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

This scene was a reshoot.

To be precise, it was a direct shot.

Chen Mo had acted out this scene once in room 201 during his audition.

There was no set, no props, no costumes; it was just a young man wearing a Chinese-style stand-up collar shirt standing on a cement ground.

That day, Luo Yifeng asked him to perform it again, and he performed it exactly the same way.

Then the script was given to him.

After the script was given to him, Luo Yifeng did one thing: he added this scene to the official script.

The original script started on the eve of Zhu Zhanji's ascension to the throne, and his childhood was only briefly mentioned in a single title scroll.

The scene in episode 201 that Chen Mo wasn't in the script was pulled out of the subtitles and turned into the first scene of the main drama.

The start date was the eighth day after joining the team.

The scene is an official road outside Nanjing.

The art department spent twelve days building the set, including the city gate, the arrow tower, the street stalls, the bluestone road, and the half-broken cart shaft lying on the side of the road.

There are corpses in the background.

They weren't real corpses, but props. There were four of them, placed on the side of the street, half-covered with tattered cloth. They weren't shown in close-up, but you could still see them.

There were more than 200 extras.

Half of them were dressed as Ming Dynasty soldiers, and the other half as Nanjing civilians. The civilians knelt on both sides of the road, not daring to raise their heads, while the soldiers stood in the middle of the street, their armor reflecting the sunlight.

Today, Chen Mo wasn't wearing armor; instead, he was wearing a moon-white robe with a dark blue short jacket over it—the same clothes Zhu Zhanji wore when he was thirteen.

He stood in the waiting area before filming began.

Wang Xueqi walked over and stood beside him.

Today, Wang Xueqi was wearing Zhu Di's military uniform, but not the full set. It was his undergarment after returning to the city from the battle. He had taken off his helmet, tied his hair up, and had a knife hanging at his waist. The knife was not drawn, and there were a few dark spots on the scabbard.

Neither of them spoke.

They stood side by side for about a minute.

Wang Xueqi spoke up at this point.

He spoke a sentence.

"If I walk fast, will you be able to keep up?"

Chen Mo thought for a moment.

"I can keep up."

"it is good."

Wang Xueqi remained silent for a while.

Then he spoke again.

I'm not looking at you.

"Um."

I didn't look at you at all.

Chen Mo nodded.

After Wang Xueqi nodded, he turned and walked into the film set.

Chen Mo stood still for two seconds.

He was pondering Wang Xueqi's earlier statement, "I'm not looking at you."

This was a technical decision regarding the performance.

A grandfather led his thirteen-year-old grandson into Nanjing, which he had just conquered. He would not look back at his grandson along the way.

Because he has already won.

He didn't need confirmation; he knew his grandson would follow him.

Wang Xueqi's meaning in saying "I don't look at you" is very clear.

The character I'm playing today, Zhu Di, won't give you any on-screen guidance.

You can answer it yourself.

Chen Mo smiled.

He followed them into the film set.

Luo Yifeng sat behind the monitor.

He brought two machines with him today.

A main camera was placed at the end of the official road to film the panoramic view of Zhu Di and Zhu Zhanji walking along it.

Another camera was positioned low on the roadside, pointed directly at Zhu Zhanji's face.

This camera position was added by Luo Yifeng this morning.

There's only one reason he added this camera position.

He wanted to see Chen Mo looking at the corpses by the roadside.

"Get ready."

"All departments are in position."

"Actors' positioning."

Wang Xueqi stood at the starting point of the official road.

The action he's going to perform today is walking from the starting point of the official road all the way to the middle section, a distance of about sixty meters.

He walked at a normal pace. He couldn't stop, look behind him, or speak the whole way.

Chen Mo stood three steps behind Wang Xueqi.

He adjusted his posture to eye level of a thirteen-year-old boy, his shoulders slumped slightly, and his stride was an inch shorter than usual.

The assistant director raised the clapperboard.

"The first scene of 'Mountains and Rivers Under the Bright Moon,' the first time."

"Action!"

Wang Xueqi took a step.

Chen Mo followed.

Sixty meters.

Both machines operated simultaneously throughout the journey.

The main camera shot a panoramic view: a man in military uniform walks in front, and a boy in a moon-white robe follows three steps behind.

The man's scabbard swayed with his steps, and the boy's sleeves swayed along with it.

People were kneeling on both sides of the road.

In the middle of the road, the army stood at attention.

The sky above the official road was gray; the art team had specifically waited for this kind of sky.

The low-angle shot showed Chen Mo's face.

Chen Mo's face remained largely unchanged throughout the journey.

His brows were not furrowed, his lips were not pursed, and his eyes were not widened.

He was just walking.

When he reached the fifteenth meter mark, his gaze shifted slightly to the left.

The first body lay on the roadside.

His gaze lingered on the corpse for about half a second.

Then I looked away and continued walking forward.

When he reached the twenty-second meter mark, his gaze turned to the right.

The second body.

0.5 seconds.

When he reached the thirty-fifth meter, his gaze did not turn away.

But his breathing became lighter.

When he reached the forty-eighth meter mark, his pace began to slow.

He was only a little bit slower than Wang Xueqi, less than a step behind.

But Luo Yifeng on the monitor noticed it.

Luo Yifeng leaned slightly forward in front of the monitor.

We reached the fifty-third meter.

Chen Mo suddenly paused.

The pause was very short, about half a beat.

Then he made a gesture.

He took half a step back.

Only half a step.

Half a step later, he caught up with Wang Xueqi's pace and continued walking forward.

Wang Xueqi, who was ahead, never looked back.

As agreed, he "would not look at" his grandson.

However, it could be seen from Wang Xueqi's back that his shoulders tensed up very slightly when Chen Mo took that half step back.

That sudden tightening lasted less than a second.

Then his shoulders relaxed again.

Walk to the sixtieth meter.

Wang Xueqi stopped in the middle of the official road.

His pause was a pause in the script.

He stopped before turning his head.

He turned his head to look at his grandson.

This is the first time he's seeing his grandson, as stipulated in the script.

Chen Mo stopped three steps behind him.

The two people were three steps apart.

There was something in Wang Xueqi's eyes.

That thing is not the victor's pride.

That thing is a very complex way of looking at things.

He was observing his grandson, wondering what he had seen, thought, and become along the way.

Chen Mo caught his gaze.

Then Chen Mo smiled.

He smiled.

It was the exact same smile as the one I had in room 201 six months ago.

Grandpa, you're amazing!

Grandpa, I'll remember that.

Grandpa, I can do it too someday.

All three sentences were conveyed in that smile.

Two seconds.

Smile and accept.

Chen Mo lowered his head.

Wang Xueqi remained silent.

He looked at his grandson's lowered head.

I watched it for about three seconds.

Then he turned around and continued walking forward.

"Pass."

Luo Yifeng's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

All the staff breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Mo was still standing in the middle of the official road. He raised his head, first glanced at the direction of the surveillance camera in the distance, and then looked down at his feet.

His feet were still in the same spot.

Wang Xueqi, who was ahead, stopped at this moment.

He turned around and walked back.

He walked up to Chen Mo.

He didn't look at Chen Mo, but instead looked at the road they had just walked on the official road.

Then he spoke.

He said:

"Where did that half-step of yours come from?"

Chen Mo did not answer immediately.

He thought for a moment.

"The Ming Shilu records that in the first year of the Yongle reign, Zhu Di entered Nanjing and passed by the street where Fang Xiaoru was beaten to death," Chen Mo said. "I checked the location of that street, which is probably near the Drum Tower today."

"On the day Zhu Di entered the city, this street was not yet cleaned up."

"Zhu Zhanji was four years old at that time."

"Four years old is not thirteen years old," Wang Xueqi said.

"No," Chen Mo said, "but Zhu Zhanji saw this street when he was four years old, and when he went to Nanjing again with his grandfather when he was thirteen, he would remember it."

"It reminds me of myself when I was four years old."

"When I was four years old, I walked down this street behind my grandmother."

"His grandmother covered his eyes with her hands at the time."

"He didn't understand why his eyes were being covered back then."

"At thirteen, this time, he understood."

"After he understood, he subconsciously took a half step back."

"That half step was the half step back behind Grandma."

"But Grandma is gone."

"So he caught up with us again."

After Chen Mo finished speaking,

Wang Xueqi stood in front of him.

He looked at the official road, not at Chen Mo.

About ten seconds passed.

Wang Xueqi spoke up.

He said three words.

"interesting."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Behind the monitor, Luo Yifeng leaned back in his chair.

He watched the scene twice on the replay.

On the second take, he slowed down the low-angle shot.

Even at a slow pace, Chen Mo's half-step back was clearly visible.

Moreover, in the slow speed, one can see something that Luo Yifeng couldn't see at normal speed.

When Chen Mo took that half step back, his left hand made a very subtle movement.

His left hand instinctively reached behind him and grabbed.

It's like trying to grab someone's hand.

But the hand grasped at empty air.

Luo Yifeng stared at the slow-motion video for a long time.

Then he turned off the playback.

He didn't speak to the assistant director.

He stood up from his chair, walked out of the monitoring booth, and looked up at the gray sky.

A thought popped into his mind.

He didn't say that aloud.

The sentence is:

This child is not playing Zhu Zhanji.

This child is remembering for Zhu Zhanji the half-step that Zhu Zhanji himself didn't have time to remember.