9 She's WHAT Now?

It was almost two in the morning and the hotel room was illuminated by the moonlight falling through the open windows, the curtains that were pulled open, were still.

The only thing disrupting the peaceful scene was the caterpillar rolling on the bed.

She laid on the bed glaring at the ceiling, her tank top rising up above her belly while all scrunched up. Her hair spread all around her like a high-quality broomstick.

What sleeping beauty? Right now if even her true love saw her he'd run away screaming for their mother.

Qiu Yue felt so done with life right now, why was it so hot today?!

It was the perfect weather for a zombie apocalypse.

She wondered if she should get up and grab a weapon...

Too much effort. No.

Instead, Qiu Yue picked up her iPhone that was lying on the bed stand. She had bugged Yao Yan into giving her one too.

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: YanYan

QiuQiu: come on

QiuQiu: you aren't asleep

QiuQiu: hey

QiuQiu: hey

If I can't sleep, then no one can!

Smiling maniacally she continued spamming Yao Yan with messages.

Instead of a reply Yao Yan video called Qiu Yue. Qiu Yue smiled wickedly, she was counting on this. She messed her hair up even more and then accepted the call.

One thing about Qiu Yue was that she loved her nails long, very long, and painted red.

As the call connected she put down the phone on the bed and stayed outside the view such that only her hair would show up.

"Hey hey hey hey, hey your mom!! Are you mad?!"

"Ya! Where are you! Show your face I tell you-!"

Qiu Yue took her nails and started tapping near the camera lightly.

"Ah... hey, Qiu Yue! Don't hide, you, show yourself."

"Hihihihihihihi..hihihi!"

A high pitched laughter was heard instead. Lacking so much sleep, Qiu Yue felt very sleep deprived and at this point, there was nothing she wouldn't do.

Slowly she positioned herself so she could jump into view. And then.. bracing herself–

(❀∫°۝°)∫

"-AHAA-SHDHJDHFJF!"

(A/N: Thatactually scared me)

Qiu Yue sat with her head resting on one hand as the other combed her hair, her eyes squinting due to the blaring white light in the room, which Yao Yan had forcibly switched on using the system's function.

"...such a waste of the system's abilities..."

"What the fuck were you thinking?! I'm so nice! I'm so pure! How could you scare someone as innocent as me!"

Yao Yan said trying to steady her heart. For this overpowered human turned system, her only weakness was ghosts. Only she knew how she's survived going to supernatural worlds with ghosts as the main focus.

Everything else she could handle, insects, demons, walking pickles, anything but ghosts! Oh, she just couldn't handle them.

"Pure?" Qiu Yue scoffed.

"So pure! You sold me out to Senior Feng! For money!"

Qiu Yue gritted her teeth while glaring at Yao Yan. These few days it was like a huge game of hide and seek. Except how do you hide from your boss? You don't. So you run. But no, suspiciously Huo Zi Feng always found her no matter where she hid. After this happened fifteen times Qiu Yue decided it was simply impossible. So instead of hiding, she went to talk to him and ask him how he found her, not that she was hiding.

There she found Yao Yan and Huo Zi Feng together, Yao Yan was reporting to him with Qiu Yue's newest text.

"Ah haha, he paid me so much for that, I just couldn't say no..."

Yao Yan had the audacity to sound sheepish while she smiled shamelessly.

"I'll pay you to jump off the building right now!"

Qiu Yue hissed at her.

"Sure! I won't die anyway, how much are you offering?"

Yao Yan didn't even wait before answering.

"Scram!"

"Awh come on, he's putting so much effort. I even saw him practicing his smile while working, I honestly don't know where the ice block the author mentioned went to."

Qiu Yue sighed, she also knew this. How was that cute person chasing after her an ice block? Whoever thought that must have had a hole in the head. Her view of this world was already falling apart.

Why were the CEO male lead, Huo Zi Feng, and coworker male lead, Liu Hui, enemies? Okay even if they weren't enemies were they supposed to be in bad terms?

Bad terms your head! They were actually pretty close childhood friends. They had grown up together, while unlike the original Qiu Yue and Huo Zi Feng, they had gone to school and college together. Even now, Liu Hui stayed with Huo Zi Feng, working together with him.

In fact, Qiu Yue didn't like him after reading his character in the original book, but Liu Hui wasn't childish like the book said. He was just very strict with work, and always criticized others only when needed.

But no one ever complained because it was very apparent that however much stricter he was with others, he was even more so with himself. A very responsible and respectable person really.

Of course, perhaps he still retained his sadistic personality in some areas, but really that was not something Qiu Yue would ever think about.

At the very least her evaluation of him related to his work had shot up through the roof. If he ever left Aries she'd pull him into her company no matter what she had to do for that.

But the fact that his personality was clearly different from the book proved two conjectures Qiu Yue had.

The first was simple, after all no matter how they were written, these characters were now real people she was living with. There was no way they'd follow the exact same plot line, especially one that was so illogical.

And the second was something she was still confirming. Perhaps after meeting with the idol male lead, Yuan ZeXi, she'd know for sure.

Yao Yan had been waiting for Qiu Yue to respond when there was no reply and she saw Qiu Yue looking somewhere else with a thoughtful look as she rubbed her temples.

For this, why was she woken up so late in the night?

"You don't like him?"

Qiu Yue snapped out of her thoughts.

"It's not like that!"

She said shaking her head.

"Then?"

"I mean.. I have so much work. I need to get composers for the soundtrack of the game. Design the UI. Somehow make sure that the game is good quality and still works on the outdated OS here. I still need to keep track of what happens in the Lang family, the female lead, and all the male leads."

Yao Yan just wanted to go back to sleep.

"You do realize the system can do literally most of that for you? The rest I'll do so can you please just sleep?"

"Really?! That's great. Okay, I'll go sleep, I'm really sleepy. Night!"

Qiu Yue gave Yao Yan a sweet smile and then blew her a kiss before cutting the call abruptly.

Staring at the black screen, Yao Yan felt that she'd been tricked.

She laid back down on the bed, but even after pretending to be asleep for some time, she still couldn't fall asleep.

'Next time I hear my phone buzz I'm throwing it down the window!'

'Just you wait Ah Yue, if I don't get even...'

Yao Yan thought while staring at her raccoon eyes in the mirror as she got ready for the meeting with Yuan ZeXi.

When Qiu Yue met up with Yao Yan in the morning, she barely stopped herself from laughing out loud right there in the office lobby.

The Doraemon look really suited her so well!

But still, Qiu Yue knew better than to say this, after all digging her own grave was too much physical activity.

Suppressing her laughter she turned to Yao Yan to talk.

"YanYan, do you have the information on Yuan ZeXi?"

Yao Yan looked dryly at Qiu Yue, no matter how much Qiu Yue tried to hide it, she'd seen her laughing.

She smiled sweetly at Qiu Yue, she'd get her revenge.

"I did, from what I can see he did have his share of no strings attached relationships, but so far all of them are happily consensual. I confirmed it."

Yao Yan smirked a bit at the last part, oh yes she had confirmed it personally.

Qiu Yue who wanted to ask about more shut up when she saw Yao Yan smirk. Suddenly she felt as though she really didn't want to know anything.

She just furrowed her eyebrows and decided not to say anything as she and Yao Yan walked into Helios. Yes, their firm was named Helios, a subsidiary company under the Lang Corporation and in partnership with Aries was their Helios.

Today they were going to meet with people who could be potential voice actors for the otome game characters. Yuan ZeXi was one of these potential voice actors, after all, no matter what the book seemed to say about him, he was an accomplished and well-loved idol. And his voice was really amazing.

With support from the Lang group and Aries, it wasn't hard to promote their game development. Of course, in addition, it was also possible for them to have this selection for voice actors. They weren't necessarily looking for big actors or idols, they just wanted really good quality voices.

Of course, this wasn't an open audition, Qiu Yue and Yao Yan had already sorted through a list of people and selected the voices they felt were good in order to hear the live renditions before selecting them.

Walking into a room full of potential voice actors, Qiu Yue and Yao Yan felt that they'd died and gone to heaven.

Of course, good looks wasn't a criterion but that was because there was hardly anyone who wasn't delicious enough already.

( * ֦ơ﹃ơ֦)

Looking at all those long legs and fit bodies, good-looking faces and– and the muscles!

Yao Yan seemed to be stuck in her place so Qiu Yue had to maintain herself and pinch Yao Yan to get her attention.

Forget about the pinch, Yao Yan was in such a good mood she'd forgive Qiu Yue for anything.

This was heaven on earth, and they were going to be listening to them say romantic lines in their beautiful sexy voices all day?

Yao Yan never wanted to stop working ever again.

After doing the greetings they quickly went to the auditions.

The recording room was set up like the typical recording rooms in Qiu Yue's world.

There was a soundproof room with a mic set-up and music instruments in the periphery. It was connected by a soundproof mirror to another room where all the technical instruments for music productions were kept. There was also a mic that allowed people to speak to the person in the soundproof recording room.

The voice actors were allowed to either wait in the waiting room, sit in the music production room and listen to the other auditions, or of course use the washroom or vending machines to the side of the hallway on that floor.

After their audition, they were free to go to the cafeteria and sample the amazing food available.

While few of them chose to patiently wait in the waiting room, most of them choose to stay in the music production room in order to gauge their competition and see if they could learn something from listening to others.

Yuan ZeXi was one of the people sitting in the music production room. From the beginning, he wore a very calm and cool expression on his face, but Qiu Yue felt a familiar feeling from him.

As they went on with the auditions, Qiu Yue slowly understood what this familiarity was.

Yuan ZeXi was looking at all the guys assembled with a subtle yet passionate gaze. In fact, Qiu Yue doubted anyone else had noticed, the only reason she had was that she was extremely good at understanding others' emotions and actions as well the fact that she was feeling the same way right now.

While the book did say that Yuan ZeXi flirted and was with males and females alike, Qiu Yue couldn't help but feel differently. From the beginning, his guy hadn't looked at her or Yao Yan.

From the subtle movements he made, his posture, it was getting clearer and clearer.

Finally, it was Yuan ZeXi's turn to voice act and he gracefully walked into the recording room. He put on his headphones and leaned against the black metal, his long fingers looking very beautiful.

It was at this moment Meng Hui entered the production room. He was here to give some files to Qiu Yue and was about to go back but Qiu Yue stopped him. Instead, she told him to sit down with them and listen.

This was because as soon as Meng Hui had entered the room, perhaps not so obvious to others but Yuan ZeXi's eyes had zeroed in on him.

Even as the tall man with the sexy teardrop mole below his right eye spoke in his deep velvety voice, his gaze never left Meng Hui.

Meng Hui, on the other hand, was oblivious to this, he did feel uncomfortable as if someone was staring at him, but didn't look towards Yuan ZeXi. When Yuan ZeXi spoke he felt a shiver go up his spine.

Looking at how intently Yuan ZeXi was staring at Meng Hui, for some reason Qiu Yue's ship radar went up.

She stifled a gasp as she alternated between looking at Meng Hui and Yuan ZeXi.

This– this was~!

But just now Qiu Yue had felt that Yuan ZeXi was distinctly more interested in men. How was he so interested in Meng Hui?

This girl still thought that Meng Hui was female, even after working with him for a few weeks.

U.U

Though she really couldn't be blamed so much, that boy hardly spoke and was very shy, with his fairy-like looks and voice that wasn't too high or too low, it wasn't that hard to believe that Qiu Yue who was so intent on the idea of having a younger sister would ignore all possible signs that he could be male.

Other than Yuan ZeXi and one more person, it was a very tough choice between the voice actors for the other three characters in the game. So Qiu Yue asked all of them to return, and that they would be informed of the decision within two days.

Of course, Yuan ZeXi and Cai Lin, the two voices who were selected unanimously were asked to stay back.

Qiu Yue asked them to proceed to the conference room leaving Zhou Jia and Meng Hui to guide them as she pulled Yao Yan at a slower pace to talk.

In a low whisper, she said to Yao Yan, "Is it just me or is Yuan ZeXi more into guys?"

"...I felt that too honestly."

Yao Yan too was slightly confused by these personality changes. Perhaps with the system not there to control her, this was how a free reigning world was.

"Then why is he..."

Qiu Yue mused about why Yuan ZeXi's attention had been caught by Meng Hui.

"...so intent Meng Hui?"

"Probably because Meng Hui is a guy too, and that kid really is very cute–"

"Eh?"

Qiu Yue stopped and looked incredulously at Yao Yan who was still nonchalantly walking towards the conference room.

"She's WHAT now?"

Qiu Yue said wide-eyed.

"Meng Hui is a guy Ah Yue."

Yao Yan said looking at Qiu Yue with a small smile.

"Wha– how, how did I not know this?! Why do you know?"

Yao Yan shrugged.

"Someone's got to do the paperwork around here."

Qiu Yue just gave her a look that said she knew this was nonsense.

Yao Yan looked back at Qiu Yue for a few moments before looking away.

"...alright, alright! Zhou Jia told me."

"You couldn't tell me?"

Qiu Yue said throwing up her hands dramatically.

"So that cute little bunny Meng Hui is a guy, also happens to be my type, but he's too young. And that sexy, cool and mature idol, with those Phoenix eyes, is interested in him?"

At this point, another man was who was on his way to conference room felt like he couldn't handle anything else Qiu Yue said. He wanted to know what she thought, but with every word barbed wires were warping around his heart.

Before he banged his head on the wall and started to cry he decided to interrupt her.

He coughed lightly to let Qiu Yue know he existed too.

Qiu Yue was startled by the sudden deep cough from the nearby turn in the hallway.

She recognized this voice. Suddenly she felt the urge to bury her head in the ground like an ostrich.

She slowly turned towards Huo Zi Feng. His eyes were narrowed in slight displeasure, and she gave him a stiff smile.

Because of his aura as he took a step forward, she took a corresponding step backward.

Huo Zi Feng was upset, he knew that he couldn't stop her from thinking about other guys, not while she still hasn't accepted him. But he still couldn't help it.

His heartfelt irritated that his fiancée was talking about all these other guys so fondly. He hasn't been able to meet her properly these few weeks and this was the result?

He felt that things clearly needed to be more memorable.