Chapter 18

Translator: Lucilla

Editor/TLC: Lilies

It was after a week since the accident when Ning Xiaoxiao received a call from Qi Jing.

Although the news about that accident was broadcasted on TV, there wasn’t any name list of the injured. He wasn’t sure whether he was filmed or not, but it looked like his junior was still uninformed on this matter. The number of decibels she produced over the phone from her panic-stricken screams was terrific.

“You had an accident?” At this time Ning Xiaoxiao should be at the magazine publishing company, yet she wasn’t afraid of her ‘refined lady’ image being destroyed by that loud scream.

“It’s just a small injury.” A fractured hand shouldn’t be regarded as a heavy wound… Or should it?

Hearing him say that, Ning Xiaoxiao calmed down a little.

And in the end, when she visited him at the hospital after getting off from work, she basically screamed fraud the moment she stepped foot in the ward.

“Where is that ‘just lightly injured’ person, huh!” Ning Xiaoxiao glared at the thick cast on Qi Jing’s hand. Cuts wrapped in bandages and bruises could be seen all over his body. She nearly flipped one of the hospital beds in fury.

“As long as I’m alive, it counts as a light wound.” The person on the bed looked unusually calm, quiet like a pool of stagnant water.

“Senior,” Ning Xiaoxiao took a good look at him with the help of the hospital light, wanting to say something but hesitant. “Your complexion doesn’t look very good.”

Not only did he not look good, she could basically say that he looked haggard.

Compared to when she met him before his business trip not even half a month ago, he had already lost quite a few kilograms. He also didn’t take care of his appearance, his hair was messy, and he didn’t shave his stubble. Normally Qi Jing needed to constantly be on the move for his work, often to the point of completely reversing his sleep schedule. But now, when he could finally rest in bed quietly to recuperate, his complexion was even worse than before.

Although he couldn’t be described as sickly or withered, he surely looked pale. Not only that, his expression was especially bland—

Ning Xiaoxiao finally realised what was so off. Qi Jing would normally smile and talk with her, constantly teasing her. But today he seemed like he didn’t feel like talking, looking but not seeing, hearing but not listening.

For example, he didn’t react to what she said to him just now at all. She bit her lips and raised her voice. “Senior, your complexion looks bad.”

This time she used a more certain tone.

At last, Qi Jing’s eyelids trembled a little, and he lifted his head to look at her. His expression was still so calm. “Is that so?”

Ning Xiaoxiao walked over to him with the click-clacking of her high heels. She sat down on the bed beside his, and jabbed him lightly on his cheeks, knitting her brows. “Yes, it is. Just look at you, no meat at all, just bones.”

At this moment, Qi Jing smiled suddenly. She didn’t expect him to reveal such an expression, so she just sat there, dumbfounded.

“Do you want to know why?”

“Yes!” Dumbfounded people were so easy to be played into one’s hands.

Qi Jing’s trap consisted of one hundred grams of rice, a few pieces of endive, one egg, and a piece of fried tofu.

After having a bite, Ning Xiaoxiao frowned. Her cheeks were puffed out from the food she couldn’t swallow as her lips formed an upturned “U”.

“Dis-gust-ing”

She couldn’t accept that the senior beside was eating the same thing as her with a calm expression.

“You would think that it’s still passable once you get used to it.”

Qi Jing continued eating leisurely. He was a standard righty. And since he couldn’t pick up the food container to wolf down on his food with his left hand injured, he had to slowly lift every piece of food to his mouth with the chopsticks.

“Disgusting means disgusting!” Ning Xiaoxiao slapped the steel table of the hospital canteen, refusing to change her mind.

“I have stayed here for quite a few days, and every day it’s this hospital food that keeps me company. I came to feel a sense of attachment towards it.”

Qi Jing remained indifferent and looked at his meal, smiling faintly as if he was looking intimately at an old friend. He didn’t pay attention to his junior’s sour expression and continued to eat by himself. He even ate the most ugly-looking half-boiled egg with gusto.

Ning Xiaoxiao felt like she had heard that line before.

But when was that?

It looks like it was around their university years. There was a time when she faced him like this sitting in a university canteen, watching him order a portion of an extremely disgusting meal, observing him as he ate it slowly.

At that time, Qi Jing was also very strange and very calm. He exuded this feeling like he was tired of the world.

Her heart fell all of sudden and she looked at Qi Jing with a tense expression, unable to read his thoughts at the moment.

Out of fear of mentioning any sensitive topic by talking about the 3D world, she hastily started with the 2D gossip, trying to be as comical as possible, the more light-hearted the better.

“Oh, that’s right, that《Trap》where you voiced the main character released its first episode two days ago.” She pushed her portion aside, trotting over to sit beside him. She winked and said, “The same afternoon the drama was released, the post thread regarding it already had a full page of comments, it’s very lively. There are already people predicting that it will be one of the most popular dramas this year. Senior, you’re really on the road to becoming famous!”

“Oh, congratulations.” Qi Jing was obviously congratulating the production crew and not paying any attention to her last sentence.

Good, good. So, at last, they were one step closer to filling the 2D pit.

To celebrate, Qi Jing gobbled up the fried tofu in the styrofoam box in a few bits in his good mood. It was the most outstanding dish from this box, and he would usually save it for last.

He only got to know about this news now, from Ning Xiaoxiao. His phone had been turned off since that last call a few days ago. Meanwhile, he relied on chatting with the elderly lady to pass the endless days. Only when he needed to call his junior this morning did he turn it on, but he only called and didn’t browse the internet.

“You didn’t post anything in the thread, so I thought your business trip was prolonged. Only after you gave me a call did I realise it was because of the accident.”

“I’ll be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, so I will look it up on my computer once I get back home.”

At the same time, Qi Jing was saying this, he finished up the last mouthful of rice and even sincerely expressed his gratitude in his heart, thankful to the hospital food for taking care of his stomach during this period. After his discharge from the hospital tomorrow, he probably wouldn’t be able to see it again.

Ning Xiaoxiao hesitated a little and said with an awkward smile: “… Also, senior, when you see that post thread, don’t take it to heart if you see some stupid comments.”

Qi Jing was slightly stunned for a while before chuckling softly. “What comments? Saying I’m bad at acting or something?”

Seeing that he regained some of his usual demeanour, Ning Xiaoxiao hastily continued her efforts, and started to complain: “You acting? If they were genuine criticism about your voice acting that’s still fine. But some morons, who appeared from god knows where, started complaining that the drama had already been up for a good few days, and all the main staff, including Bronze Sparrow Terrace, have all sent their congratulations while you, the other main lead, was nowhere to be found. They say that not only do you play dead normally, but you also put on airs when the audio drama is released.”

At this point, she sent Qi Jing a guilty look.

“I was already seething when I saw the comments. Then, when I received the call from you and learnt about what happened, I angrily shot to the post to reply as your close friend, saying that you had an accident. As a result…”

“As a result, it backfired, and all the antis started to smear me even more?” Qi Jing guessed the rest of the story.

“Senior…”

His junior’s whine was filled with guilt and it sounded quite pleasant to the ear. He laughed out loud for the first time in days, fully enjoying the way she apologised. When she “begged” for his forgiveness, he could virtually see the image of a small animal curling into a ball, looking at him pitifully.

“It’s no wonder though. For an explanation like ‘he’s not responding because he had an accident’, it sounded like the excuse naughty kids who played truant would give their teacher: ‘I was absent because my house collapsed.’”

Qi Jing just waved it off in understanding. He remained perfectly composed when faced with antis trying to hurl mud at him and never took it to heart.

A lot of the offensive statements made online were hollow, weak, and lacked real damage. Most of it was just someone wanting to give a vent to their feelings.

As someone who was used to the 3D world, he simply dismissed it with a laugh.

He took one last x-ray before being discharged from the hospital. Fortunately, the bone appeared to show no signs of shifting after the surgery. Although the doctor suggested he stay for a longer observation, Qi Jing insisted on getting discharged from the hospital.

Chubby Dahai heard that he was about to get discharged from the hospital and specially asked the company to send a car to receive him.

Since he had a free ride now, Qi Jing decided to go back to the station to settle some matters he had left. . The director of the News Channel couldn’t bear to see his arm and its thick cast, so he sent Qi Jing back to work remotely from home. The director gave Qi Jing jobs like handling some light documents or looking up information online, anything he could manage without having to type too much. As for news broadcasting, it had to wait until his cast was taken off.

Qi Jing estimated that it would take about a month before he could remove his cast, so he prepared for a month of quasi-holiday while working from home.

Mr. S.O.B. looked very happy about Qi Jing getting into an accident at first, but when he heard he was about to enjoy such treatment, he was instantly filled with envy and hate. Mr. S.O.B glared angrily at the latter as he walked out of the office doors. Qi Jing very cooperatively beamed at him, further fueling the flames of his rage.

While the set-up of his apartment was different from the hospital and slightly more colourful, it was just as empty and cold.

Qi Jing opened the door to his apartment. Similar to when he returned from his business trips, the air in the apartment was heavy and stale. On the solid wood flooring where a layer of dust had settled atop, he also caught a whiff of the smell of floor paint that had been subjected to the harsh rays of the sun.

He silently put down the things in his hand and opened the windows to ventilate the room, giving the room a slight appearance like there was an actual person living in it.

It’s been a long time since he touched his computer and the keyboard felt rather dusty.

Qi Jing pressed the power button, and looked at a familiar-looking startup screen. He practised typing in his password, one key at a time, with his index finger. The action that never took him more than a one second, now took him five whole seconds to complete it—giving a glimpse of how hard using a keyboard would be in the following month.

First of all, QQ.

Due to the unexpected incident that came up one after another, the last time he contacted any of the production crews was half a month ago, so it was obvious that he would be drowned with countless messages, especially from the production crew of《Trap》that didn’t receive any publicity for the drama from his side. However, since they were able to release the drama, it meant that they did receive and used his dry recordings.

At least he didn’t hinder the schedule. Qi Jing was glad he made the wise decision of re-recording all that had to be redone before going on a business trip, if he didn’t do that, then he would surely be charged with the crime of delaying the release of the drama.

Qi Jing’s password to QQ contained a complex mix of both uppercase and lowercase letters, and it really challenged his abilities to type with only one hand.

When he finally managed to finish typing his password with difficulty, successfully logging in, a penguin in a lower right corner started beeping. However, there was also a coughing sound, standing for a system message.

The little blue speaker was often the first icon to start flashing.

Is it a producer?

Or am I being kicked out of another production crew?

Right now Qi Jing could only think about these two possibilities. He opened this system message while calculating in his heart which of these two is more likely to be the one.

A system message window popped out. It wasn’t a notice of removal, but a friend request.

But it wasn’t from some producer—

【”Geese Fly North” wants to add you as a friend.】

Eh…

Without any warning, a name he thought he wouldn’t have a chance to see anymore appeared. His breath stopped instantly.

It was just your typical old QQ friend request.

Below that, the space for additional information was left blank, without any description.

But simply seeing these three words, this ID, made him stare blankly for a full ten seconds. He sat there with his mouth half-open, too stupefied to say anything, having a hard time to recover from the shock.

Geese Fly North?

Is it… The Geese Fly North I know?

Qi Jing was somewhat at a loss. He never would have thought it would be this person. The ID he had almost forgotten about appeared before him again.

He thought he was seeing an illusion of some kind. He subconsciously leaned back until his back was against the computer chair and he could not move any further.

First, he blinked numbly. Then, he narrowed his eyes at the screen before shaking his head out of disbelief. Qi Jing readjusted his posture and moved closer to the screen. He moved his mouse on the ID of the applicant, checking it word by word. These three words, “Geese Fly North” paid no heed to his doubts and stayed fixed on his computer screen.

Was it really Geese Fly North?

Was it really the same Geese Fly North who disappeared for such a long time that at one point, I thought he might have retired from the circle?

“But why would it be Geese Fly North?” Qi Jing had yet to recover from his state of shock when he muttered to himself in his confusion, “How does he know my QQ code… Ah, He probably got it from Puppet. No, it’s not right, the real question is—Why is he adding me as a friend?”

Is it because of the release of《Trap》?

Is it because he found out that the result was completely different from our rehearsal when the first episode came out and now he’s angry?

At that moment, Qi Jing was a little scared to accept the friend request and stood up in a trance to walk in a room for a while.

If he thought about it carefully, that was indeed a possibility. The production crew would normally notify everyone who took part in a production, even the extras.

Then, did he come to condemn him?

After all, he spent more than two hours on a rehearsal, and the final version of a drama was completely different. It was as if his work was completely rejected.

The moment one’s thoughts move in a bad direction, it only becomes worse the more they think about it.

When it came to this person, he could no longer stay rational.

It was rare for him to encounter a voice actor he admired so much yet he had already left such a bad impression on the other party. There was no way he wouldn’t find himself feeling scared to face this situation. In the end, Qi Jing still couldn’t make up his mind to press that ‘accept’ button. While he was hesitating for a long time, dusk had fallen, and it was time to have dinner. In the end, he just left the window on his screen for the time being and went down to find a place to eat.

The food sold in restaurants around his neighbourhood was ten times more delicious than that of the hospital cafeteria.

But he still didn’t feel like eating.

As the anxiety he felt inside piled up, Qi Jing felt as if there was a long spike lodged in his throat. Every time he tried to swallow, he felt extremely uncomfortable. It felt like his stomach was in knots throughout the course of his meal.

As he slowly fed himself with one hand, he finally finished his dinner after an hour and went back to his apartment.

The friend request window was still sitting there on the computer screen.

It’s not like he could just keep running away from the problem like that. Qi Jing took a deep breath and readied himself to earnestly accept all of the other party’s criticism. He would also properly explain why he didn’t voice the character as he did during their rehearsal.

He accepted the friend request.

While he was still undecided between the two options—“Done” or “Start a conversation”—the other party’s avatar suddenly appeared on the bottom right corner of the screen and began to flicker lightly.

His profile picture was a bird, and it was a default avatar for QQ.

When faced with such an unfamiliar and ordinary profile picture, Qi Jing felt even more nervous than when the two of them were playing against each other. Honestly speaking, he hadn’t figured out how he would explain himself, plus, he couldn’t even type normally in his current state.

Deep breaths, deep breaths. Qi Jing quietly put himself in the right headspace and opened the chat.

Three words appeared.

Words that had nothing to do with the anger he prepared himself for—

“Are you ok?”

That was what that man asked him.