Chapter 11

Ah, I forgot to ask for his name.

By the time Qi Jing thought of it, it was already after dusk.

Beyond the window, was a myriad of twinkling lights; people who were used to taking a walk after dinner went on their stroll while fanning themselves with a rush-leaf fan to cool off the summer heat. The daytime hustle and bustle of downtown had settled down, and it was a good time to sit down and write.

Qi Jing was a little annoyed at his carelessness as he shook his head while turning on the desk lamp. But perhaps there was no need to ask—after all, the other party did say that they didn’t want to provide the information under their personal name, but instead, the name of the hospital.

The ceiling light in the room was not turned on. The dim light from the desk lamp created a small private space, and the coffee for refreshment was placed to one side, an atmosphere that was more conducive to his creativity.

Qi Jing took out his notepad, turned to the pages he had written today, and reviewed it again.

Cautious, thoughtful, responsible, etc…

These terms virtually made up the criteria that are often published in women’s magazines for finding a spouse.

“Pfft.”

When that thought crossed his mind, a laugh couldn’t help but escape his lips. He really didn’t know how he wrote down all these words at that time. If any of his female colleagues caught sight of this, they might think he’s doing a feature report on blind dating.

In the spur of the moment, he dialed for Ning Xiaoxiao’s phone.

She worked as a scriptwriter in the 2D world and an editor in the 3D one. Although she wasn’t an editor for women’s magazines, it could be considered related to relationships.

“Hello? Senior?” The other party obviously couldn’t guess the reason for his call. “Why did you suddenly think of calling me?”

“Because I need some insights from your women’s intuition.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Ning Xiaoxiao couldn’t make heads or tails of what he said.

Qi Jing ignored her question, instead, he lifted the notepad in his hand, selected a few keywords written on the page and read them out in one breath, “Meticulous, dedicated, cautious, responsible, patient, compassionate—alright, now tell me your first thoughts after hearing these words.”

Ning Xiaoxiao paused for three seconds before she suddenly uttered these six words, “You can marry that person already.”

Qi Jing burst into laughter, “What, it really does sound that way?”

Like a hound hungry for gossip material, Ning Xiaoxiao keenly sniffed out the smell of gossip. “Senior! Out with it now! Did you find someone you’re interested in? When did you find him? Have you hooked up?”

This lass had been paying close attention to his romantic relationships since he’d been single for many years.

“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s straight.” The words came out of his mouth without thinking, then, he paused. I guess…

“He’s straight huh? What a pity. If I didn’t already have a boyfriend, I definitely would’ve begged you to introduce him to me.” His junior expressed how regrettable she found the situation to be.

Qi Jing could not help but silently light a candle in his heart for that reporter comrade.

“Speaking of which, Senior, where did you meet such a good man? I may be taken but I have a few girl friends who are looking for boyfriends. Perhaps, I just might become a matchmaker.” Ning Xiaoxiao was quite skilled at netting information.

“An interviewee for a news report. I didn’t even catch his name.”

“An interviewee? You’ve interviewed him but you still don’t know his name?” It was clear in her tone that she was feeling a little upset by that.

“It was an oversight on my part, but since there will be follow-ups, we will be keeping in touch,” Qi Jing said, his fingers lingered on the notepad for a bit, slowly tracing over the indentations from his writing.

“Remember to ask for his contact information then!” Since that guy was straight, then there was no reason to leave him for Qi Jing, so she’ll just go ahead and recommend him to her friends.

“No—pe—” Qi Jing said with an eyebrow raised, “it is the professional ethics of journalists not to divulge personal details.”

“Hmph!” Ning Xiaoxiao expressed her extreme disdain through a loud humph.

The two of them chattered around for a while and somehow, Ning Xiaoxiao redirected the subject back to his romantic life.

“Senior, when I was listening in the audience to your run-through the other day, Bronze Sparrow Terrace seems to be pretty interested in you. Do you wanna consider forming a CP with the Great God or something?”

That process of their run-through that night, along with the concert that took place before it was recorded by some fans and was even later posted on the forum for download. The suggestive remarks that Bronze Sparrow Terrace made to him instantly became a hot topic for gossip, and some people have even begun to have fantasies about their pairing. He supposed this phenomenon will become more prevalent after the release of the first episode of the audio drama.

As someone who diligently frequented the forums, it should come as no surprise that he definitely knew this.

“A 2D CP just sounds so far-fetched.” What’s more, the person in question was someone he who he only knew the voice and nothing else. The talk about becoming friends or something was simply too unrealistic.

“Well, you guys can arrange a face-to-face meeting.”

His junior would often participate in gatherings for STAFFs in the online voice acting circle, so she had a rather open-minded attitude towards it.

“I heard that Bronze Sparrow Terrace lives in C City which isn’t too far from here. Compared to people who lived all the way on the other side of the planet, this is much more plausible.”

“Oh, so he’s from C City huh.” Indeed, it wasn’t very far from where he lived.

“He’s met up with crews from other dramas before, the《Trap》production crew can also try arranging a gathering too. A friend of mine said that she had seen Bronze Sparrow Terrace in person and she said he’s rich, tall, and handsome through and through. Ah, it makes me wanna see him as well.”

Ning Xiaoxiao appeared to have unintentionally exposed her true motives.

Qi Jing quietly lit another candle for Ning Xiaoxiao’s policeman boyfriend before carefully considering if he should remind her not to drool onto her phone screen.

“If he’s rich, tall, and handsome then all the more, I dare not want to meet him. What do I do if a poor, short, and ugly person like myself contaminate the eyes of the Great God?” Qi Jing asked wittily.

This remark aroused the strong dissatisfaction of his junior, because she was highly confident in her evaluation of men’s outward appearances and felt that she was quite objective as well.

“Senior! In what way are you poor, short, and ugly?! …Uh, well, I guess it depends on how you define ‘poor’, but I definitely don’t agree with ‘short’ and ‘ugly’!”

Qi Jing’s appearance wasn’t the conspicuous type but his facial features were well-defined and he was a cultured young man. He had the charisma and could be considered handsome.

“In any case, the Great God already has a CP, I don’t wanna become a mistress.” He remembered that there were a lot of CP fans amongst the fans of Bronze Sparrow Terrace which couldn’t mess with.

“You mean Crossing the bridge noodles?”

“Un.” He hadn’t heard many of the works by Crossing the bridge noodles’, probably because the genre wasn’t his cup of tea. As for the CV’s voice, Qi Jing did have an impression of it. It wasn’t the type that could do a voice change so it was the relatively stable type. It’s the type of fresh and beautiful sounding youthful Shou voice and his sense of play was quite good.

“That one is unlikely to be a real CP. It’s just something the fans got excited about all by themselves. Besides, Crossing the bridge noodles is in the capital, unless he’s in a long-distance relationship with the Great God.”

Ning Xiaoxiao completely dismissed Qi Jing’s point.

Seeing that the topic was going in the direction of Plato’s high-level love analysis, Qi Jing decided it was better for him to go back to writing his draft. Hence, after chatting with his junior for a while more, he hung up the phone and entered his night work mode.

However, before he officially started on his work, he had the habit of logging into his QQ to deal with the messages that were waiting for his reply.

Just as he logged in, the first thing that popped out was a system notification.

As a CV, Qi Jing would receive friend requests from producers from time to time. So without much thought, he was all ready to click on ‘Accept’.

However, against his expectations, what he saw was: Group admin of《Keep the Cloud, Borrow the Moon》, Producer – M.E.E. has removed you from the group

…Eh?

Qi Jing was taken aback. If memory served him right, the first episode of the audio drama was in the production stage and has not ended. In addition, the supporting role he was playing as had quite a fair bit of scenes so it didn’t really make sense for him to be removed from the group at this time. Just last month, the producer was still rushing him for his dry recordings.

What on earth had happened?

Qi Jing quickly scanned through the list of private messages on QQ and M.E.E.’s message was on that list. Although her message was not lengthy, the contents were not what Qi Jing had expected.

M.E.E.: I’m so sorry, Don’t ask for my return date-sama! Thank you for accepting the team’s invitation to play to take on the main supporting role in the drama back then and for delivering your recordings last month. We are truly grateful for all of this. However… After some discussion, the crew ultimately came to the decision that you are not suitable for this role and have decided to replace you. I’m sorry that we won’t be using the dry recordings that you have done. I don’t want to say anymore. Anyway, thank you for your participation! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry… (kowtowing to sama)

—It’s the legendary good guy card.

But wasn’t the timing of issuing this card a little too strange?

Qi Jing did not mind the crew replacing him, but what he found strange was that the reason for the change was that he was “not suitable for the role”. When the producer first invited him, he read the script and saw the role, and even sent in a recording to audition for the role, for the crew to review. At that time, the producer even praised his audition very excitedly and said that he was “virtually the character”, yet now, their attitudes took a 180. It was just too weird.

Since it was an important supporting role, the amount of lines he had wasn’t small. And after taking the time to record, the dry recordings he had totaled up to forty minutes long.

And now, all of it had basically gone to waste.

“Sigh…” Qi Jing briefly replied that it was alright and wished them all the best for the show.

Since that was the decision the crew had come to, it wasn’t too good for him to argue any further.

In the first place, arguing with them was not a rational way to do things.

This time was just an accident. There were all kinds of people in the community, each with their own set of values. Things like that do happen occasionally. However, when he received private QQ messages from two other producers in the next two days, he began to realise—this might not be an accident.

For example, the《Palace Coup》Production Crew—

Prospective prime minister: Return date-sama… Forgive me for what I’m about to say at this time, but, but, due to various reasons, we can’t use your recordings and will be replacing you. I know that this is just a side character with only a few lines, but you have also taken the time to record it yet there’s this sudden change now. I’m so sorry, I really am!! (Kneels)

Or for example, the《His Happy Times》Production Crew—

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ Return date, please don’t get angry when you see what I’m about to say… The thing is, the crew has recently caught wind of some things… and we may have to replace you with someone else. Really! Please don’t get mad! I have no choice either! Sob sob sob…

He had already submitted some dry recordings for the two shows mentioned above The DEMO for《Palace Coup》had already been out for two months and he had already submitted the final set of dry recordings for it. So there was no way that he could be unsuited for the role. As for what the “various reasons” and “things that they caught wind of” were exactly, he had no idea.

The only difference in treatment was probably that they didn’t immediately kick him out of the group. But it was only a matter of time before he was kicked out.

Could it be… that they thought he was a problem CV due to the post which criticised him on the forum from the last time?

However, it’s been a month since that incident, wasn’t the reaction time of the producers a little too long? What’s more, both he and Bronze Sparrow Terrace had come forward to clear the misunderstanding and the post was also deleted. Even the《Trap》production crew that was in the eye of the storm did not change him, why did these production crews need the change?

Being screwed over so many times, even Qi Jing couldn’t help but start to feel frustrated despite his good temper.

Sometimes, inquiring is not to change the outcome, but to prevent similar situations from occurring again. Amongst the three producers that contacted him, felt that he had the best relationship with Fried cake. And since Fried cake was normally a walking gossip transmitter to begin with normally, she had the highest possibility of slipping up. Hence, he decided to find out the truth behind the matter as he felt he had the right to know.

He didn’t expect to have to use the skills from his occupation in the 3D world in the 2D world.

Don’t ask for my return date: Poking at Fried cakey.

Fried cake: Σ( °△°|||)︴R-Return date, you’re online… Have you seen the message?

Don’t ask for my return date: I saw it. And I’m here to say that I’m enraged by it. (＃｀皿)

Fried cake: !! Don’t!! Please, don’t get mad!! You’ll make me so guilty I feel like dying!! ╥﹏╥

Don’t ask for my return date: I plan on blocking you. What do you say?

Fried cake: Don’t block me!!! ╥﹏╥

Fried cake: Really, please don’t block me, Return date!! I’m not doing this on purpose!!!!

Fried cake: C-Come out, Return date!

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ You couldn’t have blocked me already, have you?? Return date??

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ Let me explain!

He had succeeded in goading her. That last line was just what he was waiting for from Fried cake.

A faint smile crept up on his face as he stared at the screen and casually issued his ultimatum: If you don’t give me a proper explanation, I will block you for good.

Sure enough, Fried cake fumbled for words, revealing bits and pieces of the truth and clues to him.

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ Return date, I’m only telling you this because I believe that you’re not the kind of person to go out and casually run your mouth off. So I’m telling you, please don’t ever take screenshots or anything! If this gets out, a fried cake like me will be reduced to a rotten dough!

Don’t ask for my return date: You still think you’re in the right after taking my dry recordings then screwing me over? You! Are! Blocked!

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ Just give me a minute! Let me explain!

Don’t ask for my return date: I’ll give you sixty seconds.

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ That sixty seconds or whatever sounds like a countdown to my beheading…

Don’t ask for my return date: Fifty-five seconds left. Your call.

Fried cake: I’ll talk…

Fried cake: Actually… erhm… (Scratches head)

Fried cake: Actually, I can’t really tell you the details, it’s just kinda that… it’ll cause some trouble for the crew if you were to stay. By trouble I mean the composition of the team…

Don’t ask for my return date: Twenty seconds left. If this is your explanation, I’ll be blocking you after twenty seconds.

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ Alright, alright!! The fact is that there’s someone who said that they will quit the crew if you’re in it!! That’s it!!

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ Although I’m very apologetic to you for this, he is more important to the show so I had no choice but to make that decision!!

Fried cake: ╥﹏╥ The STAFFs that are close to him have heard of this rule as well, so you’ll probably be replaced in the crews that they are in too!! I really can only say this much!!

…So that was the case.

Once Fried cake blurted everything out, the smile on Qi Jing’s face gradually disappeared, replaced with a frown. Based on her description, this “someone” should be quite famous.

Qi Jing didn’t even know when he had offended such a big shot.

For them to make such a ruthless move that they couldn’t exist in the same crew.

Since the other party was a character he couldn’t afford to mess with, he certainly wasn’t in a position to force the name out of Fried cake. He plastered a smile on his face and gave her a few words of comfort. He then silently closed his QQ. He leaned back into his computer chair, tilting his head up to the ceiling with his eyes closed as he wearily massaged the bridge of his nose.

He was feeling downcast and he didn’t want to think about the online voice acting circle for the time being. Oftentimes, even if he felt that he had done his best upon self-reflection, others might not reciprocate those feelings.

Forget it.

Qi Jing shook his head got his spirits back up to deal with the mountain of work that had been piling up recently. The 3D world would not adjust the level of stress it brought according to one’s mood.

He closed all personal browsing pages and logged into the company’s internal email system, ready to write up the summary report that his superior had assigned to him yesterday and send it in. Suddenly, he caught sight of a briefly titled email in his inbox which caused his eyes to freeze on it momentarily.

—”The kittens’ recovery”

Qi Jing’s eyes lit up slightly. It was really weird, somehow, his mood had improved just by looking at this dry title.

As expected of kitties, they really are healing for the heart.

The corners of his lips subconsciously curled into a smile as he moved his cursor to check the box next to the title as “Important”.

A/N: Actually, dogs are very healing too… (feels like I’ve completely missed the main point)