Chapter 53

Thank you to Anon for the donation! I love EROVA too uwuuu

Editor: Mashiro

Despite his bad luck, Crossing the bridge noodles ended up in fourth place overall, safely securing himself a place in the next round. Out of pity and indebtedness, Qi Jing heaved a sigh of relief at this result.

The segment for “Liu Suyu” ended at 8 PM. With a half an hour intermission to the next segment, most decided to just stay in the channel and not go offline. Many were excitedly discussing the competition, while the event staff locked the microphone, allowing the MC and judges to take a break.

For Shen Yan, in addition to a break, this half an hour was also time for him to set up and adjust his equipment in advance. In order to hear the effect of his microphone directly from YY, Qi Jing got Shen Yan to go back to the study so that he could log into his account on his computer while he stayed in the bedroom. He temporarily left the competition channel and went to another channel that not many people usually visit to try out the sound. Back when Qi Jing wasn’t as famous as he was now, this channel was set up by a kind individual for little transparent CVs to practice with one another to find their feel for acting. It’s as good as gone now but Qi Jing still misses the atmosphere back then, so he still uses it occasionally as a place for impromptu rehearsals.

The number of people online today is about the same as usual, only in the single digits.

And based on Qi Jing’s experience, many people were just hanging around here to increase their points.

“Ah, right, remember to change your ID to ‘Kitty の Papa’, otherwise you’ll be exposed.” Qi Jing noticed that the other’s ID was still “Geese Fly North” after entering into the temporary YY channel and hurriedly turned on his mic by pressing F2 on his computer to remind Shen Yan.

Shen Yan edited his ID as he was told and only then did Qi Jing pull him into a small encrypted room. This was also a private room that he previously requested from the channel creator and the other party very graciously gave him the permissions to manage the sub-channel, allowing him to set a password for the room so that no one else could disturb them.

Shen Yan didn’t seem to be that familiar with the settings of YY so Qi Jing guided him step-by-step. Qi Jing first made him open up the sound mixer and then guided him into the advanced settings so that he could make him adjust it to the point where he felt the system best reproduced Shen Yan’s voice without any sound of static coming through when he spoke and until the background noise was basically inaudible.

“Is this alright?” Shen Yan asked after the final adjustment.

That low and proper-sounding voice was one Qi Jing had heard countless times in real life, but at this moment, that voice was mixed with a slight reverb from the microphone, giving it a little rustling sound. That sound evoked his memories… of the days when they chatted, with their headphones on and the internet between them.

“Yeah,” Qi Jing whispered an answer before abruptly breaking out in a chuckle after a slight pause, “Hehe… How strange… We haven’t chatted like this in a long time.”

Every day, they would be standing within touching distance of each other, their eyes meeting, and speaking directly to each other, face to face.

That was a life he had grown used to.

And that’s why, for some reason, he kind of missed the way they first communicated with each other.

Shen Yan appeared to have frozen momentarily.

Then, a soft laughter could be heard in Qi Jing’s headphones—the microphone was so finely tuned he could even hear the gentle breaths that accompanied Shen Yan’s laugh. “Then let’s continue talking like this? Since you’ll be staying here to listen by yourself when it’s time for my competition later anyway.”

How could Qi Jing say no to that? He replied with a smile, “Sure.”

It was a fresh, new feeling he had never felt before. Even though they only had a wall between them—the two people living under the same roof, each sitting in front of a computer screen in different rooms, talking through the internet.

On the table in front of Qi Jing, he still had the cup of hot milk Shen Yan had brought him before he left, steam slowly spiralling out from the cup. His palm was tightly pressed against the cup; it was hot, to the point of scalding, but it felt like Shen Yan’s body heat still remained in his hand. He couldn’t help but laugh at his own silly thoughts.

Their conversation didn’t revolve around any specific topic. They just said whatever came to mind, keeping themselves warm with the other party’s voice.

“The first time we talked… was also on YY, wasn’t it?” Qi Jing recalled Shen Yan bringing up their first run-through and smoothly transitioned into this topic.

“Mhm.” Back then, Shen Yan’s account had 0 points and was at the lowest level and Qi Jing always thought—just like the rest of the crew had guessed—that the former had no experience in doing run-throughs. In fact, Shen Yan was indeed new in a way too. “I’ve actually never used YY before.”

“Eh?” Qi Jing’s brows raised in surprise. “But you said you used to act with others a lot.”

“Yes, but back then, everyone used Skype which few people probably use now.” Skype was the go-to platform in the online voice acting community many years back; now, it’s gradually been replaced by YY.

Qi Jing had a sudden sense of realisation at those words—Ninth Lady once told him that those who were used to using Skype were basically people of senior level.

“Then would you find it rather inconvenient to use YY now? You can always talk to the crew if needed; there are people who still have their Skype accounts.” Ninth Lady and the girls had organised such calls before, so Qi Jing could adapt to both platforms.

“No, it’s quite alright like this,” Shen Yan said gently, “You can’t record the sessions on Skype but you can do it on YY, so in a way, that can be considered a pro.”

It was a casual remark without any deeper meanings from the speaker, but the listener read his own meaning into it.

Qi Jing’s face suddenly started to burn a little; thank goodness the other party wasn’t with him right now, so he couldn’t see his embarrassment.

“I…” took the liberty of recording our first run-through; I’m sorry.

That short sentence jumped against the back of his throat to the rhythm of his pulse, but he couldn’t get them out. And even after a long pause, he ultimately didn’t have the courage to admit this scandalous incident. After all, he had lied at the time, saying that he hadn’t recorded it, but then went on to listen to the recording more times than he could keep track of.

It was basically a criminal offence.

Qi Jing glanced sheepishly at the bottom right of the screen. It was 8.20 PM, there was still ten minutes till the start of the next competition.

“Ahem, Ik2026; will record your performance during the competition to keep as a memento.” He couldn’t say itk2014;what Shen Yan needed at such a critical moment was calm, not a sudden bomb, hence, Qi Jing changed his words as they were about to come out of his mouth. “You should focus on the competition first. Don’t make notes on a piece of paper like just now, just listen carefully.”

Shen Yan definitely couldn’t afford to be distracted when it was his turn so he would have to settle for an audio recording instead; he could still listen to it after if he wanted.

“Mhm, thank you.” Shen Yan’s voice has been very calm thus far—he was in a pretty good state before the competition.

Qi Jing told him a bit more about YY under Mic Sequence Mode and the other functions. After making sure that Shen Yan wouldn’t make any mistakes when his turn came because he’s unfamiliar with the software, Qi Jing gave a few brief words of encouragement. After saying their goodbyes, Qi Jing took a deep breath and followed the other party out of the channel they were in and went back to the competition channel.

The next round of competition of the《Order to End the Heavens 5》voice acting semifinals for “Old Man Xiao Shan” was about to start,

For many fans of the game and the voice acting, this character was less appealing than Liu Suyu” from the previous round, mainly because the role required an old grandfather voice rather than the youthful voice that everyone likes to hear.

However, since it happened to be a Sunday, there were still many listeners who stayed behind from the previous round and the number of people who were online still went over ten thousand.

“Dear listeners, welcome to the second round of semi-finals for this instalment of the《Order to End the Heavens》voice acting competition! It is now 8.30 PM in Beijing Time; I’m your MC, Yang Chunqu and I hereby announce the official start of the competition!” As not everyone would listen to the segment for every character, Yang Chunqu had to repeat her opening remarks as well as the introduction of the rules.

Qi Jing was completely unfamiliar with CVs that voice grandpas. Besides Geese Fly North, he didn’t know any other grandpa voice actor.

However, the public chat gave him a small introduction to one.

If someone’s ID was repeatedly spammed in an area about the size of a palm, it would leave an impression on anyone.

While the MC was still talking, there was already a spectacular sight to behold in the public chat that made people couldn’t help but want to stop and have a look, especially people with strong curiosity like Qi Jing.

Audience 1: Aiyayaya, when our Uncle Bang makes his appearance, the first place is bound to be his～≧▽≦

Audience 2: (～o￣▽￣)～o Victory! Our mighty Uncle Bang!!! Our Uncle Bang is second to none!!!

Audience 3: Awooooh! There’s no need for competition in this one to know that Uncle Bang is going to win. Uncle Bang is a professional, after all～

Audience 4: Uncle Bang, Uncle Bang, I love you!【Aiya, I’m so shy, making confessions like that.】

Audience 5: ╮(╯▽╰)╭ Uncle Bang had to settle for second in the previous instalment because of a certain unscrupulous judge. This time you have to prove your strength to everyone, Uncle Bang! We will always support you!

Audience 6: ╮(╯▽╰)╭ Let’s not bring up the mess from the past any more, Uncle Bang’s strength is there for all to see. Just you wait.

…

After that, even more fans started spamming the chat with the catchline: “Uncle Bang unifies the Jianghu and dominates the Wulin”.

It seemed that where there are CVs, there are bound to be fans. The only difference is whether or not they’re brain-dead fans.

Qi Jing silently rested his forehead on his hand. Somehow, the name “Uncle Bang” put the image of a scruffy, heavily-built tough guy. And also all that stuff about unifying the Jianghu and what not; this wasn’t a Wulin leader selection contest—there were just too many points to take a jab at.

At this point, it was clear that some of the listeners in the audience had become disgruntled, and they started retorting back with derision.

Audience 7: Fans, please restrain yourselves, there are other contestants besides your Uncle Bang… ╮(╯_╰)╭

Audience 8: Replying to the one on top, this here is that famous mister “Big Bang King”, he even declared that he will be the champion on his weibo a few days back! (Picks at nose)

Audience 9: Oh my my, this is that Uncle Bang who always makes the producer share their photo when they invite him and only accepts if they’re cute, right? Bang as in only looking to bang, right? ╮(╯▽╰)╭

…

Although the fans’ words were very arrogant, the retorts were becoming harder and harder to listen to. Qi Jing was even starting to break into a sweat for Yang Chunqu who had to maintain the atmosphere.

Back during the registration period, Ninth Lady and the girls had already “vaccinated” him against this situation, telling him that the competition scene could get chaotic. Sure, it was bound to get messy but he didn’t expect different situations to arise in every round.

Just who on earth was this Uncle Bang?

Qi Jing first checked the contestant numbers on the announcement and only after searching for a while did he find the one with the word “bang” in it. So his full ID was “Went off with a bang”, huh. It sure was very cocky sounding. He drew 19th place; he’s in front of Shen Yan.

After seeing some of the comments in the chat, a rather mean thought suddenly popped up in Qi Jing’s mind—he wanted to add a “4” in front of “19” which would give four (for) one (one) nine (night).

However, he was a civilised and moral young man, so such thoughts could only be kept in his head.

While the host was still introducing the process, he opened the browser and put his professional skills to use, searching in detail everything that was related to this person.

Went off with a bang, nicknamed Uncle Bang, is one of the backbones of a well-known voice acting society and specialised in uncle and grandfather voices.

This person once swore that he would never voice BL but apparently later made an exception for a beautiful producer and voiced a few roles. However, his mainstay was still in straight games and animated works.

However, he’s not best known for his work but for the situation where he got pushed up to second place purely based on votes in the previous instalment of the《Order to End the Heavens》voice acting competition.

If it weren’t for the poor ratings from the judges, he probably would’ve won the champion title based on votes alone.

So of course, his fans have always held a grudge about that incident, believing that the previous jury had poor judgement which caused their beloved Uncle Bang to fall short of winning the title. And thus, he is back with a vengeance with the goal of winning the crown for “Old Man Xiao Shan”.

“Tsk tsk tsk.” After reading thus far, Qi Jing summed up his thoughts with these three clicks of the tongue.

Just as Qi Jing was about to go back to continue watching the next waves of fights between the fans and the antis, Yang Chunqu was finally going to announce the selected lines for “Old Man Xiao Shan”. Probably because it was a critical moment, the audience calmed down a little as they all focussed their attention on the announcement.

The coordinator pasted the selected lines on the board. It was the same as before—three scenes, nine lines, with a time limit of 120 seconds.

As the Master of the main character, Qin Tuo, it was not surprising that all of Old Man Xiao Shan’s lines were conversations between him and his disciples.

The first scene that was chosen was a conversation between him and Qin Tuo and the next was him and another disciple, Bai Ke. The third scene was set near the finale where Qin Tuo returns safely but Bai Ke returned only as a pile of ashes. It was a moment of sadness and happiness so contestants’ performance of the elderly character’s emotions was crucial.

“Well then, let us invite the first contestant on the mic! Contestant number 1, can you say a few words? Please check your equipment…” Yang Chunqu continued talking without a pause but her patient and big sister voice that held a natural poise was pleasant to the ears and one wouldn’t get tired of hearing her speak. Despite this, when she started calling contestants up to the mic, Qi Jing still couldn’t help but feel a wave of inexplicable nervousness wash over him.

Just as he had expected, his hand was shaking and his palms were covered in sweat even though it wasn’t even his turn.

His eyes would subconsciously drift towards the list of contestants, looking for the ID “Kitty の Papa”.

That ID remained greyed, unlit—of course it was, after all it will take some time before Shen Yan’s turn. But Qi Jing couldn’t stop the thoughts that this was because of some issues with the microphone, or the internet was down, or some other reasons, from appearing in his mind.

There was still a long way to go before number twenty-eight and every second that passed was a torture.

However, that was still definitely not a reason for him to impulsively run to the study and bang on the door. Such actions were a sign of lack of confidence in Shen Yan and such negative emotions of anxiety were contagious; he had to put on a confident facade.

Qi Jing thought to himself that if the level of this whatever Uncle Bang was a little lower, perhaps he would be more at ease. Unfortunately, this Uncle Bang really did have some skills.

“I am ‘Went off with a bang’. All the handsome men and pretty ladies present, please give me your support! Vote for me! I have the confidence to take down this role!”

Just this opening statement from him was already very impressive—just this wide-range bass voice already added a lot of points for him.

All the contestants before him had the same problem—their voice didn’t sound old enough.

This was expected by everyone before the competition. To begin with, it was easy for youthful sounding voices trying to imitate an older voice to slip up. It would be unnatural and jarring, and if one wasn’t careful, they would accidentally end up sounding like a eunuch. Old Man Xiao Shan’s age was set at around sixty to seventy and the people who could make their voice fit that range were few and far between.

As such, the “voice quality” component hasn’t been going great so far with the marks given by the jury hovering around 2.0 to 3.0.

Qi Jing thought that this Uncle Bang was all talk who could only rely on his fans to get votes; never would he have expected to find himself utterly shocked the moment this man performed the first line. “Who’s that at the door? Is it Qin Tuo? Oh you… you’re finally willing to come back huh?”

It was a textbook example of a grandfather voice.

The sense of age was a lot more accurate than all the contestants before him, and one could imagine an old man in his sixties or seventies.

“Crap…” Qi Jing instinctively muttered. After the initial shock, he realised he was acknowledging the other party’s performance and immediately closed his mouth gently for fear of being heard by Shen Yan who was in the room next door.

No matter how much his fans may have tried to spam votes, this Uncle Bang did ultimately get second place so he definitely had some skill.

I thought about it too simply…

Clenching his fist tightly, Qi Jing pressed it against the table and patiently listened on.

Uncle Bang quickly completed the first selected scene and arrived at the next part which was the conversation with Bai Ke. According to the prompts on the script, this scene was about Old Man Xiao Shan explaining to Bai Ke about his mission down the mountain. The cue stated for tone was “worried”.

It was a very simple, very straightforward cue.

And so, Uncle Bang paused slightly to mull over the tone for a moment. He adjusted his emotions to a state of anxiousness as if he wasn’t quite confident in his pupil’s ability to complete the task, his tone was full of doubts. “Bai Ke, when you go on this trip down the mountain, please always remember to be careful and not to be rash. Your junior, he…”

At this point, he paused before continuing.

“Your Junior is sometimes too spontaneous and often gets into trouble, but he’s also good at getting out of it. Your Master is more worried about you…”

Just by reading the lines and listening to the tone of his voice alone, it was very much implied that Bai Ke is not as capable as Qin Tuo and he should have some self-awareness about his abilities.

The rhythm, tone, and emotions of his delivery were all very professional. Qi Jing shuddered at this performance and the fans’ excited chanting on the public chat even more so made his palms break out in cold sweat.

Yet despite his state, Uncle Bang smoothly went into the final act, which was also the most difficult and complicated one.

“Really… Bai Ke, he…” This was a conversation between Old Man Xiao Shan and Qin Tuo who was holding an urn. “Well, I guess this is fine; it’s okay! Let’s take it that we were rid of a wicked disciple. From now on, that man is no longer related to the Xiao Shan Sect and this old man… won’t ever have to see him or worry about him again.”

The entire performance presented an air of sadness and an awe-inspiring righteousness of vanquishing evil regardless of familial ties. It was an extremely grand and impactful performance.

Even Qi Jing was slightly dazed by it.

The live voting window popped up while still he was dumbfounded and the public chat went into a momentary state of frenzy; even the antis had no choice but to acknowledge Uncle Bang’s ability.

After a moment’s struggle, Qi Jing eventually casted his vote for Went off with a bang with mixed feelings.

The reason he came to this decision was not because he was completely enamoured by Uncle Bang’s interpretations, but because when he objectively compared the performance of the previous contestants, especially when compared to the two or three he had voted for, Uncle Bang really did have the upper hand when it came to his voice and acting skills. For the sake of fairness, he had to convince himself to press that voting button.

Besides… if Shen Yan was with him right now, he would most likely agree with this decision too.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, this is just the semis, he just needs to get into the top ten to advance to the next round.” Qi Jing gently patted his chest. Take a step back for peace.

After the audience voted, the scores by the three judges were also released.

The result this time gave Qi Jing an even bigger surprise than the surprise he felt for Crossing the bridge noodles—

Final score for Number 19 “Went off with a bang”:

【Voice Quality】: 4.0, 3.5, 5.0, average score 4.17

【Enunciation】: 4.0, 3.5, 4.5, average score 4.0

【Foundation points】: 3.0, 2.5, 4.5, average score 3.33

【Charisma】: 2.5, 1.0, 4.0, average score 2.5

Judging panel’s evaluation: 4.17 + 4.0 + 3.33 + 2.5 = 14.0 points

Additional audience vote points: 76.1% voting ratio = 0.761 points

Overall score: 14.0 + 0.761 = 14.761 points

Throughout the competition thus far this was the only time where a super high score of 5.0 and a super low score of 1.0 appeared on the score window at the same time.

Qi Jing was stunned.

What was going on? This huge difference in the scores given… Was there such a great disparity within the panel of judges?

A/N: _(:з」∠)_ How annoying. When it comes to competition, there’ll definitely be other contestants to serve as foil or dangerous (?) competitors. Just let me write about Uncle Yan alreadyyyy… (screams into a cave)

Also, I actually want to say that I want to laugh every time I write Uncle Bang’s name. As expected, our Uncle Yan is more normal (snuggle)

Mashiro: I really hoped that Uncle Bang’s internet had also ‘Went off with a bang’, but alas, not all wishes come true