Chapter 29
When Zhou Ping'an returned to Xiangbei Studios, the filming preparations in the main hall had already entered a more detailed stage. He didn't bother anyone, habitually standing in an inconspicuous shadowed corner, watching Liu Yifan and the staff confirm their positions.
Lin Na was directing the lighting team through the intercom to adjust a set of complex lighting effects, trying to simulate the changes in light through the window lattice at different times of the day to match the possible location of the "invisible King You of Zhou".
Zhou Pingan watched silently for a long time, his gaze mainly fixed on Liu Yifan. She was adjusting her sideways angle and eye level slightly according to instructions, as if she was silently communicating with an invisible person.
She was extremely focused, and her body language was precise and infectious. Even without an opponent, people could clearly feel the existence she was "seeing".
After a while, Lin Na put down the intercom and rubbed her aching neck. Then she noticed Zhou Pingan in the corner. She walked over, her face flushed with a mixture of fatigue and excitement from work.
"Mr. Zhou." She greeted him in a familiar tone.
"Yeah." Zhou Ping'an nodded, his eyes still fixed on Liu Yifan. He was silent for a few seconds, as if trying to organize his words. Then, in a tone that was not as firm as usual and instead contained a hint of rare hesitation, he asked:
"Director Lin," he paused, his voice low but clear enough, "I have an idea...it might not be mature."
Lin Na raised an eyebrow, indicating that she was eager to hear more. She had long been accustomed to Zhou Ping'an's occasional seemingly wild and unrealistic "ideas" that often hit home directly.
Zhou Ping'an lowered his eyes slightly, his tone cautious and tentative: "We discussed before that we should keep the sound and use details, light and shadow... to represent 'him'."
"Yes, the progress is pretty good. The voice quality of the dubbing teacher is very good, and it can create a strong sense of oppression and presence." Lin Na affirmed.
"I was thinking..." Zhou Ping'an spoke even more slowly, sounding a little hesitant, as if he knew this idea might be too extreme. "Can you... remove a little more?"
Lin Na was slightly startled: "Take away what?"
Zhou Pingan raised his eyes, his gaze clear, yet filled with a childlike purity and yet almost cruel paranoia: "What if you take away the sound too?"
“…” Lin Na was completely stunned and didn’t understand what he meant for a moment.
Zhou Ping'an seemed to be encouraged and continued to expound on his astonishing idea. His tone was still uncertain and negotiating, but the content was earth-shattering:
"What I mean is... could 'he'... not exist at all? No specific sound, no parts of his body, not even clear hints of light and shadow. Just... complete 'nothingness'."
He tried hard to find a way to express himself that the other person would understand: "Throughout the entire film, 'he' is like an absolute background, a tacit rule. His entire existence is only reflected through 'her' reactions."
He pointed at Liu Yifan in the hall. "Just film her. Film only her subtle reactions in this space completely enveloped by 'his' will—her trance when she hears a nonexistent voice, her trembling when she feels an absent touch, the look in her eyes as she gazes at the empty throne... Let the audience 'see' the omnipresent 'Ghost King' through her eyes."
By the end, the hesitation in his voice disappeared, replaced by a gradually clearer excitement ignited by his own ideas. However, he still restrained himself and looked at Lin Na with an almost clumsy, inquiring gesture, as if asking: Is this idea feasible? Is it... too much?
Lin Na stood there, as if possessed by a spirit, her whole body frozen in place.
There were several seconds of absolute silence.
Then, Chen Feng saw with his own eyes that Director Lin Na's pupils contracted rapidly at a visible speed, then suddenly dilated. Her breathing suddenly stopped, and then became extremely rapid. Her cheeks instantly flushed with extreme excitement, and her fingers began to tremble slightly uncontrollably.
She gasped suddenly, her voice hoarse and distorted due to extreme excitement, even breaking:
“…!!!!”
She seemed to want to say something, but the huge impact made her speechless for a moment. She raised her hands suddenly, as if trying to grab something, as if to embrace this extremely crazy idea.
Finally, she almost roared out, her voice trembling with excitement, but filled with incomparable ecstasy and adoration:
"Vacuum!! Absolute vacuum!!!"
She turned abruptly to the stunned Chen Feng, her eyes blazing, her words blazing as fast as bullets: "Old Chen! The ultimate 'have' must be set off by the ultimate 'have-not'! What we want to create is not a king, but a 'field', a suffocating power vacuum! Bao Si's emotions are a reaction to this vacuum, a silent explosion!"
She was so excited that she could hardly contain herself. She walked back and forth quickly, gesturing vigorously with her hands:
"Absolute aesthetic violence! Mr. Zhou! You're a genius! This idea... this idea is insane! It's perfect!!"
The excitement on Chen Feng's face was gradually replaced by a realistic worry. He scratched his already messy hair, smiled bitterly, and murmured:
"The layman's thinking... is sometimes too violent, directly overturning the table..." He looked at Lin Na, his tone carrying the instinctive concern of a "situational architect" about the support points of the performance.
"Director Lin, this idea... is genius, I admit. But implementing it is twice as difficult as hell. All the narrative pressure has now completely lost any physical support, and it has to be 200, 300% pressed on Yifan alone.
This was no longer a performance, this was simply... letting her create the weight of the entire world out of absolute nothingness.
"Can the 'response guidelines' I wrote really provide her with enough support? Can she...really do it?"
He asked the most crucial question. This was no longer just a question of technique, but also the ultimate torture of him, the only one who could provide textual support.
The lightning-struck ecstasy on Lin Na's face slowly faded, replaced by a deep, serious expression. As a director, she understood the risks better than Chen Feng, and was also more aware of the irreplaceable role of Chen Feng, the resident screenwriter, at this moment.
My passionate artist soul was ignited by the idea, but my responsible producer instincts were sounding the alarm.
She took a deep breath, frowned, and looked at Zhou Ping'an. Her voice returned to the calmness she had at work, but still with a subtle tremor: "Boss Zhou, Chen Feng's concerns are also my concerns. This concept is an ultimate breakthrough in aesthetics.
But technically… we've essentially turned all the scenes into 'interior monologues,' and Chen Feng is the one writing the 'monologue prompts.' This is devastating for both of them. I'm worried… this will exceed our control."
She used the word "devastating," and it wasn't an exaggeration.
Both of them focused their eyes on Zhou Ping'an, waiting for his decision, or rather, hoping that he would realize the danger of this idea and back down a little.
Zhou Ping'an listened quietly, his face showing no sign of displeasure at being questioned, nor did he rush to defend himself. He waited until both of them finished speaking, then shifted his gaze from Chen Feng's worried face to Lin Na's solemn expression. Finally, he glanced from afar at Liu Yifan, who was communicating with the photographer in the center of the hall.
He was silent for a few seconds, then turned back to look at Lin Na and Chen Feng, and asked in a very calm tone, even with a hint of pure curiosity:
"If, just if..." He chose his words carefully, "if we can do it..."
He paused, his gaze becoming extremely focused, and he clearly asked the most core and only question:
"Doing this...isn't it more beautiful?"
He slightly emphasized his tone and asked:
"Is it beautiful enough?"
“…”
Lin Na and Chen Feng were speechless for a moment.
All the realistic considerations about difficulty, risk, and tolerance seemed to become insignificant noise in the face of Zhou Ping'an's simplest, most direct, and most essential question.
Yes, if it can be realized, that kind of extreme "existence" born from the extreme "non-existence", that kind of aesthetic violence that allows the audience to "see" a ghost dynasty through the eyes of a woman... Isn't it closer to the "extreme" they have always pursued than any existing film language?
That kind of beauty is enough to subvert cognition and reshape standards.
Lin Na's breathing quickened again, but this time it wasn't out of excitement, but rather a tremor of overwhelming temptation. She looked into Zhou Ping'an's clear eyes, focused solely on the final answer, and realized that all her worries and rationality were fading in the face of this pure question.
Chen Feng opened his mouth, but ultimately couldn't utter a word of objection. As a creator, he couldn't deceive himself—the artistic height of this conception was a fatal temptation.
Zhou Pingan looked at their reactions and seemed to have gotten the answer. He didn't need them to answer in words. He just nodded lightly, as if confirming a known result.
"Then let's give it a try." His tone returned to its usual calmness, yet it was filled with determination. "Don't worry about anything else. Just think about how to make it happen."
His words were like a pardon, but also like a shackle. They freed Lin Na and Chen Feng from all concerns about the difficulties of reality, while also locking their pursuit of artistic perfection into this most difficult and insane path.
Lin Na let out a long breath, her eyes sharp and resolute again, even with a desperate determination. She looked at Chen Feng, and the two exchanged a glance that said it all.
The temptation was too great. So great that they willingly accompanied Liu Yifan to challenge the cliff called "vacuum" that could shatter them to pieces.
Chen Feng shook his head with a flood of emotion. Ultimately, all his complex emotions dissolved into a sigh, a mixture of boundless admiration and worry. He looked down at the tablet he always held in his hand, which was filled with densely packed scene descriptions that could be overturned and rewritten at any moment.
"Okay, then... let's give it a try." He said this to Zhou Ping'an as well as to himself, which meant that he accepted this unprecedented challenge.
Try to create soul-stirring thunder in absolute nothingness.
During a break in filming, Liu Yifan, wrapped in a thick down jacket, rested in a high-backed chair in a corner of the main hall. After hours of acting with the "nothingness," the extreme mental and physical exertion left her face visibly fatigued, yet deep within her eyes was a burning clarity.
Lin Na came over with a cup of hot tea, handed it to her, and then sat down on the prop box next to her, looking a little hesitant.
"How do you feel?" Lin Na asked the usual question first.
Liu Yifan held the warm teacup in both hands, absorbing a little warmth and exhaled lightly: "It's okay. It's just... I feel more and more that the more 'empty' the opponent is, the more things need to be filled in." She was referring to her own emotions and imagination.
Lin Na nodded and was silent for a moment, as if she had made up her mind. She raised her head and looked directly at Liu Yifan, her tone calm but heavy: "Yifan, Mr. Zhou just came in, and he... proposed a new idea."
Liu Yifan looked up at her, waiting for the next words. She was already accustomed to the subversive potential of Zhou Ping'an's "ideas."
Lin Na relayed Zhou Ping'an's vision of "eliminating sound and pursuing absolute vacuum" to Liu Yifan, along with his and Chen Feng's concerns about the difficulty and risks. She didn't embellish anything, even emphasizing the warning about "devastating consumption."
Liu Yifan listened quietly, his face expressionless, except for the slight whitening of his fingers, which had been gripping the teacup. Only after Lin Na had finished speaking did she slowly lower her eyes, her thick lashes casting a small shadow beneath her eyelids.
The only sound in the empty hall was the faint sound of distant staff debugging equipment. After a long moment, Liu Yifan spoke in a low voice, his voice barely audible, hoarse:
"Director Lin... do you think I can do this?" This question was exactly the same one she'd asked herself a moment ago. It wasn't an excuse, but the instinctive self-doubt that comes when faced with a nearly impossible-to-climb peak.
Lin Na didn't answer immediately. She looked at Liu Yifan's tired but resolute profile and remembered Zhou Ping'an's last question. She took a deep breath and said clearly in a tone that was like repeating an oracle:
"After listening to all our concerns, Mr. Zhou only asked one question."
Liu Yifan raised his head and looked at Lin Na.
Lin Na met her gaze and, word by word, repeated Zhou Ping'an's decisive words into the cold air:
"He asked, 'Isn't it more beautiful if we do this?'"
Liu Yifan's pupils shrank almost imperceptibly.
Lin Na paused, as if she had been struck by the question again, and her voice was filled with an almost obsessive certainty:
"'Beautiful enough?'"
“…”
The air seemed to freeze.
The hesitation and fatigue on Liu Yifan's face seemed to be blown away by an invisible wind. That question, like a precise key, instantly unlocked the deepest part of her heart.
More beautiful?
Imagine the scene: no specific sound interruption, not even the slightest hint of light or shadow. On the entire screen, there's only her, and her subtlest, most authentic, and cruelest reaction to absolute nothingness. All the oppression, all the tragedy, will be conveyed directly to the audience through her eyes, her breathing, the trembling of her fingertips.
That kind of ultimate purity that cannot tolerate even the slightest impurity...
The kind of beauty that pushes performing arts to its limits, almost cruelly...
The answer is beyond doubt.
A shiver of fear, excitement, and immense temptation shot up her spine and up to her head. She couldn't resist the temptation, just like a climber can't resist the call of the summit, even if they know there might be a bottomless abyss ahead.
Liu Yifan slowly set down her teacup and stood up straight. Her heavy down jacket slipped off, revealing the thin costume beneath. She gazed toward the deserted center of the hall, a symbol of the core of power. Her gaze seemed to penetrate reality, beholding the breathtaking artistic masterpiece she was about to complete alone.
She turned around and looked at Lin Na. There was no more doubt on her face, only a clear determination.
"Then," she said in a low but unusually clear voice, "let's give it a try."
She also cannot refuse the ultimate question about "beauty". For that "beautiful enough", she is willing to walk into the absolute vacuum, even if there may be nothing there except her own burning soul.
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