"Wow—I can't believe it, you two boys came up with this story!"
Leia widened her eyes and sighed in an exaggerated tone.
She didn't come to meet at school on Monday afternoon, and had just heard Bruno tell her the story about the steps of the Louvre that Cheng Kesong and Hugo had come up with.
Now the four of them are sitting on the steps outside the Paris Opera, waiting for Julia and Valentine to arrive.
"I went to Sacred Heart Church yesterday with Valentine, you know? That guy came up with a horror story at church, killing and haunting... I don't have any expectations for his creativity." Leia pouted and complained.
"Julia is similar to Valentine, the story she thinks is that the animal skeletons in the Natural History Museum rioted, rushed down the steps, and stirred the storm in the streets of Paris!"
After Bruno finished speaking, he laughed: "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 showed no mercy at all, "If it wasn't for Ke Song, you wouldn't have come up with such a good love story!"
Hugo was stunned: "Who said we were telling a love story?"
Bruno stretched out his hand and hooked Hugo's neck, and said with a wicked smile: "Aha! Don't think I can't see it, your story is full of pink bubbles! Although you tell us all with ' He', but don't worry, I don't discriminate against gays."
Hugo punched Bruno on the shoulder: "Shut up!"
Cheng Ke Song was also a little embarrassed, but smiled helplessly: "Why can't it be friendship?"
"Because friendship is never as touching as love!"
Leia leaned over and made an exaggerated shy pose.
A few people fought for a while, and Julia and Valentine came out side by side from the subway entrance and crossed the road to the square of the Opera House. Valentine shoved the last sandwich in his hand into his mouth, and threw the wrapping paper into the garbage bag at the intersection, and then hurried over.
Seeing Cheng Kesong, Valentine's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to open his mouth before swallowing it.
"Crescent! I heard your story! The Chinese are so romantic! Oh!"
Speaking of it, it is more than a heart-warming action.
"In fact, most Chinese think that France is the real romantic country," explained Cheng Kesong.
"No no no, listen to me."
Valentine swallowed hard what was in his mouth, and then said: "I saw a collection of Chinese poetry in my grandmother's place. It is said that it was written by the ancients more than a thousand years ago. Those poems are more romantic than ours. These Frenchmen are several notches higher!"
Cheng Kesong didn't know the effect of translating the ancient poetry into French, and he had no way to refute it, so he could only smile in return.
"Okay, but there's no denying the romance between you and Hugo." Valentine surrendered.
Hugo shrugged helplessly and said, "Okay, everyone, we can go to the opera house and make up some romantic stories while sketching the steps. Let's go."
Julia lifted the backpack on her shoulders, very dissatisfied.
"Why does it have to be a romantic story? I think the opera house is a good fit for a ghost story..."
The Paris Opera House is a typical Baroque-style building, combined with a Greek-style colonnade. The exterior facade and the interior of the building are intricately carved. The murals in the corridor are connected to each other and complement each other with the large mirrors, which appear resplendent in the light.
The group came to the lobby of the opera house.
Into the eye is the very spectacular famous stairs.
The whole body of the steps is made of marble, and the handrails are in a smooth arc shape, winding upwards, and the ends extend to both sides, extending a pair of branches leading to both sides. On the high cylindrical platform at the beginning of the handrail, there are two female statues on each side.
There are more than a dozen such tiller candlesticks in the hall, and the light of the stars illuminates the whole hall into a luxurious golden color.
Cheng Kesong raised his head to look at 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? Under the opera house, in a place that is not open to tourists, there is a huge underground lake."
Valentine, indeed, began to tell mysterious stories again.
Hugo didn't take it seriously: "Everyone has seen it in The Phantom of the Opera."
"Darkness falls, all senses are sharpened, darkness awakens hallucinations—(note)"
Valentin took the sketchbook out of her bag, imitating the tone of the opera.
"Perceptual silence, all senses let down, unable to resist the notes I wrote—(note)"
"Close your eyes, because they only tell you the facts, which you don't want to see—(note)"
Julia also joined in.
Cheng Ke Song looked at the two people who were standing on the edge of the steps who sang well, and the corners of his mouth could not help but slightly hook.
"Have you seen The Phantom of the Opera?" Hugo asked.
Cheng Kesong shook his head: "No, but I can look for it when I go back."
"I have a CD of that movie at home, and I can bring it to you tomorrow if you need it."
"A good story?"
"It's not bad. It's a mix of love and horror themes, and there's a lot of opera music in it."
Hugo said, paused, and added: "It's just the English version, can 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 agreement about the movie CD and the script book, Cheng Kesong suppressed his untimely anxiety, sat down against the wall opposite the arc steps, opened the sketchbook and started to draw.
After Julia and Valentine performed an opera, they leaned over, picked up their drawing equipment, and descended the steps.
"Wait, don't come down!" Bruno exclaimed: "I'm drawing your interaction! Hurry back and take that pose!"
Julia: "Hey! You can't be so selfish, we also have to paint, and our paintings must be included in future research reports!"
"It does make sense." Bruno nodded, then crossed Lea's shoulder and poked Hugo with a pencil, "Hey, you two, yes, it's you and Croissant—you two drew perfect yesterday. Sketched, now go to the steps to help us pose!"
"But we didn't draw the steps of the Opera House yesterday." Hugo naturally disagreed: "And the story here has not yet been thought out, how do we pose?"
"It's a good story!" Valentine interjected. "Whoever says they like opera must be the nobles. The servants who sweep the steps, who light the candles in this hall, can also like opera."
"But they don't have a stage, so they can only sing a few words they like every night, while cleaning here. There is a maid who is in love with the butler, and will perform them every night on this step with the butler. The love opera—"
Julia said in disgust, "Can you not tell love stories?"
"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 turned into a ghost and sang the opera she used to sing with the housekeeper every night on this step."
Hugo sighed exaggeratedly and shook his head again.
Valentine immediately quit: "Why, isn't this story bad? The stairs connecting the world and ghosts, this definition has appeared in many myths and stories."
"I feel it's ok."
Julia nodded seriously and added: "But don't involve the underground lake, let the housekeeper have a dispute with the maid, the housekeeper accidentally pushed her down the steps, and unfortunately died, but after that the housekeeper regretted it— "
"My God, this story is really not good at all." Bruno also shook his head.
Valentine gave a "tsk" and looked at Cheng Ke Song again: "What do we think of the 'Almighty Ke Song'? Don't keep silent all the time!"
"Does it have to happen at the opera house?" Cheng Kesong was helpless.
"certainly!"
"Well, then I think it's better to be an opera artist." Cheng Ke Song really began to conceive.
After a while, he smiled and said: "A couple of opera artists often perform at the opera house. One day, they had a very important performance, but the wife was a little sick. The gentleman felt that performing with illness was not a good thing. What a big deal, because he himself often comes on stage with illness, so his wife finished the whole show with illness."
"After the performance ended successfully, the wife fell on the steps when she left the opera house."
"The gentleman was so sorry, he quit his job as an actor, and came every night as a cleaner to clean the steps. It was only on the steps at midnight every day that he could see his wife's ghost again. So he He's been doing this job as a cleaner, accompanying his wife every night, and has never been on stage again."
When the story was finished, Valentine stared at Cheng Kesong with a bloody 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!"
Saying that, she naturally squeezed to Cheng Kesong's side and stretched out her arms around his neck.
It has been almost a year since Cheng Kesong came to Paris, and he still cannot adapt to the enthusiasm of the girls here, but he also knows that this is the culture and habits of a city, so he did not hide.
"Hey, that's it!" 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 anything special.
"I think this story is not bad." Hugo immediately changed the subject.
"One more vote." Leia raised her hand.
"So, how on earth did this Mr. Cleaner Artist and his ghost wife get along on this step? I remember we needed two models?" Valentine reiterated.
Several students immediately booed and drove Cheng Kesong and Hugo off the ground.
"No, a couple, why not let a girl play?" Cheng Ke Song finally couldn't hold back.
Valentine's surprise: "You discriminate against homosexuals?"
Cheng Kesong was taken aback: "...No."
Hugo gave Cheng Kesong a surprised look.
"That's right—" Valentine insisted, "Come on, we're going to draw sketches with dynamic characters, and now only the two of us have decent drawings in your hands, you have to give us one. opportunity to paint."
Cheng Ke Song was still standing in the same place crying and laughing, but Hugo suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Hugo pulled the man to the turn in the middle of the steps, and put his arms through the side of the crotch on the handrail of the steps behind him, half-circle him in his arms, and turned his head to bark at the four people under the steps.
"Draw now!"
There was another familiar woody fragrance between the two, but the tobacco smell 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 talent for writing stories."
Probably in order to avoid embarrassment, Hugo found a topic: "When this year's preparatory courses are 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, it was the digital art campus. After the first year of preparatory courses, they would be divided into three majors: two-dimensional animation, three-dimensional 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."
"Your drawing skills are very good, you are very good at making up stories, and your storyboards are also very good. 2D animation is not difficult for you." Hugo laughed.
Of the three branch majors in this school, the 2D animation class is the most difficult to get into.
"What about you?" Cheng Kesong asked.
"Game art."
Hugo answered without hesitation.
A few people under the steps finished their sketches, and Cheng Kesong and Hugo also drew their own angles. They discussed finding a cafe 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 settled, should we go to Lachaise Cemetery tomorrow? Let's see if there is any other inspiration. ?"
Hugo disagreed: "Don't always look for inspiration, we have to leave enough time for Croson to draw the storyboard."
"Today is 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 Ke Song looked at Hugo with a smile.
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