Chapter 18: About to Start Filming

Floyd teased Sienna for days about how she was a sobbing mess when she met Daniel.

But Sienna didn't have to put up with Floyd's teasing for long. Once the script was ready and filming was about to start, Sienna left the company headquarters with the crew. Even if Floyd wanted to tease her, he couldn't catch her anymore.

The reason this movie caused such a stir in the company was clear: the company usually didn't invest much effort in the storyline and focused more on looks and attire.

But this time, not only did they buy the rights to the novel, but they also hired a well-known screenwriter to revise it. The story was set in Calidonia in the 1960s, where the female lead was a famous socialite, and the male lead was Ethan Kennedy, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Brian Kennedy. The female lead's goal was to assassinate Brian.

Sienna had been studying the script for days. It was the first time she had a role with so many lines, and she was nervous yet excited. She even started practicing her expressions and gestures in front of the mirror at home. Although Sienna wasn't a charming socialite herself, she was willing to give it a try.

The filming location was a newly built large film and television city in recent years, with a particularly large area divided into several different sections to meet various environmental background requirements. 

Sienna had never been there before, but Floyd had told her that the conditions were excellent,likening it to a vacation if the filming tasks weren't too demanding.

Matthew seemed to be quite busy. Every time he appeared, he was in a hurry, even during meetings, he would hide in a corner, focusing on writing and drawing. Only then did Sienna notice that Matthew occasionally wore glasses. They had thin, light metal frames that were so subtle you could easily miss them if you didn't look closely.

A week later, a large group of people arrived at the film and television city.

In the past few days, the crew members had been busy setting up the scenes and adjusting the lighting. Sienna, as the lead actress, couldn't offer much help at the moment, so the director instructed her to rehearse with Matthew to get a feel for the formal filming in a few days.

Since joining the crew, Matthew had almost never left his room, staying inside all the time. He only instructed someone to bring food every day and occasionally sent his assistant to buy paper and pens. It seemed like he was focused on something very important, which made Sienna hesitant to disturb him. But the show must go on, so Sienna waited until a mealtime had just passed and knocked on Matthew's door.

After waiting for a while, Matthew opened the door. Upon seeing Sienna, he politely stepped back and invited her into the room.

This was a far cry from the leisurely, quiet atmosphere when Sienna first met him.

"Would it bother you?" Sienna carefully stepped over the crumpled papers on the floor and stood on a relatively clean spot.

It was not an exaggeration. Matthew's room was littered with crumpled papers, which looked out of place compared to his orderly and neat room layout.

Some papers on the table fell to the ground as Matthew flipped through the script.

"If it's convenient, you can toss them in the trash for me. I don't need them anymore," Matthew said as he opened the script.

"Okay." Sienna turned over the papers and was momentarily shocked by the various symbols and formulas neatly covering the entire page.

Embarrassingly, she could only recognize a few letters like r, s, v, and a few simple mathematical symbols. She couldn't understand the rest.

"Wow, are you a mathematician?" Sienna exclaimed.

"What?" Matthew looked up, chuckled, and said, "No, I study theoretical physics."

It sounded impressive.

"Are you working on a difficult problem recently?" Sienna asked.

"Yes, my paper is facing some issues," Matthew nodded and replied, "The conversion of electrons between wave and particle properties in the double-slit interference experiment is giving me a headache."

Seeing Sienna's confused expression, he wisely stopped talking.

"Alright, let's not talk about that, it's boring," Matthew smiled, picking up the script. "Shall we rehearse?"

She nodded, and they launched into rehearsal.

An hour later.

Sienna was completely amazed. His mind was like a camera, while others relied on memory to memorize the script, he seemed to rely on taking pictures! 

Sienna watched in awe as Matthew, having only glanced at the script moments before, effortlessly delivered his lines without a single fumble. It was demoralizing. She'd spent days memorizing, yet still tripped over words occasionally. Meanwhile, Matthew, with his effortless recall, seemed determined to outshine her at every turn. The pressure was mounting.

The two of them kept rehearsing, with all of Matthew's scenes reflected in his slightly raised eyes. He didn't even need to make any movements, just leaning against the table, standing a few steps away, silently gazing at you, he could exude such deep affection and tenderness, as if it were innate.

Watching him made Sienna's palms sweat, and her heart beat like a drum.

"Well, let's stop here for today," Sienna closed the script, trying to hide her nervousness by lowering her head. "I hope the filming goes as smoothly as today when it starts."

"No problem, you got into character quickly," Matthew smiled. "If you have any questions, feel free to come to me."

"Are you going to rest now?"

"No," Matthew looked at the clock and casually replied, "I'll probably be working until two or three in the morning."

"What kind of job keeps you working until all hours of the night??" Sienna was surprised. "Are you a scientist?"

"It depends on how you define the concept of a scientist. If it refers to engaging in scientific research, then I am one."

"Why did you come to film an AV then? Scientists shouldn't be interested in this kind of work, right?" Sienna asked cautiously.

"This is my way of relaxing." Matthew pointed to the formulas and numbers scattered all over the table. "Staring at them every day can be nerve-wracking. Have you ever tried pondering a problem for years or even decades without any results? The Poincaré conjecture about the three-dimensional sphere has been around for over a century, not to mention the Goldbach conjecture. How many people have devoted their entire lives to it and still haven't published any useful academic papers? A human's century is too short for the infinite vastness of the universe. You have to learn to be kind to yourself, at least find a sense of accomplishment in the overwhelming setbacks."

"I don't quite understand," Sienna replied honestly.

"You don't need to fully understand," Matthew smiled, "The more you know, the more you realize your ignorance. Knowledge is a drug, the more you absorb, the more addictive it becomes."

"Can you stop then?"

"I'm waiting for something compelling enough to make me stop, otherwise, I'll just sink deeper and deeper." He paused for a moment, then added helplessly, "But I'm afraid I won't be too concerned about this matter either. If I fall in love with someone, I will only love a little bit, or maybe not even that. I always tend to overthink."

"It would be unfortunate to be loved by you," Sienna sighed.

Matthew chuckled softly and didn't say anything more.

In fact, he didn't care.

Love or not, it was just an insignificant choice in the unstable quantum world. In every parallel world, at every moment, completely different choices are being made.

So, in some parallel world, he would fall in love with someone else.