In one morning, Cheng Che had learned most of the movements.
When Old Chen taught for the third time, he stopped talking, leaned against the wall, crossed his arms, and watched the figure in the middle of the field walk through the movements again and again.
On the fourth take, he turned to a stuntman next to him and whispered something. The stuntman paused for a moment, then leaned over to look.
By the fifth time, four or five people were already standing at the door; they had all sneaked over after hearing the news.
Cheng Che didn't notice any of this.
He was in the final stretch, slashing, turning, and defending in a clean and crisp motion. He turned the knife in his hand, thrusting it out with a backhand, and then held it in place. As he finished, his foot grounded on the mat, as steady as if it were nailed to the ground.
Old Chen straightened up and walked over.
" Teacher Cheng," he began, his tone completely different from this morning, "You really haven't practiced before?"
"No." Cheng Che handed him the prop knife, smiling as he said, "First time."
Old Chen took the knife, weighed it in his hand, then turned around and gestured with his chin towards the people at the door. "Stop peeking, come in and talk."
When the news reached the film set, several actors waiting their scenes were talking about it.
Actor Zhou sat in a folding chair, script in hand, and after listening to the person next to him finish speaking, he remarked with emotion:
"Is there anything this person can't do? Smart, healthy, and good-looking too. A true savior!"
Zhao Yiming flipped through a page of the script beside him without even looking up. "You only found out on the first day?"
Filming officially began in the afternoon.
This scene marks Shen Che's first counterattack after being driven to the brink of despair.
The plot is simple: Shen Che is cornered in an alley by several assassins, with nowhere to retreat, so he picks up a knife from the ground and fights them to the death.
Director Zhou, sitting behind the monitor, called out, "Ready!"
Old Chen stood to the side, holding a walkie-talkie in his hand, his eyes fixed on the field.
"Start."
Cheng Che rushed in from the alley entrance, staggering. He glanced back, tripped over a stone, and fell forward, bracing himself on the ground. When he got up, his face was covered in dirt.
He ran two steps forward, but two more people blocked his way at the alley entrance.
He stopped, stepped back, pressed his back against the wall, his chest heaving, and his eyes darted back and forth.
Then he saw the knife on the ground.
He bent down to pick it up, his hands trembling. He tried once but failed, and only managed to grasp the knife handle on the second try.
The person opposite him approached. He stood up, gripping the knife, his shoulders hunched, the tip of the knife pointing downwards, looking as if he didn't know how to use a knife.
The people on the other side rushed up.
Cheng Che took half a step back, then froze.
The knife slashed upwards, skimming past the first person's ribs at a tricky angle, forcing the opponent to turn sideways.
Cheng Che didn't stop. He pressed forward, his blade still swung, and used the momentum of his turn to slash horizontally, forcing the second person back.
A third person lunged at him from the side. Cheng Che didn't turn around; he simply changed the direction of the knife in his hand and thrust it out with a backhand motion, aiming for the shoulder of the hand holding the knife.
Old Chen was holding the walkie-talkie next to the monitor, but his finger forgot to press the button.
That's not the movement he designed.
His plan was for Shen Che to tumble and roll in a sorry state, barely managing to counterattack, only to fall down himself after three strikes.
But what Cheng Che typed was completely different.
That spinning horizontal slash, the power and angle of it, was something that someone "who doesn't know how to use a knife" couldn't possibly execute.
That backhand shoulder strike was so precise, it looked like he'd practiced it hundreds of times.
Director Zhou remained silent behind the monitor, his eyes fixed on the screen.
"Card."
Director Zhou called out, stood up from behind the monitor, and glanced back at Old Chen.
Old Chen nodded, his expression somewhat complicated.
Director Zhou smiled and shouted to the audience, "That's a pass."
Cheng Che stopped his stance, handed the prop knife to the stuntman next to him, and walked back to the monitor.
Qin Lie stood there, holding a bottle of water, his expression exaggerated.
"What's wrong?" Cheng Che took the water, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.
"It's nothing, I just feel like if you had been born a few decades earlier, you would have been the Kung Fu Emperor!"
"Yes, when we conquer the Milky Way, I'll appoint you as my chief eunuch."
"Hahaha, get lost! If you're going to be anyone, be a general!"
In the evening, a barbecue stall was set up on the open ground outside the base, with several folding tables pushed together and piled with lamb skewers, chicken wings, grilled corn, and several cases of beer.
The crew of several dozen people sat in a circle. Cheng Che was pulled to the main table, with Director Zhou sitting next to him, and Old Chen and several stuntmen opposite him.
Old Chen walked over with his beer glass in hand and clinked it against Cheng Che's:
" Teacher Cheng, let me tell Old Chen something today: if you ever stop playing tennis and acting, come to me, and I'll teach you proper kung fu."
Several stuntmen nearby chimed in, " Brother Chen, that's not right. What's the point of a top star coming to learn martial arts from you?"
Old Chen chuckled, "Can't I just have some fun?"
Cheng Che raised his glass and clinked it against his. "Okay. I'll come and learn from you when I'm less busy."
After finishing their late-night snack and returning to the hotel, Qin Lie and Chen Wei, as usual, went into the room to check it over.
After the last incident involving obsessive fans, Qin Lie paid extra attention to this matter.
He bent down and searched through the bedside table. Chen Wei took out her phone and scanned the corners of the room to make sure there were no hidden cameras. She then checked the door locks and windows again.
The two of them worked for five or six minutes, and only left after confirming that everything was in order.
After closing the door, Cheng Che took a shower, sat down at his desk in his pajamas, and turned on his laptop.
For the past few months, he has used [ Academic Descent ] once a month, randomly bestowing upon a portion of the academic knowledge of a senior figure in the scientific community each time.
Sometimes it's mathematics, sometimes physics, and sometimes other fields.
Last month, he even won a drawing for Da Vinci's perspective technique, which came with a bonus drawing skill.
He used that skill for the prop design of " The Realm and Old Friends," drawing several sketches for the art team. The art team looked at them for a long time and asked him if he had studied traditional Chinese painting.
But the greatest gain was still the knowledge gained from Alan Baker's first arrival.
The core proof technique for estimating the linear form of the lower bound of the algebraic logarithm in the Baker's Method.
He's been digesting this for the past few months, and now he understands it completely.
He plans to use this technology to write his second paper.
He had already come up with a topic.
Explicit optimization of effective constants in the Baker's Method and its application in specific equations.