Chapter 23: Killing Yellow Hair to Stop the Ghost Fire

“Wow, you’re amazing!”
“Have you ever acted before?”

As soon as they stepped out of the examination hall, Dilraba looked at Chen Jin in disbelief, her eyes full of curiosity. The images of Chen Jin’s recent performance and the poetry recitation lingered in her mind, making it hard for her to associate those moments with the quiet young man before her. Such a level of acting was something she had only seen on television.

But witnessing it live was even more shocking.

That handsome guy, who had registered behind her and just performed in the group skit, nearly dropped her jaw. It was the first time she’d seen a performance that genuinely moved her in person.

It was exactly the kind of performance she deeply admired — the kind that could captivate you instantly, making the experience both thrilling and a little intimidating. Now, after coming back to her senses, she found herself savoring it more and more, impressed beyond measure.

“No, I told the teacher — I just watched some documentaries!” Chen Jin said, somewhat overwhelmed by the sudden enthusiasm from the beautiful girl. Despite his cool and distant appearance, which often made people think he was hard to approach, privately he was quite the opposite.

“You’re incredible!” Dilraba sincerely admired him. “The art exam must be a breeze for you, right?”

“No, no!” Chen Jin hurriedly waved his hand, not out of false modesty. “The Central Academy of Drama’s art exam is really tough. This was just the preliminary round.”

“Anyway, I noticed the examiner was paying special attention to you!”

As they walked and chatted excitedly, Su Wanyu and Dilimurat were quite surprised. When did these two become so close?

The two parents exchanged glances. Su Wanyu quickly stepped forward. “Son, what’s going on?”

“Nothing much, I did well. This classmate is just praising me!” Chen Jin answered honestly.

Su Wanyu felt awkward. It was one thing to boast in private, but with so many people around, was he really comfortable doing this?

“That’s right, Auntie, he…”

“Chen Jin!” Chen Jin introduced himself, “The ‘Chen’ is like ear, and ‘Jin’ is the one with the ‘king’ radical.”

It wasn’t that the character was obscure; it was just that when he tried to say ‘Qiu Jin,’ people didn’t recognize it. And if he said ‘Zhou Yu’ or ‘Zhou Gongjin,’ non-fans of the Three Kingdoms would immediately ask, “Who’s that?”

This introduction was the most effective one he had figured out after many tries.

“Dilraba Dilimurat!”

“You can just call me Reba or Xiao Di…”

Dilraba laughed as she covered her mouth. Every time she said her name, people’s expressions were like Su Wanyu’s, but Chen Jin seemed more composed.

---

“Chen Jin really did well!”

“I want to know how he practices acting regularly!”

Dilraba’s words made Su Wanyu skeptical. After looking Chen Jin over a few times, she questioned, “Really?”

“Yes, the examiner was impressed with him!”

Su Wanyu scrutinized Chen Jin from head to toe. It was hard to connect Dilraba’s praise with her own son.

In her life, she had never heard a word of praise for Chen Jin from anyone but criticism: “How many points did your son get? His English is so low, that won’t do,” or “His subject imbalance is terrible,” and so on.

Those were already the mild criticisms; harsher ones existed, which is why Su Wanyu sometimes felt frustrated and disappointed.

As a teacher, she blamed herself for her son’s uneven academic performance and often reflected on it.

“Reba, let’s go, there’s another exam this afternoon.”

At that moment, Dilimurat suddenly spoke a rapid string of Uyghur to Dilraba, who responded with a hum and waved goodbye to Chen Jin and Su Wanyu.

“Auntie, Chen Jin, goodbye!”

“Goodbye!”

Chen Jin noticed a subtle change in the way Dilimurat looked at him. Could it be that he thought his daughter had taken a liking to him and was now being cautious?

He didn’t realize that every doting father has a protective instinct, wanting to snuff out any potential troublemakers lurking downstairs.

Before, Chen Jin hadn’t paid much attention to Dilimurat because they had little interaction, and out of courtesy, he had been polite. But seeing his daughter chatting and laughing with Chen Jin, Dilimurat was understandably concerned and decided to be more vigilant.

After nodding to Su Wanyu, Dilimurat took Dilraba away. The young girl glanced back reluctantly, smiled, and waved once more at Chen Jin.

Su Wanyu teased, “Stop looking! The little girl has already gone so far!”

“Mom, that’s called politeness. You taught me that!”

Su Wanyu fell silent.

Outside, Dilimurat spoke in Uyghur again, “Reba, I heard applause when the art exam ended. Was it your group skit that was so good?”

He had clearly asked around about the exam process and the tasks.

“No, it was Chen Jin. His performance was really excellent!”

“Adat, you don’t know. Our prompt was to act out what kind of place this is. Guess what he performed?”

“What did you perform?”

Dilimurat just wanted to know how his daughter had done.

“I performed a music room, of course. As soon as the examiner announced the prompt, I instinctively thought of playing the piano.”

“That’s good!”

---

Playing the piano was Dilraba’s specialty. “What about ‘Balan’?”

“Funeral! Home!”

Dilraba said in a low tone, then laughed heartily at her dad.

“Funeral home?”

“How do you act that out? With dead people?”

“No, he acted as an embalmer, someone who prepares the deceased. He was incredibly convincing!”

Dilraba vividly recounted Chen Jin’s performance, mimicking his gestures joyfully for her father.

Seeing his daughter so happy, Dilimurat could sense the state Chen Jin had been in while performing.

The examiner’s applause said it all.

“I could tell by the way he walked and spoke that he has a solid acting foundation!”

“His Ana…”

Dilimurat didn’t want to comment further, feeling it was unfair to belittle his own children. Shouldn’t he support their pursuit of art?

The two didn’t just sit idly outside; they also had a conversation.

He could hear Su Wanyu’s disapproval of Chen Jin’s art exam and her attitude toward art in general.

“Adat, he really has a talent for acting. Do you know how he learned all this?”

“He watched documentaries. Seems like he never attended an art class!”

“And the poetry recitation was also very good, very emotional...”

Dilraba rambled on, and Dilimurat nodded thoughtfully.

“Well, if he passed the preliminary round, the second round shouldn’t be a problem. What about you? Confident?”

“Me? I don’t know!”

“But if you pass the prelims, the finals should be fine!”

The Central Academy of Drama’s second round focused on poetry recitation, which would be more rigorous this time, plus a personal talent showcase.

That was a bonus for Dilraba, since she had many talents.

“I’ll have someone ask around for you later!”

“Adat, could you also find out Chen Jin’s results?”

Dilraba looked at Dilimurat with a pleading expression.

Dilimurat shook his head, smiling, “Alright.”

“Thank you, Adat! I just want to know how far behind I am!”

Dilraba grabbed her dad’s arm, playfully nestling close as they walked toward the school gate.