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nEditor: whiteflare

nmany many thanks to papyrus for the coffee

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n“Senior, you’re so dumb.” Ning Xiaoxiao’s voice could faintly be heard coming from the receiver.

n“Junior, I’m so dumb.” Qi Jing’s current expression could virtually be used as a classic example of someone having a toothache at a medical presentation.

nHe was so dumb, really dumb.

nQi Jing planned on repeating this phrase a hundred times in the tone of Xianglin’s wife as a form of reflection—followed by banging his head against the wall to repent for his sins. However, no matter what he did, he couldn’t take back the Weibo post he sent out an hour ago.

nHe couldn’t even delete it, let alone retract it.

nBecause Crossing the bridge noodles replied to him unexpectedly quickly in just ten minutes. Not only that, because of his action, the number of reposts on Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s original post instantly shot even higher, going past the 3000 mark. Naturally, Qi Jing got mentioned another 1,800 more times and the topic had already leapt to the top to become the headlines of today’s gossip on the forum.

nEven Ning Xiaoxiao couldn’t resist calling to find out the truth when she heard the news.

nBut there wasn’t any so-called truth.

nAll there was was Crossing the bridge noodles’ reply—simple, clear, and high-class.

nCV – Crossing the bridge noodles: Rather than him, I like you more.

/

/@CV – Don’t ask for my return date: What do you think about this? @CV – Crossing the bridge noodles

nOi oi…

nThe one on the left, what happened to the explosion of jealousy?

nThe one on the left, what happened to run crying to Bronze Sparrow Terrace, whining and demanding that the Great God is not allowed to have suggestive interactions with others?

nWell, alright, he supposed there was a tiny hint of jealousy, but it was obviously directed in the wrong direction. Wasn’t the progression of things developing way too far beyond what could be explained with logic? The moment Qi Jing received that reply, he felt his eyes go black and all the words of the screen seemed to condense into six words—“it never rains but it pours”.

nAnd the most depressing thing is that this subsequent disaster was actually brought upon him by himself.

nBorrowing the words from a trending internet slang, he could cry at his own stupidity.

n“Junior, I think I’m in deep trouble.” Qi Jing silently lit a candle for himself.

nNot only did he fail at redirecting the disaster elsewhere, it even showed signs of crashing back onto him. Even if he told Ning Xiaoxiao about it, the best she could do was probably help him light another candle.

n“Senior, I have no sympathy for you.” As expected, Ning Xiaoxiao took on the attitude that only he could clean up his own mess.

nAlthough Crossing the bridge noodles was not as famous as Bronze Sparrow Terrace, he could be considered a hot Shou voice actor that everyone wanted to lay their hands on in the circle. The number of followers he had on Weibo had already reached five figures; being reposted by two CVs with five-figure followings at the same time helped wash a wave of curious little fans to Qi Jing, causing his follower count to shoot through the roof.

nAlthough seeing his numbers increase should be something worth celebrating, he just couldn’t find it in himself to be happy about it.

nIn the three years since Qi Jing joined the circle, his fans were all accumulated little by little; it wasn’t a lot, just about two to three thousand people. Most of them were actual fans that followed him because they enjoyed his voice acting. But ever since the release of《Trap》. Qi Jing experienced the so-called “star effect” for the first time and the most notable change was his follower count doubling overnight. Many of them came from fans of Bronze Sparrow Terrace who just decided to follow him along the way. And this time, by reposting one Weibo post, his number of followers increased by another few hundred.

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nMeanwhile, his old friends and fans gradually spoke less and less. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this situation.

nQi Jing watched helplessly as the number of new followers on the top right hand corner of his screen continued to rise and sighed, “I really don’t get why he would make that kind of reply.”

nCrossing the bridge noodles was really good at rubbing salt into the wound—with the finest of salts which brought up the pain by a notch.

nNing Xiaoxiao had a rather strange smile on her face while her radar for scanning any hints of romance was already in operation. “Who knows, hmm? He actually said he likes you&#k2026; Did you collaborate with him on some drama, then he ended up taking a liking on you?”

n“We don—” Just as Qi Jing was about to deny it, he suddenly remembered that producer, Jade Butterfly, whose life priority was skincare, and was slightly stunned. “Ah, we have one, it’s the one you introduced to me the last time; it’s that bomb of a script that would make anyone’s face 囧. That producer told me that she was looking to invite Crossing the bridge noodles to play the lead Shou.”

nNing Xiaoxiao was also stunned by his words, “Sister Jade said that? She didn’t mention that when she asked me to hook you up with her.”

nQi Jing was very curious about the way she referred to Jade Butterfly. “You call her Sister Jade… that sounds so impressive, is she very famous?”

nNing Xiaoxiao froze for a moment before yelling at him in pure shock, “AaaAah, of course! She is a goddess amongst female CVs! I know that a lot of straight male CVs worship her like a goddess. Although she seldom appears in BL audio dramas, she’s very popular in the romance genre. She’s virtually always the female lead and she’s even taken on commercial voice acting jobs.”

nHearing her words, Qi Jing nodded his head like he had been enlightened.

nNo wonder Jade Butterfly had that kind of attitude when she approached him; it all made sense now that he thought back about it.

nAt this point, Ning Xiaoxiao suddenly lowered her voice and said all mysteriously, “It seems like Sister Jade has recently started getting into BL and it looks like she intends to expand in this area. She has a lot of connections so the production team shouldn’t be bad and I heard that she wants to promote you, so it’s definitely not a loss for you to voice a drama produced by her.”

n“Pfft.” A laugh couldn’t help but escape Qi Jing’s lips when he heard the word “promote”. “She didn’t know about me before and it’s not like I knew her either, so why would she want to promote me?”

n“Oh oh, that I know; she took an interest in you because she saw that thread dedicated to your ship with Bronze Sparrow Terrace.”

nNing Xiaoxiao solved the mystery.

nQi Jing felt a shiver down his spine. “Can you not… remind me of the existence of that thread?”

n“With a colourful array of flowers before the bronze sparrow terrace, whyfor seek the return of spring”—the title of the thread was very poetic.

nAs poetic as it was, it would always make him shudder whenever he chanced upon that thread when scrolling through the forum. He would just pretend he didn’t see it and continue scrolling past it.

nApparently, this thread was started by Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans, the main subject being the CP between Bronze Sparrow Terrace X Don’t ask for my return date. The thread itself currently had quite a number of subthreads, but unfortunately due to the scarcity of their material to work with, they could only mostly use the more evocative portions from the production of《Trap》to expand their fantasies upon. And bit by bit, the thread eventually managed to amass two pages worth of content. But after the blistering rounds of reposts from today, he dared not look at it anymore—it’s definitely going to at least hit the four-page mark, alright?

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n“Did you see the comments under Crossing the bridge noodles’ account after he reposted your Weibo?” Despite hearing the pain in her senior’s voice, Ning Xiaoxiao still teased him evilly.

n“I don’t dare to look…” Qi Jing could only agonise over the fact that his only usable hand was now holding the phone, otherwise, he would be able to facepalm.

nThough he didn’t dare look at the comments nor read the contents of the 3000 mentions, as his model junior, Ning Xiaoxiao summarised it for him ever so thoughtfully.

n“It seems that a portion of Crossing the bridge noodles’ fans found you super moe so they want to start a thread dedicated to your CP with him.” Ah, that’s right, this was the perfect example of kicking someone when they’re down; it was an extremely good kick that hit him precisely where it hurt the most.

nQi Jing took a deep breath. Ladies, please wake up.

n“They’ve even come up with a ship name; it’s called ‘Time Limit’. Sounds pretty good, ahaha!” She went it with yet another kick.

nQi Jing took in another deep breath; he felt a chill in his heart. Uwu, ladies, please let me live…

nTo be honest, the online voice acting community could gossip about him to their heart’s content and Qi Jing would usually just laugh it as long as it didn’t involve real life. However, he had Shen Yan now and Shen Yan was also a CV. He would occasionally go on the forum and read the posts there, so Qi Jing could not remain as casual as he was regarding such things anymore, because he cared about what the other would think of him.

n“Crash!”

nJust then, a loud crashing sound could be heard coming from the study next door, as if something had been broken.

nCould it be that something had happened to Shen Yan? That thought made Qi Jing’s hair curl as he quickly said into the microphone, “Xiaoxiao, I’m hanging up now; something seems to have happened on Little Helper-kun’s side so I’ve got to go have a look.”

nBefore he hung up, Ning Xiaoxiao could be heard hurriedly shouting from the other end of the line, “Wait! Wait! Senior, it’s Sunday today, so if you and Little Helper-kun don’t have any arrangements for the evening, let’s meet for dinner. I really want to meet this boyfriend-under-probation!”

nQi Jing was a little taken aback by her request. Although Ning Xiaoxiao was a really solid friend he had known for a long time from his 3D life, she was the textbook definition of a stranger to Shen Yan. Knowing that Shen Yan was not very good at interacting with new people, he wasn’t sure whether he should accept this invitation or not.

n“I’ll ask him but we might not be able to set up a meeting today because he’s quite busy even on his off days.” To give himself a way out in the event that they weren’t able to meet, Qi Jing told a little white lie.

n“Just ask him first, then text me when you’re done.” Ning Xiaoxiao had been watching the blank page on his relationship status like a hawk and now that a name finally managed to make its way onto that page, even if it was only under review, there was no way she was going to let this golden opportunity slip away.

n“Alright, I’m hanging up,”

nQi Jing immediately strode over to the study after bidding her goodbye and throwing his phone to the side.

nThe door to the study was closed, just as it had been about an hour ago. He knocked on the door a few times, but seeing no response from inside, he pushed the door open in a moment of haste and barged into the room, not caring about manners.

n“Shen Yan?” Qi Jing called out, his brows furrowed.

nThe curtains were drawn, blocking the natural light outside from entering, causing the room to appear rather gloomy. A cold white glow from the computer screen reflected on part of Shen Yan’s face and also on the broken remains of a ceramic teacup. Spilled tea slowly flowed on the ground through the ceramic shards, as if to dissolve the light reflected on it.

nThe cold light and the bitter tea—the two combined in the dead silence.

nAt this same moment, Shen Yan remained completely still. He was still sitting on his seat; it was just that his body was bent, hunched over, like a man who received a massive blow and was unable to straighten up. With his elbows on his thighs, Shen Yan silently rested his forehead against his intertwined fingers—it was the position one took when one was trying to regulate their emotions in moments of pain.

n“Shen Yan?” From the start, Qi Jing had always had the feeling that something was off with the other party and now his hunch had been proven to be right as he anxiously called out a second time.

n“Don’t come over.” The person on the chair seemed to finally have some form of reaction to his voice. That man gave a curt response, but it was to stop Qi Jing from coming any closer.

nThe ten short seconds of waiting felt like a lifetime to Qi Jing.

nJust when he couldn’t barely take it anymore and was about to bite the bullet and take a step forward no matter what, Shen Yan suddenly let out a sigh and opened his mouth slowly to explain, “Qi Jing, don’t come over… there are broken shards on the floor. Let me clean it up first.”

nAnd with that, he slowly lowered his perched arms and stood up with a slight stagger with the help of the table.

n“Are you alright?” Shen Yan once greeted him with this phrase and now the situation was reversed.

n“I’m fine, don’t worry.” Shen Yan seemed to have noticed that as well as he directed a smile at Qi Jing. His face resembled that of a man who had been rescued from the depths of the ocean: a little pale, but there was still light in his eyes; it seems like he was ultimately able to stabilise himself.

nQi Jing agreed on the surface, but he was still internally very worried about Shen Yan. He found a broom and dustpan and let Shen Yan clean up all the broken remains of the cup and wipe up the spilled tea and tea leaves with a rag. In the meantime, while Shen Yan was busy, Qi Jing stood by the side and watched, trying to pick out the slightest changes in the former’s expression.

nHowever, those changes were just too subtle and were even more so lost under the poor lighting.

nSurprisingly, it was Shen Yan who spoke up first in a soft voice, “When I was reading the novel, I resonated with some parts and was ultimately unable to contain my emotions which was why it ended up like this. But I’m fine now; I understand that this is all just a story; I just immersed myself too deeply into it.”

nQi Jing couldn’t help but interject at this moment, “You’re too serious. I think you should go into this competition with a calm heart—nevermind the ranking or the score.”

nHearing him talk about points, a smile formed on Shen Yan’s lips. “Yeah, I don’t care about the score. I already have your 12 points.”

nShen Yan’s response slightly dumbfounded Qi Jing and his ears subconsciously started burning. He glared at the other party for a long time, but was utterly at a loss for words—how could that person drop a bomb on him so nonchalantly when he’s talking about serious matters… He was really too weak against Shen Yan.

n“Marquess Shunyang,” Shen Yan suddenly uttered those two words.

nQi Jing raised his eyes to look at him instinctively; that man’s eyes seemed to land on something, yet appeared unfocussed at the same time, but there was a strong sense of determination behind them.

n“Marquess Shunyang.” Shen Yan repeated that name again before continuing, “Without fail, I will definitely voice this character.”

n“If you’ve already made up your mind then just go with it.” Qi Jing plastered a smile on his face as he walked over to hold Shen Yan’s hands. Just as he had expected, the other party’s hands were completely cold, quite different from the usual warmth they held.

nAt times like this, he’d have to be the one to share some of his warmth with Shen Yan such that the latter would be able to recover as soon as possible, so he firmly held Shen Yan’s hands in his own.

n“Besides that, I will also be voicing that Grandpa character which you said was tailor-made for me.” Shen Yan was referring to the Master of the first male lead, “Old Man Xiao Shan”. “I didn’t choose it just because I’m good at it, but rather… after reading the novel, I felt that he was a bit similar to my grandfather and I really respect such a person.”

n“Mhm.” Qi Jing’s nod this time came from the bottom of his heart.

nIf he participated in the competition with a Grandpa voice, then at least one of the three characters would be guaranteed to advance.

nHowever, the next name that came out of Shen Yan’s mouth gave Qi Jing a surprise. “The last one is Bai Ke.”

nBai Ke, a key antagonist. This person was both cowardly and ruthless, a lowlife who bit the hand that fed him—simply put, this character was completely antithetical to Shen Yan himself.

n“How did you arrive at this decision?” If he had read the novel then shouldn’t he feel utter disdain for this character? Qi Jing was really taken aback by Shen Yan’s decision and could not help but laugh in his surprise. “I doubt this character falls under the type you respect.”

nShen Yan did not directly answer his question but instead responded with a question, “The last character you chose is ‘Fang Yisheng’, right?”

nThat was indeed the case.

nWhen Shen Yan mentioned that name, Qi Jing suddenly remembered the relationship between Fang Yisheng and Bai Ke and in an instant, he seemed to understand something. “Oh, I can more or less guess what you mean. Bai Ke is the one who would poison Fang Yisheng. Not only was he not grateful, he even betrayed Fang Yisheng… There should be quite a substantial amount of scenes between these two characters.”

nIn other words… In that case, if both of them get to the finals, the chances of them being matched together as a group would be higher?

nShen Yan gave a soft “mhm”.

n“I’ve finished reading the novel; not only do these two people have a lot of scenes where they play against each other, they were mostly scenes that greatly tested one’s acting but they’re also the easiest to showcase your talents.” He glanced at Qi Jing, as if the person standing before him was Fang Yisheng himself and not anyone else. “More importantly… this character is actually depicted in more detail in the novel and is more fleshed out there. It made me feel that the character information provided did not fully show his personality and I want to express that in the competition.”

nBai Ke did not bite the hand that fed him from the start.

nInitially, he did feel gratitude towards Fang Yisheng; however, he later became more and more twisted due to personality disorders caused by his turbulent life. When the seed of suspicion and jealousy was planted after listening to the rumours, it eventually set him on a path of no return.

nIf no one led him out many years ago, he would not have been able to walk out.

nIf no one dragged him out of that dead silence and darkness, he might have become someone like Bai Ke.

nThen, even if he met Qi Jing, he would have always be doomed to lose him.

nBut he didn’t want to let go; he wanted to keep the other party by his side.

nAs his words trailed off, Shen Yan gently moved the hand that was holding his and placed it over his heart, as if that action could directly touch that heavily beating thing inside.

n“You are also my benefactor, perhaps you haven’t realised it.” The smile on Shen Yan’s face was very calm, yet very sincere. “I chose to go with this role to warn myself never to become like him.”

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