Part 12 - White Robe Red Shadow

Part 12: White Robe Red Shadow

YuGong comes back on and says weakly: “I’m hurt.”

MoZhaHim (Don’tHitHim) despises him: “A guy like you can get hurt from falling on your butt?”

YuGong says angrily: “I’m hurt inside! I’m talking about inside!”

Wei Wei: “>o_oo<

Wei Wei thought that everyone would bash the script, but everyone actually felt that it was not bad after reading it. However, if she thinks about it more thoroughly, Great Master NaiHe probably thinks that it’s not bad because——he doesn’t have many lines.

YuGong and the rest of them is probably because——they didn’t think that they would have another scene appearance near the end and that it would be roles on the protagonist side, so they can’t help but cheer in joy!

Wei Wei can’t help but be speechless again; Computer Science students truly lack artistic senses……

But when NaiHe sends Wei Wei the completed video after post production, she terribly regrets and takes back her criticism on them for not having “artistic senses.”

She, YuGong, and the rest are the ones who don’t have artistic senses; it definitely doesn’t include the Great Master!

Great Master, oh, Great Master, there is nothing that you can’t master!

On the day that Wei Wei receives the video, she has night classes, so when she goes online after returning to the dorm room, NaiHe has already gone offline. He leaves her a message.

“Something has come up. I need to go offline now. I’ve sent the video to your inbox.”

Wei Wei hurries to open her inbox.

Post video production includes editing, music, subtitles, aesthetics, and etcetera. Wei Wei originally thought about doing it herself by trial and error; she thought that she probably has more free time as a second year student than fourth year students. But Great Master NaiHe said that he would do it. Since Wei Wei never doubts the Great Master, she agreed to it.

The video takes over ten minutes to download. Wei Wei opens it anxiously; she is stunned from just watching the first few seconds of it.

It’s incredibly beautifully crafted.

You could say that it’s simple; it’s no more than red words on a black background, but NaiHe found a great typeset for the words from somewhere, which makes it look majestic, powerful, and unrestrained. The words are graphically written stroke by stroke, and a glowing effect is used that strikes across the words; it’s simple yet magnificent; a great introduction.

Wei Wei re-watches the beginning a couple of times before continuing.

It’s obvious that the Great Master spent a lot of time on it. Whether it’s the editing, the subtitles, or the music, they all match well with the video, especially the music to Wei Wei’s surprise; unlike other participants who are using pop music, the Great Master uses music performed with ancient folk instruments; the abduction at the beginning is accompanied with a light tempo flute music, the rest of the scenes use mainly music played with a guzheng, matching the white robed musician’s image perfectly.

Mm, this sound of running water must be the guzheng. Wei Wei is not familiar with musical instruments; she spent most of her time in music classes secretly doing homework when she was in middle school. Today is the first time that she is focusing on listening to music like this.

There is nothing to nitpick about the music, so Wei Wei simply sits back and enjoys it.

Although it’s a tragic story ( ? ), Wei Wei watches the video happily; probably because she had mischief in mind when writing the storyline and they had many laughs during the filming. But when the scene of the white robed musician pulling out his sword comes, the guzheng music plays a murderous sound. The sword stabs into the back of the female thief’s heart and at the note of the guzheng, the music comes to a halt.

Wei Wei’s heart pounds in pain.

Wei Wei is still engulfed in the feeling of sadness when the story suddenly changes.

The next scene should be the white robed musician embracing the female thief and jumping over the cliff at Sunset Summit, but the video is suddenly showing the white robed musician and General Qing Shan (played by Classmate YuGong) standing together in front of a grave, silently gazing at it.

General Qing Shan says: “You didn’t have to kill her.”

The white robed musician keeps silent, but after a while, he says: “Instead of letting her live and hate me, it’s better for her to die.”

Wei Wei is shocked.

From the start of their speech, she realizes that the white robed musician is no longer the same character from her script.

He has become a stranger separated from her by fog.

The white robed musician lives quietly by himself in a small house at the foot of the mountain. Wei Wei recognizes that it is No Man’s Land at the bottom of Sunset Summit. Around the small house are a few clusters of jade green bamboo. The white robed musician sits within the bamboo forest, all day long, quietly playing the guqin, only getting up to walk to Sunset Summit; standing at Sunset Summit serenely watching the sunset.

General Qing Shan appears again.

“You’ve done a great service, and hereditary peerage (rise to nobility status) is at your fingertips, so why live in seclusion at an abandoned place like this?”

The white robed musician doesn’t answer. He continues to play his guqin while his spirit pet kitty runs around him cheerfully.

The scene changes with a ripple effect. A blurry image of the pond behind the mountain appears as if it is the musician’s memory; the white robed musician caresses his guqin while the female thief sits beside him. Wei Wei hears her voice at this moment.

NaiHe told her to record this the day before, saying that he might use it. The dialogue is for the part where the female thief lets the musician leave; totally melodramatic. Wei Wei felt super embarrassed while saying them; she recorded them quickly once and sent it to him. She didn’t think it would be used.

A sound filter seems to be used as her voice sounds muffled, from afar, and hollow.

“My grandpa was a thief, my dad was a thief, so I was born to be a thief. Other than being a thief, I don’t know what else I can be. I don’t know anything else except the people of this mountain stockade.”

“You hate me so much, but I have never killed anybody. I can’t be the worst, right? But I guess I’m still no good.”

“I also want to be like the girls at the bottom of the mountain and raise little chicks and ducks, work when the sun rises and go home when the sun sets, and live a quiet life. But it’s just a dream. It’ll never come true.”

“Leave. I’ll let you go.”

The scene changes back; General Qing Shan asks: “You have a great future, so why waste your life in this abandoned town?”

A clear and soft voice says: “This is my dream as well.”

All the dialogues in the video is shown in subtitles; only the last few are voice overs that come like thunder and disappear like lightning; the guzheng sounds again, playing mournfully before it fades away.

The last scene is the red clothed female thief and the white robed musician sitting by the pond side. The musician plays on the guqin while the female thief dances with her sword; the two of them radiate in happiness as the image slowly dims until it turns into black and white.

The scene pauses.

The musician’s sleeves from his white robe continue to sway from the breeze.

But the red clothed female thief’s face has already become pale.

Wei Wei’s heart is moved by it; her eyes suddenly become watery.