Huayu: Starting with Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu

Their first scene together was scheduled for the sixth day after they joined the crew.

The scene depicts Zhu Di's first explanation of the northern expedition to his grandson.

The scene is the East Warm Pavilion of Qianqing Palace at night.

The play was short, with only this grandfather and grandson as the main characters, and they only had seven or eight lines of dialogue.

The assistant director calls this kind of scene a dialogue scene.

There were no grand scenes, no staging; the two actors just sat there and held up the atmosphere.

This kind of play is the most difficult.

Large-scale scenes can be masked by staging, but dialogue scenes cannot, because every blink of an actor in a dialogue scene will be magnified.

Filming began in the evening on the day of the shoot.

Chen Mo entered the dressing room at five o'clock in the afternoon.

He wasn't wearing armor in this scene; he was wearing a pale white casual outfit for a young man.

The costume should be a replica of Zhu Zhanji's appearance at age fifteen, with his hair tied up, wearing a small crown, and a jade pendant hanging from his waist.

The makeup artist applied his eyebrows.

According to historical records, Zhu Zhanji's eyebrows were relatively thick, and his brow bone was slightly low. Chen Mo's brow bone was relatively high, so he had to use specially made eyebrow tints to press it down.

After the makeup artist finished applying the eyebrows, she asked him to look in the mirror.

"Teacher Chen, look."

Chen Mo looked in the mirror.

The person in the mirror doesn't have the same face as him.

After lowering her eyebrows, her whole face changed. Her eyes appeared rounder, her expression looked younger, and the corners of her mouth also turned down slightly.

A fifteen-year-old boy.

Chen Mo stared at himself in the mirror for half a minute.

Then he spoke.

"Could you please press the left eyebrow down another half millimeter?"

The makeup artist was taken aback.

"Half a millimeter?"

"Half a millimeter."

The makeup artist studied herself in the mirror for a few seconds.

She couldn't see the difference between pressing down and not pressing down by half a millimeter, but she didn't ask any more questions. She picked up the tweezers and readjusted them.

After adjusting it, Chen Mo watched it for a while longer.

This time he was satisfied.

He nodded to the makeup artist.

"That's the right thing to do."

At 6:20, Wang Xueqi arrived at the dressing room.

When he came in, Chen Mo had already started putting on his coat.

Wang Xueqi sat down in his seat, and his stylist came over to put a cape around him.

Wang Xueqi wasn't wearing the imperial court robes for today's scene; he was wearing a black casual outfit with a four-clawed python pattern embroidered on the collar.

This was Zhu Di's attire when he met with his family in the East Warm Pavilion, not on a formal occasion.

The two people's dressing rooms are next to each other, separated only by a makeup mirror.

The two people can see each other in the mirror.

Chen Mo put on his coat and glanced at Wang Xueqi in the mirror.

Wang Xueqi was resting with his eyes closed at this time.

He didn't speak to the makeup artist.

His face looked different under the soft makeup light. His usually stern face relaxed under the light, and the lines between his brow bones seemed to be shallower.

Chen Mo looked at it for a couple more seconds.

He suddenly realized something.

Wang Xueqi is not Wang Xueqi now.

Wang Xueqi is now Zhu Di.

The way this veteran actor begins to get into character is by sitting quietly in the dressing room without saying a word.

Chen Mo mentally noted this down.

Then he closed his eyes.

At 7:00 AM sharp, the computer was turned on.

The East Warm Pavilion was decorated with great care, with mahogany floors, bronze incense burners, and three thick candles on candlesticks, the light from which diffused and bathed the entire room in a warm yellow hue.

Wang Xueqi sat on a low couch in the warm pavilion.

He was dressed in a black casual suit, his back straight, his hands on his knees. He wasn't looking at the script; he just sat there waiting.

Luo Yifeng walked in and nodded to him.

"Teacher Wang, let's begin."

Wang Xueqi nodded slightly.

Luo Yifeng walked behind the monitor.

"Chen Mo."

"arrive."

"Positioning".

Chen Mo entered the East Warm Pavilion.

The moment he stepped in, his entire demeanor changed.

His back wasn't as straight as usual; his shoulders were slightly pulled forward, his head was lowered, and his gaze was fixed on the ground three feet in front of him.

This is what it looks like when a fifteen-year-old boy is summoned into the warm room by his grandfather for the first time.

He walked to the low couch.

He stopped two steps away from the low couch and bowed.

"Grandson greets Grandpa."

His voice wasn't loud, and it had a slightly hoarse quality typical of teenagers going through puberty.

Chen Mo didn't change his voice; he created the hoarseness using his throat.

Wang Xueqi sat on the couch without saying a word.

He looked at his grandson for three seconds.

Then he raised his hand.

"rise."

Chen Mo straightened up.

When he straightened up, his gaze went upward.

It was raised to the position of Wang Xueqi's face.

Here's a detail.

Wang Xueqi sat on the low couch, almost a shoulder shorter than Chen Mo when he was standing. Logically, Chen Mo's gaze should have been downward when he straightened up.

Chen Mo did not.

After he straightened up, his gaze was slightly upward.

I looked up for two seconds.

Like a fifteen-year-old boy looking at a grandfather who is taller than him even when sitting down.

Luo Yifeng, behind the monitor, tapped his finger lightly on the table.

Wang Xueqi spoke.

"Sit down and talk."

Chen Mo did not sit down immediately.

He first glanced at the small stool next to Wang Xueqi, which was lower than the low couch.

He hesitated for half a second.

Then he went over and sat down on the small stool.

When he sat down, his body was still a little stiff, his knees were close together, and his hands were placed on his knees.

A fifteen-year-old boy sitting in front of his grandfather.

Wang Xueqi watched him sit down.

Then Wang Xueqi spoke.

"Zhan'er."

Just those two words.

These two characters were Zhu Di's private name for this grandson.

When Wang Xueqi pronounced those two words, his voice dropped an octave, and his usual crispness disappeared, replaced by a very soft and low tone.

That's not the tone of an emperor.

That was Grandpa's tone.

When Chen Mo heard those two words, his shoulders twitched slightly.

That moment wasn't relaxation; it was something more complex.

A child who has been called that by his grandfather since childhood will instinctively feel his shoulders slump when he hears his grandfather call him that.

Chen Mo's moon-white casual clothes shifted slightly at the shoulder.

Luo Yifeng leaned forward from behind the monitor.

Wang Xueqi continued.

"Next spring, Grandpa will take you to the north."

"Where are you going, Grandpa?" Chen Mo looked up.

"Northern Desert".

Chen Mo didn't speak.

There's something in his eyes.

But that feeling wasn't excitement, it wasn't exhilaration, it wasn't eagerness to try.

That thing was a very faint fear.

I'm afraid I'll want to go again.

When a fifteen-year-old boy first learned that he was going to fight in the northern desert with his grandfather, his first reaction was not one of excitement.

It's fear.

But he couldn't show his fear.

Because his grandfather was Zhu Di.

So he could only bow his head.

Chen Mo lowered his head.

His eyelashes cast a small shadow in the candlelight.

Wang Xueqi looked at him.

Two seconds passed.

Wang Xueqi raised his hand and extended it to Chen Mo.

He extended his palm upwards.

A grandfather called to his grandson to hand him his hand.

Chen Mo raised his left hand.

He placed his left hand into Wang Xueqi's palm.

Wang Xueqi grasped his hand.

After taking his hand, Wang Xueqi spoke.

He didn't read his lines from the script.

He read a line that wasn't in the script.

Your hands are cold.

Chen Mo looked up at him.

This was an impromptu line that wasn't in the script, and Chen Mo had to respond in that instant.

He didn't think about it.

He accepted it just like that.

He looked into Wang Xueqi's eyes.

He spoke a sentence in the voice of a fifteen-year-old boy.

"Grandpa, your hands are warm."

Wang Xueqi remained silent.

He gripped his hand a little tighter.

Then he looked at his grandson and said a line from the script.

"When you go north, your hands will be warmer than Grandpa's."

That concludes the reading of this sentence.

The candles crackled and popped as they burned.

Chen Mo didn't speak.

His eyes welled up with tears in that instant.

No tears fell.

It only got a little wet.

Then he lowered his head.

Behind the monitor.

Luo Yifeng sat in the chair.

His hand holding the microphone hovered in mid-air for several seconds.

They didn't say to stop, they didn't say to block.

The entire film set fell silent.

The only sound was the burning of a candle.

About ten seconds passed.

Luo Yifeng finally spoke.

"Pass."

One take.

Wang Xueqi released Chen Mo's hand.

Chen Mo straightened up.

When he straightened up, the tears in his eyes had dried, and he was still Chen Mo.

Both of them walked out from the set of the warm pavilion.

Neither of them spoke when they came out.

Chen Mo walked behind the monitor, nodded to Luo Yifeng, and then turned and went to the actors' rest area.

Wang Xueqi did not go to the rest area.

He walked to a folding chair on the side of the set and sat down.

He sat like that for about five minutes.

Five minutes later, he stood up, walked to the water dispenser on set, and took a bottle of room temperature water from the ice bucket.

He took the bottle of water and walked to the actors' rest area.

Chen Mo was sitting in a chair in the rest area with his eyes closed.

Wang Xueqi walked over and placed the bottle of water on the small table next to him.

After putting it down, Wang Xueqi didn't leave.

He stood next to Chen Mo for two seconds.

Then he spoke.

He was saying the first thing he said to Chen Mo outside the film set today.

"Was that because you were thinking of your own grandfather?"

Chen Mo opened his closed eyes.

He looked up at Wang Xueqi.

Then he nodded.

"Um."

Wang Xueqi looked at him.

Two more seconds passed.

Wang Xueqi nodded.

"it is good."

Just this one word.

After saying that, he turned and left.

Chen Mo watched Wang Xueqi's departing figure.

Then he reached out and picked up the bottle of water.

He didn't unscrew it.

He held the bottle of water in his hand.

I held it for a long time.