One theory is that when taking group photos, the prettiest children should be placed in the most prominent positions to make the whole picture look better. All interviews and reports related to script readings are staged; they serve no purpose other than aesthetically pleasing composition. This theory is the most suitable approach.
Shang Yechu stood up and sat in the seat assigned by reporter Xiao Du, but Sergei seemed hesitant. Although he stood up, he remained standing in the same spot.
Xiao Du gave Shang Yechu a wink: What's going on? Can't understand English?
Shang Yechu gently shook her head: Don't ask me, this is the first time I've met him too.
“Sergei,” Shang Yechu stood up and tapped the table in front of him, speaking in Russian, “the sooner we finish filming, the sooner it will be over. It’ll be quick.”
A flicker of obvious hesitation crossed Sergei's handsome brows. Shang Yechu's heart skipped a beat. Was this guy some kind of racist? Did he not want to sit with Chinese people...?
Sergei finally nodded and got up to sit next to Shang Yechu. But before sitting down, he seemed to unintentionally pull his chair away from Shang Yechu and closer to Director Lev next to him.
Shang Yechu frowned, somewhat displeased. She hoped she hadn't guessed correctly; otherwise, the "Ice and Iron" production team would be incredibly unlucky.
Just then, the Russian translator sat down on the other side of Shang Yechu. A strong perfume scent exploded like a firecracker, rushing straight into Shang Yechu's nostrils, mixed with a suspicious, inexplicable smell. Shang Yechu's vision went black, and he no longer had time to suspect Sergei; he instinctively held his breath.
Sergei glanced at Shang Yechu.
Xiao Du, with his sharp eyes, noticed the gap between the two lead actors and exclaimed, "Ye Chu, move over! Why leave such a big gap between your teeth?"
Shang Yechu numbly tried to move the chair she was sitting on, but after a long time she couldn't move it. Her dizzy brain then remembered that she was still sitting in the chair, so she quickly stood up and pulled the chair closer to Sergei.
Objectively speaking, the air around Sergei is much fresher. Thank goodness.
The seemingly harmonious but actually hostile creative team finally completed the seating arrangement ceremony under the reporters' direction. They then professionally picked up their scripts, struck poses, and allowed the reporters to take pictures for over ten minutes. The reporters from CTS were quite professional, sometimes directing the screenwriter to ponder deeply, sometimes instructing the director to gesture and speak with authority. Shang Yechu was also directed, posing for several photos as if discussing the script with Sergei. Judging from the photos alone, everyone present looked presentable, showing no signs of the intense interview they had just endured.
Shang Yechu's original intention was to stage a photo shoot, but then she remembered what Sergei had just said, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "What did you mean by what you just said?"
"Which sentence?" Sergei looked up at Shang Yechu.
The two were acting like elementary school students whispering to each other in class. When Xiao Du saw this, his eyes lit up and he quickly asked someone to take a picture.
“Kovalev is not Chapayev; he is much weaker than Chapayev.” Shang Yechu repeated verbatim, “Why do you say that?”
Sergei asked, “Have you read the novel *Chapayev*?” He spoke very slowly.
Shang Yechu wanted to shake her head, but remembering that they were posing for a photo, she had no choice but to hold her head and whisper, "No. Only the movie." Compared to the movie "Chapayev," its original novel is not well-known in China, and Shang Yechu had never actually read it.
Sergei spoke slowly and clearly, enunciating each word: "'What he has begun to relinquish will be relinquished forever; and what now interests and fascinates him will irresistibly draw him in.'"
Although Shang Yechu understood what he was saying, she couldn't quite grasp the meaning: "What is this?"
“A line from the novel ‘Chapayev’,” Sergei said softly. “'He’ is, of course, Chapayev… those bad, old vices, once Chapayev abandoned them, he abandoned them forever. He would never pick them up again. But Kovalev did pick them up again.”
Shang Yechu painstakingly translated these words into Chinese, savored them carefully, and his eyes lit up.
Seeing this, Sergei added, "A piece of iron ore, after being quenched, smelted, and forged, becomes a sharp sword. So no matter how much this sword is tortured, even if it breaks, it will not turn back into iron ore. It will only become a broken sword. Unless the sword was never formed in the first place."
After Shang Yechu translated for a while, Sergei switched to fluent English and repeated it.
Shang Yechu stubbornly continued to reply in Russian: "That's not necessarily true, is it? Many people, many swords will be, uh, corroded."
“Corrosion isn’t like that,” Sergei said in a low voice. “Corrosion is softening, it’s gradual, little by little,” Sergei glanced at Shang Yechu, “it’s a silent, gradual process of being devoured.”
Therefore, when Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it first tests their resolve... Shang Yechu recalled this saying. Culture is sometimes universal. She understood the meaning behind Sergei's convoluted words (Shang Yechu would never admit it was because she was bad at Russian): if Kovalev had truly been a warrior who could withstand trials from the beginning, the kind of comrade Wei Bingkai envisioned, a Chapayev-esque hero, then even if he suffered exclusion and heavy pressure, he wouldn't have degenerated into the pathetic state he was in the factory.
Unless, of course, this person is inherently weak. He has never truly undergone a transformation of his faith; he is merely a hero in disguise.
Shang Yechu's breathing gradually quickened. She pointed at Sergei's script with her pen and asked, "Is this the screenwriter's true intention?"
Sergei shook his head: "No. It was my own idea. Mikhail, the screenwriter, didn't think that far ahead; he just—"
Sergei stopped. He realized he had already said too much.
Shang Yechu pressed, "What?!" She was getting impatient.
Sergei paused.
Sheldon leaned closer and said in a very low voice, "He just projected his own weak imagination onto Chapayev, creating a fallen hero in his fantasy."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
