Editor: Whiteflare

  Proofreading: Mashiro

  Only two judges?According to the organisers’ instructions?

  The first word that sprouted in his mind was “the insider”, then the second two words that followed were “Jade Butterfly”—no matter what way he looked at this, it only seemed ominous.

  Qi Jing held back his breath, waiting for Yang Chunqu to move on to the main point.

  Yang Chunqu’s voice had always been radiant like the bright summer sun, so it was hard to believe that it could also momentarily shove one down the depths of a cold cave. “Teacher Longbow who was one of the crucial judges during the semi-finals is absent today due to an unforeseen accident, so we are very sorry to announce that he will not be responsible for providing the feedback for the two auditions tonight…… Please forgive us for this mishap.”


  As expected—Qi Jing’s heart sank instantly. He gasped like a stranded man who couldn’t help but swallow breaths of air after getting ashore from the depths of the water—even his lungs stung a bit.

  Helpless, he could only squeeze his fist tightly and punch the desk indignantly.

  He knew that it was impossible for behind the scenes to not get turbulent, but he didn’t expect the waves to arrive so quickly, so rapidly, leaving him completely unprepared.

  From the very beginning of the competition, Longbow had always made “fairness” his guiding principle. He always assumed the most encouraging behaviour towards the contestants and could be said to be the most diligently kind judge—for him, who had been repeatedly suffering injustice, he was tantamount to a kind of a protective charm.

  In terms of the number of fans, he never had a fair chance—he never even hoped for it.

  “And now I don’t even have a ‘fair chance’ with the judges……” Qi Jing laughed bitterly, his expression getting heavier with each moment.

  The day before, Longbow didn’t give any leeway for Bronze Sparrow Terrace, so would that mean that his absence tonight was linked to this? If that was the case, then the circumstances could be much worse than what he expected. He didn’t have to worry about Pu Yuzhi, but Northwest Road had clearly chosen to patronise Bronze Sparrow Terrace and from how he had always been rather extreme with the scores he gave, with one of three judges missing, it made the situation look even more dangerous.

  Just as Qi Jing was steeling his heart against this predicament, Yang Chunqu suddenly added something that went against everyone’s expectations.

  “Aside from Teacher Longbow, our other judge, Northwest Road, is also unable to turn up.” She said, “As for the reason…… The organisers of the competition didn’t provide any, but Northwest Road will not participate as a judge for the last two semi-finals auditions tonight and for the entire finals to come.”


  Eh……Eh eh eh?Qi Jing stared wide-eyed from the shock, unable to believe his ears for a moment.

  With such a major and sudden change in the personel, not only he, but anyone would doubt whether their hearing was still alright.

  Audience 1: Σ(っ °Д °)っ Ah-le?? Two judges run away at once?? What happened!

  Audience 2: Σ(っ °Д °)っTeacher Longbow’s not there and even Northwest Road is absent, then doesn’t it only leave one judge from the original three? Where did that “two judges” the host was talking about come from?

  Audience 3: 〒▽〒 I don’t care about Northwest Road【Don’t hate me fans, I just don’t like him 】but give me back my Teacher Longbooow……

  Audience 4: 〒▽〒 That’s right!! Just as I started to take a liking to the sharp-tongued Teacher Longbow and he’s already nowhere to be seen!

  Audience 5: Raising hand weakly to ask…… Two judges ran away from two most important auditions of the semi-finals, is that really OK……

  Audience 6: Seconding the commenter above. Honestly, I don’t care about Northwest Road since he doesn’t give feedback, and feedback is my favourite part to listen to. I really enjoyed Longbow’s commentary, so it’s such a pity that he’s not here……【If I don’t remember it wrong, then it was his turn to give feedback】But what I’m most worried about is, can the official judges really be strict now?

  Northwest Road…… He actually got dismissed from being a judge this easily? And he got dismissed so thoroughly that he wouldn’t even show up during the finals too?

  Qi Jing blinked a couple of times, unable to believe this. Right at that moment, he felt like a man braving himself to receive a sentence, only to suddenly regain his freedom. Before the wild bout of joy, the first thing he felt was disbelief.

  At first, he thought it was some kind of trick from Jade Butterfly, but now, he was just completely clueless instead as there was surely some form of partnership between Jade Butterfly and Northwest Road. This sort of sacrificing an associate wouldn’t possibly take place since something like that would certainly end up being detrimental for Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s performance in the competition.

  Then what the hell was happening among the organisers? What’s more, aside from Pu Yuzhi, there should be another judge for the “two” mentioned by Yang Chunqu&#k2014;so in the end, what was going on?

  While the multitudes debated heatedly, Yang Chunqu invited the other judge for that night. “Next, I will introduce the stand-in judge who will take Teacher’s Longbow place for tonight. Manager, I will trouble you to pass the mic to Teacher Yuan.” After making two unfortunate announcements, Yang Chunqu finally brought up good news, so her voice also became much more easy and merry. But this smile-induced tone only lasted for mere three seconds before getting shattered again, “Let’s all welcome…… Ah! Teacher Yuan, Your ID—”


  The host’s voice rose dramatically in alarm.

  Everyone’s eyes shot towards the mic sequence on the left side of the channel window—a certain particularly novel and memorable ID appeared there to everyone’s astonishment.

  【It’s Yuan not ape (Note: Also don’t call me monkey)】


  “Pffft—” Qi Jing had already snorted with laughter before he could even compose himself. He was aware that he should behave more seriously towards people of “teacher” status, but he couldn’t help his lips from twitching.

  In comparison, the chat was already filled with roasts.

  Audience 1: = = Ape Teacher……【Suddenly I can see this image in my head】


  Audience 2: = = ……Gorilla Teacher……【Can see this image +1】


  Audience 3: = = ……The commenter above has no conscience, it’s obviously Monkey Teacher……【Can see this image +2】


  Audience 4: ╰(*°▽°*)╯Hahahahahaha!! Crap, it somehow got me laughing so hard!!

  Audience 5: Can I just say that this ID is so improper…… (facepalm)

  Audience 6: No matter if it’s an ape, gorilla, or monkey【oi】, why is there a need to invite this Teacher to be a judge!! Give me back my Teacher Longbow, waaaaah…… This one looks so unreliable!! Begging the organisers for a clarification!! ┭┮﹏┭┮


  “Teacher Yuan, this ID……” Yang Chunqu’s tone turned awkward as this extremely unreliable ID showed no sign of getting changed.

  “What’s wrong with this ID, didn’t it liven up the atmosphere?” Suddenly, he could hear a thuggish voice of a middle-age man probably around his forties. It sounded rather unremarkable, like any usual passersby grabbed offhandedly at the streets, and had no particular charm to it upon first hearing. When compared to the ID, this voice was even less suitable for the “teacher” status.

  The logic behind it was very simple. Longbow had a voice acting background, the quality of his voice was pleasing to an ear and even him saying a few words was like getting bathed in a breath of fresh spring air. As a professor in this specialisation, Pu Yuzhi also used to be a well known voice actor with a very good voice.

  So with how this person seemed to have no interesting quality to his voice, it was just too disappointing—


  The complaints in the chat continued for a long time and this Teacher Yuan sure caught sight of it. “Eh? Why would I sound unreliable?” The chat was flooded with the speechless emojis in a tacit silence. “Why would I sound like I don’t qualify to replace Longbow?”


  Countless cries of “Longbow is more reliable” filled the chat alongside the crying emojis.

  “But that Teacher Longbow of yours, he’s in fact student Longbow from here?” That Teacher Yuan laughed roguishly, revealing even more of his hoodlum bearing as he said full of himself, “Hadn’t the host told you already that Longbow is in fact my student, making me your ‘Teacher’s Teacher’?”


  “Eh?” This time it was Qi Jing who exclaimed in surprise.

  Yang Chunqu had yet to explain the situation to the chat that fell into the chaos when suddenly, a voice strikingly similar to that of the Great Sage the Equal of Heaven from the eighties TV classic could be heard.

  “Aye! People of the world only know of that surnamed Sun, a kin of mine from the Huaguo mountain, but no one knows that our clan should bear the surname Yuan! What even is that macaque jumping out of a stone, it’s ‘monkey’ that’s the scientific name!”


  Just as everyone was still stupefied, he once again laughed impishly, making his voice hard to distinguish from the original goods of the eighties animation. “There’s an old hag from the East Sea, she told me that there’s many good seedlings to be found here, making me itchy and unable to keep myself from coming here a bit earlier and see if I could dig a couple.”


  Judge – Pu Yuzhi: ……Who are you calling an old hag from the East Sea, ah? This old macaque.

  Audience 1: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Pfft!! Read the comment above, quick!!

  Audience 2: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Pfft!! Teacher Pu got angry!!

  Audience 3: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Hahahaha, she really got angry! And she even started cursing people out, so funny!!

  Audience 4: °。°(((p(≧口≦)q)))°。° But that bit of Sun Wukong voice from just now was so amazing! It really was just the same! And the tone was also perfect!

  Audience 4: °。°(((p(≧口≦)q)))°。° That’s right! I was on my knees instantly! Nice to monkey you, Teacher’s Teacher!【What, I couldn’t possibly have mistyped it】


  Audience 6: That’s no wonder for the Old Macaque Teacher!!【Eh, something doesn’t seem right 】When he first said that he was Teacher Longbow’s teacher I didn’t believe him, pft…… But that impression right now was absolutely brilliant! I got reminded of the classic ⟪Journey to the West⟫ I watched in my childhood, that’s so nostalgic aaah!

  Yang Chunqu finally got a chance to digress and added, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Now, for the official introduction—Teacher Yuan, Yuan Zhengming, the veteran of professional voice acting, a graduate of the famous throughout our country drama school and a voice of numerous films, TV dramas and animations. As Teacher Yuan had just said, he worked with Teacher Longbow in a movie company as his instructor director, so he would indeed count as a ‘Teacher’s Teacher’.” With a short pause, she left the most important part for the end. “Moreover, Teacher Yuan will be the voice director for the ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ game series.”


  “In other words,” Yuan Zhengming said with a meaningful laugh, “I have the full support of the producers, including the right to have the final word about every single role in this voice acting competition—”


  Surprised, Qi Jing straightened his back a little.

  And the other party continued speaking without any hurry, “I was only supposed to meet you all during the finals, as my job was to be the judge for that stage. But, luck had it that my student happened to receive a last minute job to do and needed to leave for the studio. He had no way to appear today, so I came to meet you all early.”


  So that’s how it was. Longbow really couldn’t come, so the organisers fished out their trump card ahead of time—Qi Jing finally understood what was going on.

  No matter if it was a traditional film or a game, a professional voice acting team would always invite a seasoned veteran who would guide each actor’s performance on spot and create an overall plan for the project—making sure that everyone would reach the standard but also wouldn’t clash with each other. It was quite like a conductor of a symphony, able to make the music sound smooth, pleasant to the ear, and professional.

  Hence, there was no wonder that this person would have the right to make choices about the candidates.

  Qi Jing suddenly felt the previous bad mood wash away in an instant. His anger gradually died down as a small glimmer of light among the struggle started to shine, rekindling the brightness in his eyes.

  “If he’s Teacher Longbow’s Teacher, then maybe I can expect this audition to be a bit more fair?” Qi Jing said to himself.

  He didn’t want any privilege or any pity.

  He only wanted a fair chance, sheer skill against sheer skill.

  Qi Jing’s hunch was right. Yuan Zhengming and his student were both fair people, it’s just the master was much, much stricter than his student, overthrowing Qi Jing’s expectations. “Tonight, we’ll be having two auditions for the main characters, so I’m going to judge according to my own rules.”


  Before the host could remind the rules as usuals, Yuan Zhengming stopped her, then added this as she left the mic sequence in confusion. The discussions erupted in the chat, with most of the people completely confused with what was going on, not knowing what he was about to do.

  “Either way, even if we don’t use my rules now, they will still be used during the finals, so it should fine as long as the contestants treat it as a warm up.” When Yuan Zhengming laughed, his laughter started to resonate in his chest, leaving everyone with an impression of a wily old fox, “You all already know that I’m a voice director, so I will judge your performances just as any voice director would during the official recording. I believe that everyone had seen it before—when a director is listening to the acting on the spot, they would sometimes shout ‘CUT!’, right?” The audience agreed, confused. “Mn, that’s what I’m talking about. During the contestants’ performance, my mic will be on all the time,” He said unhurriedly, “Once there’s some mistake where I would want to shout CUT, the contestant would need to stop the performance and won’t continue with the rest.”


  Saying this, he laughed poisedly. “Each contestant has a time limit of 120 seconds, two minutes altogether. I don’t like adding points up according to the average scores, so this time I will give comprehensive points, with the full marks being ‘2’, just like the amount of allotted time. And the entire time a contestant uses until I shout CUT will make up for their comprehensive score.

  Audience 1: Σ(°△ °|||)︴So! Strict!

  Audience 2: Σ(°△ °|||)︴I can understand this director-like scoring method Gorilla Teacher’s talking about…… But this selection process is so steep!!

  Audience 3: Σ(°△ °|||)︴I…… I feel like this would be unfair? After all, there are some people that would fare better at the beginning, but their performance would get worse towards the end, while some people would do better towards the end while having a hard time immersing themself in the acting at the beginning—what in that case? If the director would shout CUT early, then that would be too pitiful for those contestants. And there’s also the matter of the speed of speaking? And the problem of contestants deliberately stalling for time?……

  Faced with the doubts from the audience, Yuan Zhengming explained himself composedly, “First, this is a competition, and competition at its core isn’t only to compare the contestants’ skill of voice acting, it’s also the about how the voice actors can adapt to the pressure of acting before the public, it’s a test of mental fortitude and ability to adapt flexibly. It’s about the same environment as in our recording studio. The workload is significant so we require efficiency and the voice actors to be able to immerse themselves in acting on a short note, so if you’re not aware of that, then better not bother entering the recording studio.”


  He was very cutting with his words, but it was enough to leave the chat speechless, unable to refute his words.

  “Second, considering that a lot of people here aren’t professionals and that my impromptu change of rules is a bit rushed, I will unconditionally give everyone thirty seconds of time. During those thirty seconds, no matter how your acting goes, I won’t shout CUT, so it’s free points for you all. During that time, I will judge whether you have enough potential for me to continue to listen to your performance. If you don’t have it, then I will call CUT after those thirty seconds; if you do, the time will keep going on.”


  Once the listeners heard this, most of them were already approving of it in silence. Moreover, they were all very interested in this fresh method of judging.

  “Third,” Yuan Zhengming raised his tone with a skin-deep smile, “since the time used contributes to the score, I assume that there would surely be some people who would want to stall for time. But someone who deliberately stalls for time wouldn’t be able to complete all lines, eh? And who knows, I might also call CUT ahead of time because of the contestant speaking too slowly, or too unnaturally?”


  Audience 1: _(:з」∠)_ ……Devil, a true devil.

  Audience 2: _(:з」∠)_ ……Devil +10086, lighting a candle for his former student Teacher Longbow……

  Audience 2: _(:з」∠)_ ……Lighting a candle for the contestants for those two auditions…… And for those who get selected as candidates and enter the recording studio only to get PIAed back and forth by Teacher Yuan (or should I say, Director Yuan), I light ten candles!! 【Oi】
……

  Among the wave of candles getting lit, Qi Jing on the contrary couldn’t help his strong anticipation. “Interesting, interesting.” He muttered with a chuckle. As for whether he was more excited to see how long could the great god Bronze Sparrow Terrace last or to see how long he himself could hold on, he wasn’t really sure anymore nor did he care to think about it.

  It was the very first time for him since he started voice acting to feel every cell of his body fire up from the eagerness to give the challenge a try.

  To be able to have such a thrilling time trying himself before leaving the circle, those three years of voice acting really didn’t go to waste.

  “Bring it on, Bronze Sparrow Terrace,” He focused his gaze on the timer in the channel, tossing out his taunt, “Let me see how long can you hold on—”


  A/N:

  As for why Bronze Sparrow Terrace didn’t appear in this chapter…… The focus of this chapter was change of the judges + change in the competition rules. Personally I feel like it’s pretty fun this way! ＼(≧▽≦)／ (Eh, what, I’m not a devil)

  PS: Old Macaque Teacher is in fact even scarier than Teacher Pu……

  T/N:

  Lucilla: I love Teacher Yuan with his puns, and the way Teacher Pu is bickering with him in chat is so precious too…… They’re both an instant shot of serotonin after the previous few chapters ≧▽≦


  Whiteflare: Teacher Yuan making a splash hahaha