Those Steps We Walked Together

"Wow - I can't believe it, you two guys came up with this story!"

Leia's eyes widened, and she exclaimed in an exaggerated tone.

She didn't come to the school to meet on Monday afternoon, and just now she heard Bruno tell her the story about the steps of the Louvre that Cheng Kesong and Hugo thought up.

Now the four of them were sitting on the steps outside the Opera House, waiting for Julia and Valentine to arrive.

"I went to the Church of the Sacred Heart with Valentine yesterday, you know? That guy actually came up with a horror story in the church, it's murderous and haunted...I don't have any expectations for his creativity. " Leiya complained with her lips curled.

"Julia is similar to Valentine. The story she thinks of is that the animal skeletons in the Museum of Natural History rioted, rushed out along the steps, and stirred up wind and rain in the streets and alleys of Paris!"

After Bruno finished speaking, he laughed loudly: "Look, at the end of this story, what does it have to do with the steps!"

Hugo also laughed when he heard the words: "It is a wise choice for six people to act together. If Valentine and Julia get together, I don't know what kind of magical story will be created."

"Hey, Hugo, don't think I don't know you!" Bruno said mercilessly, "If it weren't for the croissant, you would never have come up with such a good love story!"

Hugo was stunned: "Who said we are telling a love story?"

Bruno put his hand around Hugo's neck and said with a smirk: "Aha! Don't think I can't see it, your story is full of pink bubbles! Although you used ' He', but don't worry, I don't discriminate against gays."

Hugo punched Bruno on the shoulder: "Shut up, you!"

Cheng Kesong was also a little embarrassed, and smiled helplessly: "Why can't it be friendship?"

"Because friendship is never as touching as love!"

Leia came over and exaggeratedly put on a coy pose.

Several people fought for a while, Julia and Valentine came out of the subway side by side, crossed the road to the square of the Opera House.Valentine stuffed the last bite of the sandwich into his mouth, and threw the wrapping paper into a garbage bag at the intersection before rushing over.

Seeing Cheng Kesong, Valentin's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to open his mouth before swallowing.

"Cross! I heard your story! The Chinese are so romantic! Oh!"

As he spoke, he made a heart-holding gesture.

"In fact, most Chinese people think that France is the real romantic country," Cheng Kesong explained.

"No, no, listen to me."

Valentin swallowed hard, and then said: "I saw a collection of Chinese poetry at my grandmother's place. It is said that it was written by ancients more than 1000 years ago. The romantic feelings of those poems are more romantic than those of us in France. People are several grades higher!"

Cheng Kesong didn't know the effect of translating ancient poems into French, and he couldn't refute them, so he could only smile back.

"Okay, but it's undeniable that the story between you and Hugo is really romantic." Valentine surrendered.

Hugo shrugged helplessly, and said, "Okay, everyone, we can go to the opera house, draw sketches of the steps, and make up some romantic stories at the same time. Let's go."

Julia lifted the backpack on her shoulder, very dissatisfied.

"Why must it be a romantic story? I think the opera house is very suitable for supernatural stories..."

The Paris Opera House is a typical Baroque building, combined with a Greek colonnade, and the exterior facade and interior of the building are carved with complicated patterns.The murals in the corridor are connected with each other, reflecting each other with large mirrors, which look resplendent in the light.

A group of people came to the lobby of the opera house.

The sight is the very spectacular famous steps.

The whole body of this step is made of marble, and the handrail is in a smooth arc shape, winding upwards, and the end extends to both sides, extending a pair of branches leading to the two sides.On the cylindrical high platform at the beginning of the handrail, there are two female statues on each end. The statues are holding candlesticks divided into tillers in their hands, and the candlesticks are filled with candles—of course, here are all electric candles now.

There are more than a dozen such tiller candlesticks in the hall, and the dots of light illuminate the entire hall into a luxurious golden color.

Cheng Kesong raised his head to watch the intricate patterns carved on the walls of the hall.

This opera house is a gem of architectural art, no matter how many times he comes here, he never gets tired of seeing it.

"Did you know? There is a huge underground lake under the Opera House, which is not open to tourists."

Valentine did indeed begin to tell mysteries again.

Hugo didn't take it seriously at all: "In "The Phantom of the Opera", everyone has seen it."

"As night falls, all senses are sharpened, darkness awakens hallucinations—(Note)"

Valentine imitated the tune of the opera as he took the sketchbook out of his bag.

"Perceptual silence, all senses let down their defenses, unable to resist the notes I wrote—(Note)"

"Close your eyes, because they only tell you the truth, and the truth is not what you want to see-(Note)"

Julia also joined in.

Cheng Kesong looked at the two people standing on the edge of the steps who were both good at singing and singing, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly.

"Have you ever seen The Phantom of the Opera?" Hugo asked.

Cheng Kesong shook his head: "No, but I can look for it when I get back."

"I have a CD of that movie at home. If you need it, I can bring it to you tomorrow."

"The story is good?"

"It's not bad, it's a mix of romance and horror, with a lot of operatic music in it."

Hugo said, paused, and added: "It's just the English version, do you understand it?"

Cheng Kesong nodded and said, "You can try it."

"I can help you find the script book, I remember I downloaded it. It will be easier to compare the text."

"Okay, then you bring it to me tomorrow."

After making an appointment about the movie disc and the script book, Cheng Kesong suppressed the untimely anxiety in his heart, sat down against the wall opposite the circular steps, opened the sketchbook and started drawing.

After Julia and Valentine performed a section of the opera, they bent over to pick up their painting utensils and descended from the steps.

"Wait, don't come down!" Bruno exclaimed, "I'm drawing your interaction! Go back and put on that pose!"

Julia: "Hey! You can't be so selfish, we also want to draw, and our paintings must be included in future research reports!"

"It does seem to make sense." Bruno nodded, and over Leia's shoulder, he stretched out his hand and poked Hugo with a pencil, "Hey, you two, yes, it's you and Croissant—you two have drawn perfectly yesterday. I've sketched it, now go to the steps and help us pose!"

"But what we drew yesterday wasn't the steps of the Opera House." Hugo naturally disagreed: "And the story here hasn't been figured out yet, how do we pose?"

"The story is easy to tell!" Valentine interjected, "Whoever said that those who like opera must be nobles, those servants who clean the steps, and those who light candles in this hall, they can also like opera."

"But they don't have a stage, so they can only sing a few lines of their favorite lyrics every night when they are cleaning here. There is a maid who is in love with the butler, and they will perform on this step with the butler every night. The love opera—”

Julia said disgustedly: "Can you not tell a love story?"

"One day, the maid accidentally fell into the lake below the opera house and never came back."

Valentine lived up to Julia's expectations.

"She's a ghost, and every night on these steps she sings that opera she used to sing with the butler."

Hugo sighed exaggeratedly and shook his head again.

Valentine quit immediately: "Why, isn't this a good story? The definition of a step connecting the world with ghosts has appeared in many fairy tales."

"I feel it's ok."

Julia nodded seriously, and added: "But don't involve the underground lake, let the housekeeper and the maid have a dispute, the housekeeper accidentally pushed her down the steps, and unfortunately died, but the housekeeper regretted it after that— —”

"My God, this story is really not good at all." Bruno also shook his head.

Valentin snorted, and looked at Cheng Kesong again: "What do we think about 'Almighty Croissant'? Don't just keep silent!"

"Does it have to happen in the Opera House?" Cheng Kesong was helpless.

"Of course!"

"Well, then I think it's better to be an opera artist." Cheng Kesong really started to conceive.

After a while, he smiled and said: "A couple of opera artists often perform in the opera house. One day, they had a very important performance, but the wife was a little unwell. What a big deal, because he himself often came on stage with illness, so his wife finished the whole performance with illness."

"After the performance was successfully concluded, the wife collapsed on the steps when leaving the opera house."

"The gentleman regretted it so much that he quit his job as an actor and came to clean the steps every night as a cleaner. He could only see his wife's ghost again on this step at midnight every day. So he Has been doing this cleaning job, with his wife every night, and has never been on stage again."

After finishing the story, Valentine stared at Cheng Kesong with a ghostly expression on his face.

Julia laughed a few times: "I finally know why Simon is jealous of me! Ha! Croissant is really a big baby!"

As she said that, she naturally squeezed to Cheng Kesong's side, and stretched out her arms to wrap his arms around his neck.

Cheng Kesong has been in Paris for almost a year, and he still can't get used to the enthusiasm of the girls here, but he also knows that this is a city's culture and habits, so he doesn't hide.

"Hey, that's fine!" Hugo smiled and pushed Julia away, "Cross is very introverted, you will scare him like this."

"Oh, shy Asians!"

Julia didn't think it was a big deal at all.

"I think this story is not bad." Hugo immediately changed the subject.

"One more vote." Leiya raised her hand.

"So, how the hell did Mr. Artist, the cleaner, get along with his ghostly wife on the steps? I remember we needed two models?" Valentine revisited.

Several students immediately booed and drove Cheng Kesong and Hugo up from the ground.

"No, a couple, why not let a girl act?" Cheng Kesong finally couldn't hold back anymore.

Valentine said surprisingly: "Do you discriminate against homosexuals?"

Cheng Kesong was taken aback: "...No."

Hugo glanced at Cheng Kesong in surprise.

"That's right——" Valentine insisted, "Hurry up, we want to draw sketches with dynamic characters, and now only you two have pretty good drawings in your hands, you have to give us one A chance to paint."

Cheng Kesong was still standing there, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, but Hugo suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Hugo pulled the man to the corner in the middle of the steps, put his arm through Cheng Croissant's waist and supported him on the handrail of the steps behind him, half-wrapped him in his arms, turned his head and bared his teeth at the four people under the steps.

"Hurry up and draw!"

There was that familiar woody fragrance between the two of them again, but the smell of tobacco was much lighter.

Cheng Kesong thought: It seems that he really hasn't smoked today.

"The story just now was also very good. You have a great talent for writing stories."

Probably to avoid embarrassment, Hugo found a topic: "When this year's preparatory course is over, which major do you want to go to?"

Cheng Kesong's art school is divided into several campuses, and each campus is divided into several majors.When he applied to this school, he reported that it was the digital art campus. After the first year of preparatory courses, they will be divided into three majors: [-]D animation, [-]D animation and game art.

What Hugo asked at this time was the direction Cheng Kesong wanted to choose in the future.

"I... haven't decided yet."

"You are very good at drawing, and you are good at making up stories. The storyboard is also very good. The two-dimensional animation major is not difficult for you." Hugo laughed.

Among the three branches of this school, the two-dimensional animation class is the most difficult to enter.

"What about you?" Cheng Kesong asked.

"Game art."

Hugo answered without hesitation.

Several people under the steps finished their sketches, and Cheng Kesong and Hugo also drew their own angles. They discussed finding a coffee shop for lunch, and sorted out their thoughts so far.

At the dinner table, Valentine suddenly raised a different opinion.

"According to the story Croissant just told, the opera artist's wife should be buried in the cemetery, right? Before the plot is finalized, should we go to Lachaise Cemetery tomorrow? See if there are any other inspirations ?”

Hugo disagreed: "Don't always look for inspiration, we have to leave enough time for Croissant to draw the storyboard."

"It's only Tuesday, I suggest we go to a few more places." Julia said.

The two looked at Cheng Kesong together.

"I also think it's only Tuesday, so don't worry."

Cheng Kesong looked at Hugo with a smile.

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