Chapter 23

Many thanks to Renael for a coffee!

TLC: Lilies

Editor: Mashiro

“It’s already very late, you should rest.” Only when Geese Fly North said that did Qi Jing realise that the time at the bottom right corner of his screen was already past 10.30 PM.

The timer on the QQ conversation window kept increasing with every passing minute, and the number on the hour count has already jumped to 3. Even the case of his headphones was getting a little hot.

In fact, such an hour wasn’t late for a seasoned night owl like him. However, considering that the other party probably had a very regular routine, Qi Jing agreed, “Mhm, thank you for accompanying me for over three hours tonight. You have a good rest too.”

Qi Jing had been so terribly amused by Geese Fly North’s professional performance that he barely managed to calm himself down. His sides were sore from laughing, and he temporarily couldn’t muster a serious attitude to do a run-through, so they just chatted idly. Before they knew it, it was already late into the night. As wearing headphones for long hours was indeed harmful for the ears, Qi Jing had to let today’s call come to an end.

“Tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow…”

Both of them spoke up almost simultaneously. Qi Jing stopped for a moment, then he laughed and added quickly: “Go ahead.”

“Tomorrow, I will come online at the same time.” Geese Fly North didn’t even change a single word of this sentence, but it contained a kind of a reassuring promise within.

People who aren’t good at socialising would sometimes use the same sentence repeatedly. It’s because they have used them before and knew the reaction it would elicit from the other party, giving them a sense of security that “this way of speaking is safe”. After getting to know his past, Qi Jing was suddenly able to understand the logic behind some of Geese Fly North’s actions.

However in front of him, that person could actually continue to improve.

Qi Jing deliberately laughed cunningly and prompted: “Can you say something else besides this?”

That question seemed to have stumped Geese Fly North. He didn’t say anything for a while, during which the sound of him fiddling with the microphone could be heard.

Finally, Qi Jing received a short hushed response: “Then, goodnight.”

He was baffled at that moment and by the time he processed what had happened he had already blurted out subconsciously: “Goodnight.”

The chat window in front of him flickered and returned to its original size.

The QQ system displayed the duration of the call as usual. At the same time, that bird head profile picture also turned back to grey.

Qi Jing blinked slowly and leaned back on the chair.

He actually got to hear Geese Fly North say ‘goodnight’ to him… He never thought it would be possible.

Previously, whenever he listened to the recording of the first time they played against each other, only his one-sided ‘goodnight’ would be heard at the end. And now, this gap has been suddenly filled—there was a sense of relief, like finally sending out the letter that one had been hesitating over for a long time and actually receiving a reply.

It’s just he didn’t know when he would receive it.

“It doesn’t matter,” He chuckled and mumbled to himself, “It’s already quite impressive for him.”

Encouraging the other party was like encouraging himself. Letting it go, so they could always start afresh in the future.

Hence, he silently and slowly picked up the phone that was placed face down on the desk. He unlocked it, went to his image gallery and opened that image for the first time since the accident. He kept his eyes on the photo, one second, two seconds, three seconds, then he returned to the menu.

Very good, it wasn’t as painful as he expected it to be.

He could definitely overcome that hurdle in his heart. There was no need to rush, he could adjust his feelings one step at a time. Next time, he could try to look at it for a little longer; until the day he would be able to look at it and remain calm.

It should be a beautiful memory to begin with. A memory he could put in a frame to occasionally look back on and reminisce about the warmth he once received in the long days ahead.

With a faint smile on his face, Qi Jing locked his phone and put it back—face down—on the desk.

Turning his attention back to the computer, the Word doc for that god-awful, ‘囧’ script akin a heavenly tribulation was still open. Thanks to it, he had a good laugh for the first time in a long while.

Qi Jing recalled how Geese Fly North delivered the lines using the grandpa voice, and almost couldn’t hold himself back. He had to try his best to stop himself from laughing out loud and disturbing his neighbours once again. It was strange though, this producer must have sent the friend request after his business trip as he had only seen it after he was discharged from the hospital.

It seemed like it was an original drama. The title was equally as hopeless as the lines, it was called《Simply doting on you》.

The description under the invitation was simply “The producer of《Simply doting on you》 —Qi Jing automatically translated it as “producer of《Simply electrocuting you》” in his mind. It sounded a lot better this way.

He had accepted the request quite a long time ago, but it seemed like the producer lady didn’t show up at all.

It can’t be this drama fell through? I cannot let that happen.

As a thanks for the good laugh this script provided him tonight, Qi Jing decided to take an initiative asking about the progress and rescue this audio drama. He had to spread this k2018;joy’ far and wide.

He found this producer named Jade Butterfly in his friend list. After opening the QQ chat window, he realised that they had two entries separated by a few days in their chat history.

Jade Butterfly: Online?

Don’t ask for my return date: I have just returned.

These two entries were separated by eight days, no wonder there was no response.

Qi Jing didn’t mean to reply so late, but the fate was simply out of his hands. He broke his hand and the hospitalisation caused a considerable delay. He had been practising his typing with his right hand these two days, so his skill improved to some extent. This way, even if he just used a single finger to type, his typing speed was already better, so he typed a sentence and sent it.

Don’t ask for my return date: I’m sorry, because of some private matters I couldn’t reply on time. Producer lady, if you see this message, please notify me. ^_^

Jade Butterfly: Oh, I’ve seen it.

At that moment, Jade Butterfly’s profile picture lit up.

Turns out she set her status to invisible—but I wasn’t invisible, can it be that she didn’t see me? If she saw me, then why wait until I send my message before replying? Qi Jing was perplexed.

Even more baffling was how Jade Butterfly disappeared for the next ten minutes, leaving the chat record with only these four entries.

In the first five minutes, Qi Jing opened his weibo and browsed both domestic and foreign news for the day, then read daily comments of some awarded reporters. He saw that she still didn’t appear, so in the next five minutes he went out of the room and gave Little Return Date portion of milk and dry food, watching the little guy spares no effort in devouring its food.

It was after Little Return Date emptied its bowls when the QQ chat window flickered once again.

Jade Butterfly: I just went to put on a mask; it’s so hard being a woman.

Don’t ask for my return date: … You’re right, miss.

Jade Butterfly: Hehe, I’ve heard Don’t ask for my return date is a gentlemanly male CV, sure enough, you understand us.

Don’t ask for my return date: Hehe.

Qi Jing didn’t know how else to reply to her other than laughing along. He did actually understand the enthusiasm of some female compatriots towards beauty and skin care and didn’t mind it at all.

It’s just that the time she took was enough to let him read more than twenty press releases, go through a hundred or so comments, and prepare a sumptuous meal for the kitten, that’s all.

However, beauty has always been rather time-consuming, understandable, understandable.

But it seemed like Jade Butterfly’s thoughts diverged into another direction—

Jade Butterfly: Return date, you’re a homo, am I right? Is it because you apply facial masks normally that you understand?

She wasn’t the first producer to ask about his sexual orientation, but people who asked this so bluntly were really rare.

Qi Jing felt a hint of discomfort. He sat before the screen and scoured his mind for words to answer this question as tactfully as possible and return the topic on the right track.

Don’t ask for my return date: Although I am, I have never used a face mask before. So Ms Butterfly, how is your drama doing?

Jade Butterfly: Oh, March Bamboo Shoots should have already given you the script, have you seen it?

Don’t ask for my return date: I’ve seen it already.

Jade Butterfly: Then tell me about your comprehension of the characters.

Jade Butterfly: By the way, your typing is a bit slow.

Jade Butterfly: Just tell me your understanding about the character in 300 words, but don’t be too slow with writing, or it’ll take too long.

Qi Jing kept calm, and worked hard to complete writing that “I’m sorry, my hand is hurt, it’s inconvenient for me to type, can we try voice chatting”, and he finally found a gap in the conversation to send it.

Don’t ask for my return date: (bows) I’m sorry, my hand is hurt, it’s inconvenient for me to type, can we try voice chatting?

Jade Butterfly: Ah? So troublesome?

Jade Butterfly: Wait a minute, I’ll go to find my headphones.

Jade Butterfly: I have just washed my hair and it’s not dry yet, so it’s inconvenient to wear headphones. Forget it.

It took another three minutes for the voice chat window to pop up. Although the green vibrating microphone looked the same as before, deep inside, Qi Jing felt that it was more pleasing to the eye when the caller was Geese Fly North.

It’s alright. After all, this lady called me a gentleman, so I’d better behave as one.

He accepted the call. A lazy imperial jie voice could be heard faintly in the headphones: “Hello? Can you hear me?”

Qi Jing raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Based on his long years of experience as a CV, Jade Butterfly’s voice was a classic example of a beautiful woman’s voice. It was very memorable, and it was suitable for dubbing in audio dramas. So in order to make up for the inconvenience caused by him being unable to type quickly, he smiled politely and praised the other party: “Miss producer, your voice is very pleasant to the ear.”

“Of course,” Jade Butterfly accepted his praise as a matter of fact, and replied indifferently, “after all, I did work as a CV.”

“So it’s like this.” Qi Jing finally understood. But he had no impression of seeing this ID in any of the CASTs, and with a voice like this, it was impossible for her to be low-key. “Excuse me for being ignorant, but usually I don’t pay attention to other CV’s names, and I never heard your voice.”

“Ah, I voice in BG. You’re gay, so you wouldn’t listen to it, right?” Jade Butterfly explained the reason.

Qi Jing stopped for a while. He had no idea how to refute that, so he chose to stay silent.

Jade Butterfly seemed to remember what was the purpose of their conversation: “Right, character comprehension. What do you think about the plot? Did it move you?”

Producer is the scriptwriter.

The script is original.

The creator of the story is currently asking him how he feels about it.

Summing up the above three points, he decided that it would be better to not tell the truth.

“Mhm… It’s not bad.” At least it made him feel better that night, so that’s a plus.

“Hehe, I knew you would like it.” Jade Butterfly laughed meaningfully. A faint sound of clapping could be heard. She probably applied some kind of skin care product, and was now promoting the absorption of it, “Now tell me about your comprehension of the characters.”

“Do I need to… describe both of them?” He felt like his ability to make up lies has received a massive challenge.

“You can start from your role. You call it ‘Gong’ on your side, am I right?” It seems like it was the first time for Ms Jade Butterfly to produce a BL audio drama.

It doesn’t matter, everyone has their first time. Understandable, understandable.

Qi Jing rejoiced in the fact that she didn’t make him start from the Shou. He cleared his throat and tried his best to use positive adjectives while describing the Gong: “I think that… the gong is… He’s affectionate and considerate, a good person that will use various ways to dote on Shou. And according to the description in the script, his family is rich, and he’s a very talented, tall and handsome man, very popular with women. But he’s only devoted to the Shou, and this—”

Jade Butterfly seemed to get quite excited by his words and interrupted him: “Right, right, that’s very rare, isn’t it? In fact his devotion is very logical, after all, the Shou’s temperament is more outstanding than any other person’s, so it was natural for him to fall in love.

Next, she started talking about the Shou in-depth, from his appearance to his character, praising him as much as possible.

Great, that way he didn’t have to analyze that character.

After he managed to escape unscathed, Qi jing patiently listened to the producer analyzing every crook and nanny of the Shou’s mentality. During this time, he refreshed the weibo page ten times, opened the mailbox and organised his emails eight times, and replied to other people’s messages four times. And from the beginning to the end, he was gently rubbing Little Return Date’s fur with his foot. At that time, Little Return Date was dozing off on the floor contentedly. It opened its sleepy eyes occasionally and pawed at his foot.’

Around the time when Qi Jing was seriously considering muting the sound temporarily, Jade Butterfly concluded her monologue.

So he put on a gentlemanly smile and asked politely: “Then, Ms Butterfly, about this role… do you have a candidate for it?”

Jade Butterfly seemed to be tired from her talking. Her voice stopped for a while, before she laughed lightly: “I have a candidate, but I’m still in the process of contacting them.”

Qi Jing was quite curious about the CV who could take on the role of this Shou and asked, “Do you mind telling me that person’s ID?”

Jade Butterfly said leisurely, “He’s famous on your side, you certainly have heard about him—Crossing the bridge noodles. Do you know him?”

Crossing the bridge noodles.

I know him, of course I know him. This ID has been appearing wherever I go lately.

Qi Jing breathed in deeply, and patted his chest: “Crossing the bridge noodles, you mean that Crossing the bridge noodles that has a CP with God Bronze Sparrow Terrace, am I right?

Jade Butterfly suddenly chuckled, he couldn’t decipher the meaning behind her laugh. “All of CPs are created by fans without any real basis.”

His junior seemed to have said something like this before.

After all, long-distance relationships were rather difficult. Qi Jing agreed with that, so he nodded in silence.

“Speaking of Bronze Sparrow,” She suddenly changed the topic, and actually mentioned another one of his works, “I went to read that thread for 《Trap》. You played a couple with him, am I right?”

“Yes, you’re right.”

So she did read that thread, yet she still decided to put him in the same work as Crossing the bridge noodles. It was really… courageous of her.

It was no doubt that he fitted this role, but didn’t she see Crossing the bridge noodles’ fans? Especially the fans of the ‘Moss’ ship that continuously smeared him in order to ascertain their Little Noodles’ position as the one and only true CP? And now, they were actually going to be made to play a couple, Qi Jing really wanted to see the faces of these few fans after they get to know about it.

“You must have met the two managers of Bronze Sparrow’s fan association, am I right?” It seemed that this producer not only was knowledgeable about Bronze Sparrow Terrace, but also knew about Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao. That was unexpected.

“You’re talking about Da and Xiao Qiao, these two ladies? They did lurk around in the production crew chat group.” Qi Jing told the truth.

“Hehe, I’m sure they made it hard for you, am I right? You’re really a pitiful one, Return Date.” Jade Butterfly sighed with pity, seemingly able to guess what happened to Qi Jing.

Qi Jing thought back earnestly. These days DaXiao Qiao were quite nice to him, it was just at the beginning that their attitudes weren’t that good. Saying that they made it hard for him would be a little too much.

Before he could even speak up for both Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao, Jade Butterfly has already started her bout of complaining: “You don’t need to mind them, they are two young girls who have just entered university, and don’t understand how the world works. They have too much time on their hands, so they went to fight to become managers of the group of fans, and after becoming presidents of that fan club, they became even more arrogant and wilful. Bronze Sparrow simply indulged them and didn’t manage them at all, so they get more and more unreasonable.”

Qi Jing found the right time to chip in: “I don’t mind the words of these two ladies, they just want the best for their idol.”

Hearing him speaking, Jade Butterfly laughed lightly: “Aiya, Return Date, you really are a gentleman, what a pity you’re gay.”

Qi Jing reciprocated with a smile: “I don’t think it’s a pity. Having a good man by one’s side is a treat for both female compatriots and gays.”

At that moment, Jade Butterfly restrained her voice, and enunciated each word slowly: “Who are you talking about?”

Qi Jing was taken aback at first, then he slowly explained: “I’m talking about… a certain person, one I know offline.”

He could hear the sound of two bottles being screwed, it seemed like Jade Butterfly’s beauty time was over. Hearing his response, she recovered the previous bearing, and laughed: “You’re really sensible. That’s right, people we know in reality are way more reliable—”

She didn’t mention anything about DaXiao Qiao anymore, and finally came back to the topic of audio drama.

“I will contact Crossing the bridge noodles in the next two days. Return Date, if you don’t mind, then record the lines first. I will hand it over to the editor together with his dry recording when he sends me it.”

“Okay then.”

Some of the production crews weren’t that particular about doing run-throughs. And out of concern for the fans, it’d be also for the best if he didn’t have any direct contact with Crossing the bridge noodles to avoid complications.

“Well then, I look forward to working with you.” Jade Butterfly smiled cheerfully.

A/N Grandpa probably wouldn’t expect that his 2D self would become a bridge for comrade Qi Jing to forget his 3D self…