Chapter 4

“Kek”

Only when Qi Jing saw that his grey-coloured icon light up for a moment did he realise that he just laughed out loud.

But what could he do, his throat was trembling with a laugh trying to escape.

“Return date-sama, you just laughed, didn’t you?” as expected of a director, she had a keen hearing that was basically on par with that of a bat.

“He definitely laughed!” the script-writer quickly joined in the ranks to chime in to accuse him.

“I was thinking just how hardcore is the crews’ tastes that you don’t even let go of someone from the Grandfather’s generation. Is this getting the Grandfather to repay his Grandson’s debts? Alright, I guess that kinda somehow makes it justified,” Qi Jing’s stomach was going to cramp up from holding his laughter in, he barely managed to calm himself down.

“Puhahahah!”

“Return date-sama’s roast is on point!”

This time, it was the director and script-writer duo who couldn’t take it anymore as they doubled over laughing.

The producer, Rouge Flower, broke into a smile through her tears, her voice that had sounded a little downcast got a little more spirit in them as she fake chided them, “Can you guys not be that way? At least Uncle Yan doesn’t have a weak Shou voice, so it shouldn’t be too off when he plays against Return date.”

“Then what kind of voice does he have?” Qi Jing asked with an eyebrow raised, his right thumb still pressed against the side of his lip to prevent it from curving upwards.

Rouge Flower paused for a second like she was searching through her internal dictionary to find an adjective to describe his voice.

“It’s… the kind of Grandpa voice you often hear on TV—the heavenly immortal style of Grandpa voice.”

Heavenly immortal style.

“Pfft.”

As someone who was very familiar with film and television works, Qi Jing very seriously tried to picture it in his head, and he very seriously laughed out loud yet again.

“So the crew wants me to S.M a heavenly immortal Grandpa? This concubine can’t do it aaah~”

“Pfft… HAHAHA I’m going to die laughing! Someone save me!”

“Pfft, Return date-sama, please have mercy! My roommate just asked if I’ve gone crazy, laughing like a hysterical maniac! HAHAHA!”

Gone was the overcast of dark clouds in the YY room, the atmosphere became sunny and cheery.

Geese Fly North.

This was the first time Qi Jing saw that username. According to the script-writer, Puppet Show, the number of dramas this CV has done can be counted with two hands; he’s a very very new newbie.

Puppet Show had a friend who was the producer of another show. At that time, they were more or less nearing the end of the recording process for the audio drama, all they had left was the voice for neighbour’s Grandfather which no one expressed any interest in doing. Basically every producer in the circle knew that there was no shortage of CVs with young teenage voices. But in contrast, under the premise of ensuring their voice and tone sounded natural, the ones who could raise the age of their voice to that of a middle-aged uncle were few and far between. And those that could fake a Grandpa voice were even more of a rare minority.

Puppet Show’s friend went around asking for help but to no avail and had no choice but to make a recruitment post on the forum.

At first, she thought that her post would surely be ignored and fall to the bottom of the ocean, never to be heard of again. What she didn’t expect was she received an email the next day and attached to that email were files of his dry recordings. Since the character was just an extra, there weren’t many lines; he recorded all of them and recorded each line three times.

The conscience of the industry!

Thus, all those producers in need of a Grandpa voice came flocking her, asking for her to share her resources. And this ID, Geese Flying North, instantly became the new term for ‘Professional Grandpa voice’ in the community.

Rouge Flower got to know him through Puppet Show and after listening to a few dramas which he voiced the Grandfathers for, she thought he was suitable to be casted as the Gong’s Grandfather and invited him. However, because the Grandfather part only appears in the memory scene, and he had less than 20 lines, the crew decided not to invite him into the group chat and only contacted him privately.

“But speaking of this guy, he’s pretty mysterious,” Puppet Show who was in charge of contacting him remarked.

Her friend followed the QQ number listed on his email, sought him out, and sent him a friend request. He accepted her request the next day and needless to say, her friend sent him a bunch of thank yous like: “Thank you for your dry recordings”, “Your Grandpa voice is top-notch” and “You’re a really amazing person that helped us in our hour of need.”

After that, there was no after that.

Her friend figured that he was probably a random passer-by outside the circle. There were many cases in the online voice acting community where CVs disappear after recording a few lines so she didn’t think much of it.

However, there were a few producers other than her friend who decided to try their luck. They sent him friend requests as well and they were all accepted.

“Your Grace, can I ask for a Grandpa voice as well? The same as the one you did for the other audio drama.”

“Your Grace, I am just short of one Grandpa voice, can you help us! QAQ

“Your Grace, can you record these three lines? We need a 50-year-old Uncle voice, the lines are as follows below.”

“Your Grace, requesting for an Uncle voice…”

“Your Grace…”

“Yourk2026;”

k2026;k2026;

None of the QQ messages listed above received any reply.

Not. A. Single. One. Of. Them.

However, surprisingly, every one of them received the other party’s dry recordings, shortest within one to two days, or at most within three to four days. And the recordings were all of very high quality. The situation was similar whenever they asked him for retakes.

“He’s really weird. Even though he’s online, he never replies no matter what I say yet he will definitely send the recordings and very quickly at that,” Puppet show rambled on by herself, oblivious to the fact that the atmosphere had changed from sunny to cloudy. It even felt like the temperature plunged several degrees; if illustrated with a graph, it’d be linear with a negative gradient.

“Which is to say, this is likely to be the first time he’s been on YY?” Knives cutting in from four corners asked, clearly this was also the first time she’s heard of this person.

“Uh, yeah…”

“And there’s a high chance of him not coming?” Rouge flower added with a trembling voice.

“Uh, yeah…”

Knives cutting in from four corners heaved a long sigh in disappointment before sending a disdainful emoticon in the group chat and said, “Puppet, just what are you doing? If that’s the case then how is it any different from not finding anyone?”

“Sigh, forget it, I’ll continue looking,” Rouge Flower said. Just as she was about to give up waiting and turn off her mic, Puppet Show suddenly exclaimed, “Wait! Wait a minute! He’s here!”

Qi Jing instinctively lifted his head to have a look.

Under the channel’s name, “Trap Production Crew”, there really was a white-coloured ID, with the three simple words, Geese Fly North.

And the icon right behind that ID was a green leaf.

Corresponding level: 1

Personal points: 0

Qi Jing knew sensibly that now wasn’t the time to laugh or Rouge Flower might start sobbing again.

After the crew pulled him into the subchannel dedicated to PIA-ing, Qi Jing started off by greeting him with a faint smile, “Hello, Grandpa.”

“Pfft, Sir Return date, please don’t do that!”

“We barely managed to find someone, don’t make him 囧 and scare him away!”

All the STAFF’s green IDs started light up and started flickering, all trying to stop him from saying any more. The atmosphere was quite merry.

Geese Fly North’s indicator light remained in a grey-coloured state, but a word suddenly appeared in the group chat: Hello.

All the STAFF immediately fell silent. It wasn’t from shock but rather from a deep sense of worry.

“Are you unable to voice chat now, do you not have a mic?” as if he could read their minds, Qi Jing calmly voiced out the big question on everyone’s mind.

After five seconds of suffocating silence—

Some words popped up in the group chat once more: I can voice chat.

“Huu…” the sound of the three girls heaving a sigh of relief in unison could be heard from the headphone.

They were probably all influenced by him as the STAFFs also started typing in the chat.

Producer – Rouge Flower: Hello, Geese Fly North-sama! I’m the producer of this drama, you can just call me Rouge Flower ~(≧▽≦)/~

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Uncle Yan, thank you for coming! /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~ Ah, I’m the one who hit you up on QQ, Puppet~

Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: Hello, Grandpa!【Pfft】I’m the director, Knives cutting. Are you not speaking because you’ve never used YY before? You can press F2 or click on the button under the window, “Press F2 to speak”, then you can start voice chatting freely.

Geese Fly North: Hello.

……

……

……

So what?

Where’s the continuation?

Why aren’t you speaking?

As everyone broke into a cold sweat, the group chat also fell dead silent.

Geese Fly North’s indicator light still didn’t light up. If their cameras were turned on at this moment, Qi Jing was sure that the faces of the ladies behind the screen were probably blanked out, at a loss for what to do.

“Uh, I think I should post the parts of the script to be PIA-ed in the chat first,” the director nervously broke the silence, trying to cut straight to the point as fast as she could.

Soon, the lines exchanged between two main leads of《Trap》, which was the scene where they first met in private, appeared in the chat.

“Uh, Knives cutting, since you’re the director, you carry on. Puppet and I will take a seat in the audience from now on,” Rouge Flower said weakly and turned off her mic.

“Mhm, Rouge Flower and I will just type in the group chat,” Puppet Show concurred and followed suit.

“Ah, then… if you’re both ready, we can start now. I won’t interrupt you guys, let’s run through the entire part first. I’ll give my comments once you’re done,” Knives cutting in from four corners’ directing style had always been to let the voice actors take the lead.

Qi Jing nodded and replied, “Understood, I’m ready to start anytime on my end.”

There was yet another five seconds of suffocating silence.

It’s just that this time, the indicator light that had been grey all this while suddenly lit up, followed by the sound of an unfamiliar male voice.

A deep, masculine voice with a hint of restraint and exasperation.

“I knew from the very beginning that everything you did was a scheme against me—”

Qi Jing was stunned.

His hand relaxed and the pen in his hand slipped out of his fingers.

He held his breath for the few seconds from when the pen fell to when it landed on the table. Qi Jing was a little thankful that the light thud when the pen came into contact with the table was too soft to be transmitted through the mic.

What was heard in the headphones was the director’s belated, “Holy heck.” She even dragged out the last word so long that it almost sounded like a reverb.

She seemed to have forgotten her promise about not interrupting until the very end as she gasped, “Oi… oi oi oi, what was that just now? What on earth was that youthful voice just now!”

The two people with their mics muted also swiftly spammed the group chat.

Producer – Rouge Flower: Holy heck!!

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Holy heck!!

Producer – Rouge Flower: Holy heck!!! Just as I finished typing, Knives cutting voice it out for me. Holy heck!!!

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Please, I’m the one who wants to say holy heck alright!! This is the first time I’m hearing Uncle Yan’s youthful voice!! So proper, so deep, so Gong!!

Producer – Rouge Flower: Please, isn’t the key thing how young he sounds!! Holy heck!!

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Right, right, right! That youthful voice!（￣﹃￣）Urh, my saliva!! I can’t take it anymore, his youthful voice is so stunning, I feel like my heart was just struck with an electric shock!!

Producer – Rouge Flower: Pfft, that’s enough from you Puppet!

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Yup, it’s really enough from me! Please do more! Please continue!（￣﹃￣）Speaking of which, Knives cutting, didn’t you say that you won’t be cutting in, pfft!

Reading up till this point, the director who was still in a state of shock came back to her senses and the first thing she realised was that everyone’s light, except for hers, was off, “I was wrong, I definitely won’t interject! …Eh? Eh, eh? Return-date, are you there?”

Hearing his ID being called by the director, Qi Jing sat up straight and stared at the screen, trying to refocus.

The pen that fell beside his keyboard had stopped moving.

However, the slight tremors on his fingers hadn’t.

Really, how unexpected—

The voice was exactly as he had pictured when he was reading the novel. It truly was unexpected.

“I’m here,” he tried his best to make it sound like he was calm and suggested, without letting anyone catch on to how he felt internally, “Sorry, Your Grace, Geese Fly North, could you raise the volume a little? I couldn’t hear it very clearly from my side, might be due to poor internet connection.”

While he said that, it was as if he was being urged by something, he subconsciously moved his cursor onto the “Record” button.

And clicked.

A faint buzzing sound could be heard coming from the other party, like he was really adjusting the volume of the microphone.

There wasn’t any sound or movement coming from the director; it seemed like she probably muted herself.

The chat was still as no one dared to disturb.

After about ten seconds, that unfamiliar voice of a young man was heard again, repeating that line once more. The sound of his voice sounded much closer to the mic, as though he was speaking right next to Qi Jing.

“I knew from the very beginning that everything you did was a scheme against me.”

The restraint in his voice became stronger and especially at the low-tone part, one could also hear his deep breathing.

When the other party acts at this level, it made it easy for him to get into character, and even raised the level of his acting. Especially for this kind of confrontational scene with an imposing air.

“Despite knowing it’s a trap, you still jumped right into it—doesn’t that mean that you’re interested in me?”

Qi Jing smiled calmly like he was in full control of the situation.

Based on the scene cues in the script, this dialogue takes place in a private room. The little police Gong was forced to lie on a sofa with his hands tied behind his back. While the little mafia Shou was straddling him with one hand supporting himself on the sofa and the other on the Gong’s throat, enjoying the anger in the latter’s eyes.

Hence, in the front part of that sentence, Qi Jing amplified the feeling of dominance, like he was really looking down at the Gong.

And in the second half of the line, after “doesn’t that”, he lowered his voice and slowed down his speech, faltering off into a whisper. Making it really easy for people to picture the image of him moving in to whisper in the Gong’s ear.

Not to mention the bonus feels from the characteristic sexiness in his voice.

“….Holy heck,” the director, who declared a second time that she wouldn’t interrupt them, broke her promise once again. And just as expected, the two ladies in the audience started going crazy and spamming the group chat.

Producer – Rouge Flower: A! Freaking! Sham! TAT

Producer – Rouge Flower: The entire night has just been one big scam! Return date-sama’s voice when you’re acting is worlds apart from when you’re speaking normally!! So sexy! Omg so damn sexy!

Producer – Rouge Flower: I feel like all my HP was zapped away in an instant, holy heck!!

Producer – Rouge Flower: …Why am I the only one getting so agitated?? Σ(°△°|||)︴Where’s the script-writer!! Where’s Puppet!! Pup~~~pet~~~

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Someone! Save! Me! AwooOOooo my blood is roaring from the titillation!!!!（￣﹃￣）I was restoring my HP!

Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: I-I am also in desperate need of restoring my HP… _(:з」∠)_

Producer – Rouge Flower: Pfft, Knives cutting you’ve already interrupted them quite a few times! Don’t cut in when you’re not supposed to!

Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: S-Sorry… I really couldn’t hold it in… _(:з」∠)_

Producer – Rouge Flower: I feel you!!! TAT That atmosphere just now suddenly made me so shy!!! It was so erotic!!

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Rouge, maintain yourself!! Putting aside Return date-sama, don’t scare Uncle Yan… ah no, I mean, don’t scare Geese Fly North-sama away!!

Producer – Rouge Flower: Ah, I was wrong, I plead guilty! Please carry on!【Covers nosebleed】

Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: Please carry on! If I cut you off one more time, I’ll chop my hands off! …Ugh, I mean, slap myself!【Covers nosebleed +1】

Script-writer – Puppet Show: Please carry on!【Covers nosebleed +2】

Qi Jing was in a pretty good mood as he watched the new messages popping up in the group chat one after another with a smile. He picked up the pen that fell onto the table and toyed with it in his fingers.

The timing behind the word, “Recording”, was slowly increasing, second by second, minute by minute.

“Let us continue, shall we?” he prompted politely.

“Yes,” that was the first word the other party said that was not part of the script. The voice wasn’t very different from when they went through their lines, so he was probably using his normal voice just now.

But even so.

Qi Jing tilted his palm and tapped the pen cap against the table once, and again. He was tapping very lightly so it shouldn’t disrupt the lively discussion the girls were having in the chat.

Even so—at the end of the day, this person was not Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

A/N: I kept imagining the scene in the script while writing. I really need to stop. _(:з」∠)_

Lilies: Recently read a book someone suggested on the pick-up channel(?? Is that what it’s called? am a discord noob sozz) and idk why but I’m just so amused by it. Qi Jing just talked about voicing Gongs that always say, “Ah, the weather has gotten cold, let’s bankrupt the Wang Group,” in chapter two and this type of Gong actually appeared in this other novel: 首富的炮灰怀孕男妻（娱乐圈） AHAHAHHA

(I’m lazy so) MTL: Dongfang Boyan was holding a video conference, his face was cold, and suddenly he said: It’s getting cold, let’s bankrupt the Wang Group.

Yuan Chaoyu: …As expected of the man who holds the lifeline of the global economy,

Every day, he can just say ‘weather’s cold, bankrupt the Wangs’ whenever he feels like it.