Chapter 34

Before Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei had recovered their senses, they suddenly saw a great crowd of uncles and aunties rush in behind Zhuo Yang.

One of the aunties was named Bao'er. She was the one coaching them on their Jinghe Opera excerpt, and she came straight over as soon as she saw them.

"Oh my, what handsome young men! You look even better than you did in the video!" Bao'er exclaimed. Then her eyebrows shot up. "Quick, show me some moves!"

"Sure thing, Aunt Bao." The two were perfectly obedient before their senior, immediately getting up to perform a passage.

The singing had been prerecorded, so they only needed to lip-sync. Their movements were the most important part of the shoot.

Aunt Bao had adapted the scene to the background music, preserving as much of the original passage's flavor as possible.

The most crucial elements were Jinghe Opera's "eight inner and eight outer skills."

The eight inner skills referred to a character's inner expressions, such as the "shock and doubt" when brothers met and the "sorrow" when they were about to part.

The eight outer skills were physical movements, such as cloud hands and the single horse-washing movement.

It was an opera form that emphasized physical performance and commanding presence. Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei already had a foundation in martial arts, and they had learned quite a bit from Square Dance while they were at Qinglong. Every move they made was quite authentic.

Not to mention the boost from the Sunflower Manual and the hard work they had put into sharpening their spears on the eve of battle these past few days.

Even without their stage costumes and makeup, they had drawn the eyes of the Folk Customs Association's uncles and aunties by the time they finished.

The entire crew had gathered around too, clicking their tongues in praise.

Especially for the final part, when the two parted.

The brothers belonged to different camps and had not seen each other in a long time. They had only just confirmed each other's identities, and both were filled with reluctance to part.

But their pursuers outside had already reached the temple.

Every shift in Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei's emotions would be expressed through the bagua steps they took within that small square.

Their steps were both steady and urgent, fully demonstrating the importance of strength in the lower body.

More impressive still, using only the length and pace of their strides and the distance between them, they vividly conveyed the tangled feelings of two men worried about each other, yet afraid to voice a word of caution.

The passage lasted only a few dozen seconds, but when it ended, it brought the house down.

Many of the crew had never seen Jinghe Opera before, and now their interest was thoroughly piqued.

Aunt Bao applauded for a long time after watching, repeatedly exclaiming, "Excellent!"

The uncles and aunties around her were just as generous with their praise. "Really impressive! To get the hang of it in such a short time is remarkable!"

"Getting the movements right is only to be expected," Aunt Bao went on. "What's difficult is the emotion you two put into it. It's as if you really understand this scene!"

"Especially the restraint in showing a thousand thoughts that can't be expressed openly. You captured it perfectly!"

The uncles and aunties burst out laughing. They knew nothing about Jinghe Opera and assumed Aunt Bao was exaggerating.

Besides, the two young men's combined ages were less than the number of years they had worked. How could they understand something like that? They were probably just copying what they had been shown.

In truth, the two undercover agents who had just lived through their own version of 《Wutai Brothers Reunion》: ...

They really did have plenty of genuine feeling.

"It's thanks to the diagrams you gave us. They were very helpful," Ye Yiwei said with a bow. "Your instructions were detailed, and we could understand them."

Aunt Bao smiled heartily. "That's good!"

"Have you written official training materials or anything like that?" Qiao Huan asked. "The movement instructions and the paths you drew were especially... easy to understand."

"Huh?" Aunt Bao thought for a moment, then pointed behind her. "Then I'm not the only one you should thank. You should thank young Zhuo too. The two of us stayed up several nights making your storyboards."

Zhuo Yang?

The two felt a stir in their hearts.

They had heard that he had attended a martial arts school, so he had presumably seen plenty of instructional materials on different moves and routines.

But surely martial arts school materials weren't necessarily written the same way as the official training materials they had used?

Zhuo Yang just chuckled, as though he had already prepared an answer.

"I looked it all up online. Thanks to you tagging me in so many relevant posts, it looks like it wasn't for nothing."

Qiao Huan said, "Oh..."

Was that so? Maybe he had tagged Zhuo Yang so many times that he no longer remembered?

"Everyone, could you please get into makeup and costume?" the executive director urged politely. "Our cinematographer's flight landed a while ago. He should be here any moment."

Aunt Bao was puzzled. "His flight landed?"

"Yes. We specially invited Mr. Saylor, a master cinematographer from overseas, for this shoot."

"Mr. Saylor is an internationally renowned cinematographer who specializes in music videos and film promotional videos. He's particularly good at futuristic styles," the executive director explained carefully. "This is his first visit to our country. I wonder if it'll create some sparks."

At that moment, however, Mr. Saylor was in a very bad mood.

After reading the script for 《Phantom River》, he hadn't felt much of anything. It just seemed like a routine job.

After all, the beautiful country had grown tired of space operas long ago. He didn't think a country like Country C, whose film and television industry had only just begun to industrialize, could accomplish much.

He had just finished a super party before boarding, and after a flight of more than ten hours, he was now hungover and had a headache.

On the plane, he had already felt he shouldn't have put himself through this. After landing and reading the shooting script, he regretted it even more.

Wasn't this a sci-fi film? Why were there so many traditional Country C elements he couldn't understand?

What a mess.

To his surprise, he grew even angrier when he reached the set.

With his standing in the industry, on what set in what country had he not commanded the wind and rain, surrounded like the moon by a host of stars?

How was it that in Country C, all the crew were gathered around some old people, with only the two people responsible for liaising with him at his side?

"Who are those people?" Saylor asked in a hostile tone. "Are they investors in this shoot?"

He thought only something like that could explain why everyone was flocking around them.

"No, Mr. Saylor," the executive director said. "They're... consultants for our performers this time, and the consultants' friends."

"Tsk." Saylor's expression immediately turned cold.

"They're all elderly people who are highly respected in our country."

Respect?

A firm believer in judging people solely by ability, he didn't think being a little older made someone worthy of respect.

He walked over, wanting to see how this bunch of people with no real connection to the shoot had managed to attract such a large crowd of crew members.

But when he got closer, he found that the elderly people were actually... playing a game.

A game he couldn't understand.

Saylor was even more confused.

"Mr. Saylor, they're cutting paper," the executive director explained. "In our country, we hold a blessing ceremony before filming. Usually we burn incense, worship the gods, and offer a pig's head, but these elderly people are all from the Folk Customs Association. They came up with the original idea of cutting out dragons, phoenixes, money trees, and so on for blessings. It's more environmentally friendly."

"...Oh." Saylor's eyes lit up.

Although he didn't understand it, the paper-cut designs were truly beautiful!

But he didn't want to look ignorant, so he merely stole a few more glances, hoping someone would offer him one or two.

As time passed, Saylor, unable to join in the peaceful atmosphere, began to grow impatient.

"When exactly will the performers be ready?" Saylor asked in a hostile tone. "I checked. They aren't big-name actors at all, just members of a newly debuted boy band, right? How dare they keep me waiting so long?"

"Because their looks were adapted from traditional opera facial makeup," the executive director said patiently. "Besides, there are still a few minutes before their scheduled call time."

"Adapted?" Saylor scoffed. "I think it's stupid to insert your so-called traditional culture into science fiction. It doesn't fit at all. Besides, I don't think you Huaguo people are very suited to making science fiction in the first place. You pay too much attention to looking back instead of looking to the future—"

The rest of Saylor's words caught in his chest as he stared blankly at the two young men emerging from backstage.

Qiao Huan adjusted his costume and walked forward. "Sorry to have kept you waiting," he said mildly.

For a moment, Saylor felt somewhat stunned.

The young man was dressed in elaborate traditional clothing, yet he spoke such idiomatic English!

And those clothes...

Good heavens, they were beautiful!

Although he had seen little of Huaguo's traditional culture, he had always had a keen eye for beauty. The clouds, trees, and stars outlined in fine gold and silver threads on the two men's clothing were exquisitely detailed.

As they walked, the patterns reflected a faint light, like designs from a painted scroll!

Especially the man before him: the fluorescent threads cast different lights across his face, making it seem as though a soul from hundreds or thousands of years in the future had been infused into a traditional body!

Saylor suddenly felt he understood a little of why they were using such a traditional approach to make a promotional video for a science fiction film.

The filming that followed opened Saylor's eyes even wider.

So leaps through the air like that didn't require wires?

So just a couple of movements within a tiny space could express so much emotion?

What a subtle and exquisite art!

He had originally thought it was just a routine job and had no intention of putting his heart into it. He had never expected it to spark so much new inspiration.

Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei's part would actually last only a few dozen seconds in the finished video. The coordinator had allotted two hours for filming, thinking that would be plenty.

But Saylor threw the schedule right out.

"Come on! Mr. Qiao, please look at the moon. Let's get a few wide shots!"

"And Mr. Ye, please look at Mr. Qiao. Let's see if we can capture his reflection in a close-up of your pupil!"

"Could you do that step again? The fixed tripod position is limiting what I can do... Assistant! Bring out the Steadicam!"

The executive director watched, growing more and more dumbfounded.

A top cinematographer like this would usually just direct the camera assistants and supervise from the side.

But Saylor not only operated the camera himself, he even voluntarily put on the Steadicam stabilizer weighing dozens of jin, all to get a better result!

Everyone watched Saylor move constantly around the set, searching for the right angles and adjusting the positions of the lights and props at every moment. The place was in an uproar.

During breaks between setups, Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei also carried things on their shoulders and in their hands, helping everyone make adjustments.

"My, my," Saylor exclaimed. "Not only are you very professional when you perform on camera, you don't put on airs at all. You even do this physical work yourselves to help everyone!"

The two, who had never been on a set before, were confused instead. "Isn't that what we should do?"

"Of course not!" Saylor laughed. "I've worked with a lot of artists. Big names or small, they touch up their makeup and rest after shooting a couple of shots, let alone help the stagehands and assistants carry equipment and props!"

"Oh..." Qiao Huan thought nothing of it. "We're all here to work."

"Yes! That's exactly it. I've filmed in countries where seniority and social rank are sharply defined, and working with their artists was terribly unpleasant! If all Country C's artists are like you, I'd be happy to stay in Country C and do more filming!"

The crew on set were silently grateful too. If all artists were like these two, they would be happy to do more filming as well!

"Then, welcome?"

The two had no idea what sort of journey Saylor and everyone else on set had just been through.

With help like Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei's, the executive director was pleasantly surprised to find they had made up the time on the schedule.

In other words, they had done more work in the same amount of time, and done it better.

What kind of god-tier artists were these!

"Good! Your little segment is finished!" Saylor looked at the dozen-odd terabytes of footage with great satisfaction. "Let's see the other two."

Next came Zhuo Yang and Bai Jike's segment. The two had again chosen to perform the Yingge Dance.

Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei breathed a sigh of relief. The Yingge Dance was growing more and more popular online, and the other two were fairly practiced at it. Once the finished video came out, it would surely generate more discussion than their own part.

Like Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei, this was the other two's first time filming.

Zhuo Yang was warmhearted by nature and helped with this and that as usual. Bai Jike had also become somewhat more outgoing after the welfare home incident, and during breaks in filming he joined the stagehands in handing out cigarettes and water.

None of the crew had expected there could be a day when work was this enjoyable.

Before long, the two pairs had finished filming their separate segments. The last part to be filmed involved all four of them together.

This part had to link not only their separate performances, but also the traditional and futuristic elements.

In fact, this was what worried Saylor most.

Although Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei's 《Wutai Brothers Reunion》 and Zhuo Yang and Bai Jike's Yingge Dance had been modernized, with innovative props and costumes to fit the sci-fi theme and emotions that matched scenes from the film, they were still traditional at heart.

Could they be combined with an intangible, fantastical space opera?

As he was worrying, Saylor suddenly heard someone backstage shout, "The dragon is here!"

Saylor looked up and was stunned once again.

A Giant Dragon had appeared out of nowhere!

Looking closely, he realized the Giant Dragon had been fashioned from rice straw, with colorful fluorescent stars decorating both sides. In the darkness, its imposing form was only faintly visible, and with the addition of dry ice, it looked as though it were soaring through clouds and mist.

There was a pole beneath each of the dragon's head, chest, body, and tail. Qiao Huan and the other three all went into action bare-chested, setting the entire dragon dancing!

Saylor stepped forward and helped support it, hardly able to believe it.

It was so heavy!

In his previous filming experience, large props like this had always been very light, to save the performers effort.

Yet the four young men before him held the dragon up firmly and steadily, without a single complaint!

Saylor instantly thought of a phrase known around the world—

Everyone in Huaguo really did know kung fu!

And that wasn't all.

There were hundreds of preset pyrotechnic points throughout the set, like the gunfire in the battle between the forces of good and evil at the end of 《Phantom River》.

The four young men had just represented different camps, but now, united by the Giant Dragon, they worked together to dodge the hail of gunfire.

The music playing on set was also the part the four of them had sung together earlier.

Soft and low, yet filled with a magnificent, tragic grandeur.

The set was arranged like a brilliant Star Sea, and a Giant Dragon carrying both tradition and the future moved through it. Thanks to the four men's combined efforts, it was lifelike in every detail, vividly alive!

The future and the past were perfectly united at this moment!

Saylor immediately found the right angle, refusing to miss the slightest detail.

He could already imagine how magnificent it would be if this were placed at the end of the promotional video and intercut with scenes from the interstellar battle!

In fact, Qiao Huan, Ye Yiwei, Zhuo Yang, and Bai Jike had not rehearsed their positions for this part beforehand.

Right now, they were each relying on instinct, working together as they dodged.

Yet that made it all the more real and lively.

Beneath the Giant Dragon.

Among the four seemingly harmonious men, Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei noticed something amiss at almost the same time.

The pyrotechnic points were usually high up, and the low-temperature powder used in them wasn't very powerful. Even if they pressed right up against one, it wouldn't hurt them in the slightest.

The two of them were responsible for the dragon's chest and body, so naturally they didn't have to steer. They only needed to coordinate their movements with Zhuo Yang at the dragon's head and block their own faces as much as possible, all to give him more screen time.

But Zhuo Yang kept dodging the pyrotechnic points when he was still several meters away...

Was he afraid of something?