Those Steps We Walked Together

The creative challenge group met at the school on Friday.

They nailed down the story details and negotiated a short outline for storyboarding.

"On the steps of the opera house, the opera artist hugs his wife who has fallen to the ground. This painting is certain. It is the real beginning of our story."

Julia ticked off the scenarios everyone had listed.

Cheng Kesong was cutting out his sketches and handing them to Hugo to make a research report, when he heard this, he glanced at the list in Julia's hand.

"The Seine River on the night of the full moon also has a very good artistic sense of the scene, I think it can be added." He said.

"Although Alan Cardian's tombstone is not next to the steps, we can do some artistic processing and draw a high step leading directly to his tombstone. The opera artist kneels on the top of the steps and prays for Alan Cardian's guidance. .” Hugo added.

Julia really agreed: "This painting must be drawn!"

Cheng Kesong handed the cut painting to Hugo, and the two met eyes, and Hugo winked at Cheng Kesong playfully.Cheng Kesong couldn't help but raised the corners of his mouth, and kicked Hugo lightly with his toe under the table.

Hugo Kong held his fist against the tip of his nose, smiled and coughed lightly.

"Are you listening to what I said?" Julia spread her hands helplessly.

Bruno and Valentine, who were whispering to each other over there, immediately sat upright, pretending to look at Julia seriously.

"What?" Cheng Kesong asked.

Julia said: "There are only three paintings. If the scene in front of the opera house and the tombstone is painted, the third one may need to be changed. Just a scene by the Seine River cannot express what we want to say. Story of."

"It's better to cut the screen into upper and lower parts, one side is the real world, and the other side is the reflection, which are symmetrical to each other." Hugo suggested.

"But we don't draw the real reflection, but draw the plot on the other side of the reflection as an opera artist and his wife holding hands and standing together happily." Cheng Kesong added.

Valentine whistled and looked at Cheng Kesong and Hugo with a smile.

"The combination of strength and strength is invincible!"

As he said this, he made a gesture between the two of them.

Hugo said: "I will sort out the research report. It may take a whole day to transcribe all the pictures and text you gave me to the official book. Croissant is in charge of the storyboard, and he will be under a lot of pressure and time-consuming. It's been a long time. So I hope the four of you will work together on those three paintings."

Leiya frowned: "I don't have much time today, at most I can confirm the composition and draft... Tomorrow is the weekend, the school is closed, we need a place to meet."

"Which house is bigger enough to hold the six of us?" Bruno asked.

Julia raised her hand first: "I live with my parents. There is also a ten-year-old brother at home. He is very naughty. It is not recommended to go to my house."

Valentin and Bruno's house are in similar situations, while Leia shares the rent with others, so it's inconvenient to bring so many people home.

Cheng Kesong also shook his head: "The room I rent is only twenty square meters."

So everyone's eyes were on Hugo.

Hugo raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, and said helplessly, "Okay, everyone will meet up at my house tomorrow Saturday, and we will complete the task even if we stay overnight!"

Hugo lives near Kversar Station on Line [-].

Early on Saturday morning, Cheng Kesong, carrying his painting tools on his back, followed the navigation on his phone to find the downstairs of Hugo's house.

Hugo went out and took Cheng Kesong into the building, and the two walked up to the top floor of the apartment building along a revolving staircase with full French classical romanticism.

The corridors of the old-fashioned apartments in Paris are dark and narrow, and the doors are wooden doors that look old.

Push the door and enter, and you will see a sloping roof with a window facing the sky.

"Is this the attic?" Cheng Kesong was surprised.

"Yes, I like attics." Hugo laughed.

The size of the room is not small, but there are no other wall partitions except the bathroom. It is a large bay where you can see the head at a glance.Hugo nailed a rope to the sloping roof in the middle of the bay, and hung some European-style narrow flags on it, and the flags hung down to form a simple visual partition.

On the left hand side of the entrance is a small open kitchen. A workbench and a few folding chairs are placed no more than two meters away from the cabinets. Visually, it also serves as a dining table.

Hugo led Cheng Kesong to walk in, passed between the hanging flags, and came to the bedroom on the other side.

A huge circular carpet was laid in the bedroom, and the mattress was placed on the inside close to the angled roof. There was a TV at the foot of the bed, and three game consoles of different brands were stacked one on top of the other in the TV cabinet. Controllers and game disc cases were thrown carelessly on the carpet.

Next to the head of the bed is the desk, and the wardrobe and shelves are placed against the wall away from the sloping ceiling.

This is a small attic with a simple layout, but designed very comfortably by Hugo.

The house hadn't been tidied up deliberately, the quilt on the bed hadn't been folded, some changed clothes were scattered on the carpet, and there was an open but unfinished bag of potato chips beside the desk and computer.

Hugo squeezed a piece out of the bag of potato chips and threw it into his mouth, then squeezed another piece, and handed it to Cheng Kesong's mouth.

Cheng Kesong reached out to pick it up, but Hugo avoided it.

"Or do you want me to mouth feed you?"

He squinted at Cheng Kesong and said with a smile.

Cheng Kesong reluctantly took the potato chips from Hugo's hands, and turned his head to look at the paintings and various game posters on the wall.

Hugo approached Cheng Kesong from behind, put an arm on his shoulder, and half embraced Cheng Kesong.

"I got that poster when I bought the latest "Halo" at the exhibition." He whispered into Cheng Kesong's ear, "Do you play games? When our weekly challenge is over, you can come to my house, we Play games together—Sony and Nintendo, take your pick, and Microsoft."

Cheng Kesong smiled and said, "Okay."

Hugo laughed happily, put the other hand on Cheng Kesong's shoulder, wrapped his arms around his neck from behind, and put his face on his ear.

"Kai Song, I..."

A burst of phone ringing interrupted Hugo's words.

He answered in frustration, and heard Bruno's irritating voice: "I went downstairs to your house, but the door is locked! You have to come down and pick me up!"

Hugo let go of Cheng Kesong, scratched his hair irritably, pushed the door and went out.

The team members arrived one after another, and the ambiguous atmosphere in the small attic was completely broken up.

Cheng Kesong took out a stack of printed storyboard columns from his bag, on which a schematic sketch was drawn with a pencil.He put the sketch in the center of the workbench, and let everyone see if there is any need to add or subtract details, or if there are any suggestions and opinions on the perspective of the picture.

After discussion, the storyboard was finalized after modifying two camera shifts, and the sketches of the three finished paintings were also finalized, and everyone began to concentrate on painting.

Hugo was sorting out the research report in his hand.

The hardcover notebook to be used in the report is a uniform style issued by the school. He needs to cut the sketches drawn by the team members and the photos taken into suitable shapes and paste them in, and mark the source, cause and effect, and story ideas of these graphics research, etc. .Since all these words need to be handwritten, he had to start with a pencil first, and then trace it with a pen after confirming that the spelling is correct.

The workload is not small.

At noon, everyone ordered takeaway sushi, and after a brief meal, they went back to work again.

The first to be declared completed was Hugo's research report.

He handed the report to Leya to fill in the gaps, got up and moved his limbs.

Cheng Kesong's storyboard is just halfway drawn.

He was extremely focused while painting, paying no attention to everything around him.He didn't raise his head until Hugo put one hand on the table beside him and pinched his shoulder with the other hand.

"Drink some water and take a rest, you have been drawing."

Hugo pointed to the water glass in front of Cheng Kesong.

That glass of water was left there during lunch, and I haven't touched a sip until now.

Cheng Kesong gathered the drawing paper, picked up the cup and drank it in a big gulp, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It may really be all night tonight, and there is still half of it."

"No, I've already finished it. I'll draw the storyboard for you later."

Standing behind Cheng Kesong, Hugo said while pinching his shoulder.

At this time, Leya closed the research report, handed it back, and said with a smile: "It's a perfect report, I don't think there is anything that needs to be changed."

Valentine raised his head from the drawing paper: "Hugo's report book has never been less than perfect. Our class has circulated the report book he made in the scene design class. It's a pity that he didn't learn frame design!"

Julia said: "Lea come back and draw, we have too many sculptures in the opera house, I'm going crazy!"

Bruno interjected at this time: "I'm almost finished drawing this tombstone, I'll help you draw the sculpture later."

Valentin wailed, "No! Bruno! You just promised to come and paint the waves for me! Those damn bubbles and refractions!"

Julia and Rhea laughed gleefully.

Everyone chatted for a while, and then immersed themselves in the work at hand again.

Hugo took a few drafts of the storyboard from Cheng Kesong, moved the chair beside him, observed his way of drawing the storyboard, and imitated the details of the next few drafts.

It was completely dark without knowing it, and it was not until ten o'clock in the evening that the three finished drawings were declared complete.

Hugo stepped forward and carefully hung the still-painted paper on a hanging rope by the window, Valentine packed the palette and buckets, and Leia got up to wipe the table and the floor clean.

"I have to go back, my mother has sent tens of thousands of text messages urging me." Julia said, rolling her eyes.

Bruno said, "I want to take Line [-] too, let's go together."

"How far is the storyboard? Do you need me to stay and help?" Valentine turned around and asked with concern.

Cheng Kesong laughed and said, "It's almost over, it will only take an hour or two."

"I'll help him paint, you all go back first."

Hugo took the job onto himself.

The four felt that Hugo and Cheng Kesong's partner was already impeccable, so they didn't insist. They said goodbye to Hugo and went downstairs to the subway station.

Hugo returned to the house and sat down beside Cheng Kesong.

The two continued to draw the storyboard without saying a word.

After the last line was drawn, Cheng Kesong put down the pen, squeezed his fingers, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Have some supper and rest for a while."

Hugo had already checked and proofread all the previous storyboards, and at this moment, he put a plate of salty cheese biscuits and a glass of juice by Cheng Kesong's hand.He took the last page from Cheng Kesong's hand and looked at it carefully.

Cheng Kesong yawned and stretched, drank all the juice, and ate two more biscuits.

"Ah, it's almost twelve o'clock!" He realized this, and immediately got up to pack his painting utensils.

Most of the subways in Paris stopped running around one o'clock in the morning. If he didn't leave quickly, he might miss the last train.Although there are night buses in this city, he is not familiar with the bus lines here, so it is more worry-free to take the subway.

Hugo paused holding the drawing paper.

He hesitated for a moment, and finally stood up to help Cheng Kesong pack his things.

"I'll take you downstairs."

The light in the corridor of the old-fashioned apartment was somewhat dim, and the two walked side by side on the narrow revolving steps, the skin of their arms inevitably bumped into each other.

Hugo's footsteps suddenly stopped.

Cheng Kesong went down a few more steps, and looked back at Hugo in some surprise.

The big boy was holding the light behind his back, and the expression on his face was somewhat blurred.The drill nails at the tip of the eyebrows reflected an extremely shiny highlight, which swayed with the slight movements of his breathing.

"No need to send it off, I know the way, you can go back and rest quickly." Cheng Kesong said.

Hugo went down a step, staring straight at Cheng Kesong.

"Shall we... say goodbye face to face?"

In France, the face-to-face ceremony is not only used for greetings between friends when they meet for the first time every day, but also for saying goodbye for the last time every day.

Cheng Kesong smiled, stepped up a step, and moved his cheek to Hugo.

Hugo raised a hand to caress Cheng Kesong's ear.

Then he suddenly pushed Cheng Kesong against the wall of the spiral staircase, and kissed his lips.

The painting bag on Cheng Kesong's shoulder slammed down on the steps.

He raised his hand to hug Hugo's waist, and kissed back passionately.

The two stood on the revolving steps full of French romanticism, with their necks and shoulders crossed, and they hugged each other tightly, kissing each other viscously with their lips and teeth in their mouths.

They kissed for a long time, until the voice-activated light in the corridor went out, and the two gradually stopped.

While breathing chaotically, Hugo muttered in a low voice: "Kai Song, I think... I'm in love with you."

"Regardless of whether you will return to your country in the future, whether we will be separated because of this in the future, I can't control it at this moment! I think we deserve to have... at least a few years of good memories. Isn't it?"

Cheng Kesong pressed his forehead between Hugo's brows, intersecting with his breath: "...Yes."

Hugo pecked Cheng Kesong's lips lightly: "It's past twelve o'clock."

Cheng Kesong picked it up immediately: "...I might miss the last bus."

"stay?"

"Tomorrow is Sunday anyway."

"We can play games together... or something..."

"……it is good."

Hugo laughed a few times, and a slight shock was transmitted through the chests of the two who were tightly pressed together.

Cheng Kesong sighed inaudibly.

Hugo: "What?"

Cheng Kesong: "About the steps...I have a better story now."

Hugo chuckled, and kissed Cheng Kesong's lips lightly.

"What a coincidence, I also know the same story."

……

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END

The text ends here

There is an epilogue in the back, bits and pieces of nagging