Chapter 104

Chapter 104

unedited

It serves him right, it really does.Qi Jing seconded him in his heart, but he couldn’t help but laugh out loud unwittingly. After all, it still concluded with a happy end. “But despite that, you’re actually very happy right now, aren’t you?”

Surprisingly enough, Crossing the bridge noodles’ voice disappeared for a moment. After a while, he spoke slowly, “...I don’t really know if I’m happy or not. I just feel like it doesn’t seem real. I’ve known this guy for over a year now and during this time, we would part and reunite, unable to cut each other off completely, so I... At that point, I already grew numb to it and decided to not involve myself with him anymore. I was preparing to resign from my job and leave Beijing, but suddenly, he actually did this.”

Qi Jing was shocked; that slight shiver of his heart shook off the smile from his lips, the atmosphere growing cold in a moment. “Is that so...” He suddenly felt apologetic, saying in a low voice, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know all the details, so if I said something wrong, then please excuse me.”

“That’s not a problem,” The other man didn’t seem to mind, speaking in a bleak tone, “In fact, I also have a pretty bad personality, so there’s also my part in me and him getting to that point—I guess it’s a sort of retribution. Return Date, your way of living is completely different from ours. There are some things... that are better not known.”

Even with Crossing the bridge noodles saying so, Qi Jing still felt remorseful, staying silent.

“Still,” At that time, Crossing the bridge noodles suddenly spoke lightly, as if chuckling, but also as if sighing, “It was the first time for this guy to admit clearly that... that he loves me.”

When he heard this, a part of Qi Jing’s memory seemed to resonate with the other’s words. Even though the end he experienced was completely opposite, the lead-up was the same—he couldn’t help but feel very complicated about it.

“I think I can understand your feelings,” He laughed bitterly, “With the partner being a straight man, this path... it’s really so difficult.”

And meeting a straight man who wouldn’t want to assume any responsibility, one that would only toss a simple “you were actually serious about it” in the end—it was even more crushing.

He really couldn’t bear to look back at his dark history...

“He had told me that. He said that you gave him a solid lesson before.” In the headphones, Crossing the bridge noodles could be heard laughing briefly, his voice sincere as he spoke, “Knowing that there’s a person who once was in my position speaking out, I feel much more at ease. Thank you.”

Hearing him laugh, Qi Jing’s mood also slowly grew less tense and he finally returned the smile at ease, “It’s because I got the worst of it, that’s why when I saw a similar situation, I didn’t think much before scolding him. But he is completely different from my ex. I only knew him for a short time, so it’s a bit arbitrary of me to say this, but I think that he’s not a bad person.”

Although he did go through his dark history, working as a reporter these few years let him improve at reading people by a lot, so his general judgement of people would rarely stray far from the reality. And since Crossing the bridge noodles had still to comment it with “nonsense”, it seemed like he didn’t miss this time.

And sure enough, the other man hummed with a chuckle and although his next words were all meant to roast Sleek Horses, that belittling tone still had a visible trace of warmth to it, “That fellow is only cheeky and untrustworthy. He wouldn’t do anything real bad, but he sure likes to bully people.”

Bully...What kind of bullying do you mean though?

Crossing the bridge noodles probably meant it in a literal sense, but for some unfathomable reason, Qi Jing’s thoughts once again went down the gutter of its double meaning, leaving him re-evaluating his life when he snapped out of it.

But from this mention of bullying, Qi Jing suddenly remembered another bullying-related incident.“Right, I hadn’t had time to talk with you properly before. Do you remember how you asked me why I would always drop the dramas you appeared in? Although I can’t be one hundred percent sure of that, there seems to be a person who keeps using your name to push me around in the circle, wanting me to pin the blame on you and start a drama.”

But unexpectedly, there was not a single bit of surprise in Crossing the bridge noodles’ voice, instead what he had to say left him surprised in return. “That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about today—I investigated the whole matter of withdrawing from the audio dramas, it’s one of my fan’s, Reed’s, doing.”

Qi Jing was taken aback. That person called Reed was a passionate fan of Crossing the bridge noodles, everyone in the circle knew about that. As one of the staff workers, she would often dabble in the dramas starring Crossing the bridge noodles, so over time, the title of “mommy” got conferred to her by his fans. In fact, her relationship with Crossing the bridge noodles himself wasn’t actually all that close, it’s just that she could get in touch with him a lot thanks to her post as a staff.

But Qi Jing didn’t even know her, not to mention having any beef with her. “Why would she do that?” That’s why this question became even more pivotal.

“Because of this.” Crossing the bridge noodles said as he sent over a picture. Qi Jing opened it to take a look—it turned out to be a screenshot of a QQ chat room record—strikingly similar in style to the one he had seen before.

Don’t ask for my return date: Now that Crossing the bridge noodles considers himself as god’s official CP, he behaves like Her Majesty the Empress, so arrogant. His fans are also so awful, they’re only spamming about “Moss” everyday.

■■■: But if you played in a popular audio drama like ⟪Trap⟫, then won’t you get just as popular as him?

Don’t ask for my return date: Hehe, just as popular as him? Such an excellent VA as me, of course I would get much better and popular than him. I’m just not as shameless as him and don’t run around clinging to people, so I never got a chance to collaborate with the Great God. Now that I finally got such a huge backing as Bronze Sparrow Terrace, I need to get a good hold on that opportunity.

■■■: What do you mean by that?

Don’t ask for my return date: I will stir up the God’s fans in the audio drama thread to support me—this way the Great God will slowly start to care more about me and set his heart on me, leaving Crossing the bridge noodles to cool in the dust.

&#k25J0;&#k25J0;&#k25J0;: Return Date, is it really fine for you to do that? After all, Crossing the bridge noodles has quite a lot of fans&#k2026; What if&#k2026;

Don’t ask for my return date: And what about it? Are they even remotely as plenty as Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans? As long as he turns towards me, his fans would follow his suit&#k2014;the majority of Crossing the bridge noodle’s fans like Bronze Sparrow Terrace, so when the time comes, they would all switch sides, heh.

■■■: I didn’t expect you to be so fed up with Crossing the bridge noodles.

Don’t ask for my return date: Of course, that boy is so delicate and pure, and he even used thatlovely and pitiful look to earn the Great God’s doting, just seeing this makes me sick.

...

“That boy used that delicate and pure, lovely and pitiful look to earn the doting, just seeing this makes me sick.” Qi Jing read it in a deriding tone of an esteemed imperial concubine, only to hear Crossing the bridge noodles laugh lightly, probably amused by him. And even he himself wasn’t able to contain his laughter. “Hahahaha... Those lines are just something else.”

Crossing the bridge noodles said calmly, “Since the lines sound too fake, it’s clear to see that someone just forged a fake QQ chat record.”

Qi Jing continued for him, “Then they gave this forged chat record for Miss Reed to see?”

Not to mention Reed, this fervent fan, if you gave it to any Rice Noodle Fan to see, they would probably all fly into rage?

“Mhm,” Crossing the bridge noodles confirmed his theory, “It was Reed who first told me that you bear ill intentions towards me and that you decline to stay in the same audio drama team as me. After talking with you through a call that day, I felt that something was fishy and went back to ask Reed. She told me while crying that at the time, someone emailed this screenshot to her and that she went completely mad seeing it, but also didn’t want to upset me by letting me know, so she made her own choice to run about to squeeze you out of the production teams. She used her identity as my so-called “mommy” to tell the staff members that I’m completely out of tune with you, forcing them to kick you out.”

He explained briefly before raising a verdict. “With things like this, there should be a person behind it all who plans to destroy your public opinion behind your back, making you slowly lose any chance of playing in a drama and deprive you of any footing in the circle.”

But Qi Jing laughed instead, neither admitting or denying. “If it was only this one screenshot, then I would also think so—but there are two of them”

Crossing the bridge noodles was clearly in the dark about this—he stopped, surprised, then his voice sank a bit, “There’s another one?”

Hence, Qi Jing found the other chat record Jade Butterfly showed him. The the tone of wording in it was just as grudging, but this time the ID of the person speaking changed to “Crossing the bridge noodles” and the font as well as the formatting of the text were wholly in accordance with the style he used, betraying the thorough level of prep work—it was easy to imagine that the forger of this chat record was an expert.

“I think that I may not be the only one who’s having my public opinion undermined.” Qi Jing pointed out slowly, “Most probably you’re also within this person’s calculations.”

“Because of Bronze Sparrow Terrace?” No wonder Crossing the bridge noodles was able to refute rumours so often—his thinking was clear, and comparing the content of the dialogues in those two pictures, he didn’t need much prompting to find the crux of the problem.

Qi Jing nodded. “As long as either of us made an uproar because of it and both of those chat records got publicised, the fans from both sides would immediately start to accuse the other side of forging the screenshot, because both of them are indeed forged. No matter what’s true and what’s false and no matter whose side the onlookers would take... Both of us would only suffer because of this with our good name taking a serious blow, and in the end, we would most probably be only left with a choice to kill off our IDs, ending our career in the circle forever.”

Moreover, the perpetrator himself would remain unlinked to this, completely untouched.

Luckily he wasn’t an impulsive person and Crossing the bridge noodles was also very quick-witted, so it didn’t lead to an irreversible situation.

Qi Jing summarised it all, what Jade Butterfly had told him and her claims that she had looked for the both of them to play the main roles in her drama, to Crossing the bridge noodles.

“Jade Butterfly, this ID... I think I have heard it somewhere before.” After hearing this, Crossing the bridge noodles fell into musing.

Qi Jing coughed with embarrassment. In fact, he could probably imagine where Crossing the bridge noodles heard of it. Still, this one might have better remained forgotten...

“I remember now,” Crossing the bridge noodles tossed out a lukewarm sentence, “The woman who had pursued that guy back in the day—this woman’s sight really isn’t too good.”

Qi Jing had to silently light a candle for the person sleeping in the bedroom.

But Crossing the bridge noodles didn’t diverge from their topic, “She told you that since the other main role was you, I refused to play, but in fact I never received any invitation from her—she was lying, but for whether she was the one to forge the chat record, even if I confirm dare to tell with hundred percent certainty, it’s still as high as ninety percent.”

“I already gave a good slap to Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s face tonight and also indirectly made him lose the main male role, so she’ll surely get angry. If it was really her who forged those chat records, then she would probably publicise the picture you got anonymously, calling it “Exposing Don’t ask for my return date’s true face” or something like that... At that time, your fans would surely go mad from hate towards me.”

That’s precisely what using someone else’s hand to deal the killing blow would look like.

Crossing the bridge noodles contemplated for a moment, seemingly plotting something. After a long while, he suddenly asked, “Return Date, I have an idea. Do you want to try it?”

—The last semi-final of male character auditions ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫, the second main character “Fang Yisheng”.

There were thirty contestants enlisted for it, so remembering them all would be far from easy.

As the competition host who experienced all of the semi-finals before, Yang Chunqu only remembered a bare few IDs of the contestants, one of them being none other than “Don’t ask for my return date”.

The reason was very simple—under the circumstances of —having gathered much more haters than fans, for him to still retain the cultured demeanour, to the point where even his retaliating slap got delivered in a very urbane mannerof course she wouldn’t forget him.

Not to mention with how close were the “Qin Tuo” and “Fang Yisheng” auditions to each other, the heat from the first had yet to recede, so when No.7, “Don’t ask for my return date”, showed up for the audition as according to the line up, it was as if a drop of water fell into a pot of frying oil, instantly erupting in a spirited hubbub. And among them all, the ones with the most exaggerated reaction... were none other than Crossing the bridge noodles’ fans.

Audience 1: Σ( °△ °|||)︴I heard that Don’t ask for my return date spoke rudely about Little Noodles’ Sparrow? Why is that... I’m so disappointed... Although he’s not my main life core, he’s my life core’s man, so I would also not excuse him! Hah!

Audience 2: Raising hand weakly, in one of the God’s fan side group chats I also heard that Don’t ask for my return date colluded with a judge to harm God or something...

Audience 3: ┭┮﹏┭┮ The dark secrets behind the scene are so scary!! I’m only begging to not get our Little Noodles involved!!

Audience 4: ┭┮﹏┭┮ Right, Little Noodles is so pure and unsullied, he wouldn’t stand a chance against those machinations, I’m so worried~

Audience 5: ┭┮﹏┭┮ Little Noodles, don’t be afraid!! This big sister will be with you, it doesn’t matter what happens to us, just as position in the ranking doesn’t matter too... It’s all fine as long as you’re happy. 【Pats Little Noodle’s head, don’t be too upset about the whole case of your man getting bullied.】

Audience 6: I didn’t listen to the previous audition, so I don’t know what actually happened there. But a whole lot of Sparrow fans called me here, seething from fury, to curse out Don’s ask for my return date, eh... Little Noodles had said before to not be careless with cursing people out, so I’ll be a good girl. But if Don’t ask for my return date bullies Little Noodles, I will definitely burst into profanities!! (shakes fist)

Looking at the comments in the chat, Qi Jing really didn’t know whether to laugh or to sigh.

He didn’t know which one, but some researcher had said before that when a message is being passed between people, mistakes are bound to appear. Those mistakes would get bigger the longer the message got around, snowballing into something that could ultimately become a completely different message. This was more than sufficient of an explanation for why, when passed on, “Bronze Sparrow Terrace reaped what he saw, getting his face slapped by Don’t ask for my return date” became “Bronze Sparrow Terrace got unjustly bullied by Don’t ask for my return date”.

But Crossing the bridge noodles’ fans... when compared to the pure Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans... their style really was completely different.

Qi Jing was actually incredibly amused when watching their statements. Those “Rice Noodles Fans” were so very different from the “Rice Noodles Fans” in ⟪Trap⟫ audio drama thread, making him consider in his mind: those people in the thread who fueled the hate in that thread, were they actually his fans?

Just as he was pondering this, Yang Chunqu asked him, already with a smile and even more amiably than during the previous audition, “No.7, contestant Don’t ask for my return date, welcome back.”

Of course, this ‘welcome back’ didn’t only include the competition.

Qi Jing smiled lightly and replied with courtesy, “Thank you host. Please, don’t worry, I will continue to do my best in the competition.”

“That’s great,’ Although Yang Chunqu made an effort to not show her bias, she was still all in radiant smiles upon hearing this. Before a gentleman, she naturally had to use a poised tone to ask, “Then, I will ask the same this time too—before the start of this audition, do you have something to tell for everyone?”

“I do,” Qi Jing’s smile lessened a bit as he proclaimed in a meaningful tone, “I will give everyone an opening speech unlike anything you have ever heard before.”

Once he said this, those in the chat who were there mainly just to watch the fun couldn’t sit still, all shouting bravos together.

Audience 1: Hahahahahahahahaha, Don’t ask for my return date came out with an opening speech again!! I’m looking forward to it!!

Audience 2: Don’t ask for my return date’s opening speeches just became a sort of natural scenery, didn’t it!! (*艸’*)【Oi】

Audience 3: Σ(っ °Д °)っ It can’t be that it’s going to be even more badass than the speech for “Qin Tuo”... Crap, crap, I’m kinda looking forward to it... 【Oi oi oi】

Audience 4: Hahahaha, but did Bronze Sparrow Terrace also sign up for “Fang Yisheng”? I don’t know what is he going to say for this speech, but as a purely competition enjoyer, I’m silently bringing out my stool, eating popcorn as I watch the fun~

Audience 5: Could it be that this time he... Is he about to go against God’s official CP, Crossing the bridge noodles?? 【Cause Crossing the bridge noodles’ fans seem to be of the same ilk as Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans, all of them coming here to curse Don’t ask for my return date】

Audience 6: Σ(っ °Д °)っWHAT?? Don’t!! Us Rice Noodles Fans don’t enjoy cursing people, aaaaah! Please don’t involve Little Noodles... *sobs*

Don’t be like this, he’s really getting involved.Qi Jing looked down, but along with the corners of his lips curling up, he raised his voice slightly, “For my speech for the following audition I want to invite contestant No.8—Crossing the bridge noodles—to complete it.”

The way everyone heard it, it was a blatant provocation—

The scene immediately fell into chaos.

No one expected Don’t ask for my return date, who had just finished slapping the great god’s face, to actually dare to publicly taunt the god’s official CP—it seemed like this enmity extended all the way to his “family”. Immediately, everyone started the discussion, all saying that “Don’t ask for my return date is so ruthless, hurting two in one slap”. There was also a person pasting the link to the previous post about their alleged catfight for their love, bringing the disorder a step further, as if wanting to bring the scene into a chaotic mess.

But what everyone didn’t expect was Crossing the bridge noodles’ reply.

No.8 – Crossing the bridge noodles: Mhm, I agree to his proposal. Host, please let me use the mic too.

Audience 1: Σ( °△ °|||)︴Little Noodleeeeeees!

Audience 2: Σ( °△ °|||)︴Little Noodles is preparing to get in a fight?? Don’t! Little Noodles, listen to this sister, quickly back out now, don’t get peeved!!

Audience 3: _(:з」∠)_ Su-suddenly the atmosphere got so tense!【Clutching heart】

Audience 4: _(:з」∠)_ Commenter above, are you me?! 【Also clutching heart】

Audience 5: I have a premonition that I’m about to see a bloody massacre... Don’t do that! In fact I... I like both of those VAs, what to do!! 〒▽〒

Audience 6: I saw someone saying this, so I’ll also say this—in fact, I’m a “Time Limit” shipper, aaaah!! With this hostile atmosphere right now, I’m so torn!! AAAAAH!! 〒▽〒

At that time, Crossing the bridge noodles’ icon on mic sequence changed from grey to green, flickering side by side with Qi Jing’s icon.

Qi Jing chuckled. Even through their mics, it was clear to see that the air between them was relaxed, nothing like the tense atmosphere of the enemies meeting on a narrow road.

“Noodles,” He directly used the familiar nickname to call the other, greeting him for the second time that night, “Good evening.”

“Return Date,” the other replied calmly, “Good evening.”

Ehh...Everyone present became dumbstruck.

It felt like when, having read the film description before going to the cinema, one finally waited until the much awaited screening, only to realise that the main leads are still the same actors, but the plot turned out to be completely different from the description.

So what about the coming to blows?

And what about the “enemies going into frenzy upon catching a glance of each other”?

A/N:

The Time Limit shippers are having a field day... (*艸’*) (Eh?)

But now that we’re on it, I really miss Kitty’s Papa... Kitty’s Papa, if you don’t come back quick, I will go on with the Time Limit!! 〒▽〒 (Oi)

T/N:

Lucilla: I swear, I didn’t expect Qi Jing’s mind to be so in the gutter... I think it might be too much internet for him haha~ And! We’re getting more Return Date & Noodles interaction! (waves the ship flag in the background)