Chapter 114

Chapter 114

unedited

The moment he passed the phone, Qi Jing already lost the initiative, so he could only continue listening idly.

He didn’t hear the voice from the other side. He could only listen to what the woman was saying, watch her expression as she spoke, and try guessing what his father was saying from that.

But at that moment, he didn’t even dare to look at the woman’s expression, slightly turning his head to the side as he sat on the seat like a clay doll, as if waiting for a verdict to be announced.

“I also am someone who had abandoned my child.”

He didn’t expect the second sentence from the woman to be even more blunt than the first one. Qi Jing couldn’t help the tremble of his hands.

“The difference is, when I left my son, he was still young,” The woman continued slowly, that miserable expression that had long since disappeared from her face since she first stayed at the hospital appearing yet again, making her seemingly age quite a lot, “The reason was me. When I was young, I was blind and stubborn in ruining everything, and my son... he was the victim of it. And even though he didn’t do anything, he had to bear the burden of my mistake.”

She paused for a moment. “Mr Qi,” She said, “Unlike You, I don’t even have the right to regret it—”

Qi Jing instinctively looked up, gazing at Shen Yan.

Shen Yan was sitting quietly next to him. He remained silent when he heard the woman say this, only reaching his hand to press lightly on Qi Jing’s, holding it firmly.

The woman once again paused for a few seconds.

There was no sound from the speaker—it seemed like the person on the other side didn’t intend to reply.

So she continued, “My son... After leaving me, he got taken in by his grandpa. Unlike his father, that elder was a good person, that’s why he managed to bring up my son to be a good man too, and didn’t let him grow up twisted from all the injustices that fell upon him.”

At that moment, she went back to the main point. “Xiao Qi is also a good child.” The woman smiled ruggedly, “Clever, kind, cheerful, and treats everyone and everything with a lot of care. I think that a child like that has probably grown up in a nice household and was well guided by his parents for him to grow up this outstanding. From what he said... It was only after he graduated from university that he left home, so before that... I’m guessing that your relationship was pretty good?”

—Before that.This phrase dealt an indescribable hit to his heart, a heavy one. Even without a mirror before him, Qi Jing knew how ugly of an expression his face twisted into, his hand gripping mechanicall at the board of the seaty time and time again.

The woman wasn’t wrong. Before he came out, their family relationship was very harmonious—sometimes, there would be a small fight, but overall, they were all very close. He was born in a small third-tier city, so the ways of the people there were a bit behind those in the first and second-tier cities. His parents were both from an academic background, and although the education in their families couldn’t be said to be top-notch, they still could count as a fairly high part of the local intellectual sphere—in the eyes of other people, they were basically a model family.

If only he was a “normal person”, then this family would probably remain peaceful forever.

Qi Jing snorted bitterly.

But because the person on the other side kept being silent, the woman didn’t pause this time.

“After Xiao Qi ‘interviewed’ me... For the first time after all those years, I got to sit down with my son and talk with him face to face, and even now I don’t dare to believe this. I had abandoned him before, and when we met again, I also said some terrible things to him, yet he didn’t abandon me—that’s how good of a child he is.”

And exactly because he was so good, she felt the weight of her past sin even more.

“If I had another chance to live my life, I wish I could see this child grow up with my own eyes, only like this... I would have no regrets as a mother.” At last, she calmly concluded her speech, “You too shouldn’t lose a good child. Because by the time you regret it, it’s always already too late.”

Qi Jing bit his lip slightly, lowering his head to look at his and Shen Yan’s fingers intertwining together, both of their grips strong as they held each other’s hands.

Only at that moment the surging tide in his heart could finally calm down a bit.

At that time, the woman suddenly exclaimed with a short “Ah”. Qi Jing got startled, yet when he turned his head, he saw her embarrassedly passing him back his phone, her expression nervous, “...Your dad hung up.”

—To be fair, for father to not end the call immediately, even listening to this point, it’s already hard to achieve.Qi Jing forced a laugh, saying quietly as he received the phone, “Doesn’t matter... Thank You auntie.”

Suddenly, Shen Yan also spoke up, “Thank you mom.”

Even though these things were spoken to Qi Jing’s father, it was also said for him to hear—he understood that clearly.

Hearing this, the woman was taken aback at first. Then, her eyes turned a bit red, the smile reaching all the way to the crow’s feet by her eyes, each filled with a whole mix of feelings.

It was the departure time before they could realise, and there was nothing else that needed to be said—it would be better to leave this matter only touched upon vaguely.

The woman insisted on carrying her luggage herself, not wanting them to mind it, and after a simple goodbye, she boarded the bus back to her village.

Qi Jing accompanied Shen Yan in watching as the bus was gradually driving off into the distance. The two of them stood there for quite a while, only going back after Qi Jing patted his shoulder.

Back at the north part of the city, they walked back home side by side when suddenly, Qi Jing stopped in place and murmured, “That’s right, the puppy.”

Shen Yan turned his head slightly to look at him, “What puppy?”

“The one who got sent to the clinic after getting bumped by a car, the one you were in charge of surgery for.” Qi Jing was thinking deeply, and after saying this, he gave him a calm smile, “Because of that surgery, you almost didn’t get back on time for the competition—do you still remember?”

Shen Yan nodded.

The owner of that puppy thought that even if it didn’t die, it would still end up disabled, so they abandoned it on the spot—it was a good-hearted passerby who sent it to a clinic.

“Is it still waiting in the clinic? Did someone apply to adopt him?”

“Still not yet. The injury was rather serious, so a lot of people would choose other dogs out of fear of the possible health problems it could have after it recovers. By now, it’s almpost fully recovered already, but currently there is still no place it could go.

“Hm...” Qi Jing lifted his head and pondered silently for a while, then laughed out of nowhere.

Without waiting for Shen Yan to ask, he presented his thoughts first, “If there’s no one willing to adopt it, then let’s adopt it ourselves, hm?”

Maybe because he guessed he would say so, Shen Yan wasn’t particularly surprised and only asked, “I wouldn’t mind it myself, but if we’re moving to Beijing, then wouldn’t it cause a problem?

If they went to Beijing, they would have to rent an apartment to stay. Whether the apartment owner would allow pets could be a big issue. Little Return Date was a cat, its body was small and it didn’t make much noise, so if the landowner didn’t allow pets then it would still be easy to covertly smuggle it in, but it would be tricky to do that with a dog.

“There will be some difficulties, but I believe we can solve them.” Qi Jing smiled and assured him with his usual optimism, then came closer to Shen Yan and pulled at the hem of his clothes, saying quietly, “This puppy has been abandoned, so I want to take it in and let it know that—no matter if it’s disabled, or has any health problems later, there will always be someone in this world who’s willing to offer it shelter and give it a home.”

After saying this, he added what the woman had said today to finish.

“Only this way I won’t feel any regrets in the future—”

Shen Yan stared at him at his calm and easy expression, then after a long while, he lowered his head with a smile and replied with a “Mhm”.

—【Big Goose】

This was the puppy’s new name.

Although “Geese Fly North” symbolised springtime, the ancient people were still used to calling “autumn day” a “geese day”, and the colour of autumn would naturally be the gold of the ripe grains. The puppy’s fur was exactly this pale, wheat-like ashen gold, and with it being a match for Little Return Date, they named it “Big Goose”

Qi Jing held Little Return Date under its armpits, carrying it to the newly-placed little dog bed, then putting it down there. “Good boy, now you need to say hello nicely.”

“Meow?” Little Return Date was quite forgetful, and has long since thrown the fact of having already met this puppy to the back of its kitty mind. Now, having been put down by Qi Jing before this new tenant, its tail stuck up in full alert, the round eyes taking cautious looks at it as it sniffed the puppy while pacing around it.

A local mixed-breed cat.

A local mixed-breed dog.

Even though the three words at the front were the same, they still couldn’t fool Little Return Date into lowering its guard for the difference in the last word—after all, didn’t the proverbs say that cats and dogs can’t possibly tolerate each other!

The other party didn’t budge, so Little Return Date boldly reached out its paw to bump it.

It still didn’t move, so it clawed at it again.

Perhaps because Little Return Date was making it hard to ignore its presence, Big Goose opened the pair of pitch-black eyes slightly, but it still lay there silently as it watched this little fella waving its paw and proclaiming its sovereignty. At most, it flicked its drooping ears slightly, showing no sign of taking an offence.

After brandishing its claws a few times and getting no response, Little Return Date determined that the other party was an easy to bully fellow, so it slowly got closer, making a show of having quite a nerve and sticking its snout behind Big Goose’s ear to sniff it.

At that time, Big Goose lifted its head suddenly, licking on Little Return Date’s cheek to show friendly intentions.

“Meow—!” Little Return Date got stricken with fright, jumping a few steps away with a loud cry, completely dumbstruck and at a loss as it quickly rubbed its face with its paws, a living picture of an unaccomplished bully getting bullied instead. Seeing this, Qi Jing couldn’t keep himself from bursting with laughter—wonderful, at least for now those two are getting along well.

Waiting for the kitty and puppy pair to get familiar with each other, Qi Jing finally found time to sit before his PC and do some handling of the “aftermath” he left behind in 2D.

But despite calling it an aftermath, it was actually slightly calmer than the bloodbath he had previously expected—rather than the storming gale itself, it was like the silence before the storm.

And the main factor of this silence was the fact that up to that day, great god Bronze Sparrow Terrace didn’t say anything.

Although his fans made a scene of all the unceasing complaints and cursing after the end of semi-finals, the great god himself stayed low and didn’t make any move. It really was unusual, or at least Qi Jing felt weird about it.

These days he committed all his time and thoughts to accompanying Shen Yan in handling their everyday matters, so he had neither time or intention to throw himself into the plane of 2D gossip. He mainly heard of the news about the staff’s behind the scenes situation from Ning Xiaoxiao, who called him to tell it every time she heard something. As for the matters open to the public eye, he would sometimes briefly scroll it on his phone whenever he was idle, but he had no time to get into the details. Only now he finally had some time to sit down and take a longer look at it.

Since the recordings from “Qin Tuo” and “Fang Yisheng” auditions got spread around, a wild surge of comments and discussions happened in the forums. Him, Bronze Sparrow Terrace, Crossing the Bridge Noodles, as well as “Two”, who got somehow dragged along into the hellhole of the gossip because of his opening remarks and stunning performance—all four of them became the very focus point of the whole debate.

There was a monthly-updated thread in the forum for the break-downs of all the major news in the online voice acting circle. Relaxed and in high spirits, Qi Jing first opened this thread to take a look at the summary.

As for now, the direction of the discourse more or less followed his prediction, branching into three major topics:

The first one unfolded into a discourse around the debts and resentments between him and the great god.

The second one focused on trying to uncover the real identity of that “mysterious producer” who tried to sow discord between him and Crossing the Bridge Noodles, wanting to expose them completely, so that they could no longer cause any troubles anymore.

And the third one... it was the one to cause his heart to itch the most. It was all kinds of delusions about their “legitimate boyfriends”, all the titles along the lines of ⟪Turns out Little Noodles really was already married off⟫ or ⟪So what kind of shou did Don’t ask for my return datemarry⟫.

When Qi Jing saw those titles, he couldn’t hold back from laughing.

“Eh? This one really deserves good marks.” So sure about who’s getting married off and who’s marrying whom, who’s a gong and who’s a shou... Why were they all so sure that Noodles would bottom and he would top? Must be because of their voices.

But once he thought of the virtuous “shou” he had “married”, Qi Jing smiled before the screen and gave the OP a like.

But there were a few things that were beyond clear now, so there was no need to further discuss them—

First, ⟪Trap⟫ had to have a changes in the production crew.

Second, “Moss” was completely fictional.

Third, “Time Limit” were together at the same side of the conflict, both of them had a boyfriend and no matter if it was Don’t ask for my return date or Crossing the bridge noodles, neither of them had any actual romantic relationship with Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

The post calling him out for plagiarism and cursing him out for being a thankless bastard got deleted at some point, the second day after the conclusion of semi-finals it was already nowhere to be found.

So the main battle moved to the thread dedicated to this year’s ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ competition. With the one grand scene occuring after another, the page count of this thread grew all the way to two digits, its liveliness unprecedented—

【Comment 2981】

Just as I said, it was Bronze Sparrow Terrace who plagiarised, not Don’t ask for my return date!! Hahahaha, I was already fed up with Bronze Sparrow Terrace and his bunch of brainless lolis, and here he goes!! ╮(╯▽╰)╭

【Comment 2982】

The commenter above, could you not be so vile, kicking others when they’re down?!

Even if the one above isn’t Don’t ask for my return date’s fan, then they’re Crossing the Bridge Noodles’ fan. You were so eager to ride other people’s coattails before, yet now that new problems arise, you’re all abandoning Sparrow, even joining hands to gang up on him, you really are a disgrace!

And what’s wrong with imitating? For a trash VA like Don’t ask for my return date, Sparrow imitating him means he acknowledged his performance. If it wasn’t for this scene interpretation getting truly brought to life by Sparrow, who would even bother to remember that lacklustre and inferior performance?? Even if he begged me to listen I wouldn’t pay attention to it!

【Comment 2983】

I really agree with the commenter above!

Antis, do you know what “recreating” means? Do you know what “blue is made of indigo yet surpasses it in colour” means?

It didn’t have any copyright pasted to it in the first place, so what is it with all that claiming it over and over again? Did you apply for any copyright certificate? Hehe, you think that you saying that you came up with it would make it?

According to the way you’re saying this, wouldn’t every text written be a plagiarism of dictionaries, and every music piece a plagiarism of stave? Oh my~ So righteous, gatekeeping with the usage rights to this extent~ Your masters have to be really moved with the bunch of bootlicking slaves like ya’ll. ╮(╯▽╰)╭

【Comment 2984】

Who dares to talk shit on my Little Noodless!! ∑(っ °Д °；)っ

It was a bad relationship with an ill-boding husband, and only now I came to realise it! So as long as Little Noodles says someone’s good then they’re good, and if Little Noodles says they’re bad, then there must be some issue with them!! I no longer like Bronze Sparrow Terrace, even though his voice is really nice, but it seems like his personality is really not up to standard... I believe in Little Noodle’s choice.

Honestly, Don’t ask for my return date isn’t half-bad too... But they both said that they have an IRL boyfriend, sob... ％>＿<%

【Comment 2985】

Wow... I kept hearing that there’s a lot of delulus among great god’s fans, and I finally got to experience that now, tsk tsk tsk.

Comments 2982 and 2983 really opened my eyes to a new world... Truly the classic quotations of brain-dead fans! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

What “imitating you means acknowledging your performance”, what “all the world is the plagiarism, plagiarise to boost your health” (eh, seems like they didn’t say it like this)... Like, who would even use those arguments anymore??

Before, I only knew that great god knew well how to cajole his fans, how to cajole his little shous... But because he has a really pleasant voice, I didn’t look into his integrity when listening to his audio dramas, so I didn’t expect that I would get hit with it like now—it’s really true that one fan makes ten haters. Previously I was a bit infatuated with great god’s voice, but it wasn’t to the point of me being a fan. Now I also can’t be called an anti, ya’ll can treat me as some passerby with no favourable opinion. ╮(￣▽￣”)╭

Last words for the great god’s fans: with no outlook for rights and wrongs, it’s better for ya’ll to go back and hone it for a bit before getting back to online voice acting! (picks nose)

【Comment 2986】

Interesting, interesting... The most interesting thing is how the matters of those couple of VAs are discussed here under the ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ competition thread, so this humble me has to talk of a certain theory for a bit.

I can understand everyone’s distaste towards plagiarising behaviour, but you know, some things can’t be taken for sure, after all, it’s not the only issue that arose during the ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ competition. For example that mysterious producer driving a wedge between people—honestly, I feel like this case is a bit weird. Who can say for sure if it’s not Crossing the Bridge Noodles and Don’t ask for my return date colluding together as a means to garner everyone’s sympathy with another objective in mind? Let’s wait and see how it develops from now on. (￣︶￣)

【Comment 2987】

*rubbing chin* Are you telling that... Don’t ask for my return date and Crossing the Bridge Noodles didn’t spare the means to pass to the finals?

The more I think of it, the more this case seems worth getting deeper into it...

I don’t mean to say anything, I just feel like those two are really scheming. Great god’s style really is repulsing, but those two aren’t that pure too.

【Comment 2988】

All that talking and someone really ended up calling for conspiracy theories, heh.

With who plagiarised who being basically already clear, the folks above actually started to gossip about the matter with that producer, so let me talk about what I’ve seen and heard myself.

Please don’t look inquire about my identity, but I admit to being an active staff member in the circle. Because of our duties, us staff members, you know, know quite a lot of behind the scenes matters, so much so that we could gather the catfight drama materials for “Empress in the Palace”.

Around the summer of this year, ⟪Trap⟫ made a request for Don’t ask for my return date to star in the main role, and after they got his run-through recording with Bronze Sparrow Terrace, his ID got famous for a moment. But later some insider suddenly started spreading the rumours that he and a certain big name VA don’t get along, then proceeded to spread the word about how despicable he is, calling for every production group to not use him and kick him out so as not to offend that “big name”.

At the same time, someone was passing the word that this “big name” was in fact Crossing the Bridge Noodles.

At that time, we all believed that Crossing the Bridge Noodles was indeed Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s IRL boyfriend, so a huge lot of us took this rumour as the truth and took it into action. If at that time Don’t ask for my return date was participating in my production crew, I would probably also want to avoid stirring the muddy waters and would push him out... Now that I think of it, the me from that time was really dumb.

In fact, the motive of that producer is really easy to figure out—this entire case started after the VAs for ⟪Trap⟫ got publicised and the run-through took place, so Don’t ask for my return date, as the one who got together with the Great God for the run-through, would sure cause some ambiguous gossip, and Crossing the Bridge Noodles was Great God’s in-name official CP. With both of them getting into a fight, neither would end up well, so the only one to reap benefits would be someone who adores Great God.

And if that’s the case, then their motive would also be so sickening.

Lord Don’t ask for my return date, if you happen to see this post, let me just say “I’m sorry” here first—【from a staff that had once believed other people slandering you】

“It doesn’t matter.” Qi Jing smiled faintly at the screen. He could see that this lady’s apology was sincere, so his reaction was just as sincere.

...Finals....Fair enough, since the trigger of the whole conflict is the competition, it’s not that weird that people started to theorise about that.

Qi Jing spaced out while mechanically opening the official page of ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ competition, going to the main page to see if there was anything new there.

The finals took on the system of acting in pairs to judge the contestants, but the exact roles for the performance would be decided by drawing lots. The organisers still didn’t issue any definite instructions, claiming that they would get “published at the day of the finals” so as to avoid both contestants from a group communicating with each other beforehands and causing unfairness in the competition.

He was just in the middle of skimming through the information when the phone he put on the desk suddenly rang with a text message notification.

The sender was the director, so the matter of him going to Beijing for an interview was beginning to take a shape—thinking of it, Qi Jing put the laptop on the side, full of expectation as he opened this message.

The message title only confirmed his guess—it was the good news: 【The Beijing side gave us the date of the interview】

While he excitedly read further, he also wanted to tell the good news to Shen Yan who was currently busying himself in the kitchen, but he suddenly stopped before even making any sound.

“Eh...” He blinked, but it still didn’t change the date displayed on the phone screen.

It was two days altogether. The first day, it would be a more formal interview with the president, and the second day would be the tour around the China Central Television building, with the on-scene examination and so on. But this one wasn’t the problem, the problem was—

“Isn’t that exactly the two days of the finals?” He uttered, dumbfounded.

A/N:

Congratulations on reaching the official CP of Doggo and Meow Meow!! (scatters flowers) —Cough cough, it’s entirely out of my love for this CP... In reality it would sure be a BE (sulks)

Honestly, whenever I write the antis bits, I get that weird rush of excitement... (wait what...) *facepalms*, I don’t want to hate on 2Yan, really (gets glared at by 2Yan’s “virtuous shou” and shrinks back in silence)

T/L:

Lucilla: Dawww, now Little Return Date has a new Big Goose as a friend! They’re both so adorable... Also, I think that only in this chapter we got Little Return Date’s gender confirmed, so what do you think—should I go back to the previous chapters to change his pronouns or should I just stick to referring to our cat son as ‘it’? (The animals are referred to with a gender-neutral pronoun in Mandarin, so I wasn’t sure whether it was a boy or a girl before)