Boss Lu: A reborn life is destined to be without regrets!
Chapter 174 - 146. Help you find yourself

Chapter 174: 146. Help you find yourself

"Come over here and drink~"

Guan Yongyi shuffled over in flip-flops, hands carrying two cans of craft beer, and moved onto the sofa in the living room.

The hostess picked up the TV remote casually, pressed the power button, and waved Lu Jincheng over.

The screen slowly lit up, and she continued watching the partly seen movie.

A young man named Andrew, drumsticks in hand, squinted his eyes as he strategized the sacrifice of himself before entering the Ultimate Hall.

It was the recently released "Whiplash," which had swept up most of the awards in 2014, and still maintained a high rating of 8.6 on Douban even ten years later—an absolute classic.

Conveniently, Mr. Lu had seen it too.

"If this is what it takes to realize a dream, would you be willing to do it if you were in their shoes?" he asked as he got up and moved closer, sitting beside Guan Yongyi, his eyes fixed on the screen while various scenes from the movie instantly came to mind.

Astronomy and geography, zodiac and metaphysics, literature and music, movie critiques.

Mr. Lu, having lived two lives, could naturally find topics to discuss from any angle.

"Me?"

Guan Yongyi blinked, biting her lower lip in thought.

The two were sitting so close that one could notice her long eyelashes, distinctly separate, casting beautiful curved shadows below her eyelids.

"Not really."

A few seconds later, she shook her head, providing her answer.

"If pursuing a dream means sacrificing oneself, love, and everything that stands in the way like Andrew did, I definitely couldn’t do it."

Success learning has always been one of the mainstream societal values, and for filmmakers with ideas, challenging the notion of success has become another classic track.

In this track, anger at mediocrity seems to be a standard emotion.

For instance, in this movie "Whiplash."

A newcomer driven by interest, a devilish drill instructor, tears of humiliation, vicious curses, mental breakdown under overwhelming pressure, steadily and unwaveringly progressing towards suffocation.

In such a world, it seemed there were only two options.

Leave, or stand firm against a slap in the face.

"You can’t thrive without a bit of madness; with your mindset, it would be hard to become a genius artist."

Lu Jincheng nudged her with his shoulder, smilingly lifted his can, and clinked hers in a full display of ceremony.

"Of course, I’ve known since I was young that I’m definitely no genius."

Guan Yongyi gave him a sidelong glance, crossed her arms behind her head, bent her knees, and let out a long sigh on the sofa.

Everyone loves a genius. A genius is effortless strength, sudden inspiration, divine strokes in every pen movement.

If life starts at a starting line drawn at one’s feet, a genius is someone whose parents gave birth to them directly at the finish line.

"Being an artist might be difficult, but what about being a genius lawyer?" Lu Jincheng teased.

"That’s even more out of reach!"

Guan Yongyi wrapped her arms around her knees, turned her head to look at Lu Jincheng, her eyes sparkling.

"Let me tell you, in her circle, my mother is recognized as a genius."

"She’s been the top student all her life, and from a very early age, she set her mind on studying law. Not only did she pass up Peking University and Tsinghua University to become one of the top graduates of Law University, but she also gave up the chance to go to the Supreme Court, without even a second’s hesitation."

"A genius judge, just gives up like that?"

"Exactly."

Guan Yongyi smiled, her expression bittersweet, "My mother always knew what she wanted to do and executed it without hesitation, unlike me."

"You’re doing great now, though."

"Not even close!"

Guan Yongyi opened her knees, leaned forward between them, reached for the can on the coffee table, took a big gulp, and continued.

"Actually, my mother’s education of me is pretty much the same as Fletcher’s, thoroughly high-pressure."

"Huh?"

Lu Jincheng was taken aback.

The ice-cold beer gurgled as it disappeared beneath the short-haired girl’s jawline.

Guan Yongyi first jiggled the empty can in her hand, then tossed it in an arc toward the trash can, and then nestled into the sofa, taking a deep breath.

"So I’m not a genius at all, at best I might be considered ’grounded brilliance.’"

Every minute watching this movie, her neurons rapidly assembled memories precisely like those depicted.

Many scenes reminded her of the past.

For the entrance exam to South China Normal University High School, she had a fever of 39 degrees, a throat so swollen she couldn’t speak, forced by her family to sleep at three in the morning and wake up at six to hand in a math paper, burning with fever, rushing to the cram class.

We’ve only seen people who have succeeded in various fields, but geniuses are not necessarily successful, and those who are successful are not necessarily geniuses.

Most of them are the grounded ones.

What are the grounded ones? They are the futile delusions of an ant trying to shake a tree, the joke reserve for the masses, the lonely march of those who either succeed or die trying.

Just like its creator Jolin Tsai, with ordinary talent and plain looks, she fought her way through thousands of sweet girls in the music industry, without the naturally gifted singing voice bestowed by the heavens—she practiced acrobatics, overdid split legs, even if the outcome involved being made fun of by the screenshot gangs or laughed at and mocked by fans for her old embarrassing moments.

Diseased with the dream of genius, but only destined to be average.

"...No time to eat, no time to sleep, having to run even to go to the bathroom, the phone on standby twenty-four hours a day, memorizing while showering even when the water stopped half-way, with suds all over, she continued for an entire hour and a half, afterward her hair turned stiff, thumping like a drum."

Guan Yongyi’s gaze drifted towards the ceiling, filled with memories.

"My mom being a genius, had too high expectations of me."

"Sometimes I don’t even believe that I struggled through such circumstances. I’ve seen Yangcheng at two, three, four, five o’clock in the morning, and on every day results come out, I didn’t dare call my mother, only dared to cry my heart out to the half-dialed number on the phone."