Thank you so much Enda for the kofi! <333

  unedited

  The whole scene froze for a second, then collapsed into the roars of laughter.

  Audience 1: hahahahahahahahahhahaha! I’m about to laugh myself crazy!!

  Audience 2: Hahahaha, I just can’t stan Ape Teacher any more than I already am!! o(*≧▽≦)ツ


  Audience 3: And Ape Teacher still freaking made an act of thinking about it for so long, hahahaha! o(*≧▽≦)ツ


  Audience 4: Lighting a candle for the Great God, hahaha! (lits candle)

  Audience 5: Lighting a candle for the Great God! +1 (lits candle)

  Audience 6: Lighting a candle for the Great God! +2 (lits candle)

  “Hahahaha,” Qi Jing couldn’t contain his laughter, slapping the table continuously, “Lighting a candle for the Great God +3.”


  “About whether it was copying, I believe that Longbow has already talked about it during the previous audition, so I won’t go into that now. Let’s focus on the current audition.” Yuan Zhengming continued unhurriedly in a lukewarm tone. “Speaking solely of the voice acting side of things, contestant No.10 is blessed with an extraordinary voice—it’s good material. But what I want to see is presentable clothes that can actually be worn, it’s no use if the fabric is good but won’t hold through the cutting. It’s not like I’m really a gorilla, I can’t just cover myself with cloth…… Eh, is contestant No.10 here?”


  Qi Jing was in the middle of wiping his eyes from laughing, but when he heard him say so, he quickly went to search through the channel member list, and sure enough, Bronze Sparrow Terrace wasn’t there anymore. But honestly, it wouldn’t be too considerate to make him stay there—giving this man a slap one after another without giving him time to gather his face back up would be just too much.

  But after all, the great god truly was the great god—after he left the channel, two or three thousands people left with him as well with a grandeur, reminding one of an emperor going back with the court to his palace.

  “Eh…… Listening to feedback would actually be beneficial for him, but there’s no way around it since the man isn’t here.” Yuan Zhengming didn’t get flustered at all, only expressing his regret towards Bronze Sparrow Terrace giving up on such an opportunity to better himself. “Since No.10 isn’t here, then I will just say it bluntly. No.10’s innate qualities are incredibly good, but his skills are lacking. He’s rather shallow with his understanding and didn’t notice a lot of details in the first scene, as if no matter how he played it, it would be fine either way. What I heard the most was the No.10 himself, not the character, so I hope he will be more careful with it in the future.”


  Qi Jing laughed softly before the screen, “He was also like this when playing in ⟪Trap⟫, so there’s no saving for him.”


  According to Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s theory, audio drama belongs to the secondary franchise—it’s fine as long as the listeners express their satisfaction, and it doesn’t matter whether it follows the original work or not. Preaching him about carefulness or whatsoever, it was bound to fail in the end.

  “Apropos, contestant No.10’s voice was incomparably the most charismatic among all the contestants. It’s so enchanting that it’s basically cheating, since it can easily hook the audience on him in a short amount of time. But the longer the time and the more numerous the lines, the easier it gets for it to fail under a detailed scrutiny.”


  Speaking up to this point, Yuan Zhengming suddenly had an epiphany. “Ah! That’s right! Since No.10 had said that he used to do professional voice acting, just now I went out of my way to check the contestant files, and it seems like he had dabbled in advertisement voice acting before. And now I got it—aren’t professional advertisements all about utilising a nice-sounding voice to sway people?”


  Qi Jing felt that it’s been a very long time since his stomach pain acted up. But if Yuan Zhengming continued his commentary like this, holding back on his laughter would surely cause him a stomachache—truly a harm to his health.

  To not laugh himself dead before the computer, he decided to temporarily take his headphones off and scooped the oblivious Little Return Date from the side of his leg, lowering his head and messing its fur up giddily so as to weaken the urge to burst out laughing.

  “Meow meow~” Little Return Date put his paws on Qi Jing’s hand, as if realising its importance and hence proudly demanding more food for itself.

  Of course, Qi Jing magnanimously offered it a couple of kibbles.

  By the time Little Return Date finished staffing itself arduously with food, the entire feedback for the “Qin Tuo” audition had already finished and the channel entered the break in preparation for the next, “Fang Yisheng” audition.

  Qi Jing used this time to check his phone. There wasn’t even a single message&#k2014;it seemed like the mother and son pair were still in the middle of a conversation. As an outsider, he shouldn’t interfere at such time, but he couldn’t help but worry.

  【Take your time chatting. I’m fine here, so don’t worry about me.】


  He clearly was already missing him so much that he had to use the recording to fend off the loneliness, yet either way he sent such a generous message, not wanting the other man to feel concerned about him. Originally, after finishing typing in the above message, Qi Jing also typed【But I miss you very much】below, but after thinking for a bit, he still backpedalled and pressed the delete key.

  If he wanted to be generous, then he should do that to the end—he’d better pretend a bit better.

  Confirm, send.

  “Phew……” After sending the message, Qi Jing tossed the phone gently by the pillow, slumping on his back on the bed and taking a deep breath. He spoke to himself with a bitter chuckle, “Just thinking that we won’t see until tomorrow and that I won’t have any body pillow to hug for tonight, it really feels so lonely.”


  Living in one place for a long time had a particular downside—he was already used to the sight of each crook and cranny of the apartment, growing familiar with it, so the shadow of that person living under the same roof was also clear and vivid in his mind. Now, no matter where he looked, he was able to find the images of him standing there in his memory. Just like after seeing a film for way too many times, even when one closed their eyes they would still remember it deeply—it only took a simple item for the past image to form in their mind without them realising.

  Desk—the place where Shen Yan would usually work.

  Bookcase—the place where would silently take out a book for reading in his spare time.

  The desk lamp, its light warm—what he remembered the most about it was Shen Yan’s concentrated and gentle profile under this light; upon hearing him being called, he would turn over, then smile faintly, the lamp light spinning in those eyes.

  And there was also the bed below him……

  “That won’t do, anything more and I won’t be able to sleep tonight.” Qi Jing shook his head, his ears reddening a bit as he firmly stopped this association from venturing any further. He sat up in one swift movement, deciding to find something unrelated that could divert his attention.

  Coincidentally enough, there was a DM notification flickering on his weibo. It was none other than his soon-to-be opponent he was about to face in half an hour, Crossing the bridge noodles.

  With how unmerciful he was with Bronze Sparrow Terrace that evening, he was obviously aware of what kind of reaction it would spark, so he straight up closed his QQ, only leaving weibo and YY in an online state. To avoid having to see the great god’s fans cursing him out, he even disabled the comment functions on his weibo, and his private messages wouldn’t notify him of the DMs from users he didn’t follow, so there was no harm in staying there.

  And there was also the fact that he and Crossing the bridge noodles had already messaged each other before, so the system notified him directly.

  CV – Crossing the bridge noodles: Return Date, please hit me up if you’re there.

  CV – Don’t ask for my return date: I’m here.

  Currently Qi Jing chose to change the status to offline, but Crossing the bridge noodle’s activity feed was lit up, so he was most probably online all that time. As expected, after he replied, the other was also quick to react.

  CV – Crossing the bridge noodles: Good evening.

  CV – Don’t ask for my return date: Good evening. ^＿^

  CV – Crossing the bridge noodles: I remember that you said that it’s not convenient for you because of your injured hand, so can we talk on the call?

  CV – Don’t ask for my return date: Mhm, but temporarily I don’t want to open QQ…… Sorry.

  CV – Crossing the bridge noodles: I also thought so. We can also use the voice chat on YY. Come to this room, I often go there myself. There’s very few people there, so it’s convenient to talk.

  After saying this, he sent a room number.

  Upon seeing it, Qi Jing couldn’t help but laugh—wasn’t this the dedicated channel for the small nobodies’ to hone their skills, “Chitter-chatter”? Could it be that Noodles was also a frequent visitor there?

  He logged in and entered the small room as per Crossing the bridge noodles’ instructions.

  Although there was no password for the room itself, at that time, there was not a single person with channel points there, so there was no need to be secretive. And that’s even though Noodles started off with the currently most sensitive topic of the online voice acting circle. “I listened to your audition for ‘Qin Tuo’ before.”


  “Eh?” So Crossing the bridge noodles actually listened to the competition just now? As the official CP of Bronze Sparrow Terrace, this really was…… interesting. He didn’t even know what Noodles’ standing was.

  Qi Jing laughed shortly, then asked deliberately, “What are your thoughts after listening to it?”


  “Hmf, Bronze Sparrow Terrace had it coming.” Crossing the bridge noodles was completely unperturbed, with not a sliver of empathy for the other man. If the “Moss” shippers were to learn about it, they would probably cry themself unconscious in their toilets, every roll of the toilet paper wasted on their tears.

  “You don’t think that it’s me who’s a thankless bastard who falsely accuses him?” Qi Jing was very curious about it.

  “With a bit of analytic thinking, it’s clear as a day who falsely accused whom. The content of that post in the forum seems almost logical at the first glance, but it’s all built on the premise that ‘you and Bronze Sparrow Terrace met in real life’. But it just happens that there’s not a single evidence to prove it, so everything following is complete nonsense.”


  Hearing that single “nonsense”, Qi Jing remembered the other’s mysterious ability to refute any falsehoods on weibo—him choosing to not believe Bronze Sparrow Terrace was to be expected.

  That’s why he laughed quietly, “Thank you. But Noodles, you shouldn’t say that publicly. You’re different from me, you share so many of your fans with the great god, so involving yourself with it would not end up well.”


  Crossing the bridge noodles didn’t respond. He probably already understood what Qi Jing was saying very well in his heart—this muddy water should better be left unstirred.

  “That’s right, Noodles, are you sure your mic is set up properly? Your volume is really low.” To conclude this silent spell between them, Qi Jing first laughed a bit to break the silence. Actually, even from the beginning he thought that the other’s mic’s sound output was too small. Or maybe it should be said that he spoke too quietly, always suppressing his voice to the quietest. It was a bit hard to hear his words clearly for him, so he brought attention to it in passing.

  The person on the other side of the call hesitated for a moment, clearly wanting to say something, but also unable to.

  “Right now it’s not really convenient for me to……” speak in a big voice.

  Before he even finished saying this, a slightly hoarse voice suddenly appeared in Qi Jing’s headphones—very low and muffled, as if coming from a relatively close distance. The voice was one he heard before, and it also was one he couldn’t possibly not recognize. “.……Who are you talking to?”


  Eh……

  Qi Jing blanked for a moment. When he came back to his senses, he sucked in a mouthful of air inaudibly, holding his breath as he instinctively pressed a hand on his lips, as if out of fear of carelessly calling that ID in the next moment.

  The voice disappeared for two seconds, and when it could be heard again, it appeared to sound a little bit more awake than a moment before. “Is that Return Date……” Then there was a rustle of the cloth as someone in the background was in the middle of changing his posture, probably thinking of how he should get up.

  Qi Jing jolted on his seat, then suddenly, his heart started to race, his whole face growing red. He was just considering whether he should continue to listen, only to hear Crossing the bridge noodles say in a heavy voice, “What are you doing, lie down”, with a sound of cloth moving to be heard next, now even louder than previously.

  Qi Jing’s was now completely blank, leaving him unable to say a single word.

  “Uh……” That man groaned, seemingly now further away. Then, the sound of clothes rustling continued, intermittent but unceasing, as if the person wouldn’t accept having to lay down, yet it only ended up being pushed down every time—his low pants could be heard brushing lightly by the mic.

  So close that it couldn’t get any closer.

  “Could you be…… a bit more gentle towards a sick person?” The man asked in a low voice like a tender whisper, “Hm?”


  No wonder the former great god, the mere earnest tone completely changed the quality of his voice—even the slight change in intonation at the end of his words left it with a particular flavour.

  And this way of speaking just by someone’s ear, just listening to it could make one melt.

  Although Qi Jing didn’t go as far as melting, the fact that the man’s voice could be heard in the background itself was big enough of an impact to his heart, momentarily making his face and ears blush beetroot red.

  You shall not eavesdrop, you shall not eavesdrop…… Qi Jing chanted those four words quickly like a sort of mantra, stuttering a bit as he spoke, “So-sorry, I didn’t know that you were…… I mean, you two continue.”


  Just as he was about to exit the YY room, Crossing the bridge noodles surprised him by stopping him from going, tossing a short “Wait a moment, Return Date, don’t go”, before muting the mic quickly.

  Qi Jing could only stay, not daring to go.

  Within the mere few minutes of his wait, tens of scenarios managed to already flash by in Qi Jing’s mind. But even like this, he still couldn’t recover from the shock for the longest time.

  By the time Crossing the bridge noodles unmuted his mic, five minutes had passed already.

  “I’m sorry, I can talk normally now,” That guy’s breathing was a bit rushed, he was still trying his best to calm it down. But when he spoke the second part, he paused for a bit, not only not raising his voice back but even lowering it more, “I made that guy go back to sleep. I’m in the living room now, so you can talk.”


  Go back to sleep……In the living room……

  Since he used the words “go back”, then that should mean that the man was presumably in the middle of sleeping at the beginning…… And if the place just now wasn’t the living room, then it was most probably the bedroom.

  “So in the end, what the hell happened in these five minutes”—Qi Jing really wanted to ask this. But as a principled gentleman who wouldn’t pry into others’ private matters, he still chose to swallow this question back.

  But he could still ask a bit about the matter that already had a more than clear answer. “The person just now…… Was it Sleek horses run fast?” He couldn’t possibly mistake that voice.

  “Mhm.” This time he sounded a bit more at ease than a moment earlier, but his voice was still very soft. Qi Jing has never heard Crossing the bridge noodles speak like this, just as he never heard Sleek horses run fast speak like that. That’s also why his innate curiosity of a reporter got sparked, its embers getting harder and harder to contain, roaring higher the more they burned.

  So he coughed lightly once. “He…… how is he?”


  “He has a fever, forty degrees.”


  “Ah.” Qi Jing exclaimed in surprise. He didn’t think that guy really fell ill—he actually felt an immeasurable shame for letting his mind stray so far the different route just now, so he quickly cleared his throat and steered the topic back to the proper direction. “He was still just fine yesterday, why did he become like this today?”


  At this time, Crossing the bridge noodles chuckled lightly.

  What he said were words of reproach, but it wasn’t in a reproachful way—rather, it was a very tender tone instead.

  “I don’t know what happened to him all of a sudden, but he ran outside my apartment in the middle of the night, waiting until the sun went up. Yesterday night in Beijing got three, four degrees below zero cold, so when I found him in the morning, this guy was already frozen like a popsicle. But even with the forty degrees fever still not getting any better, he still beared with it and said before the noon that he had to go back to the company to handle some issue, so when he came back in the afternoon, he was dizzy and weak like a pestilence—serves him right.”


  A/N:

  Serves Five right indeed hahaha

  T/N:

  Lucilla: The way Qi Jing had a completely different scenario in his mind as for what happened between Sleek Horses and Noodles…… Yeah, I feel you buddy (covers face in shame)