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

Inside the garrison's main canteen.

Chen Mo sat in the corner with a bowl of soup noodles in his hand.

He didn't look at the script.

He finished reading the script for this scene the day before yesterday.

He didn't flip through it again after reading it.

He has spent most of his time these past two days researching historical materials.

He read the section on Zhu Gaochi in the History of Ming Dynasty repeatedly.

After finishing reading, I flipped through the records of Zhu Gaoxu's several trips to Beijing from the 22nd year of the Yongle reign to the first year of the Hongxi reign in the "Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty".

He's looking for something.

In which year did Zhu Gaoxu first meet Zhu Zhanji, who was already an adult?

It is not explicitly stated in historical records.

Chen Mo did some calculations himself.

Chronologically, it should be the first year of the Hongxi reign.

Not long after Zhu Gaochi ascended the throne, Zhu Gaoxu was summoned to the capital from the Le'an vassal state.

This was the first formal meeting between the uncle and nephew after they came of age.

Chen Mo wasn't thinking about the lines; he was thinking about the subtle interactions between the uncle and nephew that would happen during their first meeting.

Zhu Gaoxu was more than ten years older than Zhu Zhanji.

He fought alongside Zhu Di during the Jingnan Campaign in the Yongle reign, making him a true military general who had served on the battlefield.

Zhu Zhanji accompanied his grandfather on a northern expedition once, and was taken along to observe the battle.

The two men had a difference of more than ten years in their battlefield experience.

This difference is reflected in a detail when the two meet.

Chen Mo had an idea.

The details he thought of weren't written in the script.

The filming location was the East Palace side hall set built in Hengdian. This scene was not filmed in Bashang. The crew had already moved to Hengdian a couple of days ago.

Chen Mo arrived at the dressing room at 9:20.

Jingming had arrived long ago.

The two were still facing each other through the makeup mirror.

The makeup artist applied makeup to two people at the same time.

Jingming's character is Zhu Gaoxu, with a rugged look, sword-like eyebrows, the shadow of a beard, and a dark brown brow bone.

Chen Mo's costume is that of the 24- or 25-year-old Crown Prince Zhu Zhanji. His childhood clothes have been changed to the Crown Prince's clothes, which are dark purple, and he has a jade pendant at his waist.

Neither of them spoke while they were getting their makeup done.

I chatted with the makeup artist, Sister Lin, for a bit.

"Teacher Jing, you seem a bit more tense today than yesterday."

Jingming smiled and said, "Our first scene together was a bit...."

Where is Teacher Chen?

Chen Mo glanced at Sister Lin in the mirror but didn't reply; he wasn't good at this kind of small talk.

Sister Lin sighed and said, "Don't be so tense. Director Luo has reserved the whole morning for you."

Chen Mo smiled.

He wasn't tense.

He was just wondering what Zhu Gaoxu was wearing around his waist back then.

He had just checked that during the Yongle reign, military officers who came to the capital to report on their duties were required to wear a jade pendant on their waist; this jade pendant served as proof of their identity.

He wanted to know what Zhu Gaoxu's jade pendant looked like.

The makeup artist couldn't answer that question.

So he didn't ask.

He figured it out himself.

Outside the dressing room, the assistant director passed by and said something to Jingming's assistant.

"Teacher Jing has been working on the script since this morning. This young man is really hardworking."

Jingming's assistant nodded: "Our teacher Jing is like this in every scene. He's been trying to change his image all year, and he reads the scripts more carefully than anyone else."

The assistant director grunted in response, said nothing more, and walked towards the film set.

In the past year or so, he has met too many young actors who want to change their career path, and most of them are absent-minded. He has not met many like Jingming, who can spend a whole day flipping through a script.

He gave Jingming an extra point in his mind.

As for Chen Mo...

The assistant director walked down the street and thought of Chen Mo, and subconsciously smiled.

His assessment of Chen Mo no longer falls into the category of "hardworking".

I arrived at 9:50.

The set design of the East Palace side hall is one of the most elaborate in Hengdian film crews. The pillars are painted wooden pillars, the floor tiles are rubber mats imitating blue bricks, and a calligraphy and painting with the four characters "天下大明" (The Great Ming Dynasty Under Heaven) hangs on the wall.

In the center of the side hall, there was a low table, with a chair on each side.

According to the script, Zhu Zhanji sat in the host's seat, and Zhu Gaoxu sat in the guest's seat.

When Chen Mo sat in the main seat, his back was straight and his shoulders were relaxed. As a twenty-four or twenty-five-year-old crown prince meeting his uncle for the first time as the heir apparent, he would not deliberately put on airs, but he would naturally adjust his body to the state of a quasi-monarch.

Chen Mo adjusted himself very naturally to this state.

Luo Yifeng glanced at the monitor and nodded to the assistant director.

This nod was an unspoken "okay".

Jingming walked in from outside the side hall.

He was dressed in Zhu Gaoxu's casual military uniform, a dark brown narrow-sleeved long robe, with a jade pendant hanging at his waist.

The shape of this jade pendant was what Chen Mo had requested from the props team that morning.

The props team originally provided Zhu Gaoxu with a large metal waist tag to hang on his side, but Chen Mo went to the props team leader in the morning and asked him to change it to a small jade tag to hang in front of his waist.

The props team leader asked him why.

Chen Mo said, "Zhu Gaoxu was born into a military family, but he is coming to the capital to become a prince. A metal waist badge is not suitable for a military officer; a jade badge would be more appropriate."

The props team leader looked at him for two seconds and nodded.

He changed his waist tag.

Jingming didn't go into the props department's storeroom that morning. When he put on his costume, he saw the jade pendant on his waist.

He froze for a moment.

This jade pendant is not quite the same as the one he designed in his script.

He remembered that the script mentioned "metal plate".

But they replaced it with a jade pendant on the spot.

He didn't ask.

The costume is already on; there's no going back.

He muttered to himself: Why did the props department give me this today?

He didn't think much of it.

He felt that this small detail wouldn't affect the performance.

He was wrong.

Luo Yifeng pressed the intercom.

"The first scene in the side hall of the East Palace, the first time."

"Action!"

Jingming walked in from outside the side hall.

His steps were steady.

A prince who had been leading troops in the field for many years returned to the capital. His steps carried the toughness of the frontier, but this time he came to the capital to pay his respects to his nephew, the crown prince, so he had to restrain this toughness.

Jingming practiced this "restrained toughness" in his mind all night, and he acted it out very well.

He walked to the low table, stopped, and bowed to Chen Mo.

"Nephew."

Jingming pronounced those two words with great care, his voice low and his posture respectful, but beneath it lay the subtle resentment of an uncle more than ten years older than his nephew.

After he finished bowing, according to the script, he had to wait for Zhu Zhanji to let him sit down.

According to the script, Zhu Zhanji should have said at this point: "Second Uncle, please sit down."

Jingming was waiting for this line.

But Chen Mo didn't say that right away.

Chen Mo remained seated in the main seat, without getting up.

His eyes first swept over Jingming's waist.

The sweeping point was the jade pendant on the waist.

This scan takes less than a second.

After scanning, Chen Mo's eyes returned to Jing Ming's face.

Then he spoke.

He didn't read the line "Second Uncle, please sit down" that was written in the script.

He was reciting a different sentence.

"Second Uncle, this jade pendant of yours..."

Jingming was stunned.

He was genuinely stunned.

He didn't know what Chen Mo was going to say.

He had read the script for this scene twenty times, but this line was not there.

He opened his mouth, but didn't react.

His years of practice in "thinking things through before acting" were of no use in this one second.

Chen Mo continued reading.

"...Was it hung up for you on the day Father Emperor ascended the throne?"

Jingming's brain was racing in that split second.

He acted out Zhu Gaoxu's reactions while performing the actions.

How would Zhu Gaoxu react to such an unexpected problem?

Jingming's mind told him: Zhu Gaoxu was a rough man with a bad temper, but he couldn't show it in front of his nephew, so he had to act like he was being asked a question he didn't really want to answer, but still had to answer it.

As Jingming thought this, his face reflected the reaction: his brows furrowed slightly, the corners of his mouth turned down a little, and then he answered respectfully.

"Yes, it was a gift from my father."

This reaction is acceptable.

But this reaction was something Jingming came up with using his brain.

It's not a bodily instinctive reaction.

Luo Yifeng hissed behind the monitor.

He didn't call a halt.

What Chen Mo read next was not in the script.

"Second Uncle."

"Um."

"The material of this jade pendant is Hetian white jade."

"Um."

"There was no Wagyu white among the rewards given by the court on the day my father ascended the throne."

The side hall fell silent for a moment.

Jingming's forehead began to sweat.

He was really sweating.

He hadn't expected the play to escalate to this point; the few words Chen Mo added on the spot weren't just casual conversation, but a question.

The crown prince questioned the origin of the jade pendant at the waist of the vassal king.

The importance of this scene suddenly tripled.

Jingming's mind was racing.

He was thinking about how Zhu Gaoxu should respond at this moment.

He thought for a second and came up with a version.

He was about to open his mouth to say it when his body moved first.

His body uttered a sentence first.

"Nephew, you have a good eye."

He was stunned for a moment when he said those words.

This is not the sentence he had thought through.

This came out of his body.

However, this statement fits perfectly with the character of Zhu Gaoxu.

An ambitious prince was confronted by his nephew who exposed the origin of the jade pendant. He could neither deny it nor admit it. The most dignified response was this sentence.

"Nephew, you have a good eye."

They admitted it, but didn't admit the details.

He praised the other person, but his praise contained a hidden barb.

Upon hearing this, Chen Mo's lips twitched slightly.

This action wasn't in the script either.

This movement was a temporary response from Chen Mo as he caught Jing Ming.

The two actors completed a scene that was not pre-arranged by anyone in that single second.

Luo Yifeng was behind the monitor, leaning forward.

He watched the scene come alive in front of the camera.

interesting.