The Time-Traveling Celebrity

In a private room awash with neon lights and intoxicating colors, a group of recent graduates reveled in wild abandon. Four or five of them fought over the microphone, belting out Beyond’s “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies,” their voices hoarse as if, in that moment of desperation, they could grasp the dreams of their future.

Ma Jun curled up in a corner, clutching a beer bottle, downing it in great gulps. His cheeks were flushed, his gaze unfocused—he had clearly had more than his share to drink.

Beside him, Gu Xinghua, his close friend and roommate, tried to dissuade him. “Come on, Ma, enough drinking! What problem can't a man get over?”

Ma Jun shook his head with a tipsy grin, paying no mind to the beer dribbling from the corner of his mouth. He let the empty bottle slip from his hand, where it toppled to the floor, and reached clumsily for another on the table, pouring it down his throat.

Gu Xinghua snatched it away, snapping, “Can’t you act a little more like a man?”

Four years ago, Ma Jun was full of youthful pride—a star among his peers, having been admitted to the Beijing Film Academy.

Such a prestigious artistic institution was several times harder to get into than the gaokao, the infamous college entrance exam. Ma Jun himself never quite understood how he’d managed it. Even if it had been a stroke of luck, his pride remained undiminished.

Not only that, but during the pre-admission military training, he’d pulled out all the stops and managed to win the heart of Yan Rong, the most beautiful girl in their year.

He