Editor: Whitelfare

  Proofreading: Mashiro

  —What time is it.Qi Jing’s question didn’t touch upon anything specific, but Shen Yan still understood what he meant.

  “I don’t know.” Shen Yan replied unhurriedly, his voice deep and calm, as if those three words meant about the same as “I don’t care”.

  He indeed didn’t care; at that point of time, his world only consisted of what little was in his arms. It was there where the person he wanted to embrace with all his heart and soul was, so he didn’t care about the concept of the time.

  Qi Jing lifted his head, rubbing his nose against Shen Yan’s chin, shifting closer to lay a kiss on his throat.

  The voice coming from that place belonged to Shen Yan, one and only of its kind. Qi Jing loved it more than anyone else’s, missed it more than anyone else’s—to the point where missing even a single opportunity to hear it felt like a great pity to him. “You gave up already?”


  Shen Yan smiled in silence, not saying a word for quite a while—only the hand around Qi Jing’s hand tensed without him realising, holding the other even tighter.

  “Do you mind it?” He asked in return.

  “I do,” Qi Jing’s reply caught Shen Yan by surprise, the look in his eyes faltering a bit. But at that moment, Qi Jing laughed in a low voice and finished the sentence, “I mind it because I feel like…… if you were to give up from the very beginning, then even if you say that you don’t care, in reality, you would still recall this memory every once in a while. But right now, I’m very selfish—I can’t bear to see anything other than myself in your heart.”


  He paused for a bit, taking back his teasing tone to speak with utter sincerity.

  “I’m joking. To be honest…… I just wanted to let you sleep peacefully, with nothing weighing on your mind.”


  For him to not worry, to leave the troubles behind, to not be weighed down by any “it would have been better if I had done that then”, these sorts of regrets—at least for that night, he wanted to let the man before him leave all his burdens behind, to spend it with him, protecting and relying on each other as they waited for a dawn. After all, his mental state wasn’t that good for quite a while.

  Having heard his reason, Shen Yan fell silent for a moment.

  After a long while, his gaze finally shifted toward a clock on the desk.

  It had been almost an hour already…… He didn’t know if he would still manage to make it in time. The only thing he knew was that the second arm of the clock wouldn’t slow down in favour of his hesitation—it still moved on and on, and with each full circle it made, the room for him to make a decision shrunk for that one minute.

  “I’m sorry,” He sighed in a low voice and gently supported his head on Qi Jing’s shoulder, “I will be done in five minutes……”


  Qi Jing chuckled as he watched him.

  “One minute.”


  Shen Yan was stupefied; after being at a loss of what to say for a moment, it took him quite a while to continue, “.……Uh, will four minutes do?”


  Qi Jing kept himself from laughing, but the corner of his lips kept curling up higher and higher, “That won’t do. I will give you at most two minutes.”


  At that time, Shen Yan finally noticed that he was teasing him and he lowered his eyes helplessly as he laughed, “I will wrap it up as fast as I can, just give me four, five minutes.”


  “I’m toying with you, I’m not this petty,” Hearing how earnest Shen Yan was with his plea, Qi Jing couldn’t help but laugh. He hooked his hand around Shen Yan’s neck to pull him closer and nibbed at his earlobe as he said in a low voice, “It doesn’t matter how long it takes you, just do it at your own pace. But after you’re finished, the rest of your time tonight…… will be mine alone.”


  As he voiced his selfish wish, it wasn’t just hollow words.

  Knowing this, Shen Yan smiled faintly as he heard his words, then agreed with a low hum.

  Qi Jing really wanted to continue snuggling with him, but worried about the time, he still slowly let go of Shen Yan, saying somewhat unwillingly, “Then, I’ll be waiting for you back in the bedroom.”


  Surprisingly, Shen Yan suddenly asked him in a low voice, “Qi Jing, during this audition…… I want you to listen to all of it. Is that fine?”


  Qi Jing had a vague feeling that there was some deeper meaning to his words, so he didn’t hesitate long before nodding his head in agreement, “Okay.”


  Shen Yan didn’t say anything else, sitting up from under the duvet, with Qi Jing following him closely.

  After a spell of passion had passed, the chilly winter air once again took over the room. With the sweat on their bodies having yet to dry, the two of them shivered the moment they left the bedding.

  “Don’t get up for now, I’ll look for the clothes for you to put on.” Shen Yan said.

  Clothes—suddenly, the meaning behind this word became so ambiguous that Qi Jing froze for a moment, and by the time he came back to his senses, his face and ears had already blushed deep red as he responded with a vague, soft hum.

  The wardrobe was in the bedroom, so there was no clean change of clothes in the study. The reason why Shen Yan had to “look” for them was because they were strewn all over the bed, with some even falling on the floor, so gathering them all would take a moment.

  Qi Jing looked away as Shen Yan bent over to gather the clothes, too shy to look straight at that naked body under the dim light.

  “Wear this for now.” Shen Yan picked up the shirt Qi Jing wore originally—it was already all crumpled and wrinkled, half of it drenched in sweat, with a still lingering scent of lust on it. Qi Jing blushed, letting Shen Yan put it on for him in silence. From time to time he would sneak a peek on him, only lowering his head contentedly after he saw that there were indeed his kiss marks left behind on Shen Yan’s body.

  “About this one…… do you need my help with it?” Shen Yan asked in a low voice with Qi Jing’s underpants in his hand.

  This time, Qi Jing blushed red for real, his voice so low that it was almost inaudible.

  “.……No……”


  Either way, it was only getting from one bed to another. What’s more, having Shen Yan do that to him would be too much for his heart.

  Shen Yan chuckled and didn’t speak anymore, also getting clothes and pants for himself to put on in silence. Just as he was about to lift Qi Jing up from the bed, he saw the light reflecting off something on the floor at the corner of his eye. As he looked down to take a look at it, it turned out that it was the button that had snapped off before.

  The broken thread that used to keep it in place was still hanging below the collar of the shirt—it made it obvious how much strength he used at the time.

  Qi Jing followed his gaze and laughed a bit as he saw the button, leaning against Shen Yan’s arm as he muttered, “From this day on, this shirt shall have one button less.”


  Shen Yan didn’t say a thing as he picked it up.

  “Can I keep it?” He suddenly asked.

  Qi Jing was taken by surprise at first, then he lowered his eyes and bit his lip as he chuckled quietly, “.……What do you want to keep it for?”


  Shen Yan also laughed softly, a smile barely showing on his lips, “To remind myself of you.”


  Without waiting for Qi Jing to respond, Shen Yan already bent over and lifted him up in his arms.

  No matter what, Qi Jing was an adult man, so without a doubt carrying him was a bit strenuous.

  It was his first time to be bridal-carried by someone as a grown man, so his face burned red. He wanted to get up and go by himself, but his knees were still soft as if his bones were gone, to the point where he had no strength to even stand up on his own.

  “Don’t move.” Shen Yan warned him in a low voice by his ear, his tone gentle but leaving no room to refuse.

  Qi Jing could only behave, letting Shen Yan take him back to the bedroom and lay him on that spacious bed. But although it was spacious, its bedding was still cold—Qi Jing couldn’t help a shiver the moment he sat on it. The next moment, Shen Yan had already tucked himself in by his side, silently pulling him into a tight embrace.

  The two of them stayed in the bed for a while, until their body warmth warmed the duvet into a cosy temperature. Then, Shen Yan released his hold and tucked him back under the duvet, fetching Qi Jing’s laptop and headphones to put them on the bedside before he kissed him on his forehead.

  “Wait for me, I’ll be back soon.”


  “Mn.”


  Shen Yan got up, but he still lowered his head to look silently at the button in his hand for a while. He hid it in his pocket, then quietly closed the door of the bedroom.

  Qi Jing patted his face in hope for the warmth there to quickly disappear as he opened the laptop.

  His laptop wasn’t closed, it had only entered sleep mode. Once he opened it, the previously opened windows were still there, including the YY channel of the competition.

  Qi Jing was in a hurry to know what stage the audition was on, so quickly entered the channel, but suddenly, he was assaulted by a string of private message notifications.

  —It was from “Five”.

  For some reason, that guy had already sent him a string of private messages—what’s more, he used the blood red caps, making it impossible to ignore. Seeing this, Qi Jing had an awfully bad premonition.

  As expected, the first message from Five made him tense all over.

  【★Five★】said to【You】: RETURN DATE RETURN DATE RETURN DATE RETURN DATE!! Get here right now, listen to me!! Don’t let Shen Yan join the audition for “Marquess Shunyang”!! Quickly go and stop him, DO IT NOW!!

  At that moment, his first, subconscious response was to tense his body up, to want to flip from the bed and drag the man who had just left back.

  But once he remembered what Shen Yan said—“wait for me”—that strong urge vanished; it cleared his mind up, like a basin of cold water being poured over his head.

  No.

  He shouldn’t be this rash, he should have faith in Shen Yan’s promise, right?

  His tense body relaxed slowly and he sat back by the head of the bed, no longer moving—even though all the subsequent messages from “Five” were swaying his resolution by a lot.

  【★Five★】said to【You】: ……The lines for this audition had already got published…… (holds head)

  【★Five★】said to【You】: ……Those lines are really……

  【★Five★】said to【You】: That’s bad, he really can’t do this, quick, go stop him or else…… 〒▽〒


  【★Five★】said to【You】: Return Date, Return Date, where the heck did you go?? I see you online on this channel but you’re not saying a thing, I don’t know what the situation is like, you quickly come and reply to me!! Waaaaah…… 〒▽〒


  【★Five★】said to【You】: You should be with Shen Yan, right? If you can’t stop him, then there is really no one who could do that……

  Stop him?But why?

  Without thinking, Qi Jing moved his hand away from the laptop and reached it towards the half-open collar of his shirt in dismay, putting it on the place where the button used to be—as if this simple touch could let his fingers take hold of that man’s hand.

  Just a few mere minutes ago, they were still lying together, so inseparable in love and affection that even this little distance from study to bedroom felt uncomfortable.

  If it was the Shen Yan from earlier that morning, he would probably dread letting him take part in the audition by himself.

  But…… This Shen Yan was different.

  Qi Jing kept staring at the messages from “Five” over and over, and finally, his gaze stopped on the word “lines”. His eyes shot open, as if he had suddenly realised something, and he quickly took a look at the lines for the three scenes the competition organizators had long since published in the public channel.

  Shen Yan slowly raised his eyes and looked at the published lines for three scenes for “Marquess Shunyang”.

  He was actually pretty lucky.

  By the time he sat down, the contestant before him had just finished his performance, so he still had about a minute to analyse those lines. He could still do it in time, but the time he spent staring at those lines was longer than for either of the previous two roles—so long that it seemed to have stopped.

  He remembered each of the lines he saw as he had read the source novel.

  But as for him voice acting them himself…… It was a different matter altogether.

  He took a deep breath and opened the timer on the right corner of the screen, looking at the second arm on it turning a full circle, just as he turned a button in his hand. Keeping it within his scope of view made the passage of time much less stressful for him.

  “Next, we’ll have contestant No.22.”


  The MC Yang Chunqu was also looking at the time. It had to be said that the lack of response when she was calling the contestants’ numbers made her feel quite disappointed.

  “Contestant No.22? May I ask if you’re present?”


  It was about the same as when the question she asked before the beginning of the audition, even her nervous tone was no different.

  She hasn’t seen “Kitty の Papa” being listed on the channel and during the audition, she kept mulling over what to do when the time comes as she hosted the event; the worst possibility would be that she would have to announce that No.22 had lost the qualification to take part in the competition.

  Still, as one of the people who had a good impression of him, she really didn’t want to see it end like this.

  The other fans of Kitty’s Papa were also anxious to the extreme.

  Audience 1: ┭┮﹏┭┮ Kitty’s Papa still hasn’t come…… It’s finished, it’s really finished……

  Audience 2: ┭┮﹏┭┮ I, I won’t abandon the hope until the very end!!

  Audience 3: ┭┮﹏┭┮ What the commenter above said +10086!! Even if you’re not prepared for the audition, at least say a word about it to us, let me kill the remnants of my hope!! Being left in a limbo here is way worse than if you told us directly!!

  No.22-【Kitty の Papa】: I’m here……

  Wait……

  The crying kaomojis that were spammed in the chat suddenly disappeared and after a moment of deathly silence, one after another, the listeners cried out loud.

  Audience 1: Σ(っ °Д °)っ Crap!! Kitty’s Papa!! Quick, read the ID above mine!! ↑↑↑↑↑


  Audience 2: Σ(っ °Д °)っ Kitty’s Papa!! MC, look above quickly! ↑↑↑↑↑


  Audience 3: Σ(っ °Д °)っ Kitty’s Papa!! MC, look above quickly! ↑↑↑↑↑ +1【If I could use a hundred of arrows, I would hecking use a hundred arrows, bastard】


  Audience 5: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! Is it the real deal?? Is he the real one or not!!【Crap, I’m about to cry…… ┭┮﹏┭┮】


  Audience 6: Help meeeeeee-! Kitty’s Papa, you finally showed up, I’m so emotional now! And so happy! Tonight’s wait finally paid off!【What to do, I’m already sobbing! Asking Kitty’s Papa to send me tissues!】
……

  If the competition was live streamed in the video format, then probably everyone would be able to see the MC covertly wiping a cold sweat.

  “That’s great news, then I’ll ask the staff to give contestant No.22 the right to unmute the mic.” Although her movements couldn’t be seen, her audibly more relieved tone could be heard through her mic.

  That naturally resonated with Kitty’s Papa’s fans, but it also caused a lot of dissatisfaction among Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans.

  Bronze Sparrow Terrace was No.14 and had already performed before, and without much surprise, he held the highest place on the ranking so far.

  First, compared to “Emperor Chang”, a drug addict with a sickly voice, Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s powerful subwoofer-like voice was much more applicable for “Marquess Shunyang”, a character with a martial background.

  Second, in terms of voice acting, it was hard to find someone more capable than a professional voice actor like him among the amateur contestants.

  If one said that the incident with “Don’t ask for my return date” was just an accident to Bronze Sparrow Terrace and his fans, then “Kitty の Papa” was doomed to be an eyesore.

  And it was mostly because of the relentless publicity of Kitty’s Papa by his ardent fans on the forums.

  “I like Kitty’s Papa more than the great god Bronze Sparrow Terrace, what should I do?”


  “Kitty’s Papa will surely win against the great god, right?”


  “I feel like there’ll be no suspense to this audition!”


  Once opinions like this started amassing, even though the two people involved didn’t interact in person, it was still enough to trigger a feud……

  Remembering that she was the official representative, and couldn’t show any sign of bias towards any contestant, Yang Chunqu quickly coughed to clear her throat.

  “Cough, then, may I ask contestant No.22 to check the equipment? If there’s no problem, then……”


  “No need to.”


  Three, quiet words could be heard from the person on the mic, his voice lower and more husky than how everyone remembered it. For the audience, it sounded as if it was the problem with a mic, as if there was a noise that distorted his voice.

  “No need to do anything,” His other sentence was even lower than the first one, “let’s start right away.”


  A/N:

  To be fair, the two of them really flash their PDA…… And they don’t even realise that……

  The already flashed blind author silently hugs Little Return Date and turns off the light while on her way out……PS: Five, the God of Peddling Sense of Presence is mad hahaha

  Mashiro: Ah another cliffhanger!!! I always like to read about the competition. Bet the next chap is going to be interesting due to the warning messages of Five.