten minutes.

When Yu arrived, Li Cheng was already waiting at the school gate. He quickly walked over and greeted him, "Have you been waiting long?"

"No, I just arrived too." Li Cheng smiled, glanced behind Yu Pan, and casually asked, "You came by bus? Didn't your brother see you off today?"

Yu Pan frowned slightly, feeling that the question was a bit strange. "He has to work, and our school is quite close to here, so it's very convenient for me to come here by myself."

“Oh, I see…” Li Cheng nodded, leading Yu Pan into the campus while naturally changing the subject, “By the way, last time we talked about the transitional section where the two main characters’ careers changed, I have a new idea, and I’d like to talk to you about it today…”

They usually discuss things in the school's cultural corridor, a quiet environment suitable for focused creation.

Yu Pan had already thought about the protagonist's background and other settings when he first started writing. All he needed to do was explain these pre-conceived ideas to Li Cheng.

Li Cheng is a very opinionated and thoughtful person. He incorporates his own understanding and creativity into the plot supplemented by Yu Pan, and then reprocesses and integrates it to make the story retain the essence of the original work while being more suitable for visual expression.

The remaining task is to handle the relationships between the new supporting characters added to enrich the story, polish their lines, and ensure that the story of the short film is more complete and three-dimensional without affecting the core theme of the original work.

The discussion time always flies by, and at 7:30 sharp, Yu Pan's phone rang on time.

Yu Pan pointed to the buzzing phone, gestured to Li Cheng and the other students who were participating in the discussion, and walked aside to answer the call.

"Hey? Bro."

Shen Yanzhou's voice came from the other end of the receiver, "I've arrived, at your school gate."

Yu Pan glanced at the time and realized it was already 7:30: "Okay, I'll tell them I'll be out right away."

Everyone was in the middle of a lively discussion when they were all taken aback when they heard Yu Pan say she was leaving.

"Going back so early?" Li Cheng raised his wrist and looked at his watch; it was only 7:30.

Yu Pan had already started packing her schoolbag and water bottle neatly. "It's getting late. I'll go back and have dinner, then wash up. It'll be about ten o'clock by then. I have class tomorrow morning."

"You haven't had dinner yet?" a short-haired girl next to me asked in surprise. The others had all eaten before coming over.

"Yes, I came straight here after class." Yu Pan slung her backpack over her shoulder, nodded to everyone, and said, "I'll head back now. I'll think about the revisions we discussed today when I get back."

“Let me walk you to the door,” Li Cheng stood up. “Our school has many narrow paths, and I’m afraid you’ll get lost.”

In fact, the cultural corridor where they are located is not far from the school gate. Just go down one step, turn left, and walk straight for a few minutes to get there.

Yu Pan had come several times and had long since memorized the route. She originally wanted to decline, but seeing Li Cheng's insistent expression, and considering it was Li Cheng's good intention, she nodded and said, "Alright, thank you for your trouble."

The two walked side by side toward the school gate. When they were almost there, Yu Pan stopped and turned to Li Cheng, saying, "That's enough. The gate is just ahead. I'm sure I won't get lost. You should go back now; they're still waiting for you."

Li Cheng smiled and said, "It won't make a difference if it's just a little while longer."

Seeing that he said that, Yu Pan stopped insisting.

As soon as Yu Pan stepped out of the school gate, she spotted Shen Yanzhou leaning against the car. He stood tall and straight, looking up slightly at the artistic plaque of the Film Academy's gate.

Yu Pan immediately quickened her pace and jogged over. When she arrived, she patted Shen Yanzhou's arm with a grin: "Brother!"

Shen Yanzhou had already seen him, but still pretended to be surprised and took the backpack from his shoulder. "So fast?"

Yu Pan let him take the backpack. "We're just over there in the corridor not far from the entrance. It'll be a quick walk over."

"Good evening, Brother Shen," Li Cheng greeted as he walked up behind Yu Pan.

Shen Yanzhou looked at him and said politely, "Hello. We'll head back now, so don't stay up too late."

"Okay, thank you for your concern, Brother Shen," Li Cheng replied quickly, his gaze still following Shen Yanzhou's movements.

Yu Pan didn't pay much attention to Li Cheng's expression. He was helped into the passenger seat by Shen Yanzhou. After closing the car door, he rolled down the window and waved to Li Cheng, who was still standing there: "We're leaving, bye-bye!"

Li Cheng watched as Shen Yanzhou walked around the front of the car and got into the driver's seat, and he also raised his hand and waved: "Bye-bye."

-

The car drove into the residential area and parked in their usual spot.

"Tired?" Shen Yanzhou turned his head and looked at Yu Pan in the dim light of the street lamp. Yu Pan was squinting, like a dozing cat.

"There's one thing," Yu Pan honestly admitted, then laughed again, "but the discussion was quite enjoyable; the story felt much more vivid than before."

Shen Yanzhou reached out and rubbed the back of his neck, which was a little tense. "Of course it's tiring to do things that require a lot of brainpower. I'll give you a massage when you take a shower tonight?"

"Great!" Yu Pan's eyes lit up, and she immediately perked up. "Brother, your massage skills are getting better and better. I think you could become a massage therapist."

"Just press your head, I don't have time to serve others." Shen Yanzhou ruffled his hair.

Shen Yanzhou had obviously learned massage techniques from someone special, otherwise, every time he was intimate with Yu Pan, Yu Pan would feel sore and achy the next day, and he could massage her to relieve the pain.

The two got out of the car and walked up the stairs side by side. At this time, almost everyone was at home eating, so there weren't many people around.

Yu Pan hugged Shen Yanzhou's waist, and Shen Yanzhou also put his arm around Yu Pan's shoulder, letting him lean some of his weight on him.

“That Li Cheng today…” Shen Yanzhou began, seemingly unintentionally.

"Hmm?" Yu Pan looked up at him.

“It’s nothing,” Shen Yanzhou smiled. “He seems to have a lot of ideas.”

“Yes,” Yu Pan said, oblivious to the conversation, “He’s quick-witted and always comes up with ways of expression that I haven’t thought of. But sometimes he has too many ideas and tends to stray from the topic. I have to bring him back on track.”

"Yes, just focus on the core of the story." Shen Yanzhou nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

Opening the door, Yu Pan kicked off her shoes, put on her socks, and stepped onto the floor, yelling, "I'm starving! I'm starving!"

Shen Yanzhou followed behind him, bent down to straighten his shoes, and then took out his own slippers to put on. "Go wash your hands first."

Yu Pan responded and went into the bathroom, the sound of running water filling the air, accompanied by his off-key humming. Shen Yanzhou went to the kitchen and brought the food that the housekeeper had prepared and kept warm to the table.

For dinner, we had stir-fried romaine lettuce, soy sauce chicken, and boiled shrimp.

The housekeeper they hired this time cooked rather bland food, but it was fine for them. Shen Yanzhou didn't have any particular food preferences, so the meals at home were mainly prepared according to Yu Pan's taste. Yu Pan, in turn, didn't have any particular food preferences; he would finish his plate regardless of whether it tasted good or not.

“Brother,” Yu Pan swallowed a mouthful of shrimp, “when I have summer vacation, let’s go back to Lanzhou and stay for a few days.”

Since he went to university, he's either in Beijing or Qingyu, and he hasn't been back to Lanzhou for a long time.

Shen Yanzhou was peeling shrimp for him when he heard this and said, "Okay."

After finishing their meal, Shen Yanzhou cleared the dishes to wash them, and Yu Pan stayed by the kitchen counter with him.

They couldn't take a shower right after eating, so the two snuggled up on the sofa. Yu Pan habitually leaned on Shen Yanzhou's shoulder, looking at her notebook and notes from today's discussion.

Shen Yanzhou had a laptop on his lap, looking at the report sent by his subordinates.

“Brother.” Yu Pan put down her notebook and turned to look at him.

"Hmm?" Shen Yanzhou looked away from the laptop screen and turned his head to meet his gaze.

“It’s nothing,” Yu Pan smiled, her eyes crinkling, “I just feel that this is really nice.”

Shen Yanzhou turned to the side and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

"Yes, that's really good."

After resting for half an hour, the two of them took a shower together, and got a massage while they were at it.

After taking a shower, Yu Pan felt refreshed all over. Of course, apart from a slightly unpleasant feeling of something foreign in a certain area, everything else felt comfortable.

After all, Shen Yanzhou's craftsmanship has always been excellent.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Panpan [Cat Head]: Every day is just the same old couple [Cat Head]