Exclusive Rights to An Online Voice Actor

Chapter 57

TLC: Lilies

Editor: Mashiro

Within the online voice acting circle, the outstanding producers were also excellent hunters.

They were constantly lurking in the various drama posts on forums and in YY channels, their senses cranked up to the highest level as they hunted for the voices they fancied, netting in the staff members and CVs who caught their eyes.

Currently, every CV with at least a bit of skill was up to ears in a debt so big, it was like a bottomless pit they couldn’t fill. Most of them straight up changed their status to “not accepting new dramas”. That’s why the producers started to rope in newcomers as a countermeasure—like this, the high-profile voice acting competitions like ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ became a convenient hunting ground for those in search of good voice actors.

Qi Jing knew from the beginning that if Shen Yan were to show his true abilities in the competition, he wouldn’t be able to escape the fate of becoming a gossip topic. As for whether the results of those gossips would ultimately end up being good or bad, it depended on what kind of person the producer who wanted to rope him in was.

It was just as Pu Yuzhi had said before—expanding one’s acting possibilities, searching for more voice acting opportunities was a very good thing for a voice actor. Nevertheless, Qi Jing had already seen all kinds of dramas during his three years of voice acting and knew that some things weren’t as easy as one would imagine. It is actually difficult to meet a reliable team that chooses a story one approves of.

Shen Yan was different from him.

When Shen Yan had started voice acting, the circle was still relatively simple, while he himself was also more suited for seriously committing to dubbing an audio drama. He wasn’t suited for the current environment where anything and everything easily called for a bloodbath.

Right now, all seemed nice and quiet, but who knows if it was just the calm before the storm.

If producers were to start sending him invites for audio dramas all at once, not taking into the consideration whether Shen Yan had enough time to voice act on top of his 3D life affairs and considering how he was the type who heeded every plea, he definitely wouldn’t turn any offer down. In that case, the audio dramas starring him would start to come out successively in a short period of time, so both his viewership and fanbase would spike in growth—and the more popular the person, the more critique they garner. There would always be a couple of people who couldn’t stand to see someone succeed and would start running their mouth off.

It was a simple way of getting caught up in a drama.

If he chose to be selective about the audio dramas he accepted, the rejected producers might feel offended. They would start to write things like “he takes on requests from other groups but not ours, he’s clearly looking down on small production crews”, or “he’s not even that popular but he’s already acting all self-important”, continuously tarnishing his reputation on forums.

That was another simple way to get caught up in drama.

When met with either of those two situations, a low-key person like Shen Yan would eventually work to slowly retire from the circle, making some people say that this CV “had no passion”, “no patience” towards voice acting, even saying stuff like “no sense of responsibility” and so on.

No matter what, everything could end with him getting attacked.

The reason why Qi Jing knew that was because during those three years he spent in the circle, he himself had experienced all of the abovementioned, word for word. But he wasn’t so sure if Shen Yan could face it as calmly as him, laughing it off easily.

The sound of Qi Jing’s sigh made the kitten on his lap prick up its ears swiftly, its round eyes staring at its owners’ closely knitted brows. As if aware that the phone was the reason behind its owner’s worries, it decisively scratched at it.

His eyes keen and arm swift, Qi Jing quickly raised his phone just in time to let the screen escape its ill fate of getting scarred by the cat’s scratch.

“Meow!” Little Return Date’s attack failed and started to protest indignantly as it hung onto his waist.

“Shhh… There, there, be a good boy now.” At times like this, using food as a bribe was the best strategy. Qi Jing hid the phone away, emptying his hand before he took out the cat kibbles Shen Yan had prepared for him, managing to lure Little Return Date into jumping off his body to happily enjoy its benefits.

Qi Jing could do nothing against his little one as he smiled at it dotingly. This fellow was growing bigger and bigger with each passing day; with a companion like this, he wouldn’t have to worry as much. The problem was, he felt bad increasing the burden on Shen Yan—coupled with how his own future was still uncertain, he could only set that idea aside.

Taking advantage of the fact that Little Return Date still had its head down as it was busy stuffing itself with food, he continued to read through the later posts in the thread.

In essence, the content of the comments under the post had the same development as those during the competition. He checked the time when they were posted&#k2014;it seemed that the 410th comment was made about the time when Shen Yan had just started his introduction. People were probably first lured by that “pleasant youthful voice”, while the later comments thread were from people who were blown away by his performance.

【Comment 415】:

My God!! The producer lady from comment 410, if you dig out that guy’s identity then I beg you, inform us about it!! I’ve just heard him voicing the first scene and couldn’t help but shiver from head to toe—that Kitty’s Papa’s tone is so on point!! I became a wreck when I heard that last scene… 〒▽〒 I’ve listened to my fair share of audio dramas already—I think I have about 1 Gb of them on my hard disc—but lately there haven’t been any audio dramas that particularly moved me, even my life core’s dramas feel just so-so… I think I arrived at the aesthetic crisis phase (*collapses*). I didn’t expect that the competition for a grandpa role would actually make me tear up!!

【Comment 415】:

I… I have just finished listening to that “Kitty の Papa”’s performance, just for my family’s Empress Dowager to come into my room to grab something. She got scared silly by my sobbing, even asking me what happend… _(:з」∠)_

Ahem, in all seriousness, that No. 28 was so charismatic!! This evening I didn’t vote for anyone at first, as there was no one who would really suit my taste. I didn’t even vote for this Uncle Bang or something. ╮(╯▽╰)╭ …I really thought I would hold on to that voting ticket, but when I heard No. 28, I finally cast my vote without a second thought!! To be completely honest, No. 28’s voice is of a type that a completely tone-deaf like me can’t remember no matter how often I hear it, but his skills are great, each sentence so full of emotions… The feelings between the master and the disciple made me shed tears when I was listening. If he would voice act in something with a romance, it would probably be beautiful too~ ≧ω≦

I really want to hear him acting in some romantic dramas… Better yet if it was one of my favourites!! Fortunately the author of ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ is pretty good. *howls* I hope he’ll win!! This way, I would have more motivation when playing the game!!

【Comment 417】:

I’m also crying… I’ll go out to calm down first… If the commenter from 410th manages to expose him, then please, come back and tell us! I need to become his brainless fan!!

【Comment 418】:

Is it possible that he doesn’t dabble in online voice acting? First, if he does voice acting online then it’s impossible for him to not become famous with this skill. Second, I felt like he’s unlike any CV I know when I listened to his self-introduction—he doesn’t give that sense of hunger for fame as some CVs. How to put it… I just feel he wouldn’t possibly be a part of the circle, it may be that he does commercial voice acting… But it also doesn’t completely seem to be the case. In a word, it feels a bit as if he was from beyond this world, there’s an unworldliness to him =。=

Okay, actually I just want to hear him in an audio drama *cries*… And there’s also one fairly realistic problem—what if he doesn’t do BL?? His voice sounds so upstanding, so I don’t think he would voice a BL aghhhhh… (*plucking my hair in self-torment*)

…

“Ladies, you got it all wrong.” Qi Jing couldn’t help but laugh at the phone screen.

Shen Yan had in fact been in the circle since long, long ago, it’s just that he went away for a while. Moreover, he was always very low-key, never taking any main roles and only sticking to playing small nobodies. Those small roles he took were basically all some uncles or grandpas, so he never really used his real voice and with only two, three lines, he had little freedom to show off his abilities. Also, he was never picky about the productions—besides ⟪Trap⟫, those few audio dramas he appeared in weren’t really known, so of course no one would pay attention to him.

And as for whether he would voice act in BL…

If those little ladies were to get to know that this person was Don’t ask for my return date’s IRL boyfriend, they would no doubt be very surprised.

“But I can’t say that.” Qi Jing smiled, but also sighed softly. Haters had smeared him so many times before, so honestly, his reputation wasn’t particularly good. Saying this would only bring Shen Yan unnecessary trouble—him being rumoured to go for the CPs for hype was just a trifle, but letting Shen Yan’s reputation get smeared was out of the question.

There was also one matter Qi Jing didn’t have the courage to tell Shen Yan.

Although he knew before that in terms of voice acting,“Don’t ask for my return date” was but a junior to “Geese Fly North”, but… Now the two of them were together, yet still unable to walk shoulder to shoulder like equals, it really was a bit hard…

His current self couldn’t compare to Shen Yan’s abilities.

There was a gap.

There was a disparity.

There was a distance.

He wanted to get a bit closer to him, to become a little more suited for that man.

Qi Jing’s thumb scrolling on the screen gradually slowed down before it finally stopped as he curved up the corners of his mouth in a bitter smile, “Qi Jing, ah, Qi Jing, you still have to put in more effort… Don’t you make a slip in mere semi-finals.”

He felt disheartened out of the blue. And the content of the discussions in the post would probably only add to that feeling, so he closed the page, intending to prioritise using the time he had on hand to study the ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ novel.

The car ride between interview locations took about twenty-thirty minutes and Qi Jing put all that time to good use. The speed reading skill he had developed during his career as a journalist was of great help—from the morning to the afternoon, he managed to read about three quarters of that half a million characters whenever he had time, developing an overall understanding of the characters and the main plot points.

“Let’s go straight back to the company after we finish our job, there’s no need to send me back to the north part of the city. I still have some materials I need to make a copy of, so I’ll just hail a cab after I take care of that.” Qi Jing made an unexpected request.

“What data is that, so urgent?” There was a free ride yet he didn’t take it, even specially running back to the company, moreover, it wasn’t that cheap to take a cab from the TV station to the north of the city—it was in no way worth it in the eyes of his colleagues.

“Mhm. I remember that the Legal Channel once broadcasted it before, but it was way back in the day, so I doubt it can be found on the internet. I want to ask them directly if they would let me borrow the video backup from that time. “ Qi Jing explained with a smile, “I really need to use it in the next two days. We don’t have any interviews arranged tomorrow or the day after, so I can only do it today in passing.”

As he returned to the TV station, Qi Jing said hello to the people in the News Channel before turning his head and darting towards the Legal Channel’s office.

At the beginning, the little lady in charge of data management was unwilling to cooperate, but Qi Jing brought out Little Return Date to win her over with its cuteness. The little one had been accompanying Qi Jing on his interviews for some time and had become increasingly clever. It rolled over on the table to show its white fluffy belly as it showed off its charms, and the lady was promptly won over without any problems—she immediately agreed to help him transfer the video materials from two years before.

Qi Jing was beaming with smiles as he casted an approving glance at the little fella, making a mental note of its meritorious deed.

⟪Insight Into Drug Rehabilitation⟫—those were the materials he wanted to study.

Two years ago, he had followed the production team to the provincial drug rehabilitation centre for an interview. But at that time he was in charge of interviewing the public safety department members and didn’t in fact visit the rehabilitation centre itself, so he had no direct contact with the patients. He later watched the episode when it aired and footage that showed drug withdrawal symptoms left a deep impression on him.

In ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫, the character he chose, “Emperor Chang”, had been taking Immortality Pill for many years—he was always gloomy and dispirited, or bursting into frenzied fit of madness. At first he thought it was just a heavy metal poisoning, but looking at the author’s descriptions, it seemed like the Immortality Pill Emperor Chang took was laced with an addictive drug by a taoist priest. Some of the wordings the author used for the symptoms of Emperor Chang’s addiction flare-ups made him think of this particular programme. Qi Jing thought that he could use it as a suitable reference material to make his performance more realistic.

By the time he finished the proper business, it was 6 PM in the blink of an eye. The days were getting shorter and shorter, so half of the sky was already tinted with a dark, ashen hue, the few small street lights standing no chance against the nightfall. The tides of hurried pedestrians and drivers getting off the work congested the roads—sheer glance at this picture made him also feel the rush; holding a box with a cat in it, he started pacing about on the fallen parasol tree leaves.

But Qi Jing had rather poor luck—he bumped into the time for the change of a shift for the cab drivers throughout the city, so even though he waited there, enduring the chilling wind for twenty odd minutes on the roadside, he still didn’t manage to hail a cab.

It was at that time, when Shen Yan called him.

“I’m already back, are you still working? Are you hungry? What do you want to eat?” That voice sounded a bit deep and tinted with concern and worry.

“Mhm, today I didn’t take a ride back with the company car. I wanted to hail a cab, but I ran into the time when they’re changing shifts, so I might be back quite late. About dinner, you can make it simple, you know I’m not picky.” It only took him to hear the other talking for the melancholy Qi Jing felt during the afternoon to fade away quite a bit; he couldn’t help but smile a bit.

He really had no backbone. Little Return Date had to give its best to act cute to buy the little lady’s approval, but Shen Yan didn’t have to do anything—just a sentence from him and Qi Jing was already sold.

“Okay then, I’ll wait for your return.” The temperature was quick to drop during autumn, so the Dr Shen in Shen Yan came out and he couldn’t help himself from nagging Qi Jing a bit, “Remember to find somewhere less windy as you wait for a cab, don’t catch a cold.”

Hearing this, Qi Jing purposefully lowered his voice in a provocative manner as he asked with a smile, “If I get cold, would you be willing to warm my bed tonight?”

It seemed like Shen Yan was rendered dumbstruck on the other side of the call as he didn’t answer the question for a while.

Since that night when they got drunk, Shen Yan very naturally stopped using that small bed in the study. Qi Jing found him a compelling reason—”The weather got cold, so snuggling together is better for keeping warm”. Then, he got comfy and happily used that reason to use Shen Yan’s arm as his pillow, listening to the other’s breath while falling asleep.

Hearing Shen Yan remaining silent for quite a while, Qi Jing realised that the other got stumped by his question and couldn’t help but give him a stifled chuckle. He did his best to not burst out into a loud laugh before the company building so as to maintain the gentlemanly image he kept for a long time. “I won’t tease you anymore, let’s talk again when I’m back.”

After hanging up, Qi Jing kept standing there for a long time, his head lowered as he laughed lightly to himself. Only after he finished laughing did he bend over to pick up the cat carrier holding the kitty.

It was at that time when he heard a person calling his name from nearby, that voice full of disbelief, “… Qi Jing?”

Qi Jing’s fingers momentarily lost their hold, the box he just lifted a bit falling back to the ground with a dull thump.

The sudden movement clearly gave the little one inside the box a scare. In a single moment, its body curled into a ball and rolled from one corner of the box to the other. When it finally stopped, it lifted its small head in a puzzlement, its eyes staring at Qi Jing.

Qi Jing’s face was pale. When he realised that he had frozen mid-action, his fingers trembled a bit before he once again took hold of the cat carrier, grasping it firmly with great force.

But his mind was completely blank—he didn’t know what action he should do next, or how he should do it. The only action he could manage now was to think hard over one question.

Why is this person here?

In fact, he could come out with an answer after a bit of thinking. They used to be fellow students and their specialisations were similar, so to some extent, it could be said that there was some link between their occupations.

This was the building of the provincial TV station and this was the entrance to the company; it’s not like it’s unheard of for provinces to conduct exchange activities. And he might have heard of something like that when he came back to the company today, but he was too caught up with searching for the materials and didn’t think much about it… If he only properly put those bits of information together, he would be able to see the reason behind this encounter.

If it was the usual him, working it out would be a piece of cake.

But now.

Right now, any kind of progress in his thinking was challenging, even hindering his normal breathing, his lungs completely filled with the chilling autumn air, sending a hint of chill throughout his body.

“Qi Jing,” This time, the other’s voice sounded more certain, his footsteps getting closer and closer, “You still remember me… don’t you?”

T/N:

Lucilla: Σ(⊙▽⊙ A new pokemon appeared! Yikes! *shoves Big Return Date into the box and runs away with both cats*

Lilies: unleash the kitten on him (╯°□°）╯︵ (\ .o.)\

Mashiro: Kittamooonnn, Go!