CH 44

Yu Zhou couldn’t be bothered to argue with Ms. Zhao anymore since she can’t win anyway.

She pulled out her phone and saw that Su Chang had reposted a Weibo about the summer voice acting training course offered by Three Sounds Studio.

The poster had actually been released three days ago, but Su Chang had only just reposted it. Yu Zhou didn’t use the internet much so she hadn’t seen it either.

She clicked on the link to Three Sounds Studio’s Weibo page and found that they had just released a list of the latest students in their training program. Generally, this kind of training wasn’t just for learning. As many people sent in voice samples for screening, Three Sounds would select a few students with good potential to sign up to their studio after the training ended and then these students would start their journey of becoming professional voice actors.

Usually, the list of students was released in advance, and the final list of signed students would also be announced.

So many people in the industry were keeping an eye on this training program.

Thinking about this, Yu Zhou opened up the forum as she saw that there were already quite a few posts about it. Some were about Su Chang being a lecturer, one of which had the title “The list of this year’s students is out, take a look at these little radishes, it’s time to buy the initial shares~”

Yu Zhou chuckled at the title and clicked on the post. It was the official poster by Three Sounds Studio.

With each student’s real name is followed by their Weibo ID, which could also be considered as a promotion of themselves. In addition to age and gender, there was no other information, not even a photo, which added to the mystery.

A reply below asked, “There are usually 30 students, why are there 31 this year?”

“Maybe there were a few really good ones and it was difficult to choose. The more good seedlings there are, the better. I hope they’ll expand to 50 students per year.”

The comments then moved on to discussing the mentors: “See what comes with the celebrity. It’s only been three days and the list of students is already out.”

“Come to think of it,” a netizen was confused, “Hasn’t Su Chang never participated in this kind of activity before? Why is she a mentor this time?”

“She’s been getting closer to Three Sounds recently, I don’t know if she’s going to sign with them.”

“If Su Chang goes, will she sign as a voice actress or become a partner?”

After discussing Su Chang’s career direction, some evil shippers arrived, “Why did Su Chang go? Isn’t it obvious? Look at the second-to-last name. [Hilarious.jpg].”

Once this comment was out, the frequency of comments increased significantly.

“You’re the brave one. I didn’t even dare to say it.”

“Wow, I love this kind of love story where they condescend for love.”

There were also opposing views: “You guys are really bored, why do you focus on their private life? They have told you they were just friends. “

“Huh? Did we say anything? Why are fans trying to match them up?”

People began to be acrimonious and post such speeches as “Oh she’s being rage!” or “Sister-in-law”.

Yu Zhou let out a sigh and felt her eyebrows twitching as she checked Xiang Wan’s Weibo. Luckily, everything was calm and peaceful without any trouble, but the number of followers had risen to over seven thousand.

It was impressive considering she had only three posts so far.

She was planning to post the fourth entry today — repost the list of the students.

With sparse interaction on social media, it looks like Xiang Wan will be super famous.

As she scrolled through Weibo, Ms. Zhao sat down next to her with a huff of exhaustion. Holding her phone with slender fingers, she began to browse the news app and her WeChat Moments.

Suddenly, she exclaimed, “Oh look, Changchang commented on my post!”

Her self-talk voice sounded too deliberate and Yu Zhou couldn’t tell if she had intentionally said it loud enough for her to hear.

“Has Auntie arrived in Jiang city?” She read it word by word.

She then wrote and deleted a few messages before clicking on Su Chang’s profile and sending a voice message. “Hey Changchang, I’ve seen your comment, but I’m sorry to say that Auntie slept early yesterday and couldn’t reply. Oh and yes, Auntie’s already in Jiang city, staying over at Zhouzhou’s place for a few days. Hehehe, Changchang, I hope you’ve been doing well lately. Take care of yourself, okay?”

Yu Zhou couldn’t help but smile at her mother’s quirks. She always had to fill the 60 seconds of her voice messages by acting and excessive use of interjections as if she was performing a one-woman show.

Yu Zhou sighed helplessly and said, “She was just being polite, do you have to act like you’re reuniting with a long-lost daughter?”

Suddenly, a notification sound arrived from WeChat.

Ms. Zhao first placed it by her ear and played it through the speaker.

Then glanced at Yu Zhou before turning it to the public.

Su Chang laughed softly in the recording with a mellow whisper, sounding like she hadn’t fully woken up yet. “Good morning, Auntie. I’m doing fine, how about you? Is your health okay?”

The next message arrived, “I should’ve invited you out for dinner since you’re already here, Auntie, but I have something to do today and I’m on my way to the airport now. Sorry about that. I’ll invite you out next time.”

“Oh Changchang, what are you apologizing for? You shouldn’t say sorry when it’s clearly work that’s more pressing. Auntie is your elder after all, so I should treat you to dinner instead next time I visit.” Ms. Zhao said as she sent yet another voice recording.

Su Chang’s voice soon followed, still laughing a little, “Sure, sure. Auntie, I gotta stop now, I’m driving.”

“Okay okay, drive carefully Changchang. I’m hanging up now.” Ms. Zhao said, afraid that it would affect her driving.

Yu Zhou felt a headache, “Why are you saying ‘hang up’? You weren’t even on the phone!”

“Oh, right!” Ms. Zhao finally realized.

With a sigh, she put down her phone and turned to Zhou, puckering her lips. “Did you see that? She definitely likes you.”

Yu Zhou chuckled derisively. “Where did you get that idea? You two only talked about eating or not eating.”

“You don’t understand, you don’t understand.” Ms. Zhao shook her head, feeling sorry for Su Chang for having to deal with this blockhead.

“I don’t understand. I’ll call Xiang Wan now. How come it took so long to buy groceries? Did she get lost?” Yu Zhou dialed Xiang Wan’s phone number.

Xiang Wan picked up quickly. “Hello!”

“Why are you shouting at me?” Yu Zhou was irritated.

Xiang Wan hesitated for a moment before her voice suddenly became very gentle. “You usually say ‘hello’ to me like that.”

“That ‘hello’ is not this ‘hello’!” Yu Zhou was speechless.

“When are you coming back? Didn’t I set up payment for you? Didn’t you know how to pay? Were you short on money?” Yu Zhou asked.

“No, I’m in the community watching the old men play Go,” Xiang Wan said.

Yu Zhou was a little anxious. “Why didn’t you come back after buying groceries? Instead, you went to watch go without telling me?” Can you be sensible?

Xiang Wan smiled on the other end of the phone before saying, “You said you wanted me to be independent, so I tried it out. I want to see how many games it takes for you to miss me.”

In the background, there was the sound of the old men playing Go and Xiang Wan’s voice was particularly sweet in it.

Yesterday, Yu Zhou had said that she wanted Xiang Wan to be independent. Xiang Wan tossed and turned for a whole night, feeling very disappointed. She blamed her disappointment on the fact that they lived together for a while but Yu Zhou didn’t show any signs of missing her, like when she wanted to send Xiang Wan away initially.

Yu Zhou was stunned for a moment before asking curiously, “So, how many games have been played?”

Xiang Wan looked over there and said, “Less than half.”

“Oh, so are you coming back after you finish watching or now?” Yu Zhou was a bit uncomfortable.

“I can come back now since I’ve received your call.” Xiang Wan smiled.

“Okay, then hurry back, my mom is waiting to cook.” Yu Zhou felt a bit uneasy.

“Okay.” Xiang Wan said.

Yu Zhou hung up the phone and stood up, driving her elliptical machine. 

Ms. Zhao couldn’t sit still so she started cleaning the kitchen and dining table.

After a while, she pushed a floor-cleaning machine out, pushing it from the living room to the master bedroom.

Later on, she came out and pounded on Yu Zhou, who was still driving on the elliptical machine.

“Damn you! Damn you! Damn! Damn!”

“What’s going on?” Yu Zhou couldn’t even dodge her fists.

“Are you still a proper girl? Have you no shame?” Ms. Zhao’s face turned red as she lowered her voice to scold her. “Why did you leave your things scattered all over? Why not put them away properly, but put them in the kitchen?”

“What things?” Yu Zhou was bewildered.

“I put them back in the drawer in your bedroom! Go have a look for yourself!” Ms. Zhao stormed away, embarrassed and grumbling under her breath.

Yu Zhou hurriedly went down and sprinted to her bedroom. The drawer was left open, clearly indicating Ms. Zhao’s anger.

As she looked inside, she noticed a few… finger cots?

Dear Heavens, she had left them in the drawer for a long time and never touched them!

Feeling lost and confused, she looked around and wanted to say “What the hell!”

At this time, she heard the sound of slippers shuffling. It was Xiang Wan who was back from grocery shopping and changing into comfortable clothes.

Upon seeing Yu Zhou, she smiled and said, “I’m back.”

“Oh, you’re just in time,” Yu Zhou suddenly had an idea. “Did you move something from my drawer?”

Xiang Wan blinked, then realized what she was referring to. “I saw some gloves we used for eating crawfish in the drawer this morning when I was looking for tissues, so I took them to the kitchen.”

……

Just kill me now. Yu Zhou wanted to die of embarrassment.