Chapter 144

Chapter 144

unedited

【Playboy A】

【Playboy B】← This one’s for crooked seedling No.1. (circled with a red line)

Qi Jing first glanced silently at the annotation on the script, then stared at the voice director Yuan Zhengming before him.

“What,” Yuan Zhengming smiled like a lazy fox, saying with all seriousness, “Doesn’t this role suit you just right?”

—In a sense it really did suit him.

It could be said that voicing playboys and the like was his long-time specialty, and his voice type wouldn’t stand out as much if he were to play one. If that alone was the case, he wouldn’t have anything to complain about. What took him aback was how, despite both the roles being “playboys”, A and B’s lines were completely different in style. He felt like Playboy A suited him better, yet Yuan Zhengming insisted on making him voice Playboy B.

This scene was located at the pleasure house the main character Qin Tuo often frequented, and those two playboys were the establishment’s patrons engaging in a flirtatious banter with a group of girls in the background. Their lines were as follows.

【Playboy A】: Hahaha, no breathtaking landscape can compare to the beauties like a painting here. Come, come, sing a song for my noble self, we shouldn’t waste this fine time and scenery.

【Playboy B】: Beautiful ladies, if you satisfy me with your service, I promise you a life of such luxury that your sisters will be green from envy~ Gold, silver, whatever you desire—don’t I have anything you could possibly want? How about it—whichever one of you will be the most obedient today, I will reward you with a jade bracelet next time, hmm?

Compared to Playboy A, Playboy B sounded way more like a dubious fellow.

“Teacher Yuan, you’re doing this on purpose.” Qi Jing gave up on asking the questions and went straight to making a statement.

“A voice director has to consider the contrast between the voices,” Yuan Zhengming stroked his chin with a hint of seriousness, though a slight smirk at the corner of his mouth still gave him away, “Your voice is suitable for both, but with him present... I think that you’d be better suited for Playboy B.”

Qi Jing followed the direction of his finger and gazed silently at Qiu Tianyang, their “Playboy B”, who came over to join the fun. Qiu Tianyang blinked at him with an innocent expression.

“So you actually came to join the miscellaneous voice actors...”

“Either way I’m idle now.”

The actual voice actors involved with the recording were taking a short break in another recording studio, so Yuan Zhengming finally had some spare time to come and provide guidance to the background voice actors. As a director with no direct involvement with the production, Qiu Tianyang didn’t need to appear that day at all. However, he couldn’t stay idle and decided to sneak over.

“I heard that this kid used to do voice acting as well, but his acting skills weren’t all that good, so currently he can only play the minor roles.” Yuan Zhengming didn’t mince his words when he openly criticised Qiu Tianyang.

“Cough... I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I haven’t practised for a long time now, so...” Qiu Tianyang admitted with embarrassment.

“Even though your acting skills aren’t great, your voice can still leave the girls swooning, so that’s a redeeming point for you.” Suddenly Yuan Zhengming let out a laugh and, after that teasing jab, didn’t forget to give him a few words of praise, “Both your voices belong to the same type, but Crooked Seedling, your sounds more ‘wicked’, with a bad-boy vibe. His, on the other hand, sounds a bit more righteous.

Just like the comments from the directors in the circle...

But that wasn’t the important point.

“Aren’t you afraid that your voice will get recognized?” Qi Jing raised his brow, curious.

It wasn’t only about the game players—in a moment, there would also be a couple of female VAs coming in for this background scene to play the girls from the pleasure house, and there was always a possibility someone would recognize him.

During yesterday’s introduction event, Qiu Tianyang didn’t even dare to go on the stage, hiding underneath it while having the manager deliver the speech. Yet he actually dared to openly speak, and even record today? Looking at the terrific sales of the previous instalments for ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫, even if he only appeared as the background voice, as long as he had at least one line, there was no way no one would recognise him.

Hearing him ask so, Qiu Tianyang only chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Mhm. Either way it’s nothing big. It’s not like my name will get publicised, so if anyone recognises my voice, it’ll just be a surprise for them at the most. And...”

Saying this, he hesitated slightly.

“And if I don’t do my best to keep up the pace with the rest&#k2026; then if we ever get the chance to voice act together again in the future, wouldn’t I end up holding everyone back?”

In this sentence, he didn’t say clearly who those “others” were, but Qi Jing understood what he meant right away.

He raised his head to look at the man beside him, a bit surprised. After a while, he smiled lightly as if nothing happened, without uncovering the meaning of those words.

The weird thing was, this short exchange inexplicably brightened his mood, filling him with an eager determination and the fighting spirit he hadn’t felt for a long time. The last time he felt like this was when he fiercely crashed Bronze Sparrow Terrace in the semifinals only to get a wake-up call in a form of Two’s scolding.

“Two have asked me before if I would want to join you guys. If I really did... I guess I would become the ‘Seven’ then.”

He said with a chuckle, tapping that guy’s shoulder with the script in his hand.

“We will certainly have a chance to work together in the future, so I’m counting on your guidance, Five.”

The recording of the voice lines continued orderly and intensely for a few hours. For many online voice actors, this high workload and intensity when voice acting was a first-time experience. However, it was still an undeniably enriching experience to receive on-site guidance from a veteran like Yuan Zhengming, so despite all the challenges, everyone felt a mix of suffering and pleasure.

To save time, everyone ate takeaways in the recording studio, just as the real professional voice actors.

Qi Jing had nothing to do after finishing recording the lines for the background voices, so he naturally took on the role of a temporary worker on the set, helping with errands, moving the equipment and so on. Zhang Cheng was startled when he saw Qi Jingjoking with the technical assistants while carrying things in the corridor. He quickly asked Qi Jing to take a break, but Qi Jing insisted on continuing as he claimed to enjoy doing it. Zhang Cheng tried to persuade him, but to no avail, so he could only let him continue.

“How did you become the venue worker here?” Tan Zixian emerged from the recording studio midway, and was surprised to see him already getting chummy with the workers, bustling about with them, so he furrowed his brow slightly.

“Ah, the work environment here is very similar to that back at the TV station, so it felt kinda familiar.” Qi Jing put down the box in his hand, stopping by to give him a smile.

Tan Zixian lowered his head to examine the box on the floor. Judging from the sound when it got put down, it was most probably pretty heavy.

“You’re really working hard, carrying things this heavy.” He looked Qi Jing up and down with a meaningful expression, “So how are you feeling now?”

“Hm?” It’s not like he was sick before?

“What I’m asking is, can your body handle it?” Tan Zixian walked a few steps closer, as if only talking about the most usual of things, his tone just as calm and composed as always. “Unless nothing happened after you went back yesterday night.”

Qi Jing quickly understood what he was saying. He froze for a bit, then his face flushed slightly as he looked away with a guilty conscience, tugging at the collar of his shirt with unease.

“Cough,” He stammered when speaking in a low voice, “I’m good. But, he might, not feel as well...”

The longer he spoke, the smaller his voice became, his words barely discernible.

Fortunately the guy before him had a lawyer background, so he understood the meaning of Qi Jing’s words right away.

Understanding was one thing, but when Tan Zixian looked up at him, his eyes held a hint of surprise. He was momentarily at a loss for words, only able to utter a soft ‘eh?’. Out of courtesy, he later concealed his astonishment, however he still couldn’t help but drift off for a moment. After all, everyone would need a while to process the fact of suddenly getting their worldview overturned. And Qi Jing only lowered his head shyly with a smile, not speaking any further.

By the time the recording was completely done, it was already past 3PM.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when walking through the door of the recording studio. After a long day of recording, most of the contestants were already too hoarse to want to speak, but they still had to make use of those last moments to chat with each other and exchange contact information before parting for good.

“How did you guys do?”

As the voice actor for the main male role with the largest amount of lengthy lines, Yang Jie was in the last group of people to emerge from the recording studio. Surprisingly enough, he still somehow appeared full of vigour, as if still capable of continuing recording for another few hours, truly impressive.

Due to the limited space in the partition outside of the recording booth, all of them crowding there together would both be inconvenient and could easily affect the performance of those inside, so the recordings were all conducted in batches. Unless someone had to record a scene with another actor, the contestants took turns entering the booth. When some entered it to record, the others would leave to rest or go through the lines. Yang Jie couldn’t listen to the entire process, so this was the first thing he asked about.

“Ah, it was just a background role for me, so I just had to do two lines. I was mainly just helping with the errands after that.” Qi Jing smiled, at ease. The first thing Two showed interest in was, as expected, the voice acting—it was easy to see that he really loved it.

“Oh, that’s how it is.” So Yang Jie turned his head toward Shen Yan, pressing him on for the answer, “Then how about you, Six? How many times did you get cut by Teacher Yuan overall?”

“If we’re talking about the cuts that were caused by me, then it’d be three.” Shen Yan said. The cuts caused by the other peoples’ mistakes were a different matter.

Hearing this, Yang Jie grinned slightly, giggling delightedly all full of himself, “I won then! I only got cut twice from the beginning to the end.”

Shen Yan didn’t intend to fight for superiority with him, so he only smiled slightly as he heard him say this.

However, Qi Jing leaned over from the side with a smile, waving his hand at Yang Jie as he reminded him benevolently, “He got cut three times for both of his roles, so on average... It would actually be less than two.”

Yang Jie stopped, his smile collapsing momentarily before he exclaimed, “Ah! I actually lost! Agh, that sucks...”

Just as he intended—this in turn made Qi Jing burst out laughing. Shen Yan smiled helplessly as he watched him, which only made Qi Jing even happier. Luckily, there were only the other four people present, with no one else around, so he could casually put his hand on Shen Yan’s shoulder and relish in the pleasant atmosphere of the moment.

In the end, Shen Yan who took the initiative to intervene and mediate, saying, “Two is voicing the main character with much more lines than I had, so there’s no way to compare that. And he only got cut by Teacher Yuan twice with such a huge amount of lines, which, in my opinion, is really impressive.”

Maybe because he was being so sincere, Yang Jie actually grew a bit red on his face when listening to him. He coughed twice, “No...There’s nothing amazing about that.”

“Eh? But you weren’t so modest a while ago?” Whenever Shen Yan took the role of the good cop, Qi Jing would always take pleasure in playing his bad cop.

“Are you looking down on the likes of me who got cut over ten times?” At that time, Tan Zixian also tossed in from the side, joining him in the “bad cop” camp.

“That’s right, what do you think people who got cut over ten times like us should say?” Qiu Tianyang soon followed suit.

He was only joining in while agreeing with Tan Zixian at first, but when he said that, the remaining four all looked at him at the same time. Aside from Qi Jing, who knew about that earlier and only watched the fun with a silly smile, the other three were clearly shocked.

Among them, Shen Yan’s reaction was the most calm. He was astonished, but didn’t say anything.

Meanwhile, Tan Zixian frowned slightly, “I at least had two pages of lines to go through, but you only had one line, how did you get cut as many times as I did?”

Yang Jie was even more straightforward, saying savagely, “I knew that you sucked at acting, but I didn’t think it was this bad—”

Qiu Tianyang mumbled, aggrieved, “...We, we’re just the supporting roles, it’s not solely my fault if we get cut. You’re being too harsh.”

As he was about to continue his plea, he caught the sight of the penetrating gaze Shen Yan fixed at him and it dawned on him that his words almost seemed to shift the blame onto Qi Jing, who was also in the same group as him. He trembled and hastily adopted a more ingratiating tone, “No, no, no, if we’re talking about Return Date, then Teacher Yuan hardly ever cut. Since it involved teamwork and group cooperation, the cuts were all caused by the ‘group synergy’, so there were barely any cuts due to individual reasons...”

At that time, Tan Zixian snickered lightly, “Oh? Then would you dare to say that you didn’t get cut a single time?”

Qiu Tianyang stared up into the skies above in silence.

Given the current situation, honesty was the only way to seek leniency.

“Alright... I got cut five times. It really was only five times, and it was all due to circumstances beyond my control.”

Yang Jie furrowed his brow and immediately followed with a question, “What was beyond your control?”

Qiu Tianyang cleared his throat,” About that... Teacher Yuan said that I don’t sound like that of an ordinary playboy. He wanted me to have a more crude and natural tone, without sounding too authoritative or regal, like an emperor or a prince roaming around incognito. That’s why... I had to redo the lines a few times to sound like a genuine ordinary passerby.”

The room went completely silent.

Qu Jing raised his brow slightly, “Five, are you bragging right now?”

Tan Zixian replied insipidly, “It’s obvious that he’s bragging.”

Yang Jie finally snapped back, his expression growing dark as he roared indignantly, “You! God! Damn! Bastard!”

He stomped forward while yelling, ready to give this piece of work, who only ever relied on his voice without paying mind to the good acting to captivate people, a solid beating.

Seeing the unfavourable turn in the situation, Qiu Tianyang hastily pleaded for forgiveness.

“I was wrong! I was wrong! I said I was wrong, so let me off already!”

“See who cares!” Yang Jie gnashed his teeth, reaching out to catch Qiu Tianyang’s arm.

Qiu Tianyang swiftly dodged backward, narrowly escaping the situation. However, the next time probably wouldn’t be as easy to escape alone, so his immediate instinct was to run for help to his lifesavers Number One and Number Two, adopting the guerilla hide-and-seek tactic. Just as he was hesitating which lifesaver he should turn to first, Shen Yan, who had silently observed everything, suddenly spoke up and called out to him, “Five, come here, I’ll hold him off for you.”

Qi Jing let out a quite surprised ‘eh?’.

Tan Zixian was also a bit surprised, staring at him without moving. .

But the most surprised was Qiu Tianyang himself, who got completely stumped by this turn of events. After a moment that took him to get back to reality, he sped over, moved by this benevolent act of favour, “Six, you...”

Before he could finish speaking, Shen Yan swiftly seized Qiu Tianyang’s arm. In an instant, he twisted Qiu Tianyang’s body outward, making him turn half-way. He then twisted Qiu Tianyang’s arm behind his back and held his neck with the other hand, employing a textbook joint lock to immobilise him. Throughout the entire process, his expression didn’t waver a single bit, and in the end, he lifted his head and said coldly to Yang Jie, “I’ve got him—now you can hit him.”

Yang Jie flashed him a splendid smile, giving him big thumbs up, “Good job, Six!”

Qiu Tianyang simply had to swallow the blood churning up his throat from the grievance he just suffered.

“It was a scheme...” He gasped, crying with indignation, “It, was, a scheme—!!!”

Qi Jing couldn’t stop laughing, his laughter so hard that his stomach began to ache. He had to squat down as he clapped his hands, thoroughly enjoying the sight of Two performing all sorts of tickling tortures on the crying Five.

Tan Zixian shook his head with the “you guys really are childish” expression, but there was a slight smile dancing on the corners of his lips.

And so, the trip to Beijing slowly came to an end among their laughter.

After a celebratory banquet with the teachers, other workers, and contestants, they went back to sort out their luggage and prepare for the return trip.

Yang Jie planned to stay an additional two or three more days in Beijing this time, so he bid his farewells to them at the hotel entrance, making plans to do a meet up at Qi Jing and Shen Yan’s place during the school winter break.

And as for their trip to the airport, it was Qiu Tianyang who drove them, while Tan Zixian quietly tagged along.

“Take care.” Qiu Tianyang didn’t listen to Shen Yan and stopped the car at the parking lot, insisting on sending him and Qi Jing off to the terminal. As they completed the check-in process and started preparing for the security check, he finally spoke up in a low voice, his tone tinged with a hint of self-blame.

“Mn,” Shen Yan nodded calmly, “You two take care as well.”

Qi Jing followed with a slight smile, “After I get transferred to Beijing in March next year, we’ll be able to meet up regularly, have drinks, and chat. I hope that by then, the other guys will be there as well.”

—By this he meant the other “numbers” of the group.

Hearing this, Qiu Tianyang replied with a soft hum. Although his smile wasn’t very convincing, it was at least hopeful, “Mhm. Who knows, maybe we won’t have until March?”

At that time, neither of them realised how much their words would become prophetic.

Moreover... It didn’t at all happen at the time and in the way they had envisioned back then.

T/N:

Lucilla: I’m sorry it took so long to resume the updates... Who would have thought that two-week hiatus could make it so difficult to get back into a routine? ;;;

P.S. For some reason the site kept deleting the novel title, so although the chapter went public at the normal time, it didn’t get added under the novel until I corrected it, sorry for the confusion @.@