Chapter 34

many many love to kemostt for the coffee

Editor: whiteflare

For the girls in the online voice acting circle, in addition to having ten swift fingers, they also had a keen eye for uncovering secrets.

That’s why, when Qi Jing tried to get away with it with a “I was just teasing y’all”, all the girls in the group expressed their doubt and concluded there had to be someone else before the computer.

“The truth please”—all the girls unanimously called for the same thing.

Qi Jing looked at Shen Yan troubledly and asked, “Can we tell them the truth?”

This time, Shen Yan looked at him with a slight smile. He neither approved nor stopped him—he was curious just how Qi Jing would clean up the situation he created. “I’ll say it if you want me to; I won’t if you don’t.”

A lie would always grow bigger and bigger, ultimately crushing the liar.

Hence, Qi Jing raised a hand in surrender and said, “Those lasses are so clever that we can’t hide it from them—tell them.”

March Bamboo Shoots: Who on earth is it? The truth, please! If you don’t answer, I’m going to call!

Ninth Lady: It can’t be that he’s really been hacked, can it…

March Bamboo Shoots: It can’t be… I just saw him leave a message on QQ two days ago.

Don’t ask for my return date: The truth is. I’m a little typing assistant. ^_^

March Bamboo Shoots: !!

Ninth Lady: !! He spoke!!

iCookie: !! So it really was someone else!!

Rolling Ball of Meows: Pfft!! What’s that about a little typing assistant? Ah, it sounds so sweet ~(≧▽≦)/~

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: Pfft, it’s already night time here, is the little assistant at Return Date’s home?

March Bamboo Shoots: Eh eh eh eh eh… Doesn’t Senior live alone…

Don’t ask for my return date: Return Date is temporarily staying at my place as he’s injured and it’s quite inconvenient for him to live alone. ^_^

iCookie: Wow! Living together! ⊙▽⊙

Ninth Lady: Holy heck!!

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: Holy heck!! Cohabitation!?

Rolling Ball of Meows: (Covers face) So exciting!!

March Bamboo Shoots: …Holy heck, Little Assistant-kun… could it be… that you’re Senior’s boyfriend?

Boyfriend.

His junior, Ning Xiaoxiao, always knew where to find the key point.

Qi Jing was slightly taken aback, then he saw that Shen Yan’s fingers also seemed to freeze on the keyboard for a moment and felt like laughing. But his cheeks were so hot that he couldn’t even find the strength to lift the corners of his lips into a smile.

“That… You answer it yourself,” he mumbled in a hoarse voice with his head lowered, virtually burying his face into that person’s shoulder.

He dare not look at it nor even think about it.

His fingers subconsciously grasped the corner of Shen Yan’s sleeve; he didn’t use that much strength, but he also refused to let go. After all, that word was still a very vague and ambiguous boundary for them now. He was still feeling for his way himself as he progressed, and so was the other party—although they had held hands and walked through wind and rain together, they didn’t seem to have a particularly specific label attached to them.

He really cherished the person known as Shen Yan and the relationship between them… That’s why, he was still very cautious about everything, apprehensive to take each step, not daring to rush it.

Shen Yan gently took a breath and didn’t say anything, but Qi Jing heard him tap the keyboard a few times and sent a message.

I really want to look at the screen… to see what he wrote.

Qi Jing still kept his head deeply buried in the curve of Shen Yan’s shoulder, his thoughts going all over the place. After a long period of silence, he finally couldn’t help but turn his head to the side, peeking at the screen with one eye.

On the screen was a reply that he never would’ve expected.

A reply that was very much in line with Shen Yan’s style—

Don’t ask for my return date: I’m still under probation. ^_^

Qi Jing was slightly stunned when the words “under probation” reflected in his eyes, both of which rounded in surprise. He felt a warm current wash over him; it was a nice mix of sweet and sour.

At first, when they were in the taxi, it was like unripe plums which were more sour than sweet.

This time, the plums were fully ripe and the sweetness overpowered the sourness, seeping into his heart bit by bit.

“I’m slowly doing my best to work towards twelve points,” Shen Yan added in a murmur right by Qi Jing’s ears as he lowered his head. In that instant, Qi Jing felt as if his body had been lit on fire and was unable to make a sound.

Unsurprisingly, the entire group erupted at Shen Yan’s words.

March Bamboo Shoots: Oh my goodness aaAAaaaaAah!!!! Σ( °△ °|||)︴

March Bamboo Shoots: When!! I had no idea AaaAah!!!!

March Bamboo Shoots: Little Assistant-kun—Ah, no, I mean Mr. Boyfriend Under Probation! Next time, please make sure Senior brings you along when we meet for dinner! This! Is! A! Must! ┭┮﹏┭┮

Ninth Lady: Holy heck!! I can’t calm down!! I feel like a mother whose son is marrying out!! ┭┮﹏┭┮

iCookie: Pfft, somehow something sounds off about Nine-Nine’s words… Regardless, I’m very excited as well! >///<

Rolling Ball of Meows: aaAah… Congrats congrats! (/≧▽≦/)

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: I can’t calm down+10086

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: Very excited+10086

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: Congrats congrats+10086

Ninth Lady: Pfft, how economical of you Procrastinate! You might as well change your name to “10086”~

Qi Jing watched as those girls spammed the chat in a celebratory mood and just chuckled lightly while burying his face into Shen Yan; the latter remained unmoving as his pillow.

Only after a long while did the atmosphere in the group finally settle down and the chat went back to normal.

They were all veteran STAFF in the circle and understood that it wasn’t really good to pry too much into the 3D live of a CV. Apart from giving their congratulations, no one asked for more details; after all, Qi Jing was a Taichi master, so it was pointless to even ask.

And so, Ninth Lady got down to business.

Ninth Lady: Oh right, by the way, since you’re back, Return Date, take a look at the event announcement on this web page. The registration will be over in a few days, so you better hurry if you wanna join~

Don’t ask for my return date: What’s this?

Ninth Lady: Voice acting auditions for《Order to End the Heavens》. Go check it out first, alright~

Not only had Qi Jing heard of《Order to End the Heavens》, it was well-known amongst many.

It was a very well-produced single-player Chinese game with considerable sales and had always been a hot topic in the game industry. This was already the third round of auditions they had for《Order to End the Heavens》.

The background of this game was a palace Wuxia fantasy set in troubled times. It was adapted from a popular novel of the same name with distinctive characters and an intriguing storyline. The game developers followed the plot of the novel to a tee, releasing the games as a series like the books; five instalments had been released so far.

The casting call this time was to find the right CVs to produce the audio for the characters in the fifth instalment .

When the first instalment of《Order to End the Heavens》was first released, the online voice acting community was just emerging and there was no precedent for voice acting in single-player games, so the developers didn’t get it voiced. It was only when they were preparing for the second instalment that the game company started to invite professional voice actors to join. In order to increase publicity of the game and attract more attention online, starting from the third part, the company decided to get their CVs through casting calls.

This movement led to a boom in voice acting and many of the CVs were made famous through this.

Qi Jing had missed the previous two rounds of casting.

The first time was because he hadn’t joined the circle yet and the second was due to his unpredictable travel schedules that didn’t fit in with the competition schedule, so he gave up on signing up from the very beginning.

He clicked into the official website Ninth Lady provided him with and checked the programme listed on it—both the preliminary and semi-final rounds would be completed by the end of the month. Since he happened to be homebound from an injury, he could indeed consider giving it a try.

Other than the event timing, the official website also announced other details of the casting call:

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【Event Schedule】:

10 October to 20 October – Uploading of entries.

21 October to 25 October – Preliminary selection by the judges; results will be announced on the 25th.

28 October – Semi-finals for individual characters on YY Communications Platform.

30 October – Finals for individual + group on YY Communications Platform. The final result will be announced on the night of the finals.

【Event Flow】

Contestants upload their works for the roles.

Pre-selection stage (30 contestants chosen for each role)

Live individual semi-finals (Top 10 of each role goes through to the finals)

Live individual + group finals (The winner would be the one with the highest individual and combined score)

【Things to note】

1. Contestants must fill in their Identification Number when registering. Each Identification Number can only register for a maximum of three roles. Your Identification Number will be bound to your account; violators will be automatically disqualified from the competition.

2. The audio files for submission should all be in MP3 format and the size of each file should not exceed 1MB.

3. Those who are unable to turn up on the day of the semi-finals and finals will automatically be deemed to have forfeited the competition.

4. In order to encourage more people to participate, each contestant will only be selected for at most two roles to enter the semi-finals. The judges will automatically pick the two with the highest score and the roles with the lowest score (even if it made it to top 30) will be eliminated.

5. The grouping for the finals is determined by random draw (Please note: for the group component, the score is separated into individual and combined scores, rather than just combined score.)

【Judging Criteria】

1. Voice Quality: Does it accurately reflect the character’s temperament, personality, and age?

2. Enunciation: Whether or not your Mandarin Chinese is accurate, the clarity of your articulation, the rhythm of your delivery of long lines.

3. Foundation points: Basic acting skills—whether or not the tone of the voice captures what is prompted in the script, if the change in emotions is done correctly.

4. Charisma: Advanced acting skills—mainly considers your ability as a CV to highlight the emotions of the characters through your lines, your ability to move the judges.

5. Synergy with others: The ability to play against others—the way the CV adjusts to match with and the compatibility with the character played by another CV; how well the scene is recreated. (Note: This criteria is only for the finals)

The official panel of judges (consisting of three professional voice coaches) will be responsible for scoring each of the criteria listed above. The full score for each component is 5 with the final score being the sum of the average scores in each category.

In addition to the scores given by the judges, this audition also has a feature which considers additional points generated from audience votes. The highest score that can be added is 1 which is calculated by dividing the number of votes given to the CV by the total number of votes cast. Both the individual and group portions have a chance for extra points to be added i.e. a total of one additional point in the semi-finals and two points in the finals.

Audience voting will have a higher weighting in the finals, so we highly welcome everyone to participate!

——————————————————————————

The above was the information on how the auditions would be carried out.

Besides that, the website also included the background of the characters, their voice requirements and ten lines of dialogue that the contestants could choose from for the preliminary selection phase. Each person could choose any five lines from the ten to be recorded and uploaded to the official designated location. The lines for the semi-finals and finals would be provided during your turn on the day itself; this was to test CV’s’ ability to perform on the spot.

There were a total of four main characters, six important supporting characters, and several NPCs with a large amount of dialogue to be voiced for《Order to End the Heavens 5》. As this was a typical hetero game, there were bound to be a number of female characters, and they were all skipped over by Qi Jing; he just went straight to the section introducing the male characters and went through them one by one.

There were ten male characters in total and their character information were as follows:

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【Qin Tuo】(Main Character 1)

Age: Around 25 years old

Voice characteristics: An upright character with a masculine voice—big-hearted, unrestrained, liberal, and has the air of a hero.

Background: A disciple of the Xiao Shan Sect. He likes to make friends and travel around. After accidentally getting involved in the dangers of the Jianghu, he meets with various trials that help him become someone who is capable of taking charge of his own affairs. He receives the Order to End the Heavens and assumes the position of leader of the Twelve Wulin Alliance.

【Fang Yisheng】(Main Character 2)

Age: Around 27 years old

Voice characteristics: A young, cool, and noble sounding voice; he has a haughty and aloof personality. In the later stages, he coughs a lot as he was poisoned and often sounds out of breath.

Background: The owner of Listen to the Wind Inn. He is one of the greatest martial artists of the palace, but later escapes by faking his death when he gets caught in the disputes of the imperial court. He is a shrewd and cautious man who is ruthless when necessary. He is later betrayed by Bai Ke and barely holds on to his last breath when he is poisoned.

【Emperor Chang】(Important supporting character)

Age: Around 30-35 years old

Voice characteristics: A depressed, middle-aged voice. A narrow-minded character with an irritable and crazy streak.

Background: An incompetent yet tyrannical emperor of the current dynasty. Due to long-term consumption of elixirs, he is low-spirited and has violent mood swings. He is manipulated by sycophantic courtiers and makes several decrees ordering the hunt and death of rebels in the Wulin.

【Marquess Shunyang】(Important supporting character)

Age: around 28-30 years old

Voice characteristics: A deep, rich young voice. He comes from a military background, so he speaks powerfully with an aggressive edge.

Background: On the surface, he is awarded the rank of a Marquess which can be passed on to his descendants for his military accomplishments, but he is, in actuality, the illegitimate son of the late Emperor. He once had a single meeting with Fang Yisheng back when the latter was still serving the imperial court. The Twelve Wulin Alliance wishes to remove Emperor Chang, support the Marquess to ascend the throne, and establish him as the new ruler.

【Yan Buliu】(Important supporting character)

Age: around 50 years old

Voice characteristics: A prominent figure with a vicious and rich middle-aged voice. He’s an imposing individual who often speaks with a sneer.

Background: He has two identities—one in the imperial court and one in the Wulin. He holds the position of chief minister and has his daughter marry Emperor Chang as his concubine. She is promoted to the rank of a consort, Consort Shu, by virtue of her birthing a prince and he uses his power as a relative of the royal family to take control over the imperial court. Outside of the court, in the Jianghu, he is known as “Hook of Hell”. In order to maintain the status of his clan, he does all that he can to keep Emperor Chang and stands on the opposing side to Qin Tuo and his group.

【Bai Ke】(Important supporting character)

Age: around 28 years old

Voice characteristic: A young man with a despicable personality who is both vicious and cowardly. He is often moody and easily instigated by others.

Background: A disciple of the Xiao Shan Sect and senior to Qin Tuo. Because of Qin Tuo, he is seriously injured by the skilled martial artists of the imperial court. He happens to be rescued by Fang Yisheng and takes temporary shelter at Listen to the Wind Inn. He will later be bribed by Yan Buliu and bites the hand that fed him by poisoning Fang Yisheng.

【Liu Suyu】(NPC)

Age: Around 24 years old

Voice Characteristics: A young, polite, and refined scholar, hearing him speak is reminiscent of the spring breeze.

Background: A good friend Qin Tuo makes during his travels. After placing second in the final palace examination, he is used as a spy to monitor Qin Tuo when the relationship between them is found out.

【Old Man Xiao Shan】(NPC)

Age: 60-70 years old

Voice characteristics: A calm and magnanimous man with a heavenly immortal type of voice; he sounds both kind and dignified.

Background: The master of Qin Tuo and Bai Ke and head of the Xiao Shan Sect; he treats and loves his disciples as his own.

【Shopkeeper of an Inn】(NPC)

Age: 40-50 years old

Voice characteristics: He has the voice of a worldly-wise businessman, cunning and snobby; the words between his lines are often prickly despite his amicable facade.

Background: Owner of the Dragon Nest Inn which doubles as a hub for information exchange in the capital. They only work for money and have always maintained a neutral stance, allowing them to cleverly avoid all kinds of issues between people of the Jianghu. He is responsible for buying and selling information and has a sharp eye for detail.

【Lu Wei】(NPC)

Age: 15-18 years old

Voice characteristics: Youthful, bright, and clear voice. A naive, docile, and obedient boy.

Background: A young page who waits on Fang Yisheng. He hasn’t seen the storms of the Jianghu and has a simple and kind personality with a very sunny disposition to him. Later on, he suffers a great shock when his master is betrayed and becomes gloomy.

——————————————————————————

Qi Jing didn’t have much reaction while he was reading through the list, but when he saw the voice requirements for the role of Old Man Xiao Shan, a soft chuckle couldn’t help but slip through his lips.

He gently nudged Shen Yan while saying, “This grandpa role is simply tailor-made for you.”

Shen Yan appeared a little surprised by his words. “…You want me to participate in the competition?”

Qi Jing nodded. “Why not? I think you’re very capable.”

And since everyone could choose three roles, Shen Yan didn’t even have to restrict himself to a grandpa voice and could try out other characters, including the role of a main character that he’d rather not touch.

“No.” Contrary to Qi Jing’s expectations, Shen Yan shook his head and withdrew his gaze from the screen as he continued, his voice a little hoarse, “You should know that I can’t voice in the presence of so many strangers, much less in a competitive setting… I think I’d better pass on this.”

In the previous two rounds of this casting call, the number of audience for the semi-finals and finals passed the 10,000 mark on both occasions—this would put a huge psychological strain on him.

Qi Jing sighed regretfully. He knew that Shen Yan could not be rushed in this area and still needed time to slowly adjust. Besides, he didn’t want to force Shen Yan to do something he didn’t want to face either.

“Alright. Although I think it’s a pity, I respect your wishes.” He smiled and continued to rest his head on Shen Yan’s shoulder.

“If you want to participate, I will cheer for you,” Shen Yan said gently. Just as they had agreed before, he would converse with Qi Jing, rehearse his lines with him, and help him get into character—he would help Qi Jing to smoothly advance in the competition in his own way.

Qi Jing understood what he meant and responded with a “Mhm” with a smile on his face.

They leaned against each other quietly for a while longer; however—probably feeling that he was gone for too long—his QQ messenger started beeping again. Only then, did Qi Jing’s gaze fall back onto the group chat.

Ninth Lady: Return Date, are you done looking through it? Do you wanna consider joining? <(￣︶￣)>

March Bamboo Shoots: I think his little typing assistant might be unavailable; that’s why he isn’t saying anything. ≧ω≦

Ninth Lady: Pfffffft, it couldn’t be that he’s up to some funny business behind the scenes with Little Assistant-kun, could it?

March Bamboo Shoots: That’s highly possible!! ≧▽≦

iCookie: Hahaha, so sweet!

Rolling Ball of Meows: So sweet! +1

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: So sweet! +2

Seeing that, Qi Jing cleared his throat and couldn’t help but sit upright to personally rebut them.

Don’t ask for my return date: Please get your head out of the gutter. ╮(╯▽╰)╭

March Bamboo Shoots: This tone… it’s Senior himself! Where’s Little Assistant-kun!! Where’s Mr. Boyfriend Under Probation!!

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: Did Little Assistant-kun go to rest? It’s probably not a good idea to keep bothering Little Assistant-kun with your typing. We are a group of chatterboxes after all!

Rolling Ball of Meows: Yeah, yeah, are we troubling Little Assistant-kun?

Ninth Lady: Why don’t we open a YY call and talk there? I also want to discuss the competition with Qi Jing. Though of course, that’s as long as we aren’t inconveniencing Little Assistant-kun.

iCookie: Hahaha, I agree! Let’s go YY!

“Do you mind?” Qi Jing turned back and asked Shen Yan.

“No. It’s been a while since you and your old friends got together, enjoy your call.” Shen Yan got up from his seat and asked Qi Jing to move back in front of the computer. He also helped Qi Jing bring over the headphones before saying, “Just don’t call too late into the night. I’ll be in the study; call me if you need anything.”

Qi Jing nodded with a smile.

After Shen Yan left the room, he logged into YY and entered the call following the channel number given by Ninth Lady. It’s really been a long time since he last heard the voices of these few ladies and he cheerily greeted each of them.

As soon as he came up, Ning Xiaoxiao cried, “Senior! Please get Little Assistant-kun to say a few words!”

“Nope.” Qi Jing smiled like a little fox. “Didn’t you say you wanted me to take him out to dinner with you? To keep the mystery alive, you can hear him for yourself then.”

A miserable wail was heard coming from Ning Xiaoxiao across the internet line.

In order to put a stop to that lass’ desire to listen to Shen Yan’s voice, Qi Jing took the initiative to bring the topic back to the casting call of《Order to End the Heavens》, “Tell me about that dubbing competition; I’m sure there’d be a substantial amount of CVs participating in it, including many people I know.”

“Like Bronze Sparrow Terrace?” Ninth Lady’s words were unexpected but reasonable.

Well, he supposed, it’s not at all surprising that the Great God would take part in the competition.

Qi Jing could basically imagine the advantage that he would have when it came to live voting.

However, he was more curious about the roles chosen by Bronze Sparrow Terrace. “Do you know which three characters were chosen by the Great God?”

Ning Xiaoxiao answered his question without missing a beat, “His fan club… Ah, the one that I’m in… I think I saw people say that it’s ‘Qin Tuo’, ‘Emperor Chang’, and ‘Marquess Shunyang’. Especially ‘Qin Tuo’, the first male lead!”

iCookie also chimed in, “Hehe, I’ve heard of that too. He seemed to really want the role of the first male lead.”

Hearing that, Qi Jing tilted his head in deliberation. After pondering over it for a while, he suddenly laughed and said, “If that’s the case, then I’ll try out for the role of ‘Qin Tuo’ too.”

Everyone was taken aback by those words.

“Senior! Why aren’t you thinking straight! You’re not suitable for this role, alright?” Ning Xiaoxiao screamed.

“Why huh…” Qi Jing narrowed his eyes slightly before continuing with a raised brow, “Probably because I felt so suppressed by him and his fans during the recording for《Trap》and couldn’t show them what I can do; I ended up voicing a 0.5 sultry Shou that was deeply despised by the fans of the novel. I don’t like that, so I want to get back at him in a competition with no holds barred.”

“You’re going to have a showdown with Great God Bronze Sparrow Terrace huh, Return Date! Pfffft.”

“Do you have to have that showdown with him with ‘Qin Tuo’? Ah… I’m so tired, I don’t think I believe in love anymore…” Ning Xiaoxiao wailed a second time.

“Because I know that my voice definitely won’t be able to take on ‘Marquess Shunyang’, so I can only use ‘Qin Tuo’. I could probably give ‘Emperor Chang’ a shot, but chances are bleak.”

Qi Jing knew full well the disadvantages he had. His voice was thinner than that of Bronze Sparrow Terrace, so there was no way he could try to match up with the other party’s deep bass and there was no hope of him winning in a fight for those majestic and imposing type of roles.

Although the voice requirements for Qin Tuo weren’t that good in his favour either, there was a hint of similarity between the character and his personality in real life. Therefore, he might be able to perform even better than usual.

“Frankly speaking, the character of ‘Fang Yisheng’ is completely my thing… Please voice that character…” Ninth Lady pursed her lips.

“I concur; I also think you’d be better suited for ‘Fang Yisheng’, Return Date. While your voice might be a little on the warmer side, it doesn’t really affect it that much so you can go for it,” I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate chipped in her analysis, “Ah, or that NPC, ‘Liu Suyu’, though NPCs don’t have much room for display your talent… Or if not, how about that young, refreshing character ‘Lu Wei’? You can also try using falsetto for it.”

Qi Jing frowned, “For the other two roles that you suggested, the first I’ve done too much of and for the other, there’s just no way for me to act young. I’ve decided—I’ll sign up for ‘Qin Tuo’, ‘Emperor Chang’, and ‘Fang Yisheng’—these three.”

In this way, he would have at least two chances to compete with Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

Even though he, too, felt that he might not be suitable for these roles and had little chance of winning, the competition itself was just an avenue for him to have some fun and gain some popularity along the way. He didn’t need anything like getting into the industry and becoming a professional CV.

He just wanted to give it his best shot and leave with no regrets.

Lilies: Qi Jing is so A

whiteflare: I’d like to give Lilies kudos for translating all the competition entry information. There was so much! Wow!

(Qi Jing, we’re rooting for you!!)