TLC: Lilies

Editing: Whiteflare

Qi Jing decided to accommodate Crossing the bridge noodles this time.

Although he said he would accommodate the other party, Qi Jing didn’t actually have any intention of interacting with him in private—it was best to keep a safe distance before seeing through the other’s intentions. Since Crossing the bridge noodles was so eager and sincere when inviting him to listen, he could as well do him this favor and show himself from a good side while helping Shen Yan test how deep the waters of that competition were and how strict the judging panel would be with the scoring.

After they got back to the apartment and had their lunch, Shen Yan took out the shirts they had taken off earlier that morning to iron. Shirts really wrinkle too easily. Usually they’d change out of it into pyjamas, but the night before was an exception. By the time the two of them got up from the bed, their shirts were already all wrinkled—there was no way one could go out in them without a good ironing.

The leftover mess on the shirts made Qi Jing remember the scene of their bodies entangling last night and he couldn’t help but cough out of embarrassment.

Shen Yan laughed with his head lowered. He didn’t say bring up anything, only spreading the clothes flat on the ironing board. After the iron started releasing puffs of white steam and crackling, he slowly ironed out those marks, starting from the collar.

It really feels like we’re newlyweds…

Qi Jing started coughing yet again to cover that foolish thought of his and went out of the room under the pretense of going to play with Little Return Date.

Qi Jing made use of the fact that Shen Yan was busy ironing clothes at that moment and went back to the bedroom, turning on his computer.

Crossing the bridge noodles’ message was sent the previous night; Qi Jing couldn’t think of a good reply when he checked it on his phone. Right now, he logged into his account on the computer. Boy, the post was at over five hundred reposts in the morning and after just two to three hours it’s already shot up to a thousand…

Oddly enough, Bronze Sparrow Terrace didn’t forward that post. A portion of the five hundred-odd reposts that came later were contributed by his fans. Their reactions could more or less be categorised into: shock, confusion and dissatisfaction. But Bronze Sparrow Terrace himself had yet to say anything, so the whole affair hadn’t reached its boiling point yet.

Under those circumstances, the more succinct he was with his reply the better, in order to avoid saying something wrong. Thus Qi Jing casually replied to Crossing the bridge noodles’ invitation with just one word: okay.

To handle it as inconspicuously as possible, he avoided forwarding the post and only went to Crossing the bridge noodles’ original account to leave a reply through a comment.

He didn’t expect that, after three short minutes, his reply would get discovered and immediately dragged out for everyone to see by the fans, even getting closely investigated paparazzi-style.

【1st reply】Σ(⊙▽⊙ Huuuh? Don’t ask for my return date really agreed!! As expected, everyone loves our Little Noodles!

【2nd reply】… What kind of development is this… The more I look, the less I understand. This life core of mine, come out quickly! Although there’s no problem with having multiple red lanterns raised high, you absolutely can’t let these two red lanterns of yours go yuri!

【3rd reply】I can smell adultery, hehehehe. Is this the legendary “rivals in love to lovers”?

【4th reply】╮(╯_╰)╭ Is it for hyping things up before contest? Truly boring, both of you have nothing better to do. Those are but the words of truth, please refrain from throwing hate.

【5th reply】Hey, hey, a certain one above, could you not talk about hype whenever you flap your lips. If Return Date was a clout chaser, he would have become popular since long ago. Silently waiting to listen to the competition. Go for it Noodles, go for it Return Date, as for those nutjobs with princess syndrome and think they’re all that, go home and take your medicine!

【6th reply】Little Noodles, you… What about you and Bronze Sparrow?? I really love your CP, you suit each other so much ┭┮﹏┭┮

&#k3010;7th reply&#k3011;What I want to ask is, did the two of you meet IRL and hook up?

&#k3010;8th reply&#k3011;o(&#k2267;v&#k2266;)o Aiyayaya, just as I said, Don’t ask for my return date has to be a gong! I love his classy gong voice the most!

This development only got weirder with the course of time. Who was Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fan, who was Crossing the bridge noodles’ fan, who was his fan, even who among the onlookers was a fan, anti-fan, or a mere passerby, all of it was plainly visible.

There was one thing Qi Jing couldn’t help but admire and that was the insatiable desire for gossip of the girls from the online voice acting circle. If the entertainment channel was ever short on reporters, he would be more than willing to serve as a talent scout, recommending a whole batch of talents excavated for the greater cause of the national tabloid industry.

Qi Jing was also a man of great curiosity as a worker in the news industry; especially since there were people so blatantly sticking themselves in his face, that terrible instinct that could kill the cat began to stir all the more.

Crossing the bridge noodles would be his opponent competing for the “Fang Yisheng” role in the competition a few days later.

Know yourself and your enemy, be unscathed through a hundred battles, right?

With that mindset, he opened Crossing the bridge noodles’ weibo page for the first time to look through it all the way from the beginning and study this person’s usual behaviour.

Crossing the bridge noodles had always been described as a “refreshing youth like cool water” in the online voice acting circle. Some of his fans often likened him to a soft and cute white rabbit, eagerly using girlish phrases such as “so adorable”, or “so innocent” to refer him—of course, those were the characteristics inferred from his voice.

That’s precisely why, when Qi Jing realised there was nothing on his weibo that had anything in common with the word ‘cute’, he couldn’t help but lift his eyebrows in astonishment, a soft “oh” escaping his lips.

First of all, Crossing the bridge noodles had no more than ten posts that went over twenty words. Qi Jing was “honoured” that the invitation the other party sent him was one of them.

Next, Crossing the bridge noodles was a criminal thriller movie enthusiast and especially liked the American dramas about criminal psychology.

Finally, Crossing the bridge noodles would at times forward a popular topic and every post he commented on as nonsense was later all debunked with no exceptions—truly a miraculous occurrence.

Just looking at that last point, it could be said that they had something in common. The only difference was that Qi Jing wouldn’t scold or roast but rather preferred to hit the ‘report’ button below the post, registering a complaint about spread of misinformation.

“Interesting.” After reading through two or three pages of posts and summarizing those three regularities, he couldn’t help but chuckle. Who knows, maybe they really could discuss life together?

But before discussing life, Qi Jing still had to check something—the online voice acting forum.

There was one thing that differentiated the forum from weibo—the freedom of choosing an ID.

On weibo, if any person posted any opinion, even with an alternate ID, the main page address appearing upon clicking that ID would stay the same; moreover, there was the function of tracking the previously used IDs. Because of that, people had to be mindful of quite a lot of things and would avoid stating any extreme opinions, only daring to do so on smurf accounts or if one was really uncaring of the backlash.

But it was completely different on the forum—there was no registering requirement and the ID could be altered at any time. Under the posts with sensitive content, most of the people would choose to take the commonly used “= =” as a disguise when stating their opinions, there was no way to tell them apart as long as no one from the backend checked their IP address.

At this place, one would often see what it really meant to “act recklessly without fear for any consequences” and what “three men make a tiger” looks like.

And now one of those “tigers” emerged right before his eyes—a tiger titled《Bronze Sparrow Terrace is actually just a stepping stone and the one Don’t ask for my return date is pursuing is Crossing the bridge noodles》.

What a fierce tiger it was! With only one line and it was able to bring up three names, even doing so in the big, prime time dog blood drama style. If it weren’t for his ID appearing in the title, Qi Jing would probably spam the upvote button in silence—such a catchy title, it would really be a waste of talent if the original poster didn’t go work in the news.

He clicked into the posts as he praised it internally—no matter the poster’s identity, even if they didn’t want to work themself to the bone working in the news, they still would have boundless prospects as a scriptwriter for soap operas—the story they wrote was even more dramatic than an actual drama.

The story went as follows:

At first, Bronze Sparrow Terrace and Crossing the bridge noodles were a match made in heaven, a pair of billing and cooing love birds, their CP among the most popular ones in the online voice acting circle.

He, Don’t as for my return date, had always secretly loved Little Noodles, yet couldn’t have him, so he slowly climbed his way up in the online voice acting circle and schemed an opportunity to work with the Great God, that was, the current《Trap》that they’re in now. He flirted with the Great God in private behind the staff members’ back, sowing discord and creating misunderstandings to sabotage their love… He was seducing the Great God to make a move on him at one hand and pretending to be a good friend to console the heartbroken Little Noodles on the other.

It continued day after day until finally, Little Noodle’s feelings finally had a shift—that’s how that previous confession, “Rather than him, I like you more”, came to be.

“Hahahaha…” Qi Jing couldn’t help but burst out laughing; he let go of the mouse, slapping the table like a lunatic.

The god-tier screenwriting—I like it.

The god-tier development—I like it.

“What happened?” He was probably making too much noise, even Shen Yan heard him from outside. Qi Jing wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, leaving the computer for the time being to go to Shen Yan’s side with a smile.

Shen Yan was right in the middle of ironing shirts when Qi Jing pressed against him from behind and locked his waist in a secure hug. He was surprised at first, then smiled and put down the iron to hold the hand placed on his abdomen, “What made you so happy?”

Qi Jing hid his face in Shen Yan’s wide back, chuckling lazily, “I’m not happy, I was just amused by something.”

No matter how rich, how colourful was the imagination of folks from 2D, nothing could compare to the beauty of a single normal 3D hug. However, that was something they couldn’t comprehend.

Even if he didn’t write a post, didn’t go and make any big explanation livestreams on YY, Shen Yan was always there. He was his real boyfriend, one he could touch, hug…

“I kinda want to make a post as well, it would be titled《The untold story of me and Geese Fly North that I have to tell to the world》or something like that.” Qi Jing had his full of laughing and now mumbled to himself, feeling content as he leaned against Shen Yan’s back.

Listening to him, Shen Yan seemed to have guessed what he had just read and asked in a low voice, “The matter of you and Crossing the bridge noodles got spread?”

Qi Jing didn’t admit or deny it, “They’re just creating news from nothing. Those girls will disappear after making noise for a while. My junior… I’m talking about Xiaoxiao you met last time, she told me that Crossing the bridge noodles lives in Beijing, so he’s pretty far away from us. People who know the inside information will understand it’s fake news at first glance, so I don’t have to worry about it.”

It’s a pity though that there was no report button on the forum. Contacting forum moderators and administrators to delete the post was a chore, so it was better to just take it as a joke while watching from the side.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered that magical ability of Crossing the bridge noodles. If that guy could write a single “nonsense” in the comment section under the post, it would probably seal away that post for good.

He didn’t expect that Crossing the bridge noodles would really comment on it. His ID appeared after the post thread finally flipped the page among the heated discussion of that dog blood plot as he simply tossed that one word—”nonsense”.

It instantly and ruthlessly put out the flame of onlookers’ wild fantasies.

Qi Jing was about to applaud but he remembered that he couldn’t use his left hand, so he could only give a symbolic thumb up, “I owe you a favour, Crossing the bridge noodles-kun.”

Tonight he only planned to watch his performance as a tactic, but after a show like that, he actually really wanted to cheer for him.

Later on, the “Noodles effect” started working. That post’s days were numbered—Qi Jing continued to press F5 happily when all of a sudden, he couldn’t refresh the page anymore. He lowered his head to take a look; it seemed like the forum administrator received a report and locked the post. A pity, a pity is what it is—he still wanted to watch more of everyone’s lively discussions.

But Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans were plenty gratified, as what they believed to be the official couple seemed to have been preserved. Before the post got locked, they proceeded to carry out all the headpats, fur strokes, and other placating gestures for the “pitiful Little Noodles”, once again assuring him that great god Bronze Sparrow Terrace was loyal to him, that he, Don’t ask my return date, was but a passerby.

Delightful to hear, delightful to see.

“So you will be watching that competition at six this evening?” Shen Yan folded both of their shirts and put them in a wardrobe before coming to his side to sit by his side and quietly watch him browsing the internet for a while.

“If you don’t feel secure, we can always listen to it over the loudspeaker, I will sit and listen with you.” Qi Jing winked at him.

Shen Yan chuckled, “I don’t feel insecure, I was just worried if you’ll make it in time, and wanted to ask you beforehand when I should have the dinner ready.”

His words suddenly made Qi Jing realise that he seemed to have spent three hours on weibo and the forum and that dusk was about to fall upon the world; it was, indeed, high time to start cooking.

“I’m sorry, I was so into checking the posts that I forgot about time, I made you work all by yourself today.” He felt somewhat guilty; because of his immobile left hand, Shen Yan undertook most of the housework those days and even if he tried to help, he wasn’t of much use and only helped with some small chores most of the time.

“Doesn’t matter,” He didn’t expect Shen Yan’s next words, “having something to do helps me take my mind off it.”

‘You’re talking about… the contest?” Qi Jing was surprised. So even he would get nervous as the contest was about to start?

“I’m talking about… something related to you.” Shen Yan didn’t immediately start talking when he opened his mouth; he kept it open for a moment and stopped like that. It was as if he searched for the right wording to not make himself look so troubled. He lowered his head and slowly finished saying those seven words, but his voice grew smaller the bigger Qi Jing’s eyes got.

“What you want to say is, you still have that tiny little bit of you that minds, am I right?” The corners of Qi Jing’s mouth curled up unbeknownst to him as he deliberately stressed that “tiny little bit”.

Actually, according to Shen Yan’s personality, it couldn’t be just a tiny little bit if he vocalised those words.

But teasing him was also fun—

Shan Yan was stared on by him for quite a while before he finally sighed, “You certainly think that I’m going back on my words. I’ve clearly said that I’d let you handle it your way, yet I didn’t let go of the matter and let my thoughts go wild.”

Qi Jing’s eyes were full of smiles and he deliberately continued to question him, “Geese Fly North-sama, let me hear, how did you let your thoughts go wild?”

Shen Yan opened his mouth, but hesitated before saying, “I thought—if by any chance that person has taken interest in you… what would I do about it.”

“And?”

“I thought—if by any chance he didn’t live in Beijing but here, again, what would I do about it.”

“And?”

Perhaps already realising that Qi Jing was teasing him, Shen Yan suddenly lifted his head and copied his previous manner of speaking as he said, “And I also thought about making a post, it would be titled《The untold story of me and Don’t ask for my return date that I have to tell to the world》.”

“Pffft—” Qi Jing teased him twice, only for the favour to be returned to him, causing him to break out of character and into a fit of laughter.

What he once regarded as a jigsaw puzzle representing Shen Yan was already complete enough, but there were still some pieces slowly falling into a place—piecing together with his to unveil a scene of beauty he couldn’t possibly imagine before.

“If, by chance, the exclusive rights to Don’t ask for my return date is given to Geese Fly North alone, what would you do?” Shen Yan could copy his manner of speaking, then he could also immediately apply what he had learnt just the same; so he borrowed the other’s words and asked with a smile.

There were no words in Shen Yan’s answer, only a warm embrace. Qi Jing felt the force of his arms circling around him, their strength just right—it was a textbook example of accepting his everything.

So him gently returning Shen Yan’s hug was only the natural course of things.

In fact, Qi Jing could also add one bit of an explanation.

You don’t need to return those exclusive rights.

T

/L:

Whiteflare: Wow, Noodles-sama, you’re so powerful! And QJ and SY hugs <3!

Lucilla: *creeps out from whatever she’s behind to see the readers’ reaction to this version of Noodles*

It was interesting to see how the previous online descriptions influenced everyone’s perception of him xD We were basically thinking along the same lines as many of those netizens, and it’s as funny as it is scary.